When You Reach Me

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. Wendy Lamb Books, 2009. Tr. $15.99, ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5.

What’s it about?

When sixth-grader Miranda’s best friend Sal gets punched by a strange kid, the unprovoked attack somehow unravels their friendship. Shortly after, Miranda receives the first of a series of mysterious notes that hint at an impending tragedy she must help prevent.  

Find out more:

It’s 1978 in New York City, and two childhood friends, Sal and Miranda, know the safest route to and from school, and know to avoid the Laughing Man, who rants “bookbag, pocketshoe” and likes to sleep under a mailbox.  Miranda’s world changes forever when her friend Sal is sucker-punched by a strange boy one day. After the unprovoked attack, Sal suddenly starts to shut her out of his life. Shortly after, Miranda begins receiving strange, cryptic notes that appear to be from someone who knows things he or she couldn’t possibly know.  Miranda is terrified, especially when her mother’s emergency spare key is stolen.  In the meantime, Miranda meets the boy, Marcus, who punched Sal “just to see what would happen.” Marcus is unusual. He sees her battered copy of A Wrinkle in Time, her favorite books, and begins a head-spinning argument about time travel. Meanwhile, Miranda navigates 6^th grade friendship drama (and discovers the impact she makes through small acts of kindness) and begins to put the pieces of the mysterious notes together. When something terrible happens, everything finally makes sense.

This thoughtful, powerful novel, which is in the form of a letter addressed to the note writer, unfolds quietly until its dramatic final act. Some readers may already know what will happen, but it doesn’t make it any less painful or poignant.  The way the story is told, in a non-linear fashion, adds to the mystery. Incorporating discussion about the plot elements of the classic A Wrinkle in Time adds to richness of this book. Stead weaves numerous subplots into this slim volume, and makes them all relate to the main plot. There is no unnecessary exposition.  There is so much going on that readers will probably want to re-read the book, but this is not due to Stead creating an obscure or incomprehensible story—readers will want to revisit the story to delight in how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, to marvel in Stead’s genius. This is a stunning, satisfying book that will appeal to a wide audience.

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic Fiction with a dash of Science-Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-9

Subjects: Latch-key kids, Working class families, Single mothers, Time-travel, Friendship

Awards:

Newbery Medal Winner (2010)

Read-alikes:

L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time

Snyder’s The Egypt Game

The Higher Power of Lucky

Patron, Susan. The High Power of Lucky. Illustrated by Matt Phelan. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006. Tr. $16.95 ISBN 978-1-4169-0194-5.

What’s it about?

Ten-year-old Lucky Trimble of Hard Pan, California, population 43, is worried that her French guardian Brigitte is going to leave her and move back to France, so she runs away in a dangerous dust storm before she can be abandoned. 

Find out more:

10-year-old Lucky Trimble lives in Hard Pan, California (population 43) with her guardian Brigitte, her absentee father’s first wife, a young Frenchwoman.   Lucky’s mother died two years ago when she was electrocuted after a storm, stepping on some downed power lines while barefoot. Lucky, who already lost a parent through abandonment, fears that Brigitte is going to leave her too. Brigitte misses her mother, misses France, and has taken out her suitcase and passport. Brigitte’s leaving is a foregone conclusion for the observant (and sometimes very mistaken) Lucky.  It’s time for Lucky to take control of her life and call on her “higher power,” something she’s learned a lot about from eavesdropping on 12-Step meeting. Lucky receives three signs that let her know it is the perfect day to run away. She takes her survival pack and her beloved dog HMS Beagle and heads off to the Mojave Desert during a dangerous dust storm.

The Higher Power of Lucky has a quirky and loveable cast of misfit characters. Patron does a wonderful job of showing who these people are through their words, actions, and Lucky’s observations. Despite the sadness in the story, there is plenty of quiet humor.  Although the story is Lucky-centric, the secondary characters are well-drawn, such as Brigitte, who obviously cares for Lucky, but can seem a bit impatient at times; Lucky’s friend Lincoln, the insightful knot-artist; and Miles, her clingy  five-year-old neighbor who is being raised by his grandmother because his mother is in prison for selling drugs.  

It’s nearly impossible to bring up this Newbery Medal winner without mentioning the ridiculous controversy over The Higher Power of Lucky. The controversy, of course, was due to a clinical term for a part of the male anatomy, which was used in describing Short Sammy’s dog’s rattlesnake bite. Over four years after Scrotumgate, people still associate The Higher Power of Lucky with the word scrotum. Not exactly the desired legacy for this little gem. At least the derisive comments are aimed at the small minds that made a big fuss about the clinical term Patron used to describe where the rattlesnake bit the poor dog. Many critics have mentioned that using an accurate term rather than a crude slang term is preferable. Patron herself defended her choice of words, saying that she’d use the word again, that the word was chosen carefully and deliberately, certainly not gratuitously. In fact, after Lucky finds out that Brigitte is going to adopt her and open up a restaurant in Hard Pan, she asks Brigitte what the word means. Brigitte answers her matter-of-factly, and then adds,”You know if anyone ever hurts you I would rip their heart out.” I’m not sure if kids will make the connection between the question Lucky asked and Brigitte’s protective response, but they will take away Brigitte’s deep love for Lucky.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor

Reading level: 6^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-6

Subjects: Death of a parent, Abandonment, Small towns, Runaways

Awards:

Newbery Medal (2007)

Series information:

 Lucky Breaks (2009)

Lucky for Good (2011)

Read-Alikes:

Hannigan’s Ida B.

