Enemy Pie

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a story about a little boy who experiences jealousy when a new boy moves in next door to his best friend and invites the friend to play but not him. He decides the new boy is his enemy. Thankfully, he has a wise father who suggests feeding the new boy Enemy Pie, which is guaranteed to get rid of enemies. The catch is, he has to play nicely with the boy all day first, before they eat the pie. Unsurprisingly, playing all day teaches the boy that the new kid is not that bad...in fact, he's pretty great! Enemy pie becomes friend pie that the boys and the dad share together after dinner--delicious!

Ultimately, this is a story about how kindness and spending time getting to know a stranger breaks down barriers and heals misunderstandings. I read (watched) the TumbleBooks version of this book, so I'm not sure what the static pages look like, but it looked to me like the characters were all white males, although hair and eyes were brown, so it's hard to tell for sure.

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You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys

You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys by Betsy Franco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this poetry collection up because it was on a list of banned or challenged books, and I was curious. These boys are amazing! They blew me away with their honesty, pain, hope, and humor. They made me laugh and moved me to tears. One of the boys died of a drug overdose before the book was even published--a heartbreaking loss of potential and talent.

Yes, some of the language is rough and raw. A few of the boys use words I do not like. But it's authentic, and choosing less-graphic alternatives would not give the same impact.

For readers' advisors: language doorway. This is a book for older, mature teens and adults.

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Melonhead and the Vegalicious Disaster

Melonhead and the Vegalicious Disaster by Katy Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best-laid plans oft go awry, and so do the impromptu ones. No one knows this better than Adam Melon and his best friend Sam. When Adam's mom invites the new girl in school, Pip, over for dinner, disaster is waiting around the corner. Or in this case, inside the duct-work. Adam's mom has resolved to provide healthier meals this year, and thanks to a new Vegalicious cookbook promising recipes kids will love, she is on a creative roll. The kids are awed by the work that has gone into her masterpieces...and horrified at the prospect of eating the bizarre concoctions. Their efforts to spare her feelings have unforeseen consequences when combined with the heat and humidity of September in Washington, D.C., though, and Adam and Sam learn some valuable lessons about honesty (and mold).

I started off thinking this book was silly and cute; I never expected to be laughing out loud by the end. Adam's antics put a grin on my face primarily because he was so earnest and full of "boy logic." Katy Kelly must have (or have had) boys in her household. She does a great job capturing the thought processes of ten-year-old males--or at least it seems so to me, seeing as how I have never actually been a boy myself but do have one in my home every other weekend.

I also appreciated that this story was so positive: all characters meant well and respected each other. This held true across all generations, genders, ethnicities, religions, and physical abilities. I loved the subplot wherein Pip worked to get the teacher to treat her the same as she did all the other students instead of focusing on Pip's wheelchair and cutting her too much slack.

My one quibble was that I can't imagine any parents allowing two ten-year-old boys to visit the Washington Monument and the Air and Space Museum by themselves. Maybe if they were in their mid to late teens, but definitely not fifth graders. It's just a bad idea on so many levels!

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways. Girls will probably like reading this story, but it's targeted toward upper grade elementary school boys. Plus there are a few jokes in there aimed at adults, which makes it a good choice to read with your kids.

My thanks to the folks at NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read the pre-publication egalley!

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Pop

Pop by Gordon Korman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's tough to be the new kid in town. Marcus Jordan doesn't have anyone to practice football with, so when a middle-aged man appears in the park eager to play, Marcus doesn't ask too many questions. At first. The old guy is GOOD, after all, and he teaches Marcus how to tackle and be tackled without losing focus--a skill which comes in handy after he makes the varsity team over the strenuous objections of the star quarterback who sees him as a rival both on and off the field. Eventually, though, Marcus realizes that his new friend Charlie isn't just eccentric. Covering for Charlie's pranks has gotten Marcus in trouble with local law enforcement, and his increasingly erratic behavior strains the bonds of loyalty and sends Marcus on a quest for answers, to the dismay of Charlie's family, who are desperately trying to maintain a facade of normalcy.

Gordon Korman tackles (pardon the pun) the serious and timely subject of the long-term effects of concussions and sports-related injuries in this teen novel, and he does it brilliantly. What better way than a good story to communicate the idea of consequences and mortality to teenage boys who have always believed themselves to be immortal and invincible? I'm not what you'd call a sports fan (yes, that's the sound of my family laughing hysterically), but I loved this book. It's not preachy, doesn't try to scare kids out of playing, it just subtly raises awareness while weaving together humor and tragedy.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways. A couple of mild kissing scenes and virtually no bad language.

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Swindle

Swindle by Gordon Korman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What would you do if someone swindled you out of a million-dollar Babe Ruth baseball card? Griffin Bing wants his card back, but no one listens to kids, so he comes up with a plan. A plan for a heist. And not just any heist, but the biggest, most elaborate one Cedarville, NY, has ever seen. Things do not go exactly as planned, however.

I loved this fast-paced story of kids fighting injustice with unorthodox methods. Funny and exciting and a great pick for tween boys especially. I plan to take it home and try it out on mine, in fact.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character is secondary, and there is a moral to this story.

