Review: All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't express how much I love Perry T. Cook! In All Rise For the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Perry is an eleven year old boy who has spent his entire life living in a prison. He was born there, and through the help of a progressive warden, has been allowed to stay with his mother who was incarcerated shortly before his birth. Perry goes to a regular school, has rules, completes chores, and has a family within the prison walls. When the DA discovers the set up at Blue River Prison, he doesn't like it and takes Perry out of there immediately--to live with him and his family. Although the DA, Tom, has promised to help Perry in any way he can, it doesn't take Perry long to figure out that if he wants to be back with his mom, he'll have to rely on himself.

The characters in this book are amazingly well written. Not only is Perry a thoughtful, inquisitive kid, but he's learning how to stand up for himself. He has many people who are on his side and willing to help. But he needs to learn how to speak out now, speak up for what is right.

We also get hear from his mother's perspective throughout. Her chapters are short and spread out. They allow us to see Blue River Prison from the inside, even when Perry isn't there anymore. We see the loving mother of a boy. A mother who does everything she possibly can to protect and fight for her boy.

One character who really intrigued me was the DA, Tom. Although he is painted as the villain, he's not truly one. He's a man who really believes that he is doing the right thing and trying to correct a wrong. Only he is very misguided in his attempts.

I strongly urge you to read this book. It has made its way onto my Book Club list for next year and will also be book talked!

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Book Review: Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon

Camo Girl
Kekla Magoon
Aladdin, 2012
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Diverse Reads, Middle Grade, Being Yourself
Rating: 4 out of 5

Ella has been friend with Z forever.  He was there for her when she needed it the most and pulled her out of her darkness.  Even though being friends with Z is difficult, especially as he sinks more and more into his own dark world, Ella can't leave him behind.  So she endures.  They are a pair--a pair who get made fun of on a regular basis.  Ella gets made fun of because she is the only black girl at her school and her face is covered with patches of different colors.  Z is made of fun because he acts weird--very weird.  When a new boy arrives at school, Ella is ecstatic because he too is black.  She's finally going to have someone who is like her! Only now it seems like she has to make choice between Z, the friend who was always there for her and desperately needs her now, or Bailey, the friend who likes, really likes her. 

There were parts of Camo Girl that were difficult to read because my heart was just breaking.  It broke so much for Ella.  She is a lucky girl.  Although her father recently died from cancer, she lives with a grandmother who encourages her to stand up and be the strong girl she sees, and a mother who loves her so very much.  She has a friend in Z like none other--but she knows that something isn't right with him now.  And Ella's other friend has abandoned her because Z is too weird and all the other kids know it too, but she's trying so hard to help him, to keep things normal for him and for her.  Then, when she does try to do something without Z, it breaks both of them because Ella doesn't know how to explain it to him so he will understand--if he can understand.

Through all of this, Ella is trying so hard to accept who she is, but she can't.  She does her best to go through her day without looking the mirror.  She doesn't want to see herself and be reminded of the way she looks.  Every day she is reminded by the bullies in her school who call her "Camo Girl" and trip her while she walks by.  Every day she remembers what Z did for her on the day her father died and she cannot abandon him--not like everyone else has.

This book is about acceptance, not so much acceptance of others, although that is here.  It's about accepting oneself and accepting the truth.  It takes a lot of Ella to accept the truth about Z and take the steps needed to help him--but will it be too late?

I definitely recommend Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon.  It's in my classroom library and has already flown off the shelf!  Definitely a great read for middle schoolers as they try to find themselves in this world and accept who they are.  It's a clean read that deals with real life issues kids face in a realistic and authentic way.

Book Review: The Seventh Wish

The Seventh Wish

Kate Messner
Bloomsbury USA Children's, 2016
Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Family, Drug Abuse
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

All Charlie wants is a new Irish dance dress for her upcoming competition--and a little more attention from her parents.  This year is a little rough because her sister Abby just started college and Charlie is used to having her there.  With her next door neighbor and his grandma, she starts ice fishing in hopes of selling the fish to earn money for her dress.  When she catches her first fish it's small and calls out to her to release it in exchange for a wish.  Charlie wishes, not expecting anything to happen, but when her wish does come true it's not exactly the wish she had wanted.  Willing to try again, Charlie starts making wishes to help her friends, but they aren't exactly working.  Then her sister comes home from college and things are suddenly pulled out from under Charlie when she finds out that Abby is battling a drug addiction.  Can her wishes help cure her sister and make everything the way it used to be? 

