With the prophecy of the end-of-the world in three months and the expected Departure of the New World Society followers, a tender story of sibling love and individual persistence is woven in Come November, Katrin Van Dam’s first young adult novel.  Rooney’s mother is an avid follower of Everett, leader of the New World Society, which believes that humans have destroyed the overpopulated Earth through climate change and overconsumption. Extraterrestrials beings will come on November 18th to take believers to a new planet to start a more pure society.

Rooney’s senior year angst of college and a boyfriend is minor to her anxiety about money for food or her embarrassment about her “crazy” mother.  Real life issues are a heavy responsibility for a young woman who just wants to dream of a better life in the normal world. The sense of love and duty to her brother and the hope of a different life are the sustaining themes of this book.  It is an entertaining, valuable read for a young adult navigating the challenges of daily life with the possibility of creating their future through perseverance and education. Rooney’s mother’s situation is unusual but Rooney’s role of responsibility and struggle is very relatable for teenagers today.

What happens to a person when the negative side of their personality does everything in its power to overtake the side that barely keeps the person sane? Ella Black suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Bella, her evil twin, comes to life when Ella gets stressed. Bella has progressively made Ella do more violent things, which scare Ella each time. When her parents whisk her away from school mid-day to temporarily move to Rio, she assumes it is because they have figured out she has this disorder which she has been hiding from everyone. But more lies and truths will unfold in this fast-paced, unpredictable novel, totally ingratiating the reader until the last comments at the end. Ella is a believable character, which makes the story all the more twisted. Speaking of twisted, the last few dramatic scenes hit hard, literally. This reader thoroughly enjoyed Emily Barr’s writing and will look to pick up a few more of her works.

It’s the start of a new school year and Kate Bailey is hesitant to be in her podcasting class that she signed up for just because her best friend Alana wanted her to. Sure enough, super shy Kate is picked by the teacher to be one of the co-hosts for the podcast which will focus on giving advice to people who email or call in anonymously. While she discovers that she’s pretty good at giving advice, she also discovers that she likes the guy her best friend is crushing on even though Kate is trying hard to get them together. While readers will see this developing way before the characters themselves, Kasie West also throws in a few other twists to keep readers wondering. Will the text message from Kate’s ex-boyfriend make a difference? Will the sudden interest from Kate’s nemesis change the course of Kate’s feelings? Slightly oh-my, this flirty girl novel will definitely find fans in the 7th – 10th grade level.

Here is a book for young students needing to find information about a foreign country for a school report. The table of contents lists: Land’s end, location, landscape and climate, wildlife, people, communities, customs, school and work, play, food, celebrations, timeline, Ireland facts, glossary, to learn more, and index.

Having never been off of the North American continent myself, I asked a friend who visits Ireland regularly for her thoughts on this informational book. She was pleased with the choice of photos the book held to represent Ireland, especially the one on page 14 showing the Irish country side, for most of the population lives outside of large urban areas. The photos sent my friend into stories of her Ireland experiences which matched the information being conveyed in the text.

Neither of us liked timeline’s format. It is unfriendly for the user. The three orange lines being directed from the ‘informational index cards’ to the place on the timeline is confusing (especially when they cross from the left page to the right page) when a simple diagonal line would suffice.

Here is a book for young students needing to find information about a foreign country for a school report. The table of contents lists: Munich Marvels, location, landscape and climate, wildlife, people, communities, customs, school and work, play, food, celebrations, timeline, Germany facts, glossary to learn more, and index.

Having never been to Europe, let alone Germany, I asked a school parent from Germany what she thought of this book. Here is her edited reply,

“Oh Mrs. Mary, I’m loving this read. So, so true.

Little things have changed, like the weather, in the

mean time we do have pretty warm summers.

Also, we have lots of immigrants now, because of our

great health care system. Community and customs

are right on point. We do take our time building
friendships for sure …

And we do love order and structure. School, work

and play, absolutely right about all of it. And so

funny, I totally forgot about this childhood game,

eating chocolate : ))

Oh, and the food and celebrations, …

I think it’s a wonderful book to add to your library…” (A. C.)

Neither of us liked the timeline’s format on pages 26-27 . The three red lines running from the ‘index card’ to the place on the timeline are not user friendly.