Wiles’ Love, Ruby Lavender

Character name/descriptions:

Lucky Trimble-a 10-year-old fearful of abandonment, who loves to listen in on 12-step meetings and tries to find her own “higher power”

Miles—a 5 year-old who loves cookies

Lincoln—Lucky’s friend, obsessed with knot-making

Brigitte—Lucky’s guardian, a parsley-loving Frenchwoman once married to Lucky’s father

Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time

Yee, Lisa. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time. Scholastic, 2005. Paperback $5.99, ISBN-13 978-0-439-62248-6.

What’s it about?

Stanford Wong, star basketball player, in danger of failing the sixth grade and being off the team, must miss basketball camp, take summer school and endure the humiliation of his nemesis Millicent Min tutoring him.  

Find out more:

Stanford Wong is looking forward to going to a highly reputable basketball camp and being the only seventh grader to be on the A-team at school.  He feels that his life is over when his English teacher, Mr. Glick, tells him he will fail sixth grade if he doesn’t take English in summer school. As if this isn’t bad enough, Stanford must miss basketball camp to take summer school. He may even be off the basketball team if he doesn’t pass. Plus, his parents are fighting, his work-a-holic father is perpetually disappointed in him, and his beloved grandmother Yin-Yin is sent to a depressing nursing home. Could things be worse? Yes—Stanford must also suffer the indignity of being tutored by Millicent Min, a snotty eleven-year-old genius who is already taking college courses. He fears losing his friends and new girlfriend, Millicent’s friend Emily Ebers if they find out he is taking summer school. He and Millicent craft a lie that protects Stanford’s secret (that he struggle in school) and Millie’s secret (that she is a genius), but threatens their friendships with Emily.  

Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time is an accessible and funny book about a likeable under-achiever. It is not necessary to have read Millicent Min, Girl Genius to enjoy Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, but it is hilarious to see how different the same events look to these very different protagonists. Stanford comes across as a bit of a jerk in from Millicent’s perspective, but he is far more sensitive than she imagines. He certainly doesn’t see himself as the handsome, popular big-shot he is portrayed as. Instead, Stanford always feels on edge about his social status, which wasn’t always good. He is secret stress-knitter. He watches Sesame Street with his taciturn friend Stretch (who is so self-conscious about his voice change that he never speaks.) At the same time, Stanford is a very talented athlete with a tight-knit group of friends (and a frenemy, the mean-spirited and trouble Digger).  This book may appeal more to boys, with its fart jokes and guy humor, but its humor and sensitive portrayal of Stanford will also appeal to girls.

Genre: Humor, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade 

Interest level: Grades 4-7

Subjects: School, Grades, Basketball, Family, Friends, Parental disapproval, Self-esteem, Popularity

Read-alikes:

Korman’s No More Dead Dogs

Series information:   

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

So Totally Emily Ebers 

Anastasia Krupnik

Lowry, Lois. Anastasia Krupnik. Houghton Mifflin, 1979. Tr. $13.95, ISBN 0-395-28629-8.

What’s it about?

Meet Anastasia Krupnik, a smart, quirky aspiring poet who documents the important things that happen during her tenth year, which is destined to be momentous.  

Find out more:

Sensitive, quirky ten-year-old Anastasia Krupnik, daughter of a published poet and college professor and an artist, both slightly eccentric as well, keeps a list of the most important things that happened the year she was ten, and an ever-changing list of things she loves and things she hates. She is determined that the arrival of her baby brother will be terrible, and places babies in the “Things I Hate” column. Some things she goes back and forth on—her crush Washburn Cummings and her parents for instance—and she decides she has a mercurial temperament.  One thing she has always hated was her name. When she find out that Catholics get to choose a Saint’s name at confirmation, she decides she will become a Catholic—until she finds out that Catholics must confess their sins (even secret bad thoughts).  When she discovers that her mother is pregnant, she feels betrayed and decides to give her new brother the worst name ever.

Anastasia is a very well-drawn, flawed and engaging character. The humor of this book is subtle and intelligent. Anastasia crafts a magnificent, modernist poem that conveys the sounds and look of creatures that live in tidepools after dark. Instead of being stunned by her gift and precociousness, Mrs. Westvessel gives her an F because the poem doesn’t rhyme or contain standard punctuation and capitalization.  In her class, directions must be followed, and she’d explained what she was expecting from the class. After Anastasia’s conversation with her father, the reader draws the conclusion that Mrs. Westvessel doesn’t understand everything she teaches. Although this book is largely light-hearted, Anastasia’s relationship and sadness about her frail and senile 92-year-old grandmother is very poignant and painful.  Anastasia also learns to recognize that she has misjudged some people in her life, including Mrs. Westvessel, who actually turns out to be very kind (albeit not the best teacher of poetry!). This is not one of Lowry’s best known works, but like everything she has written, it is a gem.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-6

Subjects: Family relationships, Siblings

Read-alikes:

Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy

Series information:

Anastasia Again (1981)

Anastasia at Your Service (1982)

Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst (1984)

Anastasia on Her Own (1985)

Anastasia Has the Answers (1986)

Anastasia’s Chosen Career (1987)

Anastasia at this Address (1991)

Anastasia Absolutely (1995)

Related series (features Anastasia’s younger brother Sam):

All About Sam (1988)

Attaboy, Sam! (1992)

See You Around, Sam! (1996)

Zooman Sam (1999)

The Plain Janes

Castellucci, Cecil. The Plain Janes. Illustrated by Jim Rugg. Minx, 2007. Paperback $9.99, ISBN 13 978-1-4012-1115-8

What’s it about?

