Tag: growing up

REVIEW: Flamer by Mike Curato

REVIEW: Flamer by Mike Curato

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

It’s summer break, and Aiden is away at scout camp. When he’s not earning badges and cooking over a campfire, he’s thinking about moving from his Catholic middle school to the public high school in the fall. Aiden’s had his fill of bullies in middle school, mocking him for being half Asian or calling him a “fag.” It might be worse in public school…. He learned all about how bad homosexuality is at Catholic school – and he works really hard to be a good person. So he’s not gay.

Review

Wow. This was good, but at the same time it was a lot in places – direct and gritty. This feels like the sort of book that would scare people into trying to ban it. It includes frank conversation (“locker room talk”), references to homosexuality, pornography, and other sexual references. There’s bigotry, racism, and homophobia as well as domestic violence and bullying.  There’s also a section that deals with suicidal thoughts and feelings.

At the same time it feels completely realistic for the time and context. Aiden’s journey is the journey of a lot of kids. This is the sort of book that could help a kid feel seen – and not feel alone and out of options. Aiden’s story is upsetting and thought-provoking. The artwork is gorgeous.  This should find a home in school and public spaces for teens, especially where folks are looking to add some non-white, non-cisgender perspectives.  (Language, sexual references, racism, bullying,, TW: suicide, domestic violence)

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ = Good + (based not on the quality of the book but on my enjoyment of it. This was a hard book for me to like.)

REVIEW: Jamie by L. D. Lapinski

REVIEW: Jamie by L. D. Lapinski

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Jamie Rambeau told their best friends first. Then their parents. And eventually people at school. “Non-binary.” They spelled out their preferred pronouns. They pointed out school practices that were gendered (like “boys and girls” to refer to the group as a whole). And things worked out. Some people were more accepting and cooperative than others. But overall things were fine.

But Year 7 students go to secondary school. And in Jamie’s community there are only 2 – one for boys and one for girls. Where is Jamie supposed to go?

Review

This was lovely! I enjoyed Jamie and their friends. And I learned a TON reading this book. I appreciated the emphasis on educating readers – from the between-chapter pages defining terms to the things Jamie and their community learn along the way.

This is exactly the sort of book I think about when I talked to people about how books can help develop empathy. If you had asked me before I read this to anticipate the things that would be hard for Jamie, I would only have been able to scratch the surface. But as I was reading, I was incensed on Jamie’s behalf – over things I never expected. I kept marking moments that caught my attention.

I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to get a sense of the perspective of a non-binary character. (This book was published in the UK, so you may have to hunt a bit for a source.) This would be great for a book club or class read-aloud with discussion, especially if it’s with a group learning about various perspectives – LGBTQ+  experiences or disabilities or race, etc..

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ – Great! Might re-read.

 

REVIEW: Bruce Wayne Not Super by Stuart Gibbs

REVIEW: Bruce Wayne Not Super by Stuart Gibbs

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Bruce is the only non-powered kid at his middle school which makes him feel like a nobody. His driving desire is to clean up his city and protect others. But between school administration and Alfred, his dream of being a vigilante is getting a lot of push back.

Review

This was a fun story! I enjoyed the characters in a middle school context, and Bruce’s quest to find a way to make his mark at the school and in Gotham. The illustrations here are excellent. I loved pouring over the pictures to find all the familiar DC characters.

My only complaint here is about the portrayal of some of those characters. The portrayal of Clark Kent, for example, did not fit the historic Clark Kent at all. I don’t know if the thinking there was “these are kids who will grow into their better selves,” but it was distracting. (I have seen other reviews bring up these same issues.)

I would definitely read a sequel to see how they continue to build this new take on the characters.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great! Might re-read.

REVIEW: The Last Best Story by Maggie Lehrman

REVIEW: The Last Best Story by Maggie Lehrman

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Grant is ALL about the school newspaper. He’s dedicated all four years of high school to the paper, serving as editor-in-chief for his senior year. And through it all, his best friend, Rose, has been right by his side. Until she up and quit two months ago.

