The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy

The Apothecary, Maile Meloy's first novel for middle grades, wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was a pretty good read.

The Apothecary is set in 1952, during the Cold War, when Americans were terrified of a Communist presence, and nations around the world began experimenting with new types of weaponry, namely the atomic bomb. Main character Janie Scott's parents are put on an FBI Communist Watch List, and they find that their only hope of living a semi-normal life is by moving out of the country. So, they relocate to London, leaving Janie feeling uprooted, out of sorts, and mildly depressed. All of that changes when Janie meets a mysterious classmate named Benjamin Burrows - he sets himself apart during a bomb drill when he refuses to "duck and cover," saying that in a real bomb drill, this tiny precaution would offer no salvation. She soon learns that Benjamin's father is an apothecary with some very important secrets. Actually, he's more than an apothecary; he's an alchemist, a magician. 

Janie's connection with the Burrows men leads her on some wild adventures, exposing her to dangerous villains, unthinkable magic spells, and a sea journey. 

To be totally honest, I got kind of bored towards the end of the novel, which is strange, because that's where the most action was - it just felt a little drawn out to me, I guess. Also, aside from Janie, I felt like the characters were pretty stock. There was the adventurous heroine (Janie), the headstrong, ill-fitted-to-the-family-business boy (Benjamin), the street-urchin sidekick with a Cockney accent (Pip), and the St. Beden's school Mean Girl (Sarah Pennington). Despite the predictability of the characters, I did like the waynarrator Janie described Sarah: 

"There are Sarah Penningtons in the United States - you probably know one, I'm sure they exist in France and Thailand and Venezuela. My Sarah Pennington, at St. Beden's, was a near-perfect specimen of her kind," (20). 

There is a sequel to The Apothecary - The Apprentices - which kind of surprised me, because I felt like the novel was wrapped up completely and could stand alone. It comes out at the beginning of June, so I'll have to check it out. 

Saint Louis Armstrong Beach, by Brenda Woods

I've always been a sucker for novels about New Orleans, but haven't read one in a while. This short novel by Brenda Woods gave me my New Orleans fix.

Saint Louis Armstrong Beach is not a beach, as the main character will tell you, but is his name. Coming from a long line of New Orleanians, he's named after jazz musician Louis Armstrong and his grandfather, King Daddy Saint. The author pulls you right into New Orleans's flair, and paints a vivid picture of what life in New Orleans is like, specifically in the section called Treme. 

The novel's namesake, Saint, is a young street musician who plays to make enough money to buy a new clarinet. He has a faithful sidekick, a dog named Shadow, who follows him everywhere. This dog isn't actually his, but belongs to the whole neighborhood. However, Saint is Shadow's favorite. So, when Katrina threatens and families start evacuating, Saint is determined to see Shadow to safety. Shadow is a free-spirit, a true New Orleanian, and isn't so willing to be caught. So, Saint winds up getting separated from his family and staying behind to brave out the storm with his neighbor, Miz Moran. 

In reading this book, I truly felt like I was in New Orleans, and experiencing everything right along with the characters. I was pulled in right from the first page, which began like this: 

"One thing I know for sure is that most important stuff comes in more than one part. Things like skateboards, bicycles, computers, houses, cars, and life. Life is made out of this invisible thing called time that we watch disappear into weeks, years that we track like bloodhounds or K-9 dogs, and centuries that move so slow they may as well be standing still,: (1). 

JBA Post #18: Camo Girl, Kekla Magoon

I finally finished all the Junior Book Award Nominees!

Ella and Zachary are best friends and have been for a long time. They've bonded over their issues - Ella has a physical condition which has left marks on her face (she's called "Camo Face" or "C.F." by a mean boy at school, hence the title), and Zachary's father left, rendering he and his mother homeless. They've isolated themselves from the rest of the school, and fantasize that they live in a better world where nothing goes wrong. Ella can see the reality, though, and realizes that everyone at school thinks they're freaks, but she knows Zachary, "Z", needs her, and continues to play along.

However, one day a new boy named Bailey James - the only African American at the school aside from Ella - enrolls at their school and he offers Ella a chance to break out of her "freak" status. As he and Ella become friends, she realizes that he has his own issues, too, despite his popularity at school. Will she take a chance  and leave Z behind, or will she stick by him?

