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.  

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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.  

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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.  

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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

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1972 (c. 1967). Paperback $5.50, ISBN 0-689-71181-6.

What’s it about?

Twelve-year-old Claudia and her younger brother Jamie run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where they encounter a beautiful statue of an angel that may or may not have been sculpted by Michelangelo. Jamie and Claudia are determined to solve the mystery of the angel’s creator, and uncover more than they bargained for.

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Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid feels unappreciated and tired of her ordinary existence, and sets out to run away and teach her family a little lesson. She is a creature of comfort, however, so the place she runs away to must be beautiful and comfortable. The Metropolitan Museum of Art fits the bill. She needs money to pull this off successfully, and invites her nine-year-old, penny-pinching brother Jamie along. The two have fun evading the guards, finding places to sleep undiscovered, and blending in with school groups. When a gorgeous statue of an angel appears at the museum, enveloped in mystery, the Claudia decides that her new mission is to find out if the sculpture is indeed the work of Michelangelo. Their detective work eventually leads them to the doorstep of the uber-wealthy elderly Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the woman who sold the statue to the museum for a measly $225 dollars. The two uncover the secrets of the statue by telling the secret-loving woman their own secrets of how they managed to evade discovery at the museum.

Although this book is a light-hearted mystery, it is also a work of art. Konigsburg’ has crafted believable characters who behave believably in a rather implausible situation. This makes this story all the funnier. Jamie has the best lines: when he is nearly discovered by a guard when he’s hiding in the men’s room, the startled guard asks “Where did you come from?” Jamie responds: “Mother always said I came from Heaven.” This book is extremely funny, but it has a deeper undertone that sets it apart from other amusing adventure stories. Claudia’s deep need to escape the prosaic is not a typical reason that a child runs away. Mrs.Frankweiler is not a typical art collector, either. She treasures the secrets and stories behind each piece more than the monetary value. There are also some poignant moments. Mrs. Frankweiler, in exchange for the children’s secrets about their adventure, bequeaths Michelangelo’s signed sketch of the angel. On their ride home, the two children decide that Mrs. Frankweiler (who confesses to the children that she’d always wanted to be a mother) will be their secret grandmother.

There is an amazing twist to Konigsberg’s classic mystery. In 1995, a professor noticed a statue of a cupid in the courtyard of the French Embassy’s cultural services building, which is on Fifth Avenue. She became convinced that this was actually a Michelangelo sculpture.  She investigated the statue and announced that it was indeed an early work by Michelangelo. Konigsberg’s fans were stunned, and wondered if she’d known about this statue all along. She didn’t, but this story adds a new and special twist to this timeless novel.    

Genre: Mystery, Adventure, Humor

Reading Level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-6

Read-alikes:

Balliet’s Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3

Raskin’s Westing Game

Subjects: Runaways, Museums, Sibling Relationships, Art of the Renaissance

Awards:

Newbery Medal (1968)

ALA Notable Book

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Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation

Bradbury, Ray. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation. Illustrated by Tim Hamilton. Hill and Wang, 2009. Paperback $16.95, ISBN 978-0-8090-5101-4.

What’s it about?

In fireman Guy Montag’s world, firemen burn books and have forgotten that firemen used to put out fires. When Guy begins to read the books he’s assigned to burn, he becomes the fire captain’s next target.

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Welcome to Guy Montag’s world, where firemen don’t put out fires, they start them. These firemen burn books, which are considered a threat to society, a threat to the government, and a threat to the status quo, where people are told what to think about by the ubiquitous TV screens. Books are the most dangerous contraband in existence.  What kind of fireman would start hiding books and secretly reading them? Guy Montag, deeply affected by a strange girl who takes walks, tastes rains and rarely watches the TV screens that cover the parlor walls, begins to re-consider his profession and asks dangerous questions. When a woman is burned alive with her books, Guy is wracked with guilt—and curiosity. “There must be something in books . . .to make a woman stay in a burning house.”  He begins to rescue books from the burnings, and hides them in his home. He reads them, and begins to ask too many questions. People are scared by this, and report him to the fire captain who comes to Guys house for a book burning. Guy, an unwilling host, lashes out in defense, killing the fire captain, and becomes a wanted man. He flees the city and finds like-minded people, who, fearing the danger physical books hold, read, memorize and burn books, becoming “bums on the outside, libraries inside.”

