Tag: family

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 Fiction, Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney (Amulet, 2007)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

I am an unabashed fan of the Wimpy Kid series – I’ve read them all am waiting, with my kids, for Cabin Fever, the next book in the series (39 days from today!). My older son had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Kinney at ComicCon a few years ago and he was a very nice guy, autographing his book, mentioning that his son shared the same name as mine, my son and his son shared the same name, and really listening to what my son enjoyed about his book. 

Greg Heffley is a middle school ne’er do well – he’s lazy, he’s selfish, and he can’t figure out what everyone else’s problem is. Despite these qualities, he’s wildly funny, and he does try to do the right thing (he just tends to get a little lost on the way to doing it). He’s a middle schooler, he’s just trying to navigate life and make things easier on himself. Can you blame him?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a good book for several reasons, aside from it’s compulsive readability: the characters are well-written and funny, Greg has a clear voice, and this book shows boys and girls alike that keeping a diary – or a journal, whatever you choose to call it – is a good thing. Writing, even to a slacker kid like Greg, can be something fun to do. The book even resembles a diary on the inside and out, with lined pages, handwriting font, and hand-drawn pictures that look like Greg had drawn them filling the book.

Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series is one of the most popular middle-grade series out today, with five book currently out and the sixth coming in November. The Wimpy Kid website offers information about all of the books (and a countdown clock for Cabin Fever)  and offers news and information about the author, a link to “Wimp Yourself” where kids can create their own Wimpy Kid using preselected templates, links to merchandise.

Posted in History, Non-Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperCollins, 1971)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 8+

Most people know Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories, if not through her books, then through the long-running television series, Little House on the Prairie. A a pioneer child who wrote down her experiences and later had them published, Ms. Wilder wrote nine Little House books, originally published between 1932 and 1943. The series resonated with girls and young women and is popular to this day.

Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the Little House series, and introduces the reader to the Ingalls family: Laura, her older sister, Mary, baby sister, Carrie, and parents, Ma and Pa (Caroline and Charles). The family lives in the Big Woods in Wisconsin in the later part of the 19th Century, shortly after the Civil War. (Laura even mentions a family member who is “wild since he came back from the army”.)

We go through each of the seasons with the Ingalls family and learn how families lived, ate, and had fun. There are family dances and visits, trips to town, and encounters with bears and bees. There is always time for work, though, and this is where the book acts as a primer. Laura details the process of preserving meats and vegetables to keep the family fed through the lean winter months; how Pa prepares an animal skin to be used as leather goods; how to get sap from a tree, and how to smoke bees out of a hive to be able to get to the honey. It’s a fascinating look at a different time, and while it is written with a girl’s voice, this is should not be considered a “girl’s book”: boys and girls alike can learn much about the wildnerness life.

Laura writes in a clear voice, drawing her readers in because her stories are real. The love of family and nostalgia as she looks back on her life bring to mind the feeling a child gets when listening to a parent or grandparent talking about their childhood. Black and white drawings by Garth Williams add to the book.

There is a wealth of information about Laura Ingalls Wilder online. Wilder’s home in Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where she wrote the Little House books, is now the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum and word finds, quizzes and coloring pages. The Little House Books website features a family tree tracking the girls of the Little House series from Laura’s great-grandmother to her daughter, Rose. The site also offers games and craft ideas, as well as information for teachers interested in teaching the book.

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Tween Reads

Book Review: Villain School: Good Curses Evil, by Stephanie Sanders (Bloomsbury, 2011)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

What do you do when your parents are some of the baddest bad guys in history, and you just don’t match up? You get sent to Master Dreadthorn’s School for Wayward Villains. Dracula’s daughter, Jezebel, is there – she prefers hot chocolate to blood. The Big Bad Wolf’s son, Wolf, is in there, too – he saved a human child from drowning. The Green Giant’s son was expelled when they realized that his dad was just some green guy trying to get kids to eat their vegetables.

Rune Drexler, Master Dreadthorn’s 12-year old son, is at villain school, too, but he’s not getting any preferred treatment – quite the opposite; he can’t seem to do anything right in his father’s eyes. When his father calls him to his office and gives him a Plot – a dangerous and evil test to achieve his next EVil (Educational Villain Levels) level, Rune sees his chance to be the villain his father wants him to be. But can he and his two friends carry out the Plot without ending up being heroes?
The story takes a little bit of time to get started; Sanders concentrates on exposition early on in the story. Once the Plot is under way, though, the story becomes a fun read with just enough of a twist to take the reader by surprise. I did not feel cheated by the book’s end – I wanted to know what Rune was going to do next. Middle grade readers will enjoy the good-natured jabs that the characters throw at one another, and the idea of being good while you’re trying to be evil will show younger readers that there is something good in even the baddest of villains.
Posted in Graphic Novels, Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: Amelia Rules! The Whole World’s Crazy, by by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance Press, 2006)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
 
Jimmy Gownley’s graphic novels about Amelia McBride and her group of friends remind me of Bugs Bunny cartoons – when you’re a child, they entertain you; when you’re a little older, you get the jokes.
 
