March 2015 – Page 2 – Mom Read It

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Fairy Tale Reform School – but are the teachers scarier than the students?

Posted on March 13, 2015February 13, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Fairy Tale Reform School: Flunked, by Jen Calonita (March 2015, Sourcebook Jabberwocky) $15.99, ISBN: 9781492601562

Recommended for ages 10-14

Gilly isn’t bad, really. She’s just a little light-fingered. But she’s doing it for her family – her father’s a shoemaker, and she’s got a LOT of brothers and sisters. (Sounding like a familiar tale yet?) Unfortunately for Gilly, she gets caught one too many times, and ends up at Fairy Tale Reform school, where Cinderella’s stepmother is the headmistress and faculty include the Evil Queen (Snow White’s stepmother) and the Big Bad Wolf. Gilly makes two friends, Kayla and Jax, who give her the inside scoop on FTRS; just as Gilly’s gut told her, there’s more going on than meets the eye. There’s one villain on the loose, and she’s bringing the fight to the school. Are the teachers really reformed, or is there someone on the inside helping the wrong side?

I’m a big fan of this flipped fairy tale trend happening in juvenile and YA fiction. It’s a great way of keeping a little spark of childhood wonder with us, and there really are some great stories to build on. Flunked – which reads, at points, like Scared Straight for fairy tales – is an interesting entry into this genre. We’ve got the big guns: Cinderella, Snow White, and their antagonists here, and we have one of the children of the old woman who lives in a shoe. We’re firmly rooted in the mythology, so we can slip right into the tale.

Gilly is a likable character; she’s the thief with a heart of gold, the maligned daughter who just wants to help her family. She’s the most developed character, but there are reasons for that which become clear as the book progresses. There were some good plot reveals and characters that you never quite trust – it’s a good suspense, where the reader is left to guess where loyalties truly lie. I’m interested in seeing where future stories take us, now that we’ve got an established storyline, characters, and plot.

Jen Calonita is a popular tween/YA author. Her Secrets of My Hollywood Life series is hugely popular at my library, and I’m super-excited, because I just found out that she will be speaking to my son’s middle school, Russell Sage JHS in Queens, on March 13th!

While you’re waiting for your copy of Flunked, check out the book’s website, and find your FTRS mentor. Professor Wolfington is mine, which makes me pretty happy. The book’s Facebook page offers fun shots of the “police blotter”- news clips that appear, along with newspaper articles about incidents taking place within the school and the village, in Flunked. This could lead to a fun program at a library or in class – create your own newspaper article with a modern-day spin on a fairy tale! There’s a great activity kit with some ideas that I may use in my own library for Summer Reading.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Puberty, Realistic Fiction

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Realistic Fiction Books for Middle Graders

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ve encountered some great Top Ten Tuesday lists on my fellow book bloggers websites; it’s a meme, courtesy of The Broke and The Bookish, so I thought I’d join the fun.

For this week’s Top 10, I’m featuring realistic fiction for middle graders. Having just served as a first round judge for the 2014 Cybils Middle Grade Realistic Fiction panel, I thought this would be a great place to spotlight some books I’ve read!

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg One of my all-time favorites. Kids run away, live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, unravel a mystery.

Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick Have a box of tissues ready. Beautiful story, with parallel narratives that come together over a span of decades.

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume Another classic, this one tackles deep questions like religion, puberty, and family through a growing young woman’s eyes.

All Four Stars, by Tara Dairman I love this book! A young foodie being raised by convenience food junkies decides to take matters into her own hands, with hilarious results.

Amelia Rules series, by Jimmy Gormley This graphic novel series is great – Amelia lives with her mom and aunt, wishes her dad took a bigger role in her life, and hangs out with friends. There are hilarious and tear-jerking stories to be told here.

The Popularity Papers, by Amy Ignatow This hysterical series is written in journal format from the points of view of two best friends who conduct “research” into how to be popular (i.e., hanging around the popular kids to find out how to get in with the in crowd). I give this series to girls who love Dork Diaries and want more.

Bindi Babes, by Narinder Dhami This middle grade series about a group of sisters who have their father wrapped around their finger, when their Auntie shows up to rein things in, is light and fun, perfect summer reading.

Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood, by Varsha Bajaj What would happen if you discovered, one day, that your dad is a Bollywood heartthrob! This emotional, feel-good story looks at families, fame, and life in the spotlight – even when you’re not the famous one.

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko Moving story about a family living on Alcatraz Island in the 1920s. Moose’s dad is a guard at Alcatraz, and all he wants to do is make new friends and play baseball – but he’s responsible for his sister, Natalie. He has to balance his love and desire to protect her with his frustration and desire for independence.

