Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody

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Will in Scarlet

by Matthew Cody

 

Having thoroughly enjoyed Powerless by Matthew Cody, I was excited to read Will in Scarlet.  I wasn't disappointed!  Cody has an effortless writing style that propels the reader through his characters' adventures.  The Will of Will in Scarlet is a young boy who suddenly has to become a man when his father is off to war his castle is raided, his uncle killed before his eyes and his mother is whisked off to safety to her homeland.
 

The adventures are what will appeal to young boys, but the story is what captivated this old librarian.  Will must chose between revenge and friendship.  I'm happy to say that he chooses wisely.  Young readers will see themselves in some of the situation that Will encounters.  Although this story is set in medieval England, students today will easily recognize having to choose between letting their anger get the best of them and sticking up for what is right and good. 

I think that Will in Scarlet would make a good addition to a school library, primarily for grades five through seven.  Teachers might be able to make some curriculum connections with the story being a re-telling of the classic Robin Hood. 

 



far far away

far far away
by Tom McNeal

The cover of far far away will draw you in, but the story will keep you there.  A smart homage to the Grimm Brothers, far far away makes a nod to several of their cautionary tales.  Perhaps the most notable of those tales is Hansel and Gretel.

Our main character, Jeremy Johnson Johnson, is a shy, fairy-tale-loving child whose mother abandoned him literally and whose father is just not available. He is sole owner of the Two Book Bookstore, a retail facility that has one publication, his grandfather's autobiography.  Did I mention that Jeremy is also haunted (in a good way) by the ghost of Jacob Grimm?  Jeremy is befriended by the beautiful and adventurous Ginger, and it's Ginger's shenanigans that cast them in their own fairy tale.
Although I would have like McNeal to have connected this story more to Jeremy's grandfather's autobiography and his mother's disappearance, this rich narrative had me holding my breath to the bitter end.
The situations that McNeal puts his young characters in allows for detailed character development which made me feel like I really knew Jeremy, Ginger and their supporting cast.  I could practically small the baking Princecakes and the pine trees in the woods with his vivid setting of the scenery.
Although I'm not sure that today's middle school child will find these small town characters familiar, I would consider far far away to be a modern day fair tale with lessons for many middle school children.

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.