The True Meaning of Smekday

Author: Adam Rex

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 730L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Late elementary and middle school girls and some boys. (Some high schoolers might even get into it, Gratuity acts much older than her age.)

Reader's Advisory: For a book from the alien's point of view, read Dude, Where's my Spaceship? by Dan Greenburg.

Summary:
Gratuity "Tip" Tucci starts out writing about Smekday for a competition to have her essay included in a time capsule. Smekday is the day the Boov invaded Earth (now named Smekland). Tip has a special take on the events surrounding Smekday and the days that follow. Her mother was abducted before Smekday and the Boov implanted a glowing mole on her back to help them learn English and Italian from her. On Smekday, they take Tip's mother away in a ship and Tip is not sure if she will see her again. On Moving Day (the day the Boov tell all the Americans they have to move to Florida) Tip decides to drive herself instead of taking one of the Boov's pods. In the course of her journey, she meets J.Lo., a Boov hiding from his own people because of a terrible mistake he has made. Tip and J.Lo. arrive in Florida only to find that the humans have been relocated again, this time to Arizona. And the Boov are no longer the only aliens interested in taking over Earth (or Smekland).

My favorite passage:

"Fhf. Boovworld had once five million channels beforeto the Purging."
"The what?"
"The Purging."
"Purging."
"Yes. In the Purging, all channels but one were eliminatited, to prevents death of society."
"Oh. Yeah. People are always going on about how TV is going to ruin Earth, too."
"Is well proven. Let us say, after televisions are invented, that there is only then a few channels. Three or four. We will call them A, G, Semicolon, and Pointy."
"How about we call them A, B, C . . . and ABC."
"Whatevers. Let us now think of these channels as like four cups filled with eggs. Cup A holds inside News eggs, and Sport eggs, and Variety Show eggs. Cup B has News and Animated Story eggs and Situationally Comedic eggs. So on. More big cups are added because peoples want More Choices."
"Uh-huh."
"Soon it is noticed that between the cups there is room for smaller cups.
"These cannot hold much. Maybies there is one with only News eggs all the time. Maybies one with only Funny. But maybies Funny is your favorite sort of egg, so you like this cup.
"Then even smaller cups are made for inbetween the small cups and even smaller between those. The more cups, the more new gaps to fill. Every kind of show is invented. Shows like Pillowbusters! And What Are People Willing to Put in Their Mouths? Or The Week in Balancing, or Watch Out, Baby Animals! Cavalcade, Big Celebrity Poomps, Guy on a Table . . . lots of shows."
"So what was the problem?" I asked.
"It went out of control," said J.Lo. "Shows had to be recorded whilst even more shows were watched. Not enough time for seeing everything a Boov wanted to see, so some had to quit their jobs, or hires someone to watch for them,"
"Um . . ."
"Televisional scientists theorized a point into the future when each and everys Boov has his own show, and this show only shows him watching shows. So HighBoov decree: no more television but what the HighBoov say. And the HighBoov mostly say cooking shows." (pg 243-245)

What I really think:
This is one of those books where the main character (Gratuity) is supposed to be 11, but she acts a lot older most of the time. She drives, she looks out for her mother, she looks out for J.Lo., she saves the world from aliens, etc. I don't see a problem with this. Some 11 year olds do have to take care of their parents. And, most 11 year olds probably think they could drive or save the world from aliens given the chance.

In addition to being really entertaining, this book contains some smart social commentary. The Boov rename Christmas "Smekday," just like Christians renamed the holidays that existed before Christmas. The Boov designate small areas of land for humans and believe they are being generous. Sound like the early Americans and the American Indians?

If you read the book and want more Boov, check out this website: The National Time Capsule Project

Firegirl

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Tony Abbott

Reader: Sean Kenin

Producer: Listening Library

Production Year: 2007

Lexile: 670L

Most of the listeners will be: Late elementary to early middle school boys and girls.

