Nothing But the Truth, Avi

I feel bad admitting this, but this is actually the first book by Avi that I've ever read. I remember trying to struggle through The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle when I was in middle school, but I hated it; I hadn't picked up one of his books since. However, Coach Tucker recommended Nothing But The Truth to me, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised!! The novel is about a boy named Phillip who gets suspended for - you won't believe this - humming along with the National Anthem as it plays each morning. Phillip maintains that he's just exercising his patriotic rights by singing along with the Anthem, but his teacher views it as violation of the rule, which states that students are to "stand in respectful silence," during the song's playing.

Phillip's suspension soon spirals into national news as people lash out against the teacher, blaming her for a decision that was really made by the school's assistant principal.

The book posed a really interesting question about which takes precedence: school rules or national pride? It really had me thinking, and I felt terrible for the teacher - I guess we tend to sympathize with those in similar situations :)

Also, the novel is written in various formats: some pages were memos from the principal, some were transcriptions of phone conversations; there were entries from Phillip's journal, newspaper articles, and even an excerpt from one of his English tests! This made the novel go by really quickly and kept my interest.

Strings Attached, Judy Blundell

I've been reading many boy books lately, and I needed to venture back into the land of the girls. So, I picked up Strings Attached , a book I purchased a while ago from the book fair.

It's about a girl named Kit Corrigan, who's a triplet - one of the "Corrigan Three" - living in Rhode Island in the 1950s. Kit likes to sing and dance, and moves to New York City to become a dancer. While she's there, she becomes entangled with a ruthless mobster, Nate Benedict. At first she doesn't realize he's in the mob; she just knows him as the father of her boyfriend from home. Nate gets her a job, helps her find an apartment, and even buys her nice clothes. But soon enough, she realizes that he's using her - he's asking her to spy on people for him and do other small favors. By the time she realizes, though, it's too late to escape his grasp. He knows too much about her and she knows too much about his business. She has to keep going.

To make things more complicated, her boyfriend (Nate's son, Billy) soon comes to New York. He gets the wrong impression about what's going on between Kit and his father, and doesn't know which of them he can believe.

Kit's world is turned upside down when her role as a mob informer is published in a newspaper, and she has to figure out how to pull herself out of the web she seems to be entangled in.
There is some mature content in this book, but it was definitely a good read - especially for those who like to read about history and crime!

Burn for Burn, by Jenny Han and Siobahn Vivian

Burn for Burn was one of those impulse-buy books that really let me down. Usually I'm good at randomly picking up books that I like, but that was not the case with this one.

Burn for Burn was about classic high school drama, and three girls - Kat, Mary, and Lillia - who vow to get revenge on their sometimes-torturous peers. Kat is harboring hatred for a girl named Rennie, her used-to-be best friend who is now a classic mean girl. Mary has recently returned to public school after being scorned in middle school by the stereotypical jock, Reeve. And Lillia is plotting against her supposed best friend, Alex Lind, who she thinks is dating her little sister, Nadia, behind her back.

This ulikely trio comes together to take down the "popular" crowd and champion the underdog. But, their plan backfires and they eventually find themselves in way over their heads.

The plot of Burn for Burn was relatively predictable, and there was quite a bit of mature content. The characters kind of blended together, and I don't think their personalities were as developed as they could have been. Kat had the strongest voice, but even then, it was odd to me that she was so well-developed while the rest just seemed like stock characters.

Overall, this book was just okay, but I wouldn't really recommend it to middle schoolers due to the sometimes-mature language and content.

Witch and Wizard, James Patterson

I just finished James Patterson's Witch and Wizard, which has been on my "to-read" list for quite some time. I wish I'd read it sooner, but this book was WELL worth the wait.