Jane transfers to a new school in the suburbs and meets a group of girls at the misfit table—all also named Jane. Together, they form the group P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods) and breathe life into their stuffy town by creating random artwork around the neighborhood.  

Find out more:

When Jane survives a bomb attack in Metro City, her parents decide the city is too dangerous and move to the stultifying suburbs. Jane makes herself over, decides that that popular crowd is not where she belongs anymore, and plants herself at the loser table, where she meets three girls, also named Jane. They aren’t exactly welcoming. After the Janes warm up to her, an idea stirs in Main Jane and together with the Janes, she forms a group called P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods). The “art attacks” are seen as threatening to authority figures, and participating may even land teens in a juvenile detention facility. These ridiculous threats inspire classmates to become involved in the art attacks and this ends up uniting classmates, formerly fixated in rigid cliques.

The artwork of this graphic novel reminds me a bit of the art of Clowes’ Ghost World.  The books have some similarities, but the subversion of Main Jane, however, is not mean-spirited like Enid’s.  The message of Plain Janes is the power of art, the power of expressing oneself, and the power of communication.  The community was a stifling place for creativity, but Jane’s influence helped breathe life into her classmates.  This is a novel about having the bravery to stand up for ones beliefs, and to be a non-conformist, even if it is uncomfortable, even if others feel threatened.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Friendship Fiction

Subjects: Survivors, Art, High school, Misfits, Conformity, Friendship, Moving

Reading level/ Interest level: Grades 7-12

Read-alikes:

Gulledge’s Page by Paige

For adults and older teens: Clowes’ Ghost World

Series information:

Janes in Love

Hidden

Frost, Helen. Hidden. Frances Foster Books, 2011. Tr. $16.99 , ISBN 978-0-374-38221-6.

What’s it about?

Two girls, Darra and Wren, meet at a summer camp and remember what happened six years ago, when Darra’s father stole a gold minivan without knowing Wren was in the backseat. The girls swallow these secrets and avoid each other—until they are paired together in a lifesaving class.

Find out more:

When Wren was eight, she was kidnapped by Darra’s father when he stole her family’s gold minivan.  It wasn’t an intentional kidnapping—in fact, Darra’s father West didn’t even know she’d been in the van. Darra discovers Wren, terrified, hiding in the boat. Darra leaves her food and water, and helps her remain hidden. Wren manages to escape through a cat door, and Darra’s father is shortly after arrested. The two girls re-unite at a summer camp six years later, unwilling to talk about the first time they met.  Their hopes of getting through camp without interacting are dashed when they are paired together for a lifesaving exercise. Wren has flashbacks of the kidnapping and nearly drowns Darra. After this, the girls are able to face each other and talk about what happened. Wren hears Darra’s anger at losing her father to incarceration, and Darra hears how terrified Wren was during her ordeal.

 Hidden is a beautifully written, quick-paced novel in verse with a compelling plot: crime victim facing the daughter of the man who victimized her. This story is not all about Wren’s perspective, however, it is told in the alternating voices of Wren and Darra. Wren’s voice forms short stanzas of free verse, and Darra’s is more stream-of-consciousness, forming very long stanzas of very long lines. Frost states that she invented this form for this book. There is a hardness to Darra’s voice, a toughness that softens a bit after she and Wren become friends.  By the end of Hidden, both girls recognize they were both victims, and don’t blame each other for what happened.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Novel in Verse

Subjects: Poetry, Kidnapping, Summer Camps, Friendship, Crime Victims, Forgiveness

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 6-10

Read-alikes:

Chaltas’ Because I am Furniture

Sones’ Stop Pretending

Sones’ What My Mother Doesn’t Know

Wayland’s Girl Coming in for a Landing

Page by Paige

Gulledge, Laura Lee. Page by Paige. Amulet Books, 2011.  Paperback $9.95, ISBN-13  978-0-8109-9722-6

What’s it about?

Paige is a reserved young artist who has recently moved to New York City. With the help of a group of new friends, she begins to show people her artwork—and, page by page, the real Paige.

Find out more:

Paige moves from Virginia to New York City, an overwhelming change for the sensitive young artist. She feels distant from her parents, who don’t really know the real Paige. She is terrified to show anyone her sketchbook, because her artwork reveals who she really is. At her new school, she meets an artsy, quirky group of friends who like her and accept her, including her first boyfriend, Gabe, a sensitive writer. She eventually overcomes her shyness enough to show her sketchbook to Gabe, completely exposing herself. She becomes more courageous, and begins to post her artwork online and share her art with the world in anonymous installments of art (including pasting beautiful hand-drawn paper trees to plain brick walls) by the “Agents of Whimsy” (with the help of her friends).   

This is an excellent graphic novel, and a great choice to hand young creative tweens and teens.  At first, I was a little skeptical about the extremely dramatic reactions to her parents, but the angst Paige feels about something as mundane as having to clean her room for company masks some deeper identity and self-esteem issues. While Paige may have it far easier than many of today’s tweens and teens, I think kids can relate to feeling like people don’t really know the person they really are.  The strongest part of this book is the amazing artwork, full of expression and interesting metaphors. Gulledge uses washes for many panels, which give this book a softer, more realistic look than the pen and ink panels. She does this for emphasis, and it’s an effective technique. I look forward to seeing more from this artist. 

