Author Archives: SSBRC Former Member

Out of Tune Gail Nall

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Maya Mae is a typical pre-teen.  She is obsessed with her friends, her phone, and her hobby.  In Maya’s case, her hobby doubles as her dream – she wants to be a famous country singer.  She is well on her way when the reality TV show, “Dueling Duets” announces an audition in Nashville, Maya’s hometown. Maya is doubly delighted when she has a plan to audition and her crush, the cute and talented, Jack, asks her to be his partner. Then, without warning, her life changes as her parents announce that they are selling the family home and moving into an RV to travel the country.  In an instant, Maya’s life is turned upside down.  The book focuses on Maya’s repeated attempts to get home to Nashville in time for her tryout. Along the road, new friends are made and her resolve is tested. Will Maya make it back in time for her audition or will she embrace a new life of adventure and memory making with her family? Will Maya’s parents realize the importance of Maya’s dream?

Each chapter starts with a countdown to audition day.  Maya tells the story and paints an accurate picture of the emotional pain of leaving friends and dreams behind. In the end, Maya demonstrates a love for her family and capacity for compassion when she realizes that she has a lifetime to pursue her dream and she puts the needs and desires of others before her own. Meanwhile the parents’ ability to understand the immensity of the impact such a decision would have on their children is downplayed. This story is told through Maya’s eyes – a girl without a choice in her family’s decision to pick up roots, a girl who tries to be obedient but doesn’t know how to confront her parents about such a drastic move, a girl who is desperately holding on to a dream of her own and trying to balance her wants and desires with those of her family. At times funny, sad, and frustrating, Maya takes the reader on a journey of growing up.

Lucky Few

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Stevie Hart describes herself as a normal-type.  This is one of four categories she has created to describe students who are homeschooled.  Her best friend, Sanger, is a normal-type also.  Enter Max, the new neighbor kid who is obsessed with cheating death.  Together this trio embark on a challenge to defy death 23 times. On her own, Stevie is involved with the political action efforts to save her favorite place, Barton Springs. What starts out as a way to pass time with friends – old and new – turns into a journey of self-discovery.

The story moves from one death cheat to another, yet in the background our characters are learning how to cope with change – sometimes with grace and other time with the elegance of a toddler tantruming. In the periphery, the cast of characters deal with pressures of academic success, discrimination, Christian values, political activism, and abandonment to name a few.

Note that Stevie and Sanger are homeschooled, yet they go to classes taught by teaching staff at  non-home school locations and the homeschool co-op has a sports team. Part of the controversy in a side plot has to do with the homeschool co-op board requesting that Sanger leave the co-op because her parents are lesbians. This friction propels the plot and is an undercurrent of the development of the main character, Stevie, who questions these decisions by adults in authority and determines her own moral compass.

Tru & Nelle

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 The book “Tru & Nelle” written by G. Neri is interesting and great book.  This fiction book combines couple genres.  It’s mix of true story, mystery, adventure and historical facts.  That makes this book interesting for readers.

When you read this book you fall into real friendship that starts from the childhood, and ends in adulthood. The main characters of this story are Tru (Truman Capote) and Nelle (Harper Lee).  Tru is a seven year old boy, who came from New Orleans.  His unreliable parents sent him to live for a couple years in “tiny town” of Monroeville, Alabama with his more caring relatives.   Nelle is six, and she‘s always allowed to run by herself.  She was born and lived in this small town Monroeville.  In this story we can see how the friendship began between the city boy, Tru, who was out of place in this town, and a village girl, Nelle, who acts and looks like a tomboy.  It shows  us, that anyone could look and act very different, but also share a lot of interests, which bring them closer and results in real friendship.  The same happens with the book’s main characters, Tru and Nelle, or as author called them “the prince and the pauper.”  Even though they look different, they both share the same problems in their extraordinary families.  They both love to read, especially the book “Sherlock Holmes,” which inspired these friends to have fun by creating their own investigations in a simple and boring town.  When you are reading this book, you become a part of their mystery investigation team, trying to solve the robbery at the town’s drugstore.  Although it takes you, as a reader, on many different adventures throughout this mystery, leading to a lot of fun and dangers along the way, like the threatening encounter with the Ku Klux Klan, or planing a high tension Halloween party.  During this adventure, the children were daring and very funny the whole way through.

