The Center of Everything by Linda Urban

Ruby Pepperdine lives in Bunning, New Hampshire, the supposed home of the donut.  Each year, there is a Bunning Day parade to celebrate, and this year, Ruby is the one who will read her Bunning Day essay aloud.  Ruby knows, just knows, that if she can make everything happen just right, she will get her wish.  She will be able to fix what happened, and everything will go back to the way it's suppose to be.

I loved the framing device and narrative style of this story.  We start in the present, with Ruby standing in the circle where she'll soon be reading her winning essay, doing everything she can to make her wish come true, looking for signs that it will.  It's mixed with flashbacks that build the story and explain how Ruby got where she is and why she feels this wish is so important.  But we also get inside the heads of characters that aren't really important to the story, but their actions are important in some way.  These sections would often take place in second person, which isn't something you often see and I liked a lot.  For instance, a chapter might begin, "If you were so and so, you might be thinking...." and then we'd get some character's perspective on something.  The connection was something that character would do, which had nothing to do with Ruby or her wish, would inadvertently effect Ruby.  So  many things were connected, in some small way.

Ruby is the kind of kid that often gets passed over.  She's quiet.  She does exactly what she's told to do, but no more.  She does fine in school.  She's reliable.  When her beloved grandmother dies, Ruby doesn't exactly know how to handle her feelings of sadness and regret, and everyone else around her, her parents, her aunts and uncles, all seem to have gone back to the way they always were.  Why is she the only one who feels like this?  So Ruby shoves down the feeling and tries to be her reliable, helpful self.  But it's getting harder.  When she wins the essay contest, Ruby knows this is a sing that everything is going to come together and she will have a chance to do things over.  Somehow.

Ruby's best friend Lucy frustrated me.  Lucy came off as pretty self focused.  She, just like everyone else, was use to Ruby being good-old-reliable-Ruby who always does what she's told and is always there for everyone else.  When Ruby isn't there to sit through every one of Lucy's play practices, Lucy gets angry.  And she gets angry that Ruby hasn't been telling her things, but seriously, Ruby couldn't get a word in edgewise!  It was great that Ruby was starting to be able to voice what she wanted and needed.  She clearly cares about Lucy very much.  Perhaps going forward their relationship won't be so one-sided.

Ruby also makes a new friend, Nero, who she wouldn't have gotten to know if she wasn't trying so hard to figure out how her wish could work.  Ruby doesn't really have any friends besides Lucy though, so she's not totally sure what to do with this possible new friendship.  Especially since Lucy and Nero don't seem to like each other.

I think this is only going to appeal to a certain kind of kid.  Lots of deep thoughts and philosophizing might be a hard sell.

Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint, illusrated by Charles Vess

Sarah Jane Dillard has six sisters, older, younger, all with their own passions and interests and minds of their own.  Sarah Jane loves nothing more than helping old Aunt Lillian on her isolated farm.  Aunt Lillian tells wonderful stories of fairies and magic, which she insists are true, but Sarah Jane doesn't really believe her.  Then one day Sarah Jane finds a real fairy, and before she knows it she and all her sisters are drawn into a long-standing war between two fairy clans.  Sarah Jane must get them out before they are trapped forever.
 
Seven Wild Sisters was originally published 2002 and is the 12th book in the Newford series.  It's a bit confusing, but it seems like some of the books in the series are being re-released or recycled?  In 2013 The Cats of Tanglewood Forest was published (for the first time it looks like) and Seven Wild Sisters is being billed as a companion novel to it.  I have not read The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, or any of the other books in the Newford series for that matter, and still liked Seven Wild Sisters a lot.  And it made me want to read The Cats of Tanglewood forest so I could know Lillian's story.

While Sarah Jane was the main focus of the story and we learned most about her, I liked that the other sisters weren't just props. They had their own personalities and quirks.  Adie is the oldest, and bit of a rebel without a cause.  Elsie is fascinated with nature and draws plants and animals.  The older twins, Laurel and Bess love music, and the younger twins, Ruth and Grace are mischief makers and practical jokers.  They didn't all have big roles to play, but they were all part of the story.