Rose thought she wanted the same things as Grant – the paper and the journalism program at Northwestern. She thought she wanted Grant, too. But two months before graduation Rose questions everything in her life. Does Grant feel about her the way she feels about him? Does she even want to be a journalist? Or did she get caught up in HIS enthusiasm? So Rose strikes out on her own, quitting the paper, getting a boyfriend and not telling anyone she was accepted at Northwestern.

So, that’s that. Grant and Rose end up at prom, but not together. Senior year for them is essentially done. Grant is alone. Rose is with JB. All of their opportunities to be together have slipped away. But when the school goes into lockdown in the middle of prom, Grant and Rose find themselves caught up in the news story of their lives.

Review

This was so fun! From online descriptions of this book, I was expecting all the romance pieces in the story. The will-they-or-won’t-they questions hanging over Grant and Rose’s relations were expected. And that was great. Neither of the kids were good at expressing their feelings. Sometimes they weren’t even aware of them at all. I was thrilled that Rose was strong enough to walk away from the paper and explore some other options for her final days of high school when she started question her direction. That’s a great story in and of itself.

The lockdown angle, though, was a complete surprise for me, and I loved it. It opened up the story to other characters and increased the pace and urgency in the story. And it gave Grant and Rose time to look back and examine some of their past choices.

I enjoyed the combination of typical high school relationships and drama with the jolt of suspense brought about by the lockdown and the ways that part of the story unfolded. This was a lot of fun to read! (Language)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: The Game Masters of Garden Place by Denis Markell

REVIEW: The Game Masters of Garden Place by Denis Markell

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Delacorte Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

The adventurers – Torgrim, Bran, Jandia, Mirak and Gerontius – are on a quest to find the pieces of an ancient scepter. They have secured six of the seven pieces, but the final battle seems impossible to win.

Ralph, Noel, JoJo, Persephone and Cammi have been playing Reign of Dragons for a couple years. Their original Game Master moved away so the kids have been taking turns planning the next part of their campaign for the pieces of the Seven Serpent Scepter. But as they’ve gotten older, everyone but Ralph seems to be drifting away from the game.

Ralph plans one final gaming day with his friends hoping to find the final piece of the scepter before the rest quit Reign of Dragons all together. But one roll of a golden d20 changes everything when  their characters – Torgrim, Bram, Jandia, Mirak and Gerontius – are pulled from the game into the real world.

Review

This was SO fun! I’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons, but I know enough that I was able to follow along with the game play here. Kids who aren’t familiar with RPGs (Role Playing Games) may need a 5 minute tutorial about how the game works, but the rest of the story will make sense for everyone.

The characters in this – both the real life kids and their game counterparts – are terrific. It took me a little while to get all of them straight – which adventurer had which powers, which kid went with which character, etc. The kids are racially diverse (there’s a conversation about this when the kids explain that dynamic to the adventurers which is terrific) and one of the kids seems to be working through some things regarding his sexuality although it is fairly subtle. While these things round out the characters, they aren’t “issues” to be addressed in the story. These are just pieces of who the characters are. There are some fantastic moments when the kids really click with their game counterparts which was fun. The characters were my favorite part of this story.

This is a delightful fantasy book. The first 40% or so is set up – getting to know the kids, getting the history of their game play, and seeing the game characters in action. Then the game characters are pulled into our world. I loved seeing the adventurers trying to sort out our culture. And the connection between the game world and ours was handled in a clever way.

I highly recommend this book for kids who love fantasy and gaming and RPGs and the like. This was so fun!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: The Lake Effect by Erin McCahan

REVIEW: The Lake Effect by Erin McCahan

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Briggs has an awesome job for the summer before he heads off to college to study law and business. He’s going to spend the summer at a house on the beach in South Haven, Michigan helping an elderly woman with household projects and transportation. He has no idea that so much of his summer will be spent at funerals, carting Mrs. B to one after another after another.

While Briggs is enjoying his summer at the Lake, he starts to see things in his life from a new perspective – his family’s money trouble, his relationship with his parents and grandmother, his friendships and his future plans. Neighbor, Abigail, intrigues him. South Haven locals razz him about his “tourist” status. And he will NEVER live down the cell phone incident at the funeral.