Listener's Advisory: Laurie Myers's book Surviving Brick Johnson is also about a new kid who seems scarier than he is, and can be found in audio format.

Summary:
On the first day of seventh grade, Tom's teacher announces that a new girl, Jessica, will be joining their class. She has been badly burned and has moved to the area to get special treatments at the local hospital. Tom is horrified by her appearance, but not as horrified as he is by the behavior of some of his classmates. When his teacher asks him to take Jessica some homework she has missed he gets to know her and her story. Suddenly the things that used to be so important to Tom aren't so important after all: riding in Jeff's uncle's cobra, nominating Courtney for class president so that she will notice him. Now all he can think about is how awful it is for Jessica. She does not stay at St. Catherine's for long, but it is long enough to change Tom's life.

My favorite passage:
When Tom goes to Jessica's house to bring her her homework, he ends up telling her about his theory that small super powers are better than big ones. He thinks it would be good to have one indestructible finger or to be able to whistle really loudly. When you don't ask for too much, you are grateful for that little super power you have, and you can think of really amazing things you can do with it. (Disc 2)

What I really think:
This book was full of surprises. I'll admit it. Since the title is Firegirl I expected the main character to be a girl. (Tom is not a girl.) Then I was surprised by how much I can relate to Tom. That thing he does where he daydreams in class, making up stories in which he has weird super powers? I did that! All this time I thought I was a freak. And isn't that what young adult literature is all about - letting teens know they are not alone? Fortunately for Tom, he learns something from Jessica that I learned from the long, slow process of growing up - you can be happy with what you have.

Sean Kenin did a good job of giving the characters that have the biggest roles distinct voices. Most of the general class members sound the same, but you can always pick out Tom, Jeff, and Jessica. Jeff's voice is my favorite. He really sounds like a middle schooler who just doesn't care about most things.

Red Moon at Sharpsburg

Author: Rosemary Wells

Publisher: Penguin Group

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 870L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Middle school girls and some boys.

Reader's Advisory: For a non-fiction book on the Civil War, try You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier! A War You'd Rather Not Fight by Thomas M. Ratliff.

Summary: India Moody is a young woman, coming of age in Virginia during the Civil War. Although she comes from a poor family, India is the god-daughter of the well off Geneva Trimble thanks to her father saving the life of Calvin Trimble. When the Civil War starts, India's best friend Julia moves away to Ohio. First the Trimbles's younger sons join the Confederate army, then India's father and India's tutor, Emory Trimble join, too. India witnesses the battlefield at Sharpsburg trying to bring medicine to her father. She sees many other terrible things before the end of the war is in sight, but throughout it all she holds on to her goal of finding her way to Ohio to attend Oberlin College. Juila has written to her that Oberlin accepts women and allows students to work off their tuition. India has heard that the world will be different after the war, and she hopes that means there will be a place for educated women.

My favorite passage:

Then he slaps down a notebook in front of me and takes on a churchy voice. "India, I am a tutor of physical philosophy at the University of Virginia. Until the war ends and school starts I am to be your teacher." he announces to me.
I feel my legs dangling from my chair like a little girl's.
"The following are our subjects." On a slate is written in my mother's hand, Scriptures, household economics, handwriting, declamation.
"We'll start on chapter one of Makey's Moral Behavior for American Girls," Emory says.
On the table next to me is a brass tube with an eyepiece up top, eight inches long. It shines and sits aslant a black basalt stand.
"What's that?" I ask.
"It's called a microscope," says Emory. "I brought it back from the university. Now repeat after me," he says. "'A Godly life is a swift river which runs through the garden of temptation.'"
"A Godly life is a swift river through the garden of temptation," I reel off.
"Which runs through," says Emory.
"What is the microscope for?" I ask.
"You can see tiny bacteria that are invisible to the naked eye," Emory answers. "'A Godly life is a swift river which runs through the garden of temptation."
"Can you show me? Can I look through it?"
"Let's get the prism out. It needs a prism to refract enough light for you to see." He turns the scope around, catches a ray of sunlight in the prism, and inserts a glass slide. "That is hog's blood," he says. (pg 36-37)

What I really think:
This book would be great to accompany a lesson in school about the American Civil War. I have always had a hard time with history myself, yet Wells has certainly drawn me into the story and taught me a great deal throughout her novel. I was especially surprised to read about how poor the medical field was at this time. Fiction books can educate and they can be a great resource for kids who turn their noses up at the text book.

