Reading Level: Junior High

Better Off Friends

When Levi moves to town, Macallan becomes his best friend. Everyone thinks that guys and girls can’t just be friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share inside jokes, their families are close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are content being just friends.

But no one believes that they are just friends. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi. On the other hand, Levi goes through a string of girlfriends, who each think he spends too much time with Macallan. Basically, when it comes to dating, Levi and Macallan keep getting in each other’s way. With everyone thinking the two are more than friends, and they begin to wonder if they really can be just friends or if they should be more.

Better Off Friends alternates between Levi’s and Macallan’s point of view. In addition, the end of each chapter has a short conversation between the two, which allows them to reflect on their past. Levi is portrayed as a selfish, stereotypical Californian. For example, he wonders, “Why couldn’t we have stayed in Santa Monica, where the weather was sweet and the waves were sick?” Even though the book is told from both of the character’s points of view, both Levi and Macallan are forgettable characters.

Macallan is more well-developed character than Levi. Her mother’s recent death has shattered her family, she tries to stay out of Levi’s love life, and she stands up for two characters with disabilities. Despite this, she is not a memorable character. Unfortunately, too much of the story focuses on Macallan and Levi’s internal struggle as they try to hide their true feelings from each other. Even after the two realize they are in love with the other, their refusal to openly talk about their feelings becomes tedious.

Instead of being a fun romance, Better Off Friends has a predictable plot, forgettable characters, and a cliché conclusion. The main characters spend too much time trying to prove that they are just friends, and predictably fall in love with each other. Unfortunately, none of the characters are unique and readers will quickly forget the story. With a plethora of teen romances crowding the shelves, readers should reach for a truly unique and memorable romance such as I Believe in A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo or Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson.

Sexual Content

  • Macallan and an unknown person have a short conversation. The unknown person wants to know if Macallan “hooked up at some point.”
  • While on a date with Emily, Levi “wanted to kiss her. . .So I kissed her. And she kissed me back.”
  • Macallan went to the movies with Levi and Emily. She went to get popcorn and came back “only to discover them kissing (or, more accurately sucking face).”
  • At a party, Macallan walked into her bedroom to find “Emily and Troy were kissing on my bed.” Emily asks Macallan not to tell her boyfriend that she was kissing another boy.
  • After Levi gets back from a trip, Emily “ran out in the cold and kissed me, which helped warm me considerably.”
  • Emily lies to Levi, telling him that “nothing happened” between her and Troy. As she tells him, Emily “started rubbing my leg. . .She started to kiss me.”
  • Levi says, “My first girlfriend . . . started sucking face with some other guy the second she was alone with him. Tonight my girlfriend was away from me for like two seconds and she was going to make out with another guy. It clearly has to be me.”
  • When Levi thinks something is wrong with him, Macallan “grabbed his cheeks and pulled him in for a kiss. He was tense, probably from shock, for the first couple of seconds. Then his arms were around me and he eased into it.” Macallan tells him, “You are not a bad kisser. It has been verified. Moving on.”
  • When Levi wasn’t paying attention, Macallan’s friend Danielle says, “Macallan and I were going to have a lingerie pillow fight.” Levi thinks, “I desperately tried to get the thought of Macallan and Danielle in lingerie out of my mind. I sometimes thought Macallan forgot I was a guy. And we have certain responses that are difficult to control.”
  • Levi begins dating Stacy and they kiss twice. For example, when Levi picked her up for a date, “he bent over and gave [her] a kiss.”
  • Macallan and Levi kiss. Levi “relished her lips on mine. Her hands gently ran through my hair.”

Violence

  • A boy named Keith makes fun of Macallan’s uncle. Keith “bent his arms up toward his collarbone and let his wrist go limp so his hands were dangling. He collapsed his legs together at the knees and started to walk like he had a disability.” Then Keith says, “Just because your mom’s dead doesn’t mean you can be such a bitch.” Angry, Macallan “tightened up my fist and hit him right in the kisser. Keith, Mr. Athlete Extraordinaire, was knocked onto his butt.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Macallan has a unique name because her “dad liked a certain kind of Scotch Whiskey.”
  • Macallan, her father, Levi, and his parents have dinner. Levi’s parents bring a bottle of wine.
  • When Macallan’s boyfriend broke up with her, she asked, “Have you been drinking?”
  • When Macallan goes to Ireland, one of her friends takes her to a party and offers her alcohol. When she declines, her friend says, “You Americans are so uptight about alcohol.”
  • When Levi is injured, he takes “some serious painkillers.”

Language

  • Several times during the story, a handicapped person is called a retard or retarded. This includes Macallan’s uncle. Macallan stands up for to person and defends her uncle.
  • Levi refers to himself as an idiot eight times. For example, he thinks, “Macallan stood up to those three guys while I stood there like an idiot.” He also says that he’s been “a total idiot lately.”
  • Crap is used six times. For example, Macallan says, “I wasn’t in the mood for his crap today.”
  • Levi says, “I’m sorry. I was being a grade-A jerk.” Later someone else calls Levi a jerk.
  • “God” and “Oh my God” are both used as an exclamation once.
  • Someone calls Macallan a bitch.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Here to Stay

Bijan Majidi loves basketball, comic books, and his mom. When he makes it on the varsity basketball squad, he’s over the moon. Now he’s getting noticed and being invited to parties with the cool kids. But when someone sends the whole school a photoshopped picture that makes Bijan look like a terrorist, he has to deal with the fallout. Here to Stay examines the prejudices and identities that envelop the lives of Bijan and his classmates.

Here to Stay tackles discussions about race and prejudice against the backdrop of a wealthy, white, New England neighborhood. Sara Farizan’s commentary creates a rich dialogue that acutely questions a status quo that harms students who aren’t white. Bijan, who is half Persian and half Jordanian, experiences microaggressions and a hate crime. Bijan is also put under emotional and social strain. Despite this, Bijan is resilient and handles the situations thrown at him through his wit and the strength of his heart.

Along with the discussion of race, Farizan includes two LGBTQ+ characters who initially hide their relationship because they fear their community’s backlash. In both overarching plot points, acceptance and sticking up for oneself are recurrent themes. Although not everyone in the novel is kind to these characters or to Bijan, the supporting cast of friends are loyal and kind people.

Bijan is undeniably a good main character. He’s friendly, funny, and sticks up for himself and his friends. Occasionally, some characters’ dialogue comes across as strange or too young for teenagers. However, it doesn’t make the characters any less likable. Considering all the dark topics that Here to Stay covers, Bijan’s inner monologue is really funny and brings some much-needed lightness to an otherwise depressing situation.

Farizan does an excellent job presenting a discussion around prejudices and integrating it with a fun high school basketball story. Ultimately, life is made up of great, game-winning moments as well as terrible moments. Bijan’s story is about dealing with other people’s prejudices, but he’s also a teenager who has crushes and who likes basketball. These things are not separate from each other, and Farizan presents Bijan as a whole person who deals with a full range of human experiences. Here to Stay is powerful, not necessarily because Bijan is extraordinary, but because his story is a reality for many people. Readers certainly won’t have a difficult time finding something to like about Bijan and his story.

Sexual Content

  • Bijan has “an imaginary future ex-girlfriend, Elle.” He has a crush on Elle, and the topic of his love comes up often.
  • When Bijan is getting ready to go to a party, his mom tells Bijan that he can’t “get ‘fresh’ with any young ladies.”
  • According to Bijan, his best friend Sean “has had sex.” No other details are given.
  • At the start of practice, a basketball player throws his shirt to the side. “Some girls from the varsity squash team catcalled as they ran on the track above.”
  • Someone makes a comment about Bijan going back to “whatever country or Cave of Wonders” he came from. Bijan responds with, “I’ll go back to where I came from. Back to your mom’s house. She made me the best breakfast this morning after the time we had together last night. Her maple syrup tasted just as good as she did.”
  • Bijan’s best friend Sean makes a suggestive comment about another classmate. He says, “I wouldn’t mind tutoring Erin Wheeler . . . I’d answer any anatomy and physiology questions she may have.”
  • Another basketball player, Will, mentions his girlfriend to a teammate. Will says, “Once I get what I need from [my girlfriend], I’m calling it off. Then it’s college honeys for days, you know what I’m saying?” This statement is not explained further.
  • Will harasses Bijan about a girl in their grade. Will says, “ ‘It’s really nice of you to keep defending [Stephanie]. You giving it to her, man?’ Will dry-humped the air. ‘I mean, I guess she’d be a good lay. She’s got a nice physique for a munchkin . . . You put a gag over her head when you do her? So you can shut her up and not have to look at her? I know you people like your girls covered.’ ”
  • Stephanie and Erin have been secretly dating.  At a party, Bijan accidentally overhears them.  Stephanie says, “ ‘While we haven’t done anything, I like you. I like you very much’ Then [Bijan] heard it. Lips smacking. Stephanie was kissing someone!” Erin is worried about being found out because “My friends and that school are going to tear [Stephanie] apart.”
  • Will makes yet another comment to Bijan, this time about Bijan and Sean. “I thought you two were joined at the hip. How will you be able to take a piss without him holding your dick?” Bijan responds, “He’s his own man . . . But it’s true, my dick is far too big to hold. Your mom said so last night.” Will then responds with, “By the way…which of his moms did it with a turkey baster?”
  • Bijan and Elle kiss. “[Bijan] cupped her face in [his] hand. She was so warm. Kissing her was a million times better than scoring the winning basket for Granger.”
  • Erin and Stephanie start officially dating. Erin introduces herself as “[Stephanie’s] girlfriend, with all the confidence of her years in the New Crew.”
  • While in the locker room, Will makes a series of sexual comments about Bijan and Drew’s love lives. In response, Bijan says, “Why don’t you find a Jacuzzi jet to stick your dick into and call it a day, Will.”

Violence

  • Bijan talks about movies. He says that “Daniel LaRusso gets to crane-kick the crap out of Johnny.”
  • Occasionally, fouls occur in the basketball games and players are knocked down, pushed, or shoved.
  • After Bijan makes a comment about a player’s mom, the player “rushed [Bijan], knocking [him] to the sidewalk.”
  • Someone photoshopped Bijan’s face onto a racist version of the school mascot and sent it to the school. Bijan’s face was “photoshopped onto the head of a man with a long beard wearing a pakol hat and holding a gun.”
  • An email is sent to the Granger student body, but this time it outs Stephanie and Erin’s relationship and sexual orientations. It’s a picture of their photoshopped faces, and they’re “vomiting rainbows.” It is later revealed that Stephanie’s friend, Noah, is the one who made it out of jealousy, as he felt entitled to Stephanie’s affection.
  • Will gets drunk the night before the first tournament game and brings his buddies to beat up Bijan. One of them, “grabbed hold of [Bijan’s] shoulder and pushed [him] backward with his forearm against [his] chest. [Bijan] tried to get away, and wanted to yell but the fear wouldn’t let [him].”
  • At the basketball game, a group of white people who “had wrapped athletic towels on their heads and wore fake beards . . . held up a poster-sized version of the terrorist photo of [Bijan]” sat behind the basket and chanted “USA! USA! USA!” at Bijan.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party there is a “cooler full of beers.” Many of the underage students drink at the party.
  • Someone says to Bijan about the photoshopped picture, “Whoever did send it, I’d love to shake their hand and buy them a beer.” Bijan responds, “I’d love to buy a keg for whatever college will take you . . . How much does your grandpa pay to have you play for us?”
  • At another party the students drink again. Bijan drinks a beer and says it tastes “like wheat backwash.” Bijan also joins in on beer pong where he plays “with the guys for an hour.”
  • Drew talks about his dad. Drew says, “Mine’s a real piece of work. A guy named Tim who would rather play keno and drink than hang out with his kid.”

Language

  • Profanity is used somewhat often. Profanity includes damn, crap, bitches, ass, and hell.
  • Bijan says his life turned into a “crap salad in a bucket.”
  • Students make many comments about Bijan’s race, and they also make insensitive comments about other races as well.
  • Bijan briefly mentions that the JV locker room talk included “theories about what would happen if you smeared Icy Hot all over your junk.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a speech at school, Bijan talks about his parents’ religions. “My mom is Muslim but doesn’t speak to God as much since my dad died. My father was Christian. My relationship with God is personal and has nothing to do with you.” Bijan thinks, “I didn’t explain to them that terrorists who commit heinous acts in the name of religion don’t understand their faith at all, including the white Christian terrorists within our own country. I didn’t read to them the section of the Qur’an that says, ‘Whoever kills a person unjustly. . . it is as though he has killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.’”
  • Bijan doesn’t drink, and he turns down a beer from another student. That student then says, “Allah’s not gonna mind.”

by Alli Kestler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Efrén Divided

Efrén Nava’s Amá is his superwoman—or Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares for the family. Both Amá and Apá work hard all day to provide for the family, making sure Efrén and his younger siblings, Max and Mia, feel safe and loved.

But Efrén worries about his parents; although he’s American-born, his parents are undocumented. And according to the neighborhood talk, families like his are in great danger. Sure enough, Efrén’s worst nightmare comes true one day when Amá doesn’t return from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, Mexico.

Now it’s up to Efrén to be brave and figure out how to act soper himself. While Apá takes an extra job to earn the money needed to get Amá back, Efrén struggles to look after Max and Mia while also dealing with schoolwork, his best friend’s probably-doomed campaign for school president, and his fears about what might happen to his family next.

When disaster strikes, Efrén is faced with crossing the border alone to see Amá. More than ever, he must channel his inner Soperboy to help him keep his family together.

Efrén Divided shows the struggle of undocumented workers from a middle schooler’s perspective. Efrén’s story does not discuss the politics of immigration, but instead focuses on Efrén’s struggles. Efrén worries about his parents being deported because they live in a country that does not want them. When Efrén’s mother is deported, Efrén feels shame and confusion. However, Efrén’s story doesn’t just focus on his family life. The reader also gets a glimpse of Efrén’s school life, which gives the story additional depth and shows how being in the country illegally affects many people.

While the story is engaging, readers may have a difficult time understanding some of the dialogue. When characters speak in Spanish, there are not always context clues to help readers understand the words’ meanings. However, the back of the book contains a glossary of Spanish words. Additionally, the conclusion has several events that seem out of place because they are not natural extensions of the story.

Efrén Divided uses an engaging story to shine a light on the difficulty that American-born children face when their parents are undocumented. The story makes many references to The House on Mango Street, which may make readers want to also read that book. The story highlights the importance of family and friends, as well as the need to “surround yourself with good people. People who will bring out the good in you. Not the bad.” Readers who enjoy Efrén Divided should also check out New Kid by Jerry Craft and When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Efrén’s brother, Max, pees on his clothes. Efrén tries to put him in the bathtub, but Max “pulled on Efrén’s hair and swung his legs wildly. One of his kicks nailed Efrén in the jaw, causing him to bite his lip.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Efrén’s friend, David, now lives with his grandmother because his mom drank a lot.
  • When Efrén goes to Mexico, he follows signs advertising beer.
  • In Mexico, Efrén meets a man who tells him about the drug cartels.

Language

  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation 6 times.
  • Heck is used once.
  • Some of the kids call David “El Periquito Blanco” which means the white parakeet.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Efrén and his family bless themselves.
  • When Efrén and his father are going to San Diego, they have to pass a checkpoint. Efrén prays, “Please, God, . . . let it be it closed. Let it be closed.”
  • When they pass the checkpoint, Efrén “bless[es] himself—this time thanking God for everything He’d given him.” Then, Efrén lists what he is thankful for.
  • Efrén and his father talk about going to mass to give thanks. The next morning, they go to mass, which “felt a bit more special than usual.” The family prays, but the specific prayer is not mentioned.

