Tag: middle school

Posted in Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Middle School

Spotlight on: Pippa Morgan’s Diary!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

cover64902-mediumPippa Morgan’s Diary, by Annie Kelsey (December 1, 2015; Sourcebooks Jabberwocky)

Hardcover ISBN 9781492623281

Price: $12.99

Pippa is beside herself when her BFF moves to Scotland. TO SCOTLAND! In a move of self-preservation, she tries to make a new friend when Catie Brown, one of the most popular girls in school, sits next to her in class. Catie Brown has a rotating list of people who get to sit next to her at lunch every day! Pippa discovers that she and Catie both love the talent reality show, The Voice Factor, and in a desperate bid for something to get Catie’s attention, Pippa tells her she auditioned for the show. AND blew the judges away. She and Catie become BFFs, but Catie’s dying to hear Pippa sing – so much that she signed her up for the school talent show. And Pippa couldn’t catch a tune if she was carrying a barrel.

Pippa Morgan’s Diary is perfect for readers who love Jim Benton’s My Dumb Diary, Rachael Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries, and Marissa Moss’ Amelia’s Notebook series. Pippa gets herself into hilarious trouble with her overactive imagination, but you have to appreciate her creativity – and her honesty. This is a fun start to a new series, and the kids in my library LOVE this diary/journal fiction trend.

Praise for Pippa Morgan’s Dairy

“With its approachable style and friendly language, this is sure to please both older fans of Rebecca Elliott’s “Owl Diaries” (Scholastic) and reluctant readers alike.” –School Library Journal

“Likable characters in humorous situations make for a promising series opener.” –Kirkus

“A charming story about the lengths you can go to win someone over, this is a great addition to the perennially popular illustrated-journal trend in middle-grade fiction. Although the character-created sketches can draw Wimpy Kid comparisons, the tone more closely matches Marissa Moss’ Amelia’s Notebook (1995)… the perfect quick read for any student with starry-eyed aspirations and a big imagination.”- Booklist

Summary:

Sometimes a little white lie can land you in a whole lot of trouble…

Pippa’s new BFF Catie Brown is perfect. So perfect, that Pippa tells her a teeny tiny lie—that she once auditioned for Voice Factor—to impress her. And it works. It works so well, in fact, that Catie enters Pippa into the school talent show.

The only problem? Pippa can’t sing. Not at all. In fact, her singing is so bad it scares the neighbors. But if she doesn’t participate in the talent show, Catie will know she lied. But if she does participate, the whole school will find out what a horrible singer she is…including Catie!

It’s up to Pippa to put an end to this pesky problem!

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26457243-pippa-morgan-s-diary

Buy Links:

Amazon- http://ow.ly/UZb5z

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

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

!ndigo- http://ow.ly/UZd4f

Indiebound- http://ow.ly/UZd9D

About the Author:

Annie Kelsey is a pseudonym for a well-known children’s book author.

Excerpt from Pippa Morgan’s Diary

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Sunday

I can still smell the stink of the moving van. Rachel and I just hugged and cried as they loaded her stuff on. Then I watched like a big-eyed kid who’d just lost her puppy while Rachel waved out of the window of her parents’ car.

I will NEVER forgive Rachel’s parents—I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THEY DECIDED THAT RACHEL SHOULD LIVE IN SCOTLAND INSTEAD OF THREE DOORS AWAY FROM ME!

Scotland is, like, a gazillion miles away.

Rachel said Nothing Would Change Really. *rolls eyes* She said, We’ll still be best friends even though I’m so far away. I love Rachel but sometimes she can be one fry short of a Happy Meal.

Of course we’ll be best friends. But it’s not the same. I can only talk to her on the phone. I don’t get to see her every day.

We can NEVER AGAIN dress up in my dad’s extra-high-visibility cycling gear and go and stand under the fluorescent lights in the supermarket and see how many shoppers we can dazzle. The frozen-food section was best because the freezers had this cold blue glow that turned us practically luminous. We’d offer to help shoppers reach for fish sticks or ice cream and try not to giggle when they’d half-close their eyes like they were staring into the sun.

We loved dressing up. Last summer, we pretended we were characters from The Lady of Morpeth Abbey—which was our favorite TV show EVER. It was soooo romantic and all the characters wore beautiful old-fashioned clothes. Rachel and I raided every thrift store in town until we’d made the BEST costumes. Rachel dressed as Mr. Hunderbentleman (buckle-y shoes and a frilly shirt and a big hat and everything) and I wore ten big skirts on top of each other and put my hair in a bun so I looked like Lady Monteith, and we spent the whole day talking like our characters.

