Trash Can Days

Trash Can Days

by Teddy Steinkellner

The best part of the soon-to-be released Trash Can Days by Teddy Steinkellner, was that there was at least one character in the story that every middle school student could relate to.  There is Hannah, the beautiful and popular girl.  Her brother Jake, smart and under-developed.  His best friend Danny, who is Mexican and works for Jake's family and grew a foot over the summer.  Dorothy, Jake's new quirky Asian friend who breaks the stereotype by being bad at math.  And a cast of peripheral characters that act as foils to the main characters.

I think many middle school students will see their own lives reflected among the four main characters that Steinkellner has created.  And, in typical, Disney fashion, will learn a valuable lesson along the way.  This book would be an asset on every middle school library shelf.

Moon Over Manifest

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Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

Call Number:

FIC VAN

Review by Kathleen Isaacs of Booklist (Oct. 15, 2010 Vol. 107, No. 4)

After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong “spy hunt” reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents’ faith in the bright future once promised on the town’s sign. Abilene’s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is “like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet.” Grades 5-8

Lies Beneath

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Lies Beneath
by Anne Greenwood Brown
Call Number: 
FIC BRO

This is not your mother’s mermaid story.  Forget Ariel.  These mer-people are murderous and they are out for revenge.

Meet the Whites, a family of mer-people; sisters Mavis, Tallulah and Pavati and their brother Calder.  Their mother was killed in a tragic accident.  The siblings are sworn to uphold justice for their mother’s death.

That justice is targeted at the human Hancock family; parents Jason and Carolyn and their two daughters, Sophie and Lily.  Jason Hancock has also honored a promise he made to his father; staying away from Bayfield Michigan and staying out of the water.

Will Calder betray his family to protect the girl he has fallen in love with?  How far will his sisters go to avenge their mother’s death?  Lies Beneath will leave you guessing until the last page. 

You Against Me

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You Against Me

By Jenny Downham

FIC DOW

Family is everything, or is it?  What would you do to protect your family?  What happens when your sister is the victim of a violent crime?  What happens when your mother turns to sherry and cigarettes as a coping mechanism?  Who will be there to take care of your younger sister, get her to school, make sure she eats?  And who will see that justice prevails?

One flip of the coin.  What do you do when your brother has been accused of a violent crime?  How far would you go to protect your family?  Who is responsible for ensuring that your brother stays out of jail?  What happens when you fall in love with the enemy?

These questions loom in the well written story of Mikey and Ellie.  Many teenagers might see themselves in the decisions that are made and the dramas that unfold.  Jenny Downham has told a story that will engage High School students and adults alike.  

Prodigal Summer

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Book review by Kristin C.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Call Number

FIC KIN

Prodigal Summer is book about the laws of attraction, richly laced with pheromones and complicated relationships all occurring on or around Zebulon Mountain in rural Virginia.

In this book we meet Deanna who lives on the Mountain, a forest ranger who prefers to be hidden away from the world of people she cannot trust.  She cares deeply bout the forest and the delicate cycle of life between predators and prey.  Her life changes drastically when a much younger, handsome stranger named Eddie Bondo suddenly appears one day.

We also meet Lusa, a beautiful and smart city transplant with a brain for science who marries a man from the country and must find a way to integrate into his family and the new life she has chosen, despite unforeseen challenges.

And finally we meet Garnett Walker - a bitter old man who spends most of his life trying to erase the sins of his family.  A religious and fastidious man, he's quite sure that he's living his life the way everyone else should until a neighbor shakes up his world view.

If you've read Barbara Kingsolver before, you'll recognize her style of rotating stories and perspectives in each chapter.  And, if you've read Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, this one feels like a precursor, as her characters speak in a way that support her ideas on keeping things local, farming in a natural way and respect for the intricate connection of all living things.

Powerless

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Powerless

By Matthew Cody

Call Number:

FIC COD

Haven't we all dreamed of being a superhero?  We might not want to wear the cape, but at some point in our lives we have all dreamt of super strength, the ability to fly or to become invisible.  Meet the Supers of Nobles Green.  Seven teenagers who all have some sort of special gift, until....

Until what?  You will have to read Powerless to find out!  Told from the perspective of 'normal' middle schooler, Daniel, Powerless examines what true superpowers might be.  Is it strength?  Is it speed?  Or could it be bravery?  This book should be on the list of every middle school student or anyone who knows a middle school student.  What is your super power?

Arcadia Falls

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Arcadia Falls

by Carol Goodman

Call Number

FIC GOO

Meg Rosenthal and her daughter Sallie have driven through the mountains in search of a new start.  After the death of her husband, Meg finds herself in the position of having to support themselves both financially and emotionally.  She is hoping that taking a teaching position at the Arcadia Falls Boarding School for the Arts will be the lifeline that they are looking for.

However, when a young student dies mysteriously on their first night on campus, Meg realizes that she might not be strong enough to see this through.  With the flora of the region being just as much of a character in this story as the people, Goodman spins a tale of love, family, trust and art. 

Grab a quilt and a cup of tea and delve into a mystery that will leave you questioning up to the last page.  Arcadia Falls asks the questions that nag at all of us.  Who are we?  Where do we come from?  And what makes a family?  Enjoy!