Tell Me Three Things

Jessie is starting her junior year in high school, her mother died of cancer, her father married another woman (Rachel) and they move from Chicago to California. Jessie has a hard time adjusting to her new life. She feels like an outsider at school and at home. She receives an anonymous email from a student at her school who tells her that if she wants to talk they’re there and if she as has any question she is free to ask. This person helps her find new friends by advising her to talk to and who to stay away from. Eventually, Jessie develops feelings for this person and is trying to figure out it is. They start telling each other different things about themselves to get to know one another better. She thinks it is Ethan (her crush), but when her and the anonymous person decide to meet, Liam (he asks Jessie out) shows up and her hopes of if being Ethan are gone. Suddenly Ethan shows up late because there was a band meeting that ran a little late and tells her that he was the mystery person.

I actually enjoyed reading this book. I liked the story; I like how someone who saw Jessie struggling to adjust helps her out, even though it was a little creepy how they got her email address in the first place. This book has the normal day high school drama like crushes, meeting new people, bullies and overcoming issues at home. I most definitely recommend this book.

Buxbaum, J. (2016). Tell me three things. New York: Delacorte Press

Special Note: This book is on the 2016 Quick Pick List of books for unmotivated readers. Click the link to find more Quick Pick Books

Persepolis

This is an autobiographic story told in a graphic format.  The events in the story are events that Marjane (Marji) Satrapi went through herself. She was ten years old and it is year after the Islamic Revolution. Females are now enforced to wear the veil and are segregated from the boys at school. Marji starts studying revolutions and becomes very anti-authoritarian. She has problems in school and is very outspoken on rights. She wants to protest but she can’t due to her age. Marji reads everything that she can about her country’s history and is shocked that she doesn’t know much about it. Her grandmother informs her that her great- grandfather overthrew the Shah. Majri’s family cannot leave Iran because the relationship between Iran and the U.S. are heating up. So they go on a vacation to Spain and come back when war has broken out. Marji loses family and friends in her neighborhood due to the bombings. Throughout the war Marji loses her trust with the government and starts to rebel in her own ways.  She listens to punk rock, smokes her first cigarette and continues to be head strong in her beliefs. She grows very rebellious and is threatened to be arrested for music and western beliefs. Marji eventually gets expelled from school so her family decides to send her to Austria to attend school.

I found this book very interesting. It depicts the life of what women and men would go through during the Islamic Revolution and the rights of women, religion and rebellion. I thought it was neat how Satrapi tells her early life in black and white comic strips.

Satrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. New York: Pantheon

Special Note: Here is the second part of Satrapi life. 

Where Things Come Back

Cullen Witter is seventeen years old and lives in Lily, Arkansas. In the beginning of the story he sees the second dead person in his life which happens to be his cousin Oslo. Then there are reports that the Lazarus woodpecker is not extinct and has been spotted in his town. A few days after the news broke out that the woodpecker has been spotted his brother, Gabriel, disappears. During his disappearance Cullen starts questioning what is and what isn’t. Apparently Gabriel was kidnapped by Cabot who mistook him for Cullen because he wanted to scare Cullen in order to stay away from his ex-wife Alma. Cullen is also on a mission to find out the truth about the falling angels and believes that Gabriel had a part in it and has the ability to talk to God.  Gabriel is missing for a little over ten weeks.

I found this book odd. I felt that for me it was all over the place. There were a lot of small characters in the beginning that don’t get mention in the end. I found it weird how you don’t find out what happened to Gabriel towards the end instead of the beginning. I’m not sure if I would recommend this book to younger readers because I would have a hard time determining their reading and maturity level in order to understand what the novel is about.  

Whaley, J. C. (2011). Where things come back. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Special Note: This book is winner of the Printz Award.

Lucky Broken Girl

This story takes place in 1960s when a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl (Ruth) and her family move to New York. When Ruth first starts school she is put in the “dumb” class because her English isn’t good. She and her friend work hard to get out it because they know they are not dumb. When they finally get moved out and Ruth is has confidence in speaking English and being the best at hopscotch, her life changes. Ruth and her family get into a car accident causing her to be in a body cast for year! She can no longer go outside and play with the neighborhood kids; she is confined to her bed. Her world shrinks to her bedroom and the main people she speaks to is her mother and her teacher. She goes through embarrassment of using a bed pan, makes new friends and learns to find her strength again. In the beginning Ruth is very angry at the teenagers who cause the accident but towards the end she finds forgiveness and she understands how fragile and valuable life can be.

I found Ruth to be a bit annoying especially when she was learning how to walk again. I also wanted to speak some sense into her mother at times when she would cry about missing Cuba and wanting to go back. I did enjoy how Ruth’s outlook on life changed and she became much more mature because of the accident.

