Category Archives: ..Middle Grade Readers
The Whole Story of Half a Girl by Veera Hiranandani
“Life’s pretty good,” Sonia thinks to herself. Her whole class is making biryani together as part of their study of India: “Getting to know the food,” says her favorite teacher, “… is the best way to really understand a country, just like sharing a meal with someone helps you get to know them.”
But when Sonia gets home that night, her entire life turns upside down. Her father’s been fired. Her English professor mother needs to work more than ever. And, worst of all, Sonia and her little sister Natasha won’t be going to Community, the only school they’ve ever known with its tiny classes, its emphasis on individuality, its nurturing family-like atmosphere.
Sonia’s Indian heritage from her father, her Jewish background from her mother, her international travels, her (mostly) purple clothes, her homemade lunches, all make her stand out as she starts sixth grade at Maplewood Middle School. On her first day, she’s especially struck with the students’ self-segregation: “If I tell [my parents] about the way the white kids and the black kids don’t sit together at lunch, Mom would race to call the PTA and arrange some kind of multicultural day,” she notes wryly. Sonia is one astute tween: “What’s funny is that at Maplewood, the school that people don’t need extra money to go to, everyone seems to have plenty of money. The kids show off their iPods and cell phones … I see other parents dropping off their kids in fancy cars like Mercedes and BMWs.”
At school, Sonia navigates new challenges – being separated from her best friend Sam, getting to know popular girl Kate while ignoring mean girl Jess, trying to figure out Alisha who’s bussed in from faraway Bridgeport. At home, things go from bad to worse. Sonia knows her father isn’t well – his sudden mood swings are especially troubling – but no one is prepared when he suddenly disappears. Will her splintered family ever be whole again?
Already the author of 20 picture books, Veera Hiranandani makes a resonating novel debut. Sonia is a memorable protagonist, facing difficult challenges that require her to question facets of her own identity for the first time: her multi-syllabic family name, her spiritual identification as Hindu or Jewish or both or neither, her place in the racial spectrum somewhere between black and white, and her uncertain relationship with her spiraling father. Hiranandani provides no easy answers here – although she does end with hopeful beginnings.
Tidbit: When Sonia’s father tells her about his life in India, he explains “[w]e lived through the partition.” Partition happened in 1947, so if her father remembers that, he must have been at least … say 5 or 6? Since Sonia’s talking iPods and cell phones, her story is contemporary … which would mean that Daddy is quite old – almost 70 at the very youngest, no?
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 2012 Continue reading
Filed under ..Middle Grade Readers, .Fiction, Hapa, Indian American, Jewish, South Asian American
Cross Game 5 (vols. 10-11) and Cross Game 6 (vols. 12-13) by Mitsuru Adachi, translated by Lillian Olsen
Let’s play ball … While everyone else is lost to Linsanity, I’m still back in high school with ace pitcher Ko Kitamura! Volume 10 is all about the game: at the top of the fourth, Seishu Gakuen – thanks to Ko and star batter Azuma – is actually leading by a single point in the regional play-off against Ryuou, the team that’s favored (again) to win the National High School Baseball Tournament at Koshien. Aoba – who can’t play just because she’s a girl! – watches from the sidelines; they still can’t get along outside the game, but they’re in perfect synch when it comes to pitching that ball. Just at the final moment of truth, Wakaba makes her wishes known from the other side!
The games are over for now in volume 11, but life gets even more interesting when a new soba shop opens next door to Kitamura’s Sports. Everyone does a double-take each time they spot the owners’ daughter Akane Takigawa who bears an uncanny resemblance to Wakaba. In an almost too-much moment, she’s carrying a shopping bag marked “Wakaba” – “It’s from the fruit store in front of Oizumi Park Station,” she explains – when Ko and Azuma meet her face to face. Ko, Aoba, Papa Tsukishima, and especially Akaishi (who adored her like no other) don’t quite know what to do with their … well … shock!
