Middle School – Page 15

Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Uncategorized

Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles is Back with The Woe of Jade Doe!

Posted on July 25, 2015July 23, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Last year, I raved a new middle grade series, Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles, about two sisters living with their very unconventional grandmother and forming a roller derby team. This book was too much fun, and I immediately began asking the authors, via Twitter, for more. Well, the time has come – I present to you, a Sourcebooks Jabberwocky spotlight on Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles: The Woe of Jade Doe. Review to come!

Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles: Woe of Jade Doe

By Meghan Dougherty

Illustrated by Alece Birnbach

August 4, 2015; ISBN 9781492601470

Book Information:

Title: Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles: Woe of Jade Doe

Author: Meghan Dougherty

Release Date: August 4, 2015

Publisher Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary:

When times get tough, just keep skating…

Ever since Dorothy joined the Slugs & Hisses Derby team, her life has been one adventure after another. Dorothy’s onetime enemy Alex is now a friend, while her friend Jade keeps missing practices. Then the skating rink shuts down, and Dorothy’s life becomes as jumbled as a derby jam. And that’s not to mention the bizarre things happening to anyone who enters the rink (maybe it’s haunted?)…

Can Dorothy restore order to the new life she’s finally settling into, or will her world become a crazy mess she can’t skate away from?

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25782850-dorothy-s-derby-chronicles-woe-of-jade-doe

Buy Links:

Amazon- http://ow.ly/OHPtn

Barnes & Noble- http://ow.ly/OHPz9

Books A Million- http://ow.ly/OHPPE

iBooks- http://ow.ly/OHQnp

!ndigo- http://ow.ly/OHQvD

Indiebound- http://ow.ly/OHQJN

About the Author and Illustrator:

Meghan Dougherty is a full-time PR consultant. In 2007 she joined the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls roller derby league. She lives in Colorado.

Alece Birnbach owned her own advertising agency before creating designs that appear on more than 100 products. She lives in Colorado.

Social Networking Links:

Website: http://www.dorothysderby.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dorothysderby

Instagram: https://instagram.com/dorothysderby/

Excerpt from Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles: Woe of Jade Doe

“You okay, Dorth?” Max asked, squeezing Dorothy’s hand.

Dorothy stared into Max’s chocolate-brown eyes. Words weren’t coming. From the tip-top of her curly red hair down to her hand-me-down roller skates, Dorothy was buzzing with delight. She wasn’t even twelve yet, and she had just been kissed! She had thought the night couldn’t get any better after coaching her team, the Slugs ’n’ Hisses, to a win at the Halloween championship bout. But here she was, hand in hand with the boy of her dreams.

Floating on a cloud of bliss, Dorothy was barely aware of the roller rink under her feet or her nearby team chanting, “I’m a roller derby girl. Derby, derby, roller, yeah!”

And there was another sound too, like a squeal—but not a happy squeal. More like a metallic screech, actually. And it was growing louder. Dorothy’s gaze shot upward and her bliss vanished, replaced instead with heart-pounding terror.

Suddenly, everything and everyone in the dimly lit, outdated Galactic Skate was moving in slow motion. The dusty ceiling fans ticked as slowly as the second hand on a clock. The people in the stands lumbered toward the door like molasses on the faded, star-patterned carpet.

“Get off the floor!” Dorothy screamed. “Now!”

Her team stopped chanting and turned to look at her with puzzled faces.

“Frappit,” Dorothy said, dropping Max’s hand. She rocketed toward her team, her arms waving frantically above her head. “Move it!” A second later, time was in hyperdrive.

“You heard your coach!” Grandma Sally yelled. Her tight, fishnet stockings made Grandma’s thighs look like a pair of misshapen waffles. Unaware that her sexy nun costume was riding up dangerously high, she hooked Jade by the arm and pulled her toward the bleachers.

“Ouch, Grandma! Easy,” Jade complained, hopping on one foot. “My ankle, remember?”

The next few seconds were a blur of confusion with the clack and swoosh of skate wheels, the cries of “Run!” from the few remaining fans standing in the bleachers, and above it all, a metallic banshee shriek growing louder each second.

In the chaos, Dorothy realized she had lost track of Sam. Cold fingers of panic wrapped around Dorothy’s throat and squeezed. Her nine-year-old sister had been there just a minute ago, chanting and celebrating with her team. Where was she now? In the frenzy, Dorothy slowed way down, carefully scanning the people running past the rundown refreshment area and blackened popcorn machine and the restrooms with the groovy guy-and-gal signage. No Sam.

