Excellent graphic novel for middle school girls by Cory Doctorow!

Doctorow, Cory; Wang, Jen (2014) In Real Life. New York:  First Second.


Opening lines:
Anda, wake up!  I made your favorite!  Huevos rancheros!  Happy birthday, Sweetpea!

Anda is kind of plump.  Her life at school does not seem to be a lot of fun.  When a guest speaker explains to their class about multi-player on-line games, Anda finds herself giving it a try. The next thing she knows, she is part of a crew of girls who slaughter gold farmers to drive up the value of the gold they have.  At first, Anda enjoys the chance to e accepted and valued for her skills rather than her appearance.  When she actually talks to a gold farmer, though, she finds out that he is actually a teenager in China who is being exploited as a child worker.  One of her crew members discovers that Anda has been fraternizing with the enemy, and suddenly Anda finds herself in a moral quandary between calling out her fellow team remembers as bullies (and losing their company) and standing up for that which she deeply believes is right.

Doctorow's writing complements Jen Wang's images beautifully.  Wang shows a remarkable contrast between the brilliant and beautiful world of the game, and the brown, dim, and stale world of real life. 

Themes covered in this graphic novel include the difficulty of making good decisions in morally ambiguous situations, how the value of a person does not depend on what they look like, and how social justice requires a strong sense of responsibility.  The graphic novel also ends on a strong note of justice and reconciliation.

There are a few words in this book that might cause the book to be challenged.  A few mild vulgarities, a couple of places where characters use God's name in vain, and an occasional image or two that shows smoking.  All in all though, the book would get a PG-13 rating. 

This might be a good book to add to a middle school library. 

Laughed out loud at this adolescent novel -- at least once every three pages.

Rex, Adam (2014) Smek For President New York:  Hyperion



Opening lines:
 I heard our back door open, and J. Lo plunged through in a snit. 
     "The peoples of this town, they sure do hold a grudge," he announced.  "You accidentally make one puppy colossal and suddensly you are 'that alien'"

Okay, so yes, that is a confusing way to open a book -- which is why I recommend you get a hold of the first book in the series, The True Meaning of Someday right now. No, I'm serious.  Go do that.  I'll wait. Go. (And if you can, get the audio book version -- it is even funnier).

What, you don't trust me.  Okay fine, I'll explain.  So several years ago my friend Kris gave me Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday and it was amazing.  The main character, Gratuity Gucci (she goes by Tip) is a 13 or 14 year old African American kid.  Her mom is kidnapped by aliens who need to probe her brain to learn to speak Italian.  While her mom is gone and Tip is trying to survive on her own, the aliens, called the Boov, invade earth.  They round up all the humans and tell them they may go about their daily lives, provided they are all willing to relocate to Florida (a kind of human reservation).  Tip decides to drive there to find her mom, and on they way she meets a Boov called J.Lo.  J. Lo (he chose that name for himself without really understanding the implications) is on the run because he was assembling a transmission tower and accidentally sent a message to another even more greedy alien race called the Gorg.  So Tip and J.Lo become fugitives from the Boov as they try to find Tip's mom.  Along the way they become friends, avert an invasion by the Gorg, and drive the Boov off-planet. 

But the story isn't the point.  The point is that somehow this book manages to be really funny and at the same time have all sorts of cultural relevance.  And that is just the first book off the series.  The second book (which is the one I am reviewing, remember) is even funny (but you need to read the first one to make sense of it).  J.Lo's version of English (No, that is not a typo in the opening lines above, Jo.Lo really does say "suddenly") is often genuinely funny, as are the cultural differences between the Boov and the people of Earth. Also, the Boov technology is described with enough plausibility that fans of true science fiction will not be frustrated.

There is nothing objectionable in the book.  In fact, Tip narrates both books, and whenever she has the need to express anger or frustration, she tells her audience that she is sorry, but she cannot report on what she said because it wouldn't be polite. 

What age is it good for?  Beats me.  In terms of vocabulary and content, I would say maybe really good fourth grade readers and up -- but what is most important in connecting this book with potential readers is that the reader have a really good or quirky sense of humor. 

Excellent novel about grief and pain and eating disorders -- but it takes a long time to get to the hope part

Anderson, Laurie Halse (2009)  Wintergirls  New York:  Speak



Opening line:  So she tells me, the words dribbling out, with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee.

Lia thinks she is fine.  Her parents are divorced, she hates school, her best friend died, alone, in a hotel room and now Liao is seeing that friend, Cassie, haunting her.  Also, Lia is starving herself to death.  But she is fine.  Even as her weight continues to drop and she becomes dependent upon cutting to dull the pain of being alive, Lia is confident that everything will be fine.  It is when she lets down her little sister, possibly the only person in the world that she cares about, that Liao understands how broken she is and sets about trying to repair her life.  But it might well be too late.

Anderson captures what seems to me to be the authentic voice of someone who has an eating disorder.  I don't know that for sure because I don't have an eating disorder myself, but Anderson did extensive research and Lia's articulate and poetic voice seems to nail it.

