Topic: Overcoming Obsticles

With the Fire on High

Emoni, a Philadelphia teenager, has aspirations of being a chef. Through her cooking, she is able to explore her identity as an African-American, as well as her Puerto Rican ancestry. Emoni’s family also forms a central role in her life. Her dad is a Puerto Rican activist and community organizer, but he is often absent. Emoni lives with her Puerto Rican abuela and her two-year-old daughter, who she conceived during her first year of high school. Now a senior, Emoni is learning to juggle her family, her academics, her personal life, her job, and her love of cooking.

At the beginning of the school year, Emoni learns that her school is introducing a culinary arts class. She is unsure if she will be able to balance it with her other commitments, and has a hard time warming up to the chef who teaches the class. Though they get off to a rough start, the chef soon becomes an important mentor for Emoni. She learns the importance of following directions in the kitchen, which is a place where she is used to doing whatever she wants.

Meanwhile, Emoni meets Malachi, a new student. She is hesitant to become friends, but they soon become close. Malachi becomes Emoni’s romantic interest. He is a sensitive boy who respects and cares for Emoni. Their relationship develops slowly through the course of the book. Malachi courts Emoni by showing that he is willing to accommodate her family situation: he is respectful towards her abuela and daughter.

With the Fire on High is heartfelt and expertly written. Readers will relate to Emoni’s struggle to decide whether she will go to college, and what shape her future will take. Readers will quickly find themselves rooting for Emoni and her family. They will cheer at her victories and feel distressed at her losses. The first-person narration paints a vivid picture of Emoni’s culture, her family, her personality, and how food plays an emotional role in her life.

With the Fire on High has mature themes and sexual content, but it is handled maturely. Sex is not glorified or demonized. When Emoni and Malachi become intimate, they do so because both of them feel emotionally ready. Emoni also struggles with the decision to date because of her many responsibilities. Emoni only brings Malachi around her child when she is certain that he’ll be a good influence.

With the Fire on High uses a unique character voice and vivid descriptions of food to draw the readers into the setting. The description of every character is strong, but especially Emoni’s. Her stubborn personality, her love for her daughter, and her unique narration all help her to come alive on the page. Readers will be able to relate to some piece of Emoni, but she is, by and large, her own distinct personality. The lessons she learns throughout the story will resonate with any reader. This is a coming-of-age story, and Emoni’s maturity is marked by her ability to make choices that will let her support her family while still caring for herself.

Sexual Content

  • The main character, Emoni, is a teen mother. She describes her first sexual experience—with her child’s father—as something “a lot more technical” than she expected and indicates that the experience was disappointing and confusing because she wasn’t ready. “When he finally shoved into me, it stung. For a second, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to push him away or pull him closer, and then he was panting and sweating on my chest and apologizing. . . I cleaned my own self up, put on my pants, and left. He didn’t even say goodbye.”
  • The chef encourages the cooking class to “come eat Emoni’s chocolate pudding.” Many of the boys take this as an innuendo and tease Emoni about it, but the double entendre is never explained.
  • When Emoni and Malachi kiss for the first time, “His hand moves down to my butt and curves around it.”
  • Emoni and Malachi make out on a couch and make the decision to be intimate. Emoni’s “legs straddling his lap, arms wound around his back. Kissing him back. . . I never saw what the big deal was about it, outside of how nice it was to be touched. But this is different. . . He keeps kissing my neck. And then my hands are everywhere. I need to touch his skin, his shoulders, his back. I kiss his ear and he moans into my neck. ‘This feels too good.’ And this was new, too. This power of making a boy jump or moan.” The scene continues for about three pages, and while it’s implied that they become sexually intimate, the narration does not describe the rest of their encounter.
  • Emoni’s best friend Angelica, a lesbian, has an anniversary dinner with her girlfriend and is nervous about having sex for the first time. She has had sex with guys before, but “this is less about exploring, and more about expressing.” Emoni tells her, “You don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing.”

Violence

  • Malachi tells Emoni that his brother “was killed last February. Some beef in the neighborhood back home and he was shot. It’s unclear if it was a stray bullet or meant for him.”
  • In Spain, when a child steals Emoni’s purse, Malachi runs after the child and grabs him “by the back of his coat.” Emoni is concerned that Malachi will hurt the child, but he lets him go.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • During their trip to Spain, Emoni chooses to abstain, but some of her classmates get drunk. This ends in her classmate getting so drunk that she throws up. The next day, the student can’t remember what happened.
  • Emoni makes herself a meal and pours herself a glass of wine. She thinks, “I know [my grandmother will] raise an eyebrow when she sees I had some, but she won’t reprimand me; growing up, she was allowed to drink from the time she was fourteen and she finds the alcohol rules on the mainland excessive.”
  • Malachi jokingly asks a flight attendant for a glass of wine.
  • Emoni cooks with beer; the book includes a recipe for beer bread.

Language

  • Throughout the book, Emoni and her friend Angelica try to curb their language so they won’t be a bad influence on Emoni’s daughter. Slips like “shit—I mean, shoot” and “damn—I mean, darn” are frequent.
  • Emoni’s first-person narration has similar slips: “Tyrone is still being a dick—an ass—a prick. Who uses the word prick?” She later notes about him: “Damn, he smells good as fu—hell… heck.”
  • Damn, hell, and shit are used frequently.
  • Characters occasionally say “Jesus” and “oh my God.”
  • “Ass” is often used as a suffix in phrases such as “grown-ass woman” and “greasy-ass job.”
  • Angelica describes Malachi’s smile “as if you’re choosing to give a sunlit middle finger to this fucked-up world.”
  • Emoni’s classmate gets vulgar when she’s drunk and says “fuck” multiple times, including when she accuses Emoni of “fucking Malachi.”
  • Angelica says that she’s “nervous as fuck.”
  • Leslie’s classmate says the chef she’s working with “sounds like a crackhead.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Emoni’s grandmother is “a soft Catholic. She believes in the teachings of God, but she doesn’t push her religion on people. I went to church with her on Sundays, but she didn’t force me to do communion or confirmation. And she didn’t force me to keep the baby. She just held my hand and told me to think about what it would mean.”
  • Emoni’s grandmother goes to church several times in the book and has a circle of church friends.
  • While dealing with her dishonest boss, Emoni says, “You’re a nice man, Steve. . . I’m going to tell my grandmother to pray for you.” She then thinks, “I hope he can see in my face that I just sprinkled the juju of a spiteful Puerto Rican grandmother all over his life.”
  • Emoni jokingly describes water ice (a frozen treat) as “a direct gift from the gods.”
  • Emoni’s father says that Puerto Rico is “where I’ll die, whenever God decides that should be.”
  • Malachi jokes that “My cuts of jamón ibérico would make you believe in God.”

by Caroline Galdi

Beverly, Right Here

Fourteen-year-old Beverly has run away from home before. But this time, she plans on leaving for good. Beverly wants to make it on her own. She finds a job and a place to stay, but she can’t stop thinking about her drunk mother and her dog Buddy, who is buried under the orange trees back home. She also worries about her friend Raymie, who she left without saying a word.

Beverly doesn’t want to make friends. She doesn’t want to care about anyone. In a world where everyone has left her, Beverly decides to only care about herself. But soon, she realizes that there are good people around her. There are people that care about her and depend on her. As she begins to find a sense of community, she learns about herself as well.

It’s 1979 and Beverly hops in a car with her cousin, who drops her off in a random town. She has no money, no friends, and no idea where her steps will take her. Luckily, Beverly finds Iona, who takes in Beverly and treats her like a beloved niece. Iona is funny, truthful, and an overall wonderful person. However, the story never hints at the dangers of running away and trusting complete strangers.

Set in 1979, Beverly, Right Here does not show the dangers of the modern world. For example, in one scene, when an older man pinches Beverly’s butt, the waitress tells her not to complain. Another troubling aspect of the story is Beverly’s relationship with Elmer. Although Elmer’s age is never revealed, he is preparing to go to college. Even though Elmer is a sweet soul, and Beverly and him only dance and hold hands, the age difference is alarming.

Unlike its companion book, Louisiana’s Way Home, the characters and themes in Beverly, Right Here are not as developed, which leaves too many unanswered questions. Even though Beverly’s mother is a drunk, it is unclear why Beverly felt the need to run away. In addition, Beverly talks about the death of her dog; however, the reader doesn’t know how the dog died and why the dog’s death had such a negative impact on Beverly. Lastly, at the end of the book, Iona’s son shows up, questions her decision-making skills, threatens to take away Iona’s car, and tells Beverly she is “nobody” and must leave.

Beverly, Right Here is realistic fiction that highlights the importance of making connections. The short chapters and easy vocabulary help propel the action forward. Although there are several interesting characters, including Iona and Elmer, Beverly’s actions are at times confusing. The abrupt conclusion leaves the reader wondering what will happen to Iona and Beverly. Beverly, Right Here is a companion book to Raymie Nightingale and Louisiana’s Way Home. However, each book can be read as a stand-alone.

Sexual Content

  • While working at a restaurant, “a fat old man with a cigar in his mouth pinched [Beverly] on the butt.”

Violence

  • Beverly’s friend, Elmer, tells her about a school bully who “beats the crap out of you, for being a poetry-loving sissy.”
  • When Elmer was in high school, he was bullied. A boy duct-taped Elmer to a chair and locked him in a janitor’s closet. When the janitor found him and let him loose, “he cried. And I cried.”
  • A man comes into a restaurant and threatens the owner with a whiffle bat. As the man leaves, he yells, “If you call the cops, I’ll come back here to this stupid fish place and break everybody’s bones. I promise you I will.” After the owner gives the man money, one of the employees chases the thief down and tackles him.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Beverly mentions that her mother was “drunk all the time.”
  • When Beverly calls her mother, she thinks that her mother “didn’t sound too drunk.”
  • Beverly thinks about her mother “sitting on the back porch, drinking beer and cigarettes. . .”
  • Beverly tells a friend that her mother is “drunk most of the time.”

Language

  • Beverly’s cousin yells at her, “Dang it! You always did think that you were better than everybody else on God’s green earth.”
  • When a woman sees Beverly’s wet, sandy clothes, the woman says, “Lord, child. What have you been doing?”
  • When Beverly was younger, she would eat glue because “it was just a way to piss the teachers off.”
  • A woman calls Beverly “con artist trash.”
  • Crap is used six times. For example, Beverly wonders, “why was there so much crap in the world?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Home Court

Eleven-year-old Amar’e Stoudemire has a lot going on. He loves to go skateboarding in the park. He takes his school work very seriously. He helps out with his dad’s landscaping company. He also likes to play basketball with his best friends – but just for fun.

When a group of older kids starts disrespecting his boys on their neighborhood basketball court, there is only one solution. Amar’e must step in and use his athletic ability and intelligence to save the day. This experience leads Amar’e to realize that basketball is his true passion. This story is based on the life of All-Star NBA sensation Amar’e Stoudemire who overcame many obstacles to become one of the most popular figures in sports today.

Like many readers, Amar’e is interested in a wide range of activities—skateboarding, basketball, and hanging out with his friends. When his friends need him, Amar’e isn’t afraid to take on some trash-talking older kids. Anyone who has been mistreated will relate to Amar’e’s difficulties. Amar’e’s struggles are illustrated with simple black and white drawings which are scattered throughout the book. Amar’e tells his story using easy vocabulary and short paragraphs to create an easy-to-read, entertaining story.

Sports fans will enjoy the play-by-play basketball action. However, the story doesn’t just focus on sports. Amar’e also enjoys learning tricks on his skateboard, helping his father, and doing well in school. Amar’e worries about his history writing assignment on Dr. King. In the end, Amar’e is able to connect Dr. King’s message to his life. He writes, “One person could do a lot, but the more people you have behind you, the more you could accomplish.”

Amar’e’s diverse interests give additional intrigue to the story, but also make the story choppy. One positive aspect of the story is Amar’e’s strong connection with his family and friends. Because the story is written from Amar’e’s point of view, readers will understand why Amar’e believes it’s important to be a good student, a good friend, and a hard worker. Younger sports fans will enjoy Home Court because of the positive message that is delivered by a relatable character. Readers who are looking for similar books should try the Zayd Saleem Chasing the Dream Series by Hena Khan.

Sexual Content

  • While playing a basketball game, Amar’e and his friends huddle up. An older boy tells them to hurry up “unless y’all are making out in there.”

Violence

  • While playing basketball with some older kids, Carlos intentionally tripped Amar’e. “My eyes were on the ball, so I didn’t see Carlos stick out his leg. I sure felt it, though. His shin banged into mine just above my ankle and I tumbled hard onto the pavement.”
  • While playing basketball with some older kids, “Yeti clobbered Duece on a moving pick. It was the bigger player on the court taking out the smallest, and it was hard to miss the foul.”
  • While playing basketball, an older boy “jammed his elbow hard into his lower back. Mike grimaced in pain and lost his dribble.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Some older kids trash-talk Amar’e and his friends. Afterward, one of Amar’e’s friends calls the boys “jerks.” Later Amar’e thinks, “Yeti was hanging on the rim again like a jerk.”
  • When an older boy throws trash on the ground, Amar’e asks, “Shouldn’t you go back to the garbage dump you came from?”
  • An older boy calls Amar’e and his friends “losers.”
  • “What the—” is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Price of Duty

Jake Liddell is a war hero. During a fierce firefight, Jake risked his life to save his comrades. Now, the military is considering awarding him a Silver Star—a huge honor for any soldier. Jake, injured and confused, returns home. His military family is proud of his service and sacrifice, but Jake is beginning to question everything his family brought him up to believe.

The memory of war haunts him. As he recovers from his physical wounds, he wonders what direction his life will take. His famous grandfather wants Jake to return to the battlefield to fight again. Others want him to speak out against the military system. Jake was raised to believe that fighting for one’s country was a moral obligation, but that was before he saw the horrors of war and the death of his friends. Will Jake decide to return to the battlefield or will he fight to get out of the military?

Jake’s story makes it clear that war is nothing like the movies or like playing Call of Duty. Instead, war is brutal, bloody, and deadly. “There’s no heavy metal soundtrack when you’re in a firefight. The terror is real. The pain is real. Death is real.” Price of Duty does not glamorize war, but instead paints a bloody picture of the physical and emotional wounds that soldiers face. Jake’s story shows the gruesome decisions soldiers have to make in order to survive and the hardships that come afterward.

 Jake knows someone has to fight in order to protect America’s freedom, but he is conflicted because the cost of war is so high. His experiences have made him realize that “There is no glory in war. There is no honor in killing. No matter where they send you to fight, innocent people will die.” Even though the cost of war is high, Jake believes that “for all the things that are wrong with the military, we still need and depend on it to protect us.”

Price of Duty explores the tragedy of war as well as the idea of an all-volunteer Army. Even though no one is forced to join, many feel the military recruits children through the ROTC program. “We’ve just changed the method of conscription. We let economic forces compel minorities and have-nots to gamble their bodies and lives for a slim shot at a better financial future.”

Jake’s story is engaging from the very first page. As Jake struggles with his time in the war, the reader will feel the devastation of soldiers making life and death decisions. The events in the story are described in vivid detail and may shock some readers. Price of Duty will definitely stay with readers for a long time. Anyone who is thinking about joining the military should read Price of Duty. It accurately portrays a soldier’s sacrifice and shows the complexity of military service—the honor, the death, the sacrifice, and in the end, the reason why some choose to join.