Behar, R. (2017). Lucky broken girl. New York: Delacorte

Special Note: To find out more information about the author you can go to the following link: Ruth Behar

Girl in the Blue Coat

This story takes place in World War II and Hanneke is a teenager who supports her parents buy delivering sought-out goods on the black market to customers. When one of her customers, Mrs. Janssen, asks her for help in locating a Jewish girl, Mirjam, Hanneke gets drawn into an undercover network. The networks forerunner is her ex-boyfriend’s brother Ollie who works on getting food to people who are starving and placing Jewish children. Hanneke asks him for help and the only thing that she knows about the girl is that she has a blue coat. When there is a transport happening they see that the girl was brought in with a blue coat and so they develop a plan to save her. However when they risk their lives to save Mirjam, she refuses to go with them and starts to running away from the group being transported and in doing so gets killed. After her burial Hanneke realizes that the girl that is buried is missing some scar marks that Mirjam should’ve had so she begins looking for more information. Hanneke starts talking to Christooffel who is in love with Mirjam tells Hanneke what happened and that the girl that is buried in not Mirjam but Amalia her best freind. In the end, Hanneke finds the real Mirjam and realizes it is better for her to stay where she is at than for her to go to Mrs. Janssen’s house.

I enjoyed reading this book; I was shocked with the twist towards the end. It was a little slow in the beginning but it got better.  I like how historical events were built into the story; I guess that’s what got my attention, knowing that it takes place during WWII.

Hesse, Monica. (2016). Girl in the blue coat. New York: Little, Brown and Company

Special Note: This book is on the list for Best Fiction for Young Adults and a National Bestseller.

Other books include: 

Booked

Nick Hall, is a thirteen year old gifted student and soccer player. He and his best friend, Coby, are in eighth grade and they are dealing with bullying and asking a girl out. Nick’s father has him study and memorize a dictionary that he wrote. On top of all the things happening at school Nick learns while eating dinner with his parents that they are going to get divorce. Apparently his parents spend a lot of time on their professions, his mother is a horse trainer who has to travel and his father is a linguistic professor.  With the knowledge that his parents are getting a divorce Nick starts to let his grades dwindle which causes him to miss out on some soccer games.

This is a realistic fiction story. A teen is having a hard time dealing with divorce of his parents. This book relates to many individuals. I liked how it was written as a poem with some rap weaved into it.

Alexander, K. (2016). Booked. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Other books by this author include: 

Mighty Jack

Jack is dreading his summer vacation. His single mother is working two jobs and he is left at home to take care of his autistic sister, Maddy, who doesn’t talk much. When they go to the flea market gets tricked into trading his mom’s only car for a mysterious box of seeds. Jack and Maddy start planting what they think is a normal garden. However, after a few days they notice that the plants are growing quickly and there are onion babies, pumpkins that bite and a dragon appears. Jack, Maddy and Lilly (new friend) start having to battle certain plants. The dragon warns him that he needs to destroy the garden because it is evil. In the end Jack and Lilly are too late when the evil monster takes Maddy away.

I actually liked this book, I thought it was neat to read and the graphics were great. I like how Jack’s sister isn’t the “normal” little sister and how Lily is home schooled. I would definitely recommend this book.

Hatke, Ben. (2016). Mighty Jack. New York: First Second

Special Note: This book is on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.
To find out what happens to Jack, Lily and Maddy you can read the following: 

The Fates Divide

This is the sequel to the Carve the Mark book and it continues to reveal how Cyra Noavek and Akos Kerseth fulfill their fates. Their fates where spoken by oracles at birth. Akos is in love with Cyra but Cyra isn’t sure. Her fate is that the second child of Noavek will cross the Divide.  Akos fate states that he will die in service to the Noavek’s family.  On top of having their fates told to them they also have “gifts,” Cyra’s gift gives off pain whereas Akos gift can cancel out someone’s current gift. When Cyra’s father Lazmet(his gift allows him to control others) who was once thought to have died announces that he isn’t and that he is reclaiming the Shoete throne it brings Akos’s fate closer. Lazmet starts a war and Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him even if it will cost them their lives. Cyra and Akos are told that they were switched at birth and that Akos is acutally is Lazmet’s true born son it changes everything. The fates were to be inescapable but now that Akos knows the truth he has a sense control and choice on what he will do with his life instead of being tied down by the fates. He leaves Cyra without telling her to go meet his father with the intent to kill him.

This book is very rich in detail with the hope and resilience of the characters. The chapters are written in the perspectives of Cyra, Akos, Cici, with one chapter told in Eijeh view. This book can be confusing if you are not paying attention on whose perspective is being told. This is also a science fiction novel.

Roth, V. (2018). The Fates Divide. New York: Katherine Tegan Books.

Special Note: This book is on the New York Bestsellers List.
Other books by this author include:

Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes

Sarah was severely burned when she was just three years old when she meets Eric they become best friends because he was overweight. When Eric joins the swim team he starts to lose weight but he still continues to overeat to not let Sarah feel left out. Sarah happens to be in a psychiatric unit because she refuses to talk to anyone even though she understands exactly what they are saying. Eric visits her every day to figure out why she is silent, he finally decides to go talk to their once bully turned friend Dale Thornton. Dale proceeds to tell him that Sarah’s face wasn’t burned by a pot of boiling spaghetti but that her dad held her face to the burning stove and that his aunt who worked at the hospital told him. When finding out the truth Eric, Sarah and their teacher Mrs. Lemry set out to find her mother and get Sarah away from her abusive father.

This book started a little slow for me but it started picking up speed during the middle. I love the friendship between Sarah and Eric; he does everything he can to make sure Sarah knows he won’t leave her behind. This story is about the friendship and loyalty between two people who were once bullied who stuck together. 

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York: Greenwillow Books

Other books by this author can be found at his website: Chris Crutcher