In this first volume, we meet Amelia, age nine. Her parents have just divorced and she and her mom have moved from Manhattan to “the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania”, where they live with her retired pop rock star Aunt Tanner. Tanner provides a ready ear and sometimes, shoulder, for Amelia when she needs to vent.
 
Amelia’s a wise-cracking tomboy, but she isn’t skin deep. We see the effect of her parents’ divorce on her, be it through the frustration and anger with her father for canceling plans for their weekend together because he has a last-minute work commitment or her discomfort in overhearing her mother berating her dad on the phone. She shakes it off, adapts her hard-as-nails persona, and moves on. We all know kids like Amelia;  maybe we have even been in Amelia’s place at one point, and this is what makes her so accessible to kids and grownups alike.
 
Speaking of grown-ups, there are plenty of in-jokes for mom and dad to catch. Amelia and her friends go to Joseph McCarthy Middle School (motto: “Weeding out the wrong element since 1952”). Ann Coulter garners a mention on one of Santa’s lists (hint: it ain’t the “nice” list). There are pop culture references aplenty. The dialogue is funny and smart; Gownley doesn’t talk down to his audience, nor does he shy away from sensitive topics.
 
Amelia’s friends are a mixed bag of personalities. Amelia’s friend Reggie is obsessed with being a superhero, to the point of starting his own league of heroes called GASP (Gathering of Awesome Super Pals). Pajamaman is the most popular kid in school, but never speaks, wears footie pajamas, and comes from a poor family. Rhonda, Amelia’s nemesis (and grudgingly, good friend), has a crush on Reggie and puts herself in competition with Amelia for his attention. The group deals with bullies and crazy teachers, unrequited love and poverty. It’s a group of kids that readers will see themselves reflected in.
 
The Amelia Rules! website offers even more to Amelia fans. There are book trailers, podcasts, a blog, and links to fan art and fan fiction. Visitors can listen to music in Tanner’s Garage and play games in the Ninja Lair.
Posted in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Tween Reads

Book Review: Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space, by Philip Reeve (Bloomsbury, 2007)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
Larklight is the first in a ‘tween steampunk trilogy by Philip Reeve, and I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this book. Steampunk? Pirates? Pass that book over!
I was not disappointed. A great read for both boys and girls interested in science fiction and fantasy, Larklight offers a little something for everyone. The main character, Arthur Mumby, is a boy of about 11 or 12 who lives with his 14-year old sister, Myrtle (who is a very big part of the storyline – no wallflower female characters in this book!) and their widowed father upon Larklight, a floating home in space. The story takes place during the Victorian era, and the British Empire has colonized space. Aetherships cruise the skies much as Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge hunted ships in the waters on earth.
Mr. Mumby, a xenobiologist, agrees to a meeting with a correspondent who refers to himself as “Mr. Webster” – when he arrives, we discover that Webster is an evil space spider with whose spidery army traps Larklight and Mr. Mumby in their webs. Art and Myrtle escape, ultimately ending up with a band of space pirates led by Jack Havoc, a teenager with his own troubled past, and his band of alien misfits. Running from the British Empire, Jack joins Art and Myrtle on their quest to save their father and learn what made them Webster’s target.
In addition to the nonstop action and wonderfully Victorian narrative, there is mech and steam aplenty for steampunk fans. Giant, mechanized spiders, steam-driven aetherships propelled by alchemic reactions, and an assault on Queen Victoria – what more could a kid possibly ask for?

I appreciated Reeve’s strong male and female characters. At first glance , Myrtle appears solely as Art’s antagonist for Art but emerges as a strong, clever character – it’s interesting to see her character evolve. Ssil, one of Jack Havoc’s alien crew, has no idea where her origins lie, providing a sense of mystery and pathos. She has only the family she creates around her, but longs to know who she is. While scientific men are assumed to be the only ones capable of performing the “chemical wedding” that propels aetherships into space, Ssil performs it with ease – indeed, she is the only member of Jack’s crew who can do it.

There are two sequels to Larklight, also by Reeve: Starcross and Mothstorm, that I expect I shall be picking up shortly. The film rights for Larklight have been bought and a film is due out in 2013.