I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb Uproariously funny story about a real-life evil genius dealing with minions, middle school, and the insanity surrounding class elections.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Post-Apocalypse New York, run by teens- Chris Weitz’s The Young World

Posted on March 5, 2015March 11, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Young World, by Chris Weitz (2014, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), $19.00, ISBN: 9780316226295

Recommended for ages 14+

The Young World takes place in a post-apocalyptic New York City. A sickness has wiped out young children and adults, leaving only teenagers to fend for themselves in this new world. When you turn 18, you develop the sickness and die, too. Jefferson, left in charge of the Washington Square tribe once his brother dies, sets out with key members of his group to find information on what caused the sickness, hoping to find a cure. The trip will take them throughout New York City – and other tribes that are dangerous in their own right – and beyond, as they discover secrets and experiments that lead to the rise of the Young World.

It’s an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic genre. Author Chris Weitz knows how to stage a teen story: he’s directed films like Twilight: New Moon, American Pie, and About a Boy. He has a good grasp on the teen voice, and the novel itself is told effectively in alternating first-person narratives between Jefferson and his childhood friend and would-be love interest, Donna. In a world where kids and adults are dead, teens – at a tumultuous time of life to begin with – are left to forge ahead on their own. We see different social classes and races handle things very differently, and the factioning of Manhattan, particularly Grand Central, is fascinating. The characters are well-developed, each with his or her own distinct voice. Secondary characters, particularly Brainbox – the brains of the Washington Square tribe – are nicely fleshed-out through Jefferson’s and Donna’s eyes. I felt that Donna struggled a bit to find her own voice, but hits her stride mid-novel.

The story reminds me of 12 Monkeys meets The Warriors. (This is a good thing; I love both of those movies.) I’m interested in seeing where the next book – The New Order, publishing this July – takes things.

Check out more about The Young World at Little Brown’s page.

Animal Fiction, Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

The Queen’s Shadow combines fiction and non-fiction with tremendous art and story!

Posted on March 4, 2015March 3, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Queen’s Shadow: A Story About How Animals See, by Cybèle Young(Mar. 2015, Kids Can Press) $18.95, ISBN: 9781894786607

Recommended for ages 6-10

The Queen throws a fabulous royal ball, with food and entertainment, and society guests aplenty. All of a sudden, the lights go out! When the lights go back on, the Queen shrieks – someone has stolen her shadow! As she interrogates each of her animal guests, we learn exactly why they couldn’t have stolen the shadow – and each reason has to do with the ability to see.

First things first – the look of this book is just beautiful. The pen and ink illustrations have a classic feel, and the use of black and white paired with bright colors (via Photoshop) makes for stunning images with incredible depth.

Putting the science of vision in the context of a whodunit is such a great approach to storytelling. Kids will love the mystery that links the different animals’ stories together, and this unique approach to non-fiction/fiction storytelling will stick with them. This is a great choice for science classes and ELA alike. Children can expand on the story by thinking of additional animals, and whether or not they would be suspects (bring in some art for that one, break out the pencils and crayons!).

Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Seed is a chilling story about belief and the loss of innocence

Posted on March 4, 2015March 3, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Seed, by Lisa Heathfield (2015, Running Press) $16.95, ISBN: 978-0-7624-5634-5

Recommended for ages 13+

Fifteen year-old Pearl’s life revolves around Seed. It’s the community she was born into; a land where Nature provides everything she could ever dream of, where the Kindred – the grown men of the community – are like beloved uncles, and where their spiritual leader and father figure, Papa S., teaches them that Nature will provide for them and punish them, if necessary. The outside world is corrupt, but Nature will favor the residents of Seed – as long as they abide by Papa S.’s rules.

When an outside family seeks refuge at Seed, Pearl struggles to maintain her belief in Papa S., Seed, and Nature – but as events become more difficult to reconcile, things are getting more and more difficult for Pearl to believe. Pearl will discover that there are many secrets at Seed, but can she face living once she discovers what’s really going on?

The community at Seed goes beyond cult, beyond closed community. It’s a horrific combination of the two, a community where men use bullying, grooming, and most egregiously, faith, to create a life where women have no power and are victimized from the moment they reach sexual maturity. They withhold education and limit contact with the outside world, always watching, to make sure that the children of Seed abide by Papa S.’s rules – but really, to keep them in the dark so that they can feed them lies under the guise of religion.

I received an advanced reader copy of Seed from Running Press, and tore right in, finishing the book in three days. It is a book that evokes visceral reactions – I was upset, I was horrified, I was angry. I wanted these children to see the lies and manipulations and walk away, to find justice for themselves and anyone who suffered at the hands of their captors – because really, that’s what Papa S. and the so-called Kindred are.

The characters, dialogue, and story pacing will draw you in and won’t let you go until you turn that last page. Even then, this is not a book that you will walk away from lightly. It will leave you shaken and changed. It’s a book I want to see in teenagers’ hands and talked about in discussion groups. I want this book on library shelves and in librarian’s hands, making sure kids read it.

Seed is an important book for an age where people are still looking for something to believe in. Do not miss this book.