Then it happened. With a bang like a gun going off, the chain that held the giant disco ball to the ceiling snapped. Dorothy turned and watched helplessly as the ball fell. Time slowed again. It was like a horror movie version of the Times Square countdown on New Year’s Eve—a glittering ball of death was plummeting toward the floor, and there wasn’t a single thing Dorothy or anyone could do to stop it.

“Sam!” she cried desperately, but all she heard in return were the screams of her terrified teammates and shattering glass.

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Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Middle School, Teen, Tween Reads

Trollhunters: YA from Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

Posted on July 12, 2015July 12, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Trollhunters, by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus/illus. by Sean Murray (Jul 2015, Disney/Hyperion), $18.99, ISBN: 978-1423125983

Recommended for ages 12+

In September 1969, a rash of kidnappings in San Bernardino left parents terrified. The reign of terror ended some 100+ missing kids later, with the final disappearance being young teen Jack Sturges, who was riding bikes with his younger brother, Jim, at the time.

Forty-five years later, Jim has grown up and become a father, but the scars from Jack’s disappearance remain. His son, Jim Jr., grows up behind steel shades and locked doors, curfews and phone calls to police if he’s the slightest bit late. He’s not exactly big man on campus at school, either – his best friend, “Tub”, is bully fodder who lives with his grandmother and her legion of cats.

The thing is, weird things are starting to happen in San Bernardino all over again, and Jim’s right in the line of fire – no matter what his father does to keep him safe. Trolls aren’t fantasy, they’re a horrific reality, and Jim finds himself sucked into the world of the Trollhunters, where he and his band of fighters will come together to save San Bernardino, and possibly, the world.

How do you not read a YA book written by Guillermo del Toro? Especially when said book starts out with this:

“You are food. Those muscles you flex to walk, lift, and talk? They’re patties of meat topped with chewy tendon. That skin you’ve paid so much attention to in mirrors? It’s delicious to the right tongues, a casserole of succulent tissue. And those bones that give you the strength to make your way in the world? They rattle between teeth as the marrow is sucked down slobbering throats. These facts are unpleasant but useful. There are things out there, you see, that don’t cower in holes to be captured by us and cooked over our fires. These things have their own ways of trapping their kills, their own fires, their own appetites.”

I’m not versed in Daniel Kraus’ work, but that will change shortly. The two together have created what I hope is the first of an ongoing middle school/YA series that blends gratuitous gore, ooze, humor, and a strong story about family and what makes a family into a book you won’t want to put down. Trollhunters gives us action, a touch of horror – it is del Toro, after all – and a loving story of loss, rediscovery, and family. Reluctant readers? Give them this book, and they’ll be demanding more (and that’s when you introduce them to Hellboy comics, novels, and movies).

This book is great to give to boys, but there’s some serious girl power in here too. Jim Jr.’s crush, Claire, can hold her own against a school bully as well as against anything else the authors throw at her. Sean Murray’s illustrations are wonderfully gross and gooey, with dark and murky colors to fill out your imagination.

All in all, Trollhunters is a great mid-summer read. Don’t miss it! The only question I’ve got now is, when will we see the movie?

Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads

Dead Boy by Laurel Gale – An Unconventional Kid, An Unconventional Friendship

Posted on July 1, 2015May 26, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Dead Boy, by Laurel Gale (Sept. 2015, Random House Children’s), $16.99, ISBN: 9780553510089

Recommended for ages 9-13

Crow is a boy who should be in 6th grade by now. He’s lonely and wants a friend, but he’s stuck indoors by his overprotective mom, who worries that the outside world will take Crow away from her once they discover her secret: Crow died two years ago.

Crow doesn’t remember much about how he died; he just sort of died. But he remembers waking up to his mother’s tears. Since then, he’s been a bit stinky, has a bit of a maggot problem, and tends to lose body parts. All Crow wants is a friend, and maybe not to stink so much. When an eccentric girl named Melody moves in next door, she’s fascinated by Crow. She’s undeterred by his mother’s efforts to keep her away – keep everyone and everything away – from Crow, and at last, Crow finally has a friend. When they go wandering one night, they discover a creature, the Meera, that has deep ties to Crow and his family – and another family in the neighborhood. Can Crow learn the Meera’s secrets, save one of his former classmates, and maybe – just maybe – be a real boy again?

