Oribiting Jupiter - Gary Schmidt

Schmidt, Gary. Orbiting Jupiter. New York: Clarion Books, 2015.

Beautiful and heartbreaking, this book.  When I finally got to start it, I couldn’t put it down. The story of Joseph and Jack, their friendship cannot be summarized easily.  Joseph comes to live with Jack and his family as a foster child.  At 14, he has seen more of the world than most.  He is the victim of an abusive father; he has spent a painful time in juvenile detention. But for an all too brief of time, Joseph knew love.  He and Maddie experienced love beyond their years.  The result tragic, but for a beautiful baby girl.  Joseph’s goal? To be a father to that little girl. This expectation is largely unreal, but the farm and the family where he is staying gives him proof that love his real and that hope is an option. He loves the cows who soften his pain, the parents who are infinitely patient, and the foster brother who has his back.

Much about this story will break the heart. The bullies are painfully real.  Some of the adults are needlessly cruel. The system is in many respects broken. While I am a young adult librarian, I would consider this a must read for many adults.  The book functions as a call to change - a call to better nurture and protect our kids.

The hope is beautiful.  The teachers who work together to help him realize his potential are beautifully rendered.  As a teacher, I love meeting them. A compassionate librarian. The smile count...the ice skating...the walking to school...the bond between brothers. These are real boys

Gary Schmidt does not make it easy.  He challenges my kids-always-to think. I love to introduce him to them, and I can’t wait to talk Orbiting Jupiter.  So many students are drawn to kids who struggle, in both fiction and nonfiction.  Dave Pelzer books circulate like crazy and often disappear. I know this title will resonate with these kids. I can talk about this new book in this light.  Schmidt’s own Okay For Now made me both laugh and cry, and I can certainly just place this new title with his other work.  I just love smart authors who write smart books for smart kids.  

 

Things We Know By Heart - Jessi Kirby

Kirby, Jessi. Things We Know By Heart. New York: Harper Teen, 2015.

Oh my girls will love this love story.  They are drawn to heartbreak, and Quinn’s heart is definitely broken when the novel begins. She has lost her boyfriend Trent in a stunning car accident, and after years with him, she is having trouble beginning again. She finds some comfort in knowing that because Trent was an organ donor, he has changed a series of lives for the better. And if she can meet these folks, she does.

Trent’s heart though. She hasn’t made the kind of contact that she needs with the heart recipient. So she reads and researches and tracks down Colton via his sister’s blog, Violating all the rules of organ donorship, she finds him, meets him, and...falls in love. And surely my girls will be drawn to this love story.  Gentle and precious, set against the backdrop of sun and surf.

And for the girls who are in love with love, they will also see a broken heart come to term with its grief.  a family who loves and supports, and the risks and chances associated with coming of age.

I love for my girls to see strength and growth, and couched in the kind of romance they are drawn to, this will be an easy sell.  Quinn is rendered as real as my students.  Her strengths and weaknesses are explored honestly but with compassion. Colton sets a fine example of overcoming adversity and embracing life as well. That he keeps his own secrets and is, perhaps, a bit careless of his newfound life make him a believable teenage boy.

This will work well in several areas in terms of book talks.  Summer reads we have done, and this fits there. I have already Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel which explores organ donation.  I feel like my girls who already love McDaniel will love this title.  I also like to group some books about graduates in the spring to inspire my older girls. I look forward to getting this circulating in the new year!


This Is Where It Ends - Marieke Nijkamp

Nijkamp, Marieke. This Is Where It Ends. Sourcebooks, 2016.

 

School shootings...the very topic that drew me to this title is the one that made it so difficult to read. The school day, the semester seemingly begins like every other, an inspirational address from the principal, early morning athletic practice, and kids sneaking into the administrative offices. Until all of a sudden a shot rings out. And the nightmare begins

Told from multiple perspectives, this narrative plumbs the depths of the emotions experienced by students trapped in the auditorium with the shooter, including his sister, students other places in the building, and students outside. The changing of location and characters is one of the strengths of the book. Nijkamp successfully considers the differing perspectives of students outside the building, students inside the building, but not locked in with the shooter, and student locked in the auditorium.  We meet the shooter’s sister, her girlfriend, her brother, the shooter’s ex girlfriend, and her close friend.  In bits and spurts through their recollections we learn about the shooter and his potential motivations for taking an entire school hostage - for cold blooded murder.

