Drones…an informational text

drones

Dougherty, Martin J. Drones:From Insect Spy Drones to Bomber Drones. New York: Scholastic, 2014. 978-0-545-66476-9. 96p. $7.69. Gr. 3-7

Within five minutes of setting this book on my counter, I already had several holds! Drones goes through several different types of drones, included military, civilian, and underwater drones. Every two pages describes a specific type of drone within the subset and includes amazing photographs and pictures of each. Other information includes the distance the drone is capable of flying and how long it can fly before needing to recharge. Each page includes graphics on the size of the drone in comparison to a school bus, a human being, or another recognizable object. While it does not contain large amounts of information, this book flies off the shelf because the topic is so intriguing for middle-schoolers, especially boys!
 
623 Drone Technology     Nicole Starner Biglerville HS/Upper Adams MS

Edge of Nowhere…a must have

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Smelcer, John E. Edge of Nowhere. Fredonia, NY: Leapfrog, 2014.  ISBN 978-1-935248-57-6.  $9.99. Gr 7 and up.

When Seth is 14, his mother is killed in a car accident.  Blaming his father and grieving over his mother, he falls into a depression, gaining weight and losing himself in video games and solitude.  Fishing season begins in the spring of his 16th year, and he boards the boat with his father, Jack, a commercial fisherman, Lucky, their deckhand, and Tucker, the family’s dog.  Jack is disappointed in his son and argues with him over his choices.  The last night of the trip, they have another heated exchange, ending with Jack at the helm, and Seth going to bed. Awakened in the middle of the night by rough seas, Seth realizes Tucker is not in the bunkhouse with him.  He goes up on deck to find the dog.  A raging storm is hammering down on the small commercial fishing boat.  Seth manages to grab Tucker just as a wave grabs both boy and dog and seep them overboard. Pulling into port in the morning, Jack realizes Seth and Tucker are missing.  Frantic, he begins his search to find the only remaining member of his family.  Washing ashore, Seth and Tucker have to survive by hunting and gathering throughout the Aleutian Islands.  Tapping into his Native Alaskan heritage and the stories his paternal grandmother told him as a child, Seth keeps himself and Tucker alive.  This story about survival and coming of age is a unique one, creating a sense of remorse on both the part of parent and child.  The author does an amazing job creating empathy at all ends.

This novel, one filled with suspense and determination keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.  Relationships between parents and their children often become strained in teenage years.  This book talks about the strain grief may have on that relationship. Seth gives up much of his food and shares it with his dog. Educators may use this as a resource to teach culture and ancestry, and its importance in the lives of students today.  The reader’s guide in the back of the book gives valid discussion questions, including the role of technology in the lives of teenagers today.  Even more, Seth relies on the stories of his grandmother to help in his survival.  She tells the stories of salmon and its eggs, and as Seth remembers the story, he turns that story into valuable information, feeding him and his dog one more time.  Students studying native cultures to the United States can gain some insight as to why cultures and heritage tend to die off.  This book was difficult to put down and at one point had my stomach in knots.

Adventure        Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

The Meaning of Maggie

meaningmaggie

Sovern, Megan Jean. The Meaning of Maggie. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4521-1021-9.  $16.99.  Grades 5 and up.

For Maggie, the eleventh year of her life is filled with love and wonder.  Told as one large flashback, Maggie reflects on the year she turns eleven, falls in love, and loses the science fair all while her father is slowly dying. Her “cool” dad is her sidekick on many of her adventures, while her mother is taking a role as the primary breadwinner.  As a self-proclaimed next President of the United States-to-be, Maggie is beyond her peers intellectually but is fragile enough to be sheltered from certain things by her mother and older sisters.  Maggie’s father, recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is losing feeling in his limbs. Her father’s favorite, she is determined to get to the bottom of things at whatever cost.  This sweet novel is a coming of age story in which a circumstance beyond her control makes Maggie grow up more than she could have expected.

A light read, this sweet story is one that can be incorporated into a student group who may have issues with a disabled or terminally ill parent. Even more, the main character, Maggie, is extremely academically intelligent but lacks the emotional intelligence to deal with her father’s gradual physical decline.  Readers will relate to Maggie and her inquisitive nature, sibling rivalry, and natural innocence.

Realistic Fiction       Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

New from R.J. Palacio…365 Days of Wonder and The Julian Chapter

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Palacio, R. J. 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. ISBN 978-0-553-49904-9.  $14.99 Gr. 5 and up.

Mr. Browne and his precepts are back.  In a spin off of the book, Wonder, R.J. Palacio creates a companion novel to include 365 precepts compiled to live our lives with more kindness, compassion, and empathy.  In this novel, readers learn about Mr. Browne and the history and reason for his precepts.  Each month of the year has a precept per day.  In between the months, Mr. Browne includes insights including why precepts are used, students’ precepts and the questions stemming from them, and even anecdotes about his own family and how the precepts have affected or impacted them.  Characters emerge from the first book including Auggie Pullman, Julian Albans, Summer and Charlotte.  