The author was very successful in demonstrating overall purpose of this book.  He did a great job in describing the details of the town, families and their relationships, as well, as the people’s life.  Especially in the short stories at the end of the book, that expend the overall story.  They give us additional information about the main characters’ life in future with some picture.

I would recommend this book  for children in elementary and middle school.   Although, it’s also a great book for everyone, who enjoys intriguing adventure which is easy to read.  I really enjoyed reading this book.  

-Marianna

Irena’s Children: A True Story of Courage

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“ Irena’s Children” Young Readers Edition is a true story of courage written by Tilar J. Mazzeo and adapted by Mary Cronk Farrell.

This book is about Polish woman Irena and her acquaintances ( her co-workers and her friends), who helped more than 2,000 Jewish children survive during one of the worst times of  World War 2.  This incredible story set in Warsaw, Poland, when Germans hunt and tried to wipe out the Jewish nation: they herded all Jewish people into separate territories, and then send them away to labor camps, or killed them.  This territory is called ghetto.  It was an extremely horrible place, where dogs were valued more, than people by the Nazis. Author describes in details, how it looked like: ”… children in the ghetto with no shoes, no coats, their clothes in rags. That first night some seventy froze to death. Each morning, the dead lined the streets, piled naked and covered with old newsprint and stones. The threads they had worn were taken by the living, who desperately needed warmth.Rats gnawed at the corps. Bodies also lined the streets like garbage each morning after SS men used pedestrians for target practice.”   Also this story shows us, how people could be brave, strong and fearless, even like the moment, when Irena and all her friends got the children out of the ghetto, and helped in keep them safe in Aryan sector of the city.  They did this, even though they were risking their, their kids’ and families.  Another detail, the author shows us the desperation of the Jewish people, as they try to save their own and their kids’ life.  They did unbelievable things, just to keep hope and survive, even with slim odds: “…mother threw their babies over  the wall, never knowing  if anyone caught them and took them to safety.”, people and children jumped between the rooftops, went through city’s sewers, hid children in the coffins, snuck them under overcoat.  This book teaches us, that even in the most hopeless situation, we should never give up.

In my opinion, the book has some gruesome details, that make it hard to read in one sitting.  But this is a good reminder of our history.  That’s why I would recommend this book for middle and high schoolers as well, as for adults, who enjoy history.

– Marianna

Framed! A T.O.A.S.T. Mystery

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Florian Bates is not your typical 12 year old. True, he’s a seventh grader doing typical 7th grade activities: eating pizza and serving on the student council. His family recently relocated from Europe to Washington D.C. His mom works for an art museum and his dad’s in security. Florian meets and becomes friends with Margaret, a new neighbor who will be attending the same school as Florian in the fall, but this isn’t what sets him apart from other 12 year olds. Florian employs the power of observation to provide insight, explanation, and anticipation. Florian calls his observational skills T.O.A.S.T.  which means, Theory of All Small Things.  He teaches T.O.A.S.T. to Margaret and they practice this observational technique with friends and family and in numerous different locations. Florian and Margaret stumble upon clues that become important in solving a crime. Florian is secretly employed by the FBI to help solve the crime. This mystery is funny and suspenseful with enough twist and turns to keep the pages turning at a quick clip.  A recommended who-done-it for mystery readers!  

Ocean Animals From Head to Tail

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Set in a questions answer format, this book asks a question about the animal on one page and then on the next page spread answers the question and gives more facts about that animal. Some of the animals included in the book are the hammerhead shark, colossal squid, sea anemone, and moray eel. The back includes a two page spread of “other awesome ocean animals.”

