Category: Tween Reads

Posted in Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau (Yearling, 2004)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
A post-apocalyptic novel, The City of Ember begins with The Builders, who created an underground city that would save humankind from an assumed environmental catastrophe. The city was to last for 220 years, at which time they hoped it would be okay to return to the surface. They created Instructions to leave Ember, which they gave to the Mayor, to be passed down to every Mayor until it was time; the box containing the Instructions would then open.

The box was lost after the seventh Mayor tried to force the box open.

In the year 241, the City of Ember is failing. They are running out of food and supplies and there are rolling blackouts that last for longer stretches each time. There are whispers that the generator is failing. Because the population of Ember does not know their above-ground origins, they do not know that there is another choice. Lina and Doon, two 12-year old residents of Ember, learn about some of Ember’s secrets, like the stores of food available to those who know the “right people”. Lina also happens upon a document long hidden in her grandmother’s closet; torn into shreds by her baby sister, she tries to unravel the mystery and thinks she has happened upon a way to leave Ember. Will anyone other than Doon believe her, or will the Mayor and the police try to keep them quiet?

The book tells an intelligent story with fairly well-drawn characters. Ms. DuPrau does not speak down to her audience, but I do wish she had fleshed out the characters a bit more; the Mayor, for instance, is the typical bloated, corrupt politician; Lina’s grandmother’s memory is slipping away, but she remembers that there is something lost that she must find before she dies; the police are one-dimensional, just-following-orders good/bad guys. The overall story, however, is solid and compelling – what happens to a society if their lights go out for good?

The City of Ember is the first in the Books of Ember series and was made into a movie in 2008. Designated as an American Library Association (ALA) Notable book, the book has received Kirkus Editors Choice status and was awarded the 2006 Mark Twain Readers Award. The author’s website offers information on all of Ms. DuPrau’s books, a biography, and an FAQ. The site also offers the chance for visitors to solve a puzzle similar to the document in City of Ember.

Posted in Historical Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman (Clarion Books, 1995)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 8-12

Brat is an orphaned girl with no name or family. When the village midwife discovers her sleeping in a dung heap to keep warm, she takes her on as an apprentice. The reader sees Brat grow in confidence and ability.

A 1996 Newbery winner, this historical fiction novel has a strong message: you can make your own way in this life, no matter what cards you are dealt. Alyce remembers no mother and no home; she is the target of village bullies and sleeps in a dung heap to keep warm, but she never believes in giving up. When the midwife is cruel with her words, she shakes it off and continues to learn by observation. She does not wait for someone to provide her with a kinder name than Brat or Beetle, the name given her by Jane the midwife; she decides she likes the name Alyce and tells people to call her by that name. She finds a way to even the score with the cruel villagers and earns the respect of one of the village bullies when she aids him in delivering a calf. This is medieval girl power.

In addition to winning the Newbery medal, The Midwife’s Apprentice has also been designated as one of the American Library Association (ALA)’s Best of the Best Books for Young Adults and the New York Public Library’s “One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing”. Ms. Cushman also received Newbery Honors for her book Catherine , Called Birdy.

The author’s website offers a full bibliography of Ms. Cushman’s books, along with an author biography and “odd facts”. An FAQ is available for popular questions, and there is a link to contact the author for appearances. There are a wealth of resources available online for discussing and teaching this book, including a robust guide at eNotes.

Posted in Adventure, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen (Aladdin, 1987)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-13

Hatchet is a Newbery Award-winning survival novel by Gary Paulsen. The book tells 13-year old Brian’s story of survival in the Canadian woods after the pilot of the plane he’s in has a heart attack and dies at the controls; Brian alone must figure out how to get the plane down and how to survive until help comes – if it comes.

He spends the summer learning how to survive and adapting to his new environment, starting out with only the hatchet his mother gave him when he left. He learns how to identify edible plants, how to hunt and trap animals, and how to cook them; he can make simple tools and fashion a shelter for himself. When he finds hiself with time to think he is consumed with thoughts of his parent’s divorce and his mother’s role in it.