Ray Bradbury’s classic novel about book burning and totalitarian government was adapted into a graphic novel format a few years ago.  This is an authorized adaptation, and holds the power and beauty of the novel. Hamilton’s artwork is striking and masterful, and in sync with the text.  The wordless panels are exquisite, which show not only Hamilton’s skill but how deeply the story resonates with him. Toward the beginning of the story, when Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who helps him re-connect with the world, there is a scene where the two are talking in the rain. Clarisse explains that sometimes she just likes to tilt her head back and let the rain fall into her mouth. “It tastes like wine,” she says. Several panels later, we see Guy, in the distance, alone in the rain. Then we pan in on his head, and we see the wheels turning in his head, as he tilts his head and opens his mouth to taste the rain.

This graphic novel was marketed to older teens and adults (some reviewers guesstimate the interest level to be grades 10 and up) but I think it will resonate with many younger teens, and even some pre-teens, particularly those who enjoy dystopian science fiction.  People interested in this genre tend to question the status quo, fear the loss of privacy, personal freedom and intellectual freedom. Intellectually curious young teens will devour this amazing graphic novel, but it may take some time for it to start flying off the shelves.  So. . . if a teen walks into the library, loved Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver—hand them Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation.  Chances are they’ll also want to check out the novel version after they’ve finished the graphic novel!

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian

Subjects: Book burning, Totalitarianism, Dystopia, Conformity, Intellectual Freedom, Personal Freedom, Knowledge, Books

Reading level/Interest level: Grades 7 & up

Read-alikes:

Collins’ Hunger Games, Catching Fire & Mockingjay

Roth’s Divergent

Lowry’s The Giver

Orwell’s 1984

Huxley’s Brave New World

Sam Stern's Get Cooking

Stern, Sam. Get Cooking. Candlewick Press, 2009. Paperback $17.99, ISBN 978-0-7636-3926-6

What’s it about?

Sam Stern’s latest cookbook features over 100 recipes centered on different types of food, ranging from tomatoes, to cheese, to pastas, to vegetables, to chocolate.  There is a recipe in here for every chef and every palate!

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British teen chef Sam Stern has written a third cookbook for teens. Get Cooking is divided into chapters that focus on seven of his friends (Sam gets a chapter, too!) and their favorite food or food group.  He and his “mates” chose tomatoes, cheese, pasta, vegetables, meat, potatoes, chocolate, and “sweet stuff.”  Eat chapter introduces Sam’s friend and their favorite food. Then Sam talks about the versatility of the chosen food, followed by several scrumptious-looking and sounding recipes. Many of the recipes have variations. There is an extensive index, so don’t worry about thumbing through for a particular recipe!

This is a solid cookbook with a wide range of recipes that will satisfy a wide range of palates. There are recipes that might be best left to experienced chefs, such as the Spanakopita (p. 31) and the Pasta with Sausage Ragu (p. 44). Novice cooks had best stick to recipes like the Chili Pepper and Bean Tortillas (p.65) and the Chocolate Nut Brownies (p. 112). Stern’s book is vegetarian-friendly: even in the chapter devoted to meat, there are vegetarian variations.  There are plenty of ethnic food recipes as well, particularly Italian and Indian foods. This book is overall very appealing, with its large, appetizing photos of the recipes, and the fun photos of Sam and his friends enjoying these culinary creations.  

Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbook

Subjects: Cooking, Cooking for teens

Reading level/ interest level: Grades 6-12

Series information:

Cooking up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook (2005)

Real Food, Real Fast (2008)

Read-alikes:

Carle’s Teens Cook: How to Make What You Want to Eat

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.

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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