It’s okay.  Advertised on the back flap is another book entitled, “The Problem with Not Being Scared of Monsters,” and perhaps this book would be better as a companion to the other, but as a stand-alone story it leaves me a bit flat.  Most pages consist of one sentence describing some failure or another of monsters trying to make friends with kids who are cowering in fear or running away, until at the end they meet one boy who isn’t scared, so they have no problem.  I’m guessing I might like the other book better, as there is a distinctive twist on the usual expectation that most kids are scared of monsters, and as I said, as a companion this might work.  But since I don’t think most of us have any expectation that monsters are afraid of kids, this book lacks the same twist.  It’s not bad; it’s just not particularly compelling.

Richelle Mead continues to write dramatic, adventure twisting stories for teens and The Glittering Court continues with a kick ass heroine in Adelaide, a countess of Osfrid, who leaves all of her future well cared for life behind for the unknown world in The Glittering Court.  While the Court sounds like her life will still be jewels and parties, it is actually a version of arranged marriages where girls are paraded around to colonists in a new land.  What makes Mead a master of her craft is the twists and turns she plays like a well groomed poker player.  Adelaide remains true to her inner beliefs, lifts up others, and is super smart.  Mead creates wonderful role models for teen readers and The Glittering Court will entrance many.  Recommended.

Freakishly weird storms coupled with abnormal temperature patterns.  Horrible diseases plague the U.S. along with terrorist attacks.  Then, what happens when your parents and their church believe the Rapture is happening and you are left behind?  Vivian Apple wakes up to confront that reality and begin a road trip to a possible future, one that could be to the end of the world.  Vivian lives in a post Rapture world where a second Rapture will take up those who become believers.  But Vivian, as well as her best friend Harp, just can’t believe any of this is true.  In her search for the truth of her life, Vivian will encounter friendships and romance, as well as heart breaking pain at the hands of those who should love her unconditionally.  Vivian Apple at the End of the World will be liked by those who question what truth is and how people perceive it.

In their second STEAM-powered exploration (Full STEAM Ahead!, 2014), mouse twins Sydney and Simon investigate the problem of garbage.

Sydney’s foray into trash tracking starts with a field trip to the aquarium, where a green sea turtle is recuperating after eating plastic. It doesn’t take much of a leap for Sydney to make a connection: “The more trash we make, the more there’s a chance that some of that trash could end up in the ocean.” The two keep a tally of their family’s trash for a week, and the results are eye-opening. Their school is an even larger garbage generator. Ms. Fractalini helps the twins use science, technology, engineering, arts, and math to come up with a way to raise awareness and encourage the community to participate in a solution. A sculpture of Greenie the turtle made out of trash and a song about going green are the start of a community-wide movement to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Along the way, readers will learn lots about decomposition, how quickly garbage adds up, and ways to reduce trash. Ink-and–watercolor-wash illustrations help break up the text and put pictures in readers’ heads that will stick with them, making them likely to want to get on the green bandwagon. Hopefully, readers will focus on Sydney and Simon’s problem-solving, and see it as quite doable in their own communities. (glossary, author and illustrator’s note)

I picked this book up with hopeful anticipation having already read and enjoyed another book by Elana K. Arnold.  I was not disappointed.

Living in an RV is the last thing 12-year-old Odette Zyskowski wants—in fact, it tops her list of “things that aren’t fair.” But her father took a “voluntary layoff” from work, and the family is selling its California house to care for Odette’s ailing grandmother in Washington State. The family sets off on an eventful road trip. Between cramped quarters, car trouble, her parents’ rocky marriage, and endless hours of driving, Odette is miserable, and everyone knows it. Arnold’s The Question of Miracles dealt equally well with topics of leaving home and losing a loved one, and she has a knack for sympathetically expressing Odette’s confusing emotions about those events, as well as feeling disconnected from her best friend and liking a boy she meets. Arnold’s descriptive prose and short, episodic chapters warmly relay the family’s struggles.

There is one reason, and one reason only, why I will not put this book in my school library. Ms. Arnold has written a number of books for young adults and is trying her hand at middle grade fiction.  Because this book asks 4th and 5th graders to wrestle with the question of doctor assisted suicide (of Odette’s grandmother, because it is legal in WA) I cannot in good conscience place it on my shelves. Children ages 10 & 11 should not have to picture their own grandmothers taking the pills that will kill them.

This short books five chapters include: Cheer as a Career, Professional Cheerleader, Coaching and Teaching, Behind the Scenes, and Cheer Business. I was pleasantly surprised by the content of this book because I had never thought past the very visible cheerleader. A career in this profession can include being a teacher and or coach for cheerleaders, a choreographer, a judge for competitions, a designer of uniforms and accessories, being a professional cheerleader, and operating a gym or cheer leading training center. A career in cheer requires skills including: “working together as a team, encourage others, manage busy schedules and organize events.” (7)

Professional cheerleaders practice during the week, spend time warming-up before the game, cheer for several hours during the game, often sign autographs after the game, and attend other publicity events. They usually need to have a second job, as professional cheerleading does not pay well.

in addition to the obvious job of being a high school, college, or professional cheer leader for a national football or basketball team, there is also work on the CHEER CHANNEL – an Internet show. “The Cheer Channel website has a lot of content for teens and tweens. It has cheer and dance news, fashion news, cheerleader profiles, and live and taped competitions.” (24) AND closer to home (Washington state),  “CHEER Seattle is a nonprofit adult cheerleading squad. They do not perform for a sports team. Instead the squad performs to raise awareness and money for charities.” (28)

There are usually one or two paragraphs next to a full-page photo.