Brian’s story of survival, and the subplot of his parent’s divorce – in the background, but always there – make this a very readable book for boys and girls alike. While the main character is a boy, the struggle to survive and the feelings he finds himself confronted with, told with urgency, make this a page-turner that communicates emotions all tweens and teens can relate to.

Hatchet is the first in Brian’s Saga, a series of books about Brian Robeson written by Gary Paulsen. The author’s Random House site  has information about the other books, with excerpts and teachers’ guides. The book was made into a movie, A Cry in the Wild, in 1990 and is available on DVD. The book has received numerous awards and honor in addition to the Newbery, including designation as an American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book (1987) and a Booklist Editor’s Choice Citation (1988).

There are a wealth of discussion materials for the book available online. Scholastic offers a free lesson plan and unit plan on teaching imagery with Gary Paulsen; Literature Index offers free PowerPoint presentation, clip art, and templates; and BookRags offers a study guide.

Posted in Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, by Jack Gantos (HarperCollins, 2000)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Told in the voice of a boy with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key moves at an almost frantic pace. Joey is “wired”. He can’t sit still, even when he knows that acting up in class is wrong. Abandoned by both his parents, lives with his abusive grandmother who is also “wired”. When Joey’s mom returns, she struggles to keep him medicated and on track, but she works long hours and she drinks out of frustration.

Joey’s behaviors become self-destructive – he swallows his house key; he sticks his finger in a pencil sharpener; he separates from his class on a school trip and finds himself sitting on a rafter in a barn. The school is trying to be understanding and has him spending part of his day in the Special Education class, but when Joey decides to run with a pair of scissors and injures a classmate, he is suspended and sent to the district’s special ed program for six weeks. There, he meets with a social worker who helps him get his medications adjusted and works to get him – and his mom – back on track.

The frenetic pace of the storytelling gives the reader a glimpse into what goes on in the mind of a child with ADD, and Joey’s explanations help readers figure out what motivates him to do what he does – regardless of it being right or wrong, Joey does have reasons. It is an important read for understanding kids that are sharing classrooms with one another, and gives both adults and children a starting point for discussions on what ADD is and how it affects people.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key has won numerous awards including the Newbery Medal. It was a National Book Award Finalist, one of School Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year, and it is an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book. It is the first in a series of Joey Pigza books including Joey Pigza Loses Control, What Would Joey Do?, and I Am Not Joey Pigza.

The Macmillan website for the book offers award information, critical praise, a biography on Jack Gantos, and links to Mr. Gantos’ website, Facebook page, Goodreads page, and Wikipedia page. The Multnomah County Library system offers a discussion guide and related book suggestions.

Posted in Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsberg (Athenum Press, 1967)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

After reading this Newbery Medal award winner as a child, I wanted to run away and live in the Museum of Natural History. Yes, the museum was different from The Met, where the main characters ran away to, but I wanted to live with dinosaurs.

Claudia is a precocious 11-year old who lives in Connecticut with her family and feels unappreciated and bored. She decides to teach her family a lesson in “Claudia appreciation” and plans to run away. She invites her 9-year old brother, Jamie to go with her because he’s cheap and has money. When he agrees, she sets her elaborate plan in motion, and the two run away and spend a week living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

While wandering around all of the exhibits, Claudia and Jamie happen upon a new exhibit of Angel, a statue rumored to be one of Michelangelo’s earlier works. Focused on solving the mystery of Angel’s origin, Claudia cannot go home until she has figured it out. She feels that knowing the secret will change her somehow; give her running away a purpose.

 Their search for information takes them all the way to the statue’s previous owner, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a wealthy widow living in Connecticut. She manages to get the children to tell her where they have been for the past week, and offers them, in return for their story, an hour in her file room where the secret to the statue lives; they are then driven home by her chauffer.

This story is still relevant over 40 years later.  Parts of it may not resonate with new audiences – maybe an 11- and 9-year old wandering the streets of New York City sounds riskier in this day and age – but it is, at heart, a child’s fantasy. What preteen hasn’t felt unappreciated by his or her family and dreamed of running away? This is a New York adventure that boys and girls alike should read and enjoy.