The Garden of Eve

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: K. L. Going

Reader: Allyson Ryan

Producer: Random House

Production Year: 2007

Lexile: Unavailable

Most of the listeners will be: Late elementary age girls.

Listener's Advisory: For another audio book on death and strange places, listen to Jodi Lynn Anderson's May Bird and the Ever After (reviewed on March 25, 2008).

Summary: After Evie's mom dies, she and her dad move to a dead apple orchard in Beaumont, New York. While her father tries to bring the trees back to life, Evie plays with Alex, a young boy about her age who died of cancer a week before she moved to town. Evie does and doesn't believe that Alex is a ghost, but they become friends anyway. On her birthday, Evie gets a strange present from Maggie, the sister of the old man who previously owned their house and orchard. It is a seed. Evie comes to believe that this seed is from the Garden of Eden, and has the power to take her to another place. On a cold Beaumont afternoon, she and Alex find out exactly what the seed can do.

My favorite passage:
When Evie first meets Alex she thinks to herself that when her mom was alive she could have believed in ghosts (she could have believed in a lot of things), but now, she just can't. (Disc 1)

What I really think:
This is a great book for a child dealing with loss. Evie wants so badly to be with her mother that it takes almost getting stuck in the magical garden forever to make her realize all the wonderful things she still has in her life, including her father. Adam struggles with the loss of his brother. He would rather be the ghost of Alex, than be Adam and live without Alex.

Not all of Alyson Ryan's voices are super distinct. But her voice for Alex/Adam is amazing. He really sounds like a bratty little New York boy.

The Linden Tree

Author: Ellie Mathews

Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 1040L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Middle school girls.

Reader's Advisory: This book would be great to read before going back a little further in American history with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books.

Summary:
Katy Sue's mother has just died of meningitis and is buried under the old linden tree up on the hill. Katy Sue, her sister Ingrid, her brother Ben, and their Papa do their best to carry on "now Edna's gone." They live on a farm in Iowa in 1948 and life is hard. Katy Sue cares for the chickens. Ben raises the pigs. Papa works in the field. And Ingrid does the house work. It isn't long before they realize they need help, and Papa asks Mama's sister Aunt Katherine to move in with them. Aunt Katherine makes life both easier and harder. She helps Ingrid in the kitchen, but she can be very critical of Katy Sue. As the year passes the family works together to keep the farm going, and keep each other going whenever they miss Mama.

My favorite passage:

"There's something I didn't tell my mama. When she was sick, I mean." Mrs. Breton leaned forward. I bunched my fingers into the splotches in my skirt. "Mama said I was her special treasure and I didn't answer." I twisted my fingers in my skirt as if to make the wet spots disappear. "I should have. But I didn't know what to say." I had nowhere to look but into my own lap. "I mean - I didn't think - I didn't think she would really - that she'd really die." My hands stopped moving. "I thought I had time to say it, you know, later."
"And now there is no later, is there? That's the heartbreak." Mrs. Breton touched my wrist and said in a voice that made me think of the warmest, deepest, clearest pool imaginable, "You wanted to say how much you loved her, didn't you?"
I snapped my eyes to Mrs. Breton's. "How did you know?"
"But hadn't you ever told her that?"
"Oh, yes ma'am. Lots of times. All the time. Every day. She was the best mama anyone ever had."
"Then you didn't have to tell her again. She already knew. You have nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. There's more to loving someone than what you say to them, you know."
"Yes, ma'am," I said. "But still, I wish I'd said it."
"I'll tell you what. Why don't you find something around your farm to draw some pictures of. Then you can put her in the pictures. Just the way you want to see her. You have milk cows out at your place, don't you?"
"Some days it seems we're raising nothing but crows out in the field."
"Then draw me some crows."
"I don't like crows."
"Well, okay."
I couldn't have said why, but that made me laugh on top of my crying, thinking of crows at a time like that and because people sort of teased Mrs. Breton about how serious she could be about drawing pictures all the time, and there we were talking about crows. (pg 31-32)

