It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
at
at
and #IMWAYR day
at
and
September 5, 2023 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Sixth grader Ellie Glantz's family runs the Lukshen Deli in Marlborough Lake, but the business is not doing well, partly because of the decline in numbers of the local Jewish Population. Her entire family, including her Bubbie and Zeyda, have worked at the deli, so if it closes, she's not sure what they will do. Since she wants to take over the deli when she grows up, Ellie has a vested interest in saving it. Her best friend is Ava, and the two work on solutions to bring the deli out of the 1990s. They think about things like social media, a web site, and delivery. Ellie continues to have more and more ideas for the deli, including having a nightly minyan at the store, and she even works with a customer, Norman, to approach local rabbis about it. Ava comes through with a friend of her mother's who might be able to do PR, and her father helps set up a web site. There's some drama with a new student, Nina, who has moved from Chicago and seems very posh (she throws a birthday party with a DJ) and seems to be very friendly with Ava. Bubbie has some health issues, and the entire family is stressed. Ellie feels like she has a double life, going to school but also trying to revitalize the deli. Sadly, it all might be for naught if a restaurant group that wants to revitalize the area offers enough money to buy the deli. Bubbie has some health issues, and when she ends up in the hospital, Ellie has the time she needs to launch the new website, loyalty program, and delivery service. When Nina starts acting a little strange about her birthday party, some family secrets come out that could impact the future of the deli. Will all of Ellie's plan coalesce into the best future for the Lukshen Deli?
Strengths: Changes in family situations are very stressful for tweens, especially since they usually only overhear half of the story. Ellie is told again and again that she doesn't need to worry about "adult matters", but of course she does. The family does have some straight forward conversations, but Ellie imagines bad things more quickly than her parents can address them. The fact that the school nurse gives her some pamphlets on how to manage her anxiety was great, although some of the methods work better than others. The page decorations were fantastic! I loved, loved, loved the happy ending, especially because it made sense and the problems were solved realistically.
Weaknesses: Joking here a little bit, but maybe the deli's problems with lagging sales are based on the food they serve? While they might be cultural delicacies, they might lack a wider, more marketable appeal. There is a recipe for mock liver than involved mushed up peas-- I had to look away. The Kasha Penya also looked suspect; brown rice and lima beans. And mock kishke, which looks to be ground up celery, crackers, and butter. Not sure how many tweens are going to try these, but they are an informative representations of deli food.
Weaknesses: Joking here a little bit, but maybe the deli's problems with lagging sales are based on the food they serve? While they might be cultural delicacies, they might lack a wider, more marketable appeal. There is a recipe for mock liver than involved mushed up peas-- I had to look away. The Kasha Penya also looked suspect; brown rice and lima beans. And mock kishke, which looks to be ground up celery, crackers, and butter. Not sure how many tweens are going to try these, but they are an informative representations of deli food.
What I really think: It's interesting how different this feels from Greenwald's 2009 My Life in Pink and Green, where Lucy helps her grandmother save the family pharmacy. There's a similar scenario, but Ellie is much more anxious than Lucy, but also more in charge. I'm always a fan of Children Doing Things, so I'm excited to add this new Greenwald title to my library shelf along with her TWENTY other titles including Absolutely, Positively Natty (2023, which also has themes of anxiety), Dear Friends (2022), 11 Before 12, Welcome to Dog Beach (2014), and Reel Life Starring Us (2011), Sweet Treats and Secret Crushes (2010).
August 29, 2023 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Sel is glad that he lives in the remote village of Tremorglade, because the world has been in an awful mess ever since a virus was released that turns people into werewolves (called Rippers). There's also a lot of problems with storms and climate change since the Disruption, but Sel's town has a system that has worked ever since his mother was his age. The virus was widespread, and causes everyone over the age of about 14 to turn into werewolves on a monthly basis. Since it's been so long, however, each adult has a Caretaker, and every home is equipped with fairly sophisticated cages, as well as outside tripwires and stun pops in case a werewolf does accidentally get out. Children are taught in school how to use tranquilizer guns and tend to patrol the town when all of the responsible adults are locked away, slavering and eating raw meat. There is one man who is immutable, Harold, and Sel and his best friend Elena often hang out with him at the Shady Oaks Retirement Community on the nights of Confinement, playing cards and having snacks. Sel does experience "doldrums" around the time of the Confinement; headaches, nausea, and other symptoms similar to Seasonal Affective Disorder. Other than that, life goes on. There are school projects, cheesy videos about when the children will be "Turned", interpersonal problems with people like Ingrid, and family problems, like Elena's father's unsuccessful job search. One night, however, things get weird, and Ingrid is dive bombed by lots of pigeons. Not long after, Sel's mother gets out of her cage and has to be subdued before someone kills her. Sel finds a downed drone (the community gets most of its good delivered by drones), and this one is marked with the company behind much of the testing of the Rippers. Elena's brother knows a bit about technology, so they take the drone to him. Pedro has some ideas, but odd things start to happen. The internet, much used by the children for Seekle (a search engine), as well as social media sites, goes down, and before long Pedro's involvement turns tragic. Elena and Sel had been involved in some experiments with Pedro, and Sel had shared some of these online. This starts a horrible chain reaction that leads to questionable loyalties, devastating secrets, and grave danger. Will Sel and Elena be able to figure out how to save themselves and their town?
There are SO MANY twists and turns in this one that I do not want to ruin, so I can't talk about half of the book! The world building is absolutely exquisite. The best part is the basic premise; a virus causes people to turn into werewolves (think Westerfeld's 2005 vampire classic, Peeps), but it started so long ago that there's a system in place, and the young don't really think about it. Sel's mother, because she is older, doesn't want anyone to see her as a werewolf, and that sort of detail really makes this make the idea of living in a dystopia that people have learned to survive believable.
The evil corporation is downplayed a bit; Sel certainly suspects Sequest, but we don't get a lot of information about them. Then, we are absolutely slapped in the face by a serious of revelations about what Sequest has been doing. Again, I don't want to describe them, but lets just say that Sel and Elena should have definitely had more internet savvy and suspected, as I did, that everything on their internet (games, security questions, internet pen pals) was not what it seemed.
Several reviews mentioned that there wasn't as much character development as they would have liked, but this is a solidly upper middle grade book. Middle grade is largely plot driven, so that things HAPPEN. Boy, do they ever happen. If Sel and Elena are busy fighting off Rippers, dealing with conspiracies, and facing tumult in their personal lives, that more than makes up for character development. Sel ends up being much less naive about the world, and that's plenty.
The ending was a bit neat, but again, I thought that was rather perfect. It felt a little like Philbrick's The Big Dark in that respect, and my students really like that book. I personally am a big fan of characters living through horrible experiences and then being rewarded by having things work out in the end. I guess that's a spoiler of sorts, but you will not guess HOW everything is solved neatly.
I've read so many books lately that just make me roll my eyes; tired middle grade tropes, plots that are sort of boring and anxious, stories that don't GO anywhere, and fantasy books that involve quests to save worlds where magic has gone wrong. So many magical worlds. This deftly combines several elements that my students love-- dystopia, monsters, horror, and an adventure that twists and turns while dripping in blood. This gets five stars because I felt a need to describe the book in great detail to a friend AND audibly reacted to several of the surprises. I strongly suspect that this will be my nomination for the Cybils' Middle Grade Speculative Fiction award.
Sel is glad that he lives in the remote village of Tremorglade, because the world has been in an awful mess ever since a virus was released that turns people into werewolves (called Rippers). There's also a lot of problems with storms and climate change since the Disruption, but Sel's town has a system that has worked ever since his mother was his age. The virus was widespread, and causes everyone over the age of about 14 to turn into werewolves on a monthly basis. Since it's been so long, however, each adult has a Caretaker, and every home is equipped with fairly sophisticated cages, as well as outside tripwires and stun pops in case a werewolf does accidentally get out. Children are taught in school how to use tranquilizer guns and tend to patrol the town when all of the responsible adults are locked away, slavering and eating raw meat. There is one man who is immutable, Harold, and Sel and his best friend Elena often hang out with him at the Shady Oaks Retirement Community on the nights of Confinement, playing cards and having snacks. Sel does experience "doldrums" around the time of the Confinement; headaches, nausea, and other symptoms similar to Seasonal Affective Disorder. Other than that, life goes on. There are school projects, cheesy videos about when the children will be "Turned", interpersonal problems with people like Ingrid, and family problems, like Elena's father's unsuccessful job search. One night, however, things get weird, and Ingrid is dive bombed by lots of pigeons. Not long after, Sel's mother gets out of her cage and has to be subdued before someone kills her. Sel finds a downed drone (the community gets most of its good delivered by drones), and this one is marked with the company behind much of the testing of the Rippers. Elena's brother knows a bit about technology, so they take the drone to him. Pedro has some ideas, but odd things start to happen. The internet, much used by the children for Seekle (a search engine), as well as social media sites, goes down, and before long Pedro's involvement turns tragic. Elena and Sel had been involved in some experiments with Pedro, and Sel had shared some of these online. This starts a horrible chain reaction that leads to questionable loyalties, devastating secrets, and grave danger. Will Sel and Elena be able to figure out how to save themselves and their town?
There are SO MANY twists and turns in this one that I do not want to ruin, so I can't talk about half of the book! The world building is absolutely exquisite. The best part is the basic premise; a virus causes people to turn into werewolves (think Westerfeld's 2005 vampire classic, Peeps), but it started so long ago that there's a system in place, and the young don't really think about it. Sel's mother, because she is older, doesn't want anyone to see her as a werewolf, and that sort of detail really makes this make the idea of living in a dystopia that people have learned to survive believable.
The evil corporation is downplayed a bit; Sel certainly suspects Sequest, but we don't get a lot of information about them. Then, we are absolutely slapped in the face by a serious of revelations about what Sequest has been doing. Again, I don't want to describe them, but lets just say that Sel and Elena should have definitely had more internet savvy and suspected, as I did, that everything on their internet (games, security questions, internet pen pals) was not what it seemed.
Several reviews mentioned that there wasn't as much character development as they would have liked, but this is a solidly upper middle grade book. Middle grade is largely plot driven, so that things HAPPEN. Boy, do they ever happen. If Sel and Elena are busy fighting off Rippers, dealing with conspiracies, and facing tumult in their personal lives, that more than makes up for character development. Sel ends up being much less naive about the world, and that's plenty.
The ending was a bit neat, but again, I thought that was rather perfect. It felt a little like Philbrick's The Big Dark in that respect, and my students really like that book. I personally am a big fan of characters living through horrible experiences and then being rewarded by having things work out in the end. I guess that's a spoiler of sorts, but you will not guess HOW everything is solved neatly.
I've read so many books lately that just make me roll my eyes; tired middle grade tropes, plots that are sort of boring and anxious, stories that don't GO anywhere, and fantasy books that involve quests to save worlds where magic has gone wrong. So many magical worlds. This deftly combines several elements that my students love-- dystopia, monsters, horror, and an adventure that twists and turns while dripping in blood. This gets five stars because I felt a need to describe the book in great detail to a friend AND audibly reacted to several of the surprises. I strongly suspect that this will be my nomination for the Cybils' Middle Grade Speculative Fiction award.
Bite Risk sounds really good, I absolutely love the premise and have added to my TBR! Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments on wishing on Matzo Ball soup. I think the author needed to consult you before she included those deli suggestions! Carol Baldwin
ReplyDeleteBite Risk sounds like a winner. Glad you enjoyed it so much. :)
ReplyDeleteMock Liver? Yikes. I would have to avert my eyes too! That said, I think I would enjoy Wishing on Matzo Ball Soup. Hmm. Werewolves. No I don't think so. But thank for telling me about these. I enjoyed the reviews.
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