Posted in Animal Fiction, Fantasy, Tween Reads

Book Review: Kenny and the Dragon, by Tony DiTerlizzi (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

This adorable book teaches children the power of not judging someone (or something) on gossip, and illustrates the potentially destructive power of gossip.

Kenny is a young, bookish rabbit. His parents are farmers, but he’s always got his nose in a book. His only real friend at the book’s beginning is the old badger, George, who runs the bookshop in the nearby village. Kenny visits George to play chess and read in the bookshop, and George often lets Kenny borrow books to take home and read.

One day, Kenny’s father comes home with the news that there is a dragon in his meadow. Kenny runs to his bookshelf and grabs his bestiary, on loan from George, and learns that dragons are vicious, fire-breathing, maiden-devouring beasts. Creating a suit of armor for himself fashioned from pots and pans, he sets out to take a look at the dragon, who ends up being a perfect gentleman named Grahame (“like the cracker, but with an e on the end”) and quickly dispels all myths set forth in the bestiary – in fact, he asks Kenny if he can borrow it, because he loves reading good fiction. Grahame is something of an epicure, enjoying good poetry, music, and food. He spent years trapped in the earth after falling through a fault line, but he never saw the point in chasing maidens and killing knights – his fellow dragons died out because of their taste for terror, and he just wants to enjoy life.

Kenny introduces Grahame to his parents, who also include the dragon in such family activities as picnic dinners where they cook delicious meals just for him. Kenny and Grahame’s friendship is put at risk when other villagers, fearful of the rumored dragon in the land, call for the king to take action. The king calls his retired dragonslayer into service – Kenny’s friend, George Badger. Kenny’s two best friends may have to do combat because no one bothers to learn the truth about dragons – what can Kenny do to save the day?

Tony DiTerlizzi is one half of the duo behind The Spiderwick Chronicles. Kenny and the Dragon, based on the 1898 story The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, introduces readers to a new group of memorable characters as he peppers tributes to the original story throughout the book. Aside from the tribute to Kenneth Grahame, he names George the bookstore owner/dragonslayer after St. George, who features in the Grahame story; other characters from the original story also find a place in DiTerlizzi’s world.

Placing the story in a fantastic, anthropomorphic world is a wonderful way of bringing this story to a new audience. DiTerlizzi expands on the original tale as a way of getting big ideas across to little people – the town mob, pitchforks and all, is riled up by the mere presence of a dragon, but no one bothers to try and get to know him – all they have is rumor to go on, and that’s good enough for them.

DiTerlizzi illustrates Kenny and the Dragon in the same line sketch format as Spiderwick, bringing Grahame, Kenny, and the rest of their world to life. The sketches bring old fairy tale stories to mind.

DiTerlizzi’s website, Never Abandon Imagination, provides more information about his books and includes links to his artwork, blog and social media connections (YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook).

Posted in Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Cal and the Amazing Anti-Gravity Machine, by Richard Hamilton (illustrated by Sam Hearn) (Bloomsbury, 2006)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
Cal lives with his family, including Frankie, a talking dog that only he can understand, next door to a very loud neighbor. Mr. Frout regularly wakes the neighborhood with clanging and banging in the early hours of the morning. He’s not a very friendly neighbor, so curious Cal decides to spy on him to see what all the commotion is about and discovers Mr. Frout, in a suit of armor, hovering in the air. His experiment goes awry and Cal rescues him, which makes Mr. Frout a little more friendly and Cal learns that Mr. Frout is making an anti-gravity machine. Inevitably, things get out of hand and it’s left to Cal to save the day.
The book skews toward the younger end of the reading range, as it is a chapter book with lots of black and white line drawings that will keep younger readers interested. The characters are well-described, and have just enough reality to them that kids can identify with them, while being fantastic enough to make the story fun. I appreciated that the parents weren’t drawn as hopeless dimbulbs, as often happens in children’s books – I particularly liked a section of the book where Cal’s mother gets angry at him for befriending a stranger (Mr. Frout), despite Cal’s assertions that he is friendly. It was a smart way to take advantage of a teachable moment on stranger danger.

Richard Hamilton and Sam Hearn are an British writer-illustrator team who have worked on four books together.

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury, 2008)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-14

This is a princess-y book for girl who don’t normally like princess book. Creel, the main character, is not a princess, but she is independent and smart; a rags-to-riches character we’ve started expecting from fantasy heroines.

Orphans Creel and her brother live with their poor aunt and uncle, who have enough children of their own. Creel’s aunt leaves Creel to the local dragon in the hope that either a rich noble or prince will save her and marry her – and share the wealth with the rest of the family – or that the dragon will eat her, giving the family one less mouth to feed. Luckily for Creel, Theoradus the Dragon doesn’t want to eat anyone; he wants to be left alone to enjoy his hoard of shoes (each dragon has his or her own preferred hoard).
 
