"Welcome to the Ark" by Stephanie Tolan

I was prepared to dislike this book. I chose to read it after a colleague expressed concern that her elementary-aged daughter was asked to read it in class. It was, she felt, far too dark for a fifth grade child. I really wasn't up for yet another apocalyptic, dystopic, violent book. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the plot is *not* another apocalyptic novel. Although violence paints the background of the story, the book mostly focuses on the journeys of self-discovery by four gifted children who are committed to an upscale mental health facility when their unique differences cannot be tolerated by mainstream society. Think more "Escape to Witch Mountain" than "Hunger Games." I found the characters of Miranda, Doug, Taryn and Elijah to be interesting and fun. For the first two-thirds of the book, I liked the various twists and turns and found the mix of prose with poetry and "memos" to be a nice way of moving the tale forward. The book's weakness, in my humble opinion, is not its violence but the degree to which the story is dated. Written in the mid-1990s, Ms. Tolen drew on the explosion of computer technology and the growth of militia groups under the Clinton presidency to predict a "near future" (1999) where the U.S. is besieged by internal and border violence and people are just learning how to connect to one another on the " 'nets." The passage of time has not been kind to this book. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, the awkward electronic interactions depicted are nearly laughable. The unimaginable that has occurred since the printing of this book -- Oklahoma City, Columbine and 9/11, showed our ultimate ability as a society to rise above violence and find our humanity in the face of darkness rather than be consumed by it. Beyond our growth in technology and our powerful history in the last 12 years or so, the book still feels mired in the past. Harking back to a 1970s morality tale, the last third of the book relies on hokey discussions of extra-sensory perception and a hippie-esque wholesomeness ("Goodness overcomes all") that was too much to stomach. In the end, it made for an "okay" read on a snow-day, but not something I would recommend as a class read. I don't feel the violence was over-the-top, but I do feel the writing style and vocabulary were more suited to middle school than elementary. It was a notable book and the first half was good, so it is likely to stick around for a while, but IMHO it has gone past its expiration date. Perhaps it could be used in a Creative Writing class. Given what we know now -- how should the book end?

"Operation Yes" by Sara Lewis Holmes

Much like "Pay It Forward," this book has a tremendously inspirational tone. The story of young people whose parents are serving active duty, and the young teacher who wakes them up from the everyday life of school, brings many smiles and easy page-turning for the reader. Credit is given to Ms. Holmes for creating real characters, child and adult, that are admirable, flawed and quintessentially human. The tale begins with "Bo" -- a squirrelly sixth grader who gets in trouble for basically being a typical sixth grade boy. His new teacher, Ms. Loupe, not only sees his strengths but shows him how to use them to succeed. Enter Gari, Bo's cousin, who comes to live with Bo's family when her mother is posted to Iraq. The stories of these two kids interweave with those in their class and the adults around them. What could be a jangled mess of storylines and perspectives flows nicely. The lessons of the book hold disparate elements together in a clear picture. The choice to make the protagonists sixth grade is also well thought-out. Sixth grade is a magical tipping point -- they are still little kids but have a burgeoning understanding of the greater world slipping in. Bo and Gari are just beginning to understand the serious underpinnings of the military world around them, but they focus on what they can do to improve things ... and are remarkably successful. The book was a delight to read. It voiced messages I like: "Say Yes and..." to life and "Everyone has their battles." I look forward to meeting the author this Spring.

