Ratings Explanation

Violence: A boy is prepped for an Egyptian-style partial brain removal through his nose. (It doesn’t actually happen.)

Adult Themes: Cass doesn’t know who her father is. Max-Ernest’s parents are divorced but live in two halves of the same house. This provides for some strangeness in Max-Ernest’s home life.

Synopsis

The mysterious narrator of The Name of This Book is Secret is reluctant to tell his story and urges his audience to forget everything they read as soon as they are done reading it. What could be so secret and dangerous that simply reading it could put your very life in jeopardy? That is the question that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

Survivalist Cass and Logician Max-Ernest are extremely different, but when a super-secret mystery falls into their laps, they are forced to become collaborators. Searching for the resolution to a very old story and keeping one step ahead of the really evil guys keeps them constantly on their toes and in and out of sticky situations. As Cass and Max-Ernest learn more of the mystery, they realize they are on the ancient trail to the fountain of youth. Can they stop the madness before one of their classmates is lost forever? It  may be more than two 11-year-olds can handle, but don’t count them out too soon, they are quite capable.

Delightful! Pseudonymous Bosch is a quirky and fun narrator, lightening the tension at just the right moments. One of my favorite quotes came from Cass, “Funny how easy it is to get used to having a servant. Even for a survivalist.” I think I could get used to one as well! I love a good mystery and this is a great one for the little guys. It would be a really fun read aloud too. Recommended for ages 8 and up.

Ratings Explanation

Language:  No swear words, but typical middle school name-calling and language (shut up, jerk, poop, fartface, bejeezus).

Violence:  A boy gets beaten up by a school bully.

Sexual Content:  A boy and girl kiss. Some hand-holding as kids pair up at the school dance.

Adult Themes:  Underage kids sneak into an R-rated movie.  Some kids cheat on a pop quiz.

Synopsis

Tommy is a sixth-grader at McQuarrie Middle School with the usual circle of dorky friends. One friend in particular, Dwight (generally considered the weirdest boy in school), comes to school one day with an origami puppet of Yoda on his finger. If that isn’t strange enough, Dwight tells everyone to talk to Yoda and ask him for advice. Then Dwight responds in Yoda-like language (“Ask him, you must. Wise, Yoda is.”) Even Tommy asks Yoda the burning question on his mind–should he or should he not ask Sara to dance at the PTA Fun Night? Soon the most interesting things begin to happen, and everyone is beginning to believe that Origami Yoda might, in fact, possess magical Jedi wisdom. But how can this be, when Dwight himself is so socially inept? Tommy decides to get to the bottom of it all by interviewing everyone at school about their experiences with Origami Yoda’s advice and compiling the scientific evidence. Underneath all the humorous first-person accounts with Yoda and silly doodles in the margin is a story designed to unravel the biggest mystery of all:  how to navigate the awkward waters of middle school social life.

Even if Star Wars was never your thing, it would be hard to resist the sage words of Origami Yoda and the adolescent voices that recount them.  This book will likely be compared to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series–similar target audience and artwork–but with a very different twist, and minus the gastric distress humor (hallelujah!).  Surely the world could do with fewer jokes about potty humor and bodily functions in the hands of 12- and 13-year old boys. Origami Yoda is a refreshing change of pace that will keep your son (or daughter) laughing.  This book has a sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back: an Origami Yoda Book.

Ratings Explanation

Language: Profanity about 3 times. B-word 3 times.

Violence: The world of Incarceron is brutal, but we don’t see a lot of graphic description. There is an ambush with fighting, mention of “selling of women and children,” and a woman is murdered where she falls into a bottomless pit. A few other brutal punishments mentioned, like tongue-splitting and cutting hands off. We see three old crones who apparently had their hands cut off at some past time. A knife fight where a hand is pinned to the floor with the blade. There are a couple of kidnappings. Some “lives” are trapped in rings they can use to save themselves later—the killings were sometime in the past.

Sexual content: A boy is expelled from school for various crimes including “getting certain girls pregnant.” Claudia’s fiancé tells her she can have as many lovers as she wants.

Adult Themes: There is a drug that is used in the prison. The gang has at least one slave.

