"The War That Saved My Life" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

This multiple award-winning book has a truly lousy cover (old-school, childish) but fortunately, I am not one to judge a book by it's cover.  Hopefully, student readers will be so blinded by the many award stickers that they will overlook the 1952 style imagery.  It was interesting -- a number of colleagues were not wowed by the book.  Others said they disliked the ending.  As to the first, I disagree, as to the second -- well, we will get to that.  Set in 1939, England, this is the story of Ada and her brother Jamie, who go to the countryside to avoid the possible bombing of London as World War II begins.  The war referred to in the title, however, is not the one you think it is.  Ada is a child abused -- horribly.  It is not until her life takes this drastic change that she begins to understand what was denied to her.  It is this subtle underpinning to the novel which made it so powerful to me.  Perhaps those who grew up in happy households don't get it.  They don't understand what it is like to be a child in a miserable situation and not realize that they are in a miserable situation.  They don't know what it is like to be out in a beautiful world when you have seen ugliness, how it can be incredibly hard to trust the good, because it is hard to trust anything or anyone.  Ada's journey was, to me, very realistic and sharply painful, but there is hope in this tale -- a lot of it.  Much like "Becoming Mary Mehan" this is a story arc where a girl finds life again, and, after a long slow road, learns to embrace it.  The book is also like "The Night Gardener", sans the horror aspect, as Ada and Jamie enter a broken household and help to make it whole.  The gentle, quiet way that their caretaker's past is revealed is both appropriate and touching.  My criticisms are few -- there was a reference to Queen Elizabeth at a point where Elizabeth II was still a princess, and there is a reference to "occupied France" before France is actually occupied.  Minor.  As to the ending ... well???  It was rushed, convenient, pat, and left a lot, and I do mean a lot, of unanswered questions.  It's as if Ms. Bradley got to the last three or four chapters and said "I have to end this" so she just tried to wrap the whole thing up in a neat bow.  After too many Dystopia novels, a less than awful ending was kind of nice, but it didn't ring true to the rest of the story.  And, while I am really, really sick of reading one series after another, a follow-up to this tale might not be a bad idea.  Bottom line?  This was a book I stayed up after my bedtime to finish reading, and I haven't done that in a very, very long time.

"I am Princess X" by Cherie Priest, illustrated by Kali Ciesemier

There's a lot to like in this unsual book, and a couple of things I didn't care for.  Here's the rundown: The cover and opening of the tale made me think "middle school" but the book takes a turn or three that left me thinking high school readers would enjoy it as well.  At first, I was thinking another "The Thing About Jellyfish" with a young best friend/classmate dying, but then the book went in a very different direction than expected, gets a bit darker, and focuses on a group of characters mostly in their late teens.  I liked that the plot was "unexpected" and the inclusion of graphic novel style art.  I liked the integration of technology as part of a mystery/adventure (at times it was like a PG version of "Mr. Robot", the USA show).  I liked that the characters were a reflection of "today" in their diversity and that the diversity was just a natural part of the story, without being "A POINT".  The book moved well and is well-written without being particularly lyric and I loved, loved, loved that this is a stand-alone and not part of a series.  Dialog felt real and descriptions of settings were strong.  Character descriptions, however, were ... ?  This is where my "not so much" list comes in.  The big issue was that I liked May's tenacity and spirit, and we are given a good Linkedin version of her life, but I still didn't feel like I knew her.  Is she a good student or bad?  A shy girl or a party animal?  A jock, a geek?  Is she attracted to the mysterious computer guy she comes across?  I read the entire thing and I can't honestly answer any of these questions.  While her actions are clear, her inner life is sometimes murky.  In some ways, the other characters suffer from this as well.  Their physicality and behaviors are outlined, but what makes them tick is missing.  My other big beef was the various turns in the book require increasing levels of "willing suspension of disbelief".  At first, it's a little, then more, then an almost ludicrous level of "this would never happen".  I started doing with this book what I did with "Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick".  I just let myself ride the wave of fun and crazy and didn't think real hard about the plausibility issues.  Quite frankly, Veronica Mars, a favorite detective show, also stretched the boundaries a good bit, but if you can like the characters, you can enjoy unpacking the clues.  A good, quick ride which will appeal to far more readers than you might expect.

"The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm

Throw in the magical realism from "Crenshaw" and the Middle School coming-of-age story from "The Truth About Jellyfish" and you have a fun tale of a girl, a grandpa and an experiment which goes wrong -- or right, depending on your point of view.  For a simple book (it was actually on a lower reading level than I expected), there is a lot of symbolism and metaphor here.  The title is a good example, as it begins and ends the story, but is more about what it represents than a significant part of the action.  The plot is easy to get, but has layers.  The main character, Ellie, is betwixt and between in many ways.  She needs to find her role as a non-dramatic person in a dramatic family and she wants to understand how friendships change as you enter the sixth grade.  The book is a page-turner with big print, wide margins and chapters which last only a few pages.  In short, it's a very accessible story which has been enjoyed by a wide variety of kids.  With a little of everything (mystery, humor, romance, adventure) and not too much of anything, it is neither preachy nor pedantic.  The vocabularly and sentence structure, not to mention the funny bits, make it very Elementary appropriate, but there is extremely subtle subtext which made it equally enjoyable as an adult reader.  Threads about aging, the differences between the generations, loss and the modern family structure are only part of the scenarios explored.  A quick read delight.  Highly recommended.

"Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse" by Tamera Will Wissinger, Illustrated by Matthew Cordell

A simple little book, this one has become popular for teaching poetic form, but I'm not sure that it will have general appeal beyond the classroom.  It is a cute story which had me giggling a little -- a boy is going fishing with his dad and the younger sister horns in -- but it struggles a bit.  One one hand, the author seems to be trying ~~really hard~~ to be didactic, on the other hand, she simplifies everything so much that the tale is a bit too sparse and the narrative structure of the story suffers.  The problems come and go quickly with the climax being not so much of a climax.  The meter is off in at least one poem and the descriptors at the back of the book are either too dumbed down to be exact or too specific and will go over the heads of the readers the book is targeted to.  Don't get me wrong -- the story is short, sweet, and might make for a nice share (or even act-out), but I read it in under 20 minutes and came away only with the question of how many kids in my urban area would appreciate the nuances of a fishing trip.  Artwork is great but dated.  Felt more like a New Yorker cartoon than a children's book.  Not bad, but not one to write home about (in poetry or prose).