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The Juvie Three

The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gordon Korman has come a long way from the days of Bruno & Boots' goofy antics at MacDonald Hall. In The Juvie Three Korman tells the story of three boys convicted of crimes ranging from driving a getaway car to theft to manslaughter. They are plucked from their various forms of jail by Douglas Healy, himself a survivor of juvenile detention, and taken to live in an experimental halfway house in New York City. It is not an easy transition for any of them, especially Terrence, the only one with the mindset of a criminal and no concept of how lucky he has been thus far. When a scuffle on the fire escape results in a bloody concussion and amnesia for Healy, the boys panic and drop him off at a hospital, convinced that the authorities would never believe it was an accident.  They succeed in pretending all is normal...until a phone call from the social worker sends them into a tailspin.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways, likely a good choice for reluctant readers, particularly boys

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The Amazing Thinking Machine

The Amazing Thinking Machine by Dennis Haseley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Patrick and Roy's father left home a while ago to find work somewhere. It's the middle of the Depression, and jobs are scarce. The boys' mom tries to keep them fed and hold things together at home, but when they figure out she's been accepting charity baskets of food, they balk at eating the donated meals. Then Roy gets the bright idea to build an "amazing thinking machine" in their backyard and charge local kids a fee (food or a penny) to come and ask it questions.

I think this book would be best read with your children--maybe a chapter a night at bedtime--so you could answer questions about the Depression and the many unpleasant and prejudiced slang terms for the "bums" hanging about in vacant lots. (The boys use these terms frequently but come to see that ANYONE could end up like the unkempt strangers begging for food.)

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways, with story secondary.


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Room One: A Mystery or Two

Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sixth grader Ted Hammond loves mysteries. So the day he spies a girl in the upstairs window of an abandoned house in his tiny town in rural Nebraska, he knows it's his chance to solve a real-life mystery.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways


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Extra Credit

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Abby Carson is failing the sixth grade because she hates doing homework. Faced with the threat of being held back, she decides to not only starting doing ALL of her homework but also take on a big extra credit project: write letters to a pen pal halfway around the world, post them on a bulletin board, and do a class presentation at the end of the year.

Sadeed Bayat is the best student in his village in Afghanistan, but it's not proper for a boy to write to a girl, so his little sister is chosen to be Abby's pen pal...with Sadeed's help. She dictates letters in Dari; he translates them into English. But he's dissatisfied with what his sister writes and composes a letter of his own, which he mails in secret. And pretty soon, Sadeed realizes that he knows Abby better than he knows anyone else, and Abby realizes that kids are pretty much the same no matter where they live. But not everyone is happy with this culture-bridging assignment.

Andrew Clements does a fantastic job of bringing these characters and cultures to life. I wanted to climb into Abby's tree fort and thank Sadeed's teacher for his dedication. Excellent book.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, with setting as a secondary doorway



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An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Any book that makes my husband pick it up out of curiosity and laugh out loud while reading the first few pages is great book. How often can you say that about a YA novel?

I loved this book. It took me a while to get past the overuse of the word "fug," although I appreciate why Green used it as he did. But other than that, I found the book great fun. I loved the use of humorous footnotes. I loved how real the characters seemed. I loved the quirkiness of the characters and the use of math to try and describe human relationships. And I thought the structure of the book was interesting, the way John Green interspersed the present-day with (not-chronological) snippets of the "beginning of the end," the "end of the middle," the "middle of the middle," and so on to tell the back-story. That helped hold my interest.

The premise of the story is that uber-smart Colin Singleton has dated and been dumped by 19 girls named Katherine. He's totally depressed and decides to go on a road trip with his hilarious friend Hassan, who is trying to avoid going to college & getting a job. They end up in rural Tennessee, drawn by the lure of a tourist trap and caught by the offer of a summer job and a place to stay. Colin is obsessed with creating his Theorem: a mathematical formula to predict who will dump whom and when in a relationship. Question is, can math actually predict the future?

For readers' advisors: character & story doorways.



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Anything but Typical

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Have you ever wondered what it is like to be autistic? After reading this book, I feel like I have a much better understanding of the inner world of autistic children (or at least an autistic 12 year old boy). It was really a fascinating glimpse into the frustrations of a family trying to cope with a child who struggles to communicate, who has a hard time sharing his thoughts and feelings with a world of "neurotypicals," and whose sensory perceptions are attuned so differently from most people's. I sympathized with his mother and at the same time wished I could shake some sense into her because she just didn't get it!

Jason has a hard time relating to the world in real life, but online is a different story. In real life, he is picked on, awkward, and misunderstood. Online, he is an ordinary kid who writes creative stories and gets a crush on the girl who likes them. Imagine his panic as those worlds begin to collide.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways



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A Week in the Woods

A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I bought this book for my stepson for Christmas last year, and it turned out to be one of his favorites (hooray!). Both he and my husband recommended I read it, and I can see why. Andrew Clements does such an excellent job of creating multi-dimensional characters, both children and adults. In fact, there is so much to this story, it's hard to know how to describe it. It's a story about a kid and some adults who make some snap judgments that turn out to be wrong. It's a story about a lonely kid finding and home and something (the outdoors) to love. It's a story about being prepared (and an excellent advertisement for REI!).

Ultimately it's a story about getting lost and finding your way back home.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, and a great pick for elementary school boys.



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No Talking

No Talking by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Loved it! This book cracked me up, and I love how both the kids AND adults grew up a little over the course of the book. My 9-year-old stepson (and my husband) loved it, too, which is always a good sign. :)


Here is the book talk I just gave for it:

Who talks more?

Boys...or girls?

Do you know?

Could you stop?

Laketon Elementary experimented.

With a contest

Boys vs. Girls

Two silent days

Penalties for speaking

Except to teachers

(Three-word answers)

Kids counted goofs.

Teachers were confused.

And the winners?

Can you guess?

No Talking

by Andrew Clements



For readers' advisors: story and character doorways



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