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944

When Nazi soldiers occupy Poland, Max and his family are taken to a ghetto. Soon, Max’s father is taken away in a cattle car. Left on their own, Max and his sister Zena must rely on each other in order to survive. With barely enough food to eat, the siblings make a daring escape from Nazi soldiers and hide in the nearby forest.

By luck, Max and Zena meet a group of Jewish resistance fighters, who take care of them. After the resistance fighters blow up a train, the Nazis begin bombing the forest. Can Max and Zena survive the fallout of the Nazi Invasion? Will they ever see their father again?

I Survived the Nazi Invasion focuses on how the resistance fighters helped defeat the Nazis. Tarshis uses kid-friendly descriptions to show the Nazis’ brutality. Even though the descriptions are not graphic, the story shows several people dying, which may upset younger readers. In order to survive, Max remembers the Biblical story of David and Goliath, which gives him bravery and hope.

When the Nazis arrive in Max’s town, Max is surprised that some of the townspeople begin to treat the Jews badly. Max’s father tries to explain the townspeople’s behavior by saying, “They have small minds… Jews are different. And some people are suspicious of what they don’t understand.” However, the story doesn’t only show the ugly side of humanity. Instead, it also shows people’s kindness.

Even though Max and his family are able to go to America after the war, Max realizes that “The Nazis had wounded him in other places, too, places he couldn’t see. In his heart. In his mind. He had scars there, too. And he would carry those scars with him for his whole life.” Even though the Holocaust was a time of suffering, Max’s story also shows that some people risked their lives to help Jews as well as the bravery of the partisans. Most of all, Max’s message is to never lose hope.

The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and will help readers visualize the events. The story also shows people working together to defeat the Nazis. While the story weaves interesting facts throughout, the book also ends with more facts about the Holocaust. The I Survived series gives readers a glimpse into deadly situations without including scary details. Each book is told from a young person’s point of view, which will help readers connect with the narrator.

The conclusion shows Max’s family reuniting during the war, which is unrealistic. While some of the events are too convenient to be believable, the suspense will keep readers turning the pages. Readers who want to learn more about World War II should read Survival Tails: World War II by Katrina Charman. Older readers who are ready for a more in-depth World War II story should read Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While Max and Zena were hiding in the forest, “German planes road through the sky, dropping 1,000-pound bombs that fell with shattering explosions. Kaboom! Enormous trees became flaming torches. Sparks showered down like burning snowflakes…” Another explosion sent Max “flying through the air. His body twisted and turned.” Max lands in a ditch.
  • When Max leaves the ghetto to find food, a soldier drags Max away from the camp. Max’s sister secretly follows them. When the soldier sees Zena, he points a gun at her. “Max’s body seemed to move on its own fueled by a mix of terror and fury. With all his might, Max threw himself against the man. The soldier teetered for a second, and then fell.” The soldier accidently shoots himself in the leg, and Max and Zena run into the forest.
  • A group of Jews blows up a train filled with Nazi supplies. “A bomb exploded in a massive ball of fire. In a flash, the bridge crumbled, its wooden supports snapping like toothpicks. The train’s locomotive seemed to hang helplessly in the air for a moment. And then it started its plunge into the rocky valley hundreds of feet below.”
  • When Max sees a Nazi soldier holding a gun at two people, Max yells at the soldier. “That boiling rage Max had felt earlier came back to him, powering his muscles. He gripped the rock, and with all of his might, he hurled it at the sneering soldier’s head… Thwack. It hit the soldier squarely on the forehead. The man stood in shock, and then stumbled backwards.” One of the Jews shoots the soldier.
  • Max sees a Nazi soldier. “He was small and skinny, and he looked very young… He looked as terrified and confused as Max was.” Before Max can intervene, a Jew shoots the boy, and “the bullet hit the soldier in the chest. And as he fell dead to the ground, his arm jerked. His pistol fired. A split second later, the bullet tore into Max’s side with a searing, blinding pain. Max stared down in shock as blood gushed from a gaping wound.” Max recovers.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • A soldier says, “We will find those filthy Jews who destroyed our train.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The Biblical story of David and Goliath is retold. When David fights Goliath, “David lunged forward and grabbed Goliath’s sword and—whack—he chopped off Goliath’s head.” David’s story gave Max hope.
  • When Max is trapped under a tree, as he finally frees himself, he prayed, “he’d see Zena and Aunt Hannah and Martin and Lev waiting for him.”
  • When Max is shot, several people pray that Max would survive.

Never Evers

Thirteen-year-old Mouse is pretty sure her life is totally over. Now that she’s been kicked out of ballet school, she has to go on her new school’s ski trip basically knowing no one. Well, except too-cool-for-school Keira and crazy Connie-May (and her adorable hamster, Mr. Jambon).

Meanwhile, Jack’s life is just about to begin. He’s on the way to the slopes with his school too, and all he can think about is how to get his first kiss.

With her new friends by her side, Mouse has more fun skiing and building igloos than she expected. And when Jack catches Mouse’s eye, he’s smitten. All’s well—that is, until mega-pop star, Roland arrives on the scene and sets his sights on Mouse too! A week in the snow is about to get complicated. . .

Never Evers is ridiculous, over the top, and funny. The story focuses on two friend groups. One group includes three boys—Jack, Max, and Toddy. Max is totally obsessed with kissing a girl—any “hot” girl. Even though Jack is smitten with Mouse, Max keeps pushing Jack to spend time with another hot girl, which causes some drama. Like many preteen boys, the three friends are immature, use body humor, and talk about “pubes” (pubic hair).

The other friend group includes Mouse, Connie, and Kiera. In order to determine if Jack likes Mouse, the girls make a love spell, which causes some laughable moments. However, unlike the group of boys, the girls are not obsessed with boys. Instead, Mouse is also dealing with getting kicked out of dance school, a mean girl, and making new friends.

Never Evers is full of friendship drama, crushes, jealousy, and misunderstandings. The story’s point of view flip flops between Jack and Mouse, which allows the reader to understand their confusion about the opposite sex. Using humor, the story expertly portrays the confusion and insecurity that many tweens feel about growing up. While the story is often laugh-out-loud funny, it also shows the importance of kindness and having friends who will stand by you no matter what.

While Never Evers is not great literature, it will resonate with tweens who often feel awkward and uncertain. Middle school readers who aren’t ready for more mature romances will enjoy Never Evers. If you’re looking for a similar tween-friendly romance, add Pugs and Kisses by J.J. Howard to your reading list.

Sexual Content

  • A group of boys talk about a boy who said, “he kissed sixteen girls in five days.
  • A group of boys talks about their inability to get a girlfriend. “You know Ed’s kissed ten girls now? Ten. He’s a month younger than me and he’s on double digits.”
  • Mouse has never kissed a boy, but her friend, Keira, has “kissed three other boys.” Keira says, “You’re not missing out on anything, to be honest. It’s a little anticlimactic, really. You think it’ll be this big, life-changing moment, but it’s actually just Elliot Campbell slobbering all over you.”
  • While on the bus, a boy moons a group of girls.
  • While talking about Connie’s true love, the bus passes a sign for a French teen singer. Connie says, “Ron is my one true love. But I might let Roland English-kiss me. To warm me up for Ron.”
  • While watching Romeo and Juliet, Mouse thinks, “Watching sex scenes with your parents is horrendous, but it turns out watching them with a bunch of people your own age is also really bad.”
  • While lost in the wilderness, Jack and Mouse go into an igloo to keep warm. Jack “buried all my worries and fears deep in the snow, and leaned in to kiss her.” Before he can, a rescue team shows up.
  • At a dance, Connie kisses a boy. Someone sees them, and says, “That Connie girl’s a man-eater.”
  • Jack thinks about kissing Mouse. “I knew I shouldn’t feel scared anymore, but I did. It was scary. Doing anything for the first time is scary. But I wanted to kiss her so bad.” He moves closer to Mouse, and, “Then I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and leaned in towards her.”

Violence

  • While talking to a group of girls, Jamie was teasing Jack and his friends. “Before I could stop him, Max launched himself at Jamie, shoving him hard in the chest and sending him crashing onto the cold, hard ice. . . Jamie was too shocked to even respond.” A teacher scolds the boys.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Oh my God,” and “Oh God” are used as an exclamation frequently.
  • Occasionally there is name calling, such as dummy, idiot, lunatic, loser, jerk, freak, and wierdo. For example, Kiera calls a mean girl and her friends “a bunch of rancid, pathetic losers.”
  • Crap (or a version of it) is used six times. Jack says, “The only snow I’ve seen is the crappy kind that turns gray and icy and melts within a day.”
  • Freakin’ is used three times. A boy yells, “You’re a freakin’ maniac, Max!”
  • Hell is used seven times. When Mouse disappears, Jack thinks, “I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on.”

Supernatural

  • Mouse and her friends use The Teen Witches’ Book of Spells to cast a love spell. As part of the spell, the girls make a circle out of their clothes and stand in the circle. Mouse’s friend Keira says, “We need paper and a pen. A true belief in magic. A full moon. . . A hair from your head and a mason jar.”
  • Mouse puts a piece of her hair in a jar. Then she writes a boy’s name and puts it into the jar. Kiera says, “Okay, now we’re going to hold hands, and we all have to sing, ‘Name is written / Hidden singing / Compel the object to my bidding / So mote it be.”

Spiritual Content

  • Mouse hides in a bathroom stall so she can hear a group’s conversation. While there, she prays, “Please, God, don’t let my phone ring.”
  • Occasionally the teens pray. For example, when Kiera writes Jack (Mouse’s crush) on her jeans, Mouse prays that Kiera “didn’t wear those jeans again this week.”
  • Jack asks Mouse if she wants to get a hot chocolate. When she turns him down, Jack prays, “Please, God, let something happen now to end this moment—a fire alarm, an avalanche, a rip in the space-time continuum. . . Anything.”

The Betrothed

The King of Corona, Jameson, is young and handsome, but he is not the type to settle down. Everyone has watched him flirt his way from girl to girl. So when Hollis catches the King’s eye, she assumes that Jameson will quickly lose interest and move on.

Hollis has grown up at Keresken Castle among other daughters of nobility, most of whom hope to catch the King’s eye. So when King Jameson declares his love for Hollis, she is shocked. Hollis soon realizes that along with the extravagant presents and fawning attention, this new life brings expectations—expectations that make her wonder if she’s really cut out for life as a royal.

With a visit from the King of Isolte on the horizon, Hollis sees a chance to prove to Jameson—and herself—that she has what it takes to be queen. But when she meets an Isolten stranger with the mysterious power to see into her heart, she realizes the future she wants is one she never dared dream of.

Even though the story is told from Hollis’s point of view, it is hard to understand why King Jameson would want her as his queen. Hollis’s behavior is immature and self-serving. She doesn’t want to be a good queen for the sake of the country. Instead, she wants to be a good queen so others will admire her. This is reinforced when several characters, including Hollis’s parents, do not believe Hollis’s behavior is fit for a queen. Hollis’s self-serving nature makes it hard to relate to her struggles.

While The Selection Series by Kiera Cass is an engaging, action-packed series, The Betrothed has a weak plot and underdeveloped characters. For example, masked men kill everyone at a wedding. However, the murders are never investigated and the only death that seemed to matter was the death of Hollis’ husband. In addition, the conclusion is anticlimactic and unbelievable. The Betrothed is appropriate for middle school readers who may find the simple romance entertaining. However, most readers will want to skip The Betrothed for a more compelling romance such as What Light by Jay Asher or Pugs and Kisses by J.J. Howard.

Sexual Content

  • While on a boat ride, Hollis believes the King thinks she is “irresistible.” Since there are other people around, the prince “was forced to settle for placing a warm kiss on my cool forehead. It was enough to send new waves through my stomach, and I wondered if every moment with him would feel like this.”
  • Hollis knows the King has kissed other girls and wonders, “if his not kissing me yet was a good sign or a bad one.”
  • The King kisses Hollis. She “leaned into it. To finally be kissed was a wondrous thing, and to be kissed by a king was even more thrilling. Jameson drew me close, holding my chin and pulling away when he deemed the kiss long enough.”
  • While alone, Hollis and Silas kiss. “Silas cupped my cheeks, holding me with such tenderness that I felt everything inside my body melting. I could feel the calluses on his fingers as they traced the edges of my face, and I couldn’t help but compare the feeling to that of Jameson’s perfectly smooth hands.” They break apart when they hear footsteps coming.
  • Hollis and Silas kiss again. “It was so easy, like falling into the rhythm of a dance or taking a deep breath. Kissing Silas was like something that had always been waiting for me, something I knew how to do without thinking. His hands went up into my hair, holding me tight, and his lips moved feverishly. . .”
  • Hollis and Silas kiss and she thinks “it was the most beautiful thing, to be free and alone with Silas.”

Violence

  • At a wedding, masked men come and kill everyone in the house. One girl survives. She tells her mother, “They came with masks down and swords drawn, stabbing at anyone in their way, even the maids.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Hollis invites some friends to her apartment. Wine is served and Hollis “picked up a glass of ale.”
  • During a festival, wine is served. The king is seen with “the chalice in his hand, amber ale spilling from one side.”
  • At a wedding, the guests have “goblets of ale.”

Language

  • A girl whose parents are divorced, is called a bastard. The girl tells Hollis, “When everyone was muttering that I was a bastard, you ignored them.”
  • When Hollis decides to marry Silas, Hollis’ mother calls him “your pig of a son.”

Supernatural

  • When Hollis leaves the king to marry Silas, some believe she is a witch. “With the way the king was acting, someone said you must have cast a spell on him to drive him to such madness.”

Spiritual Content

  • The King asks Hollis, “Do you ever thank the gods that you have me for a king and not that grouch, King Quinten?”
  • When King Quinten comes to visit, the King says, “The Lady Hollis and I welcome you as my father did, as a fellow sovereign, placed by the gods, and as a dear friend.”
  • During a celebration, someone says, “Let us today renew our devotion to King Jameson and pray for his life to extend for many years, and for his heirs to be plenty!”
  • During the celebration, the King says, “I pray for our kingdom to prosper.”
  • At a wedding, masked men kill everyone present. Later, Hollis says, “I am grateful. I know that living through a situation where I surely ought to have died is a gift but I cannot think of why in the world the gods would spare me.”
  • When Hollis goes to look for Silas’s mother and sister, she “prayed that if I stayed on this course, I’d find them.”

 

Mae Jemison: Awesome Astronaut

The Woman in Science Series introduces readers to Mae Jemison, who is a doctor, scientist, and astronaut. Born in 1956, Mae broke gender and racial stereotypesm because when Mae was young, science was considered man’s work. Despite this, Mae was determined to be a scientist. Watching the Gemini space mission and Star Trek encouraged Mae to dream big. On Star Trek, “the crew came from all over the world. Mae liked that Lieutenant Uhura was a woman from Africa. Uhura helped Mae believe she could someday travel to space, too.”

Mae’s curiosity caused her to spend a lot of time in the library reading. She also conducted her own science experiments. Mae’s parents encouraged her to keep experimenting and keep learning. Mae knew she wanted to know more about science, but she also wanted to learn more about her culture, so she studied both chemical engineering and African-American studies.