Konigsburg does not speak down to her audience; rather, she details how intelligent Claudia and Jamie are as she details the planning process for running away, their complex hiding arrangements, and their need to stick to a budget. They make mature decisions: Jamie nixes the idea of a bus or a cab for transportation, saying it will eat into their money too quickly; they take care of themselves by bathing in the fountains (and also collecting some of the coins tossed in there to add to their nest egg) and doing their laundry; they strive to learn something every day, despite not being in school.

E.L. Konigsburg received Newbery Medals for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday; she also received Newbery Honors for Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. There is a wealth of information about the book online, including discussion guides through Scholastic and the Wake County Library system.

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Tween Reads

The Sisters Grimm: The Fairytale Detectives, Book 1, by Michael Buckley (Amulet, 2007)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Sisters Daphne and Sabrina have been shuttled from foster home to foster home since their parents disappeared, so when a woman claiming to be their grandmother contacts the orphanage to claim them, Sabrina is suspicious; their parents told the girls that their grandmother was dead.

Not only is their grandmother very much alive, the girls learn that they are descended from the famous Grimm brothers and that their “fairy tales” were actually case studies – magical creatures are very real, and they’re stuck in Ferryport Landing, New York, with a Grimm to act as the guardian.

As Grandma Relda and her friend Mr. Canis are investigating a  mystery involving a giant, Mayor Charming and a house crushed flat, they are kidnapped by a giant and Sabrina and Daphne must find a way to rescue them. But can they trust Jack the Giant Killer, who offers to help them? What magical creatures are there to help them or hurt them – and how can they tell the difference?

This first adventure in the 7-book series is great fun for kids and adults alike – it’s a great bridge between a fun, action-adventure story and the fairy tales we all grew up with. The dialogue is well-paced and smartly written, never talking down to its audience, and the characters are likable and provide a good mix of fantasy and reality. These are children who miss their parents and who fell into the cracks of a child protective system that fails to do its job. Even when they find their fantasy grandmother to love them and connect them back to their family, they face surreal dangers and have to figure out who they can trust. This is a great book for a family book group discussion, providing many ideas to talk about and delve deeper into between parents and kids. The publisher’s website provides a readers’ guide for this purpose (geared at librarians and teachers, but parents can build on this). The site also offers a fairy tale “regurgitator” that helps visitors create their own fairy tales.

Posted in Fiction, Middle School, Puberty, Tween Reads

Book Review: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume (Yearling, 1970)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

This Judy Blume classic follows sixth grader Margaret Simon, whose parents move her from their home in New York to the suburbs of New Jersey, and her search for an identity as she goes through puberty. The book has received numerous awards, including the New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year (1970). In 2005, the book made Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels List.

Margaret meets new friends and they quickly form a secret club called the PTS’s – Pre-Teen Sensations. They have to wear bras to their meetings and they talk about boys, school, and most importantly, when they’re getting their periods. Nancy, the ringleader, makes Margaret uncomfortable with her superior attitude and concern over these things; she’s afraid she’ll be the last to get her period and be made fun of.

Raised without organized religion, Margaret has a very personal relationsihp with God and talks to him whenever she needs a comforting ear. She tells him her insecurities about puberty and her frustration with her family. With the other kids in her neighborhood identifying as either Christian or Jewish, Margaret struggles to know God in one of these faiths, but comes up empty; she asks him, after visiting both a synagogue and a church why she can’t “feel him” the way she does when she talks to him.

I loved this book when I was in sixth grade and re-reading it now, it holds up, mainly because the heart of the story still exists. Mean girls may appear bigger than life now, but Nancy was definitely a pioneering mean girl; Margaret is the Everygirl that we all identified with – insecure about ourselves, insecure about our place in school and our families, and just trying to figure it all out. Blume weaves all of Margaret’s insecurities together to create a solid, realistic character that girls can all identify with. Nobody does puberty like Judy Blume.

Judy Blume’s website features the usual author fare; there is a bio, interview questions, even autobiographical essays. She offers advice on writing and has a section on censorship – she is a very well-known advocate for the freedom to read – and her “Reference Desk” section provides interviews and an index of articles and information about Blume.