What I really think:
Mathews skillfully takes us through the grieving process. Katy Sue doesn't want to celebrate her birthday without her mother. She doesn't want to celebrate Christmas. She is afraid of people being nice to her because it makes her cry, but when she cries with her teacher, it helps her. On top of all these emotions, Katy Sue doesn't know what to do with Aunt Katherine. Her aunt hurts her feelings by correcting her grammar, but then Katy Sue learns that it was this same aunt who held her through the colic when she was a baby. Everything the family goes through is difficult, but they do get through it. This book could be helpful to a young person dealing with loss, or even to someone getting a step parent. Aunt Katherine has to be a mother figure without trying to take their mother's place. This is also a good read just for learning more about early America.

Cassie Was Here

Author: Caroline Hickey

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 610L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Middle to late elementary school girls.

Reader's Advisory: For another book on a girl a little too old for an imaginary friend, read Still There, Clare by Yvonne Prinz.

Summary: Bree's family has just moved to a new house and suddenly Bree's imaginary friend, Joey, has returned to keep her company. Bree's brother Reid and her parents don't like Joey. They think she is too old for an imaginary friend. They are all really angry when Joey tells Bree to tell Reid to jump out of a tree, and he breaks his arm. Then, while Bree and Joey are playing Nancy Drew, they see a girl getting out of a taxi with a suitcase and going into one of the houses. Bree's mother encourages her to make friends with the new girl, so Bree introduces herself to Cassie. It turns out that Cassie isn't new. She has left her boarding school to come stay with her grandmother. Cassie is a couple years older than Bree and invites her to smoke the day that they meet! A few days later, Cassie cuts off Bree's long hair and gives her highlights that make her look just like Cassie. She may be a little bit of a trouble maker, but Bree thinks she is fun and exciting. Joey doesn't like Cassie at all and she stops talking to Bree. Bree is pretty upset about losing Joey, but not as upset as she is when she and another neighborhood girl, Anna find Cassie and Reid making out in the school! Things go from bad to worse when Reid tells Cassie and Anna about Joey. Bree can't figure out if Cassie has just been using her to get close to Reid or if maybe Cassie really does like her. By the time Cassie leaves her grandmother's house later in the summer, the two girls finally start to understand each other.

My favorite passage:

We each grab a glass and sit back. Anna starts telling me stories about things Cassie did the last time she visited, like painting her grandmother's metal trashcans hot pink and stealing the stop sign from the corner. Anna doesn't sound impressed, just matter of fact, and I start to wonder how close they are. They don't seem like good friends, but they've obviously hung out together a lot.
Exactly twenty minutes later, a voice comes booming over the intercom again.
"ANNA, PLEASE TELL YOUR GUESTS IT'S TIME TO GO. THEY'RE WELCOME TO COME BACK ANYTIME."
Anna makes a noise like she has gum stuck in her throat. Remembering my manners, I thank her for having us and tell her I'll be back to see her soon.
"I'll be here," she says dismally. "I'm always here."
As we go down the stairs and yell good-bye to Mrs. Randall, a very furry gray cat passes through the living room in front of us and yowls at Cassie. It obviously remembers her.
"So that's the cat," I say.
She nods. That's the cat. And see? His hair grew back just fine." (pg 80)

What I really think:
When I first started reading I thought to myself, "Did she really write the whole book in present tense?" And yeah, she did, and I never noticed it again because it flows so naturally.