The final year of high school starts for Ko and Azuma in volume 12: this will be their last chance to get to – and win! – Koshien. Wakaba predicted victory for this year, after all! Her presence is more than felt with Akane around: she not only looks like Wakaba, but her personality is similarly caring, nurturing, loving towards all. The school year moves quickly. Ko and Akane grow comfortably closer. Aoba breaks her leg and finds Azuma constantly by her side. Outside the hospital, Azuma has a run-in with evil coach Daimo who’s apparently back in the game …
In volume 13, the academic year is already over, but the last summer baseball season is just starting. Aoba’s on crutches, but that’s not stopping her from bossing the team to work harder, including Ko who’s still stealing all her best pitching moves: “Don’t be so stingy,” he throws back. “Think of it as borrowing my body and pitching vicariously through me.” In between training, everyone seems to be pairing off … even the youngest Momiji! Ko turns 18 at volume’s end … and his devotion to Wakaba who shares his natal day is one of the most touching manga moments ever. Sniff, sniff. Pass the tissues, already!
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2011 and 2012 (United States)
CROSS GAME © Mitsuru Adachi
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc. Continue reading
Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick
While everyone else has been lost to Linsanity, I’ve been contrarily following baseball … at least on the page and in manga (via the entertaining Cross Game). Hmmm … I wonder how Jordan Sonnenblick might write Ko Kitamura‘s story’s? Ack! Again I digress …
In Sonnenblick’s latest pitch-perfect (couldn’t resist) teen story, Peter Friedman’s life is changing way too fast. It starts with an accident: an elbow injury during an eighth-grade summer baseball game sidelines him – for life. Peter will never play ball again.
Now that he’s lost his sports moniker, Peter’s unsure about how he’s going to navigate high school. At least he’s got his best friend (and best teammate) A.J. around, even though A.J. won’t accept Peter’s injury as permanent; A.J.’s still convinced the freshman duo will rule high school baseball come spring tryouts.
Peter ends up in an advanced photography class in which he’s utterly star struck by new girl Angelika. Photography’s going to be easy enough … but the boy/girl partner thing is whole new territory.
Thanks to his accomplished photographer Grampa, Peter’s already familiar with all the equipment. The two have always bonded over getting the shot, but now Grampa can’t even seem to remember the pictures …
Between family, school, friends, and maybe even first love, Peter’s having a heck of a time keeping things in focus … but when Grampa calls during a snow storm – shoeless, cold, and lost – denial is no longer an option for anyone.
Sonnenblick creates another memorable slice-of-life, coming-of-age novel for the teen reader (not to mention lots of old folks, too!). For devoted Sonnenblick groupies, you’ll love finding an older San Lee from Zen and the Art of Faking It spouting “Truth” (p. 207!). Sonnenblick sure knows how to make his stories real … no spoilers here, but (especially for us parental types) fair warning that you’ll be needing that box of tissues before the final page … waterworks guaranteed.
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2012 Continue reading
The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sís
“On a continent of many songs, in a country shaped like the arm of a guitarrista, the rain drummed down on the town of Temuco [Chile],” the invitingly dreamy Dreamer begins. Neftalí Reyes, the eponymous dreamer, is most content to live in a world of stories, ideas, and the smallest things that seem to overtake his never-resting imagination.
He lives in constant fear of his overbearing father, who seems to have nothing but hurtful insults and disappointed impatience for his younger son. Thankfully, Neftalí finds emotional shelter with his nurturing stepmother Mamadre, and his younger sister Laurita. But even they cannot guard against Father’s rants against anything but the practical: he’s already forbidden a music career for Neftalí’s talented older brother Rodolfo, trampling his soul. And Father is scathingly clear about the little regard he has for the brave journalism of Mamadre’s brother Orlando – whom Neftalí idolizes – with which Uncle Orlando is tirelessly fighting for the rights of the abused, indigenous peoples.