Here is a brief overview of the time period in United States history dealing with the post Civil War of the 1800s. “In December of 1865, [eight months after the end of the Civil War,] the Thirteenth Amendment  was added to the Constitution. It abolished slavery in the United States.” (10) The former slaves were now free, but without jobs, land, or a place to live, life was not any better than it had been. “In 1865 African Americans were allowed to apply for land in the South. Most of the land had been abandoned or taken during the war.(14)…  But by the middle of 1866, half of this land had been returned to its original white owners. “(15) The Freedmen’s Bureau sought to help fight jobs, build schools and churches, and settle disputes between freed slaves and white landowners. Laws known as Black Codes began to appear which restricted what African Americans were allowed to do in the South, in favor of segregation. President “Johnson’s approach of letting the South  control how African Americans were treated was not working.” (23) The Ku Klux Klan burnt houses, schools, churches, and African Americans. “The Ku Klux Klan killed 20,000 men, women, and children between 1868 and 1871.” (24) The United States Congress stepped in with the Civil Rights Act of 1866,  the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Each one of these helped, but not by as much as they were intended to do. Southern whites used violence and intimidation over African Americans. African Americans were able to go to school, but their other rights were very controlled.

Spread throughout this book there are 6 side bars dealing with such topics as ‘Frederick Douglass’ and the ‘Challenges of Voting’.

Between chapters there are opportunities for further reflection and research.

The text is written in simple sentences which get the point across. The illustrations are historical reproductions from the era.

The book ends with a two-page outline recapping the book’s content, two-page “Stop and Think” section, a glossary, an index, and two web sites.

I have watched various Hollywood movies of this battle, but this graphic telling of it definitely put things into perspective for me.

“HITLER TOLD SKORZENY THAT HE WOULD TRAIN AND LEAD GERMAN SOLDIERS WHO SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH TO MASQUERADE AS AMERICAN SOLDIERS. THEY WOULD WEAR AMERICAN UNIFORMS AND DRIVE AMERICAN VEHICLES AND WOULD CAPTURE BRIDGES, CHANGE ROAD SIGNS, AND SPREAD FALSE RUMORS AND PANIC IN THE AMERICAN REAR LINES. “(8) Hitler would not budge on his “Watch the Rhine” plan in December 1944, even though “FIELD MARSHAL GERD VON RUNDSTEDT …AND FIELD MARSHALL WALTER MODEL… FELT THE PLAN WAS TOO AMBITIOUS…” (9)

The retelling of this piece of war history goes back and forth between the German and American forces’ various victories, surrenders, defeats, massacres, and lack of food, fuel and supplies. Week by week, sometimes day by day, sometimes hour by hour, and even inch by inch the troops moved from one strong hold to another. The graphics in this retelling are as much about facial expressions, body postures, and tank and troop movements, as it is about the dialog of various generals. “TO THE SOUTH, PATTON GATHERED HIS FORCES TO DRIVE IN THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF WHAT IN NOW CALLED, “THE BULGE.” THESE FORCES INCLUDED TH 26TH AND 80TH INFANTRY DIVISIONS, BUT IN THE FRONT WAS HIS VERY ABLE 4TH ARMORED DIVISION.” (46) The scope of sequence of these weeks in the snow and cold of December 1944-January 1945 (differing from the warm summer/fall weather of D-Day) are much more understandable than I have ever experienced through any other retelling. The Battle of the Bulge ended January 16, 1945, with Germany surrendering a few months later on May 7, 1945.

Casualties for the Americans, British and Germans are each listed in wounded, killed, and missing. The numbers are in the tens of thousands. Then, there is a brief  “AFTER THE WAR, THE PEOPLE OF BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG BEGAN THE PROCESS OF REBUILDING THEIR HOMES AND VILLAGES, THE MARSHALL PLAN, WHICH BEGAN IN 1948, WAS AN AMERICAN INITIATIVE TO AID AND REBUILD WAR-DEVASTATED EUROPE, MODERNIZE AND BUILD EUROPEAN INDUSTRY AND TRADE, AND PREVENT THE SPREAD OF SOVIET COMMUNISM.” (94)

Page 96 lists the Allied and Axis Divisions, with pages 97-101 illustrating the different U.S. and German tanks used in this battle.

We have yet another book on a Native American tribe featuring them wearing regalia, as if it is what they still wear in everyday modern life. Not true. Do not get me wrong, the regalia is wonderful, but these modern photos mislead our youth into thinking Native Americans still wear this style of clothing daily.

This book gives very general information about the Nez Perce tribe of the 1700-1800s before white settlers came. The page headings include: Nez Perce Territory, Home Life, What They Ate, Daily Life, Made by Hand, Spirit Life, Storytellers, Fighting for Land,  Back in Time ( a timeline), and The Nez Perce Today ( again a photo of a Nez Perce in regalia).

I shared this book with my Native American- Nez Perce colleague from a Native American school.  He was only disagreed with one point, on page 16, ” The Nez Perce were named for shell bead decorations in their noses.” According to my friend, this was not the Nez Perce but a totally different tribe altogether. He was disappointed that this inaccurate information is still being taught.