Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

"It's like being in love, discovering your best friend."

At it's heart, that's what Code Name Verity is about: the bonds of friendship and the courage to do anything for your friends. 

The novel is set in England and France during World War II, and the two main characters - Julie and Maddie (who go by various different names, real and code throughout the novel) - are members of the WAAF, or Women's Auxiliary Air Force. They work mainly as wireless operators, until they are shot down over German-occupied France. Maddie is able to get away, but Julie, who goes by Queenie for much of her narrative, is captured and interrogated by the Nazis. 

Julie is told that she can redeem herself and buy time preventing her death by disclosing secrets about the British war effort. That is how much of the novel manifests itself - through her written confession to the SS officers while imprisoned. I found much of this part of the novel confusing, and sometimes had to re-read to get things straight. A little more than half of the way through the novel, though, the narrative switches to Maddie's point of view, and the reader realizes just how tricky Julie really was. 

The ending was a little abrupt and upsetting, but the bond between the two friends is really what compelled me to keep reading this novel. One of my favorite parts of the novel was when Julie and Maddie shared the ten things they're most afraid of in the world. As events unfolded and new things came to light, they both revised their "Top Ten" list, and I found this very interesting. One of my favorite lines in the story is when Maddie is revising her list, while imprisoned, writing her confession. She says:

"9)Not being able to finish my story.

10) Also of finishing it. 

I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant. 

But mainly, so very. very stupid. I desperately want to grow old," (114). 

I think that this is the type of expertly crafted, heartbreaking novel that will grab readers until they finish it. 

Also Try: Flygirl, by Sherri L. Smith; Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys; Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein

Cardboard, by Doug TenNapel

I was expecting to like Cardboard, by Doug TenNapel, a lot more than I actually did. I had one of his other graphic novels, Ghostopolis, in my classroom library, and it was such a crowd-pleaser that it actually went missing. 

Cardboard is about a boy named Cam who lives with his father; his mother is dead. Cam's father is struggling to find work, and the novel opens as he tries to find something to buy for Cam's birthday. He winds up getting him a cardboard box, being convinced by the toy-peddler that it is a gift that will inspire the imagination and lead to father-son bonding. It's pretty predictable when the toy seller gives the two rules of the cardboard (you can't have more and you have to return the scraps) that something is up with this particular box of cardboard. Sure enough, it turns out to be magic, and Cam and his father ultimately find themselves working against an evil neighborhood boy, Marcus, to keep their find from turning evil. 

I did really like the premise of the graphic novel, but I felt like there were too many facets to the story that were underdeveloped. For instance, Cam and his father both mourn the mother, but it's kind of brushed on and left. Also, Marcus - the evil neighbor - mentions that he has bipolar disorder, but then that's dropped. 

I do think that this book will be popular in my classroom, I guess I'm just not a huge graphic novel fan. 

Also Try: Ghostopolis and Bad Island, by Doug TenNapel; Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, by G. Neri

I read Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty because I'm participating in Book Boot Camp, an online reading club focusing on one middle grade genre per month. July's genre is graphic novels/manga. I've heard a lot about Yummy before, but just never got around to reading it - Book Boot Camp was the push I needed!

Yummy is narrated by a boy named Roger, a classmate of Chicago's infamous Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, who was murdered at 11 after killing a 14 year old girl. As is so often the case with youth violence, Yummy was a member of a notorious gang, the Black Disciple Nation, or BDN. Yummy's story got a lot of press nationwide, as people tried to reason out how someone's life could take such a terrible turn so early on, and how gang violence had become so pervasive. Yummy was featured on the cover of an issue of TIME magazine (view article here), and President Clinton spoke out about the incident.

In the novel, Roger, whose brother is affiliated with the BDN, tries to decipher Yummy's short life, asking some really important questions: "If I grew up like him, would I have turned out the same?" and is a person like Yummy, in his circumstances, more of a bully or more of a victim? Yummy didn't take very long to read - honestly about 35 minutes - but I found myself sitting and pondering these questions for much longer.  That's what you want in a book, isn't it?

I was so impressed with Yummy. It dealt with some really harsh realities and mature content, but I felt like it could have been (and was expecting it to be) a lot more graphic and violent than it was. I do think the image of Yummy, with his teddy bear, will stay with me for a while.