The website (www.factsurfer.com) listed in the TO LEARN MORE section had two good sites for more information or information stated slightly differently. Neither of the two sites agreed with the book or each other on the area or the population of Germany.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Grand Escape:  The Greatest Breakout of the 20th Century by Neal Bascomb.  This book details the life of prisoners of war kept by Germany in World War 1 and their attempts to escape prison camps.  What makes this book entertaining is the range of characters with their shenanigans who tended to treat these escapes like a game.  One was even disappointed when he was returned to his own country before the war was over because he wanted to see if his escape plan devised with two other prisoners would work.   It is noted that many of the prisoners were very intelligent and adventuresome, as it tends to describe officers, including pilots who were shot down and then surrounded by Germans.   So given their sudden confinement, these prisoners tended to act like mischievous children with plans that included using molasses that resulted in solitary confinement, and stealing tools to help them in their endeavors.  They also found productive ways to spend their time such as learning new languages which aided in escaping. To make escaping Germany even more difficult, the German people were encouraged to turn in suspected escaping prisoners.  Other tactics by the Germans was to send captured escaping prisoners to different camps and to use strict military officers to oversee them. The illustrations contain actual war souvenirs such as telegrams, photographs, and propaganda.  If I could change one thing about this book, I would have put the map of Germany and surrounding areas at the front of the book rather than on page 217. The book ends with what happened to the British prisoners when the war ended, including reunions and teaching younger military recruits how to cope in case of capture.  Overall, this book made it easy to understand the actual lives of military men kept as prisoners during wartime on a very personal level. I highly recommend this book for all types of students.

Set in Seattle, Washington, Rachel Lynn Solomon’s young adult novel Our Year of Maybe tracks the lives of two teenagers whose lives have always been entwined as best friends, and maybe, Sophie thinks, eventually something more. She cannot imagine life without Peter, and so, when she turns out to be the one match for the kidney he needs, she does not hesitate…she donates one of hers.

This selfless act generates in Sophie a picture of the future in which Peter and she are in love and together forever. For Peter, however, while deeply grateful to Sophie for saving his life, it’s not a cut and dried determination that they will be lovers. With his new lease on life, Peter sees his future as one in which he is now free. Then he finds himself attracted to Chase as more than a friend, a development that surprises him, and certainly one that Sophie cannot even imagine.

As they work through these awakenings, their stories explore themes of first loves, expectations, indebtedness, outdated old beliefs and the changes that come with confronting things honestly. Like dandelion fluff, nobody knows where these understandings will be blown, but hopefully, well-rooted friendships will mature and survive.

Recommended.

A turbulent ride into the future with traces of the “Rusties” past littering the Victoria landscape is in store for readers of Scott Westerfeld’s Imposters. Put on something comfortable from your “hole in the wall”, grab your “crash bracelets” and step onto your hoverboard with your fully charged “pulse knife” and “cyrano”. Maybe secure a couple of plasma guns just in case for this plot line. Westerfeld quotes Chinese general Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, on the title page of Part 1: “Regard your soldiers as your children and they will follow you into the deepest of valleys.” This may not be pretty.

Sir Walter Scott said “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Frey, posing as her twin sister Rafi, encounters Col, the heir apparent to the city of Victoria. Here the twists and turns begin. Is the danger from without or within? Are the twin sisters like-minded though one raised a dignitary for the city of Shreve and the other was raised as her absolute secret body double — and as a trained killer? Throw in the love factor and Frey must decide if Col can be trusted with the truth, allowing her to become her own person. This is a page turner as Westerfeld weaves an intriguing tale pitting good against evil, love versus power, conservation over greed in the opposing neighboring cities of Shreve and Victoria. Recommended, as with all other Westerfeld titles.

A baby bird discovers his wings, perches on the edge of the nest and flings himself off the edge. He plummets to the ground into a puddle. Now he’s soaking, dinged up, and rather forlorn. Then he discovers worms! He grabs a worm and launches himself back up to the nest. His nestmates great him with a song and he flies loops of joy.

This story it told through pictures and only a few words. And each of those words ends with -ing; wings, clings, flings, stings, dings, things, brings, springs, sings, rings, zings. Even with only a handful of words, the reader can feel the adventure and sense of accomplishment.

The story offers wonderful opportunities for word play or student retelling and elaboration.