In spite of his father’s bullying, Neftalí manages to find moments of grace. He befriends a widowed swan, experiences first love, finds purpose in his first job helping his uncle in (and out of!) his newspaper office. He finds his own voice as a writer … and claims his identity as separate from his father when he names himself Pablo Neruda, “to save Father the humiliation of having a son who is a poet.”
Yes, Neftalí Reyes is the real name of the legendary Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda. With spare evocative prose from Pam Muñoz Ryan and whimsical pointillist illustrations by Peter Sís, the dynamic duo use Neruda’s haunting, formative years to create a gorgeous biographical novel of remarkable depth. Young readers will surely experience Neftalí’s fear, his longing, his joy, his aching, his gratitude, his unconditional love … and, most of all, his hope that his words would eventually make “hearts eager to feel all that he could dream.”
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 2010, 2012 (paperback reprint) Continue reading
Filed under ..Middle Grade Readers, .Fiction, .Poetry, Latino/a, South American
Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is one of those mega-award-winning Canadian authors (with more than a dozen titles) who hasn’t crossed over our shared border (just yet!) with the same success. She’s best known for her historical novels for younger readers about what must be one of the most difficult subjects ever – children and war. Her latest, which debuted far north last fall, hits U.S. shelves next week (March already!). Airlift is Skrypuch’s first narrative nonfiction, the true story of Son Thi Anh Tuyet and her last days in her native Vietnam and her first days with her Canadian family.
Tuyet can’t remember life before she came to live in the Saigon orphanage with all the children, babies, and nuns. Her only memory of “outside” are occasional visits of a woman with a young boy, who may or may not have been her mother and brother. “‘After a while, they stopped coming.’”
On April 11, 1975, Tuyet is frantically packed into the back of a van with babies and toddlers strapped into makeshift boxes headed to the airport. She is one of 57 children on what will turn out to be the last Canadian airlift operation to save orphans from a war-torn Saigon on the verge of collapse. As an older child of 8 with a leg weakened by polio, Tuyet is convinced she’s been brought only to help care for the younger children; as long as she remains useful, perhaps she will not be sent back to the orphanage.
Her remarkable journey – filled with unfamiliar faces, words she cannot understand, a future that seems so uncertain – lands her with a family of her own. “‘You are my daughter,’” her new mother assures her even before she can understand the words, “‘Not my helper.’” “Grass … swing … play,” her new father teaches her. And “‘sister,’” her new siblings call her with comforting hugs and kisses.
Enhanced with documents and a surprising number of photographs, Airlift is a touching, multi-layered experience. The strength of Skrypuch’s storytelling shows strongest in the smallest details: Tuyet’s wonder at discovering that stars are real things in the sky, her knowing better than the adults that to quiet the screaming babies is to place them close together, her doubt about “dads … [who] didn’t seem very real [as] she had never actually seen one.”
In the ending “Author’s Note,” Skrypuch explains how her initially intended novel became Tuyet’s narrative: ” … I was going to piece together a story of one orphan based on the experiences of many. But as I recreated these experiences from my research, an interesting thing happened. In small flashes, Tuyet bagan to remember more. … When Last Airlift was complete, Tuyet was overwhelmed by the fact that it was, in fact, her own story that had been reclaimed.”
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2012 (United States) Continue reading
Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani
Ah, this day of mislaid Hallmark hearts … meet Shalini who has had much of her future decided for her – a rather pleasant, happy one at that – by age 3. She’s lived all her life in the family compound in Bangalore, home to 37 family members spread over four generations. She’s been engaged to wonderful Vikram since she was 3, and he was 6. Thirteen years later, they remain a perfect couple, best friends who are committed and adoring, both inextricably linked to each other’s lives.