Mae continued to work hard and eventually became a doctor. She served in a refugee camp, joined the Peace Corps, and became the first African American woman to be accepted into the NASA training program. Eventually, Mae spent eight days on the space shuttle Endeavour. Mae also founded her own company, the Jemison Group, which seeks to encourage a love of science. “Mae Jemison hopes her work will take some of the mystery out of science for children of color and all girls. Anyone can be a scientist, Jemison says. All it takes is curiosity.”

 Mae Jemison: Awesome Astronaut shows how curiosity and hard work allowed Mae to become an astronaut. However, it’s Mae’s dedication to helping others that really shines. Her story is told using simple vocabulary, short paragraphs, and pictures of Mae in action. Fourteen vocabulary words are bolded in the text and defined in the glossary at the end of the book. The book ends with a timeline of Mae’s life and an experiment for readers to try.

Mae Jemison: Awesome Astronaut isn’t just for readers who want to be an astronaut. Her story will motivate everyone to reach for the sky and make their dreams come true. Mae’s story highlights how hard work and knowledge combined to help her reach her goals. Even today, Mae continues to help others find their love of science. Mae Jemison: Awesome Astronaut is an easy-to-read biography that everyone should read. Not only does it chronicle Mae’s life, but it also shows the importance of serving others.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle

Twelve-year-old Bicycle loves living at the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C., and she loves her old orange bike named Clunk. Bicycle’s guardian, Sister Wanda, tries to send Bicycle to the Friendship Factory so she can make friends her age. But Bicycle decides to make a friend on her own terms. With Clunk and her backpack, Bicycle sets off for San Francisco where her cycling idol will be attending the Blessing of the Bicycles. Bicycle is determined to befriend someone who loves biking as much as her. With racing pigs, a ghost, pies, and a little bit of luck, Bicycle learns that friends can be made anywhere and that sometimes we must make our own luck.

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle is a wild tale that follows Bicycle and her journey across the United States. Bicycle’s time living at the Mostly Silent Monastery helps her navigate conflicts along her adventure, and she uses her excellent listening skills to help people with their problems. Because Bicycle shows others kindness, she is able to make friends. Bicycle receives plenty of help from strangers along the way and forms meaningful connections with people she otherwise would never have met.

There are some fantastical elements to the story. For example, on the first night of her trip, Bicycle meets a Civil War-era ghost who hitches a ride on the bike’s handlebars so he can return to Missouri, where his old friend set up a pie shop. The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle also discusses how luck and fortune influence people’s lives. Although the story doesn’t take any particular stance, it is clear that Bicycle helps make her own luck by being proactive and determined enough to seek out what she wants, which is friendship.

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle is all told in the third person but focuses mostly on Bicycle’s thoughts and feelings. Bicycle is a great example of a kindhearted and determined protagonist. Overall, Bicycle’s story is funny and lighthearted while showing her adventures across the United States and explaining the importance of friendship and listening. The story’s adventure includes a bit of mystery and magic while also focusing on fortune and its influence on life.

Bicycle’s desire to make friends is universal, which makes it a good choice for readers of all ages. The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle is the best kind of quirky, upbeat story. The wit and heart of the book will certainly bring a smile to readers’ faces. Readers who want another unique story that explores the topic of luck should read Fortune Falls by Jenny Goebel.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While in the Ozarks, Bicycle gets run over in a pig stampede. She “tried to jump off Clunk [her bike] and get out of the way, but one sock caught on the edge of a pedal . . . The dust started to swirl around her, blinding her. Then she was flying through the air and everything went dark.”
  • Bicycle acquires a new bike that has a red button on it. When she touches it, the bike’s screen says to not press the button because it will use the “missile launcher.” When this feature is accidentally used, the missile turns out to be a rubber snake.
  • Three teenage boys help Bicycle chase off a lady who tries to steal Bicycle’s bike. They “began pelting the lady in black with rotten tomatoes.”
  • Bicycle learns from Dr. Alvarado that the government had wanted Dr. Alvarado to build “tanks” and “explosives” rather than bicycles, but he turned them down.
  • A Girl Explorer in Yosemite National Park tries to forcibly paint Bicycle’s nails. When she ignores Bicycle’s request to stop, Bicycle “kicked the cell-phone girl in the shin.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Two older folks that Bicycle meets have a generations-long feud. One lady calls her rival a “dunderheaded lummox,” while he calls her an “old turkey.”
  • Profanity is used minimally. Profanity includes durned and fools.
  • Bicycle asks her friend, Chef Marie, about a horse. Chef Marie jokingly refers to the horse as “that fatty” because of how much he eats.

Supernatural

  • On the first night of her cross-country bike trip, Bicycle meets a ghost. She discovers this fact when she hands him a piece of chocolate and it “dropped right through his palm onto the ground.” The ghost would like to visit the Ozarks, and Bicycle lets him come along on her journey.
  • After losing her beloved bike, Clunk, Bicycle thinks of herself “like [she] was a centaur, one of those half-human, half-horse creatures you see in mythology books. But [she] used to be half-human, half-bicycle. Now [she’s] just a plain old regular human.”
  • In Kansas, Bicycle encounters an estate sale. The man who had owned it, Dr. Luck Alvarado, was obsessed with “studying luck, or fate, or destiny . . . Trying to understand how you can measure a person’s luck, whether you can alter it, and whether luck somehow controls the path of our lives.” Luck, and how luck works, is a main theme of the book.

Spiritual Content

  • The sisters at the Mostly Silent Monastery adopt Bicycle, and she is raised by retired Sister Wanda Magdalena. The Monastery was founded “centuries ago by a monk named Bob.”
  • Many of the sisters and monks break their Mostly Silent vows, and these infractions are played for comedic effect. For instance, Brother Otto nearly runs over a bright orange bike, and he exclaims, “Well, that’s fate!” It is then mentioned after, “Brother Otto simply wasn’t cut out to be Mostly Silent.”
  • After pelting Sister Wanda with rotten tomatoes, the teenage boys helping Bicycle say, “Holy cow—we’re breaking like seven different commandments!” They then flee the scene.
  • Bicycle and Sister Wanda get bagels from “the loneliest Jewish Deli in America.”
  • The event that Bicycle’s favorite cyclist is attending is called “The Blessing of the Bicycles.” Various religious leaders from many religions end up blessing every bicycle that comes to the event, praying in “many different languages” for safe journeys ahead.

by Alli Kestler

The Unbound

In the sequel to Victoria Schwab’s The Archived, Mackenzie Bishop’s adventures as a Keeper of the Archive continue. At the same time, she must balance going back to school and figure out her relationship with Wes, her best friend, and fellow Keeper. But Mackenzie is still haunted by Owen Chris Clarke, the History who almost killed her and nearly brought the end of the Archive. Owen frequently visits her all-too-realistic dreams, and Mackenzie starts to question her sanity as the Archive’s other mysteries close in around her.

But her dreams aren’t the only things haunting Mackenzie. A string of disappearances follows her path, where she was the last person to interact with each of the missing persons. Plus a mysterious man keeps watching her while she’s traveling to and from school. As if that wasn’t enough, she keeps blacking out and waking up with no recollection of what happened. Is a lack of sleep, or something more sinister haunting Mackenzie?

The Unbound is shades darker than The Archived both in atmosphere and content, which helps to enhance the mystery of the Archive and its employees. As the stakes rise, it becomes clear that the reader knows little more than Mackenzie, who struggles with the trauma of almost dying and being manipulated by Owen in the last installment. Some plot points revolve around Mackenzie’s parents, who fear that Mackenzie is depressed, self-harming, and acting out. However, much of the trouble that Mackenzie encounters is because of the Archive and her nightmares. By the end of the novel, Mackenzie is ready to heal her relationships with her parents, Wes, and, most importantly, herself.

The back-to-school setting helps balance the darkness of the Archive and Mackenzie’s nightmares. Although school is not a completely safe location for Mackenzie, school is the one truly normal place that she and Wes experience. At times, their friends provide comic relief and tell Mackenzie more about Wes, who is notoriously secretive.

School also helps bring Mackenzie out of her inner world and the world of the Archive. In many ways, having friends and going to school pulls Mackenzie back into the realm of the living. In both The Archived and The Unbound, Mackenzie spends her time straddling the line between living and dead, between the real and imagined. But in this installment, Mackenzie becomes a more seasoned Keeper while also learning how to live her life.

The Unbound is an exciting follow-up to the darkly magical The Archived. The end neatly wraps up this book and provides a bridge to a potential third book. This book does continue the adventures from The Archived, so The Archived needs to be read first. This book is a must-read because Schwab’s creative prose wonderfully captures the world of the Archive and Mackenzie’s journey, through interesting discussions about grief, trauma, and the scars that we all carry. The dead never truly leave us, but as Mackenzie learns, sometimes it’s necessary to let go and embrace the living as tightly as we can.

Sexual Content

  • Mackenzie and another Keeper, Wes, are friends who spend a lot of time haplessly flirting, though Mackenzie insists that they aren’t dating. However, they do act like they’re dating and Wes sleeps in Mackenzie’s bed. Mackenzie narrates, “I catch his hand, music flaring through me as I draw him to the bed.” They do not have sex.
  • Since Mackenzie and other Keepers have the power to “read” people and objects, another person’s touch tends to be really noisy and overwhelming for Mackenzie. Wes kisses her regardless, and she describes, “The way his lips smiled against my jaw, his now-familiar noise—that cacophony of drum and bass—pressing through me with his touch before I could find the strength to tell him no.”
  • Cash kisses Mackenzie. She says, “His lips are warm and soft, and my head fills with jazz and laughter; for an instant, it feels sweet and safe and simple. But my life is none of those things, and I realize as the kiss ends that I don’t want to pretend it is, and that there is only one person I want to kiss me like this.”
  • Wes and Mackenzie kiss again. Mackenzie describes, “I kiss him, not gently but desperately.” The description lasts for a page.

Violence

  • Mackenzie has frequent nightmares about Owen, the History who tried to kill her in the previous novel. Mackenzie says, “I dream of him dragging the jagged side of his blade across my skin as he murmurs that the ‘real’ Mackenzie Bishop must be hidden somewhere under all that flesh.” This nightmare happens often, and he usually stabs her in the dream, “[driving] the knife forward into [her] chest.”
  • Mackenzie’s little brother Ben “was killed last year on his way to school” in a hit-and-run. His death plagues the family.
  • Wes has a rough home life, and Cash describes Wes’ parents’ divorce as “brutal.” When Wes retreated for a year, not contacting his friends at all, and then returned, Cash gave him a “black eye” for abandoning them. They are still good friends.
  • Mackenzie dislikes the family therapist because she assumes incorrect things about Mackenzie and she convinced Mackenzie’s mother to throw out Ben’s stuff after he died. Mackenzie recalls once that “the one time we met face-to-face, she saw a scratch on my wrist from a pissed-off History and was convinced I did it to myself to feel things.”
  • On her way home from school, two guys attack Mackenzie with a pipe and a knife. She blacks out and wakes up to the two men laying on the ground, “covered in blood.” Mackenzie has no recollection of what she’s done. She notes that one man’s “nose is broken. Blood is gushing down his face, and one of his legs looks like it’s bent at the wrong angle.”
  • Mackenzie runs over a jogger with her bike by accident. “The collision is a tangle of handles and wheels and limbs, and we both go down hard on the concrete.” Other than scrapes and scratches, both are ok.
  • A girl named Bethany goes missing, and Mackenzie learns from her classmates that Bethany’s home life was rough. Her mom had remarried and the situation was turbulent. One girl notes that “sleazy dude [the stepfather] has been there all of a week when he’s home alone with Bethany and takes a go at her . . . She did what any self-respecting Hyde schoolgirl would do. She punched him in the face. But when she tried to tell her mom what happened, she said it was Bethany’s fault.”
  • Someone attacked Cash, and he shows up to school with a “cut beside his eye [and] a bruise darkening his jaw.”
  • Owen, the History that tried to kill Mackenzie in the previous novel, is back, though Mackenzie doesn’t know how. He attacks her at school and kills a passerby. Mackenzie describes, “I hit the ground and roll over and up onto my feet again as he lunges forward and I lunge back. Or at least I mean to, but I misjudge the distance and the toppled shelves come up against my shoulders an instant before he forces the bat beneath my chin.” This continues for several pages.
  • Owen kills one of the Crew, another Archive employee, at the dance. The Crew “crumples, and before he can recover, Owen takes his head in his hands and snaps his neck.” A fight scene with Owen, Wes, Mackenzie, and several other Crew continues for several pages after this death.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mackenzie takes medication for her headache and then promptly blacks out. When she wakes, “the drinking glass is lying in glittering pieces on the counter, my hand wrapped around the largest shard. Blood runs between my fingers where I’ve gripped it and down my other arm where I’ve carved a single deep line.” She has no recollection of what happened.
  • Mackenzie’s mother drugs Mackenzie to make her sleep. Mackenzie describes the moment when she realizes that her mom slipped a sleeping pill into her drink. She says, “At first I think I’m about to have another blackout, but those happen fast, and this is slow like syrup.”

Language

  • Dallas, the therapist, says to one Crew member, “I’d tell you not to be such an ass, Zachary, but it would be a waste of my breath.”

Supernatural

  • Mackenzie is a Keeper who returns wandering Histories, or ghosts, back to the Archive. The Archive is “a library of the dead, vast and warm, wood and stone and colored glass, and all throughout, a sense of peace.” Mackenzie travels between worlds and encounters quite a few dead people.

Spiritual Content

  • none

by Alli Kestler

Stormcaster

Pirate Evan Strangward has been hunted by Empress Celestine for most of his life. Being able to control the weather can only protect him for so long. Now, he’s looking to the Fells for allies to take the fight to the Empress. Evan must warn the queendom that Empress Celestine and her bloodsworn army won’t wait forever to invade.

After four years in Arden, Ash sul’Han is on his way back to his home in the Fells. It’s a chance to see his mother and sister, and all the friends he left behind. But once he finds out his sister, Lyss, was taken by Empress Celestine, he’ll stop at nothing to get her back and save the royal line. Ash might not trust Evan, but he needs the pirate’s help if he wants to infiltrate Celestine’s stronghold and end the war before it gets out of hand.

Stormcaster, the third entry in Chima’s Shattered Realms series, is a wonderful installment in this epic tale. The story primarily follows Evan Strangward and Ash sul’Han. Stormcaster goes back in time to show the beginning of Empress Celestine’s rise to power, as well as Evan’s reason for opposing her. Destin Karn’s backstory is also explored. While this backtracking is extensive, it’s a well-thought-out and interesting addition to the story.

When the backstories are caught up to the present, the rest of the main characters are reintroduced. Ash sul’Han, who was absent from the previous novel, is finally back in the picture. When he makes it home to his queen mother, he finds the world completely changed. Ash is a lovable character, who has matured from his rebellious stage. Now he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his family. As he struggles to work his way back into a world he doesn’t recognize, Ash embodies the themes of maturity and loss.

Overall, Stormcaster is a fast-paced ride. Since most of the main characters are back in action, each chapter shows the reader another part of the world, creating a fleshed-out and believable setting. Luckily, the shifting views are easy to follow. The story focuses on bringing together most of the main characters, so they can plan how to stop Empress Celestine. Will Ash finally reunite with his sister? Will Evan be able to take down the Empress that’s been hunting him? Readers will find out in the final installment, Deathcaster.

