Tag: middle grade

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Last month I reviewed a Newbery winner which fascinated me with its intricate puzzle mystery. When You Reach Me is based on another complicated mystery, which, if I tell you the type of puzzle it is at its core, I would ruin the ending for you. So let’s just use the broad genre of science fiction to label it.

Synopsis

Written in 2009 but set in the 1970s, When You Reach Me reads like a vintage novel. Miranda is in sixth grade, lives in New York City, and Sal has been her best friend since before they learned how to talk. But when Sal gets punched by a kid for no apparent reason, he refuses to have anything more to do with Miranda. She’s hurt, but gradually finds some new friends.

Life would be okay, but mysterious things begin to happen. Her hidden emergency key is stolen. A shoe goes missing. And she receives cryptic notes from someone who knows an awful lot about her. The notes leave her thinking that tragedy could be heading her way. By the time she solves the puzzle from the notes, she might be too late to save a friend’s life.

Pros

1. Rebecca Stead had my brain whirring with possibilities from page two through the rest of the book until the satisfying final reveal. Does Miranda’s mother get hurt? Why does Miranda never want to remember the last six months of her life?
2. The chapters are titled as if they are topics on The $20,000 Pyramid TV game show, which is a fabulous detail to integrate into the setting, and highly entertaining for me.
3. Through Miranda’s new friendships, the author touches on current issues of the era, and does so in such a manner that young readers learn a great deal of the culture while they are immersed in story.

Cons

1. The average reader might get lost with so many clues to follow when none of them make sense. Rebecca Stead gives nothing away until the “veil” is lifted from Miranda’s eyes. And then it ALL makes sense.
2. Some parents may be uncomfortable with Miranda’s living situation. Her mom is single, and Mom’s boyfriend is in their home a lot. The author doesn’t specifically say he spends the night, but he does keep clothes in the apartment. They do plan to marry at the end of the book.

Discussion Questions

1. Marcus had punched Miranda’s best friend for no apparent reason. Why did she end up being Marcus’s friend?
2. If you had a friend with Annemarie’s health problems, what would you do to be helpful?
3. Miranda didn’t like Julia for a long time. What changed?
4. Is there someone in your class that you don’t like? Do you think you could change the situation for the better?
5. Who is the homeless old man?

Conclusion

Discussion question #5 will inform you if your child understood the story or not. And the answer will give him or her plenty to reflect upon regarding how people treat one another.

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The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game is a mystery, or more accurately, a puzzle-mystery as described in the author’s own words. With sixteen characters, each with their own point-of-view, the challenge of solving the mystery ranks on par with the difficulty level of a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

As an avid reader, I hate to waste my time rereading any story. There are so many books, and I have so little time! But The Westing Game has joined the exclusive club of Second Reads in Linda’s Library. In fact, because of the complicated puzzle, as soon as I read the last page, I turned to the front of the book and started over. I wanted to discover all the clues I had missed in the first reading. I’ve never done that before.

Synopsis

Sam Westing, the reclusive multi-millionaire, has been murdered. Sixteen heirs are invited to a reading of the will, which, in reality, is a contest. Whoever can solve the puzzle of Westing’s death inherits his estate. His lawyer provides the clues, a few at a time. Without mentioning every possible heir, the characters include perky and angry preteen Turtle to the morose, sixty-something Crow, from an African-American judge to the doorman of the apartment where most of the sixteen live. How one of them is able to solve the puzzle becomes an exercise in fascination. And how all sixteen characters grow in kindness and love toward one another warms the heart.

Pros

1. An excellent mystery is a pro in itself. If I can’t predict the outcome until the last page or two, the author has succeeded with flying colors. I was able to solve the major clues early on, yet couldn’t solve the entire puzzle-mystery.

2. The story is full of surprises along the way. I love surprises!

Cons

1. The head-hopping with sixteen POVs was disconcerting. But I got used to it and started to enjoy it.

2. The puzzle is awfully complex for a middle-grader to follow. I kept returning to previous pages and checked specific clues to keep track of the story. During an earlier era of my life (before my motto of “relentlessly eliminate hurry”), I had started this book and set it down because I didn’t have the leisure of mulling over the possibilities. I’m so glad I took the time to enjoy it now.

Discussion Questions

While there are dozens of questions one could ask regarding each clue, let’s skip to the end and see if your child knows the answers.

