Countdown

Franny is stuck in the middle like the filling of an oreo cookie. Her older sister is gorgeous. Her younger brother is extremely kind. Franny's dubbed him, The Saint. Franny feels invisible. In school. At home. And lately, with her best friend, Margie.

Set in the 1960s during the Cuban Missile crisis, this story is revolves around Franny. At school they are practicing bomb drills while at home Uncle Otts wants to build a bomb shelter. Her big sister, JoEllen, is going to college and is getting secretative letters from a boy. When she disappears, Franny is frantic wondering what happened to her. She starts having arguments with her best friend, Margie, who has decided to make another friend and ditch Franny. Then a new boy moves back to town and both girls are interested in him which causes more friction. Add to the fact, her younger brother, The Saint, is freaking out over the missile crisis and you have plenty of tension in this story.  

This book is really terrific! I did find the pages and pages of primary sources from the 1960's that are inbetween chapters distracting. I read the first two and then stopped because it slowed the pace of the story. I found it better going back and looking at the photos and stories after I read the main story.  I got a kick out of all the references to the 60's with the music, hairstyles, hair products, clothes, cars, TV shows, books and more. The story is loaded with them. Fast-paced and fun.

Reading Level 6.4

Scholastic book trailer video

:-) :-) :-) :-) 4 Smileys

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

My best friend and I set off on our bikes determined to go further than we ever had before. The wind whipped my hair off my face and nervousness, joy and excitement rippled through me like heat waves off the asphalt. We were having a blast.

Until we got lost.

That wasn't so much fun.

Jeremy Fink in the book, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, by Wendy Mass, is the opposite of me. He likes comfort so much he won't even eat anything other than peanut butter sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. It is hard for Jeremy to be adventurous until the day he gets a box from his now-dead father that has the words engraved in it: The meaning of life: for Jeremy Fink to open on his 13th birthday. The box is missing 4 keys to open it and Jeremy goes on a quest to find them with his best friend Lizzy.

Lizzy is like a sister to Jeremy. Her mother left when she was a baby and Jeremy's family is like her adopted family. Lizzy has issues with stealing items when her hands "get itchy." She doesn't like to sit for long because she doesn't want to think deeply about things. When she has to start using her brain she steals stuff and starts to run.

Lizzy's stealing doesn't make sense in the beginning and I remember reading it and asking myself, "Huh? Why would she do that?" I also thought Jeremy was weird just eating peanut butter sandwiches. I thought his Mom only made him that as a meal but Jeremy wouldn't eat anything else.  I remember thinking these are two strange kids but their actions become clear at the end of the story.

Jeremy's Dad leaves the two of them a wonderful message in the box. You'll have to read the book to discover what it is!

Scholastic book trailer video

Reading Level 5.0

:-) :-) :-) 3.75  Smileys

Cyberia

Futuristic Dr. Doolittle.

Meet Max who lives in a world where people don't go outside but have all their needs met through technology.

Well sort of.

Max has a bedroom that is so high tech he doesn't see his parents in person but on the LCD screens on his walls. His room is completely computerized - the ceiling is  a gigantic speaker - and hardwired to his leg. Literally. He has a computer chip implanted in his leg that reads all his vital signs. The computer can predict when he wants to eat, use the toilet, has low sugar, etc. Whenever Max's vital signs change, his parents contact him by phone - even though dad works at home and has an office 3 doors down from his room. His parents are media celebrities who make bizarre decisions that no normal parent would make. I hope.

Dumb parents aside, the story has lots of action and tension. Max gets a gift from his Dad and discovers he can talk to animals. His dog, Hugo, alerts him to the fact that the Vet they go to is really an evil man who's abusing animals by putting computer chips in them and controlling them. Max works with Hugo to uncover the plot of how he'll take over the world.

 The end is a setup for the next book. Fun read.

Reading Level 5.3

Scholastic book trailer video

:-) :-) :-) 3 Smileys.

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning

Violet Raines not only got struck by lightning she emitted raging electrical bolts at all the people who knew her.

Honestly, Violet is not a very likeable kid.

She is jealous of her best friends new friendship with the girl who has moved into town, but they are so nasty and rude to each other I'm amazed they eventually become friends. This story captures being 13-years-old too well and it is all the ugliness of girls being catty, jealous, and immature. Violet and her best friend, Lottie, have problems when Melissa moves into town. Melissa becomes friends with Lottie and they have makeovers, watch soap operas, and read magazines. Violet gets jealous and mad because she doesn't want her friendship with Lottie to change. Violet and Melissa swap insults every time they are together. Violet shows kindness to Lottie's younger sister but it is too little and doesn't balance out the snottiness of the girls attitudes toward each other.

The writing is quite beautiful. The author's descriptions and the unique voice of Violet are clear and well-done. Violet is manipulating her mom in this passage: "'Now why you asking me that?' I make the exact opposite of a smile. Some people think that's a frown, but they're wrong. The exact opposite of a smile is an I-don't-care face, like I make now. 'Just wondered.' I take a bite out my cupcake. It works, 'cause she looks past me and I can tell she's looking through the memories in her head. Her face gets all soft and, for a moment, she looks young."

While the writing is great, the characters are not.   

Scholastic book trailer video

:-) :-) 2.5 Smileys

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

A parked light blue Mercury car.

My bike found its bumper because I was reading a book and biking at the same time.

Ouch.

Some mistakes really, really hurt.

In the book, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Zoe's Dad makes all sorts of mistakes such as buying 432 rolls of toilet paper, or buying an organ instead of a piano, or signing Zoe up for piano lessons where they use a pretend piano on paper versus the real thing.

Zoe's sense of humor comes through right from page one:

How It Was Supposed to Be

I was supposed to play the piano.
The piano is a beautiful instrument.
Elegant.
Dignified.
People wear ball gowns and tuxedos to hear the piano.

With the piano, you could play Carnegie hall. You could wear a tiara. You could come out on stage wearing gloves up to your elbows. You could pull them off, one finger at a time.

Everybody is quiet when you are about to play the piano. They don’t even breathe. They wait for the first notes.

They wait.
They wait.

And then you lift your hands high above your head and slam them down on the keys and the first notes come crashing out and your fingers fly up and down and your foot –in its tiny slipper with rubies at the toe- your foot peeks out from under your gown to press lightly on the pedals.

A piano is glamorous. Sophisticated. Worldly.
It is a wonderful thing to play the piano.

How it is

 I play the organ.
A wood-grained, vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag organ.
The Perfectone D-60.

The beginning of the story hints that Zoe's father has some sort of problem. I wasn't sure if Dad was dumb or mentally ill. I was leaning toward dumb after reading the chapter titled, Float like  a Butterfly. He was almost cartoonish in terms of all the online classes he was taking. The author was being funny but it didn't work for me until later in the story when she portrays him as caring, sensitive and crazy fun.  Dad likes to dance "...he's bouncing and spinning around the room [to a Polka she's playing on the organ] and using some kind of accent saying "vun day' and 'dis vellow'" (p33). On the other hand, Mom is a numbers crunching machine. At the competition "she has written down the names of all the competitors and drawn columns next to them with little slash marks for each mistake. She writes down the judges comments, too, in code with plus signs and minus signs and stars. This is how Mom has fun." (p. 180)

Zoe loses friends and gain friends. She enters the Perfecto-rama competition and learns that it is okay to make mistakes and the important thing in life, whether it is a competition or overcoming personal issues like her Dad, is to keep going and never give up.

Reading Level 6.3

Scholastic book trailer video

:-) :-) :-) :-) 4 Smileys