Restart

Restart by Gordon Korman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this funny tale of a bully who falls off a roof while doing something illicit, then wakes with near total amnesia and is pretty horrified to find out what a jerk he's been. I enjoyed reading from the other characters' points of view as well as from Chase's, and I loved watching him choose to be a better person the second time around. It was a little unbelievable that losing his memory would have instantly transformed him into a kinder, better person, but I'm in no way an expert on head trauma, so I will totally give Gordon Korman the benefit of the doubt on this one and hope he did his research.

The other thing that kept this book from being a 5-star middle grade story for me was Chase's dad's abrupt switch from being a grown-up bully into a supportive father at the very end. That didn't ring true. I would like to think he, too, could change! But probably not without a lot of therapy. Dude was a jerk for a very long time, and he didn't have the benefit of amnesia. Otherwise, though, I loved this book!

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Front Desk

Front Desk by Kelly Yang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This #OwnVoices story of a 10-year-old immigrant from China who wants to be a writer and helps her family manage a motel for a racist owner who cheats them and intimidates them into accepting below-poverty wages grabbed me from the start and made me wish I could leap into the pages and rescue all the immigrants from those who take advantage of them. Finding out that many of the events in the book are based on real-life experiences of the author just made that impulse all the stronger. Sadly, I do not have the ability to protect fictional people. Now I need to focus my attention on ways to help their real-life counterparts. The story is set in the 1990s, but as we've seen in the recent days, weeks, months, and years, many people's racist attitudes towards Asians, Latinx, and African Americans haven't improved.

The extra sections at the end of this book, especially the author's background and the discussion questions, make this an excellent book club selection. Because so much of the story is based on the author's life, I am categorizing the book as "biographical fiction" as well as "realistic fiction."

For readers' advisors: Character doorway is primary, but story is also very strong. No sex or swearing. Mia's mother is beaten up, as is a friend they aid early in the story, but the violence is all off-screen. Strong themes of friendship, respect, care for others, hard work, and persistence in following your dreams.

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Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renée Russell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Meh. Not my thing. Silly middle school girl with a scholarship to attend a new private school tries to turn herself into a "cool" kid to make friends but ends up making friends with fellow library-book-shelving volunteers instead. It was refreshing that the cute boy she had a crush on was nice to her and didn't much like the stereotypical spoiled rich girl who was her arch-nemesis. I appreciated that the many manga-style cartoon drawings helped speed the story along so it was a pretty quick read. I'm sure tween girls love this series, but there was too much middle school angst for my taste, although Nikki's dramatics were obviously tongue-in-cheek, meant to highlight the ridiculousness of her "woes."

For readers' advisors: character doorway primary, story secondary.

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The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever made a decision that had consequences you never could have imagined?

Eleven-year-old Gilly is an angry child. She has bounced from foster home to foster home since she was three. Unloved, she does everything possible to make herself unloveable, proud of her power and status as the county’s most unmanageable brat. This latest placement is the worst yet. Forced to live with the gigantic Maime Trotter and the bizarrely timid little William Ernest in the filthiest house she’s ever seen, she hatches a plan to get her mother to come rescue her. You know what they say about plans, though: they oft go awry, and this one sends shockwaves through the lives of the family she never thought she’d have.

The theme of this book is timeless, although some of the details are now a bit dated, such as Gilly's shock at having a black neighbor and a black teacher. No, the book isn't racist, despite Gilly's early prejudices, and modern children will probably be confused by her reactions, since the world is quite different today than it was thirty-plus years ago.

Katherine Paterson doesn't pull any punches or sugar-coat her stories. They are real--bad things happen, and actions have logical repercussions. I love that about her books!

For readers' advisors: character doorway. Some swearing, as you might expect from a wounded, out-of-control preteen.

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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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Diary of a Parent Trainer

Diary of a Parent Trainer by Jennifer Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Katie Sutton is a thirteen-year-old expert in parent management, so she is writing the ultimate user guide to grown-ups. She knows all the "Modes" and how to switch a grown-up from a less-desirable mode to another, more favorable one. Katie has two best friends, an older sister, a younger brother, a widowed mom, loads of other relatives, and a crush on a cute boy. Life is pretty good until her mom does the unthinkable: finds a boyfriend. Suddenly, all Katie thinks she knows about managing the behavior of her grown-ups gets called into question by the invasion of this stranger into their lives.