Use alone or as a companion to Wonder, this book would be perfect to include in a class meeting setting, creative writing, or even a student group based on bullying. Educators can utilize the precepts as a thought a day asking students to expound on what the precept means to them.  In essay form or as an open ended response, students could relate the quote or excerpt to their own lives, employing a text to self connection. Not necessarily solely for education, this book could also serve parents who hope to invoke a sense of empathy in their own children, discussing the precepts and their meaning.

Realistic Fiction        Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

 

 

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Palacio, R.J. The Julian Chapter. Read by Michael Chamberlain. Brilliance Audio,  2014. CD. ISBN 978-1-4915-2409-1.  $14.99.  Grades 3 and up.

Everyone fell in love with Auggie Pullman and grew to dislike Julian Albans in the first book, Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  In The Julian Chapter, we hear Julian’s side of the story.  Complete with behind the scenes details from the first day Julian is brought in to be Auggie’s tour guide, through the decision for Julian to not return to Beecher Prep, this perspective is one we rarely see.  Raw and intrusive, the reader can see into the parenting and psychological background from Julian’s point of view.  Because readers could only guess what Julian was thinking in the first book, they can now discover what he was thinking to himself in each situation.

Julian’s actions and thoughts were molded by his parents’ upbringing.  Readers will get a rare glimpse into the raw interactions between parent and child.  Julian’s perspective, although outwardly a bully in Wonder becomes one readers can connect with and even sympathize with in this novel. Only three CDs, the book is a quick read (and the audio a quick listen).  Available only in Kindle audiobook and CD, this audiobook is a nice way to follow up the book Wonder and a way to discuss character education particularly the role of a bully.

Realistic Fiction       Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

Teeny Little Grief Machines…a High/Low Novel

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High, Linda Oatman. Teeny Little Grief Machines. Costa Mesa: Saddleback Educational, 2014. 978-1-489-84162-9.  $15.99. Gr. 9-12.

“Sexy Lexi” finally finds her voice.  In this novel, Lexi is a caregiver to her 8-year-old brother with autism, a stepdaughter to bipolar, chain smoking Tanya, sister to three-week-old ghost, Carissa Grace, and daughter to an incarcerated-once-again father. Isolated from everyone she loves, Lexi searches for a way to connect.  Grasping, she begins to drown in the isolation, cutting herself, smoking marijuana, and finally, breaking down in front of everyone at school.  Hospitalized after the episode, she begins to come into who she is and own who she is.  Linda Oatman High creates a character who readers are able to invest their empathy and sympathy.  Doubting why people are born to live lives filled with despair, Lexi floats in and out of self awareness, finally fitting into herself.

The novel is a high interest low reading level novel.  The cover shows a girl drowning, and Lexi is drowning in her grief, her isolation, and wanting to be “normal”. Students who are on the edge can easily identify with Lexi, her grief, socioeconomic status, dysfunctional family, and low self-esteem.   Because of these risk factors, the novel does pull in the students who can relate.  That she is enticed by a “bad boy” who is the “King of the Weed”, only intensifies the need to like Lexi.  The author tries to add in a romantic aspect, but does not elaborate, only introducing us at the end.

Novel in Verse     Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

No Regrets…continuation of The Gift series

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Karre, Elizabeth. No Regrets. Minneapolis: Darby Creek, 2014.  ISBN 9781467744805. $14.99. Gr. 9-12.

Daughter of a teen mother and gambling addicted father, Layla strives to finish high school and go on to college. A typical teenager, Layla has a love interest, Marquis, a biracial young man she meets while on summer break in Chicago.  As Marquis is visiting his father and Layla is visiting her extended family, they forge a relationship.  Marquis asks Layla to leave everything behind and join him on the reservation where he lives with his mother. She says no, citing her reasons such as finishing high school.  However she does not want the relationship to end.  Marquis has not contacted or seen Layla since the day they said goodbye.  Layla, a junior in high school, is repeatedly visited by a mysterious but strangely familiar man who grants her the gift of time travel.  Skeptical but unwilling to give up on what could have been had she said “yes”, Layla tries time travel.  The time travel proves to be physically grueling, but Layla needs to know if she will see Marquis again. Giving up her aspirations of school and track, the time travel takes Layla on a journey to find out her future.  A high interest, low-level novel, No Regrets is initially a confusing storyline with inferred details.  Struggling readers may become frustrated with the lack of straightforward details. Part of the The Gifts series, this Darby Creek novel engages the reader by creating characters who readers can assimilate easily with and who enjoy paranormal stories. Layla is a shallow character, who regrets a decision she has made.  Many readers will be able to sympathize with this situation. More titles are available in The Gifts series.

Realism; Fantasy            Brooke Gerlach, Manheim Central Middle School

Frozen…a Taken novel

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Bowman, Erin. Frozen: A Taken Novel. New York: HarperTeen, 2014. 978-0-06-211729-8. 359 p. $17.99. Gr. 9 & up.