Sexual Content

  • When Evan and his shipmate Brody look at Empress Celestine, Brody thinks she’s beautiful. Evan notices Brody “was gazing at the young captain in a way that he’d never looked at Evan.” Later, Evan thinks about his love life. “There were other, less complicated lovers in the ports on both sides of the Indio, boys who offered sweet kisses and warm embraces.”
  • Evan and Destin have an ongoing romance. While sitting close together, “Destin put his hand on Evan’s arm, setting his heart to flopping like a beached fish.” However, Destin is afraid of love. “He’d learned his lesson well—that love was as risky as mercy.” Evan thinks, “Do not fall for this dangerous, moody, mercurial boy. It will lead you to heartbreak or worse.”
  • After confiding in each other, Evan “gripped Destin’s coat, arched his body up, and kissed him firmly on the lips.”
  • Destin’s parents have a terrible relationship. Destin tells Evan that his father “kept pounding on my mother—trying to get her to admit to cheating on him. He didn’t want to believe I was really his.” Later on, Evan asks, “If he didn’t love her, then why couldn’t he just set her aside and marry someone else.”
  • When Ash’s mother, Raisa, speaks about her marriage, she says, “I’m glad, now, that I married young, so that Han and I had more time together. It was twenty-five years, but it just flew by.” Later, she tells Ash, “Falling in love in wartime is chancy, just like having children. We’ve had a lot of pain, but a lot of joy, all the same.”
  • Madeleine, younger sister to the new King Jarat, says, “They were talking about all the women they’d had, and would have. Jarat said Father never bedded a wolf, but he would, and even a wolf could be tamed.”

Violence

  • Destin and Evan talk about killing. Destin says, “Killing is always personal. It’s the second-most-intimate thing that can happen between two people.”
  • When Destin and Evan are captured by Destin’s father, the two are forced to fight each other. Evan punches Destin, and then, “Destin somehow wrenched free of his captors, lurched forward, wrapped his hands around Evan’s neck, and began to squeeze.”
  • Adrian talks with his mother, and thinks, “Your daughter Hanalea went into the borderlands, and was murdered. Your son went south, and became a murderer.”
  • Hal fights members of Celestine’s bloodsworn warriors. During the fight with a horselord, Hal “drove his sword beneath his rib cage, all the way to the hilt.” Later, Hal cuts off a man’s head. “The head splashed into the water, but the body continued to stagger around, spraying blood from its severed neck until it tripped over a rock slab and went down.”
  • One of Celestine’s bloodsworn cuts down an old man. “It seemed that one of them wasn’t moving fast enough, because his horselord guard unslung his blade and cut him down.”
  • Destin says his father beat his mother. Destin’s father, “beat her all the time. Half to death, once or twice. Sometimes at court, but mostly at his keep on the Bittersweet. He kept a full time mage healer to patch her up again.”
  • After Evan calls Destin’s father a monster, Destin says, “Oh, he is. He started beating me, too, once I was too big to ignore and still too small to defend myself. . . If I had to do it over again, I’d have opened his throat and stabbed him through the heart with a poisoned blade and cut off his head and hung it over my door.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Hal talks to his former subordinate, Bellamy, at a tavern. Bellamy orders a “Small beer. I’m on duty in a little while. On second thought, I’ll have bingo. A double.”
  • Lyss bumps into Breon. Breon tells her, “There’s a lot of rum around, if that’s appealing.”
  • Destin thinks about King Jarat and his entourage. “They were more than happy to take the young king under their tutelage in the study of drinking, hunting, dicing, wenching, and swordplay.”
  • One of King Jarat’s loyal men comes home drunk one night. Destin sees him as he “stumbled to the garderobe and unbuttoned his breeches, hurrying to unburden himself of excess ale.”

Language

  • Hell is used a few times. For example, when Evan first meets Destin, Destin tells him, “To hell with your bloody books.”
  • Damn is used occasionally. For example, when Evan thinks about his job as a shipmaster, he thinks, “He was damned by his own success.”
  • Bastard is used a few times. Once, “When Destin inquired about Lucky Faros, saying he’d heard good things about the young captain, Kadar had informed him that Faros was an ungrateful, greedy, unreliable bastard he should steer clear of.”
  • Kadar, the streetlord of Evan’s city, tells Destin, “Go suck the Breaker’s balls.”

Supernatural

  • Wizards, also known as mages, are commonplace.
  • Wizards and mages produce a power called “flash” constantly. Destin describes flash, “like a kind of magical vapor that dissipates as soon as it appears. Amulets allow us to accumulate enough to work significant charms. Power transfers to it through skin, when you touch it.”
  • Destin talks about amulets. “They’re used to store and control magical energy, something we call ‘flash.’ There are other magical tools as well, such as talismans to protect against magical attacks, all made by upland clans.”
  • A blood mage is a type of mage that uses blood in their spells. Brody, Evan’s subordinate, says, “They make people drink their blood, and turn them into slaves.”
  • Destin is a mage. Evan notes that Destin “had an entire menu of nuanced magic he could work using his amulet and specific words spoken in the wetland language. Power including immobilization, persuasion, interrogation, and the like.”
  • In Arden, magic is considered a sin. Destin tells Evan, “Back home, magic is considered to be the work of the Breaker, a misfortune, nonetheless, can be put to use for the greater glory of the crown.” He later says, “A mage is a precarious thing to be in the wetland empire, because of the church. The king finds us useful, but he is as changeable as spring weather when it comes to the tension between magic and religion.”
  • Evan is a stormlord, a mage that uses weather magic. When Destin attacked Evan, “A storm surge of magic welled up in him, and electricity crackled across his skin, as if the power that seethed beneath it was leaking out.” Later, Evan “didn’t consciously reach for power, but it came unbidden. Small whirlwinds erupted all around his feet, sucked up a mixture of sawdust and straw, flung it in the soldier’s face.”
  • Jenna is one of the magemarked, a group of people that have unique abilities even among mages. Destin tells Evan about Jenna’s abilities: “She claims to be clairvoyant—that she sometimes sees images of the future, sees people as they really are, or can tell when someone is lying.” Later, he also says, “She heals quickly, and is resistant to flame. In fact, she develops a kind of armor for protection.”

Spiritual Content

  • Kadar, Evan’s former employer, thinks about his gods. He thinks, “It seemed that Omari Kadar, street lord of the Tarvos waterfront, had been abandoned by the gods.”
  • Evan is worshipped by his Stormborn pirate crew. “In the space of four years he’d gone from being a kind of shipboard mascot to being ‘Lord Strangward,’ the central deity of a Stormborn cult.”
  • When Evan and Destin get a new ship, Evan wants to perform a ceremony to the gods. Destin’s mother says, “I hope you don’t plan to sacrifice a goat and make us drink the blood. The goats, I need.”
  • When Ash tells Lila about his mistakes, she says, “If you want absolution, go to a speaker or priest. I’m hardly in a position to give you advice.”
  • Ash’s mother tells him, “Some speakers say that we must wait to be rewarded in the next life.”

by Jonathan Planman

To Fly Among the Stars: The Hidden Story of the Fight for Women Astronauts

It’s the 1960s, and the United States and the Soviet Union are locked in a heated race to launch the first human into space. NASA selects seven men, superstar test pilots, and former air fighters, for their first astronaut class – the Mercury 7. The men endure hours of difficult tests, taunting by fellow pilots, constant media attention, and the public pressure of representing America in a whole new frontier.

But away from the media buzz, there are others quietly fighting for the same opportunity. Thirteen women, accomplished air racers, test pilots, and flight instructors, are putting themselves through those same grueling tests, hoping to defy the era’s boundaries for women and earn a seat aboard a space capsule themselves.

To Fly Among the Stars tells the story of seven men who hoped to ride rockets and thirteen women who dared ask for a fair chance to soar to the stars. Unlike many books, To Fly Among the Stars takes a look at the Mercury 7’s heroic deeds as well as their flaws. Some of the men’s partying, squabbling, and flirting ways were a stark contrast to the women’s behavior. The women had to overcome many obstacles in order to become pilots, including having to look like proper ladies as they flew. Even though these thirteen women were never able to realize their dreams, they took the first steps in breaking the glass ceiling for female astronauts.

Countless individuals worked behind the scenes to land the first man on the moon. While To Fly Among the Stars focuses on Mercury 7 and the 13 women who dreamed of going into space, the large group of characters makes it difficult to keep track of each individual. Often, a chapter will have a few paragraphs on one person and then jump to another person. The shifting topics make the story confusing.

To Fly Among the Stars highlights the brave women who dreamed of going into space and focuses on the discrimination they faced. While this is a valid point, the Mercury 7’s mistakes and bad behavior also become a focal point. The author states that “Accepting women as astronauts would mean that NASA—and all its feverish fans—would be forced to acknowledge that female aviators could do exactly what male aviators could do. And that might threaten the heroic, ultramasculine, tough-guy status the astronauts enjoyed.”

Black and white photographs help tell the story and the back of the book contains a two-page glossary. The difficult vocabulary, quickly changing topics, and the vast list of historical people make To Fly Among the Stars best for strong readers. The book would be excellent to use as a source for a research paper or a school project; however, those who are not interested in the history of flight will find the book difficult to slog through.

 Sexual Content

  • After Shepard went up in a space capsule, he had to go to a briefing. “During one interview, a pretty secretary delivered Shepard a cup of coffee. As she left, one witness reported watching ‘Shepard’s brain get up, leave the room, and follow her down the hall.’”
  • At a party, two astronauts performed a racist routine. “It was a cruel characterization of both homosexuals and Hispanics.”

Violence

  • Bill Odom, an air racer, “pushed his little green plane to nearly 400 miles per hour before losing control and punching right through a suburban home, killing not just himself but also a resident woman and her baby.”
  • Pilot James Vosyka died during an air race. “A wing on his racing plane collapsed on a hard turn, and his aircraft slammed into the ground in front of 12,000 spectators.”
  • Several times, the story talks about pilots shooting down MiG’s. For example, Wally Schirra “went on to shoot down another MiG in Korea.”
  • Many women joined the WASP in order to fly and help in the war effort. However, some men didn’t approve of women flying airplanes and played dangerous pranks on the women. After one prank, “Betty Taylor Wood’s airplane slammed into the ground near a runway, killing both Wood and her passenger. . . Someone had dumped sugar into the plane’s gas tank.”
  • During a training exercise, a pilot “ejected but died when he and his parachute slammed into the hard desert sand.”
  • Rankin had to eject during a high-altitude flight. “Immediately after exploding through the glass canopy of his cockpit, Rankin was overcome by the searing, stabbing cold. . .. His exposed skin froze almost instantly before going blissfully numb. And then the real pain started. . . His abdomen swelled. His skin stretched. Blood sprayed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Rankin made it to the ground alive but barely.”
  • When an engineer joked about astronaut Shepard’s bad attitude, “Shepard picked up an ashtray and whipped it at the engineer’s face. He missed his target by a hair.”
  • Several astronauts were killed “during a practice launch when a spark caught inside their Apollo 1 space capsule. Three men burned to death right there on the launch pad while dozens of ground crew members sputtered and coughed and tried frantically to claw the capsule door open.”

      Drugs and Alcohol

  • John Gleen was a military pilot who had “flown angry, confident, and even–dangerously—rip-roaring drunk.
  • A woman pilot had to listen as “a drunk senator slurred his sexist judgments.”
  • A woman pilot was married to an alcoholic. While the woman was in astronaut testing, her husband called her every night. “He was drunk, angry, and cruel.”
  • Some astronauts partied at Cocoa Beach. “They drank too much alcohol and pulled elaborate pranks on one another. They flirted with women who weren’t their wives.”
  • The astronauts liked the pool at Cocoa Beach and the manager “went to great lengths to keep their parties stocked with alcohol, girls, and food, and free from the press.”
  • One of the astronauts had to convince a reporter not to print a photograph of a “drunk astronaut getting frisky with a strange woman.”
  • As training continued, “Shepard’s booze-fueled hijinks were becoming more public. . .” Shepard “was clamoring onto nightclub stages, drunkenly giggling racist jokes into microphones.”

Language

  • After a flight, a pilot “flipped the jet the middle finger.”
  • NASA was working hard “on new procedures to prevent the next guy from pulling another boneheaded screw up.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a launch, someone “said a silent prayer for Glenn’s success.”
  • Sunsets “made Glenn think of his Christian faith and miracles and the mysteries of existence.”
  • Millions of Americans watched Glenn’s mission. As they watched, they were “praying and fretting. . . They pleaded for his safety. Oh please, oh please.”

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier

The United States may have put the first man on the moon, but it was the Soviet space program that made Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space. It took years for the U.S. to catch up, but soon NASA’s first female astronauts were racing past milestones of their own. The trailblazing women of Group 9, NASA’s first mixed-gender class, had the challenging task of convincing people that a woman’s place is in space. But the women soon discovered that even NASA had a lot to learn about making space travel possible for everyone.

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier follows Mary Cleave and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, among others. Many people, including Valentina’s own mother, didn’t think women were capable of becoming astronauts. Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier takes a humorous look at the gender stereotypes that women astronauts had to overcome. For example, as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride faced great pressure from the media.

Once NASA allowed women to train as astronauts, men realized women were capable of completing difficult tasks. Despite their differences, every astronaut works as a team to complete essential tasks. When Mary finally went into space, she talks about the beauty of space as well as some of the difficult aspects of space flight, such as how difficult it is to use the bathroom with no gravity. While the book has some lighter moments, it also reminds readers, “when you made a serious mistake in this job, it cost lives. We’ve lost three crews: Apollo 1 in 1967, Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.”

Even though Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier is a graphic novel, it packs a lot of history into a short amount of text. Since the text rarely uses people’s names, keeping track of the huge cast of characters is difficult. The back of the book has several pages with pictures of different astronauts, but these pages do not include names. Younger readers may become frustrated by the difficult space language as well as the unique font that is used when the Russians speak. One example of a complicated sentence is when Mary said, “That’s because of the 1X resolver’s IMU BITE, we needed a GNC spec 1on CRT 2.”

Strong readers who have a love of history and space will enjoy being introduced to space history, astronaut training, and life in space. The often humorous artwork excellently shows the characters’ feelings through facial expressions. Most pages contain two types of text. The characters’ words are shown in white quote bubbles, while the narrator’s thoughts and basic information appear in the square, blue boxes. Each page contains 2-13 complex sentences.

Even though Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier focuses on women, the graphic novel will appeal to both girls and boys. In the end, the book shows that with hard work, dedication, and perseverance, anyone can become an astronaut. The last panel shows a diverse group of women who are the “future astronauts.” Everyone who dreams of going into space should read Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Mary interviewed for NASA, she was nervous so she tried to be funny. After she got the job, she says, “I didn’t have a beer just before going to John Young’s office for my first assignment.”
  • When they first get to space, some astronauts take ScopeDex which is an anti-nausea drug.

Language

  • During a test, one of the astronauts says, “good lord, doc.”
  • When Mary joined NASA, “I got one more welcome gift. Nicknames, thanks to my assignments and my degree. Sometimes my fellow astros called me ‘Sanitary Fairy,’ sometimes ‘Crap Com.’”
  • “Oh God” and “my God” are both used once. When Mary looked at the earth from space, she says, “My god.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • While the astronauts were getting ready to go into space, someone prays, “Dear Lord, don’t let these guys screw up.”

All About Stephen Hawking

From an early age, Stephen Hawkings dreamed of making the study of the universe accessible to everyone. Diagnosed with ALS at the age of twenty-one, he overcame the challenges of ALS to become an expert on black holes and the origin of the universe.

Stephen realized his boyhood dream of educating people about the universe. While his disease broke down his body, Hawkings’ mind remained strong. He advanced our knowledge of black holes by discovering Hawking radiation, the energy emitted by black holes. Speaking through a computer, Hawkings continued trying to help people understand the universe around them. Stephen has also dedicated his life to several causes such as making buildings accessible to wheelchairs.

