The Marvels

From Publisher's Weekly…
NM Battle of the Books 2016-2017

Selznick imagines an alternate backstory for a real English tourist attraction, the Dennis Severs’ House: 10 meticulously curated rooms that suggest what life might have been like for a family of Huguenot silk weavers in 18th-century London. The first 500 pages are double-page pencil drawings that (almost) wordlessly tell the story of the Marvel family, beginning with a 1766 shipwreck and following successive generations as they gain fame in London’s theater community. As he did in his Caldecott Medal–winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Selznick uses a telescoping point of view with great success, bringing the audience effortlessly from the general to the specific, from wide shot to close-up. The next 200 pages are prose, jumping forward to 1990 when a boy named Joseph Jervis has run away from boarding school in search of an uncle he has never met. Uncle Albert, who lives in a home maintained in much the same way as the Dennis Severs’ House, has been reclusive ever since losing his “beloved” to AIDS, but Joseph and the neighbor girl he befriends, Frankie, refuse to stay away. Viewed narrowly, it’s a love letter to the Dennis Severs’ House, but readers won’t need preexisting knowledge of the museum to enjoy this powerful story about creating lasting art and finding family in unexpected places. 

This is a beautiful story!

THe Spy Goddess Live and Let Shop

From Amazon…

After running into trouble with the law, a teenager with an attitude is sent to a boarding school with a big secret

Even though it wasn’t Rachel’s idea to steal the car, she was happy to go along for the ride. But when her so-called friends bolt as soon as the cops show up, they leave Rachel to take the rap. In court, the judge takes pity on the Beverly Hills bad girl, and offers her a choice: thirty days in juvie, or a year at Blackthorn Academy. Rachel chooses the boarding school. After all, how bad could it be?

Cut into the side of a Pennsylvania mountain, Blackthorn is weirder than Rachel could ever have imagined. The students take Tae Kwon Do instead of gym, there are guardhouses on the edge of campus, and there’s a secret Top Floor that only certain students are allowed to access. Despite Blackthorn’s mysteries, Rachel is starting to fit in. She likes her roommate and her classmates, and even the all-knowing headmaster, Mr. Kim. But when Mr. Kim disappears, Rachel learns a secret about Blackthorn Academy—and herself—that will change her life forever.

Cute! Lots of action and attitude!

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

From Publisher's Weekly…

Sonnenblick's insightful debut novel charts the way a talented 13-year-old drummer's life changes when his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey, is diagnosed with leukemia. Steven, whose story unfolds through his journals for English class, was the first drummer ever admitted into the All-City High School Band in the seventh grade, and this year, as an eighth grader, his future looks even brighter. After Jeffrey is diagnosed with cancer, his mother must spend more time taking Jeffrey to treatment and the family's finances begin to suffer; Steven takes refuge in the basement, practicing the drums for hours. The author perceptively records the struggle within Steven to lash out against his parents for feeling neglected and to feel compassion for his brother, as well as the normal adolescent concerns, including overlooking childhood friend Annette ("It's like she's figured out how to play [piano] like Beethoven and Thelonious Monk but hasn't quite mastered the art of being a girl yet"), who clearly has a crush on him, in favor of unattainable girl-next-door Renee. The journal structure is not always entirely believable, but Steven's thoughts and feelings are (after his mother returns from one of Jeffrey's treatments, Steven has an epiphany: "I realized without any shadow of a doubt that she would have done the same for me"). Readers may well feel inspired by the teen's gradual growth over the course of the novel, and drummers especially will enjoy this insider's view. Ages 12-up.

Excellent, funny and sad….

The Fourteenth Goldfish

From Publisher's Weekly…

Middle school doesn’t start smoothly for 11-year-old Ellie, whose best friend finds her passion (volleyball) and new teammates to eat lunch with, while Ellie flounders, uninterested in sports or her parents’ avocation, theater. A startling addition to the household helps Ellie get her groove back when Grandpa Melvin, a scientist, moves in after engineering a cure for aging (the regenerative properties of jellyfish are involved) and transforming himself into a teenage boy. Though Melvin dresses and acts like the crotchety old man he was, he and Ellie bond over spirited discussions about Jonas Salk, Robert Oppenheimer, the possibilities of science, and the moral questions scientific advances can raise. Though the subject matter has a lot of intellectual heft, the writing has Holm’s ever-present light touch. The small cast, which refreshingly includes divorced parents who treat each other respectfully, is so well realized that the farfetched aspects of the plot seem almost plausible. This is top-notch middle-grade fiction with a meaty dilemma, humor, and an ending that leaves room for the possibility of a sequel. Ages 8–12.

I thought this was ok…I liked the science aspect.