This was a hard book for me to read as a dad.  The parents in Lia's life are certainly not perfect, but they care about her, they would move heaven and earth to save her, and yet, there is nothing they can do.  That was hard to read without wanting to scream at Lia or force feed her or lock her up somewhere safe.  This was a book that taught me a lot about myself, including how all my ideas about letting a child grow in responsibility by giving them freedom, all those things are things I would jettison in a moment if one of my daughters was in danger of hurting herself.

I don't know what it would be like to read this book as a child.  I know some adult readers have suggested that it is not a good book for high school girls because it could trigger a relapse in those who have eating disorders, it could teach those who are claiming to be better but are actually still counting calories and exercising at night some new tricks to keep the desperateness of their situation hidden. 

There is a bit of vulgar language, but not anything that would make the book likely to be challenged -- the challenge is much more likely to be about the eating-disorder content.  But it is a well-written book, and I think it would be a good one for high school students to read -- maybe in the context of a phys ed or health class?

Picture books good for teaching art students (and others) to avoid perfectionism, to value things that have a common beauty, and to appreciate math (okay, that one might be more for math students)

Moss, Marissa (1990) Regina's Big Mistake  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin.



Opening lines:  Everyone in Mrs. Li's class got a piece of paper.  Everyone was supposed to draw a jungle or a rain forest.  That meant Regina too.

Regina is a little girl who struggles with wanting her picture to be perfect -- to follow all the directions and to be as beautiful as everyone else's work.  But as she looks around her, she despairs that she will never be able to make a picture as nice as the one's her classmates are making.  Then, she starts to make mistakes.

As it turns out, though, the mistakes lead her (as they often do) to make a picture that is different from the ones the other students are making -- in the best possible way.  Marissa Moss's simple but realistic drawings make this book an excellent choice for little kids -- but also for high school students who have not yet learned that m making mistakes can lead to some of the best thinking and creativity.  So I recommend this one for students in kindergarten  through high school (and older if necessary,)



Moss, Marissa (1996)  The Ugly Menorah  New York:  Farrar Straus Giroux.



Opening lines;  Rachel loved the heavy silver menorah her family used every Hanukkah.  All year long, it sat in the cupboard , hidden from sight, but once a year, at Hanukkah, her father brought it down and polished it and set it in t he window.

Rachel cannot figure out why her grandmother keeps an old ugly menorah on her windowsill, so she asks about it, and her grandmother tells her the story of how Rachel's late grandfather, when they were just married and very poor, made a menorah out of scraps he scavenged from a construction site.  Grandma explains that what makes the menorah beautiful is the memories that go with it, and the caring that grandfather put into the object.  Rachel comes to understand.

This one is a good book for helping art students to understand that the concept of aesthetic beauty is always subjective.  It would work for elementary art, but also might be a good lesson for students in middle school or high school art as well.  Moss's illustrations carry a remarkable amount of emotion in them -- though it is hard to pin down exactly how they do that.




Schwartz, David M.  (1998) G is for Googol:  A Math Alphabet Book  Berkeley, CA:  Tricycle Press



Opening lines:  A is for Abacus.  Hundreds of years before calculators were invented, people in China discovered they could add and subtract quickly by sliding beads back and forth on strings.

Actually, though, the explanation of Abacus goes on for two full paragraphs, two cartoon illustrations and an explanation of how an abacus works.  That page also has a list of none other math terms that start with A.  B is for Binary gets a two page spread, 13 paragraphs, a chart illustrating how to form numbers using binary, and two additional illustrations.  My point is that even though this is an alphabet book, it doesn't minimize the concepts it is talking about, but explains complicated concepts fully.

This would be a great book for math readers in about third grade up through high school.  It might also be interesting for art students to look at how the illustrator (Marissa Moss again) finds ways to picture complicated abstract concepts.  Another good picture book.

Excellent picture book tells the story of the first woman to fly a plane across the English Channel

Moss, Marrisa (2001) Brave Harriet:  The First Woman to Fly the English Channel  Orlando:  Harcourt.




First Lines:  It's a strange thing to see an aeroplane fly.  The thing is so gawky and bumbling on the ground, so spindly and flimsy-looking, but then, once in the air, it soars with the grace and beauty of a hawk, strong enough to lift a person high above the trees and into the clouds."


 Why have I never heard the story of Harriet Quimby?  Harriet was the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel.  She did so in 1912, when airplane construction probably had more in common with how kites are made than with the way planes are manufactured today. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that the flight was too difficult and arduous for a woman to attempt.  Her well-meaning friend, Gustav Hamel (who had flown the channel himself) proposed that he dress as Harriet and make the voyage safely so that Harriet could claim the credit.

Marissa Moss's brilliant picture book tells this story, but also illustrates (through C.F. Payne's excellent illustrations) how what Harriet loved above all else was the joy of flying. Like Moss's other excellent non-fiction books, she gives an accurate account, but tells it in a way that the gripping story comes alive.