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Subjects: Art, Artists, Self-Esteem, Self-Perception, Teenagers, Friendship

Reading level/ Interest level: Grades 6-12

Read-alikes:

Castellucci’s The Plain Janes 

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Blume, Judy. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Puffin, 2007 (c. 1972). Paperback $ 5.99, ISBN-13 978-0142408810 

What’s it about? Peter Hatcher is sick and tired of being a Fourth Grade Nothing, overshadowed by his adorable,  havoc-wreaking, toddler brother Fudge. 

Find out more: Peter Hatcher is fourth grader with a cute younger brother, who goes by the nickname Fudge. Peter likes Fudge the best when he is asleep and puts his fingers in his mouth and makes a content slurping noise. When Fudge is awake, however, he is trouble. Like many toddlers, Fudge is in constant motion, exploring his environment (with the side effects of destructiveness and racket).  Peter is frustrated by the way adults treat Fudge and how Fudge gets away with awful behavior.  He feels like a fourth grade nothing, with his accomplishments and needs overshadowed by his little brother.

The title of the book is slightly misleading—the tales are Fudge-centric, which highlights how Peter feels—like a backdrop in his own life. Toddlers are egoists, and everything centers around them, which is tiresome when you yourself are still a child.  Peter comes across as more mature than his age, and his accounts of Fudge’s behavior are hilariously deadpan. The reader will feel sympathy for Peter, especially when he bears the blame for and the brunt of the misbehavior. There are some funny moments when Fudge’s idolization of his older brother Pee-tah comes in handy for handling Fudge’s difficult behavior, such as the ruse when Peter pretended to be getting the same type of shoes as Fudge. Any kid with a younger sibling will identify with Peter, and kids who are the babies of the family will enjoy the humor of these anecdotes. The target audience of this book is kids who are in upper elementary school. Both boys and girls will enjoy Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, which is still in print nearly 40 years later.

 I recall reading this book when I was in third grade and had a sister Fudge’s age. My sister was no Fudge—she was much better behaved (although she did swallow rocks and loose change).  I do remember feeling secondary to her, however, and I think most older siblings feel like Peter does when there is a sizeable age difference, especially in smaller families.  I loved every moment of the book, except for the fate of poor Dribble. I thought the turtle eating was impossible, and a literary device, but according to Blume, the inspiration came from an article published in the late 60s about a toddler who swallowed a pet turtle.

Genre label: Humor, Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Reading level: 3^rd grade

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Read-alikes:

Cleary’s Beezus and Ramona and Ramona the Pest

Subjects: Siblings, sibling relationships, family relationships, toddlers

Series information:

Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (Judy Blume thinks of this as the second “Fudge” book)

Superfudge

Fudge-a-Mania

Double Fudge

Character name/descriptions:

Peter Hatcher—narrator & older brother to the mischevious toddler Fudge. Proud owner of an ill-fated turtle named Dribble

Jimmy Fargo—Peter’s friend and neighbor

Fudge—Peter’s younger brother, who ruins everything!

Sheila Tubman—Peter’s know-it-all classmate

Frindle

Clements, Andrew. Frindle. Simon & Schuster, 1996. Tr. $15.00,  ISBN 0-689-80669.

What’s it about?

Nick Allen is full of ideas, and his latest is to create a new entry in the lexicon. Need to jot down a note? Don’t grab a pen, grab a frindle!

Find out more:

Nick Allen is an idea man, but he’s afraid that his ideas will be squelched by his fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Granger, who is a strict dictionary aficionado.  When Nicholas tries his usual ploy to distract the teacher during the last few minutes of class so they won’t assign homework, Mrs. Granger instead assigns him a report on dictionaries, in answer to his question, “where did all the words come from?” in dictionaries. Indignant Nick researches his question, and the next day presents an epic report intending to suck up the entire class. He nearly succeeds, but the class is saddled with their usual homework load. During his report, he asks Mrs. Granger again why words mean different things. Mrs. Granger explains that we decide what goes in the dictionary.  Nick mulls this, and later that afternoon, has an “aha!” moment when he picks up a pen his friend has dropped. It’s not a pen, he declares. It’s a FRINDLE!  The word catches on quickly, and soon Mrs. Granger becomes frustrated and disciplines children using this word instead of pen. At that moment, pens stop being pens and are frindles.  The children rebel, and take pride in their frindle-induced detentions. Soon parents and the school board get involved, and the media (including Letterman!) is not far behind. Frindles even rake in a large profit when a local entrepreneur realizes the power of this subversive brand.

This is an excellent novella to hand to upper-elementary students. It’s a book about how language is living, malleable, and constantly changing.  It’s a book about character, as well.  Some people may not like the challenge to authority, but the challenge is an etymological challenge, and the thrust of this book is not negative.  Nicholas becomes extremely wealthy—and generous-- when the trust fund his dad set up with all the frindle merchandise profits becomes his at the age of 21.  He does buy himself some nice things—a fast computer, a mountain bike, some games-- but he also gifts his parents, older brother and niece, and sets up a one million dollar scholarship in Mrs. Granger’s name.  This book is a feel-good book, and a fun read that challenges our notions of language.  Mrs. Granger’s need to cast herself as the villain was a funny twist, and so is Selnick’s illustration of Nick on the David Letterman show.  Clemens has penned –er, frindled a winner!