Sexual Content

  • Jake’s ex-girlfriend, Erin Rose, began dating an older boy. The two “got serious really fast. By the time he enlisted after graduation, Erin Rose (then going into tenth grade) was pregnant.”
  • When Jake and his girlfriend park in a secluded place, he wonders if his girlfriend is thinking about another man. He wonders if she had parked in the same place with someone else.

Violence

  • Jake flashes back to his time in Iraq. An IED hit the Humvee Jake was in. When the soldiers exit the vehicle, the enemy shoots at them. Jake is injured by shrapnel. As he crawls out of the Humvee, he hears “intense machine gun and small arms fire bashing my eardrums. Supersonic lead bees whizzing past. . . The hot air stinks of gasoline and sulfur. A fusillade of bullets rip into the ground, spraying grains of dirt into my face and mixing with the blood in my eyes.” Jake can hear his friend screaming “somewhere to my right, where a lot of enemy fire is coming from.”
  • After a suicide bomber hit a Humvee and “blew the guys inside to smithereens,” Jake’s squad had to go “find the pieces. All of them. He wasn’t talking about the pieces of the Humvee.” Jake and his partner puked. As they were gathering the body parts, Jake found a detached hand.
  • During a firefight, Jake can’t reach his injured friend. Jake throws “a flashbang over the wall, then jumps up and hustle[s] thorough the closest opening. The pain from my wound slows me down, but I’m totally juiced on adrenaline. . .” Jake shoots two men and then, “something smacks into me from behind and knocks me flat on my face. It felt like a sledgehammer. . . Whap! A round slams into the ground inches from my head, kicking dirt into my eyes.”
  • During the battle, Jake has to “toss a smoke grenade around the corner. Instantly there’s rifle fire and rounds slam into the wall near me. . .” When Jake shoots his M-16, “there’s a grunt and a thud. . . I head up the stairs, stepping over the body of a dead sniper. . .” As the firefight continues, Jake wonders how to get to his wounded friend.
  • During a firefight, Jake breaks into a house where shots are coming from. “Inside, a woman screams. . .” Jake discovers that the shooter is “a scrawny kid. Can’t be more than twelve. . . I grab [the rifle] by the forestock and rip it out of his hands. The kid cowers. . . strangely, he’s not looking at me. Instead, he’s staring across the room.” The boy’s father is “soaked with blood” and dying. Jake goes to the window and “I plug the one closest to me, but the other has time to get off two shots. The next thing I know, I’m hurtling backward. The SOB got me.” Jake is injured. When a medic finds Jake, the medic “shoots me full of morphine and dresses my wound with QuickClot, bandage, and tape.”
  • While soldiers cover him, Jake runs to his friend, Skitballs. “His anxious eyes are open, a little glassy. A bubble of blood slowly forms in one nostril, then pops. He’s lying in this open sewer, enveloped in the stink of human waste, the mush around him reddened by his blood.” Skitball dies from his wounds.
  • Jake’s unit is sweeping for landmines when one goes off. “We all flinched, then looked around. A ball of black smoke rose from the next gulley over. ‘Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!’ came the screams…Morpiss’s anguished cries were like shock waves. They blew through you, tearing you up inside…” Morpiss survives but loses both legs and an arm.
  • Insurgents attack the base. “Ka-boom! The explosion was so big and close that the shock waves knocked a few guys out of their beds.” The soldiers go outside and “bullets whizzed and pocked into the walls. Men shouted.” Jake and another man, Brad, need to get to the guard tower. Jake “felt my scrotum contract. Even with suppressive fire, we’d be running right under the insurgents’ noses. . . I followed Brad, running as fast as my legs would carry me, praying I wouldn’t get hit. Lead whizzed past us and kicked up dirt around our feet.” Jake and Brad throw grenades into the guard tower and then went up. “The scene inside the tower was gruesome. Mangled bodies, blood, parts of bodies. The acrid stink of smoke.”
  • During an attack on the base, three children shoot at the soldiers. “They were skinny, all knees and elbows, not even old enough to have whiskers.” None of the soldiers want to shoot them, but “when we still didn’t return fire, the other two jumped to their feet and started towards us again.” A soldier finally shoots the kids, but their death is not described.
  • One of the soldiers, Brad, writes a suicide note. “I was going crazy at home. You knew because you walked into the bathroom and I was sitting there with a gun in my mouth. You have no idea how many times I did that when you didn’t walk it…I’m looking at my rifle right now and wondering for the millionth time what hot brass tastes like.” Later in the story, Brad locks himself in the “crapper.” Jake tries to talk to him. “When the gunshot came, a couple of guys jumped. I felt like the bullet had gone through me, too. Someone ran to get a cutting tool. I sat in the hot, dusty sunlight and sobbed.”
  • While on guard duty, a woman approaches the base. When she refuses to stop, a solider kills her. The woman drops a bundle. When the soldier goes to investigate, they find she was carrying a burned baby that needed medical help.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Jake returns home, he takes anti-anxiety meds. When he sees a crowd of people, he gets anxious and explains, “…even with the pills, I’m still wound tight like a spring.”
  • After being in the warzone for months, “more than a few guys were taking pills for sleeplessness, loose bowels, and anxiety.”
  • When he gets back home, Jake goes to a party where beer, tequila, and spiced rum are served.
  • When a soldier’s girlfriend broke up with him, he “sobbed, wiping his eyes and nose on his sleeve.” To calm down, “he washed down a couple of pills because there was no hooch allowed.”
  • Jake and his sister eat a meal with their grandfather. His sister orders “a Long Island iced tea. I have a Patrón on the rocks with a lime wedge. We may be underage, and the General may be a straight arrow, but the one exception is the rule of booze. Real men and women drink.”
  • Some of the soldiers are given pills for night terrors. When Jake was in the hospital, “I tried to stop taking them, but my nightly yelling woke the other patients on the ward. So I started again.”
  • After a soldier steps on a landmine, he is given morphine for the pain.
  • The army gives soldiers sleeping pills. “The Army provides soldiers with a selection. The short-term variety gets you about four hours of shut-eye. The medium-term pill is good for six. And then there’s Sleeping Beauty, a twelve-hour sleep-like-a-baby dose that leaves you feeling the next morning like you’ve been raised from the dead.” Jake discusses the addictive qualities of the pills. “Pretty soon guys had so many meds inside them that they couldn’t think straight, couldn’t feel straight. So what did the docs do? Gave them anti-depressants and anti-psychotics to stop all of the other meds from driving them crazy. After a while, guys were taking seven or eight different pills a day. With no one monitoring them.”
  • To deal with the stress of a parade, a veteran filled his water bottle “from a flask.”
  • When having dinner with his grandfather, Jake thinks, “I’m a tequila man, but in the General’s company, it’s the rule of bourbon. The only choice you have is which brand. . .”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bastards, bitch, crap, crapper, damn, hell, and pissed.
  • Goddamn is used two times. After Jake returns home, his father asks Jake if he’s okay. Before Jake can reply, his grandfather answers, “Of course he’s okay, he’s a goddamn war hero.”
  • When a soldier is injured, he screams, “Oh Lord, Jake!”
  • While eating in the mess hall, the soldiers hear a “clang!” One of Jake’s friends was “going fucking nuts, ranting like a madman and smashing a metal tray against the edge of the table.”
  • Jake wakes up sweaty from a bad dream and “there’s that split-second fear that I’ve pissed myself in my sleep. But it’s never urine. It’s always sweat.”
  • Oh my god is used several times.
  • Someone tells Jake, “Don’t play dumb white cracker with me. . .”
  • To get the attention of enemy soldiers, Jake yells, “Hey douchebags.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jake is shot in the back, but is uninjured. He thinks, “Thank Almighty God and ceramic body armor.”
  • When soldiers have to leave the FOB, “we knew it might be the last time. We all had good luck charms. Some soldiers smoked, some joked, some dipped and spat, and some got on their knees and prayed.”
  • Jake thinks the army recruiters lie in order to get people to join the army. Instead of being like a party, “You go in, make a couple of friends, and then pray you’ll all make it out alive.”

 

 

Snowhook

Fourteen-year-old Hannah isn’t thrilled about spending time in her family’s remote Alaskan cabin. She’d rather hang out with her friends or spend time at the mall. Instead, she’s learning survival skills that she doesn’t think she’ll ever need. Then, a massive ice storm traps her family, and Hannah’s mom is desperately low on insulin. With no power and no way to contact the outside world, Hannah decides to take matters into her own hands. Hannah sneaks away with the family’s four dogs and an old dogsled.

Hannah only plans to go as far as the nearest neighbor, who should have a working phone. But unexpected events lead her into the wilderness with a boy who disagrees with her at every turn. As the two teens fight worsening weather, Hannah must use all her skills to get help for her family before they all freeze to death in the wilderness.

Surviving the wilderness in the middle of a blizzard should lead to exciting events; however, Snowhook will only leave the reader frustrated. Hannah wants to be a hero, but instead, she comes off as an ungrateful, whiny brat who spends most of her time complaining. When her neighbor Peter joins her, the two spend almost all of their time yelling at each other. Even though the two are able to survive some dangerous situations, luck plays a bigger role in their survival than skill.

In addition to the two unlikable characters, there are many unanswered questions. For instance, Hannah and Peter must run from Peter’s aunt who has PTSD from being in the army; however, after they escape the aunt’s story is never told. In addition, Peter and Hannah have a strange argument about immigrants, Peter hints that he hates his father, and he is also clearly afraid of dogs. But in the end, none of these issues are discussed or resolved. Instead, once the two get to town, the story abruptly ends with no real closure.

Snowhook’s slow pace, difficult vocabulary, and argumentative characters make the story as difficult as walking through a snowdrift. Readers interested in cold weather survival stories should leave Snowhook on the shelf, and choose instead Not if I Save You First by Ally Carter or Trapped by Michael Northrop.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Hannah pounds on a neighbor’s door, the neighbor hits her in the chest with the butt of a rifle. “Hannah turned to see who had finally opened the door and immediately felt a hot, stinging sensation in her chest. Then she was lying on her back in the snow, unable to breathe.” Later Hannah learns that the woman was suffering from PTSD and often believed she was back in Afghanistan. The woman’s nephew, Peter, helps Hannah escape.
  • When Hannah and Peter leave the house, the woman shoots at them.
  • When Peter calls Hannah’s sister weird, “Hannah launched herself at him. His bent-over head and rounded shoulders received the brunt of her shove, and he landed with a whomp in the soft snow on the trailside.”
  • Hannah’s sled dogs fight. “Rudy was on top of Bogey for a long time, growling and screaming, tearing at Bogey’s face and ears, trying to roll over him. Bogey crouched, digging his paws into the ground and using his powerful legs to keep him upright, protecting his throat and trying to bite at whatever part of Rudy came near him. . . In a split second, Bogey was up. His whole mouth dripped blood and phlegm and spit, and his ears were flat against his head, with the crest of his skull puffed up twice its normal size.” The fight was described over three pages and the dogs are not seriously injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Hannah’s mom has diabetes and has to give herself an insulin injection.
  • When Peter is injured, Hannah gives him Tylenol for the pain.

Language

  • Profanity is used occasionally and includes asshole, bullshit, holy crap, crap, goddamn, damn, hell, jackass, shit.
  • Throughout the story, Hannah and Peter argue and call each other names including idiot, jerk, asshole, pansy-ass, shithead, chicken, and jackass.
  • One of the characters uses “Jesus” as an exclamation. For example, “By the Jesus, it’s cold.”
  • Peters says his dad is “chickenshit.”
  • Peter and Hannah argue and Peter calls Hannah an “idiot.” In return, Hannah calls Peter a “jackass.” In one fight Peter tells Hannah, “You’re just a snotty little city girl. Go to hell.”
  • When Hannah and Peter try to find safety, Peter yells, “If you hadn’t brought those goddamn dogs, if you hadn’t yelled and banged on the door, then everything would have been okay!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

I’m Not Dying with You Tonight

Lena and Campbell aren’t friends.

Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she’s going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school.

When both girls attend the Friday night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden, mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together.

They aren’t friends. They hardly understand the other’s point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they’re going to survive the night.

Told from both Lena’s and Campbell’s point of view, I’m Not Dying with You Tonight will grab readers’ attention right from the start. The chapters go back and forth between each character, which allows the reader to understand both girls’ prejudices and conflicts. Campbell is completely out of her element and has never taken the time to try to understand the people in her neighborhood. On the other hand, Lena has more layers, but talks in a stereotypical manner. As the girls try to survive the riot, each girl makes assumptions based on each other’s race and learns that their assumptions are often wrong.

The fast-paced story takes a look at white privilege and racism from the girls’ point of view. When the fighting first breaks out, Campbell sees the police as helpful, but Lena is fearful of their presence. In the end, both girls face loss because of the riot. Campbell’s father’s store is completely destroyed by looters, and Lena’s cousin is injured and arrested. Although Campbell cannot understand the rioters’ actions, Lena tries to explain “when you push people to their breaking point, and they ain’t got no power, they’ll find a way to take it.”

I’m Not Dying with You Tonight explores modern conflicts in an action-packed story that will keep teens interested. The authors do not leave the reader with any solutions to the problem, but instead, give them many questions that they will want to discuss. The story will cause readers to ponder racial issues, but they will also see how they should try to get to know people that are different than themselves. The story also highlights the importance of choosing friends well. As Lena’s cousin Marcus says, “He can be an eagle, but if he chooses to flock with pigeons, he gone’ have pigeon ways.”

Sexual Content

  • Lena’s boyfriend kisses her. While saying goodbye, Lena leaned “over to hug him, and he smells as good as I expected. I almost don’t want to let go. I lift my face for him to kiss me and melt into him. His soft lips press against mine, and it feels like sun rays warming my skin.”
  • At the end of the night, Black tries to kiss Lena, but “I turn my head and his lips land on my cheek. I’m not feeling it right now.”