RACHEL: Lady Monteith, may I bring you something from my morning stroll as a token of my admiration?

ME: I would be eternally grateful if you brought me a dozen roses, Mr. Hunderbentleman, for my pretty nose needs something delicate to smell.

RACHEL: (giggling) My dear lady! Why don’t you stroll with me and we may smell the roses together?

ME: Oh, Mr. Hunderbentleman! I am so lucky to know such a kind gentleman as you.

And we did it ALL day. Mom and Dad thought it was really funny (Mom and Dad were still married then) and it was the best day ever. Then Mom told us to go and get changed because my big skirts kept sweeping things off her knickknack shelf and Rachel had to go home for dinner.

I wonder what Rachel’s having for dinner tonight? I could have the same thing and it’d be like we were having dinner together like we used to when Rachel’s mom went to yoga.

But I can’t even text her to ask because she’s living on the side of a mountain in the middle of NOWHERE.

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Enter a Rafflecopter giveaway to win a copy of Pippa Morgan’s Diary (U.S. & Canada only)!

 

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Posted in Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Middle School

Pen Pals across time? Benjamin Franklin: Huge Pain in My…

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

ben franklinBenjamin Franklin: Huge Pain in My…, by Adam Mansbach & Alan Zweibel (Sept. 2015, Hyperion), $12.99, ISBN: 9781484713044

Recommended for ages 8-12

Thirteen year-old Franklin Isaac Saturday (call him Ike) has a really obnoxious writing assignment. He has to write a letter to a person from history, so he chooses Benjamin Franklin, his namesake. He rants and raves about the dumb assignment, the struggle of being in middle school, his jerk of a stepfather, and his crush on classmate Claire Wanzandae. He inadvertently sticks the letter in a mailbox as part of a joke, but here’s the surprise: he gets a response back. From Ben Franklin, who’s got stuff of his own to complain about! He hates his hair, Thomas Jefferson gets on his nerves, and he’s sensitive about his weight. Will these pen pals out of time somehow help one another through their rough patches, or will they cause the entire timestream to become out of whack?

Written in the first person through Ike’s eyes and through letters between Ike and Ben Franklin, this is a good middle grade read, especially for those reluctant readers. It didn’t really grow on me like I thought it would – the thought of Ben Franklin being that concerned about his stringy hair and feelings of not measuring up didn’t work for me – but I think middle graders will get a kick out of this one. The writing is conversational and witty, with plenty of snark and sarcasm. The time travel aspect of the story is a little far-fetched, but go with it.

This is a good addition to collections (both home and library) that cater to kids who are a hard sell for reading. Humor is always a good thing to have on your shelves, especially for those kids who don’t want to read, but need a book for school. I tend to fall back on humor and adventure for these kids, so this will be a helpful one to have on hand.

Posted in Fiction, Humor, Puberty, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

The Incredible Three and A Half Superheroes is a silly superhero story… kinda.

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

titaah_superheroes_side_crThe Incredible Three and a Half Superheroes, by Frank Schmeiβer/Illus. by Jörg Mühle, Translated from German by David H. Wilson, (April 2015, Little Gestalten), $19.95, ISBN: 978-3-89955-740-4

Recommended for ages 10+

Imagine if Doug, the Wimpy Kid, his buddy, Rowley, and Fregley, the weird kid, started their own superhero group. Now you’ve got an idea of what to expect with The Incredible Three and a Half Superheroes. Headed by Sebastian Appleby-Krumble, aka The Brain, the three middle school friends and classmates are a quirky group of kids from class 6A, taught by the lovely Mrs. Daffodil. Their nemeses, class 6B (for bums, among other things), are taught by the awful Mr. Devill. Things have gone missing from Mrs. Daffodil’s class, and the school administration thinks that she may not be able to control her class. To save her teaching position and reputation, the Incredible Three and a Half (the half being Martin “The Chameleon’s invisible friend, a shy chicken) must find out exactly who the real culprit(s) are.

If that wasn’t enough on its own, Sebastian also has his awful – but wealthy – Aunt Boudicea – staying with them for her birthday festivities. Sebastian’s mother is going crazy trying to feed the woman and her husband, and create an entertaining birthday song and dance routine for Sebastian to perform to entertain her at her birthday party!

The book is written in middle grade style, but the language tends toward a slightly higher level. There’s more profanity than I expected in a middle grade book, so this may be an issue for some families. Written in first-person from Sebastian/The Brain’s point of view, and illustrated with black and white line drawings throughout, this will appeal to fans of The Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and other books in the diary/journal genre. There’s a lot of running back and forth between plot and subplot, and the writing becomes hectic, but kids will likely get a kick out of the craziness of planning a party for Sebastian’s crazy aunt and shrugging off the constant indignities she – and his classmates – toss his way.