1. Who was Sam Westing?
2. When did Sam Westing die?
3. Who received the inheritance?
4. Why did Sam Westing create this crazy puzzle-mystery in the first place? (Hint: several possible answers would be acceptable which involve the man’s character as well as the integrity of the sixteen heirs.)

Conclusion

Just to whet your inquisitive appetite, I’ll leave you with some of the questions I came up with as I read.

1. Plain, grain, skies, brother?
2. Is Grace a Wexler, a Windkloppel, or a Westing?
3. Who else plays chess?
4. Will Angela die like Violet died?
5. Is Otis Amber a nut or a genius?

Happy reading!

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Rocky Road by Rose Kent

My local library had the foresight to carry several novels with deaf characters for children and teens.  Rocky Road is one of them. In the coming months, I will be including additional reviews as part of a “Deaf Series.”

Synopsis

Tess Dobson has always rolled with the punches that make up her life. Her dad left years ago,  her little brother, Jordan, is deaf, and her mom is a bit wild and crazy. Take, for instance, their sudden move from San Antonio, Texas, to Schenectady, New York.  Mom thinks the schools up north can help Jordan. The family has no money, but Tess’s mother plans to start up an ice cream shop in the middle of the winter. And they’re living in a run-down, old people’s community.

Tess manages to start some new friendships in the middle of seventh grade, keep up with her ASL practice for her brother, get to know some of her elderly neighbors, and help her mom with the preparations for the ice cream parlor. As Mom’s bipolar behavior intensifies, Tess learns that the family’s survival doesn’t depend on Tess.

Pros

  1. All the characters, no matter how quirky, are lovable and to be admired.
  2. With the main character’s southern personality, the down-home, Texas sayings that come out of her mouth make for a fun read.

Cons

While I think of this story as realistic fiction, it’s really not. The characters are almost caricatures. I have never met real people like Tess, her mom, and her friends. That said, there’s nothing wrong with making characters larger than life when the author wants to point out specific traits or actions that readers are encouraged to emulate. In Rocky Road’s case: be a friend and accept individual differences in the people around you.

Discussion questions

  1. Tess knows she can’t talk her mom out of moving, so she decides to make the best of a bad situation. How would you have reacted in the same circumstances?
  2. Why did Mom want to move?
  3. At what point in the story could you tell Mom probably needed medical help?
  4. If you had a brother or sister who was deaf, would you learn sign language?

Conclusion

The book jacket’s final line encapsulates the novel: “This moving story of family, community, and ice cream proves that with a little help from the people around us, life really can be sweet—and a little nutty—just like Rocky Road.” Which is why I loved this book.

 

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M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton

Synopsis

Set in Appalachia of northern Kentucky along the Ohio River,  M.C. Higgins is the oldest son in an African American family, proud of his great grandmother’s mountain and proud of his skills as a swimmer, a hunter-tracker, and how he can shimmy up his forty-foot steel pole to view the hills. Then two strangers enter his domain. The first might be able to make M.C.’s mother a famous singer. The second is a girl who lives the kind of freedom M.C. never considered aiming for.

Over all of them, hover the age-old superstitions handed down through the generations and the brewing storm of strip miners laying bare Sarah’s Mountain. M.C. will soon need to make a choice: stay on his mountain as the coal industry destroys it, or move off the mountain and join the modern world.

Pros

  1. The setting may be more of a main character than M.C. Higgins. Virginia Hamilton’s descriptive imagery is superb.
  2. Readers will gain a solid sense of the culture that has inhabited Appalachia for centuries.
  3. While this is a coming-of-age story during a specific era in a specific setting, it goes beyond race bias and evil coal mine owners. This is M.C.’s story and what happens between him and his parents, between him and his siblings, and between him and the strangers who visit his mountain.

Cons

  1. The setting may be more of a main character than M.C. Higgins. Hamilton’s descriptive imagery and literary style will cause the average juvenile reader to close the book by page 10. I was a voracious reader as a child, but this book would not have held my interest. I would have skipped all the amazing prose to get to the action.
  2. The relationship between M.C. and his father bothered me. They loved each other, respected one another, but the way each challenged the other bordered on generating feelings of hate and disrespect.

Conclusion

M.C. Higgins the Great was a novel I appreciated for its literary excellence. It painted a portrait of one specific area of the United States with a brush that allowed me to become immersed in the setting using every one of my senses. However, I believe it’s a novel geared toward adults, not youth. It takes an especially thoughtful young reader to enjoy what M.C. Higgins has to offer.