Violence

  • While at a school football game, two men begin fighting and start a riot, which continues until the end of the book. When the fight first begins, “The boys clash, chests bumping together, arm swinging. A boy stumbles, and his knee hits the ground. Fists batter downward, pummeling his head, his shoulders. His mouth is open in a cry I can’t hear.”
  • During the fight, Officer Kersey shows up and tries to stop two guys from fighting. One of the guys, Gabriel, goes to throw a Coke on a kid, but hits the officer instead. “Officer Tate, grabs Gabriel by the back of the shirt and yanks him up until his heels leave the ground. The collar of his shirt pulls on his neck. Gabriel’s flapping around.”
  • An officer “elbows a girl in the chest. I didn’t see what she was doing, other than running in his direction. . . He hits her, though, hard and violent, and she falls to the ground a cries out.”
  • During the fight, someone shoots a gun. A police officer is shot, but it is not described.
  • Two girls begin fighting. “They wrestle until one girl scrambles up, her bright yellow tank top now smeared with dirt. The other girl cowers on the ground. Yellow Tank windmills her arms, battering and snatching until she comes away with a fistful of hair.”
  • A car hits a woman and “she goes flying forward and crashes through a group of people in a line for the club. . . The woman’s on the ground. A few people crouch down by her, and the crowd surges . . . Someone grabs the driver and hauls him from the car, flinging him onto the street.”
  • Lena and Campbell walk into an area where there are bars and shops trying to get away from the riot. But soon a riot breaks out in the streets and “a bottle flies through the air right over me. What the hell? I barely duck in time to keep my head on.”
  • Someone “chucks a liquor bottle that smashes through the window of the SUV. . . Someone done lit a T-shirt on fire and threw it at a car.” A fire starts and soon people are looting.
  • The girls hide in a shop and watch as a man uses a cone to break car windows. “Out in the street, someone comes up behind the cone guy and wallops him. They start pushing and shoving. . . Mostly, this seems like a massive crowd fighting and destroying stuff.” The man throws the cone into a bar and grill. “Instant uproar. Tables topple. The trendy fire pit in the middle of the patio falls over. Something catches, maybe a table cloth, and with a whoosh, flames flicker to life.”
  • As the girls try to find a safe place, “people are running everywhere, getting knocked over. Someone bumps us, and we fall on a pile of people. I land on my back. My elbow drags along the pavement, skin ripping open and collecting gravel.”
  • Lena’s cousin Marcus and her boyfriend Black get in a fight. Black “charges Marcus like a bull, headfirst into Marcus’s belly. They both hit the ground. These fools are rolling around on top of each other in the middle of the street, even though people are stampeding like a game of Jumanji started. . . Marcus accidently punches me in the arm.”
  • A cop hits Marcus with a baton. “I see Marcus’s mouth open in a scream, his arms go up, swinging wildly. The baton comes down again. And again. Marcus’s body falls forward, his forehead cracks against the asphalt, so loud I can hear it over all the other noise.”
  • One of Lena’s boyfriend’s friends pulls a gun and points it at them. Black jumps towards the man with a gun. “A gunshot. Me and Campbell drop to the ground. . . Black goes for the steel. Peanut sticks him in the jaw, but Black is still able to knock the pistol away.” Black’s friends drive off without him.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • One of Lena’s friends doesn’t say goodbye because “that’s the last thing her mom said to her before she passed away from a heroin overdose.”
  • A boy who was in the concession stand was selling weed.
  • Before Campbell moved, she used to “like playing foosball in Megan’s parents’ basement and sneaking cans from her dad’s beer fridge.”
  • Lena’s cousin “went to jail because he got caught with a little weed in his car.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes: ass, bitch, crap, damn, fuck, hell, holy crap, and piss.
  • “God,” “My God,” and, “Jesus” are used as exclamations occasionally.
  • Lena’s cousin warns her against dating Black. He says, “I don’t like to call a black man a nigga, but that’s a nigga.”
  • Someone calls a man a “damn cracker.”
  • While at a football game, Lena goes to the concession stand and thinks, “I damn near have to crawl over the nasty-ass counter to get the attention of the chick hanging out back there.”
  • While trying to find a ride home, Lena and Campbell pass a group of men “passing joints.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Lena “sends up a quick prayer” that her ride hasn’t left without her.

 

 

Susanna’s Midnight Ride

Sixteen-year-old Susanna Bolling is struggling to cope with the realities of the American Revolution. She, along with her mother, are the sole residents and operators of their tobacco plantation (and the slaves who work it). Following the death of Susanna’s father and her older brothers’ entry into the American army, Susanna and her mother rely on each other for emotional support and companionship.

Susanna and her mother act as each other’s rock as they are tasked with running a plantation and supporting themselves. Susanna eventually braves the dangers associated with espionage and courageously sneaks into the woods. Alone in the middle of the night, Susanne goes to warn the American Army and General Lafayette of British movements and plans. She braves miles of deep forest riddled with dangerous branches and rattlesnakes. She reaches the American camp and meets with the general but gets desperately lost on the way back home. Is there any way Susanna will be able to sneak back home unnoticed? Will she be captured by the British soldiers?

Susanna’s Midnight Ride is engaging because the reader is encouraged to relate to Susanna and put themselves in her shoes. The reader is left to wonder if they would have the strength to support their mother in a time of crisis or the courage to risk everything to do the right thing. The author characterizes Susanna in a likable and relatable way, so that the readers are empowered to believe that courageous acts are possible for anyone with dedication and loyalty. Susanna’s story shows that fear does not determine if someone is a hero or a coward. Susanna is absolutely terrified to go on her journey but is so determined to help the American cause that she goes into the night regardless.

Susanna’s Midnight Ride is based on historical fact, with a few embellishments, exclusions, and adjustments to make this story suitable for a younger audience. The characters and plot are well developed and highly relatable, and the short chapters will encourage reluctant readers. McNamee creates an engaging story; however, some sections will challenge growing readers. For example, some of the phrases used by General Lafayette are in French, and the reader must use context clues to fully understand his meaning.

The negative representation of slaves on the Bolling plantation may upset readers. An older slave shouts and berates a younger slave for desiring freedom and states, “If I got to be a slave and mu children got to be slaves, I want to be their slave!” This storyline ends as over time the younger slave returns to the Bolling Plantation happily, saying that, “I done made a big mistake leaving the plantation.”

Susanna’s experiences highlight the importance of determination and loyalty. McNamee utilizes a real person’s story to realistically illustrate these lessons. Susanna’s Midnight Ride is a suspenseful and highly engaging story that will encourage readers to learn more about history and be confident when making difficult choices.

Sexual Content

  • Susanna’s cousin often speaks about handsome men and often whines about the “cluster of handsome lads” who she could marry “if it weren’t for this dreadful war.”
  • Susanna describes a prospective suitor, Joseph, who was killed during the war. Susanna thinks, they would have had “lovely red-haired children.”
  • Susanna once flirted with the British soldiers occupying her home and chides herself for “acting as coquettish” as her flirtatious cousin.

Violence

  • Following the death of her son, Joseph’s mother describes her fear that he may have been “dumped into a mass grave” and that she had “nightmares of butchered boys piled in together and left to rot.”
  • Susanna briefly describes the circumstances of the “tragic loss” of her older sister and baby niece. Her sister dies in childbirth “when a baby’s head is too large to pass, there is precious little even the best doctor can do.”
  • A “terrible disease” killed Susanna’s younger sister and left “Mother disfigured with pock-marks all over her face.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Susanna’s mother plots to distract the soldiers by “topping off their drinks again and doling out another round of shots.” She did this so that “they shall sleep like the dead tonight.”

Language

  • Profanity is used sparingly. Profanity includes poppycock, bugger, arse, darn, rubbish, drat, bloody. Each word is used once or twice.
  • The phrases “god awful” and “godforsaken” are used frequently, around 20 times in total.
  • The following words are used as insults on rare occasions: maggot, ninny, tomboy, swine, no-good bum, loggerhead, locust, brute.
  • The words “negro” and “negroes” are used at least once per chapter as characters describe enslaved people.

Supernatural/Spiritual Content.

  • Religious references are almost constant, and are frequently positive or celebratory. For example, during the spinning bee, Susanna proclaims, “God is surely smiling down on his daughters of Liberty today.”
  • McNamee also refers to the Grim Reaper a handful of times. For example, Susanna describes her family’s luck, “The Grim Reaper operates by a code of fairness, the ultimate fallacy. Death follows no rules at all.”
  • There are also constant references to “souls” throughout the story. For example, an older man describes all of the “lost souls” resulting from the war.

by Meg Oshea

 

 

 

Focused

Clea can’t control her thoughts. Some days, her thoughts repeat in an endless loop. Other days, her mind jumps from topic to topic. Either way, she can’t focus on her homework. Even when she tries to focus really, really hard, she still gets distracted. Someone is always chewing their gum too loudly or making annoying noises.

But that’s not her only problem. Everything that Clea thinks pops out of her mouth. She can’t seem to keep the words from jumping out. Clea’s issues are starting to cause problems in other areas of her life—when she’s playing chess, or when she’s hanging out with her best friend. What’s worse is that other kids are starting to notice.

When Clea keeps doing poorly in school, her parents want to have her tested for ADHD. Clea is convinced that she doesn’t have ADHD. If she tried a little harder, everything would be fine. Then, when Clea has an epic fight with her best friend, she knows that something has to change. But how do you change something that is in your head?

Anyone who has struggled in school will be able to relate to Clea. Even when Clea tries her best, she still can’t focus. She constantly berates herself, thinking that she’s just too dumb to do well. Told from Clea’s point of view, Focused allows Clea’s frustration to take center stage. With the assistance of a cast of helpful adults—psychologists, teachers, parents, counselors—Clea gains new time management skills and learns how to speak up for herself.

Even though the story focuses on Clea’s difficulties, the reader will be drawn into the conflict between Clea and other characters in the story. Clea’s best friend is dealing with family problems while one of the chess players constantly puts Clea down. The story also adds a little romance, a little chess, and a host of imperfect characters. Clea’s sister Henley is one of the best parts of the story. The sweet little sister who struggles with talking is always cheering for Clea. Clea realizes that having a person love you unconditionally is amazing. She thinks, “It feels like magic that there’s a person in the world who thinks I’m definitely going to win, no matter what, just because I’m me.”

This easy-to-read story explains how ADHD works and teaches management skills as well. Best of all, it shows that having a learning disability is nothing to be ashamed about. Anyone who reads Focused will come away with a better understanding of ADHD plus empathy for those who struggle with their emotions. The story also highlights the importance of perseverance and forgiveness. Anyone who has ever struggled with feeling inferior or has struggled with school work should read Focused. The story will encourage young readers to ask for help when needed as well as never to give up.

Sexual Content

  • Red’s father moved to Colorado and has a new girlfriend. Red finds out that his dad married his girlfriend and that she is going to have a baby.
  • While talking to Dylan, Clea slips her hand into his, and “he wraps his fingers around mine and squeezes, like he doesn’t want to let go. My stomach flips.”
  • After Dylan asks Clea to be his girlfriend, they kiss. Clea smiles at him, and then “before I know it, his lips are on mine and we’re kissing. It’s soft and sweet and mint chocolate flavored, and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with my hands, so I leave them exactly where they are, because I never want the kissing to stop. I want to stay like this forever.”
  • Clea and her friend talk about kissing a boy. It was both of the girl’s first kiss. When Clea’s friend worries that she was bad at kissing, Clea googles “Am I bad at kissing?” Clea then asks her friend, “Okay—did you bump teeth? Or move your head all over the place? Or slobber?” When Clea’s friend says no, the girls laugh and decide they are good at kissing. The conversation takes place over a page.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Clea thinks she is “an idiot.”
  • Jerk is used four times. Once Clea thinks a boy is a “jerk.” Later she tells the boy that he was acting like “a jerk.”
  • OMG is used six times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Hey, Kiddo

Not everyone’s family is the same. Jarrett learned this at a very young age. Most of his classmates had a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett’s family life is complicated. His mom is an addict who jumps in and out of his life. His dad is a mystery—Jarrett doesn’t even know his name. Jarett lives with his grandparents. Although his grandparents loved him, they could be very impatient and opinionated.

Now that Jarrett is a teenager, he wishes his life were normal. His grandparents send him to a Catholic high school, where he doesn’t know anyone. Jarrett’s trying to navigate a new high school, a drug-addicted mother, and new adolescent freedoms. Jarrett lives in a home where no one talks about his past, his parents, or his problems. Art is the only thing that brings Jarrett a sense of accomplishment. When Jarrett finally gets his driver’s license, he decides to confront his father and find his own identity.

Hey, Kiddo is a powerful memoir in a graphic novel format that explores the painful effects of drug addiction. Throughout the story, the author shares artifacts from his youth, including original letters from his mother and drawings he created when he was young. The easy-to-read format shows Jarrett’s narration and thoughts in burnt orange boxes to distinguish them from the conversation bubbles. The drawings appear in shades of gray with splashes of burnt orange. Although the drawings are not beautiful, they perfectly convey the dark tone, Jarrett’s hectic life, as well as show the array of negative emotions the characters feel.

Although Jarrett’s grandparents clearly love him, they are far from perfect. His foul-mouthed grandmother is often more concerned with her television shows than Jarrett. Jarrett’s grandfather is emotionally unavailable but teaches Jarrett about the value of hard work. The one constantly good thing in Jarrett’s life is his next-door neighbor and best friend. The two boys are completely different but stick by each other through difficult times. The story highlights that people do not have to be perfect to have a positive impact on someone’s life.

Many readers will be able to relate to Jarrett’s complicated relationship with his family. When it comes to his mother, Jarrett feels anger, hate, resentment, and love. One example of Jarrett’s conflicting emotions is when he has a hard time picking out a Mother’s Day card for his mom because no cards fit their relationship. Jarrett thinks, “Hallmark didn’t make cards that said, ‘Even though you did all of those drugs, you’re still a swell mom!’ or cards that read, ‘Hey, remember all that time you spent in jail and missed, like, every aspect of my childhood.’”

Even though Hey, Kid is a graphic novel, it contains mature themes and language. While the sentences on each page are short and simple, the words have an impact and highlight the harsh environment in which Jarrett lived, as well as the often frightening events in Jarrett’s life. The book ends with a detailed author’s note explaining more about his life. In the author’s note, Jarrett says, “Your childhood realities do not have to perpetuate themselves into adulthood, not if you don’t let them.” Hey, Kid is an impactful story that will make readers think about the true definition of family. Jarrett’s memoir is both heartbreaking and hopeful because it proves that circumstances do not have to define you.

Sexual Content

  • When Joe went on his first date with Shirley, they kiss.
  • Jarrett explains how his birth parents met. His mother met a man at “my father’s family’s bar. . . However they found each other, they did, and they managed to hide it from my father’s girlfriend. And then my mother got pregnant. . .My father backed off, claiming that the baby wasn’t his. Supposedly, his girlfriend started spreading stories about how my mother had been sleeping around, so the baby could belong to anybody. And sure, she had been sleeping around, but my mom knew he was the father as soon as I was born—I was white. All of her other boyfriends hadn’t been.”
  • When Jarrett was little, he walked into his mother’s room when she was in bed with a man. His mother yelled at him, “I told you not to come barging in here! Get back to your room!”
  • While watching the Price is Right, Jarrett’s grandmother watches a contestant go to the front, and she says, “Well this one looks like a tramp with her tits all flapping about.”
  • When Jarrett is getting dressed in the locker room, a boy laughs at Jarrett’s chest hair and says, “Nice chest vagina.”
  • A comic that Jarrett drew was printed in the newspaper. The comic shows two people getting ready to go into a dance. One boy’s quote bubble says, “Hey man, you got any protection?” The other boy’s quote bubble says, “What kind? Guns, knives, or condoms?”
  • Jarrett paints a mural of Napoleon, the school mascot. The light switch is on Napoleon’s private area.
  • Jarrett goes to a party where kids are drinking alcohol and one couple is making out. Someone yells, “Dude! Get a room!”