All About Stephen Hawkings begins with how Stephen’s parents met and how World War II affected their lives. The story takes a winding road that often quickly switches topics, and includes Stephen’s personal life, his goals, his accomplishments, and information on his wife, Jane. The many topics covered in the story may cause some confusion.

Stephen’s story comes alive both through the text as well as black and white illustrations. The simple illustrations appear every one to three pages. Both the oversized text and the frequent illustrations will appeal to readers. The text explains the meaning of some of the more difficult vocabulary words and there is also a glossary of terms at the end of the book. It also contains a timeline of both Stephen’s life and of world events.

All About Stephen Hawkings would be a great book to use for research about Stephen Hawkings’ life. Anyone who is interested in science will also enjoy the book. The quickly changing topics and the difficult vocabulary make the book best for strong readers. All About Stephen Hawkings will encourage readers to follow their dreams.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • At one point, some people thought that “Stephen’s wife, Elaine, was hurting Stephen.” One of Stephen’s children called the police. “The police asked Stephen’s nurses how he was getting hurt. . . [Elaine] was accused of breaking one of the bones in his arm, cutting him on the cheek, and leaving him out in the hot sun for so long that he got heat stroke and a sunburn.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The book occasionally mentions someone going to church. For example, Stephen’s wife “continued to go to church on Sundays, though Stephen wouldn’t go with her.”

Alabama Moon #1

For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the wilderness in a shelter with his father. They keep to themselves, and their only contact with other human beings is an occasional trip to the nearest general store. When Moon’s father dies, Moon follows his father’s last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn’t know or understand. Soon, he’s become the property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. As the spirited and resourceful Moon encounters constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies, he adapts his wilderness survival skills and learns to survive in the world of people, and even, perhaps, make his home there.

While Moon’s life is not something most readers can imagine, they will soon be entangled in his story. When Moon’s Pap dies, Moon doesn’t understand why he can’t continue to live in his dirt hovel. Moon wrestles with his father’s ways as well as the world’s ways. Despite his loneliness, Moon fights everyone who tries to drag him away from his hovel to a boys’ home. Moon’s fight is both fast-paced, engaging, and full of surprises.

Alabama Moon takes the reader into the backwoods of Alabama and shows the beauty of living off the land. While the story is full of action, readers will also form an emotional connection to Moon’s story. In the end, many readers will be left in tears as they wonder why our world is so harsh. While Moon’s story ends on a hopeful note, Alabama Moon doesn’t shy away from the tough topics of death and the effects of war. But the main theme that shines is the importance of friendship.

The author’s love of the outdoors and his knowledge of nature allows him to paint a realistic picture of surviving in the wild. Alabama Moon combines intense senses with moments of tenderness and humor. The story highlights the father-son relationship and shows the deep love a son feels for his father—even when his father isn’t perfect.

Anyone who loves an action-packed survival story will love Alabama Moon. The characters are realistic and imperfect. The story doesn’t portray adults as always having the right answers, and some of the adults admit to having made a wrong choice. In the end, Moon realizes the importance of having friends and supportive adults in his life. Moon’s story will leave a lasting impact on readers and will help them appreciate the people in their lives.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When a store owner named Mr. Abroscotto says Moon’s father’s plan was crazy, Moon jumped on him. “I started hitting him with my one hand that wasn’t holding on to him. I pounded him on the cheek over and over as fast as I could. . .I kicked him in the knee.”
  • When a social worker shows up to take Moon to a boys’ home, Moon “balled my fist, and socked him in the crotch.” The social worker “pulled his knees in tight as a baby and moaned curses at me.”
  • When a constable tries to detain Moon, Moon tries to run away. Moon “punched him in the face as hard as I could. . . He stood up with me and crushed me against his chest. For a moment I couldn’t breathe, and I felt that my shoulders were about to snap. . . I spun around and bit him on the tit. . .” The constable is able to get Moon into the back of his car.
  • After the constable talks badly about Moon’s father, Moon, “Jumped at him. . . I bit into his shoulder and chewed at it like it was tough gristle. . . He grabbed me around the waist with both hands and squeezed so hard that my body shot with pain and I had to throw my head back and cough at the sky.” Moon pees on the constable. The constable squeezes Moon until Moon is sick.
  • The constable goes to see one of his renters, who is behind on the rent. He “suddenly let go of the steering wheel and backhanded the man across the jaw.”
  • When Moon gets to the boys’ house, he meets Hal, who trash talks him. “I swung my arm from under the blanket and hit him open-handed across the face. . . the big kid recovered and grabbed for my feet. . .” Mr. Carter breaks up the fight. When Hal is disobedient, “Mr. Carter took two steps and grabbed him by the shirt collar. He lifted Hal like a scarecrow and dragged him across the room. He hung there, red-faced and coughing against the shirt that pressed into his throat.” Mr. Carter throws Hal outside and makes him sleep in the cold.
  • Hal approaches Moon. “Hal was walking faster, and he seemed to have something in mind for me. . . While I was crouched down, I hit him as hard as I could in the crouch. Then I covered my face with my hands and started rolling across the ground.”
  • The constable, Sanders, puts Moon on a leash and drags him around. “After we had traveled about a mile, Sanders yanked the leash so hard that I coughed against it. A sharp pain shot up into my head, and I gritted my teeth again. . . I rushed against the leash and felt it jerk me backwards until I lay flat in the leaves. Sanders laughed over me.” When another adult sees Sanders and questions him, Moon is able to run away.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Moon is put in jail. “The only other person in a cage, across the hall from me . . . said they locked him up for being too drunk and wrecking his car.”
  • The constable uses Copenhagen chewin’ tabacco.
  • Hal’s father is a drunk. Hal says, “My daddy never did learn to read good. He was so drunk most of the time, he could barely see.” When Hal’s father is driving home, he “pulled a bottle of whiskey from under the truck seat and took a swallow.”
  • When Moon walks up to Hal, Hal “held out a bag of Red Man chewing tobacco” and asked, “you want some?”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes ass, crap, damn, hell, and piss.
  • God and Jesus are both used as an exclamation several times. For example, after Moon hit Mr. Abroscotto, he said, “God, that hurt!”
  • Several times someone called Moon a “little bastard” and a “militia bastard.”
  • The constable asks a jailer, “Where’s that little pissant?”
  • The constable tells Moon, “You ain’t nothin’ but white trash. Worse than white trash. . . You’re stinkin’ militia trash, is what you are.” The constable tells Moon that his dad was “some dirty low-life.”
  • Four times, the constable uses the word “sum-bitch.”
  • Someone tells Moon that Sanders “is a bully and a bigot. . . He’s unintelligent, and he’s mean and he’s in a position of power. That’s a bad combination to be facing.”
  • A police officer tells Moon, “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know.”
  • Moon’s aunt says, “My Lord” twice. For example, when Moon tells his aunt that he’d like to eat four times a day, she says, “My Lord!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Moon’s father “said you passed and came back as something else. It could be a squirrel or a coon. It could be a fish or an Eskimo. There was no way to tell.”
  • At the boys’ home, a prayer is said before dinner.
  • Moon’s father “told me I could talk to him be writin’ letters and burnin’ ‘em. He said you can talk to dead people that way.” Moon does this several times.

 

 

A New Class

Victor is thrilled when he is accepted to study at the Jedi Academy! His old school wasn’t a good fit for him, as his overenthusiastic use of the Force often got him in trouble. But at his new school, Victor is sure he will become a great Jedi Master. The only trouble is, Victor’s awesome new friends may not be as awesome as they appear. Victor also struggles to focus in class and he suspects his roommate is a Sith in training. As his grades suffer, Victor can’t stop getting into trouble. He’s warned if he doesn’t improve both his grades and his behavior, he may be sent home from the Jedi Academy – permanently.

A New Class teaches the importance of being true to yourself and shows the difference between true friends and those who are friendly simply because they want something from you. For instance, Zach tries to tell Victor, “if you want somebody to like you, you just need to completely change who you are.” But Victor insists, “my mom told me that if people didn’t like me for who I am that was their problem, not mine.”

By the end of the story, Victor realizes Zach isn’t a true friend at all. As he gets more comfortable with himself and stops trying to be cool, he discovers his true friends were right in front of him the whole time. Victor realizes, “I was looking for friends in all the wrong places. I was looking in places that just weren’t ME!”

Victor is an extremely relatable character for young readers because he struggles to focus in class and accidentally gets into mischief. His friends are diverse and supportive, and they challenge Victor to grow in positive ways. Victor’s teachers range from supportive to silly to strict, which adds an enjoyable aspect to the story. As Victor learns self-control and how to focus, his grades start to improve.

Told from Victor’s point of view, much of the story is written in an easy-to-read, diary format. The diary entries are frequently broken up by school newsletters, fun galaxy feeds, and space-themed comics. In addition, part of A New Class is told in graphic-novel format. Large, often comical, black and white illustrations appear on every page. The illustrations show Victor’s range of emotions and bring the other human and alien characters to life. The illustrations break up the text, making each page accessible to most readers. A New Class is listed as the fourth book in the Jedi Academy series, but it starts a brand-new storyline with a new main character. The previous books do not need to be read in order to enjoy and understand A New Class.

 A New Class is chock-full of fun, with Star Wars references galore and plenty of fun twists and turns. Parents will love the positive messages about friendship, while readers will enjoy the silly adventures. With loads of amusing pictures, humor, and middle school drama, A New Class is sure to delight tweens.

Sexual Content

  • When Victor joins Drama Club, he “had these visions of sharing the spotlight with Maya on stage. Maybe there would even be a scene where we got to kiss!”

Violence

  • Victor draws a comic where he “easily destroyed the evil droids” with a lightsaber.
  • When Victor sneaks away from a school field trip, he is attacked by an enormous gorax. His classmate, Artemis, uses the Force to pull Victor out of harm’s way, then cuts a tree trunk with a lightsaber. The tree tips over and falls on the gorax’s head, and the boys run away.
  • When Zach gets angry, he punches a locker and calls a droid a “hunk of junk.”
  • Zach shuts Victor’s new friends in a locker. When Victor tries to save them, Zach uses the Force to throw a droid. Then, Victor attacks Zach with his lightsaber. They duel until Victor’s sister saves the day, using the Force to throw Zach and free Victor’s trapped friends.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Zach calls Victor’s new friends “dweebatroids.”

Supernatural

  • Victor lives in a Star Wars inspired time, with lightsabers, aliens, star ships, and more. He goes to a school that trains future Jedis, and he learns to use the Force.

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Morgan Lynn

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff

Step back in time, beginning in 1232 when a Chinese alchemist accidentally discovered gunpowder, after which the Chinese created rockets for the battlefield. Since then, many have worked to advance rocket science. While some men dreamed of using rockets to travel into space, other men used rockets to win wars.

Then flashforward to the 1920s, when Wernher von Braun began creating a liquid-fueled rocket ship but was soon creating bombs for the Nazis. After the war, von Braun worked for the US Government. “Although von Braun wanted to achieve the means for space exploration, he once again found himself building weapons.” During this time, the Russians and Americans raced to create weapons as well as to send a man into space.

Finally, it’s 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, the United States’ first attempt at a similar feat was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Yet American scientists and engineers refused to give up. With each failure, they gleaned valuable information about where they went wrong and how to avoid those mistakes in the future. Neil Armstrong may have made it look easy when he set foot on the lunar surface, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple.

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff is packed full of interesting historical information and explains how the Cold War spurred the United States into developing the first spacecraft. Instead of overlooking the many failures that occurred, the book explains how those failures were used to gain knowledge. For example, “The Apollo 13 mission is considered by NASA to be a ‘successful failure,’ meaning that the crew had failed to land on the moon. But NASA had learned so much during the operation, including techniques that would go on to aid in the development of new mission protocols and better technological advancements for future missions.”

Readers will learn new vocabulary and mythological references. Some readers will struggle with the advanced vocabulary words, such as diametrically, infiltrating, propaganda and détente. Even though some vocabulary is defined, a glossary would have been helpful. Despite the difficult vocabulary, The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff breaks the text into manageable parts and uses subtitles, which make transitions to different topics easy. Both historical pictures and cartoonish, black and white illustrations appear on many pages. These illustrations show various acts of space travel and add humor.

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff uses a conversational tone that makes learning about history fun. The best part of the book is that it highlights events that could have been seen as “epic fails.” However, each failure was a learning opportunity that advanced space travel. The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff shows how hard work, dedication, and perseverance can help everyone reach for the stars.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In 1969, three men died when a spark created a fire. The spark became a “fire that spewed thick black smoke through the cockpit. The crew, still strapped into their seats, were unable to eject through the hatches before they succumbed to the smoke and fire.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Gravity of Us

Cal has his life figured out. He loves living in Brooklyn, where he has friends and a plan. He’s gaining views for his live reporting on the social media app FlashFame, and his journalism career is about to take off with a major internship. But all of this turns upside down when his father—Cal Senior—receives word that his application to NASA has been accepted. Cal’s father is slated to be on the upcoming Mars mission, and their family must relocate to an idyllic small town in Texas where all the astronaut families live.

While he’s upset to lose his internship, Cal soon realizes that he still has the chance to hone his journalism skills. A reality TV network called StarWatch has exclusive control over the narrative around the space program—and therefore the related public interest and government funding. Instead of focusing on the fascinating science of the upcoming Mars mission, StarWatch documents the lives of the astronaut families solely for manufactured drama. When Cal decides to keep live-streaming his own experiences, he becomes an opponent of StarWatch, who are obsessive about their tight control over the astronauts’ public images. Soon, Cal finds himself caught up in the world of high-stakes publicity. He tries to portray his family and the rest of the astronaut families truthfully and honestly, while multiple media forces vie for public interest.

Romance happens when Cal meets and immediately is enamored with another astronaut’s son, Leon. Leon, an ex-star gymnast, suffers from depression and is reluctant to enter into a relationship with someone who thinks he can “fix him.” Cal and Leon immediately have chemistry, but before they finally instigate a real relationship, they try to understand each other and respect each other’s needs.

The Gravity of Us promises a space-centered story but delivers a story that’s more focused on PR and social media journalism than a future Mars mission. While Cal is determined to make the public care about NASA for the science, readers may find that they still don’t get to see as much science as they want. Readers looking for an ultra-realistic view of NASA’s operations, like in The Martian, will be disappointed. Many fascinating logistical aspects of space missions—such as astronauts’ rigorous psychological testing and training—are swept aside or ignored.

The romance is cute but hollow. Cal and Leon have no barriers separating them except for Leon’s depression, which is never really given the attention it needs to be a fully effective aspect of the plot. The main conflict between them is that Cal is concerned that Leon doesn’t know what to do after he graduates from high school. In the end, Leon tells Cal that he’s figured out what he wants to do. It’s anti-climactic and may disappoint readers who want reassurance that they don’t have to have their lives figured out at eighteen.

Overall, The Gravity of Us has little of the gravitational pull promised. While it draws on the images of outer space in its title and cover, the book uses a vague portrayal of NASA to show an ordinary teen romance.