I really enjoyed this book and loved the way Ella and Z's relationship is portrayed. I also thought that Magoon did a great job of showing real middle school characters - the scenes and the things her characters said/did were very realistic.

JBA Post #17: Boys Without Names, Kashmira Sheth

I honestly thought I was going to like Boys Without Names a lot more than I did. I love reading novels about children in places that are unfamiliar to me, especially the Middle East and Asia, so I thought this book would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

The main character, Gopal, and his family live in India, on a farm. However, times have gotten tough and they are forced to sell their farm, but finances just keep getting worse. Gopal's parents owe a lot of money to a debt collector, and they decide that the only way to liberate themselves is to move away in secret, to the big city of Mumbai. Gopal's father has a brother there, and he says that he can secure work for Gopal's father, Baba.

The family journeys to Mumbai, and ultimately connects with the uncle, Jama. However, before meeting him, Baba disappears and Gopal, his mother, and twin brother/sister are left to fend for themselves. Gopal longs to make money and be able to contribute to his family's expenses and to thank Jama for his hospitality.

So, when Gopal meets a boy named Jatin who claims he can secure Gopal a job at his "uncle's factory", it sounds like perfection. Gopal soon learns that Jatin is a liar, and finds himself enslaved under a nameless man - whom he nicknames "Scar" - working his days away for little food with a group of other, nameless boys. Over time, Gopal becomes a sort of leader among the other slaves, and they look to him for advice, entertainment, and kindness.

The conditions Gopal and his fellow laborers work under are horrendous, and he vows to get out. Will he?

One of my biggest complaints about the novel is that it moves really slowly - everything seemed to be kind of drawn out and there was not a lot of action. Also, Baba disappears in the beginning and I was waiting for the ENTIRE novel to find out what happened to him, but never received that satisfaction...it really annoyed me!

I have one more JBA nominee to read, but there's only one day of school left...guess I won't be meeting my goal this year! :(

JBA Post #16: Saving Sky, Diane Stanley

I found the idea behind this novel really interesting, but I didn't actually enjoy the book too much. I think that I was expecting it to be more action-packed than it was.

Sky, the main character, lives with her family on a ranch in New Mexico. America is fighting a war against terrorism, and there are constant terrorist attacks. One attack results in the entire power grid for the nation being wiped out. This sparks lots of anti-Muslim sentiments. In fact, the government even opens detention centers just for Muslim citizens and begins to round them up and imprison them there.

A boy at Sky's school comes under question (because his family is Muslim) and she and her family take him in to hide him from being detained. They try as hard as they can to keep him safe - do you think they can succeed?

I did find Sky to be a really likable character, and thought the book had a great message - a few people is all it takes to make a difference - but overall the book did not meet my expectations.

JBA Post #15: A Long Walk to Water, Linda Sue Park

The stories in A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, span two continents and almost three decades, and connect the lives of two very different people.

Nya is a young girl of the Neur tribe, living in Sudan in 2008. She is charged with collecting water for her family - a rough task since there isn't much potable water close to her village. She has to make a long journey to the water source, and even then, the water is unfit for drinking, but it's all they have. Until, that is, foreign men come into her village and begin drilling a well, saying that there is a clean water source right under their feet, deep under the surface of the earth.

Salva is also from Sudan, but from a different tribe - the Dinka - a tribe long at the war with the Neur. Salva's story begins in the 1980s, during the harsh Sudanese civil war. Salva becomes separated from his family and becomes the leader of the 'Lost Boys', a group of boys that traveled 1000s of miles by foot to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Years later, Salva is lucky enough to be adopted into a family in America, but he obviously cannot let go of his African roots, and curiosity about his lost family consumes him. One day, he receives an email saying that his father is alive, hospitalized in Africa. He travels to see his father, and learns that he has a stomach condition that has grown from drinking dirty water. Salva longs to do something to aid his people with this issue of unclean water.

Can you guess how Salva and Nya are related?

