Everlost by Neal Shusterman, 2006
Two young teens, Nick and Allie, are traveling in opposite directions when their cars collide, killing both. On the way to the light at the end of the tunnel, they collide again and fall into Everlost. The rest of the story is about them finding out about Everlost, what the dangers are, who has information, and how to get to where they’re going. Unique premise, gripping story. The ending has a high creepy factor, and leaves room for a sequel.
Some memory-jogging tags: Death. Supernatural. Adventure story. Life-after-death. Trust and betrayal. Friendship. Eternity. Monsters. Adult-less society.
MS Rating: Great.
Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick, 2007
Four middle-schooler girls and three of their moms form a book club to read and discuss together Little Women. Set in Concord, the home of Louise May Alcott, the story rotates between the different girls’ point of view as the story progresses through the school year. Emma’s mom is a librarian who loves Jane Austin (her brother’s name is Darcy) and Emma loves to write, including poetry, and is a little heavy. Candace just moved to town from California. Her dad recently died, her mom has been a famous fashion model, and her older sister looks like one. She, on the other hand, is a total tomboy and gets a spot on the boys’ hockey team. Megan is part of a cool Fab-Four group that acts superior than everyone else and treats them accordingly. Her mom is into health food and MIT but Megan is interested in fashion design. Jessie lives on a working organic farm while her mom is acting in a soap opera and living in NYC. The different voices don’t sound different enough and the story is predictable. I liked the setting, but lost my interest after just a couple of chapters.
Some memory-jogging tags: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. Book clubs. School stories. Bullying. Concord, Mass.
MS Rating: OK.
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, 2007. Art by Ellen Forney
Fourteen-year-old Junior escape from the hopelessness and drunkenness on the rez begins when he hits his teacher with a 30-year-old textbook. The teacher comes over to apologize to Junior (!) and tells him to leave this place before his hope is lost. With the moral support of his family but not his best friend nor anyone else on the rez, and with no ride and no money, he starts attending the best rural school in Washington in the neighboring town of Reardan, 22 miles away. The story is funny, crude, heartbreaking, eye-opening, often simultaneously. The use of f— three or four times, and sh— and other swear words throughout, makes this book inappropriate for my middle school population.
Some memory-jogging tags: Reservation life. Coming-of-age story. Bullying. Drunkenness. School story. Basketball story. Best friends. Hopelessness. Death and grief.
MS Rating: No
Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck, 2004. Read by Dylan Baker in a Listening Library production
If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it,” says Russell Culver, fifteen, who’s raring to light off for the endless skies of the Dakotas. Maybe now with his teacher, mean old Myrt Arbuckle, in the ground, Hominy Ridge School will be shut down for good. But Russell, his brother Lloyd, Pearl, Flopears, Little Britches, and their other classmates do have school, with Russell and Lloyd’s 17-year-old sister as the teacher. Two of Russell’s classmates, his best friend Charles and Glenn from a no-account family, try to woe Tansy, as does a motored vehicle driver Eugene who ran their buggy off the road, first such accident in 1904 rural Indiana. At first I thought the story was hokey, but by the end, I was really enjoying it. It took awhile to get over the reader’s annoying style. Captures the rural school house experience well.
Some memory-jogging tags: Education. Teachers. Family life. Rural America. Humorous. Practical jokes. Early 20th-century American life.
MS Rating: Great.
No comments:
Post a Comment