"Code Orange" by Caroline Cooney

I liked Caroline Cooney's earlier works, then felt she "sold out" a tad with "Emergency Room," "Flight 116 is Down," etc. "Goddess of Yesterday" was a welcome return to the Cooney I enjoy. "Code Orange" falls somewhere between the two extremes. Realistic and engaging characters draw you in (much more than the icky cover). Ms. Cooney either knows a lot of teens or she remembers her youth very well. She is also somewhat unapologetic in creating her characters, making Mitty Blake, the lead character in this novel, a genuinely disengaged rich kid who you may have to take a while to warm up to. Mitty's internal monologue of the pointlessness of school is accurate to a fault, not to mention a little humorous. The New York city setting is also a good fit with details evoking strong memories of time I have spent there. Where the novel went off the rails for me, a bit, was an improbable and convoluted plot involving a biology paper, memories of 9/11 and smallpox scabs. While the disease aspect does bring a certain page-turning aspect to the story, the overall level of drama eventually rises, as it must, to a somewhat silly level. It's not that it was screamingly bad, just a poor mix of the actual fear felt during the terrorists attacks mixed with quickly aging scientific and technical data in the book. I was left feeling angst over the dredged-up memories of actual history combined with the knowledge that this novel, written in 2005, lacked the perspective I now have on the events mentioned. This will not be a problem for the students being asked to read it -- they will not remember 9/11, the Anthrax attacks or the general mood of the country in those years. For me, it will never go away. Not sure I'm ready for the fictionalized version, particularly when the voices ring so much like the kids I know. Hopefully, Ms. Cooney will continue writing character-driven books, and not return to these "crisis of the times" novels.

"Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

First-time author Clare Vanderpool has won the lottery. Watching this book rocket to the top 10 of Amazon's sales in the 24 hours after the Newbery was announced was, as always, fun. After a brief dalliance with "cool" when they awarded the annual award to Neil Gaiman's "Graveyard Book" two years ago and the somewhat trippy "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead last year, this year's award committee returned to the Newbery safe-zone ... an historical novel with strong literary underpinnings that was on no one's radar. Keeping with the trend of focusing on the 1910s (is this a 100 year thing?), "Moon Over Manifest" tells a story in two times -- 1936 and 1917/18. When I was growing up, historical fiction was often set in the American Revolution, the Civil War or the Great Depression. This recent attention on America at the time of WWI and the Spanish Influenza is interesting for no other reason than I don't know much about it. Most notably, I enjoyed the 1914 novel "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson. This book has many similar themes -- the struggle the nation had with the influx of immigrants at the turn of the last century, the building of community in the burgeoning towns of the plains states, the loss of the (very) young men who served the nation in the war -- but it is told from a younger perspective and is much more dense, combining the perspective of the Depression-era present with this colorful decade as a girl searches for her father's presence in a town "with a past." Abilene, our main character, is the kind of plucky 12 year-old that one thinks of in these kinds of books. She is engaging and well-drawn, as are all the characters (although I would skip the unnecessary character list at the beginning). A weighty tome at more than 350 pages, it was an engaging read that I read in one (albeit long) sitting. Mostly realistic and not dark, with a solid mystery or two and just a dash of humor, the story had a nice flow given its time-jumps. Like "Hattie Big Sky," the additional historical information provided at the end of the book is interesting and the titles listed as reference sources are good picks. The only real challenge of this title is the problem with many of the Newbery picks. Other than librarians and English teachers, who will read it? The protagonist is too young to be of interest to older readers and the text too high for many younger ones. I can see it being of interest to those library types who love to read pretty much every Newbery (check out this blog, a friend of a friend: http://lauramitolife.blogspot.com/) but I don't see it as being widely popular, historical fiction being on the wane in general among our wired teens. But then, the Newbery committee, much like the Oscar committee, prides itself on saying their selections aren't about popularity, they are about "quality." I wonder why those two things have to be mutually exclusive. In any case, the book is good, and worth the read, even if it isn't "your kind of thing."

"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

Finally! A book I not only loved, but was laugh-out-loud funny. To be fair, I knew I would like it. John Green and David Levithan are not only favorite authors, they are exceptionally cool. When I learned that they wrote a book together, I knew that it would have to be gold. My only sorrow is that it didn't win any of the Printz Honors this year -- it should have won the Medal (IMHO). It did win a Stonewall Honor, a nod to the heavily gay themes (dude, it's David Levithan, what did you expect?). What is notable, for me, is that the gay themes aren't all about *being* gay, rather the entire book is really about teenage love, gay and straight, and how the rushed/over-the-top/confused romantic efforts of the young often go awry. Despite the title (oh yes, it is a tale of two Will Graysons), it is Tiny Cooper who stole my heart. A wild combination of an ex-boyfriend and most of the theatre guys I've known, Tiny is an absolute joy. "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" is an extremely mature book, one with two male protagonists who use the kind of language you are likely to hear on any secondary school campus, but not the kind usually heard in the classrooms. I think that is part of Green and Levithan's gifts as writers -- their characters are rippingly real. Neither one of these guys has forgotten what it was like to be 17. Clearly, their work resonates. The book has been extremely popular here and I understand why. Teens like books that are real, books that are funny, and books that speak to ~them~. This is clearly one of those books. Bravo. Enjoy.