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor

Subjects: Dictionaries, Words, Classrooms, Teachers, Inventions, Semantics

Awards:

Christopher Award (1997)

Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Award (1999)

Texas Children’s Crown Award (1999)

Read-alikes:

Avi’s Nothing but the Truth

Dahl’s Matilda

Characters:

Mrs. Granger—Nick’s fifth-grade teacher, a dictionary aficionado

Nicholas Allen—the protagonist, the inventor of the word “Frindle”

Mrs. Chatham—the principal of Lincoln Elementary

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

Berk, Josh. The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin. Borzoi, 2010. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-375-85699-0

What’s it about?

Will Halpin, a hefty deaf high school student attends a “mainstream” high school. When one of his fellow students, a morally bankrupt son of a casino owner, Pat Chambers, falls to his death on a field trip to the local coal mine where Halpin’s own great-uncle “Dummy” Halpin died, he and his buddy Devon Smiley solve the case.

 Find out more:

Will Halpin, an expert lip-reader and amateur sleuth, whose IM handle is “Hamburger Halpin” is attending a mainstream high school after years of deaf school—and while he is finding the social lives of his fellow students intriguing and rich in irony, he wishes he wasn’t the butt of jokes, along with his new friend Devon Smiley, who is on the bottom of the social heap, so low on the food chain, that “even teachers and C-listers rip on him.” Will begins to fall for a beautiful, popular girl Leigha, who appears to be beaten by her bully boyfriend, the popular and morally bankrupt Pat Chambers. When Will’s class takes a field trip to visit the local coal mines, and Pat falls to his death, there are numerous suspects. Will and Devon team together to solve the crime, and their exploits place them in the thick of the investigation—and under suspicion.

This is one of darker, funnier books I’ve read in the past few years. Will has a self-deprecating sense of humor, and has a keen eye for the social drama in others’ lives and writes his sarcastic observations in a notebook. His humorous IM and text exchanges with Devon further add levity to this black comedy. Will’s narration is strong, and never self-pitying. The reader will find his letter to Leigha both naïve and hilarious.  There are many moment in this book where I cringed and laughed at the same time. This is a timely novel, filled with pop culture and technological references, but the themes of disability, crime, corruption and friendship are timeless.

Genre:  Humor, Mystery, Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Reading level: Grades 5-6

Interest level: Grades 6-12

Subjects: Crime, Deafness, Friendship, Popularity, High School

Read alikes:

Edmond’s Happyface

Schmidt’s Okay for Now

Bray’s Going Bovine 

King’s Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Babysitter's Club Graphic Novel: Kristy's Great Idea

Telgemeier, Raina. The Baby Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea. Graphix, 2006. Paperback $8.99 ISBN-10 0-439-73933-0

What’s it about?

Kristy Thomas and her friends are baby-sitting pros. Kristy gets an idea that will increase their business—forming a Baby-Sitters Club, where parents need to place just one call to find a group of experienced babysitters.

Find out more:

 This graphic novel adaptation of the first Baby-sitter’s Club book (BSC) in the popular, long-lived series which began in the late eighties, is not just about babysitting. Babysitting is the backdrop of the lives of four girls, Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey, each with their own private dramas, like divorce, the death of a parent, diabetes, crushes, sibling rivalry and family pressure. This story centers around Kristy’s experiences, with the central drama being her parent’s divorce. Kristy is vehemently opposed to her mother remarrying, and initially refuses to have anything to do with her mother’s fiancé, Watson, and his children Karen and Andrew. When Mary Ann babysits for them (because Kristy won’t), she writes in a Baby-sitter’s Club log that the kids are cute, and that Kristy would like them if she gave them a chance. Eventually, Kristy warms up to the idea of her mother remarrying. Another sub-plot in this graphic novel is the friendship between the four girls, which becomes strained when some girls feel that the jobs aren’t being evenly distributed.

All told, this is a very tween-friendly graphic novel that portrays a group of pre-teen friends starting their own business. The story-telling is light-hearted and humorous, and the darker elements aren’t heavy-handed.  The girls’ response to Stacey’s diabetes is relief that she is not anorexic, a somewhat puzzling reaction, since both are serious and potentially life-threatening conditions. What carries these girls through their struggles, including jealousy and resentment, is the high value place on their friendship. Friendship is a central theme of this graphic novel, as well as the series it is based upon. This is a positive, upbeat book, and while some of the heavier elements are wrapped up a little too neatly in an after-school special sort of manner, the deft, appealing artwork and the fast-paced, readable dialog makes this an enjoyable read for tween girls.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Humor

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Read-alikes:

McDonald’s The Sisters Club

Myracle’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen

Naylor’s Alice series

Subjects: Friendship, Family, Divorce, Baby-sitting, Tween girls, Entrepreners

Series information:

The Baby-Sitters Club: The Truth About Stacy (BSC Graphix, 2006)

The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves The Day (BSC Graphix, 2007)

 The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and Mean Janine (BSC Graphix, 2008)

Characters:

Kristy—tomboyish, impulsive mastermind of the Baby-Sitter’s Club

Claudia—creative and fun-loving, with a phone in her room and a Grammar-Nazi sister

Mary Anne—shy and studious, and being raised by her strict single father

Stacey—new to Stonybrook, a friendly girl recently diagnosed with diabetes

The Skin I'm In

Flake, Sharon. The Skin I’m In. Jump at the Sun, 1998. Paperback $5.99 ISBN-10 0-7868-1307-5

What’s it about?

