South Sound Book Review Council

Littlest Bigfoot, The

Posted on March 16, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

Alice is a 12 year old girl who is quite troubled. Her parents send her away to boarding schools and summer camps each year to avoid her. She is physically awkward. She is excessively too tall, her body is overly stocky, and her hair is very thick, curly and unruly. Each boarding school she attends, she does not remain in, due to bullying. More than anything in the world, she wants to have a friend.

Millie is a Bigfoot, living in the Yare community deep in the woods. She is excessively small for her age, and therefore feels useless because she is weak and slow. She is very interested in the “No-Furs” (humans) that go to school on the other side of the lake, but it is forbidden to talk to one because they cannot be trusted.

Jeremy is a boy that is infatuated with the Bigfoot. He conducts searches of them on the internet. He completes a presentation about them every year in school. He wants to hunt them.

Alice is sent to another new boarding school where she is again bullied due to her diverse appearance. Escaping into the woods at night, she rescues Millie from drowning in the lake. A spark of a secret friendship begins. As the three characters’ lives collide, a crazy plot is formed to save Millie and her Yare community. The ending is a tease of the potential of a sequel.

This story has a great moral of accepting yourself and others, no matter the differences.

The Bad Decisions Playlist

Posted on March 13, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

The Bad Decisions Playlist is a wildly funny story of a sixteen-year-old stoner, slacker, kid Austin, who cannot seem to make even one smart decision. All he wants to do is get high while writing and playing music. He uses self-deprecating humor to joke his way out of situation after situation, until he gets into so much trouble that he’s about to be shipped off to military prep school. Fortunately for him, its at this moment that his long-lost dad Shane, who Austin thought was dead (according to Mom), shows up on his door step.

Shane is, in fact, a rock-star who seems to have passed on to Austin his music talent, and also his bad habits of drugs, dropping out, and screwing up.

Austin is pulled into his father’s world of show business, and has the readers laughing as they follow along as Austin plays through his list of bad decisions.

Naked 76

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

Set in England in the summer of 1976, Naked 76 is the story of a girl, Lili Garcia, and her introduction to the punk music scene. The book is filled with love triangles, sex, drugs, booze, and punk music. Lili plays in the band Naked (hence the title), and there are many references to real bands from the early days of punk, such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash.

One of the Naked band members is from Northern Ireland and there are references to the Irish Republican Army and their battles with the British that occurred during this time period. In fact, the book actually reads as if it were non-fiction.

I’ve had Naked 76 displayed on my new book display for weeks and, as of yet, no one has checked it out. I don’t see it appealing to the teenaged music fan of 2017. It would more likely appeal to adults who enjoyed punk music during the mid-1970’s. It would be a nostalgic look back for them, but it doesn’t seem to appeal to today’s teenagers.

A Hundred Hours of Night

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

This adventure centers on a 15 year old Dutch girl, Emilia, who steals her father’s credit card and flies to New York City to escape the scandal he has caused as her school. Her father, the headmaster, fell in love with a student and was caught sending inappropriate text messages to the girl. Emilia had planned everything perfectly before she ran away, from booking the flight, to renting an apartment on Craig’s List, to printing maps and directions. But there were things she did not foresee: the apartment posting was a scam. And things she could not foresee: Hurricane Sandy was heading straight for NYC.

Emilia fortunately is taken in for the night by the occupants of the bogusly-listed apartment, and she makes friends with the Seth, the son, and Abby, the daughter of the tenant (who herself is out of town), and their friend Jim. Together they ride out Hurricane Sandy that not only rattles the windows, but shakes the building itself, and knocks out the power for 100 hours (hence the title). The four teens and tweens are without social media, unable to reach their parents, and are forced to find ways to survive this natural disaster.

While the plot is unrealistic, and all amazingly ends well, A Hundred Hours of Night is still an enjoyable read that will appeal mostly to 5th – 10th graders who enjoy action and survival stories.

Mirage

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

Mirage, a psychological thriller, is told in the first person narrative of Ryan Poitier Sharpe, a seventeen year old girl with an addiction to adrenalin. She spends her summer days parachuting from planes at her father’s skydiving center. Even though she has made over 250 jumps, she can’t seem to win the approval of her stoic Army veteran dad. She looks for greater thrills in the use of LSD and ends up in the hospital, suffering a near death experience.

