Peter and the Star Catchers

Recommended grades 4-6.  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson attempt to answer the question, "How did Peter meet Captain Hook?"  in their prequel to J.M. Barrie's timeless tale of the boy who would never grow up, Peter and the Starcatchers (Hyperion, 2004).  In the first book of what is now a series, readers find Peter aboard a ship called the Neverland with fellow orphans, headed to be dropped in the hands of a loathsome Caribbean king.  On the way, Peter comes in contact with inexplicable magic that will change his fate forever.

Barry and Pearson craft a fun and fast-paced narrative, sure to keep readers entertained.  Published under Disney's publishing arm, the book has been optioned for a series sure to entertain fans of Pirates of the Caribbean and the many adaptations of Barrie's original work.  The authors provide convincing backstories while still allowing for the magic created by Barrie.  And for that, this Peter Pan fan is grateful.

Highly recommended, ****

Revolution

Recommended grades 7-10.  A love for all things historical pushed me to read Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution (Delacorte, 2010).  Donnelly draws from extensive research on the French Revolution and the family of Louis XVI to craft the dual narratives of 18th century actress-turned-radical-royalist Alexandrine and 21st century aficionado of teen-angst and musical theory Andi.

On the whole, the concept was fascinating.  Even those well-versed in French history can appreciate the depth of description and characterization of this most chaotic period.  The royalist perspective is rarely explored with such clear sympathy in the heroic narrative of liberté, egalité, fraternité.  


That said, the pace and flow of the novel left much to be desired.  Far too much time was spent on Andi's self-pitying diatribe, which even angsty teens themselves will be annoyed by.  In trying to speak for her audience, Donnelly may insult and alienate them.  There are so many aspects of this novel Donnelly may well have explored without wasting the vast majority of the novel on unmoving points and unconvincing relationships.

Ambivalent recommendation, ***

Russian Vampires

Recommended grades 7-12.  Duchess Katerina of Oldenburg has a lot on her plate.  She wants nothing more than to become a doctor, but in the high society of Tsarist Russia, she is expected to marry a prince. Her prince turns out to be anything but charming, as he comes from an evil family of sorcery and blood-drinking.  Author Robin Bridges recreates an imperial magic filled with magic; good and evil.  Katerina must choose a side to protect everything she cares about.  The Gathering Storm (Delacorte, 2012) is Twilight meets Anna Karenina.  Fans of Twilight will definitely want to check this out, but Twilight nay-sayers should check it out too.  Bridges carefully researched Russia and writes artfully.  The characters are true flesh and blood (no pun intended!).  Highly recommended, ****

Walk Two Moons

Recommended grades 4-6.  Salamanca Tree Hiddle has heard the American Indian proverb, "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins," so she, along with her grandma and grandpa, are walking in the moccasins of her mother, who left their family in their home of Bybanks of Kentucky and took a bus to Idaho.  Along the way, Salamanca shares the story of her friend, Phoebe, another girl left behind with no mother.  Walk Two Moons (Scholastic, 1994), is a story of friendship, forgiveness, and above all, family.  Sharon Creech brings to life an incredible cast of unforgettable characters; from Gram & Gramps Hiddle, who married because Gramps treated his beagle well, to Phoebe who frets about cholesterol and lunatics, and of course, Salamanca, who kisses trees to taste blackberries and find her mother's love.  Walk Two Moons is, and will remain, a timeless classic well worth its Newberry Medal and it's permanent place in library collections.  Highly recommended, *****.

Whole Story of Half a Girl

Recommended grades 5-7.  Sonia Nadhamuni is a girl of the 21st century-- half Indian, half Jewish, and completely conflicted.  The Whole Story of Half a Girl (Delacourt Books, 2012) is an excellent updated companion to Judy Bloom's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.  Like Margaret, Sonia inhabits the grey area between her parents' cultures.  When her father loses his job, Sonia must leave the comfort of her progressive private school to face public school.  There she is forced to choose a racial identify-- should she join the perky blond cheerleaders or align herself with the African-American students bussed from other neighborhoods?  Sonia is neither blond nor black, and is frustrated at having to identify as Jewish because her family is not religion.  Sonia faces the question that many young people face today-- with an over abundance of cultures, how can you pick and choose which to identify with?  Author Veera Hiranandani gives Sonia an eloquent and empathetic voice, and addresses sensitive issues with grace.  In addition to race and religion, Sonia reckons with her father's chronic depression, which tears him away from the family.  Overall an excellent, entertaining, intellectually stimulating YA novel that would complement any library collection. Highly recommended, ****.