Maleeka Madison didn’t use to hate the dark skin she was born in—but lately, she has been assaulted with taunts about her blackness. Her disfigured teacher Miss Saunders helps her find her voice through her talent for writing.

Find out more:

Maleeka Madison, a seventh grader being bullied because of her dark skin and because her clothes are hand-sewn by her mother, a very poor seamstress, has a bad feeling inside when she first sees her new English teacher Miss Saunders, who has a large swath of unpigmented skin across her face. Since Maleeka works full time to fit in, the last thing she needs is to be associated with her—which is a danger, since her attracts “strange characters.”  Last year, Maleeka was a good student, a nice kid who flew under the radar—until Caleb, the smartest boy in school began to express interest in her. The girls in her class began to pick on her mercilessly. The bullying escalates until the entire class taunts her. Caleb stops associating with her (which Maleeka finds out later was to protect her, not to insult her), but the torment doesn’t stop. Finally Maleeka takes the initiative to get protection by doing homework for Char, the toughest, meanest girl in her class—who has already flunked seventh grade twice. Char gives her new, stylish clothes, and gives Maleeka a tough-girl confidence. But her attitude begins to rub off on Maleeka, who begins cutting class, getting poor grades and getting in fights. Miss Saunders is undaunted, though, and works patiently with Maleeka, helping her find her voice through her writing, and accept the skin she’s in.

Flake’s debut is stunning in its spare, powerful prose. Maleeka’s voice is realistic, and raw with pain from the death of her father, the depression and grief of her mother, and the constant barrage of insults from her peers. Much of the bullying Maleeka endures is a type of racism, black-on-black racism, which is particularly harsh on women, a topic not often addressed in literature written for the middle school crowd and something that some ethnic groups may be unaware of.  Maleeka makes some incredibly bad choices, but the reader roots for her, just as Miss Saunders does, because she is full of grit, intelligence, and determination.  Her anger at herself for stressing out her mother is particularly poignant. Clearly Maleeka is a very empathic person, despite her tough act.  This book is an amazing character study not only of Maleeka, but of Miss Saunders, a woman so tormented by her disfigurement she feels the need to compensate by being the best dressed, the hardest worker, the most successful person wherever she goes. It’s no wonder this book was awarded the 1999 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; it is a work of art, and belongs on the shelves of every library serving youth.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Multi-cultural, Problem Novel, Urban Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-9

Read alikes:

Myers’ Autobiography of My Dead Brother

Wolff’s Make Lemonade

Awards:

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent (1999)

Subjects: Bullying, racism, teachers, self-esteem, African-Americans

Characters:

Maleeka Madison: intelligent, troubled protagonist with a talent for writing, bullied mercilessly for her dark skin and unstylish clothing

Miss Saunders: a disfigured, passionate English teacher who patiently works through Maleeka’s tough exterior

Charlese (Char):  a tough, mean girl who lets Maleeka borrow her expensive clothing in exchange for Maleeka doing her homework assignments for her

Caleb: the smartest, most popular guy in school, likes Maleeka great deal 

Tai: a quirky teacher at McClenton Middle School, friend of Miss Saunders

Joey Pigza Loses Control

Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Loses Control. Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2000. Tr. $16.00 ISBN 0-374-39989-1

What’s it about?

Joey Pigza meets his father, who abandoned him when he was in kindergarten, and stays with him for the summer. Joey is eager to please his father, but has Carter really changed?

Find out more: Joey Pigza, who we met in Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, is still wired, but faring much better with his new medication. He and his beloved Chihuahua mix, Pablo, go visit his father for six weeks during the summer. Joey’s dad, Carter, abandoned him several years ago. He struggles with A.D.D., much like Joey, and alcoholism. Carter is bright-eyed with excitement, though, because he has turned his life around. He has a new girlfriend, is coaching a boy’s baseball team, and has a steady job.  Joey, however, notices that his dad talks and talks and talks without allowing response. He drinks one beer, then two (because the first one got lonely), then sneaks the rest of his girlfriend’s beer. This is not a big deal, though; beer is “soda pop for grown-ups.” Joey’s grandmother (the one that raised him, berated him and locked him in a fridge once upon a time) warns Joey that Carter really hasn’t changed.  In fact, Carter goads Joey into throwing out his medication patches, telling him that it is a crutch to take medication.

Joey Pigza Loses Control is bleaker than Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. The alcoholism of Joey’s mother in the first book seemed much more under control than that of Carter.  There are some scarily observant moments from Joey, such as the time that he felt that he was a different Joey with different adults. He feels like taking risks when with this father, whose edgy energy makes Joey feel more wired. There are a lot less laughs in this sequel than in the first book.  Not only is Joey on the edge, but his father is trying to push him over it, insisting that controlling Joey’s ADD is mind over matter. In Joey Pigza Loses Control, Joey is out of control, but the adults in his life help him to stay safe. With the exception of Joey’s grandmother, all the adults had his best interests in mind. In Joey Pigza Loses Control, the real out of control person is Carter, who destabilizes Joey and makes his approval conditional on Joey’s winning pitching record. The chaos Joey experiences is frightening, but more frightening is the knowledge of what his ex-con alcoholic father might be capable of. Recommend this book to fans of gritty realistic fiction. This book is not a stand-alone. Reading the first book is necessary to understand why Joey needs his patches, and the back-story of Joey’s grandmother, mother and father.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Problem Novels

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-9

Subjects: Attention-Deficit Disorder, Parents, Relationships, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Baseball, Father-son relationships

Awards:

Newbery Honor, 2001

ALA Notable Children’s Book, 2001

Read-alikes:

Crawford’s Carter Finally Gets It

Van Draanen’s Swear to Howdy

Characters:

Joey Pigza—the protagonist, who wants to give his father a second chance

Carter—Joey’s father, who makes a re-appearance in Joey’s life, and claims to have turned his life around

Fran—Joey’s mother, who is nervous about leaving Joey with his father

Leezy—Carter’s new girlfriend

Grandma—Joey’s Grandmother, now ill with emphysema, although she persists to smoke.