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Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

Twelve-year-old Andy Rusch walks to school and walks home for lunch. He’s    free to roam the countryside surrounding his small town of Serenity the whole day long, and his parents have no trouble with him befriending the village’s odd-man character, Onion John.

Today’s generation of children will read Onion John and consider it a fairytale, yet when the novel was written in 1959, it was contemporary realistic fiction. It’s a sweet story of contrasts—growing up and meeting the future versus looking back and accepting the past. Andy and his father both learn wisdom as they try to help Onion John. For Andy, that means being Onion John’s best friend, and since he’s the only person in his community who can understand John’s garbled speech, he also becomes John’s interpreter. For Mr. Rusch, it means turning Onion John  into a good-deed project and organizing the town to help build the “homeless” man a proper house. Except Onion John doesn’t want a new house, and he doesn’t need an interpreter to thrive in the world he has established for himself.

I grew up in communities like Serenity. Why didn’t I read this book as a child? It has such a beautiful ending. My only excuse: the main character is a boy. I only liked girl stories.

Pros

  1. Krumgold weaves life lessons in so subtly, the reader never feels preached at.
  2. The characters often disagree with one another, yet they always keep loving each other. Something our society needs to learn in the 21st century.
  3. Everyone in town is nice. No villains, other than misguided good intentions. You may be thinking, “Why did she say this is not a fairytale?” Because while the people are nice, they’re not perfect. And isn’t that reality? Not many of us rub shoulders with evil people all the time. Friction happens because two decent people have different opinions.
  4. Andy has both a mother and a father, and they enjoy a happy marriage. They love their son. Almost everything I read these days has a main character who is orphaned, half-orphaned, or is a child of divorce . Onion John portrays a refreshing setting.

Cons

  1. I felt the plot still had a slight sagging middle before the town got on board to build Onion John a new house. Then again, maybe it was the boy-style plot details that didn’t hold this old girl’s interest.
  2. Today’s parents might be horrified at the freedoms allowed to Andy, afraid their children would make the mistake of straying too far from home and into an unsafe neighborhood. Unless you live near a crime-ridden area, please don’t overreact. And if you do live in a dangerous area, you could address this as a safety issue via Discussion Question one.

Discussion Questions

  1. What kinds of activities do you think you would have participated in if you were allowed to range from one end of town to the other and out into the country? Would it be safe to have that kind of freedom where you live today?
  2. How did Andy and his buddies show friendship to Onion John? How did Onion John show friendship to them?
  3. What was wrong with Mr. Rusch’s plan to help Onion John?
  4. Did you like Onion John’s decision near the end of the book? Why or why not?
  5. Who do you think was the wisest character in this book and why?

 

Conclusion

If you want a taste of mid-twentieth century Americana combined with a wise attitude toward life, read this book. As a Newbery Medal winner, many libraries still carry it, and you can find it on Amazon.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

I read this Newbery winner when I was in junior high school. Ordinarily, I didn’t go for man-against-nature type of stories. I didn’t go for a novel told in first person present tense. But Island of the Blue Dolphins featured a girl who had to survive totally alone on her island. And when the author introduced a dog? I was hooked.

In order to review Scott O’Dell’s masterpiece, I read the book again.  I now appreciate the story even more than when I was a kid. And would you believe it? The Author’s Note at the end provides a Big Reveal which I never bothered to read when I was twelve. Boy, did I miss out! It took many years into adulthood to realize other portions of a book can be interesting as the novel itself.

This is what I missed the first time around: Island of the Blue Dophins is based on a true story. The island really exists, named San Nicolas, not far off the coast of southern California. A girl really did live alone on the island for eighteen years from 1835 to 1853. She was known as The Lost Woman of San Nicolas and is buried near the Santa Barbara Mission. If I had known this, I would have been begging my parents to take a vacation to California, and the book would have made my Top Five.

Synopsis

Aleuts and Russians visit Karana’s island, over hunt the otter, and break the trade agreement with her tribe.  When her people object, the Aleuts kill most of the men. The new chief decides they should move to a new country, but Karana, at the tender of age of twelve, is accidentally left behind. She knows they will not be able to come back for her until the next summer. However, she has learned survival skills. She is sure she can make it through the winter.

