Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue

Angleberger, Tom. Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue: An Origami Yoda Book. Harry N. Abrams, 2014.

The gang at McQuarrie Middle School is still fighting FunTime, the standardized test prep that all students are forced to endure instead of going to elective classes. They aren't having much success, until they are rescued by a very unusual hero.

This is a great addition to the Origami Yoda series. These books continue to be popular among my students, especially those who are fans of the Dork Diaries and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Recommended for: middle grade, tweens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

The Lives of Tao

Chu, Wesley. The Lives of Tao. Angry Robot, 2013.

Tao is from a race of aliens that crash-landed on Earth millions of years ago. His race can't survive in our atmosphere, but they can inhabit the bodies of other creatures, so the aliens have been "possessing" creatures from the time of the dinosaurs. Now they inhabit humans, for the most part, in an attempt to bring technology up to a level where they can repair their ship and return home. But there's a feud of sorts going on among the aliens, which plays out in political battles among humans.

Enter Roen. Roen is a white, middle-aged, out of shape man who works in a cubicle for a random IT company. Roen becomes inhabited by Tao after Tao's previous host dies. Now Tao has to convince Roen that 1) Tao is real and 2) Roen is not crazy. And Roen needs to be trained. Soon. Because the battle is still waging around him and Roen is not ready to fight.

This book was a lot more entertaining than the cover or title made it seem to be. I only picked it up because it was part of YALSA's Hub Challenge, and I actually had to purchase a copy of this book since none of my local libraries carried it. But I'm glad I did. This book was a lot of fun, and I could see it being entertaining for adults and older teens. It doesn't fit the demographic of my middle school library, though, so I will be keeping this copy for myself.

Recommended for: older teens, adults

Red Flags: language, violence

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

This Star Won't Go Out

Earl, Esther. This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl. Dutton Juvenile, 2014.

With the movie based on John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars coming out this year, it's appropriate that a collection of the writings of the girl to whom the book was dedicated would be published.  This book would be very popular among my students if I were able to purchase a copy.

Unlike other memoirs of terminally ill children, I didn't actually enjoy this book much. The book truly is a scrapbook collection of photos and writings by Esther, rather than a memoir by her parents or loved ones of her progression through the disease.  It's a good book, but it didn't hold my attention the way other memoirs have.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

The Forbidden Stone

Abbot, Tony. The Forbidden Stone. Katherine Tegan Books, 2014. 

Wade receives a coded message from his uncle shortly before his uncle dies. Wade is determined to solve the mystery of this message, so he, his sister, and three of his friends embark on a globe-crossing journey to find the answers.

What I liked: the mystery element, the anagrams and puzzles that make this read like the daVinci Code for kids, the way the four kids worked together, the absence of red flags that would make this book an easy one to recommend for a variety of kids

I was SO EXCITED to find out that part of the story would take place on Guam, an island where I taught for six years.

But.

But apparently the author did not do much research on Guam, or perhaps thought that knowledge of Hawaii = knowledge of Guam. For the parts of the story that occurred on Guam, instead of being excited, I was just frustrated. Here is a not-exhaustive list of errors:

1. The group leaves the airport and heads down the "south east side of the island" to get to a person's home. The only road from the airport that heads down the island is down the south west side, near all the hotels and shops that are placed there to attract tourists.

2. The person they are visiting lives in a bungalow. That may be the correct term for her home, but no one on Guam refers to their home as "my bungalow." No one.

3. The group is warned to beware of large wild boar that will attack them in the jungle. There are no native mammals on Guam, so unless this person confused the boonie dogs with boar, this is false.

4. The group is warned about a typhoon, the arrival of which is heralded by "dark blue clouds." The sky is actually deceptively clear right before a typhoon. Also, the "typhoon" in this story sounds more like a typical rainstorm, as it is over after just an hour or so and the island residents felt safe enough to let the characters run out into the jungle searching for an artifact during this storm. Real typhoons are scary - they're hurricanes in the Pacific - and no one on Guam would be caught dead outside during such a storm. Also, a real typhoon would have caused lots of damage and power outages.

5. The group's injuries are treated at the hospital on the (presumably) navy base. This is not likely, as security is tight and people, even US citizens, do not get to waltz onto the base at random. The group would have had to go to Guam Memorial Hospital (which I would NOT recommend, even if your arm were severed from your body).

6. The sun is described as burning off the humidity. HAH! There is never a day on Guam that is not humid. The sun coming out after a rainstorm (which occur several times a day on Guam) would have drastically increased the humidity as the water from the storm evaporated. 

Sigh. I was so excited about the Guam locale, but so disappointed. Nonetheless, this book is one my students would probably enjoy.

Recommended for: tweens, middle grade

Red Flags: if "impending death and doom" counts, then that's a definite red flag

Overall Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Between Shades of Gray

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Philomel Books, 2011.

Lina and her family are torn from their home in Lithuania one night and sent to an internment camp in Siberia where they are being punished for unnamed crimes against the Soviet government. Lina and her fellow prisoners must work together to survive in this harsh environment.

This was a very sad and slow read. It's a sad story along the lines of Holocaust stories, and there isn't the same level of action that many teens have come to expect in other novels. But it's a good story, and it's one that needs to be told. Historical fiction doesn't circulate much in my library, but I am making sure to book talk this particular book so that the students will have a better chance of picking it up.

Recommended for: teens, fans of Holocaust literature

Red Flags: lots of violence

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars