Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests.

Collard, Sneed B. Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests.
1 January 2015, Bucking Horse Press
Copy received from the author

Well illustrated with photographs, this large format (10"x12") book discusses how forests can become good habitats for a variety of birds after they have been burned, and how the managing of burned forests has some topics of dispute. Working closely with scientist Dick Hutto, Collard describes what features of a burned forest are helpful to birds, and how leaving these burned forests is good for the environment, since forests can become filled with dead plant matter. Acknowledging that companies often come in after fires to reclaim wood because it is financially expedient, the point is made that stripping the land of burned material can lead to erosion and the introduction of invasive plants. This is a good length for a nonfiction book, and very readable. The pictures, taken by Collard, are beautiful and also illustrate the information being covered. I can see my students picking this up readily and getting a lot of good information out of it. My only quibble is a stylistic one-- I might have credited the book as being written "with Dick Hutto" so that he wouldn't have had to be quoted, and the information could have just been presented.

In Real Life

Tabak, Lawrence. In Real Life
November 11th 2014 by Tuttle Publishing

Seth is a math whiz with a complicated life-- his parents are divorced, so he splits his time between them. This works out great, because his father is on the road a lot, so Seth can skip school to play Starfare. His mother decides to move across the country to pursue her yoga interests, and Seth isn't wild about leaving, especially since he has met Hannah at the pizza shop where he works, and she's a really cool girl who just gets him. When Seth is recruited by Team Anaconda, a premier Korean gaming team, he decides that he would rather spend his time in Korea than with his mother, who will no doubt curtail the amount of time he spends playing. He finishes up the one credit of English he needs to graduate, and is on his way to Korea. His teammates are less than supportive, and it's weird being a superstar. He is known as "ActionSeth" and his face is on billboards. He does fairly well with his gaming, but when he HAS to practice all the time, it is less fun. One of the coaches on the team is interested in math, and the two talk, even collaborating on a paper for a math journal. Seth also misses Hannah, who is trying to get into the Rhode Island School of Design so she can major in photography. With all of his friends back home moving on to college, Seth has to decide if professional gaming is really what he wants to do with his life.
Strengths: So many of my readers are interested in video games, and this is a great book for them. Many harbor fantasies that they could make money playing or designing games, in the same way that the basketball players think they will some day play for professional leagues. This is for readers on the older end of the middle grade spectrum-- there is some spot-on longing for Hannah and descriptions of how Seth feels to be near her, but definitely is not inappropriate of instructive. Hooray!
Weaknesses: The tiny, tiny print and the philosophical musings show that this was meant for a Young Adult audience. 6th graders who have trouble with reading will need to stick to Game Over, Pete Watson, but the hard core, intelligent gamer boys will ADORE this one!

Saturday Morning Cartoons- The Long Haul

Kinney, Jeff. The Long Haul (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #9)
November 4th 2014 by Amulet Books

Greg's mother has been reading magazines and has a great idea to go on a family car trip. They can't get all of their stuff in the van, so they decide to haul a decrepit boat behind them. Things go downhill from there. Manny is apt to take naps and CANNOT be woken up from them or he goes ballistic, so they drive around a lot and do things like send Roderick to the grocery store so they don't have to stop. They win a piglet at a fair, and Manny becomes obsessed with it. It eventually bites Greg, leading to a doctor's visit... at a veterinarian. Hotels are awful, they run afoul of another family on about the same path, lose stuff, have various van problems, and generally don't have a good time, even though Mom has Spanish language tapes and "Mommy Meals" along to make things more education and nutritious. In the end, they make it home, Manny is happy with his pet pig, and the decrepit boat gets sent on its way.
Strengths: Despite the problems, this is a fairly happy book. The Heffley's soldier on bravely in spite of adversity, no matter how weird, and they don't really fight or become unpleasant with each other. A road trip book is far preferable to yet another middle grade book about bullying or school elections. Sure to be a hit because of the avid followers.
Weaknesses: I'm not a book snob. I'm not. I adore Dav Pilkey, so was sort of irritated by the tirade against the "Underpants Bandits" books that get removed from Greg's school by adults who think they are "rude humor". I don't find that Wimpy Kid books have as much plot structure or character development (you don't know you miss them until you read something that lacks them!) as Captain Underpants, nor are they as clever, so it DOES irritate me when students don't want to check out any other books. All things in moderation. By the time students are in middle school, they need to realize that they will, occasionally, have to read books that don't have pictures. This is the Way of the World.

Guy Friday- X

Shabazz, Ilyasah and Magoon, Kekla. X
January 6th 2015 by Candlewick Press
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Malcolm Little, who is being raised in desperate poverty in Lansing, Michigan in the 1930s, hopes that life can get better. His father was dead, killed most likely by white supremacists, and his mother was deemed unfit by the white establishment as well. While his older brother and sister do their best, Malcolm is a difficult child, who eventually heads to Boston to live with half sister Ella. There, he manages (even at a young age), to get into the seedy underbelly of society, shining shoes at a club but also supplying club goers with "reefer", prostitutes, and condoms. He makes some good friends, like Shorty, and is a success with the ladies. Ella is unhappy with his work at the club, so he works for a time at a soda fountain, but is unable to stay on the straight and narrow. There is injustice everywhere, and little that he feels he can do to address it. His jobs often put him in contact with borderline criminal elements, and eventually he ends up in jail. There, hoping to make a change, he becomes a member of the Nation of Islam, an organization which he headed up during the height of the Civil Rights movement.
Strengths: This is a fascinating look at the life of Malcolm X before he came to prominence, and a good description of what life was like for African Americans before and during WWII. While this seems to draw heavily on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (the description of "conking" hair definitely was influenced by this), it is a much more accessible read than that almost 500 page tome! While Malcolm's activities are not cleaned up (it's clear that he did drugs, was popular with the ladies, and had trouble staying on the right side of the law), they aren't described in ways that would be inappropriate for high school students, although I don't think this is a middle school book. It's interesting that Ms. Shabazz wanted to make sure that people still are familiar with her father's story, and Kekla Magoon does a fantastic job of making the characters and settings come alive.
Weaknesses: Everything I have read about Malcolm X has portrayed him as being... not a very nice person, so I struggle with his role in the Civil Rights movement. It's true that everyone has both good and bad in their personalities, but it's hard to reconcile so much illegal activity with a movement leader. I wish this had been addressed, somehow.
What I really think: I don't quite know. I feel like I should buy it, but don't know that I will have readers for it.

Mystery of the Eagle's Nest

Wight, Tamra. The Mystery of the Eagle's Nest (Cooper and Packrat#2)
August 21st 2014 by Islandport Press
Nominated for the Cybils by Shannon

Cooper, whose family owns a campground, has a number of geocaching boxes on the property, and campers can go looking for them. When he finds that one of the boxes has a taxidermied eagle head in it, and when two goons in ties take off after him, he knows that something is up. He enlists the help of friend and camper Packrat (so called because of the number of things he keeps in his trench coat pockets) to fend off the goons (who end up staying in a trailer at the campground) and watch out for the four eaglets who are in a nest at the campground. The mystery deepens when a Native American man, Hawke, seems to be involved, and when one of the eaglets goes missing, Cooper knows that he must do something. How many people are involved in selling eagles illegally?
Strengths: The camp is a fun setting, and it's clear that the author has used her own experiences as a campground owner to bring great details of camp ground life to the book. The environmental issue of the eagles will entice many readers, and the bad guys chasing the protagonists are always interesting.
Weaknesses: If Cooper had just taken the taxidermied eagle directly to his mother and alerted the police, not only would he and his friends not have been in danger, but the eagles wouldn't have been, either. There wouldn't have been a story, but it would have been a much better choice for Cooper to make!

Happy New Year! Of course, the big excitement is the Cybils awards announcing the shortlists! The other thing that is vaguely amusing is that I have posted (I believe) at least one book review every single day since January 1, 2012, ever since I figured out how to schedule posts. Three years is a pretty good run, but I'm not giving up yet! I need to hop over to Goodreads and fill out my 2015 Challenge. Not sure if I want to challenge myself with 800 books or go easy with 700.

My only other resolution is to run TWO miles every single day. I want to work back up to a 5k so I can do one with both of my daughters in April, but it's been hard. I have run at least a mile every day for 53 days, and two miles for 6 days, so it's doable.

The reason I run every day is because I often lie in bed and think "Is this the day I want to give up?" The answer at first is usually "Absolutely! Totally fine with that!", but in the end, I just have to get up and keep going. It's all any of us can do!

The Cybils are Here!

Hooray! It's the day that all of the shortlists come out! You can head over to the official site, Cybils.com, for the full list, but here's the fantastic group of middle grade fiction that the awesome round one panelists chose. 

Alexander, Kwame. The Crossover

HMH Books for Young Readers

Nominated by Brandy Painter

http://randommusingsofabibliophile.blogspot.com/

Twins JB and Josh Bell both play basketball, but have different styles on and off the court. JB showboats a little less and concentrates more; Josh is loud and proud and fond of rap-style poetry. The boys' mother is their school principal, and their father is a former basketball player who is an at-home dad because of his ill health, so when JB and Josh have arguments or get in trouble, they know that their parents will take them to task, but always with good humor. When their father doesn’t take care of himself, however, sports and school take a back seat to a family emergency.

Told in free verse that supports Josh’s fondness for rap, Alexander’s book will appeal to readers who like their sports books short and snappy with a side helping of serious issues.

Karen Yingling, Ms. Yingling Reads, http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com

Bajaj, Varsah. Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood

Albert Whitman and Company

Nominated by Flowering Minds

https://floweringminds.wordpress.com/

Abby Spencer is, almost, your typical 13 year old.  She has great friends, plays the violin, and rolls her eyes when her friend flirts with the older boy at the yogurt hut. Abby is raised by her single mom in Houston, Texas.  Abby knows that her father returned to India, but she really wants her father.  After a severe allergic reaction Abby’s mom seeks out her father to see if there are other medical issues. It is then that Abby and her mother discover that Abby’s father never knew that her mom was pregnant.  They, also, discover that Abby’s father is a huge Bollywood actor. Thus the adventure begins when Abby travels to Mumbai to meet her dad.

Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood by Varsha Bajaj is a delightful middle grade novel.  Ms. Bajaj includes the magic of a famous Bollywood actor and the harsh reality of the poverty of Mumbai.  The reader has the opportunity to see that Abby is a carefree girl, but struggles with learning how to adapt to different cultures, both Hindi and that of a wealthy father she has never met

Kyle Kimmal, The Boy Reader, http://theboyreader.blogspot.com/

Dairman, Tara. All Four Stars

Putnam Juvenile

Nominated by Jenny Goebel

http://www.jennygoebel.com/HOME.html

Gladys Gatsby is a young food critic who loves to cook just as much as she loves to talk about the foods she tries.  Her parents feed her microwaved meals and take out, completely oblivious to her interests… until a blow torch incident in the opening chapter threatens to burn up Gladys's dreams along with the kitchen curtains! When an opportunity to write for a major magazine as a replacement food critic presents itself, Gladys knows they think she’s an adult but is convinced she has to take the job to prove herself to her parents.

Dairman manages to create a perfect balance between almost over-the-top silly scenes and the real-life concerns of family and fitting in for a middle grade girl chasing her dreams. The cast of secondary characters contributes to the plot and Gladys's growth with just the right amount of spice. All Four Stars is a tasty book that will have readers begging for a second helping.  

Deb Marshall, Read, Write, Tell, www.readwritetell.com

Gephart, Donna. Death By Toilet Paper

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers

Nominated by Cathy Potter

http://www.nonfictiondetectives.com/

Death by Toilet Paper is a hilarious novel about a boy who enters contests in hopes of helping his mom out financially. 

Ever since his father died, Ben has taken it upon himself to be the man of the house which hasn't been easy lately. There's the threat of being evicted from their place, the stress of middle school, and the surprise of having his grandfather move in with them. He's sure that if he can come up with a clever slogan for Royal-T Bathroom Tissue, the grand prize money will solve their problems.

While addressing serious issues such as the loss of a parent and school bullying, I found Ben's coping skills to be funny and refreshing. Readers will root for him and his money making schemes. Donna Gephart portrays a family who is learning to live with their new realities in honest and heartbreaking but hopeful ways. 

Earl Dizon, Chronicles of a Children’s Book Writer, http://thechroniclesofachildrensbookwriter.wordpress.com

Johnson, Terry Lynn. Ice Dogs

HMH Books for Young Readers

Nominated for the Cybils by Irene Latham, http://irenelatham.com

14-year-old Vicky knows that the key to winning the White Wolf dog sledding race will be acquiring just the right team of dogs. But after her dad died during a sledding race, Vicky's mom is cautious about her competing and even refuses to take her to the dog yard to find some more race leaders. Vicky waits until her mom leaves and takes off on her dog sled. Using her dad's knowledge of dog sledding, skills in trapping and some supplies against the harsh winter conditions, Vicky is confident that she can find the way on her own, Even with the best laid plans, she didn't anticipate finding an injured boy involved in a snowmobile accident. Vicky tries to help him find a path back to safety for some needed medical help. When they get hopelessly turned around on the trail, Vicky needs to use all of her skills, experiences and the strength of her beloved dogs to get them home.

­­­­

Drawing from her own personal life experiences as a musher, Terry Lynn Johnson has written a compelling survival story. Ice Dogs appeal comes from immediately immersing the reader in the gripping details of the cold harsh Alaskan woods, the constant struggle for their survival and warmth, the reality of needing to find civilization quickly, and their race against time. The overall strength that Vicky portrays, as well as the individual personalities of each of her dogs, gave this story instant appeal.  

Brenda Tjaden, Log Cabin Library, http://www.logcabinlibrary.blogspot.com/

Pitchford, Dean. Nickel Bay Nick

Putnam Juvenile

Nominated by Always in the Middle

http://gpattridge.com/

Someone has been spreading cheer throughout the depressed town of Nickel Bay for the past seven years by secretly passing out $100 bills, but he hasn't been heard from during this Christmas season. Meanwhile, Sam is a problem child. It's been years since he had his heart transplant, but he's now hanging out with older kids, vandalizing property, and stealing from stores. However, he makes a big mistake when he destroys the Christmas decorations of the old man down the street. It turns out this man in a wheelchair was once an international spy, and he has collected enough private information to blackmail Sam. He forces Sam to use his skills as a liar and thief to sneak into stores and people's pockets, and it causes quite an uproar. Sam must continue to follow orders, while avoiding the police, or he'll be taken from his father and sent to a juvenile facility.

This book is a feel-good story. Sam's missions are surprising adventures and share a positive message for readers. Although he seems to be a sassy, self-centered boy, Sam's missions allow his good qualities to shine. The author is able create a sense of mystery surrounding the old man and Sam's travels through the city offer suspense. The book shares a heart-felt tale of adventure and shows the power of giving second chances.

Mark Buxton, Buxton’s Blog O’Books, http://buxtolicious.blogspot.com/

Sovern, Megan Jean. The Meaning of Maggie 

Chronicle Books

Nominated by Compass Book Ratings

http://www.compassbookratings.com/

In the 1980s, eleven-year-old Maggie wants to be president one day. Maggie is engaging and quirky, and manages to retain her sense of humor and light as she navigates middle school and family life. There are Science Fair and Student of the Month titles to defend, Coca-Cola stock to keep an eye on, and her family can't seem to operate without her. Her family's challenges may increase, especially has her father's health fails due to his struggles with multiple sclerosis, but she keeps moving forward, often propelled by her close relationship with her dad, who also uses his sense of humor to hang on as things fall apart around him.

The author draws upon her own life to tell Maggie's story, bringing a real authenticity to Maggie's voice. Anyone whose lives have been touched by chronic illness will appreciate this story.

Rosemary Kiladitis, Mom Read It, http://momreadit.wordpress.com