Sarah Jane feels a bit apart from her sisters.  She doesn't feel like she has a talent.  She's quiet and thoughtful like Elsie, but doesn't have something to focus on.  She likes stories, and Aunt Lillian, who isn't actually her aunt, has plenty.  She also finds she likes working with her hands.  While Sarah Jane is trying to save her sisters from angry fairies, she's finding out the kind of person she is and who she wants to be.

We really only get hints of the world in Seven Wild Sisters.  I got a feeling that a lot more about the fairy world was learning in The Cats of Tanglewood Forest.  Fairies aren't beautiful and sweet in this world.  There are many different kinds of fairies some at war with each other.  They all seem to fear and respect the King of Cats, who we hear about but never actually see.

Seven Wild Sisters comes out February 4, 2014.

The Dirt Diary by Anna Staniszewski

Rachel is already having trouble with the popular kids at school when her mother starts a house cleaning business to help them get by after Rachel's father leaves.  Now Rachel is spending her weekends cleaning the houses of the same kids who already make fun of her!  But Rachel starts to pick up a lot of interesting information cleaning the houses of the popular.  Maybe she can use it to her advantage...

So I was just saying how I can't think of any books with biracial characters, and the very next book I read involves a biracial character.  The book itself has nothing to do with Rachel being biracial, but it does mention how Rachel looks more like her Asian father, and some people hadn't realized she and her mother were related.

Rachel's father leaving hit her hard.  She was much closer with her father than her mother.  Even though her dad's the one who left them, Rachel still feels like he understands her better.  She's sure that if she can just get out to Florida (she and her mom live in New England) where her dad is living, she can convince him to come back.  But Rachel's mother won't let her go.  Rachel took money out of her college fund to buy a ticket, and now she has two weeks to get the money back before her mother finds outs.  That's why she's stuck helping clean houses.  And that's why she takes the offer to spy on a mean, popular girl whose house she cleans.

Rachel thinks of herself as a loser.  She's incredibly quiet and shy.  She can't speak up or defend herself when others tease her.  She has a hopeless crush on a popular boy she's never spoken to.  The mean girls, lead by queen bee Briana makes Rachel's life terrible, playing mean pranks on her.  Rachel takes out her anger and frustration by baking.  She loves to bake.  It's what she wants to do with her life, but her mother doesn't think it's a practical career.  Rachel is determined to win this year's bake sale, not just because of the cash prize, but to prove she's good enough.

Rachel struggles with fights with friends, spying on people, which she knows is wrong, crushes on boys, and most of all, the absence of her father.  Rachel does eventually come to see that it's her mother that's there for her, even if she doesn't understand Rachel as well as her father did.  Her mom is the one who stayed, who always tried to fix things.  They are on the same side a team.

Good middle school read, dealing with all the important issues of finding yourself and learning who your true friends are.

The Dirt Diary comes out January 7, 2014.

News

John Green gets personal on bullying.  From The Huffington Post.

Gail Carriger on her newest book.  From Parade.

Reviews of celebrity children's books.  From Vanity Fair.

In case you were unaware that Kurt Vonnegut was awesome, read this.  From Letters of Note.

Early reviews of C. S. Lewis' Narnia stories.  From The Guardian.

How not to kill a child's love of reading.  From The Huffington Post.

Harry Potter gets lost at Penn Station.  From The gothamist.

Five things Time Magazine would like to see in The Hunger Games theme park.

Mainstream media YA bingo!  It's fun for everyone!  From the blog of foz meadows.

11 life lessons from Anne of Green Gables.  From The Huffington Post.

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

Arcopolis is overrun with monsters of all kinds.  Only Haggard West can stand against them.  Too bad Haggard West has just been killed.  Meanwhile, in another galaxy, a 12 year-old boy on the eve of his 13th birthday is being sent out on his Ramble.  His father, a great hero and monster fighter, sends him to Arcopolis to save it.  Battling Boy has his work cut out for him.  And he might not be able to do it alone.