This was a great read for middle graders who like a touch of the macabre in their fiction. If your kids have read and enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Graveyard Book, or Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, consider introducing them to this one. I’d like to pair this book with A.F. Harrold’s The Imaginary for a heck of a book discussion. (Hmm… I see a really interesting book display forming in my brain.) Laurel Gale gives us such an empathy toward poor Crow, at the same time letting us cringe and chuckle at his… well, deadness. I felt his yearning for a friend and his loneliness, his frustration with his mother, who keeps too many secrets “for his own good”, and the desperation to know what happened to him. Melody is a great sidekick, a friend with some wild theories that aren’t too off the mark. We get some great comeuppance for mean girls and bullies, too.

At the same time, we see the toll that the loss of a child takes on a marriage, and the lengths that parents will go to in order to keep their children safe and happy. It’s a bit disturbing at times, but it’s an honest look into a parent’s psyche that will make for some great family book group discussions. Read this book with your kids, with your classes, and let the dialogue flow.

Laurel Gale ‘s author page features Dead Boy and some basic contact info for the moment; hopefully, as the book gets closer to publishing date, we’ll get some more resources.

Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Middle School

Diary of a Wimpy Kid #10 Cover Reveal!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The 10th book in Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has been revealed!

Hitting stores in November, publisher Abrams says that Jeff Kinney “brings the series back to its roots, as Greg starts a new school year and faces a challenge he never could’ve imagined”. I’m so behind on my Wimpy Kid reading, I should probably start all over again; these books crack me up. You can pre-order now, and since my all of my libraries clear these books out the second they hit the shelves (and my son expects a copy waiting on the table when he gets home from school), I should probably get my order in now.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: OLD SCHOOL, by Jeff Kinney
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1701-7
Hardcover
Published: November 2015
$13.95

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

Are you a Book Scavenger? Read, Play, and Find Out!

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Book Scavenger, by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (June 2015, Henry Holt), $16.99, ISBN: 9781627791151

Twelve year-old Emily is on the move again. Her unconventional parents are on a quest to live in all 50 states, so she and her brother don’t get a chance to put roots down anywhere. This move takes them to San Francisco, where Emily’s idol-Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the game Book Scavenger-lives. Shortly after arriving, she and her new friend James discover a strangely new copy of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story, The Gold Bug; they learn that Griswold has been viciously attacked and is in the hospital, and people start showing an unusual interest in her copy of The Gold Bug. Could there be a connection?

This is a new spin on the middle grade mystery, with a real-life tie in that’s interesting and brings kids into the world of The Book Scavenger. Influenced by the online site Book Crossing, where you leave books for people and record where you’ve left and discovered books, Book Scavenger creates a game where you can attain levels of detective-dom by finding books and hiding books using clues to lead your fellow players to them. Chambliss and publisher Henry Holt have brought Book Scavenger to life, hiding advance review copies of Book Scavenger all over the country and inviting readers to locate them – go to http://bookscavenger.com/ to get on board and join the fun!

There is some great discussion on cryptography and hidden codes used in the book – James and Emily are fans that bring the practice into their school after being caught passing notes – and the book becomes a true whodunit, with readers trying to figure out who could have been behind the attack on Garrison Griswold, and more importantly, what is the secret of The Gold Bug? The characters are likable, even if Emily does become frustrating in her single-mindedness over solving the mystery at points, and Book Scavenger makes for exciting summer reading.

Check out Jennifer Chambliss Bertman’s author page for updates on what she’s working on.

Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Middle School, Teen, Tween Reads

To This Day: A Graphic Novel’s Call to Anti-Bullying Action

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

tothisday_1 To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful, by Shane Koyczan (2014, Annick Press) $19.95, ISBN: 978-1554516391

Recommended for ages 10-18

What began as a spoken word poem turned into a viral video, and has culminated in this gorgeous, touching graphic novel about the lasting damage caused by bullying. To this day, a boy saddled with a the nickname “pork chop” hates pork chops. To this day, a woman teased about a facial birthmark thinks she’s ugly, despite having a loving husband and family. To this day, bullied kids carry the battle scars they earned in the trenches of elementary, middle, and high school. This book, based on Shane Koyczan’s spoken word poem and animated by 86 animation and motion artists, contains the work of 30 artists and illustrators and give new life to Koyczan’s poem.

Bullying has become a hot-button topic in recent years, as cyberbullying changes all the rules. The attraction of anonymity makes bullies bolder, and victims find their tormentors omnipresent, thanks to 24/7 social media access. Crafting a multimedia work – a spoken word poem, a viral video, and now, a graphic novel, takes the bullying discussion to the arenas where tweens and teens live and interact. Making the discussion visual will help bring home the internal damage that bullying brings, hopefully making both bullies and the bullied understand that there are repercussions to bullying. There is someone on the other end of a computer or smartphone that is directly impacted by everything that one writes or records. In this case, a picture truly speaks a thousand words.

