Starring Jules: As Herself

Starring Jules: As Herself by Beth Ain. ARC. Published March 2013. Scholastic.

This beginning chapter book is for the readers who love quirky, fun characters. Jules lives in New York City with her artist mom and chef dad and little brother, Big Henry. The book opens with her being discovered at a diner by a casting agent when she writes and sings her own jingle. She is told she has pizzazz, her new favorite word. And that's just what Jules has. She's full of pep and humor but she also has real kid worries, like losing her best friend and wanting to find a new one, or being scared she'll throw up at her audition. The family feels very real and the relationships between the kids is fun and full of real changes and evolutions that happen as children age.

Intended reading level: Grades 1-3
First in series.

Questions for Readers:
Why do you think Jules doesn't want to be friends with Charlotte anymore? Do you think they will fix their friendship in the future? How would you have reacted if you were Elinor visiting Jules' house? Would you want to audition for a commercial? How do you think you would feel in front of the casting agents?

Read-alikes: Clementine, Judy Moody

The Notebook of Doom: Rise of the Balloon Goons

The Notebook of Doom: Rise of the Balloon Goons written and illustrated by Troy Cummings. ARC.

Release date July 2013.

I will definitely get this book for my kids. Who doesn't love a story about strange monsters especially when those monsters are Dancing Balloons? That makes me chuckle alone. It helps that the rest of the book is pretty funny too. For instance, one of the monsters in the Notebook of Doom is a Forkupine, which is a "small, metal rodent with a coat of tiny, sharp forks," with a warning that says, "Never pet a forkupine! Instead lure it near a plate of spaghetti." A fun fact is included that reads, "The forkupine is a distant cousin to the sporkupine, a creature which is less dangerous but also --let's face it-- less practical. "

Alexander is new to town and discovers a Notebook of Doom documenting different monsters when he accidentally goes to the school campus that is getting torn down. He starts spotting Dancing Balloons all over town while simultaneously discovering that the air is being let out of anything inflatable. Since his birthday is on Leap Year, his dad has decided to throw a birthday party for him. The guests are not what he expected...

Intended reading level: Grades 1-3
First in new series with 4 proposed titles.

Questions to the readers:
What monster would you add to the Notebook of Doom if you could make one up? What would its habitat be? What would it look like? What warnings would you give about it?

Read-alikes: Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, Zombiekins, Pencil of Doom

Looniverse: Stranger Things

Looniverse: Stranger Things by David Lubar and illustrated by Matt Loveridge. ARC. Release date May 2013.

This is a beginning chapter book about a boy named Ed who finds a strange coin that somehow creates strange occurrences around him. If he doesn't want the universe to lose all its strangeness he has to find the Stranger that the coin belongs too. There are silly antics like a little brother being used as a floating tube in a pool by drinking excess amounts of soda. The print is large and easy to read and the pictures are just kooky enough to compliment the text well.

I liked the premise even though I was a little confused as to how the coin depleted strangeness when things got stranger around it. Seems like things should have become boring and mundane around the coin until all strangeness was gone but perhaps that would have been too difficult of a concept.

My students who like The Weird School books might really enjoy this series.

Intended reading level: Grades 1-3
First in series of four proposed titles.

Questions to readers:
What do you think would happen if all the strangeness left the planet? Is being strange good or bad, why? Would you want to have Ed's coin? What would you do with it if you did have it?

Read-alikes:
Weird School series, Pencil of Doom

Princess Knight

Princess Knight: Part One by Osamu Tezuka. Originally published 1953. Translated to English 1977.

Vertical, Inc. 2011

For my graphic novels for youth class, I had to choose a Manga to read this week. I went with Tezuka's Princess Knight because I was intrigued by the dueling gender relationships and the playing with stereotypes especially for a book published over 50 years ago in Japan. I had also heard that Tezuka is the father of Manga from Scott McCloud's work.

The premise of this book is that a mischievous angel named Tink places a boy heart in an unborn baby before God gives the baby a girl heart and sends he/she on his/her way. As punishment, Tink must go to earth and take the boy heart back before he can ever return to heaven. Unfortunately the baby becomes the Prince/Princess of the kingdom and it takes Tink 15 years before he can even speak to her. The story follows the adventures of Prince Sapphire as he/she deals with trying to hide his identity of a girl to be considered the heir and prince to the kingdom.

The book mainly played on gender stereotypes and had a lot of slapstick humor reminiscent of Bugs Bunny and other cartoons from that era. With the heavy religious overtones, I was worried that with the dated writing of this text that the book would try to make the character choose one gender or the other. While I've only read part one, I'm happy that Tezuka allowed him/her to remain ambiguous and has him/her gain identity from both hearts. She is neither fully princess or fully prince.

With action, adventure, knights, witches, pirates, kingdoms and assassins, this book would appeal to both girl and boy readers who love comics. The humor is kid friendly and as it was intended for a young female audience (shojo) it is not too violent or sexual.