Violence

  • Two men show up at Jarrett’s mom’s house covered in blood and holding a knife. Although there are no words, the pictures show Jarrett’s mom helping the men clean up and dispose of the bloody clothing.
  • Jarrett’s hand gets stuck in an escalator, and someone pulls it out. The picture illustrates Jarrett’s bloody hand. His grandmother asks him, “What the hell were you thinking?” When he goes to school, Jarrett’s middle finger is sticking up in a huge bandage.
  • At a pool party, Jarrett and his friends put a flame to hairspray and accidently catch a stuffed animal on fire. They throw the stuffed animal in the pool.
  • Jarrett’s mother introduces Jarrett to her boyfriend. She tells Jarrett, “He had a tough childhood, watched his mother burn to death.”
  • After the cops show up at a party, Jarrett runs. Several boys see him walking and beat him up. A boy said, “You were looking at my girlfriend?” The fight is drawn over two pages. One boy holds Jarrett’s friend so he can’t help. Three other boys start punching Jarrett.” When Jarrett gets home, his grandfather tells him, “I told you nothing good happens after 11. . . This is what happens when you go ‘out.’ Now go to bed.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Often when Jarrett’s grandfather came home from work, “the front door would open and the smell of alcohol would fill the house.”
  • When Jarrett’s grandmother “was rally drunk” she used “foul language.” Once she tells Jarrett and his grandfather, “You are all a bunch of fecking assholes!
  • Jarrett’s mother was an addict, and “she’d steal anything to sell it for heroin.” Once, Jarrett’s grandfather sees a notice in the newspaper. After reading it, he tells Jarrett, “Well, if you were wondering where your mother has been, her name is here in the paper. They found her O.D.’d face down on the pavement.”
  • Jarrett and his grandparents go to a restaurant. Jarrett jokingly tries to order a “Southern Comfort Manhattan, gray with a twist, rocks on the side.” Jarrett says, “I had my grandparents’ drink order memorized. Ice on the side so they could fit more liquor in the glass.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often throughout the book. Although most of the characters use profanity occasionally, Jarrett’s grandmother uses it to the extreme. Profanity includes assholes, bitch, bastard, damn, goddamn, hell, holy crap, piss, fuck, son of a bitch, and shit.
  • When Jarrett’s mother found out she was pregnant, his grandmother “called her some terrible names.” Jarrett’s grandmother’s words are in large, orange letters and include: “goddamn mulatto baby! slut! You whore! prostitute! Hussy! Tramp!”
  • Jarrett’s grandmother calls her husband a “son of a bitch and a bastard.”
  • Oh dear God, for Christ’s sake, Jesus Christ, and Jesus, Mary and Joseph are used as exclamations often.
  • Jarrett’s mother was caught stealing, and she and Jarrett are taken to the police station. Jarrett’s grandfather tells her, “Les, you stay on this track and you’re gonna fuck up so bad that he’ll be taken into custody.”
  • A boy calls Jarrett a “wussy.” A different boy calls Jarrett a “faggot.”
  • While at the cemetery, Jarrett’s grandmother tells him, “And when I’m gone, I’m sure everyone will be saying ‘Thank god that bitch is dead.’”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jarrett’s grandfather would go by the cemetery to see his parents, and “he always makes sure we stop and say a prayer for them whenever we are here.”
  • When Joe and Shirley married, their parents weren’t happy about the union. “It was a controversial union—Joe’s parents were Catholics who’d immigrated to the U.S. from Poland, while Shirley’s parents were Protestants who’d immigrated from Sweden.
  • Jarrett attends Holy Name, a Catholic high school. While at the Catholic School Jarrett is bullied by older boys. Jarrett tells his grandfather that “Holy Name is filled with a bunch of assholes.”
  • Jarrett’s half-sister asks if Jarrett will be at her first communion.

Far From the Tree

Grace always thought she was going to attend homecoming with her boyfriend, Max. All the pictures, suits, dresses, makeup, heels—it was supposed to be one of the happiest, most memorable nights of her life. However, after Grace gives birth to Peach, her and Max’s baby—Grace finds herself giving Peach away to adopted parents on homecoming night. After giving Peach away, Grace is desperately alone and decides to find her own biological mother.

As Grace searches through adoption paperwork for any information on her birth mother, she learns she has a biological sister and brother. Maya lives close by, but in a family where she feels she does not belong. After years of group homes Grace’s brother, Joaquin, now lives with foster parents. After a few awkward encounters at a local coffee shop, the three teenagers find out they have more in common with each other than they first thought. Together, they search for their mother, and along the way, they learn what truly defines a family.

Three diverse characters. Three diverse families. Three diverse storylines wrapped up into one magnificent book. Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are unique, well-developed characters each with their own problems. Grace feels alone in the world and finds it difficult to love. Maya feels as if she does not fit into her adopted family because her parents love their biological child more. Joaquin loves his foster parents but is scared to be adopted by them. Together, the three friends help each other cope with their problems. Their combined effort will show readers just how strong the ties of family and friendship are.

Although best suited for older readers, Far from the Tree paints a perfect picture of teenagers in modern-day society. Readers will feel as if they are one with Maya, Grace, and Joaquin and will empathize with them as they struggle against their inner demons. The siblings deal with a multitude of problems including racism, bullying, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and mental health issues. The dilemmas the siblings face are authentic and will have readers in tears. Benway also dives into the problems that adopted children face and the bullying and torment they often encounter in school and foster homes.

Although the story is easy to read, the heavy topics, profanity, and sexual content make this book more appropriate for older readers. The three main characters each have a different perspective on the issues they encounter throughout the story, so every reader will be able to identify and relate to at least one of the characters and their struggles. Altogether, Benway creates a story of three teenagers against the world. Far from the Tree will tug on readers’ heartstrings and leave them with a new world perspective.

Sexual Content

  • Maya asks Grace if she had a boyfriend. Grace answered “yes,” and “Maya wondered if Grace was lying. Grace seemed like the kind of girl who would wait her whole life so she could lose her virginity on her wedding night, who would read Cosmo articles about How to give him the best blow job of his life! but never actually say the word blow job.”
  • Joaquin reminisces about the first time he kissed his girlfriend. He thinks, “The very first time she had kissed him, he had panicked at how soft she was, how hot her mouth felt, and he didn’t understand how someone with such cold hands could have such a warm heart.”
  • While eating in a sandwich shop, Rafe and Grace sit close to each other. Grace thinks that “no boy had been this close to Grace since the night she and Max had the sex that produced Peach, but she didn’t scoot away from him.”
  • After fighting, Maya and her girlfriend Claire decide to make out. “Maya smiled again, her teeth bumping against Claire’s mouth.” Maya says, “Because nothing’s more hot than making out behind the gym at school.”
  • When Grace accidentally falls in Rafe’s arms, “Grace knew what she was supposed to do in the TV-show version of this moment: kiss him. She knew what she wanted to do: kiss him. And she knew what she couldn’t do, not just yet.”
  • Maya asks Grace if intercourse with Max was good. Grace says, “At least tell me the sex was good. If you have to get pregnant and have a baby, the sex should be mind-blowing.”
  • After breaking up with his girlfriend, Joaquin sees her kissing Colin. Joaquin describes this encounter in detail saying, “They were kissing, Birdie’s long arm wrapped around Colin’s neck the same way that she used to wrap it around Joaquin’s. If he thought about it too much, Joaquin could almost feel the warmth of her skin, the heat of her mouth, the way she always smelled good, like soap and shampoo.” One of Birdie’s friends runs up to Joaquin after the encounter and insists that she is doing it to make him jealous.

Violence

  • When Maya was in third grade, Emily Whitmore explained how Maya’s sister would always be loved more than her because she is a biological child. Maya could still remember “Emily’s face as she explained the ‘facts’ to her, could still remember the sharp, cutting way she’d wanted to put her eight-year-old fist right through Emily’s smug little mug.”
  • After being harassed about having a baby with Adam, “Grace didn’t know what moved first, her body or her hand, but then she was flying over her desk like she was running the hurdles in gym class, her fist out so it could make clean contact with Adam’s face. He made a sound like someone had let the air out of him, and when he fell backward, his desk trapping him against the floor, Grace pinned him and punched him again. She hadn’t had this much adrenaline since Peach had been born. It felt good. She even smiled when she punched Adam for the third time.” Grace and Adam are both taken to the office, and Grace has to be homeschooled for the rest of the year. This scene takes place over two pages.
  • After going out for dinner, Maya finds her mom on the bathroom floor, “crumpled like a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest, and there was blood coming from her head, staining the marble floor that was freezing cold under Maya’s bare feet.” Maya’s mom had fallen after drinking too much.
  • The siblings are meeting at a coffee shop when Adam appears and harasses Grace yet again for having a baby. “Maya was about to do something, say something, anything to release the pressure that she felt exploding her chest, when suddenly Joaquin was up and moving so fast that no one saw him coming. In one smooth motion, he had Adam up against the wall, his forearm pressed across his chest, and Adam looked wide-eyed and scared, a fish out of water.” Joaquin threatens Adam, and Adam never hurts Grace again. This scene takes place over two pages.
  • Joaquin discusses his anger management issues. During one of his temper tantrums when he was younger, Joaquin threw a metal stapler at Natalie, a toddler that Joaquin’s former foster parents, the Buchanan’s, loved. After it hit her in the head and knocked her unconscious, Mr. Buchanan let out a roar and grabbed Joaquin and threw him against a bookshelf, breaking Joaquin’s arm. “Joaquin could still hear the crack of bone, one white-hot pain replacing another, but nothing was as loud as the sound of Natalie falling to the floor.” This scene takes place over two pages.
  • Aunt Jessica describes a truck accident. The woman “was twenty-one, crossing the street, and she got hit by a trucker who ran a red light. He said he didn’t even see her. She died instantly, they said. She didn’t suffer. I worried about that, but that’s what they told us.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The night Maya got caught sneaking out with her girlfriend, Maya “had met up with Claire in the park, smoking a joint that Claire had stolen from her older brother, Caleb.”
  • Maya’s mom is an alcoholic, and Maya finds her hidden wine while looking for some costume materials. When Maya pulls boots from the closet, she thinks that “they were heavy when she pulled them out, though, way heavier than any boots should have been, and by the time she’d wrestled them out of the closet and into the bedroom, the bottle of merlot had fallen out. Maya looked at it for a long minute before reaching into the other boot and pulling out a half-full bottle of red zinfandel.”
  • Maya and Grace smoke a joint, much to Joaquin’s surprise. He asks, “Are you supposed to be smoking weed?”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes asshole, boobs, slut, idiot, damn, and variations of shit and fuck.
  • Oh My god is used as an exclamation often.
  • After Maya reminisces about being bullied for being adopted, Maya says, “Other kids could be real assholes.”
  • When they pulled up to Maya’s house, Grace’s dad whistled under his breath, and her mom said, “Oh my God, I knew you should have worn a suit.”
  • Joaquin realizes that he has two sisters and exclaims, “Holy shit.”
  • After breaking up with Birdie, Birdie’s friend Marjorie says, “You’re a real asshole you know that?” to Joaquin.
  • At school, Grace was called, “Slut, baby mama, Shamu – the list went on.”
  • When Grace sits down at her desk on her first day back, “Someone had carved SLUT into the fake wood desk, but she wasn’t sure if that was for her, some other girl, or just the product of some bored junior who had a limited vocabulary.”
  • Adam makes fun of Grace by saying, “Grace! Hey, are your boobs all saggy now?”
  • Rafe finds Grace crying in the bathroom after her fight with Adam and says, “Shit, I’m sorry, I’m so bad when people cry.”
  • When Grace asks Maya how school is going, Maya answers, “Sucks donkey balls.”
  • Joaquin likes “Ana’s no-bullshit approach to therapy.”
  • Joaquin thinks that his younger self was “a fucking idiot who fucked everything up.”
  • Maya says, “Everything is so fucking fucked up.”
  • Joaquin was scared of being adopted because he thought his birth mom would come back for him. He says, “It’s stupid, I know, it’s so fucking stupid. I was such an idiot.”
  • Claire freaks out after her parents question her about her relationship with Rafe, and says “If I can’t move forward and like someone and make friends and, God forbid, fall in love again, then I don’t understand why I gave up my baby in the first place!” She ends the argument by saying, “And you can tell Elaine from down the street that what I do is none of her damn business.”
  • After Maya continues to annoy Grace while driving, Grace says, “Maya, I swear to God.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Maya jokes with Grace about why she got grounded, saying “I snuck out last week to practice devil worship with these kids I met in a cornfield.”
  • Maya remembers how Lauren cried after her fish died. Maya “would still swear on a stack of Bibles that she hadn’t touched that creepy, scaly thing. Lauren was paranoid and a terrible fish parent, that was all.”
  • When Grace dips her fries in mayonnaise, Rafe says, “Mayonnaise, it’s the devil’s condiment.”
  • Jessica says, “Oh. Thank God ” after she learns that Grace has great parents.

by Matthew Perkey

The Scaredy Cat

Coral, Shelly, and Angel are best friends. They are excited about meeting their new teacher on the first day of school. Their teacher asks the kids to bring something special to share with the class. The three friends decide that they need to search Tortoise-shell Reef to find something special enough to share. Coral is anxious about going to the reef because it is on the edge of the cove. However, she agrees to go because it’s important to her friends.

When the purrmaids get to the reef, Coral’s friends discover that she doesn’t know how to complete flips. Angel and Shelly are eager to teach Coral a new skill, but soon they have flipped so many times that they don’t know where they are! Can the three friends find their way home? Can Coral learn to be brave?

The Scaredy Cat mixes kittens and mermaids in a story about friendship that will have younger readers enthralled. The unique idea and the adorably cute black-and-white illustrations will draw readers to the book. The story focuses on the purrmaids’ homework assignment as well as Coral’s cautious attitude. When the group goes to Tortoise-shell Reef, Coral shows bravery several times; each time her friends are in danger, Coral jumps in to protect them. The story highlights the importance of trying new things, but also of being cautious.

As part of the adventure, Coral meets a misunderstood catshark named Chomp. The shark gives the story an added dose of danger. After she gets to know him, she learns that he isn’t dangerous. Chomp complains that “Catsharks always get a bad rap. Everyone in the ocean thinks we’re out to eat them!” Coral is able to learn that it is wrong to judge a shark just because he’s a shark.

The Scaredy Cat is perfect for readers who are able to read chapter books. The story has easy vocabulary, short sentences, and cute black-and-white illustrations approximately every three pages. Younger readers will enjoy the cat puns that appear often, like “cat-tastrophe,” “paw-sitive,” and “purr-omise.” The puns are a little bit over the top, and although younger readers may enjoy them, parents might want to avoid reading The Scaredy Cat aloud.

Readers who like the Pet Fairies series will also find the Purrmaid series purr-fect. While the Pet Fairies series has a non-scary villain, the Purrmaid series focuses more on friendship and the quest for the perfect item to share with the class. The Scaredy Cat will delight younger readers, who will want to read every book in the series because the stories are so much fun. The satisfying conclusion will have readers squealing in joy as the story shows that friendship is the best gift of all.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Every Moment After

After the gunshots were silenced. After the victims were buried. After the place of terror was torn down. Eleven years after the tragedy, survivors still grapple with the effects. Recent high school graduates Matt and Cole still deal with the guilt and questions. Everywhere they go, there are reminders of those who died. It is impossible for them not to ask, why didn’t I die? How can I move on?

Matt was not at school on the fateful day that his classmates were massacred. The fact that he was spared from witnessing the events has caused guilt to consume him. Matt obsesses over what would have happened if he had been at school that day. Did he cheat death? Was he actually meant to die? Caught in a downward spiral, Matt’s rash actions temp fate to take his life.