This book is based on a true story - Salva is a real person. I really enjoyed it, and liked how it alternated from the past to the present, between Nya's voice and Salva's. There are some upsetting scenes, though, such as when the refugees are kicked out of the camp and have to swim through crocodile-infested waters with soldiers shooting at them.

JBA Post #14: Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen

I remember reading Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, when I was in middle school, so it was fun to read another one of his books.

Woods Runner is set during the Revolutionary War and is about a boy named Samuel, who lives out in the forest with his family. One day, he's hunting for bear, and returns to see that his family's cabin has been burned and the entire settlement they live in has been decimated. He finds the bodies of his neighbors everywhere, but notices that his parents' bodies are not among the dead. This leads him to believe that his parents are in fact still alive, and prisoners of war, so he sets out to follow the attackers and find his parents.

Samuel receives help along the way and even picks up a pseudo-sister when her parents are slaughtered in front of her. Ultimately, Samuel's quest is successful and he is reunited with his parents. But after all that he has seen - all the death and destruction - will he ever be the same?

Each chapter began with a sort of historical note about some aspect of war - war orphans, Revolutionary War weapons, treatment of prisoners, etc. - I found those passages really interesting and they were matched quite nicely with what was going on in the plot. This mixture of history and fiction really helped round out the book and made it go by quickly.

I'd recommend this book mainly to boys, especially those interested in war.

JBA Post #13: Shooting Kabul, N.H.Senzai

Shooting Kabul was an intriguing book. It starts off in Afghanistan. Fadi and his family live there but his parents see that things are getting tenser and tenser as the Taliban takes more control, and they know that they need to leave and get to America.
So, they pay human traffickers to take them over the border and eventually to America. During their middle-of-the-night journey, though, a member of the family - the youngest daughter, Mariam - is lost. The family leaves Afghanistan without her, and each member of the family carries a huge guilt, thinking that he/she is responsible for losing Mariam.

Once in America (California, to be exact), Fadi and his family struggle to fit in while still keeping hope alive to be reunited with Mariam. Fadi learns of a photography contest at school that could earn him a plane ticket to India - right near Afghanistan - and he becomes obsessed with winning the competition, and getting back to Afghanistan to find his baby sister.

That doesn't exactly work out for him, but the book does end on a happy note.

I loved this novel, especially because it's about a topic that really interests me. I love to read about the Middle East, the fighting there, etc. The novel taught me something that I didn't know - the Taliban actually did a lot of good for Afghanistan. We only think of them as the radical, power-hungry group that is responsible for lots of death and destruction, but before they got to that point they actually did a lot to help Afghanistan.

JBA Post #12: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Tom Angleberger

Only eight more to go!!! I read this book a while back and forgot to post about it until Ashley reminded me about it today.

I thought this book was HILARIOUS! It's about a group of middle school kids, and they have a classmate named Dwight who walks around with an origami Yoda (the Star Wars character) on his finger. Origami Yoda gives the kids great advice, and they set out to determine if he's real or not.

The book is set up just like a case file, with pictures, comments, and anecdotes from the different people involved. It was fun to see all the different characters' perspectives on Yoda's status, and I found myself giggling the whole time.

I can't wait to read Tom Angleberger's next book, Darth Paper Strikes Back. He also has another one coming out in August called The Secret of the Fortune Wookie. I'd recommend these books mainly to boys. They're pretty short, too, so they're good if you don't really have a lot of time to read.

JBA Post #11: Mamba Point, Kurtis Scaletta

For some reason when I picked this book up, I wasn't expecting to like it. And I was right - I really didn't enjoy it at all. In fact, it almost felt like a chore to read it. I found that my mind would wander so much while I read that I'd have to go back and reread pages because I had no idea what was going on in the story. It just really didn't hold my attention.

Anyway, the Linus Tuttle (a super nerd who has a nervous condition) finds himself moving to Africa after his father gets a job at the U.S. embassy in Liberia. Linus is sick of being known for his anxiety attacks and lack of friends, so he vows that he'll become a newer, cooler kid when he gets to Africa. This doesn't really work out, though.

What does happen is that Linus develops a strong connection with a black mamba snake - a snake that's supposed to be very dangerous to man...lethal, in fact. A native Liberian tells Linus that this connection is called a kaseng, and that the snake won't hurt him. The native is right, the mamba snake won't hurt Linus, but will his connection with it hurt someone else?