Summers continue to pass, and no one returnsr. How she thrives as the solitary human on her island becomes the fascination of the story. She builds a new home and makes sure it is well-provisioned. She gathers food and makes weapons to defend herself against wild dogs. She befriends the wounded leader of the pack, who remains her faithful companion. After many years, a new ship arrives to rescue her.

Pros

  1. Children who enjoy nonfiction books will like this fiction book as they see how Karana tames animals, gathers food, and fashions tools that she can use to survive.
  2. Children who enjoy fiction will love how Karana builds relationships with animals and accepts friendship from a girl of the enemy camp.
  3. Karana’s courage is amazing and without bravado. She takes each day at a time and doesn’t waste hours feeling sorry for herself. She doggedly survives. Kids will recognize what an admirable character she is.

Cons

  1. Today’s editors would not be happy with the fact that there is no huge climax. Instead,  Karana grows up by herself, she learns to adapt and practice skills traditionally reserved for the men of her tribe, and she accepts the help of strangers when given the opportunity to join civilization once again.
  2. At no time is there a huge “aha” moment, although she slowly accepts the fact that no one is coming for her. She is content to live alone.

Discussion Questions

  1. What quality to you admire most about Karana?
  2. How was Karana different from her little brother Ramo?
  3. Why did Karana choose to never kill otters or seals or dogs again?
  4. What do we call the “devil fish?”

Conclusion

Island of the Blue Dolphins is one of those ageless stories. Adults and children alike will find something new to love with every read.

 

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The Grey King by Susan Cooper

 

The Grey King had been recommended to me some time ago by a lover of high fantasy. Since it’s a Newbery Medal winner, I was willing to try it out, and if I liked it, I’d read the whole series: The Dark Is Rising Sequence.

My fellow Scriblerian, Tim, will not be happy with me.  And no, he was not the one who recommended that I read the series.

I can see why it won the Newbery back in the Seventies, but as a Christian, I had trouble with it. A disturbing trinity of Lords most definitely does NOT represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as I would expect Christian-based fantasy to symbolize. I found the concept of “Old Ones” confusing –in this case, a young boy who truly has been born into a family, but his soul is “old”—it smacks of reincarnation. So if I found it confusing, what goes on in the minds of young readers as they take in this world of  fantastical spirit mixed with humanity?

Synopsis

Of course, the setting is Wales, with lots of unintelligible spellings, swirling mists, and magical doors. Thank goodness the main characters have simple names like Will, Bran, and John. It is up to young Will, the last born of the Old Ones, to save the world from the forces of evil led by the Grey Wolf. To succeed, Will must wake up Six Sleepers with a magical golden harp. The humans are unaware of the danger except for Bran, a boy close to Will’s age who was transported through time by another of the Old Ones.

Pros

  1. Loads of action for boys’ tastes. (Have you ever noticed that girls are happy to read action stories, but boys rarely peruse a sweet romance?)
  2. Susan Cooper spends a good deal of time teaching her readers how to pronounce Welsh words. I’ve never understood Welsh phonics, so I had a great time sounding out words as I learned the rules.
  3. Spoiler: the good guys win. On to the next book of the series, Silver on the Tree.

Cons

  1. If you are a parent wanting easily identifiable, Christian symbolism for your child to understand, you won’t get it here.
  2. With forty-plus years of high fantasy novels following The Dark Is Rising Sequence, the plot may seem trite to twenty-first century readers.

Conclusion

The vocabulary is geared toward the more capable reading ability, and definitely not for anyone under the age of nine. Because the writing is so good, I won’t pan the series, but if my sons had read the book, I would’ve wanted to discuss it chapter by chapter.

 

 

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The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Synopsis

The Saturdays, first book in The Melendy Quartet, is a delightful trot into yesteryear’s childhood. Elizabeth Enright created a family of four siblings who live an “ordinary” life in New York City, yet their minor escapades become “special” adventures. Set in 1941 before America entered World War II, the Melendy children are a little bored. They decide to pool their allowances so each can afford a solo adventure in the City on Saturday afternoons.

What are the adventures? A visit to an art museum, attending the opera, an afternoon at a beauty salon, and going to the circus. Those excursions might sound dull to this generation, but not in the eyes of these characters. Randy’s visit to the art museum initiates an important friendship. On the way home from the opera, Rush acquires a beloved pet—who later saves their lives. The new hairstyle and manicure is a fleeting thrill teaching Mona the meaning of “someday.” And the trek to the circus proves to Oliver that Father’s training pays off in an emergency. Other simple incidents in their lives bring either catastrophes or blessings.

