The Night Journey by Kathryn Lasky

Rachel isn't supposed to ask her great-grandmother, Nana Sashie, about her past.  Her parents say it upsets her.  But Nana Sashie seems to want to tell Rachel her story.  Rachel begins sneaking up to Nana Sashie's room whenever she can, and listens in amazement to Nana Sashie's story of her family's escape from tsarist Russia.

There are so many books about the Holocaust, and those are very important books.  There are fewer books about tsarist Russia, and how Jews were treated during this time period.  There are fewer books about Jews who were subject to pogroms by Russian soldiers that could happen at any moment, and the fact that despite this treatment, Jewish men were forced to serve in the army.  Books like these are important so that history is not forgotten.

Rachel is a typical pre-teen.  Her parents annoy her at times.  She isn't thrilled with having to sit with her great-grandmother, who isn't always lucid.  But when Nana Sashie begins talking about how her family escaped from Russia, Rachel is pulled into the story.  She had no idea that this was part of her family history.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel what it was like to live in Russia during this time period.  Jews were constantly afraid.  They never knew when a pogrom might happen.  At any moment their village could be full of Russian soldiers who would kill everyone and burn down the village.  And there was no one to stop them, and there were no consequences for the killers.  Nana Sashie was just a little girl when her father decided they must leave Russia.  But the family, made up of Sashie, her mother and father, her two younger siblings, her grandfather and her aunt, couldn't just leave.  They couldn't just stroll over the border.  They would have to find a way to sneak themselves close enough to the border, and then bribe a guard to get them across.  It would be very dangerous.  They would need a plan.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel how she came up with much of the plan on her own, even though she was a little girl.  The escape had many frightening moments, when it seemed like they might be caught, which would certainly mean death.  But they made it.

Rachel begins to see how important it is to Nana Sashie that she tells someone this story.  It's important that someone knows and someone remembers what happened so long ago.  Rachel begins to write down her great-grandmother's story so it will never be forgotten.

A Millions Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget

Poppy Parker has lived with her grandmother practically her whole life.  But now Grandma Beth has had a stroke and can't take care of Poppy anymore, which means Poppy is stuck in an orphanage.  Things get even more confusing when Poppy is witness to a crime and the police want to keep an eye on her until the suspect is caught.  Poppy ends up in the home of Detective Brannigan's mother.  Poppy just wants everything to go back to the way it was before, but some changes are here to stay.

A lot was going on in this book.  There's Poppy having to deal with her grandmother's stroke and scheming to get her home, there's the crime Poppy's seen committed and maybe the suspect is looking for her, there's the German shepherd, Gunner, at the animal shelter she volunteers at that might get put to sleep.  It was a lot, and sometimes it seemed like all the different plots were fighting against each other.  Most of the time, however, I suspended my disbelief because it was a good story and I liked Poppy.

Poppy is described as being "impulsive."  She doesn't always think things through.  It's because she so much wants to see her grandmother she can't wait another day and heads out on her own to find her, even though she doesn't even really know where the nursing home her grandmother is recovering at is, that she inadvertently is a witness in a drug store robbery gone wrong that leaves the cashier dead. Poppy was face-to-face with the bugler.  The police don't have enough people to make sure Poppy is safe at all times while they search for their suspect, so Detective Brannigan brings Poppy to his mother's house.

News

East Harlem bookstore launches book drive to aid unaccompanied child immigrants.  From SLJ.


10 books that deserve TV adaptations.  From Flavorwire.

Frozen director to direct A Wrinkle in Time.  From Mashable.

Sony will release a female superhero movie from the Spider-Man world in 2017.  We'll see if that actually happens.  From Uproxx.

Teachers pick the 14 best bookstores in the U.S.  From BuzzFeed.

5 questions for Neil Gaiman about The 13 Clocks.  From The Wall Street Journal.

What YA authors and publishers can do to fight e-book piracy.  From PW.