Sexual Content

  • Cal recalls interviewing a Republican Senate candidate and grilling him about “charges of sexual harassment.”
  • Cal says his mom is cautious when entering his room because “she’s always afraid she’ll catch me doing ‘something,’ and we all know what that ‘something’ is, but I’m also not an idiot and can figure out how to do ‘something’ twice a day having never been caught thank you very much.”
  • Cal recalls an old romantic fling with a boy named Jeremy, where he “sunk into his lips, the taste of Coors Light on our tongues.” Jeremy “was new and exciting, and he was there as I took a self-guided tour of my own queerness—something I may never fully find the right label for.”
  • When Cal is with Leon, “I get the urge to kiss him . . . nowhere in my perverse mind do I think he needs this kiss to fix him. I want him, and I want to do it for me. And humanity, even. I want the world to be that much better because of our lips touching and his hand in my hair and…”
  • Cal and Leon kiss. Leon’s “lips are soft and perfect and tug at mine like he’s been waiting for this moment forever. Like he’s been waiting for more than just a week to be with me like this. In seconds, our mouths are on each other and his hand is behind my neck. And my heart’s about to beat out of my chest. It’s too fast and not nearly enough.”
  • Cal and Leon kiss again. “This one isn’t as passionate, it isn’t as hungry, but it makes my insides jump the same way. There’s a caring force in the tug of his lips, and in his bite, I lose control of my body and feel light-headed.”
  • During a makeout session between Cal and Leon, “We’re pressed into each other, and there’s nothing on my mind but his taste. His tongue slips into my mouth, and I press mine against his. I moan softly because it feels so right. So perfect . . . just keep kissing him. We keep celebrating our closeness in muffled moans and gasped breathing.”
  • When Cal and Leon are alone in a hotel room, “We pull off our shirts, and I press his body into mine. His breath hits my neck as our legs hook around each other. We’re a mash of tongue and teeth and warmth.” They stay the night together, but the book doesn’t go into detail about what else they do.
  • Cal brings Leon over to his house because it’s “definitely empty,” with the implication that this is an opportunity for sex. “His face is pressed to mine as I get my key out and unlock the back door . . . and we push through the dark house.” The scene ends soon afterward without revealing any more detail.

Violence

  • When Cal sees how upset his mom is, “I scan her for bruises, for covered arms, for anything—though I know Dad would never hurt her like that.” His suspicions are unfounded—although Cal’s parents argue often, they never get violent with each other.
  • Cal says that the sound of his friend’s parents fighting in a neighboring apartment scares him. “The echoed sound of a fist breaking through a particleboard door settles in my head.”
  • A man looks like “his whole body might be made of stone.” Cal says, “I have a feeling that if I were to punch him in the gut, I’d be the one hurting.”
  • The characters wait anxiously for news about a jet, which was carrying NASA astronauts, that wrecked. One astronaut is killed and several are injured, but the crash isn’t described in detail.
  • An unmanned NASA launch “explodes in the sky.” Cal describes being “barely knocked back by the blast, like a strong but very warm gust of wind.” Then the spacecraft “becomes nothing but some smoking ash.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When he gets into the astronaut program, Cal’s father pours champagne for the whole family—“Even for you, Cal. It’s a special occasion.”
  • Cal’s friend says that she likes “watching astronauts get drunk off champagne before falling face-first into a bush.”
  • At an astronaut party, Cal sees “bottles of champagne sitting in a copper tub full of ice.” He notes that “no one would notice a bottle—or ten—missing from this supply.”
  • Cal and Leon steal a champagne bottle from the party and go out back to drink it. Cal drinks the champagne. “The tart, fizzy liquid burns my throat as I swallow it down. The taste isn’t great, but I could get used to it.”
  • Someone gives Cal gum “to cover that champagne breath.”
  • Cal’s mother manages her chronic anxiety “with her therapy appointments and an assortment of low-dosage medication.”
  • Cal steals some champagne from his parents and pops the bottle when he’s alone with Leon. They drink from it together. “I pull the bottle to my mouth and take a sip of the bitter foam.”
  • Cal says, “I start to understand why people celebrate with champagne. It lifts me up, it celebrates my own energy.”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes: damn, hell, shit, and fuck.
  • “Oh my God” and “Jesus” are frequently used as exclamations.
  • Cal refers to Clear Lake, Texas as “literal hell” because of its hot weather.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The Mars mission is named Orpheus, after the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek mythology. A character explains how “Eurydice dies; Orpheus takes his magical lyre and travels to Hades to save her. He plays his lyre for Hades, who promises to return Eurydice under one condition: she would follow, but if he turned to look at her, she’d be gone forever.”

by Caroline Galdi

Target: Earth

Klawde is not your average cat. He is an exiled emperor from across the universe with a hunger for battle and a thirst for revenge. He’s cruel. He’s cunning. He’s brilliant. He’s also Raj’s best friend.

With Klawde now stuck on a dismal planet, he sets his sights on a new target to conquer: Earth. But to succeed, he needs two simple things: an army of zombie squirrels, and money. Lots of money.

Raj is simply trying to make some cash for a cool virtual reality headset. But when a neighbor catches wind of Klawde’s nefarious plan, Raj may end up paying for his cat’s schemes.

Even though Klawde is devious and deceitful, he is also very likable. In the fourth installment of the Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat Series, both Klawde and Raj need money, but in true Klawde style, he devises a way to make virtual money. Klawde’s obsessive desire to regain control is hilarious, especially because he always underestimates the hairless ogres of Earth. The power-hungry cat doesn’t understand why humans “were so addicted to consumption. To shopping. To their possessions. Did they not realize that the most important things in life are those you cannot touch or possess, let alone buy? Like power domination. And humiliating your enemies!”

Klawde’s plotting brilliantly connects to Raj, who starts a lawn care business with his two friends. But with Klawde’s newfound millions, Raj has everything his heart desires—a virtual reality game, a skateboard, new shoes, and pizza. Raj thought his new game would make him happy, but in the end, he realizes that “The VQ had totally been messing with my mind.” At one point, Raj spends so much time playing a virtual reality game that he doesn’t sleep, do his homework, or spend time with his friends. In the end, Raj learns that “Money didn’t matter when you already had everything you need. . . family and friends.”

Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat Series is exceptionally engaging, humorous, and fun to read. Readers will appreciate the short paragraphs, the easy vocabulary, and the hilarious blue-and-black illustrations. Not only do the illustrations help the readers imagine the story’s events, they also highlight Klawde’s emotions of misery, distaste, and disgust.

Readers will laugh out loud as Klawde tries to use squirrels to take over Earth. The conclusion introduces a new enemy—Colonel Akornius Maximus, a squirrel bent on keeping his Earthy brothers and sisters safe. Readers will be eager to read the next book in the series, Emperor of the Universe. Fans looking to put more humor into their reading should also check out the Mac B. Kid Spy Series by Mac Barnett.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Klawde is upset at his “ogre” Raj and scratches him. Klawde “swiped his shin with my claws, leaving a trail of four bloody lines.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Klawde is upset that some of the cats from his home planet are calling him “Dog Lover” and “Wyss-Kuzz the Butt-sniffer.”
  • Occasionally, Klawde calls his minion, Flooffee, names that include dolt, idiot, and imbecile.
  • When FBI agents appear on Raj’s doorstep, Klawde thinks FBI stands for “Furless Brainless Idiots.”
  • Someone says to Raj, “I heard the FBI raided your house. When did it become illegal to be a loser?”
  • Dang is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Stargazing

Moon is everything Christine isn’t. She’s confident, impulsive, artistic . . . and though they both grew up in the same Chinese-American suburb, Moon is somehow unlike anyone Christine has ever known.

But after Moon moves in next door, these unlikely friends are soon best friends, sharing their favorite music videos and painting their toenails when Christine’s strict parents aren’t around. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she has visions, sometimes, of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. They reassure her that Earth isn’t where she really belongs.

Moon’s visions have an all-too-earthly root, however, and soon Christine’s best friend is in the hospital, fighting for her life. Can Christine be the friend Moon needs, now, when the sky is falling?

Readers will relate to Christine, who is at first reluctant to be Moon’s friend. As she becomes friends with Moon, Christine learns to step out of her comfort zone and try new things, including wearing nail polish. When Christine’s father sees the nail polish, he tells her, “things like clothes, makeup, and nail polish are just things to keep smart girls like you from succeeding.” While Christine’s father encourages her to be friends with Moon, he reminds her, “just because Moon does something doesn’t mean it’s right for you, too, okay. You’re different girls with different paths. Remember who you are.”

In order to make her parents happy, Christine tries to be perfect, but she secretly wishes she could be more outgoing like Moon. At one point, Christine worries that Moon will make new friends and no longer like her. Christine intentionally embarrasses Moon, and when Moon gets sick, Christine avoids her. Despite this, Christine and Moon eventually talk about their conflict and are able to repair their friendship.

The graphic novel’s panels use pastel colors and expressive faces to bring the girls’ world to life. Throughout the novel, the pictures in Moon’s sketchbook are featured, which allow the reader a peek into Moon’s imagination. Wang’s illustrations expertly convey the characters’ emotions through facial expressions as well as actions. Much of the story is told through illustrations without words. Despite this, the reader can easily understand the story’s plot. While some pages do not have words, other pages have up to eight simple sentences that use easy vocabulary and is perfect for even the most reluctant reader.

Anyone who feels ordinary will understand both Moon’s and Christine’s struggles with loneliness and the need to feel special. The two girls’ friendship is imperfect, yet endearing. In the afterword, Wang explains that one reason she wrote Stargazing was to show “the diversity of experiences even within a very specific community. As our society continues to diversify (as I would hope), I imagine there will be many more Moons and Christines out there wondering which parts of them are ‘not Asian,’ and which parts are just uniquely and wonderfully them.”

Sexual Content

  • Moon draws a picture of her teacher, Mr. Pennypacker, in a boat. Moon is next to her teacher and has hearts drawn around her head. When Christine sees the picture she says, “OH MY GOD, MOON! Ewww Eww Eww!!” Moon blushes.

Violence

  • A boy is mean to Christine’s little sister. Moon finds the boy and tackles him. The fight is illustrated over two pages. Two teachers break up the fight. As Moon is walked to the office, she hands Christine’s little sister the boy’s tooth.
  • Christine purposely puts the drawing of Moon and Mr. Pennypacker where other kids can see it. When a girl says, “Here you go, Mrs. Pennypacker,” Moon smacks her across the face and then punches her. A parent breaks up the fight.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Moon tells her friend, “It’s okay if you eat meat, though. Some animals are probably jerks. I won’t tell.”
  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation four times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Moon doesn’t eat meat because she’s Buddhist. Moon says, “We don’t eat animals because we believe in respecting life.”
  • When a professional athlete is interviewed, he says, “I’d just like to thank my parents, and God, for being there and helping me follow my true path in life.”
  • Doctors discover that Moon has a tumor. Christine’s father tells her, “Let’s keep her [Moon] in our prayers. That’s all we can do for now.”

Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist

Sylvia is surrounded by family and friends. She lives in a close-knit neighborhood where everyone speaks Spanish. Sylvia loves her life because there are always other children to play with. Then Sylvia’s sister, Laura, gets really sick and everything changes.

Even though Laura recovers, she is never the same cheerful, inquisitive child she once was. Because of Laura’s illness, Sylvia’s mother decides to move the family to a more affluent neighborhood. Soon, Sylvia is forced to go to a new school – one where the majority of students are Anglo. Sylvia is miserable and self-conscious. When a classmate invites Sylvia to join Brownies, Sylvia finds a place to belong and learn. The Girl Scouts teach her the importance of planning for the future and creating opportunities for herself. Because of Girl Scouts, Sylvia knew “that I could teach myself to fulfill a goal and work as a member of a team. . . I had learned that planning ahead and doing things properly could help you get what you wanted.”

Sylvia’s family life is often chaotic, but with the lessons she learns from Girls Scouts, Sylvia gains the confidence to take control of her life. However, Sylvia has to battle cultural and gender expectations. Sylvia felt “pulled between different worlds: home and school, Spanish and English, traditional and modern.” This doesn’t stop her from planning, learning, and striving to better herself. Sylvia becomes the first Latinx to graduate with a master’s degree in engineering from Stanford University and one of the few female rocket scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Now, Sylvia is the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

This true story is told by Sylvia herself. Even though she has to struggle to overcome many obstacles, she continues to work hard in order to reach her goals. Sylvia refuses to be defined by gender roles. For example, when she began high school, the school enrolled her in home economics. However, she refused to go to the class because she didn’t want to be a homemaker. The principal allowed her to take an additional math class instead. This helped prepare her for her future career at NASA.

The autobiography Path to the Stars will encourage readers to plan and strive for a better tomorrow. Through Sylvia’s story, readers will come to understand the importance of hard work. Even though Sylvia’s journey was difficult, she continued working to meet her goals. Even though Sylvia gained much of her knowledge through books, she also found other ways to learn. For instance, when her parents’ car kept breaking down because they did not maintain it properly, Sylvia took a class that taught women how to maintain a car. After that, she changed the oil in the car herself, even though she wasn’t yet old enough to drive.

While Path to the Stars is motivational, some readers will struggle with the difficult vocabulary and the slow pacing in some parts of the story. However, the story teaches many life lessons that make Path to the Stars worth reading.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Sylvia’s parents argued, and “a couple of times at night, when they were arguing. I had heard Papá hit Mami. . . In those days, domestic violence was considered a private family business, and outsiders seldom intervened.”
  • One day, Sylvia’s mother told her “that she and Papá had a terrible fight and he had hit her the way he had in the past.” Sylvia’s mother planned to move to California and stay with a relative. Later that day, Sylvia’s mother changed her mind, but said, “If he ever hits me again, I’m leaving.”
  • Papá was angry and annoyed by Sylvia’s four-year-old brother. “We all knew when Papá was about to lose his temper, and sure enough, he lifted his hand, about to strike. Armando cowered, tears starting down his face even before the spanking, and I rushed forward to stand between my father and my little brother. . . Mario joined me. . .. Papá backed down.”
  • Sylvia refuses to reply to her father with, “Yes, sir!” So her father “smacked” her face. “Papá ran after me, and when he caught up, I hit him without thinking, just trying to protect myself.” Sylvia runs to her bedroom. Then, he “stormed into the room his eyes filled with rage, a look on his face I will never forget. He pulled off his belt and struck me once, twice. I curled up on the bed, and he kept hitting me, over and over, as Laura sobbed and begged him to stop.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Sylvia’s mother did not allow alcohol in the house. “This was partly because my family was Baptist and partly because my mother forbade my father to bring alcohol into the house. In the past, he’d sometimes had a problem controlling his drinking. Now he and Uncle Sam might enjoy an occasional beer, but that was all Mami would allow.”
  • In order to save for college, Sylvia and her friend collect recycling. When they had time, they would go to parks because they were “littered with soda and beer cans.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Sylvia and her family attend church.
  • Hermana Diaz taught Sylvia and her brother English. “To build our vocabulary in English, she taught the song ‘Jesus Loves Me.’”
  • After Sylvia’s sister gets meningitis, her father stopped going to church. “Before Laura got sick, Papá had been a lay minister and leader of our church choir. After Laura’s illness, he felt betrayed that so many members of the congregation, instead of rallying around our family, stayed away from our home for fear of catching meningitis. . . Even then, when I was older, I never knew if it was because he’d been bothered by the behavior of other members of our church, or if his faith itself was shaken by Laura’s illness.”
  • Even after Laura recovered, Sylvia’s mother was sad. “She blamed herself for Laura’s illness and in some ways felt it was a form of God’s punishment, even though she knew that others had gotten sick too. . .”
  • For many years after Sylvia’s sister was sick, Sylvia “prayed that in the morning Laura would wake up to her old self and our family would be happy again.”
  • Many of the school children were Catholic. Sylvia “knew that my family’s Baptist religion made us different from most of our neighbors. I liked church, but I wondered why we needed separate churches with different rules. “
  • When Sylvia was in Brownies, she recited a pledge. “I promise to do my best to love God and my country. . .”

