Variant, by Robison Wells

One of my students told me a few weeks ago, "Variant is the only book I've ever read that I've actually liked." So, I knew I had to read it!!

Benson Fisher hasn't had an easy life. He's been in foster care since he was very little, and he's bounced around from foster home to foster home. This also means he's attended a string of schools, none of which have felt right to him. So, in a last-ditch effort, he applies to Maxfield Academy, a private school. He gets in, but realizes soon after enrolling that this school is not what he was hoping for.

There are no adults at the school, it's surrounded by a secure wall, there are cameras watching the students' every move, and the students have formulated three gangs - Variant, Havoc, and the Society - that rule the school. Benson joins Variant. No one is allowed to leave, but students disappear often; they're sent to "detention", from which they never return. No one knows where detention is or what happens, but they can guess.

From the get-go, Benson realizes that there's something not-quite-right about the school and makes plans to escape. But he'll realize that what's actually going on there is worse than he ever would have imagined.

Variant was really fast-paced and kept me guessing. I had to know what was going on at the school. I felt just as clueless as one of the students at the school, and I think that's what propelled me to keep reading. I also liked that it was kind of sci-fi-y without being overtly sci-fi, if that makes sense. The ending of the book was a definite cliffhanger; the next book is called Feedback and I'll definitely be reading it soon!

Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

I read I'll Be There, by Sloan, last year and enjoyed it, so I was really looking forward to Counting by 7s to come out. I also really enjoyed it, but think I liked IBT just a little bit better.

Counting by 7s is about a girl named Willow Chance who's a little different. First there's the fact that she's adopted, and then there's the fact that she's somewhat of a genius - her mind works differently than others and she excels at nearly everything she tries. She's particularly obsessed with science, especially diseases and medical disorders. Her favorite number (as you might discern from the title) is 7. Despite her oddities, Willow feels perfectly blessed for her adopted parents, and they let her pursue all of her various interests. All that changes, though, when her parents are killed in a tragic car accident. Since her parents had no other family and didn't have any close friends, Willow's future suddenly becomes incredibly uncertain. However, she's able to buy some time by living with her new friend Mai's family. Through living with Mai's family, she learns to rediscover and accept herself after her parents' death, although the fear of permanent foster placement is always threatening. Willow does have a happy ending, but I'll let you find out how!

I truly loved Willow's voice and the deep reflection with which she viewed the world. After reading this and Sloan's other book, I would definitely say that her most noticeable gift in writing is character development. Both novels had characters with lifestyles/experiences completely different from my own, but by the end of the novel, I found myself able to predict how they would think and act. I also loved how the novel wound so many different characters' lives - Dell Duke, the school counselor; the Nguyens, the only Vietnamese family in town; Jairo, the taxi driver; and of course Willow - together seamlessly and through alternating viewpoints. It really kept things moving and propelled me to read more.

I love Sloan's writing, and there were lots of quotes that I truly loved - here are a few:

"It said I was 'highly gifted'. Are people 'lowly gifted'? Or 'medium gifted'? Or just 'gifted'? It's possible that all labels are curses. Unless they are on cleaning products. Because in my opinion it's not really a great idea to see people as one thing." As a teacher, I just loved this quote. 

"It has been my experience that rewarding and heartbreaking often go hand in hand."

"All reality, I decide, is a blender where hopes and dreams are mixed with fear and despair. Only in cartoons and fairy tales and greeting cards do endings have glitter."

Given this beautiful language and the plot of the story, I think this novel will really appeal to girls in my class who are already strong, self-motivated readers. 

Also Try: Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine; Wonder, by RJ Palacio

Waiting to Forget, by Sheila Kelly Welch

Last year, I read all of the books on South Carolina's Junior Book Award Finalist and found that I thoroughly enjoyed most of them; Waiting to Forget is one of this year's books, and after reading it, I'm encouraged to attempt the whole list again this year.

Waiting to Forget is about two young children, T.J. and Angela, who have been in and out of foster care for their whole lives and have recently landed a permanent adoptive home. Soon after being adopted, Angela (the younger sibling) is in a accident - the details of the accident aren't revealed until the very end of the novel - so the book takes place in the waiting room of a hospital, as T.J. ponders where they've been, what they've seen, and how they've gotten to this point in their lives. The entire narrative is told in alternating chapters "Then" (when he and Angela lived with their mother and various foster families) and "Now" (while sitting in the hospital waiting room, and is revealed through T.J.'s "Life Book", which he was forced to make as a therapy project by one of his social workers.

I loved the simplistic, to-the-point style of the novel - the narrator described everything that T.J. and his sister went through with a very matter-of-fact tone, which for some reason worked to make things all the more emotional. T.J.'s mother had a string of no-good boyfriends who inevitably put the kids in trouble, and the way these evil characters were described, through their actions, was great.

Throughout the whole novel, T.J. founds himself pondering the difference between lies and reality, especially as he finds himself lying for his mother to keep her out of trouble. This novel really made me think about how we lie to protect people, even when we know it's not necessarily in our best interest.

Through the course of this short novel, T.J. undergoes a complete transformation in terms of his views of his past life and current situation, and I loved the way it was brought about through the contrast between the "Then" and "Now" chapters.

Although this novel is nowhere near as graphic as A Child Called It, which I think is part of what attracted my students to that book, I think that it will be popular in my classroom - my students love to read sort of real-life survival stories, and that's exactly what this was.

Finally, I really loved the cover of the book! I loved the simple black and white with the one pop of color. Those little origami cranes are important in the novel...but I'll let you figure out how!