Adventures in Cartooning

Recommended grades 3-5.  Comic artists James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost break down the art of comic-making in Adventures in Cartooning (First Second, 2009).  Sturm and company instruct on the form through the Magic Cartooning Elf, who accompanies a knight on a comic adventure to defeat a dragon.  Throughout, the Elf plays with aspects of comics, including panels, speech bubbles, and ways to express emotion through drawings.  The illustrations are simple enough for children to imitate (there are even step-by-step directions at the end), though the coloring adds shade and depth.  The artists behind the book clearly care a lot about demystifying comics and encourage readers to use the lessons learned to create their own stories.  Excellent for students who are interested in art and comic books, and even those who aren't will enjoy the fun characters and creative story-telling.  Highly recommended, *****.

Why We Broke Up

Recommended grades 7-12.  Why We Broke Up is the story of a boy and of a girl.  Min and Ed were a match made in... Shakespeare.  He is a jock and she is "arty."    Unlike Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Min and Ed escape the relationship with their lives, if not their pride, and with a box full of artifacts.  In order to get past the heartbreak, Min undertakes the project of returning the artifacts to Ed, along with a 200+ page letter tracing the roots of their breakup.  Author Daniel Handler (the man behind Lemony Snicket and his Series of Unfortunate Events) brings intelligence and tragedy in the voice of Min.  Female readers in particular will be able to empathize with the thrill of her first love and the devastation of the fall out.  Artist Maria Kalman contributes color paintings of each item as it appears in the letter.  The paintings bring the stories into life and out of abstraction.  The marriage of the text and the images forms a sentimental, heart-wrenching tale that almost all readers, tween, teen, and adult can relate to.  Highly recommended, ****

A Doll's Life

Recommended grades 7-10.  Tanya Lee Stone dives into the life of American Sweetheart, Barbie with her unauthorized 'biography, ' The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us (Viking, 2011).  Stone covers a variety of aspects about the doll everyone loves to hate and hates to love, from the story of her creator, Ruth Handler, to her own development in the last fifty years.  Stone also approaches many of the criticisms Barbie has faced over the years, from her impossible-to-achieve figure, to her Euro-centric hair texture, Stone does not shy away from controversy.  Stone makes her voice quite clear as a researcher, openly explains her interpretations of her sources, and offers the final decision up to her readers; is Barbie to blame for anorexia or to celebrate for encouraging professional women?  In addition to her open tone, Stone includes a detailed list of source notes at the end of the text as well has a brimming bibliography.  The book is filled with black and white photos illustrating Stone's many points and showing Barbie over time.  Additionally, Stone includes a color insert of photos that benefit from full color.  This book is not only informative, it also serves as an excellent conversation starter and a model of good research.  Highly recommended, ****.

Amelia Lost

Recommended Grades 6-9.  Candace Fleming brings us an eloquent and compassionate biography with Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Schwartz & Wade, 2011).  Narration of the infamous female aviator's life is broken up with small vignettes accounting her fateful crash on July 5, 1937.  Though the reader begins the story knowing what will happen, their heart will beat anyway with the beautifully executed narrative flow.  Meticulously researched and well-rounded, Fleming offers many perspectives and allows readers to question common myths about Amelia.  Fleming models historical best practice by openly analyzing her sources and questioning their intent for readers to consider.  She includes an in-depth bibliography and suggestions for further research.  The narrative is also broken up with contextual asides, which serve to inform the reader of technologies that existed in Amelia's time; from the planes she flew to the radio system that was ultimately her downfall.  Along with these contextual asides, Fleming includes captioned photographs of Amelia and the world she lived in--including an interesting look at advertising--so that readers can better understand the influences that surrounded Earhart. A new Amelia comes to light through Fleming's telling, and readers will walk away with a broader understanding of Amelia in her context.  Highly recommended, *****.

Prisoners in the Palace

Recommended Grades 8-12.  Queen Victoria is arguably one of the most well-known monarchs in Western Civilization.  She was the Queen of Great Britain when it was at it's peak of "the Sun Never Setting" and the longest ruling monarch in British history.  But what was her life like before she was the queen?  Michaela Macoll answers just this question in her well-researched historical fiction novel, Prisoners in the Palace (Chronicle Books, 2011).  It turns out, Victoria's life was shockingly similar to that of Cinderella's; she was greedily watched over by a vapid mother and evil stepfather (well, not truly stepfather, but her mother's consort), trapped in the palace doors, locked away from the rest of the world, in an attempt to influence and control her power.  Instead of singing mice and a fairy godmother, Victoria has Liza, the orphan of a knighted family down on her luck.  Liza, the true main character of the story, comes to terms with her dramatic fall from grace, while empowering the young princess to rise to her greatest heights.  Liza is fictional, though Macoll clearly put a great effort into making her, and the rest of the scenarios, as true to history as possible.  She includes excerpts from Victoria's diaries and letters, bringing to life a true teenage girl.  Overall, this is an entertaining, informative, and compassionate telling of British history.  Highly recommended, ****