After her brush with death, Ryan is not the same. She no longer craves the thrills. Her mental health deteriorates, her relationships falter, and her life is a mess.

This would be a better book if there wasn’t so many references to the term “crazy”, if there wasn’t so much culturally inappropriate stereotyping of her bi-racial background, and if her best friend’s sexual orientation wasn’t added into the plot in such an extraneous manner. I don’t see this novel flying off the shelves. The plot and characters are just too overworked.

Stay With Me

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

Stay With Me in the companion novel to Come Back to Me, and is written by Mila Gray, which is the pseudonym of young adult author Sarah Alderson (Fated series: Fated, Severed, Shadowed) that she is using for her more adult-themed works. Stay With Me definitely is more of an adult themed novel, as it is a steamy, slow-burn romance between Noel, a wounded Marine, and Didi, a young psychology intern at a military hospital.

The story is also a love triangle, as Didi has a boyfriend, Zac, who is working out of town for the summer. Until Didi started her psychology internship where she meets Noel, she thought that Zac was the man for her. But sparks fly when Didi begins working with Noel, and their forbidden romance grabs the readers and will not let go.

The novel is filled with issues of PTSD, the struggles of wounded warriors and their families, the complications of prior romantic commitments (Zac and Didi), and the ethical ramifications of medical provider / patient romantic relations (Didi and Noel).

This steamy romance is a page turner best suited for juniors, seniors and college students.

It’s Getting Hot in Here: The Past, Present, and Future of Climate Change

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

It’s Getting Hot in Here: The Past, Present, and Future of Climate Change is a solid non-fiction, informational text that would be an asset to middle and high school libraries. Filled with full color photos and illustrative text, this is an approachable book on the issue of global warming and climate change. The author presents the science and the history behind climate change, and discusses the ways in which humans have, and continue to, affect this crisis.

As depressing and worrisome as this subject is, Bridget Heos provides information on how teens can work to make positive changes to help reverse the damage.

Lift Your Light a Little Higher

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

A beautiful poetic story about Stephen Bishop, a slave in the mid-1800’s, who was a cave explorer and tour guide.

The author’s note tells us that Bishop explored and mapped out the largest known cave system in the world, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Bishop explored and mapped over four hundred miles of passages. The illustrator’s note explain the history of the cave and why tourism was part of that history.

Bishop was bought when he was a teenager specifically to learn the passageways so the owner could host tours and profit from it. During the tours, people would use the smoke from a candle to write their names on the cave ceiling. In this way Bishop was able to learn to read and write. “All the fine folks….want to leave their mark…I show them how to candle-write….in return they teach me, sometimes, without knowing what’s been taught”.
His name is written inside the cave along with all the others. “And you will have no way of knowing,….from candle-smoke….the color of my skin..”

End notes tell the reader that Bishop’s grave lies just outside the cave entrance.

Water color and collage are used by the illustrator, Collier, in a way that shows dimension and texture. Realistic mixed with artistic. The illustrations are a study in themselves.

The author and illustrator do a marvelous job of defining the stark differences of the “real” world and the underground world. Coming away from this wonderfully told story the reader will be questioning which world is truly the real one.

This book will be useful for civil rights units, American history units and Art study, among other things.

Luz Makes a Splash

Posted on March 12, 2017 by SSBRC Former Member

Environmental crusader Luz is back again! This time she is teaching children about water conservation and xeriscaping.

In an approachable and fun graphic novel format, children learn about how to recycle water, how plants get water from underground, what effects big business plays in water consumption and how to advocate for change.

This story picks up after Luz has successfully managed to get an old, garbage strewn, vacant lot turned into a community garden. It has brought the local community together in a shared effort. But now there is a drought and the community garden is threatened. To make matters worse, the local soft drink producer has bought the rights to the community spring-fed pond and is sucking it dry! Luz rally’s everyone to help make things right.

Tie in to Science curricula: green living, creating a greywater filtration system and creating a xeriscaped garden.