I love this book because every character is complex. In some ways Bree wants to stop talking to Joey to please her family, but she is sad when Joey leaves because she is her oldest and most loyal friend. Then there is Cassie. Even the reader can't understand her until the end. Does she like Bree or doesn't she? It turns out that Cassie is still struggling with her mother's death. At first she hangs out with Bree to stay out of trouble, but in spite of her sometimes vicious behavior, she really does like Bree and envies her relationship with her mother.

There are so many issues here a young reader could latch on to: getting along with siblings, making new friends, coping with loss.

Maddigan's Fantasia

Author: Margaret Mahy

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 880L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Late elementary to early middle school girls.

Reader's Advisory: For another epic in which the hero travels to many strange places try Robin Lister's retelling of The Odyssey.

Summary: Garland Maddigan is a performer in a traveling circus. She lives in a time called the Remaking. The world is mending itself after the Destruction and the Chaos. Strange things are happening in the Fantasia. First Garland's father, Ferdy, the Ringmaster, is killed by Road Rats. Then three children join up with the Fantasia: Timon, Eden, and their baby sister Jewel. As they all try to decide what to do next, Garland's mother Maddie announces that the Fantasia has been given a mission by the great city of Solis. Solis needs a solar converter that has been created by the brilliant minds in the city of Newton. The Fantasia wants to do their part in remaking the world, but Timon and Eden assure Garland that getting the solar converter to Solis is more important than she could have imagined. They have traveled to her time from the future, and in that future, Solis is run by an evil creature called the Nennog. Only getting the converter to Solis by the summer solstice can keep the Nennog from coming into power.

My favorite passage:

"Hey!" cried Boomer, softly at first. "Hey! Wake up!" Something about their sleep was intimidating, and he dared not speak very loudly. Then, with relief, he saw movement. Timon! Timon was sitting up...sitting up and blinking...rubbing his hands down over his face...standing up...staring around...then moving across the room toward Eden.
"Timon!" Boomer exclaimed, grateful that he was no longer alone.
But Timon did not turn. It seemed he had not heard him. Boomer slipped around Garland's feet and ran toward Timon, planning to grab his arm and show him (triumphantly) the stolen key. But Timon walked past one of the lamps, and the lamplight, though soft and dim, briefly lit up his face. Boomer stopped abruptly, for Timon's expression frightened him. They eyes, open but narrowed, flickered with a greenish light. Timon's mouth had thinned into a rigid line, and its corners were not so much turned down as dragged down, as if by some strange muscular spasm. There in the shadows of that cold, straw-filled room, Timon had become and evil alien, reaching out to his brother's throat as if he might strangle him.
"Don't," said Boomer, reaching out too...reaching out, though he was terrified again, to drag at those taut, crooked fingers. Timon half turned, swinging out his right arm as he did so, striking Boomer's side just below his waist. It was as if he had been hit with a plank of wood. Boomer toppled sideways as Timon struck again, but this time he thumped not Boomer but Boomer's drum, which sounded a single beat...a curious signal...an announcement of some kind. At the sound of that single beat, the dreadful, set expression on Timon's face seemed to melt away. (pg 220-221)

What I really think:
This could have been a really great book if there were no time traveling.

I like Garland's character development. She isn't so bratty that the reader doesn't like her, but bratty enough that we feel uncomfortable with her when she realizes how she has been acting.

I also like that each town has their own unique problems. Hopefully we can learn from their mistakes. Gramth has a dark secret: children are being stolen away and forced to work in underground mines. The people of Greentown live in a mind-weed induced fantasy, and are being eaten by the servants handing out the mind-weed! Newton's children have organized and the adults don't reign them in because they are so grateful to have children at all.

But this time travel business... I admit that my main problem is that I have my own ideas about how time travel works and when it is written differently, I don't believe in it and find it frustrating. Perhaps this is simply a personal problem. But I struggled through time travel books when I was twelve for the same reason, so maybe some other young readers feel the same way I do.