The Kings of Clonmel

In the neighboring kingdom of Clonmel, a mysterious cult, the Outsiders, has sprung up, promising the defense against lawless marauders in exchange for the people’s riches. Their sermons attract audiences from miles around, but there’s a dark side to the seemingly charitable group. This prompts Halt, Will, and Horace to investigate…but what the trio uncovers could threaten the safety of not only Clonmel, but their homeland of Araluen as well.

Halt, Will, and Horace band together to fight evil in the action-packed adventure The Kings of Clonmel. Unlike the other books in the series, The Kings of Clonmel takes a hard look at a religious cult that brutally murders innocent people in order to convince them to follow their leader, Tennyson. While much of the story revolves around Tennyson and his followers, the reader will also get a surprising look into Halt’s life before he became a ranger, which gives depth to his personality.

As The Ranger’s Apprentice series progresses, the relationship between Halt, Will, and Horace matures. No longer uncertain apprentices, Will and Horace have grown into men who are fiercely loyal and willing to go into dangerous situations in order to help the common man. Although Will and Horace respect Halt, they are now comfortable teasing him. This new element adds humor to the story, and it shows the great lengths the two men will go to support Halt. While Horace is straightforward and honest, Halt and Will are willing to use deceit in order to defeat the enemy. The contrast between the men allows the reader to see that friends can disagree without destroying their relationship.

The eighth installment of The Ranger’s Apprentice series will not disappoint readers. While the conclusion of The Kings of Clonmel still contains an epic battle, the story never feels like a repeat of previous books. Instead, the adventure still contains surprises. Halt, Will, and Horace have a deep friendship, and each man uses his unique talent in order to help others. The men clearly love their country and their king, and they are willing to sacrifice for the greater good. While the story contains some disturbing scenes where women and children are mercilessly killed, their deaths highlight the importance of following reason instead of mob mentality. Even though today’s men do not need to go into combat, The Ranger’s Apprentice series teaches important lessons that can be applied to today’s world.

Sexual Content

  • After being gone, Will returns to the castle. When he sees Alyss, “She leaned forward, kissed him lightly on the lips and slipped away.”
  • Horace mentions an event from an earlier book. Horace had asked about some skimpily clad girls. Instead of saying they were prostitutes, Halt told him “that they had short dresses because they might have to run with urgent messages.”

Violence

  • A group of men, the Outsiders, attack a family farm. When the men attack, a man “reached for the ax he had just leaned against a water trough. Before he could raise it, an arrow flashed across the clearing and buried itself in his throat. He gave a choking cry and staggered, falling half into the trough. The water began to turn red with blood.” When the men are dead, the killers “shouldered the door of the farmhouse open…” Once inside, a woman threw a pot of boiling water on a man. “He screamed in agony and lurched to one side, dropping the bloody sword and throwing his hands to his face.”
  • A surviving man “had a long pitchfork in his hands and he raised it as he ran forward. He never saw the bandit leader. He only felt the searing agony of the sword thrust into his side… He fell facedown.”
  • During the attack, a woman asks for mercy. “The raiders, oblivious to the splashed blood and sprawled bodies around them, helped themselves hungrily to the platters of hot, sizzling bacon…” Everyone is killed except for two children who were able to run away. The family’s death is described over three pages.
  • Halt stops raiders from setting a fire to villagers’ boats. “The first moment the raider knew he wasn’t alone was when an iron bar of an arm clamped across his throat while a powerful hand forced his head forward to complete the choke hold.” The man passes out. Then, Halt approaches another man and “slapped the burning pile of tinder out of his hand, scattering it onto the sand. Then he followed through with his other hand, his left, in a hooking palm strike that had all the power of his twisting body and shoulder behind it. The heel of his hand slammed into the man’s chin, snapping his head back and sending him crashing into the hull of the boat with a cry of pain.”
  • A man confronts Halt. Halt “flat-kicked sideways at the inside of the man’s left knee. The leg buckled and the man collapsed with a cry of pain, holding his injured knee and yelling.” The scene is described over four and a half pages.
  • The Outsiders try to capture Halt and send dogs after him. “Faced with a head-on target, the Ranger waited until the dog had lifted its head to send the snarling challenge… Then Halt shot for the throat, the impact of the heavy arrow, with the eighty pounds of draw weight from his bow behind it, sending the dog staggering backwards and sideways. The second arrow… dropping it stone dead.”
  • Another dog is sent after Halt. “As he watched, another massive gray-and-black shape detached itself from the group and came arrowing up the slope after them… This as a pitiless killing machine, perverted by its cruel training so that it sought only to kill and kill again.” Halt’s shot kills the dog instantly.
  • When a man tries to approach Will, “he’d barely begun to draw when a black-shafted arrow hissed downhill and sent him tumbling back into the trees. His companions looked at his lifeless body…” The men send another dog, and Halt kills it “and sent it rolling back down the slope, eyes glazed, tongue lolling.” The dog attack is described over four pages.
  • One of the bandits tries to track Halt, but Halt sees him and “Halt swung an overhand blow and brought the striker knob down hard onto the man’s skull, just behind the left ear.” The man “collapsed, limp as a rag, onto the ground.”
  • Halt takes a man, named Colly, prisoner. The man “tried to throw a punch at Halt. Halt ducked under the wild blow. Stepping in and pivoting his upper body, he hit Colley with a palm strike to the jaw, sending him sprawling again.”
  • When he was a teen, Halt’s brother tried to kill him numerous times. At one point, Halt says his brother “tried to poison me.”
  • Will looks at the evidence left behind in a village. “He could see the scene in his mind’s eye. A boy or a girl, terrified by the galloping, screaming men, had tried to run for the shelter of the trees. One of the raiders had swung out of line to pursue the little running figure. Then he’d cut his victim down from behind.”
  • Horace, Will, and Halt warn a village about the Outsiders preparing to attack. When the Outsiders attack, both Halt and Will begin shooting down men. “And within a few seconds, six men in the center of the advancing line went down. Two of them made no sound. The others cried out in pain, dropping their weapons.”
  • When the Outsiders’ defense begins to break up, “they fell back, leaving a number of their companions sprawled lifeless on the ground and on the barricade itself… they had paid the penalty for assaulting a well-defended position on their own.”
  • Horace goes after the enemy. “They began to back away, but they were too late. Kicker smashed into two of them, hurling one to the side and trampling the other… A sixth outlaw was already sinking to his knees, staring with disbelief at the black arrow buried in his chest. His head dropped forward. The lone survivor looked at his companions, scattered and broken, some of them lying still, others trying desperately to crawl away…” The battle takes place over seven and a half pages.
  • When a messenger mentions the Sunshine Warrior to Tennyson, Tennyson “let his rage loose and he beat back and forth at the wretched man with his closed fist. Blood flowered from the crouching man’s nose and he huddled lower, trying to protect himself from the savage fist.” Tennyson has a servant give the man ale and a meal. Then Tennyson has the messengers assassinated.
  • When trying to leave Tennyson’s camp, a sentry tries to stop Will. In order to escape, Will “shot his booted right foot forward, straightening his knee and slamming the sole of the boot hard into the man’s face. The man stumbled and went down…”
  • When Halt’s brother, King Ferris, won’t listen to Halt, Halt has Horace knock him unconscious. “The king was stretched unconscious on the floor an overturned chair beside him.”
  • Tennyson sends an assassin after Will. When Will sees him, “Will brought his right elbow up to face height and pivoted on his right heel, slamming the point of his elbow into the man’s face, breaking his nose and sending him reeling back against the people around them.”
  • Horace faces one of Tennyson’s assassins, Killeen, in a combat to the death. Killeen uses a mace while Horace uses a sword. The man hits Horace’s shield. “To Horace it felt as if a house had fallen on his shield.” When Killeen exposes his neck, Horace “stepped in and swung a lightning side stroke at the exposed two centimeters of neck. There was a roar of surprise from both sides of the arena as Killeen’s helmet went spinning away to land on the turf with a dull thud… the spectators realized that his head had gone with it.” The combat is described over four pages.
  • When Will finds an assassin in Horace’s tent, Will attacks. “…Something hard crashed into his head, behind the ear, and everything went black.”
  • Even though Horace has been poisoned and cannot focus, he still attempts to fight Gerard. Before Horace can be injured, Will intervenes. “Gerard’s snarl of triumph turned abruptly into a screech of agony as the arrow transfixed the muscle of his upper right arm…the sword falling harmlessly from his nerveless hand…” The scene is described over four pages.
  • Will and one of Tennyson’s assassins agree to a combat. Each man has to shoot arrows until one of them is dead. Will shoots his arrow, and then “the purple figure jerked suddenly, stumbled a few paces and then fell faceup on the grass.”
  • At the end of the combat, the King is found dead. “Peering behind the throne, he saw the flights of the crossbow bolt protruding from the thick wood. The missile had gone through the back of the chair and into Ferris’s back, killing him instantly, pinning him to the chair.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Someone poisons Horace, making him unable to focus. After a few days, the effects of the poison wear off.
  • Will finds a village that had been burnt down. The inn still had cheap brandy sitting on a shelf.
  • In order to infiltrate the Outsiders’ camp, Will knocks out one of the sentries and pours brandy on him. “If a sentry was found reeking of brandy and sleeping peacefully under a tree, no amount of protesting on his part would convince his superiors that he had been attacked.” While Will is sneaking into the camp, he sees a group of men who “were drunk and talking loudly, staggering slightly on the uneven ground.”
  • As Will is spying on the enemy, he heard “the clink of glasses from inside and the sound of pouring… There were one or two appreciative sighs—the sound a man makes when he has taken a deep draft of wine.”
  • While trying to recruit members, the Outsiders set up “several casks of ale and wine under a large, open-sided tent and were serving generous mugs of both to all comers.”
  • Several times during the story, people are served wine or ale. For example, when setting up for a combat, wine and ale are set up for the townspeople to purchase.
  • When the Rangers finish their Gathering, someone says, “So now let’s have a glass of wine and call it a night.”
  • Halt, Horace, and Will go to a farmstead and say, “we’ll pay well for a hot meal and a tankard of ale.”

Language

  • Halt calls his brother “a lying sack of manure.”
  • Damn is used three times. For example, Halt says, “Horace, when you get older, try to avoid being saddled with an apprentice. Not only are they a damned nuisance…”
  • Hell is used twice. Halt says that his brother’s castle is “drafty as hell in winter, too.”
  • “Oh for God’s sake” is used as an exclamation several times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A group of raiders, named the Outsiders, are posing as a religious group in order to fleece the town of its money. The people had a “simple message of friendship… they asked for nothing but a place to worship their benevolent and all-loving deity, the Golden God Alseiass. They made no attempt to convert the locals to their religion. Alseiass was a tolerant god…”
  • When trouble began in the village, “then the Outsiders would come forward with a solution. The outlaws surrounding the village were followers of the evil Balsennis—a dark god who hated Alseiass and all he stood for.” The villagers were told that “to expel Balsennis, special prayers and invocations would be required.” However, they had to build a shrine made of gold.
  • When Will realizes that the Outsiders are killing innocent children, he thinks, “You’d better pray that your god will protect you.”
  • Tennyson preaches about Alseiass, saying, “I’m a servant of the Golden God Alseiass. And he says all men are my friends—and I should be a friend to all men… There are evil, lawless men abroad in the world. They are the servants of the black spirit Balsennis. I see his hand everywhere I go, bringing sorrow and despair and death to the people of this wonderful country…”
  • Tennyson says that Alseiass doesn’t mind if a person worships other gods because “that isn’t Alseiass’s way. He doesn’t’ care to force himself upon you. If you have other gods you prefer, or no gods at all, he doesn’t condemn you.” Tennyson preaches for eight pages, trying to get support to overthrow the king.
  • When Halt goes into a town pretending to be looking to buy sheep, he says, “Thank God, I’ve seen little in the way of good animals arrive so far.”
  • When Tennyson’s inner circle go in to raid a town, one of the men says, “My men and I serve Balsennis, the mighty god of destruction and chaos.”
  • Halt meets a woman who doesn’t believe in Alseiass. She says, “Some of us here worship the old gods. We know the gods send us good times and bad to try us. I don’t trust a god that promises only good times… A god that brings you good and bad in equal amounts doesn’t ask for much. Maybe a prayer or two… A god that promises only good times? A god like that will always want something of you.”

Spaceman (Adapted for Young Readers): The True Story of a Young Boy’s Journey to Becoming an Astronaut

From the time he was seven years old and saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, Mike Massiamo dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But Long Island is a long way from space. Kids like him, growing up in working-class families, seldom left the neighborhood. But with the encouragement of teachers and mentors, Mike ventured down a path that took him to Columbia University and MIT.

It wasn’t easy. There were academic setbacks and disappointments aplenty—and NASA turned him down three times. Still, Mike never gave up. He rose to each challenge and forged ahead, inching closer to realizing his boyhood dream. His love of science and space, along with his indomitable spirit and sense of teamwork eventually got him assigned to two missions to fix the Hubble Space Telescope as a spacewalker.

Growing up, Mike didn’t know anyone who could tell him how to become an astronaut. “There was no science club at school where we could build and launch rockets. None of my friends were into space; it was something I did on my own. I had my spaceman costume, my Astronaut Snoopy and my library books, and that was it.” However, Mike learned that “being the smartest isn’t always the most important trait in school or in life; working hard, having a positive attitude, and getting help when you need it can be more important.” Mike chronicles his life’s failures, his successes, and the people who help him along the way.

Mike tells his story as if he were sitting down to coffee with a friend. His conversational tone and plenty of life lessons make his story even more interesting. He doesn’t leave out the difficult decisions he had to make, or the mistakes he made along the way. Mike says, “I don’t know if there are any lessons to take from this except to realize that the things you think are mistakes may turn out not to be mistakes. . . if you make the most of what you’ve got, you can find a way to keep moving forward.” In the end, what makes Mike stand out is his determination to find a way to overcome life’s obstacles.

Throughout Mike’s journey, he shows how people at MIT and NASA work together as a team. People helped Mike not to get something out of it, but “because that’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s how a team works. You help the people around you, and everybody’s better off for it.” Despite receiving help from others, Mike didn’t always know what to do, and he wasn’t always confident in his abilities.

Many of the lessons in Spaceman are told in such a matter-of-fact way, that it sounds like advice from a big brother. Mike reminds readers that, “If you get caught up worrying about things you can’t control, you’ll drive yourself crazy and waste valuable time. It’s better to focus on the things right in front of you that you can control.” Throughout his time at NASA, Mike’s experiences changed his perspective. To Mike, one important aspect of space travel is that “every person who goes to space, every person who gets to peek around the next corner, is someone with the potential to help change our perspective, change our relationship with the planet, change our understanding of our place in the universe.”

While Spaceman is full of encouraging advice, life lessons, and interesting anecdotes, younger readers may have a difficult time understanding the significance of Mike’s experiences. The ending’s pace is slow and uneventful because it explains how the termination of the space program affected Mike. However, anyone who loves space should read Spaceman. In addition, high school readers would greatly benefit from reading Spaceman because Mike shows how hard work and determination can help a person fulfill their dreams.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Mike went to work for NASA, he loaded up his car and “prayed I didn’t break down in the backwoods of Appalachia along the way.”
  • When Mike interviewed for a job as an astronaut, he worried that he couldn’t pass the eye exam. He “was praying for something so far out of my control that I could throw up my hands and say, ‘Well, that’s life. Nothing I can do.’”
  • When Mike reapplied to be an astronaut, he “prayed I’d be ready in time.”