I loved this book.  Charlie is your typical middle school student.  She is focused on school and dance and wants more of her parents' attention.  When her dance competition is pushed aside for her parents' work and personal commitments, she accepts it, but she's not happy about it.  She wants to be with her friends and do a good job on her science project.  When Charlie and her parents discover that Abby is addicted to heroin, life gets harder.  Now instead of spending Sundays working on her science project and going to dance class, Charlie is at Abby's rehab for visitors' day.  Instead of worrying about dance and homework, she's worrying about if her sister will get better.

This book is a great look at what it's like to have a family struggling with an addiction.  It's not just Abby struggling; her entire family is having a hard time as well.  Charlie is embarrassed to tell her friends what's going on and she's having problems getting her homework done on the weekends.  Another dance competition is coming up and she desperately wants to go, but she won't be able to if Abby is still in rehab.  Her parents are trying to get insurance to pay for the program that Abby is in and everyone is trying to understand how this happened.

Kate Messner has taken a very serious and difficult topic and woven it into Charlie's life.  Ultimately this book isn't about drug addiction, but about a girl who really wants a new dress for dance so she can move up to the next level.  It's about Charlie, who is trying to wish all the bad stuff away for her friends and herself and realizing that it doesn't really work that way.

Abby's addiction is presented in a way that is appropriate for middle grade readers and it's very likely that kids will relate to what Charlie experiences as they see family members who struggle with different addictions.  I think it's extremely important that kids see themselves in what they read, and these are, unfortunately, experiences that some kids have.  They need those reflections in literature.  It's definitely a book I'll be sharing with my 6th graders this year as I use it for a Read Aloud in the fall.

Sunday Status

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading and what I'm thinking about it as I go along.

~At Home~

The Forbidden Orchid

Sharon Biggs Waller

Viking, 2016

Source: I won this copy from Brittany at Please Feed the Bookworm

Genre: historical fiction, young adult

I'm not too far in, just about 70 pages or so, but I'm enjoying this book.  Set in the 1860s, Elodie's father gets paid to travel to far off places in search of rare and expensive plants and flowers.  But now he hasn't come home. Something terrible happened to him on his last trip and although they know he is okay, Elodie and her family have not heard from him.  The last thing he ever gave them was an orchid, beautiful and enticing, but also not appropriate for a young woman to set her eyes on and now Elodie is in danger of losing it--her one last connection to her father.  I don't know what happens next, but I do know (based on the Goodreads synopsis) that she will travel to China to help her father find another rare flower.  I really like Elodie so far and have already laughed out loud a few times at her wit and her fire.  She's smart and realizes that the men of her time are not as smart as she is, but she's being forced to play dumb and innocent in order to help her family and keep them together.  But at times it all just slips out.  

~At School~

Since You've Been Gone

by Morgan Matson

Simon & Schuster, 2014

Source: purchased

Genre: realistic fiction, young adult, friendship

Where have I been?  I'm absolutely loving this book.  I was going to bring it home and try to finish it this weekend, but I forgot it as school!  ARGH!  I am loving how the main character Emily is so anxious.  Okay, no that came out wrong.  I don't love that she's anxious--I don't wish that on a person.  What I love is that I can completely and totally connect to her anxiety.  Emily barely speaks to others because she's so shy, and the thoughts that run through her head during a conversation (which are painful most of the time) could have been my inner monologue as a high schooler and college student.  And even now, when I'm 34.  I hope my conversations aren't as painful as hers, but the inner monologue of "What in the world did I just say?" is dead on.  

I'm loving this book.  Can't wait to finish it this week!

Goodreads synopsis

~Listening To~

Orbiting Jupiter
Gary D. Schmidt
Narrator: Christopher Gebauer
Recorded Books, 2015
Source: purchased
Genre: realistic fiction, young adult, family

Audiobooks usually take me a bit longer to get through because I save them for when I walk outside, but I've been doing a lot of walking as of late due to the lovely weather.  Thank goodness because I haven't had to wait too long to find out what's going on with Jack and Joseph.  Jack's family has decided to foster an 8th grade boy named Joseph, and for sixth grader Jack, this is a big change for him.  He lives on an organic farm and has always been an only child.  He's a good kid.  No one would say that for Joseph, who was kicked out of his first home for trying to kill a teacher after he took some drugs, got in many fights in his detention center, and is the father of a little girl named Jupiter.  And the way most adults treat Joseph is that he's already so bad that he doesn't deserve their time.  MOST adults.  There are some absolutely wonderful adults that come into Joseph's life when he moves with Jack's family, most importantly Jack's parents.