Not a bad purchase for home and public libraries, but school libraries will likely be turned off by the language.

 

Posted in Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

My Life in Dioramas: A touching middle grade book about family, change, and holding on

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

MyLifeDioramasMy Life in Dioramas, by Tara Altebrando (Apr 2015, Running Press) $14.95, ISBN: 9780762456826

Recommended for ages 9-14

Kate Marino has spent her life in Big Red, her wonderfully large, rambling house. But her parents are having financial trouble, and have to put Big Red up for sale and move in with her grandparents – just as Kate’s dancing class is about to compete for the very first time! Kate’s world coming feels like it’s coming to an end, and begins crafting dioramas of her life at Big Red as she and her friends try to think of ways to turn potential buyers off of a sale.

I loved this story. Ms. Altebrando takes a sobering look at life for many families today and finds the spark of hope, the humor, and ultimately, the ability to move on. Kate is a wonderful main character that middle graders will love. The ideas she and her friends come up with to discourage potential buyers are hilarious and innocent rather than mean-spirited.  We see the stress of the family’s financial situation affecting Kate, but also, her family, particularly through her mother’s fight with depression. Using a popular school project – the diorama – as a vehicle to advance the plot and take readers through Big Red’s story – as much a character in this book as anyone else – immediately invests the reader.

Tara Altebrando’s author page offers more information about her other books, including Roomies, a YALSA 2015 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers selection,co-authored with Sara Zarr. My Life in Dioramas hit shelves this week, so please check with your local bookseller and pick up a copy. You’ll be glad you did, and so will your kids/students/and so on.

Check out this great book trailer for My Life in Dioramas, made by Teeny Tiny Filmworks, a group of young filmmakers.

My Life in Dioramas from Teeny Tiny Filmworks on Vimeo.

Posted in Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Somebody on This Bus is Going to Be Famous – but why?

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

busSomebody on This Bus is Going to Be Famous, by J.B. Cheaney (Sept. 2014, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky), $16.99, ISBN: 9781402292972

Recommended for ages 9-13

The bus picks the kids up every day, and heads to school. Someone, someday soon, is going to be famous. But why?

The story takes a deeper look into the lives of nine people on that bus – eight kids, one adult (the bus driver, Ms. B), twining their narratives, as their lives intersect, and leading to a taut climax. There’s Shelley, the wannabe pop star; Miranda, so desperate to have popular kids be her friend that she’ll let them walk all over her; Spencer, the nerd who’s having a crisis of faith in himself; Igor, whose dad is a big mystery that he wants to unravel; Jay, the jock whose grandfather – his biggest fan – is slipping away; Bender, the son who can’t get out of his brother’s shadow, Matthew, who’s just… average – at first; and Alice, who has some secrets of her own. Tied into these stories is the story of the high school graduation of 1985, where a prank was carried out, with tragic circumstances.

I had a rough time with this book. I didn’t like most of the characters, who just didn’t seem to be like good people. As I thought more about them, though, I realized that it’s not that they’re good or bad, they’re kids. They’re largely elementary and middle school students, and the depictions are pretty realistic-adolescence can be a hard time, and sometimes, tweens and teens and adults just don’t speak one another’s language. The narratives are largely depressing – there is some humor in the book, but most of these kids have some pretty awful stuff happening in their lives.

The ending was satisfying, and the overall story will draw readers in with the different narratives. The book can be used in a book group discussion on different personalities working together.

Posted in Fiction, Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6: One Kid’s Survival Guide

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

fearless grade 628 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6, by Catherine Austen (James Lorimer & Company, Sept. 2014). $8.95, ISBN: 9781459406193

Recommended for ages 8-12

Dave Davidson is a good kid who just wants to help his friends. He wants to cure his friends of different phobias, whether it’s about dancing in public or of dogs. He’s positive he has the knowledge to get the job done, and somehow, it kind of does – with a little bit of mess along the way.

This is a book in a vein similar to the Wimpy Kid series, albeit told in the third person. The chapters are set up similar to journal entries (it reminded me of the Nickelodeon show, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide), the tips give readers an idea of what the upcoming chapter covers (for example: “Tip #3: Friends Don’t Let Friends Break Their Ankles”). Kids who roll their eyes at the thought of sitting down and reading may find this book easier to jump into; the characters are fun and welcoming to a reader, and the amusing situations that come up for the group will appeal to middle grade readers.