The main characters in Witch and Wizard are a brother/sister duo named Whit and Wisty. I found this quite difficult to keep track of at first, but it got easier as the novel progressed. Anyway, Whit and Wisty live in a changed world, led by the omnipotent leader "The One Who is The One". "The One" has (as is common in other dystopian novels) outlawed certain books/movies/music/activities, etc. in order to create what is - in his opinion - the ideal society. However, there are witches and wizards getting in the way of his supposed utopia. Whit and Wisty are two of the supernatural, but they don't realize it until they're mysteriously taken from their house one night and thrown in jail. The two manage an escape from the prison, and vow to save their parents, and the world.

Of course, troubles abound, and the pair are never entirely sure who they can and cannot trust - who will betray them.

This novel is so fast-paced (the short chapters really helped with that) that I couldn't put it down. Aside from an amazing, carefully considered plot, there were little details along the way that I just loved. For instance, the novel is divided into "books" or parts, and each book's title is an allusion to another work. Also, the musicians/movies that "The One Who is The One" has banned were all references to real artists. I loved it!

Now I just have to find time to read the rest of the series...

Liar and Spy, Rebecca Stead

This is the second book I've read by Rebecca Stead. The first one was called When You Reach Me, and I read it a few years back for a college class. My professor for that class was Dr. Jennifer Wilson, the best teacher I've ever had. When You Reach Me had won the Newbery Medal that year, and we had to read it and then complete a project either questioning or validating the legitimacy of medals and awards like the Newbery. Dr. Wilson unfortunately died in 2011, and that's part of the reason I really wanted to read this book - it reminded me of her.

Georges, the main character in Liar and Spy is one of those stereotypical weird kids. He's weird right down to his name...the 's' on 'Georges' is silent, so it's really just George. His parents are big fans of a painter named Georges Suerrat, his namesake. Anyway, Georges's dad loses his job, and the family finds themselves relocating from their luxurious, custom home to an apartment complex in Brooklyn. There, Georges meets a boy named Safer, who just might be weirder than Georges himself. Safer has two siblings, a sister named Candy and a brother named Pigeon. Rumor is that the children were allowed to name themselves.

Aside from struggling with the big move, trying to fit in at school, and befriending the odd birds of Safer's apartment, Georges's mom is almost completely out of the picture. The story is that she's working double shifts at the local hospital to make up for the dad's lost job. Georges has no real communication with her aside from notes that they leave each other written out in Scrabble letters each morning/night - she's already at work when he goes to school and home in bed when he gets home.

There's a strange air of mystery throughout the whole novel, like Georges is hiding something. For a while I thought that maybe the dad was having an affair, or maybe the mom had actually moved away. The confusion is finally cleared up in the end of the novel, and it's a big surprise.

This novel was very similar to When You Reach Me in that the chapters seemed disjointed, and sometimes the link between all of the different happenings in the novel seemed vague. However, it's all wrapped up nice and neatly in the end.

Between the Lines, Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

I was so excited when I saw this - a YA Novel by Jodi Picoult!! She's one of my favorite writers, but her books are sometimes a little mature for middle school readers. Between the Lines, though, is a novel she co-wrote with her daughter, who's a teenager. It's her first YA novel.

Almost every girl can remember a childhood crush on a fairy prince. Well, Between the Lines takes this childhood crush to a whole new level. Delilah is the main character, and she's sort of a social outcast. She really only has one friend, Jules, and the rest of the school seems to hate her, largely because of the frequency with which she accidentally injures school cheerleaders (you'll have to read to figure that one out!). Delilah makes up for her social isolation by spending lots of time reading. She checks out an old-fashioned fairy tale - the kind with the gold-edged pages and beautiful illustrations - from her school's library and instantly feels a unique connection with the book and its characters. Her mother thinks that Delilah's gone crazy, but Delilah knows the truth - she and Prince Oliver of the fairy tale are just meant to be together, and she's got to get him out of the book so that they can live happily ever after together.

It sounds odd and a little far-fetched, but this book is a perfect mix of reality, fantasy, and the old traditional fairy tale. The book itself is beautiful, too. There are lovely illustrations during the fairy tale scenes, and it alternates point-of-view between Delilah and Prince Oliver. Delilah and Oliver's narrations appear in different colors, which makes it really easy to follow.

Here's a trailer for the book:

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.