Alma has always had a lot of questions but her biggest ones are what happened to her dad? How did he die? Where is he buried? But her mom won't answer her questions and actually doesn't tell her much at all - including the fact that they are moving to Portugal - where her dad was from - for a year. Once there Alma starts learning more than she ever thought she would - including the fact that her dad is alive. She even meets him. But the experience isn't what she thought it would be. Can Alma hold onto the things she knows are true?
I have been mulling over this throughout the day. Deadbeat dad - check, mom who isn't something - in this case honest - check. Friendship issues - check. In the end Alma isn't much better off than she was before - her mom isn't exactly open, her dad was a disappointment but she does discover a new extended family and her ex-stepfather wants to still spend time with her. Overall kind of a meh for me.
This graphic novel was about a 3rd string soccer team that never won a single game. All of the players were pretty much "encouraged" to play but none of them were really any good. The book was more about them learning about themselves and forming bonds. It was okay but it seemed to just tick off some boxes as opposed to really developing characters or any kind of plot.
This was not what I was expecting at all - in a delightful way. I was expecting a silly, fluff piece with middle school angst and it did kind of start out that way. There was a mean girl, broken friendships, silly boys. But their teacher had a unique way of structuring the classroom and giving assignments. The book is told mainly through the different students journal entries. Once they start a social justice unit and the kids studying homelessness decide to experience it firsthand without their parents knowing... that's when things really get good. Some parents get so upset when they find out that they blame the teacher who is put on leave until an investigation can be made. So what to the kids do? They take what she has taught them and seek to make a difference. Funny and charming...
First, I don't like the cover which is a bummer because I really enjoyed the book.This book is about Riley who has just entered a program to help her with her anorexia. The book is told through journal entries which documents her struggles - the ups and downs, the thoughts, the hurt. It was very well done. About half way through I started wondering what kind of research the author had done because the voice is very authentic. Turns out she herself went through the struggle and has also come out with a nonfiction companion book about it. I am impressed.
Nate and his mother have run away from her boyfriend Gary. They are staying in a small cottage that is worn down but far away from him. But when Nate's mother doesn't return after going to get groceries he is left all alone and wondering what happened to her. Fortunately there is food, water, shelter and a girl Kitty who insists that they solve an old treasure hunt. Nate also has Sam, his former imaginary friend, who has returned to help. But as the days go by Nate becomes more and more concerned. Where is his mom?
There were times in this book that I thought I knew where I was going and worried it was getting too scary, too edgy but the ending was great - just the right amount of tension and a good resolution.
This is one that really did not work for me. Simon has a fascination with aliens but one night, on a camping trip with his family, he believes he was abducted right after seeing an owl. But no one believes him - in fact they start taking him to a counselor and put him on medication, especially after he tries to remove an implant and his family thinks he was trying to harm himself.
So, my issues... First, the portrayal of Simon as "crazy" - the medications, the therapist, the evaluations, his assertive father - it was all forced and cliche to me and I think readers who actually struggle with mental illness would find it very offensive. Second, there was a massive build up - did he really see aliens, etc. Then, spoiler, with less than 10 pages to go the aliens land and then boom we skip forward many years to a Utopian society after the aliens came and rescued us from ourselves, the end. Nope - too much of a jump...
On Bertie's first night as a volunteer during an air raid, he forgets his helmet and is running late. Then he bumps into a girl who distracts him and then finds a woman collapsed in an alley. When he brings back help for the woman, she's gone. Later he discovers a notebook that must have been dropped during those exchanges and what that notebook reveals is a mystery that could undermine the coming American invasion.
This book was really designed for the middle grade readers with accessible codes throughout and a good deal of history with a middle grade protagonist. Action, mystery, adventure - it ticked all the boxes. My one complaint (and maybe I just was reading the end too fast) - when the mystery was finally solved it wasn't someone we had really met so it didn't have as much punch to me as a reader.
Iris has always been deaf. It's not so bad - her mom knows sign language, her grandma is deaf (so was her grandfather but he recently died) and she has deaf friends. But her mom wants her to go to a "normal" school and she has trouble fitting in when sometimes conversations go on around her. When Iris hears about a whale whose song is at a different frequency than other whales she decides he must be lonely and works to create a song just for him. Doing so leads to communication with an institute in Alaska that is trying to track him and eventually leads to Iris and her grandmother skipping town on a cruise to see the whale themselves.
This was really good - not only the aspects of deaf culture but the science with the whales, sound, and Iris's fascination with fixing radios. A really nice look at belonging as well.
This was a fun new series. Thomas Wildus stumbles upon a really old bookstore where he is given a book, The Book of Sorrows. He is given a set of rules about how to read it. As he reads it he learns an old story - of magic - and mysteriously the book changes as he reads. More disconcerting is the strange events surrounding him - people following him and threatening him and warnings about what he is getting into. When the people who he has been trusting kidnap him things get really interesting. Whose side should he be on?
This was a lot of fun. It lagged a bit in the middle. As I was nearing the end I was fearing a cliff hanger but it did end tidily (maybe a bit so). There are still unanswered questions and more work to be done - thus an upcoming sequel. I liked this as a series opener though.
Twelve year old Manuel decides to leave Mexico and ride the Beast in order to join his brother who entered the US a few years earlier. Along the way he is beaten, robbed, and injured but eventually he makes it. Then, a few years later he decides to go back.
I totally get where the author is coming from. Many people from Latin and Central America who are trying to get to the US go through great ordeals and trauma. But... I never really felt like I got to know Manuel as a person - it was a series of events - the worst that can happen in many cases - told in a pretty flat way.