As I said earlier, I was pretty unimpressed with this book. Most of the novel was pretty mundane and tedious, and then when the action part FINALLY came, it was over quickly.

I just noticed that the author had an essay in the book Dear Bully that I read a while back - cool!

JBA Post #10: Dark Life, Kat Falls

This book was AMAZING! I started it three or four times but couldn't get past the first couple pages - I thought it was kind of boring and didn't really make sense. But one day I sat down and forced myself to read it, and I got hooked!

Dark Life takes the dystopian genre to a whole new place. In the novel, the oceans have risen (they call it "The Rising") leaving minimal livable space on land. People live in tiny, cramped apartments, have to get on waiting lists for housing, and have no space for anything. So, a group of "pioneers" tests out living underwater, deep in the ocean, in a place they've named Benthic Territory.

In addition to the dystopian themes, the novel almost takes you back in history to the Wild Wild West. There are "pioneers" and "outlaws" and the people live on underwater "homesteads." All in all, it was a really interesting concept.

Anyway, the main character, Ty, meets a girl named Gemma who lives above the sea - those people are called "Topsiders". Gemma's brother has lived undersea for a while, and she is trying to find him. She enlists Ty's help. Meanwhile, Ty and his family/neighbors are fighting off the invasion of a group of outlaws called the Seablite Gang. Ty and Gemma soon discover that her brother is NOT who she thought he was, and Ty has to use his "Dark Gift" - an almost magical byproduct of living under the sea for so long - to help both Gemma and his family.

I really loved all that the book had to offer - a mix of dystopian themes, elements of fantasy (the "Dark Gifts"), history, mystery, and suspense. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something different, especially boys. It's also a series; I can't wait to read the next one, Rip Tide.

JBA Post #9: Mockingbird, Kathryn Erskine

Caitlin is an eleven year old girl with Aspberger's syndrome. She struggles in school, and her only friend is her older brother, Devon. But Devon is killed in a school shooting, and Caitlin must learn to navigate the world - and school - on her own.

Caitlin's dad is completely devastated after the shooting and provides little help to her. Her mom died years earlier from cancer, so her source of aid is the school counselor, Mrs. Brook. Through her, Caitlin learns about empathy, friendship, and gaining closure.

I liked the strong message of this novel and thought that Kathryn Erskine did a terrific job of showing exactly what the mind of someone with Aspberger's looks like.  I also loved the allusion to How to Kill a Mockingbird (you'll have to read the book to figure out how they're connected!). However, I didn't really enjoy the novel that much. It didn't hold my attention - I often caught my mind wandering as I read.

JBA Post #8: Is It Night or Day?, Fern Schumer Chapman

Is It Night or Day? follows Edith (Tiddy) Westerfeld as she journeys to America during World War II. Tiddy's family is from a small town in Germany, and they are the only Jews left in town. Tiddy's father desperately wants to leave, but he refuses to go without his mother and she is determined to stay in Germany.

So, the father sends his two daughters - Tiddy and Betty - to America by themselves, on a huge ship. At first the journey seems almost like a grand adventure, but when they arrive in America, things get harder. Betty goes and lives with a foster family, while Tiddy lives with her aunt and uncle in Chicago. Tiddy becomes almost Cinderella-esque in her Aunt Mildred's house: she cleans, carries groceries home, and is even sent out when they have parties.

I really liked this book because it showed how terribly Jews were treated even in America during WWII. I think that's something that most people don't know about. For instance, once fighting got intense between America and Germany, Tiddy got a letter in the mail that she was considered an "enemy alien" by the U.S. Department of Immigration, and had to register as such and carry her papers around with her at all times. There were also kids at school that were mean to her.

The book talks a lot about identity - Tiddy's struggle to assimilate and find her identity in Chicago, as well as her aunt's struggle to appear wealthy even though she's not.

The book was interesting but relatively dry and sometimes a little slow.

JBA Post #7: Hero, Mike Lupica

I know Mike Lupica is a relatively popular author, but this is the first book of his that I've ever read. I thought most of his novels were about sports, but this one was not.