Now Shalini’s father has a new job in California and the family arrives for a two-year residency in what seems to be an alien world. Shalini’s father and her younger sister Sangita adjust almost effortlessly to the more-than-usual culture shock. In contrast, Shalini’s immersion into American high school life is painful and embarrassing (the resident mean girls actually drop a box of hair remover on Shalini’s desk!), made even more so for missing Vikram so much. Shalini’s mother suffers most of all, completely unable to adjust to an isolated new life away from the bustling family compound, and literally withdraws alone to her darkened room.
With help from Renuka, a new friend who seems to easily balance both her Indian and American cultures, Shalini soon begins to find her voice (and even manages to thank the queen bees for their depilatory efforts). Gingerly stepping into her new life bit by bit, Shalini’s young heart starts to beat faster than she’s ever experienced for her classmate Toby. What’s an engaged girl to do?
Ethnic chick-lit favorite Kavita Daswani offers another easy-breezy teen read with quite an interesting cultural twist of a 21st-century arranged marriage. Daswani gives a nod to her “cousin … in Bangalore, who … confirmed to me that girls like Shalini were real.” Certainly Daswani captures Shalini’s ‘stranger-in-a-strange-land’ experiences with heartfelt authenticity. Perhaps the less convincing depictions belong to Shalini’s mother – her depressions, her treatment, her failure to mother – and ultimately seem out of place with the rest of the otherwise engaging novel.
Tidbit: The back cover copy describes Lovetorn as a “Bollywood twist on a Sarah Dessen novel” which has me a bit befuddled, probably because I admit having never read a Dessen title. Google-ing didn’t turn up much insight to the comparison (the summaries of Dessen’s books on her website maybe suggest a vague similarity with Dessen’s The Truth about Forever?), so if anyone out there is a YA expert, do enlighten me!
Readers: Young Adult
Published: 2012 Continue reading
Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration by Shelley Tougas
Take a careful look at this book cover … no exaggeration that “a picture is worth a thousand words”!
The day is September 4, 1957 and 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford is on her way to her first day at Little Rock Central High School. “Nine African-American teenagers, who would forever be known as the Little Rock Nine, were supposed to arrive at the all-white high school … and make history together.” Meanwhile, Hazel Bryan, a white teenager, walks behind Elizabeth, “… her face twisted with rage. ‘Go home, n****r!’ she screamed. ‘Go back to Africa!’” At that moment, Will Counts, a newspaper photographer for the Arkansas Democrat, clicked the photo and made American history.
Little Rock Girl is one of six titles thus far in the Captured History series from Compass Point Books, which “explores how a single moment captured on film can influence society and change the course of history.” Indeed, author Shelley Tougas uses the powerful photograph to tell the story of the brave Little Rock Nine students and their pivotal participation in the long fight for integration. Tougas devotes the first chapter to Eckford whose first-day experience was even more frightful because she did not get the message the night before about the fateful morning’s plans.
Four decades later in 1997, President Bill Clinton held open the front doors of Central High for the Little Rock Nine. Photographer Will Counts was also there. And so was Hazel Bryan Massery. Counts was able to take a very different photograph this time … one that would be used for a poster titled Reconciliation, now sold at the Visitor’s Center near the school. For the full story – inspiring and disturbing both! – and its aftermath, you’ll have to read the book.
Author Tougas effectively pulls together history, memories, and, of course, many photographs to present a mesmerizing, multi-layered mosaic of our challenging past. The title photo “told the story of segregation in an instant. But it did more than tell the facts – it provoked a reaction.” Change is still in motion … “and the state of America’s inner-city schools can be seen as evidence of racism in disguise.” Little Rock Girl, however, ends with the greatest hope, with a visit to Central High by one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals, who remembers being welcomed by a young African American boy: “‘Welcome to Central High School. I’m the president of the student body.’” Beals’ reaction is understandably tearful: “‘… I was expecting something other than this black child. This had been my dream, my vision. This was why I had endured all the pain and physical punishment – so this boy could stand there and say that. It was amazing.”