“The Heart is Not a Size” by Beth Kephart

Award-winning adult author Beth Kephart is getting attention for turning her talents to YA fiction. Her latest book, “The Heart is Not a Size” has considerable buzz going into awards season. I can understand the appeal from the award committees. The book is one of those rich literary novels that give English teachers a deep thrill. It’s also one of those YA novels that seem to be labeled YA because of teen protagonists, rather than literary style. For me, the problem is that the literary trappings disguise a meandering plot. It’s a story beautifully told, but not a particularly compelling tale. And it should be. There are strong characters: Georgia and Riley are best friends at one of those moments in life, the end of Junior year, when the pressures of the next step in life seem overwhelming. They decide to spend two weeks in Mexico on a social service project. Georgia wants to find purpose in an overly stable life, Riley wants to escape the confines of her loveless home. The girls are well-off, suitably self-absorbed yet curious, straining at their self-definitions like most teens. The writer tries to focus on Georgia’s internal explorations, but ends up veering along a multitude of storylines. In the end, the teen angst, the prerequisite anorexic, the hints at a blossoming romance, all fall flat. In her acknowledgments, Ms. Kephart states that the book began “as a series of impressions glimpsed,” and that is how it comes off. The impressions one is left with are not unlike the photo essays Kephart made of her actual journey to Juarez. Despite the stabbing attempts at story, the end result is nothing but snapshots, colors, and incredibly rich descriptions. Phrases like “the parabola of sun” were too high-falutin’ for me, and didn’t help connect me to characters I found to be just a tad two-dimensional. This book being a very faint echo of Mackler’s “The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things” and Anderson’s “Catalyst,” I have no doubt that a specific teen reader might find characters to connect to, but to me, they sounded far too much like the life of a teenager remembered rather than created. Georgia sounds like the person I would describe myself as being with 20 years of hindsight. I’m not sure she sounds like one of the teens I interact with who lives “in the moment.” Nonetheless, this book is likely to show up on some recommended lists in the coming month. Read only if it is your cup of tea.

“Ship Breaker” by Paulo Bacigalupi

(Color me surprised. Just as I was finalizing this review, “Ship Breaker” won the Printz Award. Have to say, this will be my least favorite Printz thus far. Please keep in mind that I didn’t think it was a bad book, just not ~~my~~ thing. Much like “No Country for Old Men” I can acknowledge the brilliance without particularly liking it.)

This 2010 National Book Award nominee was, perhaps, not the best choice to read right after concluding the Suzanne Collins series. Filled with dense text worthy of an SAT exam, it is yet another post-apocalyptic, dystopian story of violence and brutalized kids. That being said, the lead character of Nailer is both engaging and encouraging as a born survivor in the bleakest of worlds (although he does seem to spend a good deal of the tale recovering from injuries). I can see boys, in particular, being attracted to this strong male protagonist. Rich vocabulary and a detailed world make for a rather European novel. Given the author’s name and the foreign feel, I was sure this book was a translation. I was quite surprised to discover the author lives in Colorado. The dark tone is apparently typical of the works of Mr. Bacigalupi, who has won both Nebula and Hugo awards for his adult titles. This is the first book he has written for young adults, although the complexity of the novel makes me think the only reason it is labeled “young adult” is because of the age of the main character. It is a worthy read if you don’t mind another gut-wrencher like “Mockingjay.” Enjoy ! ? ! ?