Synopsis

Claudia will be queen. This much has been determined her entire life. She is betrothed to Caspar, a shallow, selfish boy, who has become heir to the throne through the death of his older brother Giles. Behind the perfect face she presents to the world, however, Claudia is determined not to go through with the marriage. With her tutor Jared, Claudia secretly searches for the truth about the death of Giles, and about the enigmatic Incarceron, a place where half her society was imprisoned 150 years ago. Claudia’s unbending father is the prison warden and one of the few people alive who knows where Incarceron is. At that same time, it was decreed that the remaining society would forever live as they did in a past time, that technological and scientific knowledge would be hidden away, and that future innovation and progress would be forbidden. Inside Incarceron, we meet Finn, a boy who has no memory of his childhood. Now he is part of a brutal gang of thieves, in a violent world where survival is everything. He has visions that make him think escape from Incarceron is possible, although only one man is believed to have ever escaped. His quest joins with Claudia’s quest when he comes to possess a “key” that allows communication with the outside world, and Finn and Claudia desperately try to find and reveal the truth and escape their separate prisons.

This novel is unique and compelling, with lots of creative detail that convincingly creates a new world, or actually two new worlds with a portal that connects them. There are all kinds of interesting twists between old, new, good, bad. The story is unpredictable, and the characters are developed well so that you care about them. Even in the brutal world of Incarceron, right and wrong exist and are accepted by the characters. Both female and male protagonists have lots of spunk, and middle and high schoolers would enjoy this story, which is the beginning of a series. I listened to much of the recorded book, which is done really well by a great actress.

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Mae Tuck hits a man in the head with the stock of her gun, who falls down unconscious and later dies from the injury.

Adult Themes: Mae is arrested for murder and taken to jail. Winnie sneaks out of her house at midnight and switches places with her in jail so she can escape; she is called an “accomplice” to the crime, but because she is a child is not held accountable.

Synopsis

Many years ago, the Tuck family accidentally stumbled upon a spring of water tucked away in the deep woods and drank from it, unaware that the mystical waters would grant them the gift of immortality.  Then one day, over eighty years later, young Winnie Foster stumbles upon one of the Tuck boys drinking from the spring while exploring the woods that belong to her family.  When she approaches to quench her thirst, Jesse stops her, but realizes that now he may have to tell her the secret that his family has lived with for so long.  After spending some time with the kindly Tuck family, Winnie learns that living forever might be both a blessing and a curse. Never to grow older, never to change while all the world around you continues on its foreordained path–is this really how life should be?  Winnie must answer this question for herself, and then decide if joining them and living forever is what her heart truly wishes.

This is the story of someone discovering the elusive Fountain of Youth, and learning its treasure isn’t as precious as legend makes it out to be.  An interesting premise told in beautiful prose. When the Tuck father explains to Winnie about living and dying, he says, “But dying’s part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can’t pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that’s the blessing. But it’s passing us by, us Tucks. . . You can’t have living without dying.” Appropriate for young readers ages 9 and up.

Ratings Explanation

Not Applicable

Synopsis

Europe 101 sorts Europe’s tangle of people and events in a chronological sweep, with fabulous timelines, maps, drawings and photos.

My family loved this book!  This book helped us to make sense of what we were seeing, and why it should be appreciated.  I loved the compilation of history and art, in an easy to digest format.  If you really want to make your sight-seeing more meaningful, this book is the perfect travel companion.

National Book Award Winner

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Some playground fighting and name-calling; Caitlin becomes angry and hits a boy.  Caitlin’s brother Devon has been killed in a school shooting.  This occurs before the story begins, so it is mentioned only from Caitlin’s point of view (who was not present at the shooting), thus distancing the reader from the actual violence and trauma.

Adult Themes:  Caitlin’s mother has died of cancer and now her brother has been killed, leaving her alone with her father who does not know how to cope emotionally or relate to Caitlin’s perception of the tragedy.

Synopsis

Told from the viewpoint of a 10-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism), the reader steps inside Caitlin’s world as she tries to cope with the death of her beloved older brother, Devon, who was killed in a tragic middle school shooting.  Devon was the glue that held their tiny family together and the anchor in Caitlin’s life who helped her make sense of the chaotic world around her.  It was Devon who showed Caitlin how to behave around others, who praised her exceptional artwork, and who nicknamed her “Scout” (allusions to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird).  Now with him gone, Caitlin must come to grips with the fact that he will never come back.  She must also try to get her widower father to open up to her so they can begin the healing process together.  When she discovers her brother’s unfinished Eagle Scout project under a sheet in his room, she decides that completing it with her father might help them “make something good and strong and beautiful come out of this.” Through her efforts, and with the help of a sympathetic school counselor and another little boy whose mother was also a shooting victim, Caitlin learns the meaning of finesse, closure, and empathy as she gingerly steps out of her inner world and into the real one in which she belongs.