This was a good start to a series.  Several main characters are introduced, including Battling Boy himself, and Haggard West's daughter, Aurora, who was quite surprised to see another superhero show up on her turf.  We get a general idea of the world, but no specifics.  We don't know where the monsters are coming from, and we don't really understand where Battling Boy comes from, or who his people are.  Why do they send their 13 year-olds on life-threatening quests?  Do they all have superpowers?  Do they all get sent out to try and save other planets?

I am confused about Battling Boy's powers.  I hope it will become clearer with time.  His father seems to be a very power being called a Warlord.  He can shoot lighting from his fingers and has a number of other powers as well.  Battling Boy seems to mainly get his power through the 12 t-shirts he's been given.  Each has a different animal totem, and when he puts them on he gets some of that animal's strength.  What I'm not sure about is if Battling Boy has any powers just on his own.  It seems like he should.  But it's not clear.  Perhaps he's supposed to have powers, but doesn't.

Battling Boy gets himself into trouble pretty much as soon as he gets there.  He struggles against the first monster he goes up against, and calls his father for help.  His father, in the middle of fighting his own monster, doesn't have time to talk Battling Boy through the whole thing, and zaps the monster with his lightning powers.  Of course, the people of the city think it was Battling Boy who has lightning power, and he doesn't correct them.

The end of the first book leaves us with Battling Boy admitting that he doesn't have lightning powers, and is going to need Aurora's help.  The monsters of the city are teaming up to kill Battling Boy, and probably Aurora as well.

Art is in a traditional superhero style, with lots of action and fight scenes.  I found that other than the main characters, everyone else kind of looked alike, especially the members of the military.  Perhaps that was intentional?  Or maybe not.

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods

Violet Diamond's mother is white and her father, who died before she was born, was Black.  Violet loves her mother and sister, but sometimes she gets tired of people not realizing they belong together.  Violet has never met her father's side of the family, and begins to feel more and more that something is missing from her life.  Violet is a determined person, and she's determined to meet her father's side of the family!

After I was done reading this, I tried to think of another book that explores the difficulties a kid might have being biracial.  I couldn't think of any.  Surely there must be others...right?  Please let me know if you can think of any, because I really can't.

I thought this did a great job showing Violet's confusion and feeling she's missing something important.  I am not biracial, so I cannot speak from personal experience, but to me it seemed like it illustrated the kind of issues a kid might go through.

Violet's mother was previously married and had a daughter, so Violet has a big sister.  She loves her sister and her mother, but sometimes, she feels like she's missing something.  She lives in a town where almost everyone is white.  She's the only biracial kid at her school.  She has one Black friend who she skates with, but one Black friend doesn't fill the void Violet is feeling.  She wants to learn about the other side of her family.

News

Feel all the feelings as you behold The Fault in Our Stars movie poster.  From BuzzFeed.

Eight annual PW Comics World Critics pick the year's topic comics.

Libraries are the frontline in the war for imagination.  From The Guardian.

Ann M. Martin talks about The Baby-Sitter's Club.  From Her Agenda.

Is middle grade fiction  really an adult reading trend?  From PW.

An animated film based on The Diary of Ann Frank?  Hmm.  From The Hollywood Reporter.

Children's book author Lila Perl dies at 92.  From SLJ.

Judy Blume and Lena Dunham have a chat.  From BuzzFeed.

Are libraries essential?  Mixed message in latest Pew survey.  From PW.

9 signs you might be living in a YA novel.  From BN.com.

The real Mary Poppins.  From The Guardian.

Huzzah!  North Carolina communities rallies in support of challenged book.  From SLJ.

SLJ reviews The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

Los Angeles school libraries losing materials as they lose librarians.  From SLJ.

Are comics too hot for Apple?  From PW.

Latino cildren's literature that should top lists.  From NPR.

Jim Kay will fully illustrate all seven Harry Potter books.  From The Guardian.