Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners (picture book) by Laurie Keller, 2007. An otter family thinks about what kind of neighbors they’d like. Cute cartoony illustrations and a very simple story may make this book too young for even the narrow purpose of introducing a TA character lesson.
MS Rating: OK. I wouldn’t have bought it if I had previewed it first. It was recommended by C Mitchel’s Bedside Rants and Raves blog.
Touching Darkness (Midnighters, bk. 2) by Scott Westerfeld, 2004. Jessica now knows her talent, and the primitive beasts are afraid. But now the danger leaves its previous bounds of the midnight hour. Humans are stalking Jessica, threatening her well-being during the other 24 hours. The midnighters discover what happened to all the older midnighters, and finds one survivor. The threat is repeating itself.
This is a great sequel, just as good as the first. A very high creepy factor and a sprinkling of swear words throughout may make this book unattractive for some readers.
Some memory-jogging tags: Conspiracy. Magic symbols and runes. Alternative reality. Greed. Beast-human hybred.
MS Rating: Great.
Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells, 2007. The small north Virginia town of Berryville isn’t as big or well-known as its neighbors in the Shenandoah Valley, but is a beautiful corner of the world and well beloved by its residences. The Trimbles own acres of orchards and the grand Longmarsh Hall. The Spreckle spinster sisters are busybodies. Ester and Micah Cooley are the black “servants” of the Trimbles. The Pardoes are Quakers whose father is a lawyer and daughter Julia is best friends with the narrator. Finally, we have the Moodys. Mr. Moody is a tradesman who makes harnesses and encourages his daughter India to be as independent and curious as she wants, even though it is against the customs of the day, and worries her mom. Except for the first chapter that happens about 12 years prior, the story begins in 1861. The Civil War has begun, and life will never be the same. The Pardoes move to Ohio to wait out the war with relatives. The Trimples’ two sons enlist while the oldest son, Emory, stays behind on account of his asthma. The schoolmaster becomes the town’s first casualty and India is sent to Emory for tutoring, where she learns chemistry and biology and medicine and, eventually, falls in love with Emory. Before the end, the war comes to Shenandoah Valley. India’s father dies of disease. Emory leaves to help with caring for the sick and wounded and is captured and sent to a prison in Baltimore. India and her mom move in with obnoxious relatives to avoid destitution, but India cannot stay and runs back home. She and the Cooleys tend a Union officer who had his leg amputated at the hip and left barely alive in the Trimbles’ home. Against orders, they succeed in transporting him back from behind enemy lines.
This is a Civil War story with a lightness of voice, true to a teen’s limited perspective. Not a sweeping, epic-like, quintessential “experience,”, but rather a very personal account of how totally devastating war was for this girl, her family and neighbors.
Some memory-jogging tags: Virginia. Shenandoah Valley. Civil War. Medicine. Chemistry. Women’s roles, 1800s.
MS Rating: Great.
Glitch in Sleep (The Seems, bk. 1) by John Hulme and Michael Wexler, 2007.
Becker Drane fills out an application for “the best job in the world” and his life is changed forever. He becomes a Fixer for The Seems, the machinery behind weather, sleep, coincidences and everything else you always thought was just controlled by the laws of nature. Becker is the newest and youngest Fixer and is called up when a Glitch is loss in the Department of Sleep and causing Havoc, threatening a Ripple Effect. Toward the end, when Becker creates a dream for his mission-within-a-mission girl, he offers this hope, “Tomorrow, when you wake up, pretend that maybe The World isn’t what you thought it was. That the trees and the leaves and the wind – and even you – are part of the most magical place ever created, and something, somewhere, is making sure you’ll always be okay. Honest! I tried it and, yeah, it’s not always easy, but the more you do it, the more you realize it just might be real.”
All the word plays on common phrases made this a more choppy read for me. The story never really flowed well, though I found the premise unique and curious. My teen readers seemed to like this book.
Some memory-jogging tags: Training. Alternative reality. Gadgets. Team work. New Jersey.
MS Rating: OK.
Secret Hour (Midnighters, bk. 1) by Scott Westerfeld, 2004.
When Jessica moves to Bixby, Oklahoma, leaving behind her Chicago home and friends, she starts having strange dreams. But they are not really dreams, they are real experiences she’s having during the 25th hour. While the rest of the world – including people and rain and speeding cars -- is frozen, Jessica roams free. But there are creatures who like to stalk and eat humans that exist only during this midnight hour, effectively making this free time much more dangerous than anything Jessica has ever known. There are a handful of other teens who also experience the midnight hours, and by banding together these midnighters, each with their own unique talent, manage to evade the beasts for another day. Rex is a seer. He can see traces of where the dark creatures have been, and can read their lore. Melissa is a caster, able to read others’ thoughts and influence those thoughts as well. Dess is really, exceptionally good with math, able to thwart the midnight creatures with 13-letter words and multiples of 13. Jonathan, the most independent and least willing to follow Rex and Melissa’s lead, is a jumper. Gravity doesn’t have much hold on him during the midnight hour. By the end of the book, Jessica has discovered her own talent – a torch thrower. Modern technology such as a flashlight and wrist watch, which normally will not work during the midnight hour, work with her touch. The flashlight incinerates the beasts on contact.
The story is very fun. The premise is very original and the characters are believable and interesting to read about.
Some memory-jogging tags: Alternative reality. Good vs. evil fantasy. Mind-reading. Friendship. Relocation.
MS Rating: Great.
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