Here's a bonus YouTube video from the opening of the Princess Knight anime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb_8PJ4Wqjo

Intended reading level: Grades 3-5

Questions for the readers:
Do you think Prince Sapphire should keep both hearts? How does each heart help her in her adventures? What do you think of the choice Tink made towards the end that changed his fate? Do you think Sapphire will choose Captain Blood or Franz Charming? What fairy tales does Tezuka use to tell his story?

Read-alikes: Astro Boy, Bone series

Openly Straight

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg. ARC. Publish date June 2013. Arthur A. Levine Books.

I grabbed this book at the ALA Mid-Winter conference through a flurry of other librarians all asking the same questions around the baby blue cover. We were all thinking the same thing. This can't actually be offensive, it must be a positive look at homosexuality, but what's with that title? The representative went through her spiel and reassured all of us to give it a try and see what it was about.

Rafe is openly gay in his Boulder community, but finds that he is fed up with being "the gay kid." To get away from labels, in an attempt to just be himself without anything else attached, he moves to Boston to go to an all-boys prep school. He knows that he doesn't want to lie about his sexuality, but he doesn't want to come out either. His family and friends back in Colorado are appalled once they know what he's done and he finds he must navigate who he is from both sides of his Boston identity and his Bolder identity. Things get complicated when he begins to make closer connections with boys at school.

In the beginning of the book, I was wary and kept noticing how many labels Rafe attached to others for someone who is so against labels. I was hoping this was a tactic on the part of the author and we'll just say he knew what he was doing. As an adult reader, I sometimes find this challenging to determine what the author wants you to know compared to what the character may not know yet. Overall, I think Konigsberg did a good job of letting Rafe explore identity crisis issues in his own way, even if that way may seem absurdly backwards at first. There is definitely growth and exploration of thought for the main character.

For issues exploring homosexuality, identity and first love, this is a great read.

Intended reading level: YA (HS level because of alcohol, some drug use and sexual situations-though they are very mild and only implied, not detailed)

Questions for the reader:

What do you think? Did Rafe come to understand his true identity? Was the experiment worth it or should he have stayed home?

Read-alikes: Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Songs of a Teenage Nomad

Posting Again

I started this review blog as a requirement for a graduate level course in my library science program. Therefore, the audience was geared towards other librarians and teachers. I wanted to include book connections that teachers could use to entice excitement for the book or include in a display. I tried to find read-alikes for book suggestions or to find a connection to the new book to get a reader interested. I personally like reading short blog posts as I don't have much time in my day to read multiple reviews, so the posts are on the concise side with a short summary and my impression. I try to include strengths and weaknesses as well as what I think the kid's will think of the book within the short review. 

Now that I'll be transitioning the blog to use within my school community, the reviews will be geared more to my student audience and whether or not I think they will like or gain anything from the books reviewed. There is no rhyme or reason to the books that will be reviewed. Some may be new, some old that I've never read before. Some may be for younger students and some may be for high school level. For the time being, the form and signature contributions may change or evolve depending on what I think is best to include about a book to reach the intended audience. 

Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Published 2012.

Now this fairy tale twist I genuinely liked. I think I appreciated it because it put the tale of Cinderella in a whole new world, with a different telling and it kept close enough to the idea of the original story, but not so steadfastly that it stretched the plot to fit to the tale. What made it more fun than other twisted tellings is that its set in the distant future in a dystopian society where cyborgs and robots exist and the moon has been colonized and a whole new evolution of "humans" live on the moon. Mix this together with regular humans, a disease that is highly contagious and kills off anyone who gets it within a matter of weeks, and a cyborg who is being courted by the royal emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth and you have a tale that could stand alone without the fairy tale comparisons. Like Lionboy, this book doesn't have a clear cut ending as it's part of, what I believe is, a five part series, but unlike the other book, I was satisfied with the end and look forward to reading the rest of the series.
Here's the plot premise, some spoilers:
Cinder is a teen cyborg, half human/half robot, who works at a robot repair shop to earn money for her evil stepmother and her two stepsisters. When the step sis she actually likes catches the fatal letmosis (spelling???), Cinder is hauled in for testing by her stepmother. Thinking this is the end of her life, she battles against the testing only to find out that she is immune to the disease and could be the answer for its cure, or at least, that's what the doctor leads her to believe. She is determined to escape New Bejing even if that means missing attending the ball with the Prince.

Side note: While its still technically a photo of a female on the cover, I love the take on the glass slipper and seeing the cyborg part through her leg...fantastic cover. Plus super fun font.

Interest level: YA Reading level: YA
Genre: sci-fi, fairy tale, dystopian
First in series.

Comparable titles: Sisters Red, The Storyteller, Beastly

Book Connections: Contagious disease, futuristic societies, evolution, moon colonization, Cinderella