Meanwhile, after the shooting, Cole became the face of the tragedy because a photo of him being carried from the scene went viral. Cole would prefer to hide in the shadows, but now everyone recognizes his face. When people ask him about the shooting, Cole cannot give them answers. Even though he survived, he cannot remember what happened that day. On top of his amnesia, Cole is dealing with the recent death of his father and his mother’s depression.

Every Moment After is a gripping story that focuses on the survivors of a mass shooting. The story alternates between Matt’s and Cole’s points of view, which allows readers to feel the emotions of both victims. Written by a clinical psychologist, Every Moment After accurately explores topics of survivor’s guilt, grief, and changing relationships. As the two friends struggle to cope, they learn that “you don’t have to do it all at once. You just have to get through one breath at a time. One moment at a time.” However, both Matt and Cole sometimes find it difficult to move on, even one breath at a time.

In a time where mass shootings frequent the nightly news, Every Moment After explores a topic that many teens may have questions about. Matt and Cole are relatable characters struggling with questions about the past as well as their futures. As the boys take their first steps towards adulthood, their long-term friendship with each other is a crucial component in their journey. The boys’ friendship highlights the importance of having at least one person who has and will always love you, just as you are.

Every Moment After will leave readers thinking about gun control and the effects of mass shootings. It will take readers on an emotional, tearful journey, providing new insight and empathy for anyone who has suffered a great loss. In the end, the story makes it clear that “there are some things you can’t leave behind. They cling to you like cobwebs. They leave you with empty spaces. And the only thing you can do is to keep on going, as well and as gracefully as you can, without your missing parts.”

Sexual Content

  • Matt trades drugs with a boy. In exchange for the stories, the boy wants Matt to tell him stories about sex. Matt tells the boy about when he had sex with his girlfriend. Matt begins, “The first time, we were at her house. In her, uh, well, in her parents’ bedroom.” The description ends here.
  • Cole finds condoms under his father’s bed and wonders who they could belong to. He knows they don’t belong to the nurse because “she was pretty open about liking other girls and telling us all about her girlfriend.”
  • Cole uses a pseudonym when he submits poetry to be published. When he tells his friend, she says his pseudonym “sounds like the name of a porn star.”
  • Matt and Sarah go to the lake. Sarah “steps toward me, and before I can say anything or move or even take a breath, her lips are on mine. She still tastes like lemonade. . . before I can think of something to say, she kisses me again and pulls my shirt off and reaches for my belt, and by the time she’s pulling the Red Sox shirt off over her head and wriggling out of her shorts, I’m self-conscious that I’ve never been naked before. Even with Rosie, I kept a surprising amount of my clothing on. . .” Matt compares Sarah and Rosie and thinks, “I never wanted Rosie the way I want Sarah now.” Although it is clear that Matt and Sarah have a sexual relationship, the sex is not described. The scene is described over two pages.
  • After Matt stays the night at Sarah’s house, “I bend over and kiss one perfect nipple.”
  • A girl that Cole likes tells her about a conversation she had with an ex-boyfriend. She says, “It’s just that it’s a bit hard to really be comfortable with someone when they’ve seen you naked, isn’t it?”
  • Cole thinks about a girl. “I wonder where her bedroom is. I wonder how I could see her naked.”
  • Matt tries to figure out what story to tell about his ex-girlfriend. He thinks, “I mean, I only have so many of them. It’s not like Rosie and I were screwing every single day.”
  • Someone asks Cole, “Are you telling me that Matt Simpson is boning the daughter of the cop who’s carrying you in the picture?”
  • Matt goes into a bar and yells at an off-duty police officer. Matt says, “You want me to tell you what it’s like with her, Lucas? I know you think about it all the time. Because it’s nuts dude. I’ve seriously got scratch marks all up and down my back. You should fucking hear her. . . She always likes it on the living room floor, Lucas.”
  • Cole walks into his house and “the smell of weed overwhelms me.” When he goes into the living room, he sees two people. “One of them is my mother, and the other is a man with longish white hair. She’s leaning back, and he’s sort of half on top of her, kissing her.” When they see Cole, they are upset. The man leaves, while Cole and his mother have a talk.
  • Cole kisses the girl he likes. Cole takes “the final step, and before I have time to think about the blood in my mouth or about any of those other reasons that this is an unreasonable thing to do, I kiss her. . . I kiss her with my broken lip, and when I stop and step back, her eyes are closed.”

Violence

  • When a dog bites Cole, he yells, “Fuck you, you stupid little bastard. Fuuuuuuck you.” Cole is not seriously injured.
  • While at the lake, Matt and Cole come across some boys that are shooting garden gnomes. When one boy talks badly about Cole, Matt defends him. “Matt brings his left hand around in a wide, perfect swing. His fist arcs through the air, and in the moment before he strikes Ponytail’s face, I see the kid’s expression: surprise and fear, like a little boy’s. . . And then there’s a smack; I should be able to come up with a better way to describe the sound, but that’s exactly what it is, a loud smack of flesh-on-flesh, of Matt’s fist driving into the side of the guy’s face. . .” Ponytail boy falls down and the fight ends.
  • Later in the book, Matt thinks about the fight. “. . . Before I could even realize what I was doing, my hand had come around and made solid contact with Ponytail’s face, dropping him to the ground. I would have kicked him, too. Standing over him, I was lining myself up. I was going to break his fucking ribs. Crack them all. I wanted to kick him in the balls so hard they’d bust.” Matt didn’t do any of these things because Cole stops him.
  • When Matt yells at an off-duty police officer, the man hits him. “I’m on the ground before I know it; he drives down and I can feel the floorboards shudder as I hit them. My head snaps back, and there’s a burst of light in front of my eyes. He’s on top of me, his knee grinding into my groin, a flurry of punches to my chest and face.” The fight continues until Matt is knocked out.
  • When Cole gives his contact a bag of useless pills, the man hits him. “I never see Eddie’s fist coming; it catches me on my lower lip, and then I’m on my back in the grass, looking up at him, dazed.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Matt’s parents have a party where wine is served.
  • Matt wakes up in his truck hungover, and sees an “empty bottle of vodka is on the floor on the passenger side.”
  • Cole talks to a student who “reeks of pot.”
  • Someone offers Cole a bottle with vodka in it. Cole declines because “I don’t feel like vodka.”
  • Cole and Matt collect prescription pills in order to trade them. Cole collects his dead father’s pills and also fills an outdated prescription. Matt is able to get pills from someone he knows.
  • Matt injures his arm during baseball and the doctor gives him a prescription. Instead of taking the pills, he uses them to trade.
  • When Matt and Cole give their contact the drugs, there is a prescription for Percocet as well as other “good shit.” Later, Matt gives their contact another bag of pills. The contact gets angry because the drugs are “generic erectile dysfunction drug that was discontinued three years ago because it put people in the hospital with boners that wouldn’t stop.” The other pills in the bag are ibuprofen.
  • Cole’s mother is prescribed antidepressants after her husband dies.
  • When Matt goes to see a friend, he talks to the father and “can smell the liquor on him now.” Later when Matt goes to pick up the friend, the father’s “eyes are red-rimmed, and I can smell that the drink in the mug isn’t coffee.”
  • Cole and Matt drink a couple of beers while they are at the lake. Cole explains, “Dad left lots of beer in the garage. I doubt that Mom even remembers it’s out there, and she definitely has no idea exactly what and how much he had, so I can drink some whenever I want.”
  • Matt sneaks into Cole’s garage and gets drunk. When Cole finds him, Matt says, “It is your dad’s beer, Cole, and I apologize for drinking it.”
  • Cole has lunch with some people from school. One boy talks about a party where people were drinking and smoking pot.

Language

  • Profanity is used excessively and appears on almost every page. Profanity includes bitch, crap, crappy, damn, damnit, fuck, motherfucking, pissed, goddamn, hell, and shit.
  • My god, Christ, and Jesus are used as exclamations often.
  • A boy flips off a group of reporters.
  • When a boy is shooting garden gnomes, he yells “I’m gonna do it this time faggots.”
  • When Cole sees an ex-girlfriend, he acknowledges her because “there’s no point in being an asshole.”
  • While working on a class project, a girl tells Cole, “Holy fucking Christ, Cole, do I love Eliot.”
  • Cole says, “I’m sorry for being a dick.”
  • Matt calls someone a dick. Later Matt thinks he is being a “pussy.”
  • Someone calls Matt a “cocksucker.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Cole thinks that one reason that his mom is having difficulty grieving for his father, is because his parents were atheists. “. . . All of their friends were atheist too. Which is fine, but it’s not very good for dying.”
  • After the school shooting, one of the parents would invite the other kids to a birthday party for her dead daughter. “She says something about how Susie was watching from heaven and that Susie loved all of us.” Cole thinks, “no one’s watching anyone from heaven.”
  • A girl says her father is “an ardent conservative. He’d say that people will kill each other no matter what; you can’t regulate it away. That Cain killed Abel with a rock.”
  • Matt is drunk when Cole finds him. Cole thinks, “I hope to God he was at least a bit sober when he drove here.”

Losing the Field

Tallulah has always been the overweight girl no one wants to spend time with. She focuses on her studies, ignores the teasing, and bides her time until graduation. But when Nash, the boy she’s had a crush on for years, makes a joke about her weight, she becomes bent on revenge. Tallulah thought she and Nash were friends because Nash was the only person who seemed to be genuinely nice to her. After his teasing, Tallulah walks and walks all summer, losing weight and increasing her anger towards Nash, the boy who broke her heart. When her senior year starts, she’s the most attractive and revenge-bent girl in school.

Tallulah’s year isn’t what she expects though. Once Nash realizes his mistake, he and Tallulah become friends. Then they become more than friends. He is a brand-new person this year too, after a football accident leaves him with a permanent limp and he can’t play anymore. They find understanding and friendship in each other. They have to cling to this new relationship as car accidents, rumors, and inappropriate teachers all threaten to destroy their feelings for each other.

Losing the Field is a dramatic take on a tumultuous senior year of high school. The characters are easy to connect with, but at some points the plot and dialogue are overly dramatic. However, the plot does bring up important topics such as body image, bullying, substance abuse, and friendship. The main character Tallulah teaches readers that your outside appearance doesn’t matter as much as what’s on the inside, and she stands up for herself by telling the truth, even in a difficult situation.

This story is entertaining but predictable. The characters get themselves into hard situations because of misunderstandings and eventually come back together when they have learned the truth. Profanity is used often and is used to differentiate between the voices of Tallulah and Nash. The chapters are written in alternating perspectives and Nash uses expletives and coarse language in his narration.

The story does deal with a teacher who makes inappropriate advances on a student (Tallulah). Nothing beyond a kiss and words are exchanged, but it is presented as a serious issue. Tallulah does the right thing by telling the truth to the administration and voicing her objections to the teacher’s advances. The teacher is fired, though Tallulah decides to not press charges.

Readers looking for an easy-to-read book about teenagers in love will find Losing the Field a good read. Although Tallulah lost weight, she did it for the wrong reason—to get a guy. The story does hint that in order to be beautiful, you must be thin. Another negative aspect of the story is that the non-stop drama becomes hard to believe. While the book was about Tallulah and Nash’s relationship, this part of the storyline should have been better developed. It is also a misleading novel in its presentation; this book is not about sports. Nash did play football, but that is a minor plot point. Overall, Losing the Field is a quick, easy read for someone looking for a dramatic and action-packed plot. While Losing the Field is the fourth in a series, readers do not need to read the others in order to understand the plot of this book.

Sexual Content

  • Tallulah says to Nash that she can’t be late to class because she doesn’t want it to affect her college acceptance. Nash thinks, “Jesus she was serious. And it was sexy as hell.”
  • Nash’s ex-girlfriend sees him and Tallulah together at a restaurant only days after they officially broke up. Nash’s ex-girlfriend accuses him of being a player, and Tallulah gets upset and defends Nash. She says, “Oh, y’all just broke up on Tuesday? Was Hunter aware of that? Because the groping session that was going on in the hallway during second period Monday between the two of you made it seem you were perfectly available.”
  • Tallulah tells Nash that she knew Blakely, his ex-girlfriend, wasn’t right for him, but that his love life wasn’t her business. He corrects her and says, “Sex life, Tallulah. There was no love there.” Tallulah is embarrassed he said “sex” and when he realizes this, he says, “What if I say ‘blow job’?” He says this just to embarrass her. They share a first kiss after this conversation that is not described in any detail.
  • Before Nash heads to the sidelines of the football game, he kisses Tallulah. “Closing the distance between us, I slid a hand around her waist and tugged her close before placing my mouth firmly on hers. Just enough pressure to taste her.”
  • When Nash meets a famous YouTube vlogger the day after the football game, he asks him why he’s moving to Lawton. The vlogger says, “When your mother catches your father fucking your little brother’s college-age nanny in the pool, then shit happens.”
  • Tallulah and Nash go to his house to make out while his parents are at work. They kiss and take their tops off, but don’t go any further. “His eyes were locked on my chest. My breathing making it heave with each deep intake. . . He tugged me down on top of him, and I felt the rigidness under his pants as it pressed into my stomach.” Tallulah is nervous, and Nash says, “Tallulah, my pants are staying on. This is all I want. To hold you. I promise.” The scene lasts two pages.
  • A teacher and coach at school named Mr. Dace develops an inappropriate relationship with Tallulah. He asks her to help him with grading after school one day because she is his teacher’s assistant. While she’s helping him, he leans in and kisses her. “Coach D leaned in closer. . . (Coach D) closed the space between them.” Tallulah is shocked. “I jumped up, tripping. . . I had no words and wanted to leave just as his mouth covered mine. This was definitely not okay.” She runs away to the girl’s bathroom. Mr. Dace follows her to tell her how much she means to him and how much he loves her. Nothing else physical happens. This scene lasts four pages.
  • Nash’s ex-girlfriend is suspended from school. Nash “even told me about Blakely being suspended for being caught in the guys’ restroom giving Hunter a blow job in one of the stalls.” The guy was also suspended.
  • Dace makes advances on Tallulah again when she comes in early to help enter grades. She is uncomfortable being in his classroom with him alone. He invades her personal space. “It had moved past inappropriate now. . . He turned his head, and our faces were inches apart. . . He leaned in like he was going to kiss me again. . . I jerked my head to the side to miss his mouth and it landed on my cheek.” Tallulah runs out of the classroom, and the principal walks in to confront Mr. Dace after being alerted of the situation by a student who saw what happened. The scene lasts three pages.
  • Nash and Tallulah kiss after they reconcile at the end of the novel. “His palm touched my back and he pressed me closer. . . Then his lips touched mine.”