I only have an hour left of this audio and it's breaking my heart.  I have so many thoughts and feelings about it already and it's only building more and more.  I'll have to save more of my thoughts and feelings for when I write a review.  Absolutely heartbreaking.

Goodreads synopsis

Book Review: The Thing About Jellyfish

The Thing About Jellyfish (Audiobook)
Ali Benjamin
Read by Sarah Franco
Little, Brown and Company, 2015
Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Grief
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

~What It's About~

Suzy has made a resolution not to speak after her best friend--former best friend--died in a tragic drowning accident over summer break.  She has been told that "sometimes these things just happen" but Suzy will not accept that and becomes obsessed with the idea that her friend, Franny, may have died from a jellyfish sting.  Delving into research on jellyfish and how to prove her theory is correct, Suzy is also tackling her first year in middle school while not speaking.  This story is about Suzy dealing with her grief, but also about changing friendships.

~The Good~

Ali Benjamin tells Suzy's story through the scientific process, introducing chapters as different parts in a science experiment because that's how she's able to deal with processing Franny's death.  She needs to have a reason that makes sense for why Franny died.  Woven throughout are flashbacks to the story of Suzy and Franny's friendship and how they grew together throughout the years and then eventually how they grew apart.  Not only is Suzy dealing with the grief of the actual death of her friend, but she's still not understanding how their friendship died before that moment.  The way Ali Benjamin deals with Suzy's grief is delicately, opening up one little piece of her heart at time. She allows not only the reader to fully understand what happened, but it allows Suzy to understand too.

Suzy has some great help along the way.  She finds kindred spirits in unexpected people who help her just by being there and allowing her to be silent.  That's also something I appreciated.  Suzy's choice to not speak is disturbing and upsetting to her parents, and although she knows they love her, Suzy really just wants them to understand.  Which they don't--not due to any fault of their own.  Without meaning too, though, she finds others who do understand--or at least accept.  They just accept her silence and still speak with her and interact with her.

Friendship and its complexities is at the heart of this novel, which is so important for a middle grade book.  Friendships become more complex when kids start moving up into middle school and it's a difficult path to wade through for kids.  Our journey with Suzy attempts to untangle and understand what went wrong and how to accept it.

Audio: Sarah Franco, brought Suzy to life.  Her performance of the novel and the voice of Suzy presented us with a girl who isn't sure of herself or anything really anymore.  She showed us a girl who is trying to understand the world, but just doesn't get it--and is hurt that it doesn't quite get her.  Her performance really made the audio.

~The Not-So-Good~

I can't find anything to be bothered with about this book.  I enjoyed it!  I really enjoyed it.  And it even forced me to go on a walk a few days when I didn't want to so that I could hear more from Suzy.

~Final Thoughts~

The Thing About Jellyfish is heartbreaking and beautiful.  If you have a 5th-8th grader I think they would very much enjoy and relate to this story.  Even if you don't have a child of that age, read it.  Remind yourself of what it's like to be different and to just want people to understand you, so you can understand the world.

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When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

by Kimberly Willis Holt

Scholastic

1999

I really had no expectations for When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt.  I picked it up because a few of my students had read it this past year.  Going in, I didn’t remember at all what it was about when I reached it on my list the other day.  I didn’t even bother reading the back.  That being said, I still felt a little disappointed.

We meet Toby hanging out with his best friend Cal during the summer in a small town in Texas.  They are lining up to see the most interesting thing to happen in their town in years.  A trailer has pulled up and a man is charging two dollars to see the world’s largest boy.  Toby and Cal eventually end up developing an odd and somewhat strained friendship with “the world’s largest boy” Zachary Beaver, but it’s just one more thing for Toby to worry about this summer.