Creel strikes out for the king’s city, Feravel, to find her fortune as a seamstress, taking a pair of slippers given to her by Theoradus and befriends two more dragons, Shardas and Feniul, along the way. Upon arriving in Feravel, she finds seamstress work where her embroidery designs gain notice – as do her shoes. The awful princess Amalia, engaged to Feravel’s crown prince Milun, tries to force Creel to surrender the slippers. She ultimately gets them through Creel’s co-worker, Larkin, who Amalia makes a lady-in-waiting if she can get Amalia the slippers.

Amalia’s desire for the shoes has nothing to do with being fashionable, and her engagement to prince Milun is a sham – her father’s kingdom wants to take over Feravel, and the slippers give her the power to control the dragons. Creel must join forces with the king’s younger son, Luka, to find a way to break through to the dragons and bring peace to the land.

I enjoyed this book because it was unexpected. The heroine was intelligent, self-sufficient, and funny – a wry sense of humor permeates the characters without feeling forced or contrived. Jessica Day George carefully builds up without it ever feeling tedious, and she tightly weaves the various characters, plots, and subplots together to keep  readers on their toes. Just when I thought I had reached the climax of the book, I realized there was more – and I liked it. The author does not take its young audience for granted.
 
Dragon Slippers is the first book in Jessica Day George’s Dragon trilogy, and I may visit Creel, Prince Luka, and Shardas the dragon again in the future wiith Dragon Flight and Dragon Spear. Ms. Day George has written other fairy tales with smart heroines, including Princess of the Midnight Ball, winner of the Children’ Literature Association of Utah’s 2011 Beehive Award and its sequel, Princess of Glass. She keeps in touch with her fans through her blog and her website, which links to more information about the author, her books, and social media. She is also featured on the Mormon Arts wiki.
Posted in Animal Fiction, Fantasy, Tween Reads

Book Review: The Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book One: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky (Scholastic, June 2003)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Newbery Award winning author Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole series has been hugely popular since the publication of the first book in the series, The Capture. In 2010, Warner Brothers released a movie based on the first three books in the series and its companion website offers quizzes, games and book facts. A Guardians of Ga’Hoole wiki offers exhaustive information about characters and storylines. The series has taken on a life of its own in many ways, similar to such literary touchstones as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.
The book begins with Soren, a young barn owl born into a loving family in the forest of Tyto. He has a cruel older brother, Kludd, a sweet younger sister, Eglantine, and a beloved snake nursemaid, Mrs. Plithiver. One day, Soren falls out of his nest and is kidnapped, taken to the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls, where he meets Gylfie, a small Elf Owlet.

St. Aggie’s, as the Academy is referred to, is a thinly veiled deprogramming center/work camp for owls where they are subjected to sleep deprivation and corporal punishment in order to break them down and create a blank slate upon which the St. Aggie’s owls can build and create an army for owl domination. By sticking together and focusing on their families, each other, and the mythical stories of the Ga’Hoole, the guardians of owlkind, Soren and Gylfie defy the odds and retain their individuality. They ultimately escape St. Aggie’s with some help on the inside and head out in search of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree, where they hope to find help to save the owls from the St. Aggie’s army. They meet two other escapees, Digger and Twilight, who join them in their search.

I found myself having trouble enjoying The Capture. I vacillated between being taken aback at the brutality of a book written for a relatively young audience and just not connecting with the story. The book is graphic in its depiction of the punishment heaped on the younger owls and Lasky does not shy away from writing about murder and cruelty. The terror of losing one’s own identity, coupled with cold-blooded murder, make for a potentially terrifying read to some readers on the younger half of the age range, and I’d recommend parents reading the book with their children to address any fears that may come up. The book speaks to the fear of being taken, the terror of not knowing how to get back to one’s family, and the sense of hopelessness that can overpower someone in that situation.
Other times, I was frustrated with the use of owl jargon – the owls have their own phrases and terms, and it appeared haphazard in its usage – and bored with some of the more plodding scenes at St. Aggie’s. I wanted more from the book than it was ready to give me – perhaps reading further into the series will help me connect at a later point.

Kathryn Lasky has written over 100 books for children and has a great website that offers video messages for her fans, a section detailing her awards and information about her upcoming books. Naturally, there is a section devoted to the Guardians series, and she even features fan art dedicated to the series. I really liked that Lasky, who exhaustively researches both her fiction and nonfiction writing, shares her research and links for books she’s working on.