Violence

  • At school, a couple of girls get in a fight over the new superstar vlogger Haegan Baylor. The fight lasts two pages, is not described in detail, and is more drama than actual violence. “Pam had a handful of Julie’s red curly hair, and Julie was slapping the shit out of Pam’s face.”
  • Nash is in a car accident with Haegan. They are both extremely high after smoking weed. Their car collides with another car. Nash “heard the horn then. It was loud, the tires screeching almost sounded like screams. . . the clash of the vehicles slammed so hard my body jerked violently against the seat belt. . . His head was turned the other way, and he seemed limp. . . I shook his arm and his head fell forward, but not before I saw his eyes. Open and vacant. No life there.” Haegan dies in the crash. The scene lasts four pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Nash’s cousin brings Nash to a party after school because Nash has been feeling sorry for himself. It’s an effort to cheer him up, but all Nash thinks is how irresponsible it is to be drinking on a school night during the football season. Nash tells his cousin, “Stay focused. Get rest. Not drink beer for God’s sake.” Later during the party, the football coach shows up. He says, “if I call the cops, they’ll only care about the teens consuming alcohol and the smell of weed in the air.”
  • While walking towards the football field, Nash runs into a stranger smoking weed. The stranger throws his joint on the ground. Nash tells him, “This is Alabama, man. Pot’s not fucking legal.”
  • After seeing Coach Dace kiss Tallulah, Nash is very upset. He tells Haegan, “I need to get smoked.” They go to Haegan’s car to smoke pot when the chapter ends. In a following chapter, the scene picks back up. “Getting lit was probably the worst idea I’d had in a long time. . . We’d go to fucking jail if we were pulled over.” They continue to drive somewhere while high. It ends in a deadly accident.
  • While visiting Nash after the car accident, his cousin asks him if he has any beer. Nash doesn’t, saying, “My parents are being strict with that shit. Mom is worried I have a drug problem.”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes Holy shit, shit, fucking, fuck, fucked, bullshit, ass, hell, dick, damn, asshole, shit, shitty, bitch, helluva, bastard, dammit, douche, douchebag, and motherfucking.
  • Ryker, a kid at school, said, “Damn, I hope she don’t wear swimsuits in the summer. No one needs to see that.”
  • After Nash calls himself a cripple, Ryker says, “Jesus, Nash, don’t call yourself that.”
  • After it surfaces that Mr. Dace and Tallulah were involved, a girl says, “You deserve this, you little whore.”
  • Tallulah is viciously bullied after the school finds out about Mr. Dace and her being involved intimately. Students write “SLUT” in red lipstick on her locker and call her various names. People tell her. “Go home, you whore,” “No one wants you here, slut,” and various other insults.
  • Jesus, goddamn, and God are all used as exclamations a couple of times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Hannah Neeley

The Escapades of Clint McCool

Walter wants everyone to call him Clint McCool. He’s always thinking of new ideas. Clint McCool tries to stay out of trouble, but some days trouble seems to find him. Clink McCool’s two friends Marco and ML are coming over after school. As they are walking home, Clink McCool and his friends stumble across a sci-fi movie set. Clink McCool is determined to find a way to be the star of the show. With Clink McCool’s six-button hat, which brings him special pretend powers, Clint McCool knows he can help make the Octo-Man’s movie even better. But he ends up ruining some of the movie props and angering his friends. Is there any way Clint McCool can still save the day?

Readers will relate to Clint McCool as he goes on his escapades. Clint McCool always has new ideas. “Zing, zong, zing. Brain Flash!” But other people don’t always appreciate his great ideas. Clint McCool seems to get into trouble even when he’s trying to help. In one afternoon, he upsets his teacher, his mother, his two best friends, and the crew of the Octo-Man movie. As he goes on his adventures, blue and white comic-style illustrations bring the story to life.

Clint McCool has a hard time concentrating and focusing on one idea. A member of the film crew tells Clint McCool that if he doesn’t focus on one idea, “You won’t get anything done. Don’t let your ideas run wild. Be their boss.”

The story also highlights the importance of forgiving each other. Even though readers will find humor in Clint McCool’s outrageous escapades, parents may find his behavior obnoxious. Clint McCool is self-centered, doesn’t listen to anyone, and has a habit of destroying things (film props and his friend’s shirt). Even though he repeatedly sneaks onto the movie set and destroys props, in the end, he is forgiven and given a small role in the movie. The end of the story illustrates how everyone wants people to like them, even when they make a mistake, as well as the importance of apologizing.

Emerging readers who are transitioning to chapter books will enjoy the engaging art as well as the mischief Clint McCool gets into. Even though some pages only have text, the text uses simple sentences with easy vocabulary. Reading the story is fun because of the dialogue, onomatopoeias, and pictures that are scattered throughout the story. Octo-Man and the Headless Monster is an entertaining story with relatable characters that teach positive lessons. However, parents will not want their children to emulate Clint McCool’s behaviors.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Trying to keep Clint McCool off of the movie set, a guard grabs him. “I try to pull away. I have to get to Octo-Man. The shirt rips. I fall forward. I crash into Octo-Man. He drops the jar. Glass breaks. His brains ooze all over the sidewalk.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Catching Jordan

As a quarterback, senior Jordan Woods dreams to play in the big leagues. The only problem? She’s a girl. That doesn’t stop her from pursuing a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. When a new quarterback comes to town, she realizes that she will have some competition for her position on the field—and for her heart. Ty Green, the new quarterback, is extremely good-looking. Jordan has an instant crush on her competition, but he isn’t her only problem.

Her father, a starting NFL quarterback, won’t come to her games, and she’s under the scrutiny of college recruiters. To make matters worse, her best friend, Sam Henry, is in love with her. But Jordan doesn’t know how Sam feels, and it soon becomes complicated when Sam reveals his feelings. Jordan must figure out how to stand out on the football field and how to navigate dating relationships and young love.

Catching Jordan is a story that pulls readers in with realistic struggles. All her life she has had to fight against the world telling her that a girl could never stand up and play at the college level. Her own dad, a former NFL player, doesn’t want her playing out of fear of injury. She also has trouble trying to navigate dating and love, something she has always avoided out of fear of losing the respect of her teammates.

Although the story has some cliches, Jordan’s character makes reading Catching Jordan worthwhile. Readers will fall in love with Jordan. Even though Jordan is considered “one of the guys,” she has the same emotions as any other girl.  Whether she is venting about her father, or trying to figure out how to kiss, her voice comes across as real, honest, and funny. Readers will be able to connect with Jordan, who will take them on an emotional ride full of laughs and tears.

Even though the story features football, at the heart of the story is fun, flirty romance. However, the story isn’t just about love; it is also about overcoming obstacles and never giving up. Jordan isn’t afraid of standing up for what she believes in and she is willing to reach for her dream, even if it seems unattainable. The strong character development and interwoven football plays make Catching Jordan an excellent read for mature readers. Although the story appeals to sports fans, anyone who wants to read a fabulously fun story should pick up Catching Jordan.

Sexual Content

  • Henry speaks about a cheerleader saying, “I’d never fool around with Kristen—I have standards, you know.”
  • While joking around with some of the players, Henry says, “We’re a package deal.” JJ responds jokingly, saying, “That’s ‘cause all you ever think about is your package.” Just after this joke, JJ starts kissing Lacey, a cheerleader. They “start kissing as if winning the state championship depends on it.”
  • Jordan thinks about how she’s never had a boyfriend or even been kissed when her “friends are off hooking up with cheerleaders.”
  • Jordan asks why Henry is so confused about who he wants to date. He says, “I dunno. . . the sex is okay. . .” She asks him, “Why do you keep sleeping with girls you aren’t dating?”
  • Jordan says that JJ owed her because she covered for him once when “he’d been making out with Lacey and had lost track of time.” Later, Lacey asks Jordan if JJ has mentioned her. Jordan thinks to herself, “You mean, besides to tell me you guys slept together in the back of your mom’s car last night?”
  • Mike’s best friend Jake makes an inappropriate joke, saying, “I can teach you math in bed, Jordan. You know, I’ll add the bed, you subtract the clothes, you divide the legs, and I’ll multiply.” Later, Jake makes another comment saying, “Damn, Jordan. You should play tight end because your ass is wound tighter than a baseball.”
  • After Jordan tells her brother Mike about crushing on Ty, he says, “You might get hungry for his hunk of man meat.”
  • Jordan spends extra time getting ready in the morning to impress Ty. She wears lace underwear saying, “Provided they stay the hell out of my butt crack, they might make me feel sexier later on today.” Speaking of her bra, she says, “It shows off my boobs.”
  • Ty tells Jordan about the night he spent with Henry and some girls. “Henry and Marie made out for, like, an hour. . . Pretty soon I’m the only person still wearing clothes.” He does not describe anything that happened.
  • JJ asks where the fake baby that Jordan and Henry are taking care of for school is, and she replies, “He’s with his father, who’s probably sleeping with Marie Baird right now.” JJ says, “She’s a damn nice piece of ass.” Jordan responds, “Don’t be such a pig.”
  • Jordan is dared to jump in the lake in her underwear. She does, and Ty follows suit and jumps in with her in only his underwear. They start to kiss and become physical. “He drags his hands across my stomach, dipping a fingertip into my belly button, and I feel his mouth on my shoulder. . . I inch my fingertips across his shoulders and elbows as I move my mouth to his throat. . . I shiver when he runs a finger across my bare stomach, right above the elastic of my boy shorts, before exploring my body with his lips.” The scene lasts two pages.
  • Two girls talk badly about Jordan in the bathroom, upset and confused about why Ty would want to be with Jordan instead of them. They say, “Maybe he just wants to screw her because she’s a virgin.” They go on to say, “Maybe she’s a slut.”
  • Jordan is nervous that people will think badly of her when they find out she and Ty are dating. She tells Henry she’s afraid people will call her a “slut.” He responds saying, “Of course not. . . because I think you have to sleep with more than one person, possibly several, to be considered a slut.”
  • Jordan and Ty sleep together. It does not go into any detail. “And I just have to have him. Every bit of him. Now. . . A little while later, we’re still clinging to each other under the covers.”
  • Jordan talks to JJ about how she feels conflicted about dating Ty when she doesn’t know if she loves him. JJ says, “Hey, if the sex is good, what else do you need, eh?” She replies, “Well, um, I bet sex might be better if you’re actually in love.”
  • Jordan and Henry finally decide to become girlfriend and boyfriend. They make out in their hotel room, but don’t do anything else. The scene is not detailed. “We make out for what seems like hours, pausing only for cookies and champagne.”

Violence

  • Jordan gets sacked during a football practice. “I fly backward, slamming to the ground, my head rattling around inside my helmet. Ow.”
  • Jordan says that last year after a game, “JJ punched a guy from Northgate High for grabbing my butt after a game. ‘Show Woods some respect! Or I’ll kick your ass.’”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Henry and Carter go to a party. The next morning Henry texts Jordan saying, “Carter got trashed and made out with the freshman from lunch.”
  • A cheerleader brings drinks to a hangout at Jordan’s house. “‘Who wants a drink?’ Lacey asks, pulling these lame piña colada wine coolers out of her bag and passing them out to the other girls.”
  • Jordan and Henry drink champagne the night they finally become official. They are underage. “He opens his wallet and pulls out a fake ID, showing it off for me.”

Language

  • There is an extreme amount of foul language in this book. Jordan, the main character and narrator, uses “hell” and “shit” regularly.
  • Profanity is used in extreme. Profanity includes: “hell,” “asshole,” “ass,” “badass,” “idiot,” “shit,” “bullshit,” “shitload,” “damn,” “damned,” “fucking,” “fucked,” “fuck,” “bitch,” “whore,” “tool,” “slut,” “man-slut,” “dyke,” and “skank.” For example, someone says, “If I lose my confidence, I’m going to play like shit, and shitty players don’t get offered spots on Division 1 teams like Alabama.”
  • “Oh my God” and “Jesus” are both used as exclamations.
  • One of the cheerleaders and an opposing player both call Jordan a “dyke.”
  • Jordan calls some of the cheerleaders the “local bimbos” and one of them a “floozy.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jordan is thinking about the cheerleaders’ lack of knowledge about football. “Especially since he’s been spending time with girls who think a Hail Mary is a prayer to Jesus’s mom.”
  • Henry likes to say that Jordan should start “living life like I’m going to hell tomorrow.”
  • Jordan is thinking about Ty and how he is from Texas. “Texans take their football seriously. It’s practically a religion down there.” Later on, she says, “A Texas football player who doesn’t kneel down and pray to the Cowboys every Sunday?”
  • Jordan and Henry remember when they were younger and they went to Carter’s church Halloween bazaar. “It’s been nine years since Carter invited us to that Halloween bazaar at his church. . . all the booths were Bible-themed. The church had converted this long dark hallway into a replica of the inside of a whale’s stomach, so people could experience what it was like for Jonah after he was swallowed.”
  • Jordan plays poorly at a football game while a scout is watching. She says that she will “pray to the football gods to give” her another chance.

by Hannah Neeley

The Wild Robot

ROZZUM unit 7134, more frequently referred to as Roz, is the sole surviving robot of a shipwreck that lost nearly two hundred other robots. The island Roz is stranded on is devoid of any human life, but there are a wide variety of wild animals who all see Roz as a monster. Eventually, Roz begins to blend in with the animals, and she even learns how to speak like them. Roz soon becomes a part of the island.

The harmony Roz and the animals enjoy does not last very long. A ship spots Roz, and three “RECO” robots are deployed to bring her back to society. The RECO units will use force to get Roz to leave, but she wants to stay with the animals she has grown so attached to. In addition to raising a gosling, surviving winter, and almost becoming an animal, Roz now has to survive an encounter with her own kind.

The Wild Robot is, at first glance, a seemingly lighthearted book about a robot learning to live alongside animals. Even though Roz has many human qualities, she is not entirely relatable due to her robotic nature. However, readers will relate to Roz being in a new environment and not knowing what to do.  Like many people, Roz must adapt and overcome obstacles. Through her struggles, Roz receives help from the animals on the island and learns the value of friendship. They endure numerous hardships together, including death and violence between animals. Death is presented in the book, but the characters die in relatively tame ways and learn to cope with the loss of their friends and even parents in a healthy way.

Even though the story focus on a robot, it provides themes that can easily be related to the real world. The Wild Robot explores the difficulties of integrating into a new setting, as well as an adopted family between a robot and a gosling. Roz and the animals have to trust each other when outsiders threaten their home, and they become closer as a result. The Wild Robot creates an environment of diverse characters that cooperate for a common good.

The Wild Robot tells its story through short chapters that describe events at a rapid pace. With short sentences, chapters, and simple vocabulary, the book is very easy to read. The pictures in the book are sprinkled throughout the chapters, and they are drawn in a cute comic style depicting the events that Roz and the animals experience.