This summer is going to be different than anything Briggs imagined.

Review

Briggs was the highlight of this book for me. He’s extremely likable, even when he goofs up in memorable ways. He’s good natured about Mrs. B’s quirks (although some of that comes from how much he wants to keep his job). He’s let the hard ties in his life teach him skills and gratitude.

Briggs’ family dynamics were also very interesting. Even though most of the story takes place at the lake, the meat of the relationships are centered around Briggs’ relationships back at home. I enjoyed how all the pieces came together in the end. In fact, the last 100 pages are probably my favorites in the book.

A great summer read (or a reminder that summer will come again). A great teen story about family and relationships. (Some language)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

REVIEW: As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Madison, Nevada is a dusty, rundown town in the middle of the desert. It’s the sort of place you pass through on your way to something else. And the locals like it that way. They don’t want folks to linger.

That’s because Madison is hiding a secret. While it seems like a dump on the surface, they are hiding magic. A wish-granting cave. Any time a resident of Madison turns 18, he or she goes to the cave and makes a wish. And that wish always comes true.

Eldon Wilkes is looking forward to his wishing day like someone would “look forward” to an invasive medical procedure. He’s seen how wishes have turned out for others. His parents’ marriage is strained to put it mildly. His sister’s condition is because of a wish. People are trapped in Madison because of wishing. Eldon’s feeling the pressure to make a wish to “fix” his family, but he knows no wish could fix what’s really wrong. But the clock is ticking. Eldon HAS to decide what he’s going to wish for.

Review

Wow. This book has really forced me to think. What impact did wishing have on the town and people of Madison? What would I have wished for? Would I have done something different in Eldon’s place? Eldon’s conversation with Othello Dewitt was the most thought provoking part of all. It’s the sort of passage you would go back to and read through again.

Eldon is an interesting character. I can’t say that I liked Eldon, but I was captivated by him and by his dilemma.  He’s complicated. His whole family is grieving while he is trying to make this huge decision. He’s feeling pressure from all sides. While a guaranteed wish sounds like an awesome thing, Eldon shows that there’s a dark side.

It’s easy to see the wish pieces of this story from the perspective of the decisions teens are making as they anticipate graduation and their future. I love that this book really made me think – even after the reading was done. I would like to read this with some high school juniors and seniors and talk about the parallels with the decisions they are trying to make. This would make a great book for group discussion. (Language)

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for an electronic advanced reader copy of this for review purposes in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Addie Bell's Shortcut to Growing Up by Jessica Brody

REVIEW: Addie Bell’s Shortcut to Growing Up by Jessica Brody

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Addie is celebrating her 12th birthday, but she is so over being a kid. She hates being short and freckled. She wants to be 16 – boys, makeup, dances. She wants all the glamour of high school. So when her elderly neighbor gives her a box that’s supposed to grant wishes, Addie wishes to be 16. And the next day, she is.

At 16, Adeline is tall and lovely. She wears makeup and drives. She has a new best friend and a popular YouTube vlog. Sixteen is everything Addie wanted. Except….

Adeline/Addie doesn’t remember the last four years! She doesn’t know why Grace isn’t her friend anymore. She doesn’t know HOW to drive the car she has, what to feed her own dog, or any of the French words her teacher uses in class. While she got everything she thought she wanted, Addie’s not so sure her shortcut to 16 was the right idea after all.

 

Review

I really connected with Addie. At 12, she longs for the freedoms and privileges her older sister enjoys but which are out of her reach. As a 12-year-old in a 16-year-old’s life, the shiny appeal of those freedoms and privileges wears off when Addie sees what she has given up to get there.

I love that the author kept Addie’s 12-year-old self so clear in the high school world. The driving scene and the coffee scene were two of my favorite parts. And the sections on nostalgia and shortcuts are great messages for the reader.

This was comically painful and lovely at the same time. This could easily be the plot of a Disney movie, complete with awkward, embarrassing moments that make kids laugh and adults cringe. This book would be great for fans of All the Answers and other be-careful-what-you-wish-for stories.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½