Series information:

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998)

What Would Joey Do? (2002)

I am Not Joey Pigza (2007)

So Totally Emily Ebers

Yee, Lisa. So Totally Emily Ebers. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-439-83847-4

What’s it about?

Emily Ebers has just moved to Rancho Rosetta because of her parent’s divorce and meets a girl named Millicent Min on her volleyball team and a handsome basketball player named Stanford Wong.  These three lives intersect in hilarious and unexpected ways.  

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Emily Ebers’ parents recently divorced, and now Emily’s mom has moved her all the way to Rancho Rosetta California. Emily begins writing letters to her father, who is on tour with his band, the Talky Boys, updating him on her new life without him. She is having an interesting summer, including joining a volleyball team and making a new friend, meeting a cute boy that she develops a crush on, and seeing her controlled mom try on a new identity as a free-spirited hippie.  When Emily discovers that many people in her life are not what they appear to be, she is disillusioned. She learns to weather the tough times and to repair the relationships that matter.

This is largely a humorous tale, although there are plenty of more serious moments that occur when Emily realizes some people, including her father, are not being honest with her.  Emily’s disillusionment with her father, Millicent, and her frenemies is something a lot of tweens can relate to. Although this is painful for Emily, she comes out of these struggles stronger. She learns to discern between quality people and people that don’t genuinely care about her. Although she is initially flattered by the attention Julie, the queen bee in volleyball, is giving her, she realizes she is being used and ridiculed and stands up for herself. Emily is such a good-natured character that her anger (though justified!) is surprising. This book can be read as a stand-alone, although readers of Millicent Min, Girl Genius and/or Stanford Wong Flunks Out will gobble up this book, and readers who have started off with So Totally Emily Ebers will be eager to read about these events from the perspectives of Millicent and Stanford.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic fiction, Humor, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-7

Awards: Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Awards Nominee, 2010

Read-alikes:

Danziger & Martin’s P.S. Longer Letter Later

Blume’s Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

Cabot’s Ally Finkle’s Rules for Girl series

Subject: Friendship, family relationships, divorce, popularity

Characters:

Emily: Effervescent protagonist, struggling to accept her parent’s divorce and adjusting to her new life in Rancho Rosetta, CA

Millicent: Emily’ new best friend, a funny girl being tutored by the brilliant Stanford Wong (or is she?)

Stanford: A handsome basketball player, the object of Emily’s affections, Millicent’s tutor (or is he?)

Alice Ebers: Emily’s mother, a journalist, hit hard by the divorce

Julie: A mean girl clique leader who wants to make-over Emily in her image 

David Ebers: Emily’s absentee father, on tour with the Talky Boys (or is he?)

Series information:

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Stanford Wong Flunks Out

Best Friends and Drama Queens (Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #3)

Cabot, Meg. Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Best Friends and Drama Queens. Scholastic, 2009. Tr. $15.99 ISBN 978-0-545-04043-3.

What’s it about?
When Allie comes back to school after winter break, she discovers she is no longer the new girl--there is a new girl Cheyenne, from Canada, who turns fourth grade into a comical boy/girl drama!  

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Not so long ago, Allie Finkle was the new girl at Pine Heights Elementary. Now a girl all the way from Canada is the new kid in town. Allie wants to make her feel welcome, but feels that Mrs. Hunter is asking a bit too much of her when she asks Allie to switch her seat to make room for the new girl. She plans to seat the new girl, Cheyenne, next to Allie’s friend Erica and place Allie in the back with Rosemary (who previously bullied Allie, but then became friends) and the rowdiest boys in the class.  Allie wants to please her favorite teacher, so she says yes. Allie and her friends are nice kids, so when they see Cheyenne all alone at recess, they invite her to play their favorite game. Cheyenne rudely replies that since they are in fourth grade, they are too old to play “babyish” games of pretend. Instead, she introduces the kissing game to the fourth grade. Then she insists that all the fourth graders pair up and start “going together.” Allie isn’t ready for this, but nor is she is ready to be the laughingstock of the fourth grade, with her new nickname “Big Baby Finkle.”

In the third book of the Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls series, Allie is confronted with peer pressure and different type of bullying from what she faced in The New Girl. Her new classmate is pushing herself and her classmates into growing up. Kissing and going out are not usually high on the list of a fourth grader’s priorities, but they are high on Cheyenne’s list. She influences her peers to discard everything she thinks is “babyish,” and pushes them to do things most of them are not ready for, and don’t yet understand. Young tweens are confronted by this constantly, by the media and their peers, and it is refreshing to see that Allie remains a hold out. This isn’t easy for her to do, though. She is ridiculed, especially when she ends up being the only girl besides Rosemary to not “go out” with a boy, and ends up so upset that she shuts herself in a closet and bawls.  Allie is not a mindless conformist, but her feelings are as fragile as any other child’s. Hand this book to younger tween girls, especially those navigating the perilous waters of friendship, cliques, bullying and the pressure to grow up too soon.    