This novel picks up where Taken left off, with Gray Weathersby on a mission with his father Owen and eight other Rebels, to attempt to find Allies to help fight the Franconian Order. Gray emerges as a leader from the beginning, and circumstances have the others looking to him for direction. On the mission is Emma, the girl Gray was in love with back in Claysoot, and Bree, his most recent love interest, a tough as nails rebel. They run into Gray’s brother Blaine, who has apparently intercepted an Order member trying to infiltrate their team, and they take both Blaine and his prisoner with them on their journey. They travel for weeks and finally reach their destination, one of the other communities that were part of The Laicos Project. Can they get the other resistors to ally with them and fight against the Franconian Order? Can they escape with the group intact? Is any ally or enemy truly what they seem?

This book was good, but it obviously is going to lead into a third book in the series, so many things are left open. I really can’t think of anything I could use this for in the classroom, but it could be very high interest to reluctant boys. There is a lot of fighting that takes place in this book.

Fantasy    Kathryn Gilbride, North Pocono High and Middle Schools

Trial by Fire…Book 1 of the Worldwalker Trilogy

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Angelini, Josephine. Trial by Fire (Book 1, Worldwalker Trilogy). New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2014. 978-1-250-05088-5. 374 p. $17.99. Gr. 7 and up.

Lily Proctor is literally allergic to the world; she cannot eat most things, handle scents, or experience daily life like most teenagers her age.  Her mother, Samantha, is mentally ill and considered the town “nut” of Salem, Massachusetts, and her father has left leaving Lily and her older sister, Juliet, to care for their mother.  After an embarrassing seizure at her first (and probably last) party, Lily wishes to leave her world and the stress of her life behind.  Little does she know that Lillian, the Salem Witch from a parallel universe, has been watching her and is ready to make her move on Lily.  Soon Lily is in Lillian’s Salem.  Terrified of what has happened, and truly unsure about her new situation, Lily takes off through Salem looking for help and answers, but instead is captured by Lillian’s ex-mechanic, Rowan, and the Outlanders, non-magical people who live outside of the walls of the Thirteen Cities.  Once Lily is able to prove that she is not Lillian, it is up to her to harness her magic to save the Outlanders from Lillian’s wrath and herself from the pyre.  Trial by Fire is the first book in the Worldwalker Trilogy; book two is due out September 2015.

Fantasy    Erin Parkinson, Lincoln Jr/Sr High School

I hated Trial by Fire in the beginning.  I thought it started out strong as realism, but when it transferred into the alternative Salem, the magical element was bizarre and too far away from how the novel began for me, and yet, I could not stop reading it.  I got to the point with Trial by Fire that I refused to put the book down until I finished it.  A novel that I couldn’t stand ended up being one of the best stories I’ve read this year.  Angelini masterfully draws the reader into Lily’s story in such a way that other elements of the story fade into the back, and Lily’s character and relationships become central, not the magic or alternative/parallel universe.  The magic only adds to the importance of the character’s relationships with one another, which are very realistic, and end up being the core of the novel.  This is a great novel (and hopefully series) for readers who enjoy Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy and the continual internal struggles of Alina and Mal.

Manor of Secrets

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Longshore, Katherine. Manor of Secrets. New York: Point, 2014. 978-0-545-66799-9. 321 p. $8.99. Gr. 7 and up.

Lady Charlotte Edmonds dreams of escaping her familial responsibilities and mother for freedom and a life in which she can choose her own future instead of birth determining her place and life.  Janie Seward longs for a life free of the manor kitchen and physical work, where her mind can drive her future instead of fear of losing the mother she recently found and the stability of the manor kitchen.  Through accidents and incidents, Janie and Lady Charlotte place confidence in one another and find kinship that strengthens each other’s dreams and lead to a secret that neither could have predicted.

Historical Fiction   Erin Parkinson, Lincoln Jr/Sr High School

Fans of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre’s Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey series will love Manor of Secrets.  The characters of Lady Charlotte and Janie are reminiscent of Lady Sybil and Daisy from Downton Abbey minus the close friendship that adds to the characters in the novel.  An easy read, this is a good introduction for students interested in either Masterpiece series, British society, and/or historical fiction.

The Cure for Dreaming

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Winters, Cat.  The Cure for Dreaming. New York: Amulet Books, 2014.  978-1-4197-1216-6  368p. $19.95 Gr. 7+.

Set in Portland, Oregon, in 1900, The Cure for Dreaming has the promise of being a great historical YA novel.  When seventeen year-old Olivia Mead is thrust on stage as an audience volunteer at a Halloween performance by the mysterious hypnotist Henri Reverie, her life changes more than she bargains for.  Her father hires M. Reverie to hypnotize Olivia to keep her from becoming a wild woman who argues with men and hopes to vote.  Yet the opposite happens, and Olivia finds that she can see the world as it truly is…full of vampires and monsters.  Perhaps not entirely historically accurate, it’s an easy read that doesn’t take a lot of thought.  I would recommend this to a student who is interested in historical fiction and fantasy.

Historical Fiction; Fantasy                 Laura Ward, Fox Chapel Area High School