How librarians can help fight the culture of slut-shaming.  From SLJ.

David Levithan to release musical-novel spin off of Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  From Entertainment Weekly.

Singapore halts pulping of gay-themed children's books.  From The Guardian.

10 things your probably didn't know about The Giver.  From BuzzFeed.

What's hot in YA.  From SLJ.

Should it matter whether To Kill a Mockingbird is YA fiction?  From Flavorwire.

Why YA needs heroines beyond Katniss Everdeen.  From The Telegraph.

Why poor schools can't win at standardized testing.  From The Atlantic.
If I Stay movie adaptation comes out soon.  From PW.

Take a look at the trailer.  I will admit I may have gotten a little teary.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

Ruby's mother died, and now she has to leave her home and her friends, her boyfriend and everything she's ever know and move in with her father on the opposite coast.  Her father who left before she was born, who Ruby has never seen or spoken to.  At least in real life.  Ruby's father is a famous actor.  And now she's stuck with him.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies was written in verse, which for most books written this way I often feel that it doesn't work super well, like the writer just didn't want to have to worry about hashing things out and went with stream of consciousness instead.  In this case, however, I liked it a lot.  It made sense that Ruby would be writing in a fractured, distracted kind of way.  She feels fractured and distracted.  She's mourning the loss of her mother, but on top of that, she's mourning the loss of everything that's been familiar to her her entire life.

When Ruby first arrives in L.A., she's naturally miserable.  She angry and resentful of her father, who couldn't take the time from his busy movie career to call or visit her.  She misses her best friend and her boyfriend.  She misses her aunt, who's going off on a six month archaeological dig with her boyfriend and won't even be available for Ruby to talk to.  And, of course, she misses her mother.  And on top of all that she has to start a new school, which turns out to be this weird, hippy place full of famous actor's kids and Ruby feels lost and out of place.

As time goes on, Ruby struggles to stay miserable.  Her father, Whip (yes, Whip) is always nice to her and is always trying to give her things and take her places.  Her father's assistant is really nice and he and Ruby get on great.  She's making some friends.  She even flirted with another guy and instantly feels guilty.  And as the book goes on, we learn more about Ruby's mother.  Ruby's mother wasn't perfect.  Not that she was a bad parent by any means, but that she had her flaws, just like anyone else.  Ruby feels guilty thinking about that too.

Spoilers

Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

Ribblestrop is a school like no other.  There is no roof.  The teachers are a bit odd, and strange things are going on in the secret underground labyrinth of the building.  The students are an unusual mix as well, from Millie, an arsonist who's been kicked out of her other schools, Sanches, the son of a Colombian gangster, to Sam, who's had the bad luck to fall into the middle of it all.

I did not enjoy.  My expectations were high because Ribblestrop was actually published in the UK in 2009 and won The Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize.  I mostly didn't like it because I felt like it was a book full of unpleasant characters that I didn't care about.  I've had this issue before.  When everyone is unpleasant, it's very hard for me to get invested in the story.  Most unlikable was Millie, and she was suppose to be our antihero.  The problem was she was so unpleasant I wanted someone to put her in her place.  The problem with that was that everyone else was so unpleasant I didn't want them to come out on top either.  So yeah.  I spent the whole book shaking my head over how nasty everyone is. 

A quote from the publisher's website is "With the "crazy-school appeal of Hogwarts and the grim humor of Lemony Snicket" ("The Independent") Ribblestrop is sure to delight the most mischievous among us."  And maybe it will, although I totally disagree with The Independent.  Hogwarts didn't have a "crazy-school" vibe for me, and the tone of Ribblestrop is completely different from A Serious of Unfortunate Events, which I loved.  It didn't have that sly, tongue-in-cheek humor.  There wasn't really any humor in Ribblestrop.

Just because I did not enjoy the book does not mean others won't.  While the nastiness turned me off, that could certainly be an appeal for some kids.  It has adventure and mystery.  It has descriptions of soccer games.  It has a creepy science-fiction sort of twist.  It has a car chase.  I can certainly see how it would appeal.