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2011 Continue reading
Schooled by Gordon Korman
Ever since the fabulous audible version of No More Dead Dogs kept my then-backseated young ‘uns highly entertained through many a traffic jam, Gordon Korman holds special favor on the contraptions that have taken over their now-teenage ears. [Pop, by the way, earned a double rave.] Oldster me is still laughing along (hey, these YA titles keep me young!) and especially appreciative of the full-cast productions that keep the running miles passing smoothly by.
Cap Anderson is just 13 when he’s arrested for driving without a license (even though he’s been at the wheel since he was 8), trying to get his grandmother Rain to the hospital. He’s eventually un-cuffed when the police officer realizes Cap’s not an unlawful teen, he’s just not your average kid. Cap’s spent his whole life on “an alternative farm commune” with Rain as his guardian/protector/teacher who’s homeschooled him “to avoid the low standards and cultural poison of a world that had lost its way.”
Now with Rain in the hospital with a broken hip, Cap gets thrust out in that “lost” world with no preparation. ‘Wide-eyed and innocent’ barely begins to describe young Cap who knows nothing of the “cultural poison” he’s about to experience. He lands in the home of a social worker and her angry-at-the-world high school daughter Sophie who has no qualms about letting Cap know he’s anything but welcome. Hardly home sweet home!
At Claverage Middle School (otherwise known as C Average Middle School after top bully Zach Powers pulls off a letter from the school sign), Cap quickly becomes the object of curious disdain. One by one, Korman shifts the narrative to give each of Cap’s new classmates a chance to share their reactions to the new kid. From the wannabe popular girl to the bottom-of-the-social-rung nerd to a football player who can’t seem to stop decking Cap (by mistake!), Cap’s brave new world turns upside down and all shook up. His classmates, of course, are in for some major surprises, too.
Korman effortlessly voices the worried parent, the proud principal, and the nastiest villain, to create a diverse community slowly coming to terms with unexpected difference. Cap’s otherworldly upbringing leads to moments of heartbreak and comedy, confusion and insight. Korman takes great care not to present Cap as some avenging angel against all things electronic and corporate, and instead imbues him (and his classmates) with unpredictable layers of complicated adolescence …
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2007 Continue reading
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie and After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
Being in the throes of adolescence, my two teenagers have little they agree on … especially when it comes to reading. Thing 1 can’t ever read enough; Thing 2 only deigns to pick up a book when he’s got an assignment due (yesterday, ahem). Jordan Sonnenblick, however, always elicits a sort-of similar response from both: “When’s his next book coming out?” Thing 1 asks; “Drums and Zen were great; maybe I’ll read another …” Thing 2 ponders. Hope springs eternal.
So here I am to tell parents with readers and non-readers that Sonnenblick is an ideal choice for both. Really. Tried and tested in this house.
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie was Sonnenblick’s debut effort (the last paragraph in his online bio says, “I have written a book per year since then,” so let’s hope he keeps that momentum going!). Welcome to Steven Alper’s eighth grade year … which starts out pretty smoothly. He’s a decent student, an awesome drummer, has reliable friends including a gorgeous crush, the usual loving parents, and an adorable (if sometimes annoying) five-year-old-brother. So far, so good … until one morning (October 7, to be exact), Steven is making “moatmeal” for little Jeffy (which only Steven can make just right) when Jeffy takes a tumble and gets a nosebleed … and it won’t stop. Emergency room, hospitalization, tests … and Jeffy is diagnosed with leukemia.
In pitch-perfect eighth-grade boy-speak, Sonnenblick details the challenges that Steven faces – watching his baby brother suffer through the debilitating treatments, his parents’ superhuman efforts to contain their worry, his own impossible feelings of helplessness and anger, not to mention his failing grades, his erratic love life, and the school counselor whose candy hearts make him weep every time.