For some reason, this book reminded me of Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, although I read that so long ago, I'm not sure how they are similar, other than being about British teenagers with crushes. In any case, I enjoyed reading the mock-diary-style tale of changing household dynamics told from a teen's point of view. Coincidentally, I was concurrently reading A Career Girl's Guide to Becoming a Stepmom and found these two sides of the family coin tracked well together. I think it would be a good choice for tweens, especially those who have experienced divorce or the death of a parent.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story is secondary

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Cat O'Nine Tails

Cat O'Nine Tails by Julia Golding

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Cat Royal's friend Syd has disappeared, so she and her friends go to London to find out what happened to him and along the way get press-ganged into becoming part of the crew of a British naval vessel in late 1791. Turns out someone paid the press gang to ambush them specifically, and getting home will be harder than they thought.

I accidentally read this one before #3, and maybe that makes a bit of a difference? The story is enjoyable, if somewhat improbable. What makes it three stars instead of four is that I immediately figured out the mystery of who paid off the press gang, and there wasn't much in the way of character development.

There was a little more violence in this one than in the first two, although it was certainly realistic and not graphic. There was also a smidgen more teen angst.

For readers' advisors: story and setting doorways.



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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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Magic Steps

Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Four stars for the book. Minus 10 stars for the audiobook. AUGH!!! I was so excited when I put the first CD into my car stereo this morning. A full-cast audiobook of book one of a series I've read and loved by one of my all-time favorite authors--what's not to love??

This audiobook, that's what. Oh. My. Goodness. Tamora Pierce may be an outstanding author, but she simply cannot read out loud! It was like listening to a female Forrest Gump. Every syllable was given equal emphasis, even the articles and prepositions. Every word was overly enunciated. AUGH!!!

Then the rest of the cast started speaking, and it was as though I'd been transported to the worst amateur theatre production EVER. The language didn't flow like natural language, and everything was exaggerated and--like Pierce's narration--overly enunciated.

Awful awful awful. I couldn't even listen to the whole first CD. I tried to make myself, but I just couldn't stand it any more and ejected it as soon as I got to the parking lot.

Next time, I'll find an audiobook read by professional actors. Oy.



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True (...sort of)

True... Sort of by Katherine Hannigan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Delly Pattison is constantly in trouble. Her exuberance leads her on "Dellyventures" that only her little brother RB seems to really understand. To Delly's stunned amazement, she gets into so much trouble, in fact, that she's about to be sent away to a special school for troubled kids. But how can Delly stop being Delly?

One day there is a new kid in school, Ferris Boyd, who doesn't talk and is never, ever to be touched. Ferris is a "mysturiosity" to Delly and must therefore be investigated. Their unlikely friendship saves both of them.

This is a book for all those children who are labeled "bad" by adults who fail to understand them or recognize a lack of impulse control transforming into depression. I wanted to crawl inside the pages and scoop these children up and rescue them, save them from the pain of being misfits.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, Delly's language of invented words is another doorway, and be aware that the book deals with child abuse


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Page

Page by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Volume #2 in the quartet is as entertaining as volume one. In fact, at one point I stopped at a flashing red light at a 3-way intersection and was so absorbed in listening to the story, I forgot to go when it was my turn (waiting for the light to turn green??). Oops!

Page covers the final three years of Kel's page training--i.e. puberty. Pierce does a great job addressing Kel's dismay at growing breasts and starting her "monthlies," but this may be a deterrent for boys reading/listening to the story. (Or possibly an education??) Most of the story, however, is about Kel's leadership and growth over the course of three years and her sense of responsibility for her skittish new maid. Kel has a very strong sense of right and wrong and is incensed to learn how Lalasa has been abused, so she teaches the reluctant older girl to fight back. Kel's quick thinking and cool head also save the day when the group of pages she's with is attacked by bandits.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, and it's fantasy so also setting doorway



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Cat Among the Pigeons

Cat Among the Pigeons by Julia Golding


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A fun adventure story featuring a young teen orphan (Cat Royal) trying to save her friend Pedro from being reclaimed into slavery by his evil master in 1790s London. Very fast-paced and exciting! It's the 2nd in a series (1st was The Diamond of Drury Lane), and I'm looking forward to reading the third (Den of Thieves)!

For Readers' Advisors: story doorway, with setting & character as secondary doorways



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Lost and Found

Lost and Found by Andrew Clements

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Identical twins Jay Ray and Ray Jay have spent twelve years being mistaken for each other. On the first day of school in their new town, Ray stays home sick while Jay goes to his classes and discovers that due to a clerical error, the school doesn't know he's a twin. The boys decide to take advantage of this and find out what it feels like to be a unique individual for a change. It's fun at first, but their plan has some unexpected challenges.

I enjoyed the peek into the world of twelve-year-old boys. It was a fun, quick read. Frindle is still my favorite, but this is fun, too.


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