Aside from Millie, the other characters were either unappealing or undeveloped.  The school has brought in a whole bunch of orphans from overseas.  Some of the orphans get names, most of them don't.  What we know about the orphans is that they're just so delighted to be at the school and will cheerfully do any kind of work needed.  The whole "we've taken in a bunch of orphans from a third-world country and are making them rebuild our school" thing made me a little uncomfortable.  Another main characters is Sanchez, the gangster's son, who's actually fairly decent, but like everyone else gives into Millie and I really wish he hadn't.  He was doing so well telling her to shove off, but then he gave in.  Even Sam, who's supposed to be sweet a lovable annoyed me.  Stand up for yourself, Sam!

But you know what, I did read the whole book.  I didn't give up part way through.  So I guess you win, Ribblestrop.

Ribblestrop comes out August 19, 2014.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

For her entire life, Amanda has celebrated her birthday with her best friend, Leo, born the same day.  But not this year.  Amanda and Leo haven't spoken to each other since a fight on their tenth birthday, and this year, on their eleventh, they'll be celebrating apart for the first time.  Amanda can't wait for the day to be over, she isn't looking forward to her birthday party at all.  Unfortunately, her birthday keeps happening over and over and over again.

It was like Groundhog Day, only for middle grade!  Every morning Amanda wakes up and it's her birthday again.  She has to repeat the same day over and over.  She's desperate to figure out why.  Amanda didn't have a great first day of her birthday.  There was a pop quiz, she tried out for cheer leading, which she doesn't even really want to do, because her friend is.  And then, of course, her party.  It's a costume party and she hates her costume and hardly anyone comes because they're all at Leo's more extravagant party.  And she hates what happened last year between her and Leo, and is still hurt by it.

As Amanda's day repeats, she starts to try different things.  At first she was too scared to change anything.  Then she starts trying small things.  And then she realizes that the same thing is happening to Leo.  They figure out it must have to do with their fight last year, so together they start unraveling the mystery, which involves their ancestors and a curse.

I enjoyed the story.  It was predictable but fun and warm.  It isn't until Amanda and Leo start working together and make up that they're able to make some progress and start figuring out how to escape the loop.  But Amanda doesn't just use her repeated time to fix her relationship with Leo.  She also learns more about herself as a person, and to be more considerate of others.  She starts to think about her older sister, who seems so perfect but actually has a lot on her mind.  Amanda helps her mother and father.  She helps herself to, by deciding to be true to herself and what she really wants, not what her friends want.  Leo also uses his time well, dealing with some bullying issues, but we don't get his perspective as much since the book is written from Amanda's point of view.

It's a great pick for those middle school kids who just want a nice read.  No heavy issues and everything works out at the end. 

News

Middle grade and YA: where to draw the line?  From PW.

Research shows closing school libraries and cutting certified librarians does not make sense.  From SLJ.

How Harry Potter shaped a generation.  From boing boing.


Also, kids who read Harry Potter have more positive views on gay people and immigrants. From BuzzFeed.

Comic-Con 2014: authors flourish in spotlight as Young Adult genre grows up.  From The Guardian.

"We Need Diverse Books" moves forward.  From PW.


Highlights from Daniel Radcliffe's first Comic-Con.  From Entertainment Weekly.

“Gay Penguin” book allowed to remain in Singapore libraries.  From SLJ.

John Green books under fire again.  From Los Angeles Times.

Dark, creepy children's books every kid should read.  From Flavorwire.

School librarian fights summer slide with school bus-turned-bookmobile.  From SLJ.

Holly Black will be writing the next Dr. Who adventure.  From The Guardian.

Loosing school librarians in Chicago.  From WBEZ.

Lois Lowry on The Giver movie.  From The New York Times.

Learning to read may take longer than we think.  From NPR.