Fast forward eight years to After Ever After and Jeffrey’s now in eighth grade. His leukemia is in remission, but he’s left with lifetime scars inside and out – a self-described “short, chubby kid with glasses, a limp, and brain damage.” A bit of exaggeration, but definitely a semblance of truth. His best friend. Tad, is an acerbic fellow cancer survivor. He’s “met the girls of [his] dreams,” in California-transfer Lindsay Abraham. So far, school is pretty good … although the home life, not so much. His accountant father can’t understand why Jeffrey struggles so much with math; his teacher mother (understandably) worries more than most. And, most disturbingly, his idol-brother Steven has dropped out of life and is somewhere in Africa chasing drumming circles.
Then a letter arrives: Filled with “super-awkward phrases like ‘educational equity’ and ‘assessment regime’ and ‘holistic integrity of the K-12 system,’” the bottom line means Jeffrey will need to pass “huge, horrifying state standardized tests” in order to graduate from eighth grade and move on. That letter (which ends up in the garbage disposal, ahem) leads to some major planning – including both Jeff and Tad getting through graduation with remarkable results! Another unforgettable eighth-grade Alper year begins …
Somehow, Sonnenblick is able to create both a shattering and hopeful story, balanced with gentle humor and wrenching tenderness. Highly recommend to be read back-to-back, the double novels offer a clear, remarkable window into adolescence … although you’ll need to occasionally wipe away the blur from your overflowing tears.
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2004 and 2010 Continue reading
Dumpling Days by Grace Lin
Even though today’s calendar reminds you it’s Friday the 13th, no worries! Let me share with you the youthful wisdom of one Grace Pacy Lin: “There was no day dumplings couldn’t make better.” After a long-awaited four-year hiatus, Pacy’s back … with a peripatetic, toothsome adventure to share.
Pacy, the alter-ego of 2010 Newbery Honor author Grace Lin (for her splendiferous Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), stars in her third title, following The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat. This time, Pacy is Taiwan-bound for a month with her family to celebrate her grandmother’s upcoming 60th birthday.
Dressed identically with her two sisters in “hot-pink overall dresses” and grumpily stuck in the middle seat of a long flight, Pacy would much rather be heading to Hawai’i or California (where she could at least see her best friend Melody). Taiwan might be her parents’ “homeland,” but for Pacy and sisters, “our small town of New Hartford, New York – with its big trees and sprawling lawns, the one shopping mall, and the red brick school with the tall, waving American flag – was our homeland.” Yet as her father patiently explains, “‘This is an important trip … Traveling is always important – it opens your mind. You take something with you, you leave something behind, and you are forever changed. That is a good trip.’”
The food, with so many different kinds of dumplings, is one experience that makes Pacy’s trip deliciously “good” (never mind the chicken feet and stinky tofu). Even more important than filling her belly, though, is feeding her heart, talent, and soul as Pacy gets to know her extended family and experience her ancestral culture through art, travel, and even riding the city subway.
Lin gently explores the disconnect of a second-generation child making a first visit to a country both familiar and alien: Pacy’s feelings of not being American enough at home (“‘It’s hard to match you in a cute couple …You don’t fit anyone else,’” a school friend insists) and yet being rejected as an Americanized “Twinkie” by other Taiwanese Americans, then realizing that in spite of her heritage, she doesn’t quite fit in her parents’ homeland, either. By book’s end, Pacy’s empathetic understanding of her parents’ immigration to the U.S. is especially memorable.
In case you might think the story overly familiar, Lin manages to deftly add a 21st-century spin on the ‘stranger-in-a-strange-land’ tale, re-introducing Pacy’s favorite cousin Clifford (whose wedding figured prominently in The Year of the Rat) and his wife Lian, who are now living in Taiwan as a result of the growing opportunities of reverse immigration in today’s global economy. Lin keeps surprising you with SAT-prayers to the ancient God of Literature, a subway pickpocket, a garbage truck that sings the ice cream truck song, and so much more … of course!
Tidbit: Make sure to check out the adorable book trailer.
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 2012 Continue reading
Filed under ..Middle Grade Readers, .Fiction, Chinese American, Taiwanese American
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