The New Year’s Party

It’s five minutes to 1965. Beth should be at the party having fun with her boyfriend. Instead, she’s looking for her best friend, Karen. Suddenly, a group of men barge into the house with guns—they’re attempting a robbery. One man grabs Jeremy, Beth’s shy brother, puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. However, nothing happens because the gun is fake. The robbery was just a prank pulled by Karen and some seniors. Upset, Jeremy runs off. Beth follows him into his car. They’re driving recklessly in the snow when suddenly they hit a boy. They swerve, then crash.

The story jumps in time to the present day. Reenie, Greta, Archie, and Sean are all friends who enjoy playing pranks on each other. For example, Archie hides in Reenie’s closet pretending to be a corpse. Reenie starts to get the idea that their pranks are going too far, though, when she falls off a cliff and nearly drowns in a frozen lake. She has an uneasy feeling when Archie suggests she throw a house party but ultimately agrees.

Archie and his friend Marc come up with the perfect prank to pull at Reenie’s party. They will get Sandi, the most popular girl in school, to ask P.J., the new quiet kid, to the party. At the party, Sandi will kiss P.J., then pretend to die. This prank goes too far when P.J. actually dies from shock. Reenie and her friends are horrified, but the horror turns to confusion when P.J.’s body disappears. In the next couple of weeks, Marc and Sandi are both murdered. Someone is taking revenge on Reenie and her friends, but they can’t figure out who.

 In addition to the supernatural elements, The New Year’s Party has relatable characters, who are not perfect. Like many typical teens, the characters try to justify their wrongdoings. In addition, the story includes fighting couples, friends who party together, and friends that have trouble with trigonometry. The story jumps back and forth in time, but the time differences are separated by chapters.

In the climax of the story, Liz, P.J.’s sister, invites Reenie and her friends to a New Year’s party. At the party, Liz reveals who killed Marc and Sandi, and chaos ensues. This exciting conclusion that connects the past to the present will shock readers.

The New Year’s Party is a gripping story that will keep readers turning the pages. Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger. The vocabulary is simple, and the plot moves quickly. Reenie’s friends play multiple pranks that always seem real, keeping the readers on the edge of their seats. In true R.L. Stine fashion, the book ends with a twist. The New Year’s Party is a good book for readers of all types who are looking for a quick, enjoyable read.

Sexual Content

  • Beth is at a party scanning the room for her friend when she sees a couple who “were making out in the corner.”
  • When the clock strikes midnight, Beth’s boyfriend, Todd, “pulled Beth to him and kissed her.”
  • Todd asks Beth if she wants to move to the stairs, where “four couples sat on the carpeted steps, making out.” Beth “didn’t want to make out in front of the entire party.”
  • At Reenie’s house, Artie sat next to Gret, then “leaned forward and gave her a long kiss.”
  • Sandi, a pretty, popular girl, slow dances with P.J. When the song ends, she “pulled P.J.’s face to hers. Kissed him. A long, slow kiss.” Reenie observes Sandi “kissing the helpless P.J. so intensely. . . her mouth moving over his, her arms wrapped tightly around his slender shoulders.”
  • Before he leaves the party, Sean “pulled [Reenie] close and kissed her. Reenie wished the kiss would never end. She didn’t want to think about anything but the way Sean’s lips felt against hers.”
  • Reenie is hiding under the bleachers in the gym so she can listen to Liz and Ty’s conversation. Reenie watches as “Liz gently pulled Ty’s head to hers and kissed him. A long, serious kiss.”

Violence

  • A group of men with pistols crash a house party. One of the men grabbed Jeremy and “pressed the gun barrel against Jeremy’s head. Then he pulled the trigger.” The gun didn’t fire because it was plastic. The whole thing was a prank played by a group of high school seniors.
  • Jeremy is driving recklessly on icy roads with Beth in the car. They saw a “dim figure” in the road before “something bounced on the hood with a heavy thud. A face appeared through the foggy windshield. A boys’ face, his mouth open in a scream of surprise. The boy dropped to the ground. The car rolled over him with a hard bump.” Because they are scared of facing the fact they just killed a boy, they do not stop to help him and keep driving.
  • Jeremy lost control of the car on the icy roads. “The car smashed hard into the snowbank. . . [Beth’s] scream ended in a grunt as she was thrown forward and her head cracked against the dashboard . . . Beth felt warm blood trickle down her forehead.” Beth watches the car break “through the snowbank” and feels “shock after shock of pain.” Beth is able to crawl out of the car, but she later realizes she is just a spirit, and her body is still in the car, dead.
  • As Reenie puts her sweater in her closet, she sees “bulging, blank eyes.” At first she believes it to be a “corpse” with “gooey blood, dark and caked, oozed over his head.” The corpse is actually Sean, and he was pulling a prank on Reenie.
  • Reenie falls off the edge of a drop-off that overlooks a lake. “She was falling, sliding and tumbling, down the snowy hillside. It knocked the breath out of her. She struggled to gasp in air.” She falls onto the frozen lake, and her “hip smashed against the hard surface. She let out a small moan of pain.” As she is walking to the bank, “the ice beneath her gave way with a groan. She slid into the freezing, black water.” Struggling to get out, “she thrashed her arms, trying to pull herself back up to the surface. . . her head hit the underside of the ice. ‘I can’t breathe,’ she realized. She pounded on the ice with her fists. Clawed at it.” Reenie passes out, but Sean rescues her.
  • As Artie speeds into an intersection with Reenie in the car, another car hits them. Reenie heard “metal slam against metal. Shattering glass. The car spun, slamming her into the door. . . She felt the seat belt biting into her stomach, as she was thrown forward. Then she lurched back against the seat.”
  • After Sandi kisses P.J., she shoves him away and “uttered a long, frightening moan. . . She sank to her knees, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open. . . Sandi crumpled into a heap on the floor.”
  • Artie and Marc are working in the garage when Reenie and Greta come over. Artie leaves Marc alone in the garage. Marc’s friends hear “a high, ragged scream of terror” come from the garage. When they rush to the garage, they see “a body lay sprawled over the shiny red hood. Marc’s body. Blood dripped from his mouth and nose and his head . . . was twisted around on his neck . . . completely backward.” Marc was murdered.
  • Reenie leaves Sandi alone at the Burger Shack. When Reenie comes back, she finds Sandi dead in a trashcan. “Sandi’s eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. But she lay on her chest . . . Her head had been twisted around backward. And her face held the same terrified expression. Her blue eyes wide with horror.”
  • Liz is holding Sean, Greta, Archie, and Reenie captive. Sean holds a knife as he demands that Liz open the door to let them go. Liz “threw herself at Sean,” who “toppled to the floor with Liz on top of him. . . His body twisted and thrashed as he tried to throw Liz off.” Liz “tried to choke” Sean but Reenie “grabbed Liz by the shoulders and struggled to pull her off Sean.” Liz “tore at Sean’s wrist with her teeth,” causing him to drop the knife.
  • Once she regains the knife, Liz “grabbed Sean and pressed the blade against his throat . . . Reenie saw a drop of red blood roll down Sean’s neck.”
  • While Reenie distracts Liz, Sean “grabbed Liz around the waist. He pinned her against him with one arm—and grabbed the knife away with his other hand.” Liz “stumbled into [Sean]. And the knife plunged deep into her chest.” Everyone is frightened, especially when, “No blood poured from the wound.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Reenie has a house party and runs into Marc. “He stood so close she could smell the beer on his breath.”
  • At the party, Reenie notices Artie’s eyes look watery, and thinks, “Great. They’ve both been drinking.”

Language

  • Artie threatens P.J. after P.J. dropped a weight on him. Artie says, “I’m going to get that little creep, P.J.” Artie goes on to call P.J., “You little jerk!”
  • After he describes their “dumb practical jokes” to a police officer, Sean admits he sounded like a “total jerk.”

Supernatural

  • After they crash the car, Beth and Jeremy realize they are dead. They can see their bodies in the car. Jeremy tries to get back inside his body, but he can’t. He cries, “My arms passed right through my body!” Beth realizes Jeremy is starting to fade. Beth feels herself fading too. “Only the darkness remained. Everywhere. Closing on her. Claiming her.”
  • It is revealed that Liz and P.J. are the same people as Beth and Jeremy; they just changed names. Their spirits somehow reappeared solidly enough for them to act like real people. They died in a car crash thirty years ago, and they were trapped for years in a “cold, gray place.” Liz explains, “As the years passed, we grew stronger. And then suddenly we were back. Back in our old bodies. People could see us and hear us again.”
  • Ty confesses he was the boy Beth and Jeremy ran over, and he was also brought back to life to get revenge.
  • As the clock strikes midnight, Beth, Jeremy, and Ty fight with each other. “Liz and Ty and P.J. whirled around, tugging each other as if in a mad dance. Faster and faster. Waves of icy air swept off their bodies. . . A ghostly whirlwind.”
  • Beth, Jeremy, and Ty disappear once the clock strikes midnight. “A high, shrill whistle pieced Reenie’s ears. Louder. Shriller. Until Reenie covered both ears to shut it out. And the three ghosts began to fade. . . They faded to shadows. Then the shadows faded to smoke. A spinning column of smoke . . . The smoke faded. And floated away.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Jill Johnson

Lu

Lu’s birth was a miracle, and he’s used to being the only child and track star in the house. That is until Lu’s parents break the news that he’s going to be a big brother. In the final installment of the Defenders Track Team, Lu grapples with his father’s drug-dealing past, his mother’s unusual fruit masterpieces, and his own fears. All the while he’s trying to pick a name for his new sibling and help his team win the end-of-season track championship. Lu struggles while running hurdles; it’s the one race where he can’t seem to get past the first twelve steps.

Lu builds on the growth of the characters in the previous three books. However, Lu spends more time tackling personal integrity, drug abuse, and forgiveness. Lu’s teammates, family, and coach help him learn how to be a compassionate person who rights his wrongs, and he becomes a big brother that his little sibling can look up to. By now, the Defenders track team is a full-fledged family, and the end of the novel wraps up their journey together.

Reynolds knows how to write young teenagers’ voices. Lu’s voice strikes the balance between self-confident and insecure. He’s a great runner, and he’ll be sure to tell everyone about it, but the thought of running hurdles makes him afraid. Lu worries, would he be a good big brother? Can he face his childhood bully and show him kindness? Lu is a good kid, but his ability to overcome his fears and not let them consume him makes his character compelling. Lu even inspires others around him to be better by demonstrating integrity and eventually apologizing for his actions.

Lu is a good end to the series. Unlike the first book, not a lot of big events occur. Despite this, the story never seems to drag, and the smaller plot points carry more weight as they develop the characters. Reynolds’s straightforward style and vernacular usage are fun, and they help make the story believable and interesting.

Readers will enjoy the end of the Defenders Track Team series because it neatly ties up all the characters’ conflicts and ends on a compassionate note. If the reader has read the previous three books in the series, they should definitely read Lu because these books take themes like family, friendship, and track and give them life. Most importantly, these books ask the reader to always be the best version of themselves.

Sexual Content

  • Patty teases Lu about a girl named Cotton, but Lu says “Patty was only teasing me about Cotton because she thinks I like her and we should go together. But I don’t. I do. But not like that. Not all the way. But she cool. But go together. Grease face? Nah.”
  • Lu’s parents occasionally hug or kiss in greeting. When Goose, Lu’s father, returns from work, Lu’s mom “leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.”

Violence

  • Lu and his family playfully slap each other on the arm. For instance, when Lu hears about being a big brother, Dad “popped me on the arm with the back of his hand” out of excitement about the big secret.
  • Ghost playfully “slapped [Lu] on the arm” while getting a ride home after practice.
  • Lu fantasizes about throwing an orange at Kelvin, his childhood bully. In his daydreams, he “cocked [the orange] back like a pitcher, and fast-balled it at his ugly face.”
  • There are references to previous books when Ghost’s dad tried to kill Ghost and his mom. According to Ghost, Mr. Charles “saved our lives. He hid my mom and me in his storage room.” No other details are given.
  • Lu and his teammate Aaron get into a fight when Aaron trips Lu while running. Lu says Aaron “charged me and shoved me with his whole body, and I flew to the ground.”
  • It is implied that Ghost gives Lu a wedgie. The team was chatting with Lu when “one of them thinking it would be funny to give me a wedgie.” The wedgie is played off as friends goofing around.
  • It is implied that Kelvin was abused at home, probably by a parent since it is also mentioned that he went to live with his grandparents. While at the basketball court, Lu sees that Kelvin has “no blue-and-purple spots on his arm. No marks.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A former runner referred to as “the Wolf” now has a drug addiction and begs for money. After giving him a dollar, Coach Brody says to Lu, “To me, that’s embarrassment. Not the dope—that’s illness. But to let something get in the way of your full potential…” There are many references to Wolf’s addiction throughout the book.
  • Lu’s dad, Goose, explains how he started selling drugs at 15. His dad says, “I’ve told you that before, and you know I’m not proud of it.” This is the extent of the conversation. Later it is revealed that Goose sold the Wolf “his first hit.”
  • Coach Whit convinces her brother and former track star, the Wolf, to check into a rehab center. Goose brings Lu along because Goose works with people struggling with addiction, and he wants to give Lu a chance to see what he does.
  • While sitting in the rehab center, Lu talks about the pamphlets he reads. Lu says, “I sat in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, reading these papers about detox, and how sometimes before they can even start real treatment they have to let the drug pass through people’s bodies, and how terrible it feels to, like get all the stuff out of you.”
  • At the dinner table, Goose drinks a beer. Lu says, “Juice for Mom. Beer for Dad. Milk for me.”

Language

  • The book is written in the main character’s vernacular, so the grammar is often purposefully incorrect, like when Lu says, “lightning so special it don’t never happen the same way or at the same place twice.”
  • A couple of times, Lu is flippant towards his parents. Early on, when he describes listening to his mother, he says, “I swear, sometimes she just be talking to be talking.”
  • Lu says that Shante Morris “looks like a horsefly” because “her eyes kinda made her look like she was always surprised how nasty those cupcakes were every year. Ha! Sorry.”
  • Words like shut up, dang, fool, stupid, and hater are all used frequently throughout the book.
  • Lu has albinism, so characters will make comments about it. For example, he notes that in his yearbook people write “Have a nice summer, you fine-o albino.”
  • When his dad is late, Lu considers calling him a “booboo-faced clown.”
  • Lu’s family has plenty of playful banter, like when Lu returns from practice and his parents tease him by saying, “You smell like bananas” and “stinky son.”
  • Lu has a laundry list of nicknames for a kid named Kelvin (“Smellvin”), who made fun of him for his albinism.
  • Two pages are dedicated to the things that Kelvin has said to Lu. Some of the more creative insults on the list include: “You look like a cotton ball dipped in white paint,” “Like milk. Like somebody supposed to pour you over cereal,” and “Like grits with no butter.” Of Kelvin’s appearance, Lu says, “It don’t even look like he was born, but instead was built, but together in some kind of blockhead bully factory.”
  • Coach Brody and Goose knew each other as kids, and Coach Brody would make fun of Goose for his stutter. Coach told Goose, “You sound like a choking Chihuahua.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Lu refers to his birth as “a miracle,” and at one point he says that his mom having another child was “magic.”

by Allison Kestler

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 21
  6. 22
  7. 23
  8. 24
  9. 25
  10. 26
  11. 27
  12. ...
  13. 44

Latest Reviews