Series information:
#1 Moving Day
#2 The New Girl
#3 Best Friends and Drama Queens
#4 Stage Fright
#5 Glitter Girls & the Great Fake Out
#6 Blast from the Past

Read alikes:
Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series

Paula Danizger’s
Judy Blume’s Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great and the Fudge series

For a slightly older audience: Judy Blume’s Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself, and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

For a slightly younger audience: Pennypacker’s Clementine series and Park’s Junie B. Jones series

Reading level: 5th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-5

Genre: Humor, Friendship Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Subjects: Friendship, cliques, maturity, popularity, rules

Characters:

Allie Finkle—the nine-year-old protagonist with a penchant for rules

Caroline—Allie’s best friend—the smartest girl in fourth grade

Sophie—Allie’s best friend—pretty and in love with “Prince Peter” a.k.a Peter Jacobs

Erica—Allie’s best friend and next-door neighbor—a spirited gymnast

Jay—Allie’s uncle, who is studying poetry in college

Kevin—Allie’s youngest brother, obsessed with pirates

Mark—Allie’s younger brother, obsessed with dirt bikes, bugs and sports

Mrs. Hunter—Allie’s teacher

Rosemary—Allie’s tough classmate, and foe-turned-friend of Allie  

Cheyenne—a boy-obsessed drama queen, who has little tolerance for girls who act like “babies”

The New Girl (Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #2)

Cabot, Meg. Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: The New Girl. Scholastic, 2008. Tr. $15.99 ISBN 978-0-545-04049-5.

What’s it about?

Being the new girl is not easy, as Allie Finkle, the new girl at Pine Heights Elementary, can attest.  While she makes new friends, one scary enemy, the biggest, toughest girl in the fourth grade, Rosemary Dawkins, makes life difficult for her.  

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Allie Finkle is the new girl at Pine Heights Elementary, and while she loves her new teacher, Mrs. Hunter, and her new friends, Caroline, Erica and Sophie, who love to play the same games she enjoys, a bully, a big, tough girl named Rosemary Dawkins, teases her and threatens to beat her up. While Allie dodges Rosemary, and seeks out advice on how to deal with her from her friends and the adults in her life, she and her family are still adjusting to their new home. When Grandma comes to visit from out of town and sees that the family hasn’t received their stove yet, she orders them another one—but not the one Allie’s parents want. Feeling unappreciated, she storms out and goes to Allie’s Uncle Jay. Fortunately, Grandma’s ruffled feathers get smoothed out, and Allie gets exciting news—she finally gets to take home her new, prematurely born kitten Mewsette.  Allie’s mind is on taking care of Mewsie, so she lets her guard down regarding Rosemary. Following the advice of the janitor Mr. Elkhart, she begins to look at Rosemary in a new light.

The New Girl is a better book that the first Allie Finkle book Moving Day. The characters are more complex, and Allie is portrayed as a more thoughtful and mature kids than she was in the first book. The relationship between Allie’s grandmother and parents is interesting because it is a tense, complex relationship. The grandmother seems to have plenty of money and not a lot of patience. She expresses her frequent displeasure in passive-aggressive jibes. For instance, she tells Allie’s mother, “Don’t you look shapely, Elizabeth,” and when she hears Jay will meet them later, at dinner, she says, “Undergraduate students who are in their sixth year of taking poetry classes always have very important work to do, indeed.” She has a softer side, however, helping Allie care for her new kitten. By the end of the story, Rosemary turns out to be more complex than expected as well. The New Girl is a good exploration of friendship, bullying, and family relationships. This is a great book to hand to younger tween girls.  Allie is easy to relate to for this age group, because she is not a little girl, and still a long way from her teen years. Developmentally, she is beginning to form her own identity separate from her parents. She is actually mortified when her parents and grandmother come to her spelling bee, but she is still young enough to enjoy using her imagination in a make-believe battle between Queens and an evil warlord.

Genre: Humor, Friendship Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Reading level: 5th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-5

Read alikes:

Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series

Paula Danizger’s Amber Brown series
Judy Blume’s Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great and the Fudge series

Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking

For a slightly older audience: Judy Blume’s Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself, and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

For a slightly younger audience: Pennypacker’s Clementine series and Park’s Junie B. Jones series

Subjects: Friendship, Rules, Family, Grandmothers, Bullies, Kittens

Series information:
#1 Moving Day
#2 The New Girl
#3 Best Friends and Drama Queens
#4 Stage Fright
#5 Glitter Girls & the Great Fake Out
#6 Blast from the Past

Characters:

Allie Finkle—the nine-year-old protagonist with a penchant for rules

Caroline—A new friends of Allie’s—the smartest girl in fourth grade

Sophie—A new friend of Allie’s—pretty and in love with “Prince Peter”

Erica—Allie’s friend and next-door neighbor—a spirited gymnast

Jay—Allie’s uncle, who is studying poetry in college

Kevin—Allie’s youngest brother, obsessed with pirates

Mark—Allie’s younger brother, obsessed with dirt bikes, bugs and sports

Mrs. Hunter—Allie’s new teacher

Rosemary—Allie’s classmate—a bully who taunts Allie and threatens to beat her up