Pros

  1. Kids won’t read about trips to the mall or the latest Xbox game. Instead, they’re drawn into the world of imagination, discovering there are ways to entertain yourself by interacting with people face to face, and without breaking the bank. For people like me this is a good thing. It breaks my heart to watch kids sit with a small device in their hands, ignoring the world around them.
  2. Each of the Saturday adventures teaches the Melendy child (and the reader) a lesson without being preachy.

Cons

Kids won’t read about trips to the mall or the latest Xbox game. For people who are sold on the society of today, they would wilt in boredom if forced to read a chapter about a ten-year-old who discovers an elderly acquaintance had been captured by gypsies in her youth.

Conclusion

If we sense our children are becoming jaded by our texting-social media-video game society, force them to imagine themselves in the Melendy’s moments. As proof that many kids will like what they read, my own experiences in sharing with my students serves as an example.

My growing-up years were well past the Melendy clan, but my brothers and I enjoyed simple adventures of our own. We walked along a highway to reach the ice cream store. We spent entire afternoons in the woods. We biked to the pool and to the movies. We played kickball in the street.

My students were jealous! “You could just go off and not come home for hours?” “They let you walk on roads with no sidewalks? Alone?” “Weren’t they afraid you’d get lost?” “Wouldn’t you get run over?” “How old were you when they let you do that?”

My answers: “Our parents taught us to walk on the left shoulder facing traffic. We packed a lunch and came home in time for dinner. We never got lost. When a car approached during the game, we ran to the side until it passed. I was nine. My brothers were younger.”

If those students thought adventures on their own would be fantastic, your kids will enjoy The Saturdays.

 

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The Forever Man by Eoin Colfer

The Forever Man is book #3 in the middle grade fantasy Warp Trilogy written by well-known Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series.

 

Riley, a fifteen-year-old, lives in Victorian London as a magician. In book #1, he defeated his murderous master Albert Garrick, with the help of Chevie Savano, a seventeen-year-old FBI agent who travelled back in a time pod.

Garrick, who had been banished in a wormhole for two hundred years, vowed to return and seek revenge on Riley. Garrick returns in book #3 with wormhole caused mutations that enable him to seem immortal.

Garrick lures Riley (and Chevie) to a prison under false pretences to see Riley’s long-lost brother. After the three are swept inadvertently into another wormhole, they end up in a puritan village in 1649. Due to the wormhole spitting out many horrific mutations to the village in the past, the villagers are fearful and Garrick is known by previous visits, as the witch hunter and protector.

Chevie is caught and is to be burned at the stake for being a witch, but Riley breaks free from his entrapment. With the help of a few new characters, Pointer (an FBI mutant who is a dog), Fairbrother Isles (another FBI agent), and the ghost of Professor Smart (the scientist who created the wormhole), Riley devises a plan to save Chevie. But they also must save humanity before Garrick destroys the wormhole.

 

 

Pros

 

  • As in the previous two books in the trilogy, Eoin Colfer’s incomparable style pulls the reader in with his wit and the lure of fast-paced action.
  • Garrick is a well-developed antagonist, and I found myself fascinated/horrified at his actions, as I would have been watching a black widow catching a bug in slow motion. He reminded me of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the joker in Batman, The Dark Knight.
  • The romantic attachment between the Riley and Chevie is at the core of the story, so the reader is more invested in the outcome.
  • Each character he introduces is unique and identifiable.

 

Cons

 

  • By this time, I was more or less used to the omniscient POV, although at times I still found it irritating to be jumping back and forth so quickly between the heads.
  • This story is classified as MG, however I feel that there was too much violence and the style was slightly confusing for most readers of that age group.
  • The scientific details on the wormhole and how humanity was going to be obliterated by the destruction of the wormhole was not clearly explained. I never did quite understand that.
  • Chevie in this story seemed to lack her zeal and powerful persona that she possessed in the previous books. She was more or less just a maiden in distress that needed to be saved. I was disappointed in her role.

 

 

Final Word

 

I quite enjoyed this final book, and I feel of the three, it was the best.  I still enjoyed the Artemis Fowl series better, but this was a close second. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Eoin Colfer, but I would caution that it is a bit more dark and technical to be regarded as MG.