Thoreau: A Sublime Life

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This graphic novel illustrates the life of Henry David Thoreau, the American who “went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately…” Thoreau was a man of many interests – ecology, abolitionism, pacifism, Native American culture. While most people are aware of his life in the woods and his short incarceration for refusing to pay his taxes, fewer might be aware of work on the Underground Railroad and his support for John Brown. The illustrations are incredible; the lush greenery of the forests and ponds are inviting. There are full page illustrations with no words at all, which seems fitting for the story of a man who “wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”  The six page essay at the end provides further information about Thoreau’s philosophy. Highly recommended addition for libraries with a nonfiction graphic novel collection.

I Will Love You Anyway

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Here is a story of unconditional love. When a little boy’s puppy does not learn to sit or stay and continuously gets out of the yard, the boy’s parents finally decide to give the dog away. Seeing his sad little boy, the sad little puppy once again runs away. “I run away. The sky is black. A drop of rain. A thundercrack! I run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run.  I don’t come back.” The puppy would like to come back, but he is lost after running so hard after the thunder. In the end, the parents drive around looking for puppy until he is found. The parents let the boy keep the puppy.

Oona Finds an Egg

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I grew up seeing THE FLINTSTONES as they premiered, yet my own sons know about them from the Cartoon Channel on TV. The Flintstones are still popular. This first book in The Oodlethunks series brought back so many memories of The Flintstones.

It is set in the paleo era. The mother has a job at an advertising agency while her husband is a stay at home father who loves to cook and try out new recipes. The children go to school were they practice ‘Intimidation Tactics’, ‘Grunts and Bellows’,  have  ‘Show and Yell’, Tall Tales, and art class.

Oona finds a gigantic orphan egg on her way home. How will it survive? Oona has a plan, because she wants a pet. He parents will let her keep the egg until it hatches and then will decide if Oona will be able to keep it. “Dad warned…’what you can’t eat might eat you.’ ” (16 ) Oona and her friend Erma make a nest habitat for the egg. Oona’s younger brother, Bonk, wants to take it to school for Show and Yell, but Oona says no. While Oona is away with dad at the Valley Market, Bonk trades the egg for Bruce Brutes’ bracelet, so he’ll have something to show at school. Oona  forces Bonk to help her get the egg back from Bruce in the middle of the night. They find Bruce in the middle of his family’s pastures. The egg begins to hatch a baby stegosaurus.

” ‘This is crazy! Stegs are extinct around here!’ yelped Bruce. ‘Aren’t they?’

‘Dinosaurs haven’t been seen on Mount Urp since olden days,’ said Bonk.

‘We’re seeing one now. Guess this dinosaur is from new-en days,’ I said. ‘And she’s mine.’

‘Correction. She’s mine,’ said Bruce. ‘Cave law, remember. Speckles was born on my property.’ ” (122-123)

Soon both sets of parents arrive and suggest Oona and Bruce each call the baby steg. The person the steg comes to, keeps it. Oona wins.

 

Readers will enjoy the contrasting mix ups of modern with the old, sending humor throughout the book. Illustrator Mike Wu’s sepia toned illustrations give the book yet another feeling of olden days. Mike Wu has worked for both Walt Disney and “Pixar, where he animated such Oscar winners as The Incredibles and Toy Story 3 …”

 

Includes seven pages from book #2.

 

 

 

Aliens Love Dinopants

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This is Claire Freedman’s and Ben Cort’s fourth or fifth book in this series where cute little space aliens and colorful smiling dinosaurs love underpants which do not initially belong to them.

The pants loving aliens crash on Earth. Following their beeping ‘pants-tracker’ they soon discover a huge ‘stash of … gigantic undies…” The dinosaurs, who own the undies (this time) , won’t let the aliens have their undies. The aliens build a trailer for their spaceship and invite the dinosaurs and their pants back to their home planet. Problem solved.

The rhyme scheme does not always flow well due to an over abundance of words.  The words often get in the way of the bright, silly, colorful illustrations. ALIENS LOVE DINOPANTS is a mediocre sequel.