This would make for a great class discussion and could be paired with the video. There is also a free app available through iTunes. The To This Day Project website has anti-bullying resources, the video, and a link to the app available.

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, Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads

Cybils Finalists Announced!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’m sorry to be a bit late on the news, I’ve been in bed with an awful head cold. But the great news is that the 2014 Cybils Finalists have been announced!

You can find the full list of finalists, across all categories, here.

I had the honor and privilege of being a first round judge in the Middle Grade Fiction category this year – and WOW, what an amazing experience that was! We had over 130 entries this year; 34 of which I ended up reading. And I was in the minority, which fills me with even more amazement and respect of my fellow children’s book bloggers/teachers/librarians/bibliophiles. Here’s hoping that next year, I’ll get to participate again, and I promise, I’ll get more of those books in. In the meantime, I’ve discovered so many new, exciting books that I can now handsell to the kids at all of my libraries and in my life. It’s a great feeling.

If you’d like to just go straight to the Middle Grade Fiction nominees, click here – I wrote the blurb for The Meaning of Maggie, a book which I hope everyone will read and find meaning in as I did.

More reviews to come in this New Year – and I resolve to get more picture book reviews in; I seem to have gone lacking in that area. If you have a book you think I’m missing out on, please let me know!

Have a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Remember The Time Warp Trio? Now, meet the Left Behinds!

Posted on December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Left Behinds and the iPhone That Saved George Washington, by David Potter (Jan. 2015, Random House) $16.99, ISBN: 9780385390569

Recommended for ages 10-14

Mel and his schoolmates, Brandon and Bev, are the Left-Behinds: children of wealthy and/or famous parents who make little time for them, they’re shipped off to boarding school and spend the holidays there. On a holiday school trip, the three find themselves transported through time, ending up in Colonial America – just in time to save the life of one General George Washington right before the historic crossing of the Delaware. Armed with just his iPhone, Mel must figure out how to save his friends, save George Washington, and save America! Oh, and he’s on, like, 8 percent battery.

The story is the next step for fans of Jon Sciezska’s Time Warp Trio series, who are on a higher reading level and ready for a more challenging novel. The book looks like it’s the first in a promising new series, with likable characters, a rogue iPhone app, Benjamin Franklin (who makes anything in which he appears even better) and a mysterious nemesis. There’s solid history here: the author did his research and his love for American history is clear here. This would be a great book to have students read alongside a unit on American history.

The author’s website offers information about the book, a bio on the author, and transcripts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, along with a section on where to catch historical re-enactments. For now, there’s only the Washington Historic Crossing available; I hope we’ll get some more as the author writes more!

The Left Behinds and the iPhone That Saved George Washington releases next week, on January 5th.

Historical Fiction, Middle School, Tween Reads

The Girls of Gettysburg is a powerful look at three different lives during the Civil War

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Girls of Gettysburg, by Bobbi Miller (2014, Holiday House), $16.95, ISBN: 978-0823431632

Recommended for ages 10-14

The Battle of Gettysburg has countless stories attached to it: the stories of those who fought and died there. The stories of the people who lived in Gettysburg when war came to town. The stories of everyone in the aftermath. Bobbi Miller gives us three incredible stories-based on real-life events and people-of three girls whose lives were forever changed by Gettysburg.

We have Annie, a 13 year-old girl who has already lost family to the Civil War. Frustrated with her mother’s expectations of what a “lady” should be, she runs away, cuts her hair, and takes up arms against the North. Grace Bryan, a 12-ish year-old girl from a free African American family, is the daughter of a farmer who refuses to flee, like so many other black families who fear capture and enslavement by the Rebels. Tillie, a 14 year-old girl who romanticizes the handsome and noble soldiers, discovers a very different side to war when the war comes to her town.

The first thing I loved about this book – and there are so many things I love about this book – is that the Battle of Gettysburg is truly the background, not a character. The girls’ stories stand on their own: strong, infused with feeling, and entirely individual. There is no right or wrong here – something the characters learn for themselves in the course of the book – only people struggling to survive, be it an escaped slave hoping to make it up North, or a young soldier marching into battle with a tintype and a letter to his mother in his pack.

The Girls of Gettysburg will be a great book for a unit on the Civil War, but even for a discussion of women on the battlefield in the present-day.

The author’s webpage offers more information about her books, and resources for educators and writers.