For girls who want to read a more female-oriented version of the story, Ms. Austen has a companion book, 26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6, which received both the 2012 Quebec Writers’ Foundation Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and the 2012-2013 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award in English Fiction. The author’s website also has some fun tips for surviving everything from tornadoes to zombie attacks, and information on different phobias. (For all those fledgling Dave Davidsons out there!)

The book will be released on September 1, but you can pre-order it on Amazon right now.

 

Posted in Fiction, Graphic Novels, Tween Reads

Book Review: Drama, by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix, 2012)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-14

drama

Drama geeks have their day in Raina Telgemeier’s Drama, a winner of the 2013 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association. Seventh-grader Callie loves the theatre, even if she can’t hold a tune with a bucket. She’s active on the crew with her school’s theatre group and is set designer for their upcoming production of Moon Over Mississippi. But, as with most tweens, there’s drama in Callie’s personal life in addition to the drama unfolding in the production as she crushes on Greg, who doesn’t seem to be able to give up his on-again, off-again girlfriend Bonnie. She becomes fast friends with new-to-the-school twin brothers Justin and Jesse, both of whom get involved in the production, and she finds herself falling for one of the twins… but he’s sending mixed messages. Can Callie use her shoestring budget to pull together a great set, and figure out her crush drama at the same time?

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Raina Telgemeier won an Eisner Award for her previous graphic novel, Smile – another tween drama – and she knows tweens. She can tap into the not-so-in-crowd with ease, telling a great story about the kids you may not see at the cool table, but who aren’t at the angsty goth table, either. Their drama is self-contained, part of growing up, but these seem to be overall happy kids, most of whom have a decent idea of who they are or are on their way to figuring it out. She includes positive, honest-feeling portrayals of LGBT characters. The cartoon art allows the reader to relax into the story and just melt into the setting. I enjoyed spending time with Raina’s characters, and look forward to meeting some more when I pick up Smile.

Ms. Telgemeier’s website offers free webcomics and media, her blog, author appearance information, and a store.

 

Posted in Fiction, Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads

Darth Paper Strikes Back, by Tom Angelberger (Amulet, 2011)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
After reading Angelberger’s first book in his “Origami” series, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, I had to get the sequel. I am pleased to say that the sequel matches up to the original.

The McQuarrie Middle School gang is back, but the happy beginnings we saw at the end of Origami Yoda are nowhere to be found; to top it off, Harvey shows up at school with Darth Paper, his answer to Origami Yoda. In no time, Harvey’s managed to get Dwight suspended and under the threat of being sent to a special school for troubled children. Origami Yoda asks Tommy to put together another case file, this time, to show Dwight in a favorable light and get his suspension overturned. With Harvey threatening to throw a wrench in their work at every turn, can Tommy and his friends make everything right again – this time, without Origami Yoda’s advice?

If readers enjoyed Origami Yoda, they will enjoy Darth Paper Strikes Back. The book is written in the same fun, first-person style as the original, and the conflict with love-to-hate-him Harvey (and Darth Paper) adds a fun counterpoint to Origami Yoda’s sage advice while adding some unexpected depth to the book, particularly at the conclusion.
For more information about The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and author Tom Angleberger, you can see my original post.
 
 
Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Middle School, mythology, Tween Reads

Pandora Gets Jealous, by Carolyn Hennesy (Bloomsbury, 2008)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-13

Get ready for Mean Girls meets Clash of the Titans.

Pandora – Pandy to her friends – has no idea what to bring to school for her project on the gods’ presence in their lives. If she brings the piece of her dad, Atlas’, liver again, she’s totally going to fail. When she stumbles across a locked box hidden away, she knows she should not bring it. Her dad told her that she should never open it. But it would be perfect. When the mean girls at school tease her and tell her that the box is worthless, it somehow ends up being opened, and the seven evils escape into the world, and poor Hope ends up being locked in the box.

Zeus and Hera charge Pandora with tracking down and recapturing all of the evils she released in six phases of the moon, or else. Pandy sets off with her two best friends, Alcie and Iole, and a little stealth help from Olympus. Her first stop: Delphi, to recapture Envy.

Pandora Gets Jealous is the first in Ms. Hennesy’s Pandora series; each book features the evil that she and her friends must recapture. Aimed at girls, the writing starts off light, with Pandora appearing almost vapid, but the story becomes intense very quickly. The solid mythology in the book is a great way to bring these stories to a younger, female audience that may still see Greek mythology as something geared toward boys despite there being gods AND goddesses on Olympus. Like Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Ms. Hennesy makes Greek mythology contemporary for a new audience.

The author, actress Carolyn Hennesy, has a Pandora-focused website with a wealth of additional content on the series including teachers’ guides, book synopses, and a discussion forum.

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.