Hero is about a boy named Zach Harriman. He lives in New York with his mom and his dad, even though his dad is often out of town on confidential missions for the government. Zach doesn't know much about what his dad does, but he considers him a sort of hero. But, his dad dies in a plane crash in the beginning of the novel, leaving Zach with a lot of questions about his life. Zach feels like his dad's death wasn't an accident and he vows to figure out what actually happened.

This quest leads Zach to Montauk, on the outer edges of Long Island, and introduces him to Mr. Herbert, a mysterious old man that enlightens him to the fact that his dad was not only a hero in the sense that he saved people's lives, but also in the sense that he had magic powers - like a superhero. These powers have been passed on to Zach!

As Zach struggles to figure out what this realization means for his future, he learns more and more about his dad - his dad was going to run for Vice President - and meets plenty of villains. Will Zach be able to save the world and avenge his father's death?

The novel was hard to put down in the beginning; I was so curious about what happened to Zach's father, but then it kind of felt like it all felt together too quickly. I wasn't really satisfied with the ending or with what Zach learned about his father's actual death. Overall, it was a good book, I was just a little disappointed in the ending.

JBA Post #6: Warriors in the Crossfire, Nancy Bo Flood

I finished Warriors in the Crossfire, by Nancy Bo Flood, this weekend and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It reminded me of another book I've read, The Bomb, by Theodore Taylor.

Warriors in the Crossfire is about two boys - cousins Joseph and Kento - that live on an island called Saipan during World War II. Joseph is a native, the son of the island's chief. Kento, though, is Japanese. When the Japanese invade the island and begin imposing curfews, restrictions, and even close down the local school, the boys know that fighting will soon begin. Can their familial ties keep them close even though they are on opposite sides? Or will one betray the other?

As predicted, fighting begins and Joseph's father (the chief) must leave, leaving Joseph to care for his family. There's a lot of action and drama as the conflict unravels - there's even a scene on the "suicide cliffs", where natives jumped to their death in order to spare themselves from the fighting.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII, in foreign cultures, and most boys.

JBA Post #5: The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, Erin Dionne

I LOVED this book! It's about a girl whose parents are Shakespeare-obsessed...so much so that they named their two daughters Hamlet and Desdemona, characters from some of Shakespeare's works.

The main character is Hamlet, and nothing about her family is normal. Her parents are both Shakespeare professors at a local college, and live life completely based on their passion for Shakespeare. They dress as Shakespeare would have, only eat foods typical of the time, and speak as Shakespeare would have - they don't even let their kids use contractions! On top of that, Hamlet's little sister, Desdemona, is a genius. She's only seven years old but takes college courses and even tutors middle school kids in math.

At the beginning of Hamlet's eighth grade year, Desdemona starts attending the same school as her and is even in some of the same classes. Hamlet has a lot of trouble with this. This trouble is compounded when her class begins a Shakespeare study and Hamlet finds out that her freak-show parents will be coming in to help her teachers.

This book really has it all...familial angst, typical middle school "mean girls", humor, allusions to Shakespeare's works, and a happy ending! I'd recommend it to any girls looking for a pretty quick, entertaining read. Don't fight the urge to read some Shakespeare when you're finished!

JBA Post #4: Crunch, Leslie Connor

When you hear the word "crunch", you probably think of different things. I personally think of chips. But, this novel by Leslie Connor is about a different kind of crunch - a gas crunch.

The novel is about the Mariss family - a family with five kids - and their experiences during a "crunch" when the country runs out of gas. Mr. Mariss is a truck driver, and he and Mrs. Mariss get stranded away from home when the nation's supply runs out, leaving their five kids to fend for themselves and run the family's bicycle repair shop. As you can imagine, bike's become a lot popular during a gas outage, so the kids have their work cut out for them. 

Dewey Mariss, one of the boys, is the head of the bike shop during his parents' absence, and soon notices that as he and his brother struggle to keep the shop afloat, parts begin to go missing. Dewey tries to figure out who the culprit is without letting his older, bossy sister catch wind of the trouble. He's determined to prove that he can run things on his own, with no help from others. 