Posted in Espionage, History, Non-Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review; Secrets, Lies, Gizmos and Spies, by Janet Wyman Coleman with The International Spy Museum (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2006)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Kids like spies. Spies are cool, after all. James Bond is suave and rocks the coolest gadgets in the world, and Chuck is a computer store geek turned international man of mystery. There was Agent Cody Banks, and there are the Spy Kids movies. Fast food restaurants have give spy toys away as prizes in their kids’ meals. The romantic mystique of the spy appeals to all ages.

Secrets, Lies, Gizmos and Spies, written in conjunction with the International Spy Museum, is a visual history of spying. There are photos and artifacts, with the stories of real-life spies from all over the world and throughout recorded history. The book provides key terms and timelines and even an imagined interview with George Washington using actual quotes from the first President with regard to his spying operations during the Revolutionary War. The book has beautiful color and black and white photos on every page, and will interest both boys and girls interested in adventure or history.

The International Spy Museum’s website offers the usual museum fare including membership and ticket information. They also have a podcast (with new episodes roughly every two weeks) and a blog, both with RSS feed capability. They offer birthday parties, school field trips, and Spy City Tours where visitors will be briefed by former intelligence officers and learn how to be a master of disguise.
Posted in Fiction, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: How to Rock Braces and Glasses, by Meg Haston (Little, Brown, 2011)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-13

Eighth grader Kacey Simon doesn’t think she’s a mean girl, she’s just brutally honest like a good journalist should be. Life is pretty good for Kacey until the tables are turned when a series of accidents leave her stuck with glasses and braces. Within a day, she goes from A-list to D-list as her cool girl friends pretend she doesn’t exist, she’s dropped from her school news segment and the lead in the school play. Her best friend seizes the opportunity to wrest the cool reins and goes on the attack, and a cruel YouTube video makes the rounds in school.

Alone for the first time, Kacey ends up teaming up with a former friend, Paige and emo musician Zander (aka Skinny Jeans) to get her popularity back. Along the way, Kacey learns that she may have been a mean girl after all – or just misunderstood.

The book is shallow, with an unlikeable heroine written to be likeable. Haston’s message of being real gets garbled; it’s as if the author herself is unsure of whether Kacey’s behavior pre-braces is reprehensible or defensible. I did not come away with the true feeling that she learned her lesson at the end of the day; rather, she just learned to find loopholes and how to use people to get her way. It sends out mixed messages.

Tween marketing powerhouse Alloy Entertainment packaged this title and the book has already been optioned to be a new Nickelodeon show, How to Rock, to air in 2012. Author Meg Haston’s website links to her blog and information about the book; she also has a Twitter feed. There is also an iTunes app that lets users take photos of themselves or friends and try on different braces and glasses combinations.

Posted in Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb (Razorbill, 2009)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-12

Twelve year-old Oliver only pretends to be “slow”. He wants to keep his genius – and the fact that he is already a multi-millionaire and international villian – a secret from his family and the kids at school. Oliver spends his day blundering along in school, having his secret henchmen shoot darts at bullies (that cause some unpleasant gastrointestinal distress), drinking soda and root bear out of his secretly rigged water fountains, and tormenting his English teacher from a distance. At home, he maintains his secret evil empire.

Until Oliver is nominated for Class President by a classmate as a cruel prank. Initially, Oliver declines the nomination, but his anger toward his father, who Oliver perceives as being perpetually disappointed with him, drives him to get back into the election and play as dirty as possible to win it – even if he has to rig his running mates.

This book is hilarious. Written by the executive producer of The Daily Show, there is plenty of wit and a breakdown of politics on a middle school level that shows the reader how juvenile the entire political process can be. While at a times a bit heavy-handed, it still gets its point across, and in Oliver, Lieb has created a narrator that is like a young Dr. Evil meets Gru from Despicable Me. Middle schoolers will love the idea of a kid running an international evil empire from his underground lair and who has his school rigged for his personal comfort, all while tormenting teachers and bullies anonymously. The frustration of wanting to be loved by one’s parents while being aware of their flaws is a strong theme that will resonate with many readers.

There is a limited website for the book at Sheldrake Industries (Oliver’s cover company in the book) that offers some information about the book, a video with Josh Lieb, and a quiz where readers can figure out how evil they are.