Peter Brown has created a story of an outsider overcoming prejudice, and he has done so in both a tranquil and thrilling way. The Wild Robot introduces characters who are not humans but think and act like humans. Although the story isn’t full of excitement, Brown keeps the reader’s attention through beautiful descriptions of the island, diverse characters, and a unique plot, ultimately creating a powerful story. Instead of having a happy ending, the conclusion is open-ended which allows the reader to come to their own conclusions as to what Roz will do. Roz’s next adventure continues in the second book in the series, The Wild Robot Escapes.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • There is no violence between humans, but there are multiple instances of violence occurring with robots described in a human way. For example, during a shipwreck, “Robot limbs and torsos were flung onto ledges. A robot head splashed into a tide pool. A robot foot skittered into the waves.”
  • The protagonist of the story observes “vultures hunched over carcasses.”
  • A fox recounts his attack of a porcupine, “I didn’t think that porcupine could see me in the bushes, but when I went for his throat, suddenly there were quills in my face.”
  • The main character falls into a goose nest, leaving “two dead geese and four smashed eggs among the carnage.”
  • Again, the main character is a robot with human attributes but still faces violence. Two bears “slashed at Roz’s body” at one point.
  • In the aftermath of a harsh winter, Roz finds “A frozen mouse. A frozen bird. A frozen deer,” as well as several other animals that have frozen to death.
  • After the snow from the aforementioned winter melts away, the frozen creatures become visible, and “their corpses were slowly revealed.”
  • A farmer with a rifle shoots a goose, described from the animals’ perspective as “a bright beam of light [shooting] out from the rifle, and Longneck slumped to the floor.”
  • A goose is “plucked by her foot and flung to the ground” by a robot.
  • A rifle is pulled apart, and a “blinding explosion” results in “Roz’s arms and legs… completely blown off.”
  • Geese surround a rifle and pick it up, then use it to shoot a robot, creating “a beam of light” that left the robot’s chest “glowing brilliant orange… melting and oozing down his front.”
  • An opossum “rolled onto her back, stuck out her tongue, and died,” although it was only faking its death.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • There are numerous instances of animals defecating, such as a robin “splatter[ing] her droppings across the robot’s face.”
  • Roz is called a “monster” and a “creature” by the animals multiple times.
  • Mr. Beaver is called “rude and stubborn.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Dylan Chilcoat

Outward Blonde

Sixteen-year-old Lizzie wants to forget the father who abandoned her and the mother who lives in a drug-induced fog. She spends her time shopping and partying with her best friend. One of Lizzie’s drunken escapades is caught on camera, and her bad behavior is shared with gossip sites.

Lizzie’s mother wants to make sure Lizzie doesn’t cause the family any more scandal, while her father wants her to get help. So in the middle of the night, two strangers whisk her away to Camp Smiley, a gritty wilderness survival program for troubled teens. Lizzie’s only goal is to escape. She doesn’t think she has anything in common with the other teen campers, and she has no desire to deal with her own demons. Will Lizzie escape back into her party life or will Camp Smiley be able to turn around this troubled teen?

Portrayed as a typical rich girl, Lizzie believes money can get her out of any situation. Lizzie’s only life goal is to shop and party. This spoiled, snotty rich girl spends much of her time whining—about her parents, the campers, the conditions of the camp, and everything in between. Even though Lizzie is portrayed as a wild, boy-crazy girl at the beginning of the book, Lizzie later gets upset that others think she is sexually active when she is still a virgin. The inconsistencies in Lizzie’s character are one reason Lizzie is a difficult character to care about.

Other characters are difficult to connect with as well. The camp staff is stereotypical; such as the ex-military camp director, who doesn’t think Lizzie can complete the program. Lizzie’s parents are also portrayed in an unrealistic, stereotypical manner. At one point, Lizzie’s dad says “and rather than allowing you to fall into the depths of despair, we’re sending you to a place where you can reconnect with the light inside you and find greater meaning in life.”

Although there are some funny scenes, much of the plot seems unrealistic. For example, when Lizzie and the other campers run away, a random stranger picks them up, takes them to his store to exchange their camp uniforms for clothes, and drives them to Vegas. Ultimately, too much time in this book is focused on Lizzie’s escape plan and partying, and not enough time is spent on her dealing with her issues.

The diverse cast of characters deals with some serious issues, including understanding one’s sexuality, gambling, bullying, and addiction. Outward Blonde has a lighthearted tone and shows readers the importance of forgiveness, accepting yourself, and helping others.

Sexual Content

  • When Lizzie goes on a Tinder date, her friend tells Lizzie the man might kill her, and if she was murdered, her friend would tell others “What I miss most about my BFF Lizzie Finklestein is sneaking out with her on school nights, using our never-fail fakes to get into all the best bars, doing body shots until we puke, and making out with random college guys who have no idea we’re still in high school.”
  • Lizzie sends a man a picture of herself highlighting her cleavage. When her friend won’t go to the bar with her to meet him, Lizzie says “I think you’re missing out. Because I’m pretty sure James Franco would be up for a threesome. Just think of the picture we’d get pretending we were going to go through with it—“
  • Lizzie meets a 25 year-old-man at the bar. While on the dance floor, “I turn around, grab his cheeks, and kiss him. He’s not half bad.” She later leaves the bar with him.
  • A boy nods toward a girl and says “I’d like to work her hole.”
  • When the group gets to camp, they are told “there is no inappropriate physical contact amongst anyone, whether of the opposite sex or same sex.” One of the teenagers asks “Can you define inappropriate? . . . And also if there are certain acts that are still considered appropriate? Like, maybe, blow jobs are out but hand jobs are okay?”
  • Lizzie thinks the camp counselors “want to roll their eyes and complain about what a big pain in the ass she is. And then jump each other’s bones.”
  • When a camper gets upset, a boy says “I’d tell you to calm your tits, but I just realized maybe glass blowing reminds you of why you ended up here. . . You know, using your God-given talents for evil instead of good. Blowing people.”
  • Lizzie wants to run away, but she doesn’t want to go alone. So she sneaks into a boy’s tent. When a counselor is outside the tent, Lizzie hides in the boy’s sleeping bag. The boy “grabs my hand, and puts it on his bulge. I snatch it back and punch him in the balls. He grunts.”
  • Later the boy apologizes and then his “lips graze mine. I’m still mad but I can’t resist; it’s an expert-level kiss. Just enough tongue. A nibble here and there. He licks my earlobe. I nuzzle his neck. He presses himself closer.” When he asks if Lizzie “wants to do it,” she gets angry and leaves.
  • One of the campers guesses that a girl is at camp because she is obsessed with “masturbating.” When the girl denies it, the camper says “Why not? I mean, who knows better than you what you like and how you like it?”
  • A camper is nervous about showering in front of others, but another girl thinks she is afraid to shower with a lesbian. She yells “Just because I’ve dated a lot of girls doesn’t mean I see every single person on Earth with a vagina as a potential partner, so it’s not your concern. . . You are not even close to being my type. For one, I dig blondes. Two your butt. Three, your tits. Not big enough.”
  • Lizzie threatens to “call your parents pretending to be the gyno and tell them your yeast infection is actually gonorrhea you got from banging all the guys at camp.”
  • While in Vegas, Lizzie, and Ari schedule “private time.” Lizzie goes into the bathroom to freshen up. When she comes out “Jem is on the bed. With Ari. They are intertwined. A tangle of tongues and hands and body parts.” Jem apologizes. Ari says “Hey, no need to fight over me, girls. There’s more than enough to go around.”
  • Jack and Lizzie kiss three times. One time, Lizzie leans down and “kisses the top of his head. . . and I kiss both his eyelids. And then I lay the softest one ever on his lips. . .”
  • When Lizzie was in elementary school she took a book to class for a book report, but she didn’t know what it was until she opened it in class. “. . . It turned out to be the Kama Sutra, which is like an illustrated Indian sex guide. So I basically taught my third grade class how to get laid. All because I didn’t actually read a book. . . “
  • One of the campers took “a picture of the nerdiest kid ever jerking off in the bathroom stall at school and sent it to his lax bros.” That kid tries to commit suicide because of the picture.

Violence

  • One of the girls is at camp because “the GUY I banged couldn’t stop bragging about it to the entire school. So I scratched fuckboy into his car and took a bat to his taillights.”
  • Lizzie and Sam plan to run away. Another camper hears them and threatens to tell. Sam “clamps a hand over her lips. . . Chandra peels Sam’s hand away. And then bites her.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lizzie’s mom is addicted to drugs. Lizzie doesn’t mind because the “anxiety disorder that required daily doses of Klonopin x Ambien = me being able to do whatever with whoever I want to, whenever I want to.”
  • When Lizzie’s mom comes to check on her, “her eyes are glassy and she’s a bit wobbly—both sure signs the medicine is already taking effect.”
  • Lizzie goes to a bar and drinks enough vodka clubs that “everything’s funny. Not to mention fuzzy. And fun.”
  • A group runs away from camp and goes to Vegas. While there, they drink Miami vices.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, asshole, bitch, bullshit, crap, damn, dick, fatass, fuck, motherfucking, shit, smartass, and WTF.
  • “Oh my God” and “OMG” are used as exclamations.
  • Lizzie’s dog likes to eat bull sticks. Lizzie thinks, “Whoever decided dried bull dick might be a good dog snack is a certified psycho. . . “ Later, Lizzie refers to the dog treat as “bull penis.”
  • When a police officer pulls over a car that Lizzie is a passenger in, she is “appalled at my extreme-level dumb-assery.”
  • After a police dashcam video is released of Lizzie’s bad behavior, she is dubbed “the Rich Bitch Billionairess.”
  • The director of the camp tells Lizzie, “I can’t wait to see your spoiled candy ass trying to make it through the solo overnight trip you’ll have to complete to graduate.”
  • Lizzie calls a boy a “jerk.”
  • A boy calls someone a “fag” and says, “I had you pegged for a dyke.”
  • A boy says his “balls are so chafed, I’m going to be walking like I fucked a horse today.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • After a police dashcam video is released, Lizzie is “shaking and praying—to who or what I don’t know—that it won’t hurt too much when they [her parents] kill me.”
  • When someone suggests that Lizzie pray, she responds, “I’m not really the praying type.”
  • The counselor says “Mother Earth, today another group of beautiful young people with unlimited potential joined us on our journey . . . Allow us to light their way back to happiness, to anoint them with love and laughter, to help them manifest their true and perfect selves.”

Pieces of Why

Twelve-year-old Tia dreams of changing the world with her voice. That all changes when a carjacking occurs outside of the church where she practices with the Rainbow Choir. When the carjacker kills an infant, people begin gossiping about Tia’s father who is in prison.

As Tia tries to understand the death of an infant, it makes her wonder why her father is in prison. Her mother refuses to go to any of Tia’s activities, and she also refuses to talk about Tia’s father. As Tia struggles with the question of why bad things happen, she discovers that sometimes the answers don’t bring understanding, but there can still be healing.

Pieces of Why is an excellently written book that brings the New Orleans streets alive. New Orleans is depicted as having a rich community with diverse people that are not always kind. Despite the fact that Tia is surrounded by her best friend’s family, the story shows life as it really is–twelve-year-olds can be cruel, adults’ gossip can hurt, and not everyone is accepting. Despite this, Tia learns that understanding and accepting the past is essential.

Pieces of Why is an easy-to-read, compelling story. Although the story revolves around the death of two children, the violence is not described in detail; however, the content of the story may upset young readers. Pieces of Why explores the beginning stages of finding a boyfriend and the feelings of liking the opposite sex. It is one of the few stories that show that not all boy-girl relationships end with a happily ever after, but that some end with hurt.

The story shows how all aspects of life are not clearly defined. People cannot be classified as all good or all evil. Even Tia’s father, who is a murderer, isn’t shown to be evil, but a man who made a tragic mistake. Pieces of Why does an excellent job of showing life as it is—messy, confusing, but good.

Sexual Content

  • When Tia and a boy are talking, another choir member sees them and asks, “You dog! Down here makin’ out with your girlfriend?”
  • Tia’s friend Keisha tells her, “We’ve made out before rehearsal. Twice . . . We were in the adult choir room and no one saw us.” Her friend said it was “nice.”
  • Keisha finds out that her boyfriend was cheating on her. “I let that boy touch me like he had some right to, and now . . . Do you think I’m not a good enough kisser?” She tells Mia, “Why did I ever trust him? I let him talk me into—.”  Tia then wonders if Keisha had done more than she was telling.
  • After singing a song together, Tia looked at Kenny. “. . . he looked handsome, so before I could chicken out, I leaned over and kissed him.”

Violence

  • During a carjacking, an infant is killed. After hearing the shots, the pastor goes out to investigate. Tia thinks, “. . . I knew that someone must have died. There was blood on his right hand, a thin streak from the thumb to the wrist, and I couldn’t stop staring at it. He wiped it off right away, but the image was branded in my brain.”
  • When Tia was four years old, her father was sent to prison. “My father had been out drinking.  He’d broken into the Mortons’ house late at night, shot their only daughter during the course of a robbery, narrowly escaped through a back window, and then hid from police before being caught.”
  • Tia’s mother describes the night that Tia’s father shot a girl. He, “came home with blood on his hands. It dripped onto the floor right where you’re standing, and when he told me what he’d done, I screamed so loud, you hid in the closet behind the brooms and dust mop . . . I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed that girl’s blood off the floor. Took me days.”
  • When Tia gets angry and yells at her mother, her mother slaps her.
  • Tia’s father tries to explain why he killed the girl. “It was a whole bunch of stupid decisions one right after the other. Shouldn’t have been drinking, shouldn’t have been in that house, and shouldn’t have had my gun. Shouldn’t have bought the damn thing in the first place.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Tia has to walk by a group of gang men that are, “Hanging out on the steps of a boarded-up building drinking beer.”
  • Tia’s father said he was drunk when he broke into the house and shot the girl. “I wish I would’ve thought it through some more, but I didn’t and some things . . . you can’t take ‘em back.”

Language

  • When Tia was four she visited her father in jail, and he said it wasn’t her fault that she had a “trucker” for a dad. “Years later I’d realized my dad hadn’t said trucker after all. He’d said a real bad word instead . . .”
  • Tia’s friend said she felt “crappy” that she didn’t know about something.
  • Tia’s father uses the word damn.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The Rainbow Choir practices in a church and there are often references to God. After the carjacking the pastor said, “the devil is roaming.”
  • As the Rainbow Choir begins to sing, the director said, “That’s right. Lift it up to the Lord.”
  • After the carjacking, the director is upset that half of the choir doesn’t show up, and she blames the devil for stealing half of the choir. “I guess God never said He was going to make things easy, now did He?”
  • Tia sees a picture of the baby’s mother. “Her face was turned up to the sky as if she were sending God an ocean of fury. Maybe God deserved her anger. Or maybe the person who did the carjacking deserved it and God was getting a raw deal. I don’t know.”
  • Tia asks the choir director, “Do you believe in the stuff we sing about? I mean, about God being good and people going to heaven when they die?” The director tells Tia about where gospel music came from and told Tia, “But what matters is what you believe.”

Whippoorwill

Wally had become just another piece of junk that littered Danny’s yard until Clair took notice of the old dog and her life began to change in more ways than she could have imagined. As Clair and Danny begin to train Wally with the help of a book written by Father Jasper, Clair learns a lot about people too.

Whippoorwill explores the idea that everyone needs someone in their pack. When Clair gets a glimpse of Danny’s home life, she realizes that people as well as dogs need love and guidance. Still, Clair struggles with her feelings towards Danny. She is at times flattered by his attention, but uneasy with the fact that Danny is needy.

When Danny asks Clair to spend the day with him, she looks forward to the adventure. However, when the day ends with a police chase and Danny ends up in jail, Clair realizes that sometimes you can’t fix other people’s problems.

Dog lovers will enjoy reading Whippoorwill. Most of the action in the story takes place with Wally, a neglected dog who, with some training, turns into a wonderful dog. Clair leans much about caring for dogs—and people—throughout the story.

One of the best parts of this book is the relationship between Clair and her father. Although their life is far from perfect, they accept each other how they are. Because the story is told from Clair’s point of view, the reader gets to see her thought process and her confusion about how to navigate her first boy/girl relationship. Even though Clair is not a particularly remarkable character, dog lovers will like following Clair’s journey as she learns about Wally and about life.

