skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From Publisher's Weekly…
2016-17 LOE Lizard (middle school)
In this quick, witty novel, narrator Lucy and her bibliophile best friends Elena and Michael embark on a campaign of literary rebellion in an attempt to compel fellow students to read To Kill a Mockingbirdover the summer. Their plan? Hide copies of Harper Lee’s classic novel in local bookstores and libraries, which will promote a false sense of scarcity and increase demand. “It’s not stealing,” says Lucy in defense of the idea. “It’s shrinkage.” They also orchestrate an accompanying social media campaign, and before long the friends’ brand of “literary terrorism” has grown out of their control. Acampora (Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face) layers the novel with emotional nuance, as Lucy worries about her mother who recently beat cancer, and the friends contend with emerging romantic tension between Lucy and Michael. Strong characters bolster the narrative, including Elena’s outspoken indie bookstore owner Uncle Mort. This strong novel stands on its own as a testament to the power of reverse psychology, but will resonate with fans of the original Mockingbird and maybe inspire a few to check it out. Ages 10–14.
Hmmmmm…I think I like this one a little, but not a lot.
From Publisher's Weekly…
In her first book for children, Unsworth takes readers inside the sinister and secretive world of the Gabriel H. Penn Home for Childhood—a refuge for specially chosen orphans in a bleak, scorching, and none-too-distant future. Devin has spent his young life on a secluded farm, “a pocket of richness” in an otherwise dry wasteland, with his grandfather. After his grandfather dies, Devin leaves for the city in order to survive. There he meets Kit—a girl with a dark past and quick, thieving hands—and Roman, who lures them both to the Home. With a photographic mind and heightened senses, Devin immediately suspects foul play at the Home, despite its extravagance and the too-good-to-be-true amenities it has to offer. Unsworth unravels the story with skilled deliberation, creating a page-turning mix of suspense, intrigue, and anxiety. The kids are genuine and quirky, just the right kind of mismatched misfits to snag readers’ hearts. This is a wholly enjoyable journey, and a dystopian vision with some great new twists. Ages 10–up.
I thought this was just ok, but intriguing enough to keep me reading.
From Publisher's Weekly…
2000 Printz Honor Award
British novelist Almond makes a triumphant debut in the field of children's literature with prose that is at once eerie, magical and poignant. Broken down into 46 succinct, eloquent chapters, the story begins in medias res with narrator Michael recounting his discovery of a mysterious stranger living in an old shed on the rundown property the boy's family has just purchased: ""He was lying there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he'd been there forever.... I'd soon begin to see the truth about him, that there'd never been another creature like him in the world."" With that first description of Skellig, the author creates a tantalizing tension between the dank and dusty here-and-now and an aura of other-worldliness that permeates the rest of the novel. The magnetism of Skellig's ethereal world grows markedly stronger when Michael, brushing his hand across Skellig's back, detects what appears to be a pair of wings. Soon after Michael's discovery in the shed, he meets his new neighbor, Mina, a home-schooled girl with a passion for William Blake's poetry and an imagination as large as her vast knowledge of birds. Unable to take his mind off Skellig, Michael is temporarily distracted from other pressing concerns about his new surroundings, his gravely ill baby sister and his parents. Determined to nurse Skellig back to health, Michael enlists Mina's help. Besides providing Skellig with more comfortable accommodations and nourishing food, the two children offer him companionship. In response, Skellig undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis that profoundly affects the narrator's (and audience members') first impression of the curious creature, and opens the way to an examination of the subtle line between life and death. The author adroitly interconnects the threads of the story--Michael's difficult adjustment to a new neighborhood, his growing friendship with Mina, the baby's decline--to Skellig, whose history and reason for being are open to readers' interpretations. Although some foreshadowing suggests that Skellig has been sent to Earth on a grim mission, the dark, almost gothic tone of the story brightens dramatically as Michael's loving, life-affirming spirit begins to work miracles. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)
Well written and engaging, but an odd story!
From Publisher's Weekly...
Lucier strikes an appropriately sobering tone in her debut novel, about the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. Seventeen-year-old orphan Cleo Berry describes the gruesome day-to-day realities in Portland, Ore., as disease ravages her community, brought by contagious visiting soldiers. Resourceful and empathetic, Cleo joins the Red Cross volunteers, distributing informational pamphlets and masks, and seeing to "unattended cases," saving three lives on her first mission. With her brother and his pregnant wife stuck in San Francisco, Cleo befriends fellow volunteers at the transformed Public Auditorium, learns self-reliance, and assists in horrifying medical procedures, while discovering the ambition that aids in her will to survive. Lucier gracefully provides historical verisimilitude with references to bob haircuts, the spread of knowledge about birth control, wartime food shortages and inflation, and the traumatizing effects of the draft. Highly sympathetic characters, a solid sense of place, and the transformation of a city under siege by an invisible assailant result in a powerful and disturbing reading experience. Ages 12–up.
Very good…
From Publisher's Weekly…
Bestseller Bradley’s lively eighth Flavia de Luce novel (after 2015’s As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust) finds the preadolescent chemist and detective back at Buckshaw, her crumbling family estate in England, after being dishonorably discharged from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada. Her beloved father’s sickness taints homecoming, leaving moody Flavia to ward off a flock of pesky sisters. Welcome distraction comes when Flavia stumbles on the body of a local wood-carver strapped upside-down to a wooden contraption, flanked by a stack of children’s books by famed nonsense-versifier Oliver Inchbald. Flavia, who’s delighted to investigate under the eye of her old friend Inspector Hewitt, uncovers a backstory to the murder involving a man devoured by seagulls and a madcap Auntie Loo who dies scuba diving. Only the somewhat arbitrary final reveal disappoints. Child detectives can irritate, but Flavia’s a winner, a mix of sparky irreverence and wrathful propriety who evades the preciousness endemic to the species.
Another winner!
From Publisher's Weekly…
Fans of Louise Fitzhugh's iconic Harriet the Spy will welcome 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, the heroine of Canadian journalist Bradley's rollicking debut. In an early 1950s English village, Flavia is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters when a rude, redheaded stranger arrives to confront her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee. Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed, wacky village characters with ties to the schoolmaster, and a sharp inspector with doubts about the colonel and his enterprising young detective daughter mean complications for Flavia and enormous fun for the reader. Tantalizing hints about a gardener with a shady past and the mysterious death of Flavia's adventurous mother promise further intrigues ahead. (Apr.)
I had to re-read this after reading the 8th installment. Excellent! Love Flavia's character.