Some potential distractions did exist for me.  Some of the logistics didn’t work so well for me.  Without spoiling anything, some of the action in the auditorium, especially when kids were trying to escape seemed largely unbelievable. I hated having no insight into the shooter.  I couldn’t completely patch together from the other folks’ remembrances the kind of motivation that would lead to such tragedy.  However, my frustration in this perfectly mirrors real life, when we are left often to piece motivations together with a mishmash of information from outsiders and observers. I bumped a little bit over the developing romance.  I love a good romance, but this development seemed completely unrealistic given the circumstances.  I doubt that my students, by and large, will be bothered by this.

Students are often drawn to these stories of tragedy.  As we all are, they will look for answers and implications in the real world.  Like the ancient Greeks, a certain level of catharsis is applied. Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Brown’s The Hate List are fairly popular in my library.  This book while not as strong as either of these, will likely find its place as a type. Just know, that it will be difficult to read.  Violence and evil are powerfully present, as well they would be.

 

Far, Far Away - Tom MacNeal

MacNeal, Tom. Far Far Away.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. 

 

I can't believe I haven't read this book more quickly. I am super glad that I did a random ghost search of my ebook collection for the Halloween book talk. This National Book Award nominee is phenomenal. I simply can't wait to share Jeremy Johnson Johnson and his guardian ghost Jacob Grimm, of course, with my kids!

MacNeal creates a fairytale like setting worthy of his ghostly Grimm - where magical green smoke from the bakery means delicious magical cakes the next day. But it is, in fact, a somewhat difficult world for Jeremy. After his mom left them, his dad stops leaving their house. Their house, and their book shop, they are in danger of losing to back taxes. And then, Ginger.  He isn’t sure why he has earned her attention, but he kind of likes it, even as she stretches him far, far outside his comfort zone.  Together, they work for the baker, who has unexpectedly forgiven them for a nasty trick.  Kids are being abducted from their town, he says. Their little prank is not such a big deal, he says.  The events that unfold are stunning.  The fairytale, turned on its ear.

I appreciated every bit of this book.  The setting is simultaneously fairy tale and painfully real - complete with small minded bullies and evil.  The characters are fully developed.  Jeremy, Jacob, and Ginger, but with them the minor characters, among them, Jeremy’s father and the woman in town who shakes him from his stupor, and Ginger’s friends, and the mayor and his son.  The plot is clever.  I often pride myself in “figuring things out” as I read, but the twists and turns here kept me guessing...and reading voraciously. The language of this book is beautiful.. I have book talked it to middle schoolers as a scary story, but will surely be sharing it with my older kids as an example of excellent writing and craftsmanship.

 

Liv, Forever - Amy Talkington

Talkington, Amy. Liv, Forever. New York: Soho Teen, 2014.

 

In my quest to find some good, new ghost stories, I stumbled on a good little ghost story set in a boarding school - a win, win for me. When Olivia arrives at Wickham Hall as a scholarship, she is pretty uncertain about what to think. She doesn't exactly know how to relate to the students here. she is attracted to Malcolm Astor, and he seems attracted to her, in spite of their very different social statuses. She likes Gabe, a fellow scholarship student, but he seems just a bit odd, even seeing people who just don't seem to be there. The mean girls hate her for no real reason. But oh the art building and the potential for her art that exists in it - worth all the confusion of being at Wickham Hall. Until she finds herself unexpectedly murdered and a ghost, perhaps doomed to Haunt Wickham Hall forever. She finds help in unexpected corners and finds herself "getting to know" ghosts from a variety of decades in this refreshingly unique tale.

I loved getting to know Liv and watching her find her footing, first at her new school and next in her ghostly dimension. Readers will relate to her uncertainty, and the honesty with which she shares it. Certainly, her developing romance will be a lure for many of the girls. Others will be intrigued by the decades long mystery that Liv, Malcolm, and Gabe uncover. The brief glimpses into the other decades, artfully rendered are a lovely bonus.

I set out to add the to my creepy Halloween book talk for junior high. However, I am leaning toward my boarding school favorites now...Liv is a bit like e lockhart's Disreputable Frankie Landau Banks, and I've loved her for while now. I think Liv is just a bit more suited for my older readers and will be introducing her to them soon.