Sexual Content

  • Clair’s father tries to explain teenage boys to her. He compares boys to wild ponies. “Not ponies, maybe, but something wild and just bent on . . . procreation. On moving their gene pool further into the future . . . What I mean is, girls sometimes think about love, or friendship, while guys. . .”
  • Clair kisses Danny several times. After he kisses her the first time, she thinks, “I did feel good, or curious about what was going on, and I kind of liked kissing Danny. His lips had been thin and even, not wet or sloppy at all, and his shoulders had been good when I put my hands on them.”
  • In one scene Danny pulls Clair onto his lap and kisses her. “It felt clumsy and awkward, and I wanted to get up and get away from him, but his arms went around me and then something melted in me and I gave in a little . . . His tongue flicked into my mouth and I wasn’t sure if that was something I wanted or understood, but then it started to feel natural and exciting and real.”
  • When Danny kisses Clair, “up against the wall of the bowling alley,” she begins to analyze it. “So this is what it means to kiss a boy, and this is how they do it, and this is where his arms go, and this is how he breathes through his nose.”
  • Clair’s friend tells her a story of a girl, “whose boyfriend broke up by sending a picture of himself in bed with another girl.”
  • Clair’s friend likes a guy and wonders if the guy is over his old girlfriend and, “if they had had sex.”

Violence

  • When police officers begin following Danny’s car, Danny begins speeding. When Clair gets scared, Danny stops the car, jumps out, and begins running. Some police officers chase Danny down and pin him to the ground, while another officer yells at Clair to, “get out of the car.” Clair didn’t know what was going on, and she didn’t realize the cop was yelling at her, “and that a cop I had never met had a gun pointed at me and he seemed ready to use it . . . He knelt in the center of my back. Hard. He deliberately put his full weight on me, and I felt my face go into the dirt.”
  • The book implies that Danny’s father abused Danny and his mother.
  • Danny was arrested because he, “crashed a car battery into his father’s head . . . It looked like a heck of a fight, but I’m guessing most of that was the father’s blood. From the looks of it, the father didn’t manage to bruise Danny much.”
  • Danny described the fight between him and his dad. “He came up to my room and he grabbed me by the ear. I was in bed and half asleep and he kind of lifted me out of bed by the ear. . .he’d been drinking. . .He kept flicking spoonfuls of hot water at me, so I tried to go past, to go to bed, and he grabbed me by the ear again and I swing at him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Clair’s father’s friend drinks a Budweiser and at dinner, Clair’s father drinks a beer.
  • When Danny’s phone keeps ringing, Clair asks him, “What are you, a drug pusher?”

Language

  • Clair’s neighbor, “pumped the bird at me.”
  • When Clair asks her neighbor if she could walk his dog, he replied, “You can take the effing dog.”
  • One of the characters calls his dad a “jackass.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Listen to the Moon

Twelve-year-old Merry will never forget the day a German U-boat shot down the Lusitania. That was the day her life took a tragic turn as most of the passengers on the ship died, including Merry’s mother. In an amazing turn of events, Merry is saved, only to be abandoned on the uninhabited St. Helen’s Island.

When fisherman Jim Wheatcroft and his son find Merry, she is injured, ill, and unable to talk or remember who she is. Wheatcroft’s family tries to help Merry, who they call Lucy, heal from her physical and emotional wounds. However, the family had no idea how cruel their community would become when they believed Lucy was German.

Listen to the Moon chronicles the true story of a young girl who left for England to be with her injured father and ended up on a small island during World War II. It is a story of bravery, friendship, and kindness.

The story is amazing; however, the slow pace and topic of war may make it difficult for younger readers to get through the story. Although the violence is nothing shocking, the story shows what happens to those who go to war; it also highlights the injuries and hopelessness of a boy who comes back from the war.  The reader will see the death of the people on the Lusitania, but they will also see the kindness of German soldiers as they help the young girl survive.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Alfie and a boy get into a fight at school. “Alfie was on his feet, grabbing Zeb and pinning him against the wall, shouting in his face, nose to nose.”
  • The school teacher hits students on the knuckles with the edge of the ruler when they misbehave. The teacher also “grabs [Lucy] by the arm and jerked her to her feet . . . In his fury he took her by the shoulders now, and shook her.”
  • The passenger ship Lusitania is bombed by a German U-boat and sinks. The sinking of the ship is described as well as the lifeboats leaving people to die. “The ocean was littered with wreckage as far as the eye could see, and among it were hundreds of people, swimming for their lives, many of them losing their lives as I watched.”
  • A crowd of school children closes in around Alfie. Then Lucy jumps on one of the boys. Lucy was, “hanging on to him, her forehead pressed into his back . . . Alfie was knocked over from behind to the ground. Then punching and kicking began. As he curled himself into a ball, he saw Lucy sitting astride Zeb and pummeling him, but then the others pulled her off and began kicking her to . . .”
  • A German sailor talks about sinking ships. He talks about the men who die. “You can hear them shout, hear them scream. For a sailor to kill a sailor is like killing a brother.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The doctor smokes a pike and washes his fish pie down with a glass of beer.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • As the people are dying, Lucy describes the dying people, who cries were, “begging for help from God, from anyone, help that I knew neither God nor I could give.”
  • During a sermon, a pastor talks about the German enemy. “He lost no opportunity to remind everyone of the barbaric atrocities committed by the German enemy, the bayoneting of little children in brave little Belgium, and the shameful torpedoing of the Lusitania. . . Always remember we are fighting for God and our country, against the forces of evil. Did not the Angel appear to our troops at Mons? Is not God on our side, on the side of freedom and right?”
  • Jim, the man who took Lucy in, tells his wife, “. . . there is a God in heaven, which you know I have my doubts about. Then that God of yours will look after Lucy, won’t he, even if it turns out she speaks German? God helps those who help themselves, don’t he?”
  • When Lucy thinks about her father, “I thank God I did not know much then of the dangers he was in, nor of the horrors of that dreadful war.”

Almost Home

Sugar’s life isn’t perfect, but she’s content. She has a best friend, a teacher who encourages her to write, and a home to go to. When life throws difficulties her way, Sugar looks at the bright side. But when Sugar becomes homeless, she had a hard time finding the good in life.

Then Sugar’s mother Reba decides to move to Chicago hoping for a fresh start, but when Reba doesn’t get the job she had hoped for, she has a nervous breakdown. Sugar and her puppy Shush are moved into foster care. Throughout the story, Sugar holds on to her dreams and learns that life can be good, despite her circumstances.

Sugar is as sweet as her name. She is an engaging character that the reader will fall in love with. She pours out her feelings of fear, loneliness, and confusion through poetry, which allows the reader to understand Sugar’s thoughts and emotions. Sugar’s cute, fearful puppy is added to the mix which makes Almost Home even more enjoyable. As Sugar narrators her own story, the reader gets a glimpse of what it feels like to be homeless. Because Sugar is a sixth-grader, the story is told in a manner that is age-appropriate for younger readers.

There is much to like about Almost Home. Sugar meets interesting characters of all ages who add delight to the book. The majority of the adults in the book are shown to be kind people who only want to help. And even though Sugar’s mother Reba has a nervous breakdown, in the end, Reba shows that despite her imperfections, she truly is trying to be a better person because she loves her daughter.

Much of Sugar’s life lessons came from her grandfather, King Cole, who imparted much wisdom about not giving up. Even though her grandfather is dead, his character still shines through. Through sharing Sugar’s story, the reader will learn that sometimes taking one step takes great courage, but it’s necessary to keep moving if you are going to keep your dreams alive.

Sexual Content

  • One of the character’s dad cheated on her mother and went into hiding. Later the character discovers that after her father disappeared, he married another woman and had a son.
  • Mr. Leeland “gives Reba a too-long kiss.”

Violence

  • A boy tells Sugar, “I had a dog—it died. It keep barking, so my uncle shot it.”
  • When Mr. Leeland shows up drunk, one of the children “makes a big run at him from behind, shouts a war cry, and pushes him down. Mr. Leeland is on his face moaning.” Reba then stands on him. “She digs her heels into his back.” And then she kicks him out of the house.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Sugar’s father, who she calls Mr. Leeland, comes and goes, but never stays long. “He only cared if there was food and beer in the refrigeration. . .” Later Sugar talks about when Mr. Leeland got drunk. At the end of the book, he reappears drunk.
  • Sugar is living in a shelter that does not allow drinking. Her mother, “normally doesn’t drink, except when Mr. Leeland is around, but she and this lady Evie, who lives at the shelter, they have a drink now and then in Evie’s room.”
  • One of the characters talks about her foster daughter who was on and off drugs and ended up dying of an overdose. The character tells Sugar, “Drugs are out there, and they’re looking for kids to destroy . . . You’ll never feel worse than you do on drugs. You could end up like Tonya—stone cold dead.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Sugar was born in the back seat of a car. In the narration, Sugar explains, “When I popped out and Reba saw the Sugar Shack sign, she felt it was a sign from God; right there I got my name. At least God told her to stop at Sugar. Sugar Shack Cole would have been a chore to live with.”
  • Sugar writes prayers to God. When she is in a difficult situation, Sugar “tried to pray like King Cole told me, but I couldn’t. I felt like the earth had opened up and swallowed us into a dark place—a place no prayers ever got answered.”
  • Sugar wonders, “If King Cole can see me from heaven. I wonder if God is paying attention, or if he’s off helping people who have places to live.”

 

Close to Famous

Twelve-year-old Foster dreams of having her own cooking show on the Food network. When she and her mother flee Nashville and end up in the tiny town of Culpepper, Foster worries that her dream is over. When Lester, a tow truck driver, offers to let them live in the Airstream trailer in his backyard, they take him up on his offer because they have nowhere else to go.

Foster begins to feel at home as she makes friends and gets herself a job baking for the local coffee shop. When she meets Charleena Hendley, a once-famous actress, Foster is forced to face her biggest challenge—learning to read. Close to Famous has a string of loveable characters, who each have their own challenges. Although the story does not have a fairy tale ending, the ending is surprisingly heart-warming.

In Close to Famous Joan Bauer tackles the difficult issue of domestic abuse and losing a loved one in an age-appropriate way. In the end, Foster learns the importance of never giving up, and how true friends help a person overcome their challenges. As Foster tells her story, she brings the small town of Culpepper and its residents to life. Close to Famous is an easy-to-read, engaging story that has humor, and heart.

Sexual Content

  • One of the character’s husbands had an affair and left her. “Mike Tuller was my husband, and he started seeing a supermodel while we were married . . . I was devastated, humiliated.”

Violence

  • When Foster’s mother, Ryka, tells her boyfriend that the relationship is over, he becomes violent. “Huck was shaking her by the shoulders . . . That’s when he hauled off and punched her in the eye. I did a flying leap toward him; he pushed me away.” Foster screams and the neighbors begin yelling. Foster and her mother leave.
  • Foster’s mother returns to Nashville to get some belongings. While she is there, she sees her x-boyfriend. When she returns to Culpepper, her arm has a big bruise on it. “I only saw him for an hour, and when I was heading out the door, he grabbed my arm and yanked it back hard, but I left anyway. That’s how I got the bruise.”
  • Ryka’s father was abusive. She tells Foster, “. . . he hit my mother. . . Once she called the police on him, but his cousin was on the force and he covered the whole thing up.”
  • While checking out at the grocery store, someone mentions that “Zeke got jumped at the prison. Wasn’t paying attention.”
  • A prisoner escapes and goes to the house where his family was staying, and begins yelling. The confrontation is described over several pages. In the end, the prisoner ends up leaving. When he leaves Foster says, “I heard a noise outside, sounds of a fight, then shouting, ‘I’m making a citizen’s arrest.’”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Foster and her mother acknowledge God’s existence and pray to him. While she was in a difficult situation she thinks, “I hope that God can see us through the fog. Because if he can’t, we’re in big trouble.”
  • When Foster asks if memorizing is cheating, she is told that “You use whatever God’s give you.”

5 to 1

Women rule the land. Women are respected. Women built Koyanagar into a country where women could do anything. But to accomplish this, they had to put men into their place.

If they want chance at having a better life, the boys of Koyanagar must compete for a wife. Those who do not have a wife—and do not give their wife a female child—will be forced to guard the wall. Everyone knows once you’re sent to guard the wall, it’s only a matter of time until you end up dead.

Sudasa should feel excited about having young men compete for her hand in marriage. As she watches the test though, she realizes her cousin is among the contestants and has been given an unfair advantage over the others. Someone wants to make sure her cousin is the clear winner of the test.

The only boy who could possibly beat Sudasa’s cousin is Kiren. But there’s a slight problem, as Kiren hopes to gain his freedom by losing the test. Sudasa knows that Kiren may be her only hope in avoiding a marriage to a cousin who she despises. Yet, she also knows that Kiren doesn’t want to win the test and be forced to marry her.  As she wrestles with the right thing to do—for herself and for Kiren—she discovers Koyanagar isn’t based on fairness at all.

5 to 1 is written from both Sudasa’s and Kiren’s point of view. Sudasa’s story is written in verse; however after reading the first page, the reader will be so engrossed in the story that they forget that they are reading poetry. Because Kiren’s point of view is in prose, it is easy to keep track of which character is speaking.

The world of Koyanagar is mesmerizing and unique. The characters come to life and add interest to the story. The two main characters drive the action. Both characters are struggling to do the right thing, and in doing so they capture the reader’s heart.

The only down side of 5 to 1 is the story ended without having the conflict completely resolved. The end of the book is frustrating because Kiran and Sudasa’s fates are unclear.

Sexual Content

  • In a speech, the president talks about when girls were sold, “to the highest bidder.” And some were, “raped, fated for ruin.”
  • One of the contestants tells a guard, “I bet you wish it was still the old country, huh? A man should be able to stick it to his wife whenever he wants, and if she doesn’t like it, he should be able to slap her senseless.”
  • A contestant tells Sudasa, “You’ll be the one sweating in our marriage bed.” When she slaps him, he laughs at her.

Violence

  • Abortion is talked about throughout the book. Before Koyanagar became a country, many families aborted girl children. Now women abort boy children.
  • The president of the country tells the people, “The people took their money and spent it on illegal ultrasounds. If they didn’t hear the words ‘It’s a boy,’ they spent more money on doctors who could quietly made the problem go away. If they couldn’t afford these luxuries, they waited nine months and then took care of things themselves. Some abandoned their baby girls in a park, knowing they would be sold to lands far away. Other used a towel. A pail. And a grave.”
  • There are several references to Agnimar Cliff where young men go to jump off the wall and end their life. Boys who are weak or do not want to be trained to guard the wall jump off Agnimar Cliff.
  • A boy was killed because he, “refused to tell the State where his girlfriend was hiding.”
  • Sudasa’s sister says that she would abort a baby if it was a boy. She would do this even if abortion is illegal. When Sudasa protest, her sister says, “You saw that disabled boy competing for you. Do you think a mother would want a boy like that in her belly?”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • People wanted boy children because they could, “attend their funeral pyres and release their souls to heaven.” A character gives a boy a proper funeral pyre to “free the boy’s soul for rebirth.”
  • Being invited to be a part of the marriage test is supposed to be an honor. “That’s what she keeps saying, as if the mere act of being invited to fight for one’s life is a gift from the gods we’re not supposed to believe in anymore. I don’t believe in them, but not because religion has been banned . . . I just don’t think a being that’s good and fair would lie a place like Koyanagar exist.”
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