There is nothing in this book that would cause it to be challenged (unless soemone objects to telling the history of women as well as men).  Although it would be a reasonable read-aloud for kindergarten and first grade, second graders and up would get the most out of it.  (Actually, as i was reading it I wished I had it when I taught high schoolers.  This is the sort of book that would make students want to look up more information.  It is certainly worth picking up for your classroom.

Serious Narrative Non-Fiction: One graphic novel about a mom surviving cancer. One traditional book about kids surviving war in Sudan.

Park, Linda Sue (2010) A Long Walk to Water  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin.


Opening Lines:  "Going was easy.  Going, the plastic container held only air.  Tall for her eleven years, Nya could switch the handle from one hand to the other, swing the container by her side, or cradle it in both arms."

Nya lives in Southern Sudan.  She walks eight hours ever day to fetch water for her family from the pond.  The water is not particularly clean and her mother knows that she should boil the water to prevent disease, but boiling the water means there would be less of it to use.  As the dry season gets going, the pond begins to shrink.  When Nya's mother gets sick from the bad water, it is up to Nya to figure out what to do.

Salva lives in Southern Sudan.  One day when he is in school, he and his classmates hear gunshots.  His teacher rushes them out of the schoolhouse.  Soon  Salva finds himself in a group of refugees, fleeing for their lives and headed for the border with Ethiopia.  He finds a friend and a relative, but also finds violence and loss.

When their stories begin to intersect toward the end of the book, it is a moment of cool clear hope after a long drought full of despair and uncertainty.  Park does a nice job of adapting this true story narratively.  It is a story with some violence and some vague suggestions of sexual menace, but it should be suitable for sixth grade and up.  I think it would make a particularly good read-aloud.





Fies, Brian (2006) Mom's Cancer  New York:  Harry Abrams.



This graphic novel takes the reader from the moment that the author's mother had a small seizure and discovered she had a tumor growing in her brain, through how her three children (called in the book Me, Nurse Sis, and Kid Sis) walk with her through brain scans, diagnosis, waiting, understanding the depth of the problem, first appointments with doctors, biopsies, chemo, side effects, radiation, stages of grief, miraculous healing, and life after cancer.  The book is at least as much about how siblings cope with the illness of a parent as it is about the author's mom's journey. 

As you can see in the image above, the art is an interesting combination of caricature and realism.  Fies also uses visual references to things like the kids game Operation, and at once point talks about how when someone is struggling with cancer, their family becomes like superheroes in that their abilities, concerns, and passions are amplified.  He illustrates this with a brief superhero fight between caped crusaders based on himself and his siblings.  By alternating between gut wrenching realism and cartoonish comic relief, Fies helps the reader get through the difficult stuff.  He incorporates humor into the text as well.  Anyone who has dealt with cancer will smile at a section where he and his siblings call the doctor when their mother is coughing up blood, only to be told to relax, and that such a thing is normal, but then later, when she experiences an innocuous symptom (like a runny nose) they are chastised for not immediately informing the doctor. 

This is a sobering topic and, while there is nothing obviously offensive in the text or images, parents might reasonably object that it is too depressing of a story for young children.  This may be a good one for a teacher to have handy for a student struggling with a parent's cancer.  This one is ideal for high school and up. 

Excellent book for budding engineers,, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who likes challenges

Hawkins, Aaron (2010) The Year Money Grew on Trees.  Boston:  Houghton-Mifflin.


My young friend Zander likes to take things apart and build things and figure out how things work. My former student Jeremy broke his leg one summer and figured out how to use a wagon, some plastic sheeting, a car battery, and a fan to build an air conditioned trailer for himself so his friends could tow him on their bikes.  My friend John is an engineer and the head of research and development for a hydraulics company.  All of them (and some people you know, and you, and me) will like The Year Money Grew on Trees. 

School is out for the year and Jackson's parents are saying he should get his first summer job working for a company that the school bully also works for.  As Jackson is trying to figure out how to avid this fate, he has an odd conversation with his even odder neighbor lady.  Her grown son has angered her and she has decided she wants to give away the 300-tree apple orchard that is attached to her property.  She suggests that Jackson farm it for the summer.  If he will pay her $8,000 off the top of his profits, he can keep the rest and she will give him the orchard.  Jackson knows nothing of the farming, business, or even how to drive a car.  But he accepts the deal, and they even meet with a lawyer and draw up a contract. 

Soon Jackson is talking to an apple farmer at church about irrigation and pesticides, bargaining with a dairy farmer for manure to use as fertilizer, finding our how to open an account at the feed store, learning how to motivate his cousins to help him, figuring out how to put together the irrigation system (which is mostly pipes stored in a shed), learning how to drive a tractor, investigating marketing and sales, and worrying himself silly when the temperature at night dips too low. 

This makes it sound like the book is a how-to manual.  It is not.  It is an interesting novel, with a remarkably gripping story (kudos to the author, who is a professor of electrical engineering -- but must have learned how to write really well somewhere along the line.)

This book would be useful for math, business, science, and English classes -- though it is probably best as an option in a classroom library.  My young friend Zander is a fourth grader -- I think he could read this (though he is a good reader). It is probably ideal for fifth through high school.  You would probably like it too.