I thought this book presented a really interesting scenario. I never think about what would happen if the United States ran out of gas, but Leslie Connor did a great job of presenting what could happen in that situation. It really made me think a lot about that type of situation, and how people would react. In the book, there was a lot of theft and violence as people tried to secure gasoline - I imagine that is pretty much how it would be in real life. 

The only thing I didn't like about the novel was that the Mariss kids were all to perfect. They had little arguments and fights, but for the most part they got along great without any trouble while their parents were gone. I don't think any family - especially one with five kids - is really that perfect! Also, I wish the book had a different cover. I was not looking forward to reading it after looking at the cover art, but I was pleasantly surprised once I began. 

JBA Post #3: Sources of Light, Margaret McMullan

I was surprised by this book - to be totally honest, I did not read the synopsis before I started it, and I'm not sure what I thought it was about...but I did NOT expect it to be about the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson, Mississippi!

Despite surprising me with its subject matter, I really enjoyed this novel. It's about a girl, Samantha, who moves to Jackson, MS with her mother right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. Sam's mother works as an art history professor at a local college and soon starts giving lectures at another local, all black college. This spells trouble for Sam and her mother - Sam has trouble fitting in at school and has difficulty rationalizing what is going on around her and her mother's involvement in it. 

Her mother's friend, Perry, gives her a camera (hence the title) and she begins to document what goes on around her through photos. She captures things that need to be seen and even finds some of her photos published in a national newspaper. 

The novel has a good bit of action - fights, fires, voter registration riots, and even a murder - which really keeps the pages turning. I'd recommend this book mainly to girls (there are some kissing scenes and a young romance) who are interested in historical fiction.

JBA Post #2: The Grimm Legacy, Polly Shulman

I absolutely LOVED this book. It made me think of another Grimm-inspired book I read a while ago, A Tale Dark and Grimm.

Anyway, the novel is about a girl named Elizabeth who lands herself a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository - a library for objects, not books. Elizabeth soon discovers that the library is full of secrets, and even contains magical items in the "Grimm collection"...items from Grimm's fairytales!  Reading this book reminded me of all the fairytales that I'd read as a kid and forgotten, and made me really want to read them again.

Elizabeth learns soon after starting her job that magical objects are disappearing from the library. She and her friends (the other library pages, or employees) go on a quest to find out who's behind the thievery. It's a quest that introduces them to a flying dog, a dangerous bird, princes and princesses, and slimy villains. I was so frustrated trying to figure out who was involved in the theft - and I was totally wrong!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone that likes a little mystery mixed in with their fantasy. Check out this book trailer I found for it on amazon.com:

JBA Post #1: Ninth Ward, Jewell Parker Rhodes

I was really excited when I found this book. I knew from the title and the cover art that it was going to be about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. This is a topic that always fascinates me, because I lived outside of New Orleans when Katrina hit. I've read lots of books - both fiction and non-fiction - about the storm, but I'd never read a YA novel about it before.

The novel is about a girl, Lanesha, who lives with her pseudo-grandmother, Mama YaYa. They live in the ninth ward of New Orleans, which is a historically poverty-stricken area of the city. They experience Hurricane Katrina from their home in the ninth ward.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the novel. After living in New Orleans, I learned a lot about the way things are there, and was captured by its charm and flair. However, the novel did not do these things justice. It rushed through things and didn't provide enough detail to make a real New Orleans novel. Also, Mama YaYa is set up as such a uniquely New Orleanian character - she believes in ghosts, she practices voodoo, etc. - but I don't think the author developed her fully enough. I kept wanting more.  Also, I felt like there were quite a few inconsistencies in the novel. The cover says that Lanesha is from a "tight-knit ninth ward neighborhood", but then the author goes on to describe her and her grandmother as almost friendless; outcasts in the neighborhood.

The novel wasn't all bad...I found a quote that I really liked. It says, "What is it that  makes laughter feel so good? I think I must remember this moment. When I am in trouble again, when life surprises me, I should laugh." Overall, though, I had really high hopes for this novel, but it just did not meet my expectations. Maybe it's because I already know too much about New Orleans and Katrina? It might appeal more to someone who's just learning about the area.