One of the interesting aspects about this book is that, as seen through Caitlin’s eyes, the reader gets a glimpse into the mind of an Asperger’s sufferer.  Caitlin is intellectually superior to her peers, yet socially and emotionally much younger than her ten years.  She understands things differently; expressions and phrases are taken literally (i.e. “put yourself in her shoes” makes no sense to her), and she has a hard time making friends or reading emotions.  When her father tells her to say something nice to a man she’s just met, Caitlin says, “I don’t think you’re disgusting just because you have hair sticking out of your ear.”  There are also touching moments, such as when Caitlin first begins to understand what empathy means (learning vocabulary words is a pasttime) and remarks, “Even though I didn’t think I’d like empathy it kind of creeps up on you and makes you feel all warm and glowy inside.  I don’t think I want to go back to life without empathy.”  A good book to teach kids how to understand one another, particulary those with labels or disabilities.

1939 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes:  (Not truly ”adult” themes, but worth mentioning:) Eric, a homeless orphan boy, wanders the countryside alone after his father’s death until the Linden family takes him in.  Garnet, who is nine, hitchhikes to the nearest city and back home again.  (The story is written in the 1930s, an era when perhaps hitchhiking was a much safer pasttime, but parents might remind their children that this is neither safe nor recommended today!)

Synopsis

Garnet Linden, “halfway between nine and ten,” is an adventurous girl living on a farm in the Midwest in the 1930s.  During one blisteringly hot summer, she finds a “magic” silver thimble buried in the sand of a riverbed, and almost immediately magical things begin happening.  First the rains come to end the heat and drought; then Eric, an orphan boy who can do just about anything, appears one night and is adopted by her family; and finally, Garnet takes her beloved pig Timmy to the county fair and wins the blue ribbon.  In between these singular events are the little misadventures of childhood that bring shimmer into Garnet’s simple life: getting locked in the library with her best friend until they are discovered at midnight; running away from home for a day and hitchhiking into town with a fifty-cent-piece in her purse and the promise of excitement.  By summer’s end, Garnet is convinced her thimble is the source of such good fortune, and her happiness is so overflowing it bursts the seams, causing her to turn handspring after handspring through the pasture.

Call me old-fashioned, but I couldn’t help loving this charming story of Garnet and all the pleasures that came with her simple farm life.  Why couldn’t I have grown up on a Wisconsin farm in the 1930s?!  Life was good then, and Ms. Enright’s beautiful metaphoric writing enhances the story all the more.  Some of my favorite descriptions from the book: Grasshoppers popped and scattered like sparks from a fire. Describing the heat of summer:  It was like being inside of a drum. The sky like a bright skin was stretched tight above the valley, and the earth too, was tight and hard with heat. But my favorite is when Garnet, having hitchhiked into town by herself, grows tired of city life and being alone: Her shoes hurt her; and with her aching feet, and her bundle and empty pocketbook she felt like an old, old woman coming home from seeing her grandchildren who didn’t love her.

If your child is looking for a book to get lost in over the summer, travel back to a simpler time where hot dogs cost a nickel and the county fair was something never to be forgotten.  I highly recommend this Newbery Medal winner.

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Rating given for mild peril in a couple places, but no violence.

Adult Themes:  Set in the future when the government has taken complete control.  It is a “new society” where the government takes away freedoms to “keep people safe”.  There is talk of a war going on.

Synopsis

Louisa and her best friend, Maddie, are off on a new adventure.  At least, that’s how Louisa views it.  Her parents’ wealth has bought her a place at the new boarding school called Country Manor.  With Maddie posing as her twin sister instead of her best friend, the two girls are allowed to stay together.  Nobody knows where Country Manor is and there is no communication allowed, even with family, but nobody questions the governments stand that these rules will “keep you safe”.

Country Manor isn’t perfect or easy.  The girls have strict rules and classes that test their endurance and survival skills.  Louisa loves the challenge though.  She is doing things she has never had the opportunity to do before and finding that there are many things she can do very well.  Louisa loves the fresh air and the new friends while Maddie seems to struggle with everything.  Maddie seems to think that everything is not as it seems and something is really wrong with Country Manor but Louisa doesn’t want to listen.  Will Louisa catch on before it’s too late?

This dystopian adventure really surprised me.  I honestly wasn’t expecting too much from it, but I really enjoyed reading it!  It is one of the better JF books I’ve read this year.  I loved Louisa’s enthusiasm as she was given new experiences and opportunities that her government had repressed her whole life.  The girls in this book are young- about 13 or so, and the attitudes and ideas of this age are very accurately represented.  The book I read is an uncorrected proof and it is labeled for a juvenile fiction audience.  The actual book, just released this month (May 2011) is labeled YA, but I find the content and reading level appropriate for about 5^th grade and up.  The book has a younger feel to it.  I really think my younger girls are really going to enjoy reading this series.