Mockingjay

Recommended grades 6-9.  Katniss Everdeen is back in the final installment of the Hunger Games series, written by Suzanne Collins.  In Mockingjay (Scholastic, 2010), Katniss is thrown into the most dangerous game of all, actual war with the Capitol that has tortured its people for so long and killed so many of her friends.  As always Katniss is not alone, but she still can't always know who to trust as some of her closest allies are turned against her.  Collins has an artful way of putting concepts of loyalty and authority into question in a more caustic way than other young adult authors (J.K. Rowling comes to mind) have.  Though Katniss always has many people on her side, she is never quite sure who, and why.  Mockingjay serves as a satisfying conclusion to the series, though the writing and flow is a bit choppier than previous books.  Collins has made such a rich and open world filled with battles of epic proportion, though she doesn't always know how to transition between ideas.  Readers may put Katniss and her world to sleep after reading this book, though many will be hungry for more of Collins's writing.  Highly recommended, ****

Catching Fire

Recommended grades 6-9.  In the sequel to her bestselling novel, Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins brings us back to Katniss Everdeen's home in dystopic District 12.  Though Katniss has survived the deathly reality show she was forced to participate in in the first book, she is not out of the woods yet.  The second installment of Katniss's journey is every bit as exciting as the first, with romance soaring higher than ever and political intrigue waiting around every deadly corner.  Katniss continues to be a character to admire, and though she does not always stay ahead of her opponents she uses her skills, intelligence, and allies to pull through.  The audiobook performed by Carolyn McCormick leaves something to be desired. McCormick reads Katniss's voice a little stiffly, and as a result it could be harder for readers to connect.  Overall, Collin's second contribution to the Hunger Games trilogy is at least as strong, if not stronger, than the first.  Highly recommended, ****

For the Love of Music

Recommended grades 2-5.  Much is known about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy who has given the world much of our most beloved classical symphonies, but little is known about his sister, Maria, also considered a virtuoso in her time, and a great influence on Mozart's own composition.  Elizabeth Rusch brings the oft untold story of Maria in For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart (Tricycle Press, 2011).  Each movement in Maria's life is accompanied by a piece of the sonata structure - her childhood is labeled "The First Movement," her tour with Mozart called "Allegro" for it's fast pace.  Rusch's descriptions of the children are lively, many young readers may see some of their brothers and sisters in the text.  The characters and setting come to life with paintings and collages by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.  Figures are painted in paint so thick that you can see the texture of the brushstrokes, and the clothes they wear as well as the walls in their rooms are overlaid with period fabric.  Pianos and doors are made of handwritten musical notes on pages browned with age.  These techniques express the richness of the culture Maria Mozart inhabited.  This book would be a fabulous way to introduce young readers to classical music and musical composition.  Highly Recommended, ****.

The Hunger Games

Recommended Grades 6-9.  Katniss Everdeen charts her way through a dystopian world in Suzanne Collin's young adult novel, The Hunger Games (Scholastic 2008).  Katniss, a resident of District 12, a township in a post-apocolyptic North America is selected as a contestant in a nationally broadcast reality show in a ceremony ominously labeled the "Reaping."  Far from the emotional backstabbing of today's reality television challenges, the twenty-four teenage contestants of the "Hunger Games" must literally stab each other in the back, or kill them in some other way that will please audiences watching in the glittering Capitol.  With Katniss, Collins has created a brave and independent leading lady of emotional depth, and considerable skill.  In addition to fighting to survive, Katniss must also reckon with the forces many teenage girls can recognize; a dysfunctional family, a televised public image and a complicated love triangle.  In this way  The Hunger Games does what few YA books can do; it appeals to both boys and girls with heart-pounding adventure, breath-taking romance, and more than a hint of political subversion.  Highly recommended, ****.

Bloody Jack

Grades 6-8.  In L.A. Meyer's novel, Bloody Jack (Harcourt, 2004),  Mary "Jacky" Faber transforms herself into Bloody Jack Faber to escape her life in Dickensian London.  Orphaned on "The Dark Day" her parents were killed by "pestilence," young Mary survives on the streets, scrounging just enough to get by.  In search of a better life, Mary disguises herself as a boy and seeks out a job as a ship's boy on a naval vessel on its way to South America after French pirates.  All Mary is looking for is a square meal and a roof over her head, but she winds up with a lot more.  Part Treasure Island, part Twelfth Night, and a dash of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Jacky faces not only pirates and scalawags, but also her first period.  At times Jacky's narrative in 'mockney' is a little cumbersome, and may be challenging for some readers, but at it's best it adds playfulness to the character.  Full of fun and adventure, this book also alludes to very some very adult themes.  Overall, Mary "Jacky" Faber will appeal to both boys and girls, just as she is able to slip between the genders with artful costumes. And if you can't get enough of this saucy, sea-faring lass, she continues her adventures in a series of eight further books (so far!).  Recommended, ***