This small Texas town seemed filled with people.  There are so many characters it become confusing.  We of course have Toby and his best friend Cal, and also Toby’s father, important characters who could have used a bit more filling out.  Zachary Beaver is also an important character whose appearance seems to be a catalyst for a lot of Toby’s realizations.  Then we have the following minor characters: Miss Myrtie Mae is the town librarian and cares for her senile brother; Ferris owns the bowling alley/restaurant; Wylie Womack doesn’t speak anymore and runs the snow cone place; Katy is Cal’s sister and her role becomes more important after she obtains her drivers license; Toby’s crush Scarlett is in a relationship with Juan, and she has a bratty little sister who annoys Toby.  Plus, we have the sheriff, the reverend, Cal’s parents, and his brother Billy.  So many characters!  This story also has two important non present characters—Toby’s mother and Cal’s brother.  Toby’s mom is off in Nashville this summer pursuing her dream of becoming a country music star, and Cal’s brother Wayne is fighting in Vietnam.  No one really gets to be more than a shell of a character and the actions of characters seem to come out of nowhere since we never really get to know them.

For example, Toby learns that his mom isn’t coming back home after she loses a music contest—in fact, she’s not coming home anytime soon.  Toby seems like a smart kid, but he doesn’t get this until half way through the book.  It’s obvious to the other characters in the book that she isn’t coming back, and they allow Toby to lie to them about why his mom isn’t home yet.  They know the truth but let him lie—even his father.  I can understand this as Toby attempts to deal with his parents splitting up.  What I don’t understand is when an even bigger tragedy, a death, affects Cal, why Toby stops being Toby.  He doesn’t speak to Cal, he hides from him, and refuses to go to any of the services, even after his father has lectured him and warned him.  I didn’t expect this from Toby.  It didn’t make sense for his character to act like this. 

We also had Zachary Beaver, a key character in the book who is extremely negative and closed off, lying about the places he has been, creating up stories about his travels.  He is secretive and sarcastic.   It’s easy to understand why he acts this way based on how his life has been so far.  What isn’t easy to understand is the baptism Toby and Cal give him at the end of the book.  They have decided that this is what Zachary wants, even though he has never said it and refuses to talk about it when Cal brings it up.  How exactly did they come to this conclusion?  I’m not sure.  When the boys plan it and “surprise” him with one, he goes—rather easily.  Where did that come from?  It’s explained that because it’s private and down at the lake that he’s okay with it now—but it still doesn’t sit right with me. 

A lot of this novel just didn’t make sense to me.  I felt like characters were never really fleshed out enough to understand their decisions or actions.  It seemed like it was more of a matter of convenience, and all these contrived events lead up to a blasé ending in which Zachary leaves unceremoniously, Toby goes to visit his mom, and all the issues of the summer have been nicely cleaned up and resolved.  

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

Dutton Books

2012

The Fault in Our Stars is a story about many things.  It’s about love and loss, yes, but it’s also about so much more.  Hazel and Augustus are just teenagers, yet already deciding who they are and what mark they will leave on the world.  Will it be a heroic and inspiring legacy they leave in which the universe will remember them?  Or will it be a hurtful and selfish stain thrown on humanity that keeps their memory alive?  Or when they leave this world, will the memories of them also fade?

Hazel has known she will die for years now.  Diagnosed with terminal cancer, she has been given a gift in the form of a drug trial that has managed to keep her tumors from growing.  She goes through her teenage life carting around an oxygen tank, watching America’s Next Top Model, and devouring her favorite novel An Imperial Affliction over and over again.  When she meets Augustus, a cancer survivor who lost his leg as a side effect, her life changes. 

Although this book is full of death and Hazel’s focus on death could be incredibly depressing, it doesn’t feel like your typical cancer book.  Hazel is not a character out of a Lurlene McDaniel book, positive all the time, with inspiring goals and an I-can-do-this attitude.  She is bleak about her life and honest about her fears of hurting everyone around her.  She tries to minimize the inevitable pain by making as few connections as possible.  This isn’t done in a loving and selfless way.  Instead this fear is about herself, about what type of person that makes her if she allows others to be hurt by her death.  She is a whiny teenager, arguing with her parents, annoyed by their hovering, and desperately trying to keep herself out of a relationship with Augustus.  Small spoiler:  they get together.

All the characters in this novel are lovely.  They are real.  Hazel, Augustus, and their friend Isaac talk openly and honestly about the people in their lives and how much it truly sucks to have cancer.  I appreciated this.  You see their flaws, but love them all the same.  And your heart breaks along with theirs. 

The most intriguing thing about An Imperial Affliction, the book with which Hazel and Augustus are obsessed is the way it ends, without an ending at all really—the main character just stops midsentence.  Hazel is haunted by this, needing to know, not what happened to Anna, the main character (it’s obvious that this character has died) but what happens to everyone else.  Are they okay?  Do they move on?  Are they happy?  This all reflects back on Hazel’s own fear of hurting her family and friends by dying and leaving them behind.  She refers to herself as a grenade that will tear everyone near her apart, and she needs the assurance of An Imperial Affliction’s author to give her that.

There is so much I want to say about this book.  The language is so beautiful, and although in most circumstances I would roll my eyes at the words these teenagers use, it’s believable here.  It’s obvious that Hazel is very smart and she devours books, so it makes sense that she would speak with such verbosity and confidence.  There were moments when I had to pause and go back and read a line or paragraph because it was so beautifully written that it deserved another look. 

I was taken by this book and angry at it as well.  What I assumed when I started reading the novel did not happen and as soon I realized what would happen in this book, I was so incredibly angry.  The characters are written so well and we become so attached to them and we think we are prepared for the worst.  In fact, the entire book has been set up to prepare us, to ease us into the inevitable.  Instead we’re blindsided with reality and it crushes.  I’m not sure if I feel tricked or not.  I’m not sure if I really like this novel for doing this, for eliciting such emotion, or if I feel as if John Green and I had an agreement and then he broke it.  I guess I feel a little bit like Hazel and Augustus when they finish reading An Imperial Affliction.  Cheated.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan will pull you into the world of Willow Chance.  Willow has just started middle school, been accused of cheating, started seeing a counselor, and may have just made a friend.  With a love for botany, studying diseases, and the number 7, Willow knows she is different from her peers, but it doesn’t matter since she has loving and caring parents—both of whom die in a car accident, leaving Willow alone.  In come a small army of people to help Willow, people no one would imagine to have helped her before—some of whom she didn’t even know until now.  Her counselor, a Vietnamese family, and a taxi driver, band together for Willow’s sake as she navigates her new life.  What Willow doesn’t know is how much she can help them.

                Just as the characters in Willow’s life are drawn to this strange little girl, the reader is also compelled to care for her.  We get to see Willow as herself before her parents die, somewhat lost in early adolescence, but happy and content with the things she loves.  Even here, when she’s happy, we’re cringing along with her mother when Willow announces that she’ll wear her tan gardening outfit and red hat on the first day at her new middle school.  We already want Willow to do well at her school and we know that it will be impossible for her to fit in. Our heart breaks with hers as she tells us that the old her might have taken delight in the instances of 7, but she doesn’t do that anymore….

                I was put off by the character of her counselor, Dell Duke.  He is written to be an unlikable character. He categorizes his students into different degrees of the strange, never thinks anything through, is easily pushed around by a high school student, and is selfish.  He seems more childish than Willow; however he does have redeemable qualities and he tries, but I still could not get over my dislike of him—even by the end of the book. 

Holly Goldberg Sloan’s Willow Chance is a wonderfully written character.  She has immersed us in rich characters who are believable with real flows, yet for the most part we love them all.  Make sure you keep Kleenex nearby, however, as this was tear jerker thought the entire book.

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

May 23, 2014--
I know it's a bit early, but I already finished one of the books on my summer reading list!  


Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage is a page turner. Eleven year old Mo LeBeau, whose arrival in Tupelo Landing was a mystery in itself, is a founding member of the Desperado Detectives, along with her best friend Dale Earnhardt Johnson III.  Mo and Dale have a lot on their plates this summer as they search for missing cats and Mo's Upstream Mother who sent her floating down river during the worst hurricane ever eleven years ago.  Add to that the arrival of a big city detective and soon after a murderer.  There's a whole lot of mystery out there and Mo is going to find out the truth behind it all.

Mo is a fun character to read.  She's bright and to the point, sometimes telling others exactly what they don't want to hear, even they need to hear it.  Her friendship with Dale is open and feels like it really exists.  Sheila Turnage has done a great job developing these two characters and building a friendship that survive sworn enemies, missing cats, a murderer, and Mo's big mouth.  This is a great adventure that will pull in readers as they try to figure out who the murderer is and so much more!

Enjoy!!