A Time to Dance

Venkatraman, Padma. A Time to Dance. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.

Veda is a dance prodigy in India and shows great potential in becoming a famous dancer when she is involved in a car accident. One of her legs is amputated below the knee, and Veda's plans for dancing are shattered. She learns to walk again, but longs to dance again as well.

This story is told in verse and does a fantastic job at painting a picture of life in India. The culture is woven throughout the story, so I ended up learning a lot without feeling like I was just sitting there learning a lot. Veda is a very realistic and likable character. I was glad for the way she was able to translate her struggles into her art. I'm not a fan of novels in verse, so I would have enjoyed this one more in straight prose, but it would be an easy recommend to kids who can't get enough of Ellen Hopkins's work.

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

Read-Alikes: The Weight of Water, The Language Inside, The Running Dream

Say What You Will

McGovern, Cammie. Say What You Will. Harper Teen, 2014.

Amy has cerebral palsy, so she uses a walker to walk and has a device that allows her to talk as well. Matthew is struggling with OCD, and he and Amy meet when he is hired to be one of her student assistants during her senior year of high school. They fall for each other and spend the rest of the book deciding whether or not they can be together.

This is a romance novel, so it doesn't have a big, amazing plot to follow, but there definitely was plenty of character development. The author does an amazing job at allowing the reader to see the struggles of a disability as well as the struggles of mental illness. Because of all of this, I was glad I read this book.

But.

I wish Amy hadn't been so controlling/bossy toward Matthew. She kept pushing him and pushing him to work on his OCD, so the tone of the book seemed almost to say, "It's okay to struggle with cerebral palsy, but if you have a mental illness, you'd better work hard at getting better." I wanted Amy to be more compassionate toward Matthew, especially since she herself struggles with things other people take for granted, like being able to walk unassisted. Nonetheless, this was a good book, one that I'm glad to have read, and I will definitely be adding it to my library's collection.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: underage drinking, language
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: All the Bright Places, The Fault in Our Stars

Blind Date with a Book

Everyone is doing Blind Date with a Book displays these days. I myself did one last year at the middle school library, and this year I decided to continue the tradition at my public library.  The difference, though, is in the range of ages I serve.  At the middle school, my patrons were 7th and 8th graders or teachers. Now that I am at public library, my patrons range from newborns to recently-graduated teens. I need to provide programming for all of our youth, not just the ones reasonably old enough to be dating.

So I did create a blind date with a book display for the teen area. Teens can pick up a pink or red wrapped book, check it out, read it, and fill out the enclosed review card. If they return the card, they have a chance to win a prize.

I didn't want to leave the kids out of this opportunity, but I didn't think many parents would want their 2-year old or 9-year old "dating," so I created the idea of a super secret book.  The "super secret books" are the same as blind date books - they are wrapped in pink or red paper and have an enclosed review card. The kids can still review them and return the review card for a prize.  But these books are picture books, early chapter books, middle grade books - all things easily accessible to kids. And even if you can't tell what book it is based on the mysterious description provided, you can still guess about what level it's at based on the size and shape.

The adults at my library are also doing blind date with a book, so this means the entire family can participate, and I have seen several families come in and choose books for everyone. I am glad there are ways I can involve kids in what is normally an adults-only activity.

What kinds of things have you done at your library to tie families and patrons of all ages together in one activity?

Stranger

Brown, Rachel. Stranger. Viking Juvenile, 2014.

The world has undergone a major change, governments have fallen, and now people are picking up the pieces and attempting to survive and thrive in a different and dangerous world. The western U.S. has turned into an Old West type of atmosphere, with each town having its own unique government and dangerous critters roaming the wild. A new boy comes to the town of Las Anclas (formerly Los Angeles); he's carrying a secret, and a powerful king from the east wants it. Is this boy worth saving, or should he be turned over to pacify the king?

This book fits into the second category of dystopian fiction. Unlike the standard Divergent or Hunger Games-style books, where the world has been taken over by a corrupt government, this book tells of a cataclysm that sort of reset the world and stole its technology. People, plants, and animals have many different kinds of mutations, and each town has its own rules. This story is told from five different viewpoints, each of which adds an interesting perspective on the larger story.

What I Liked: Lots of diverse characters. Lots of Latino culture with smatterings of Asian and Native American cultures thrown in. Gay and lesbian people mentioned without it being a big deal at all. One of the main characters thinks she might be asexual, which her dad tells her is completely normal, until later on when she is in a relationship with both a boy and another girl. The multiple perspectives on the story sounded different and were emphasized with different fonts as well, making it easier to transition between characters.

What I Didn't Like: This book wasn't that much different from Killer of Enemies or Inhuman. It would be a good read-alike, but I found myself rapidly skimming the last pages in the book, because I didn't really care what happened. The reading wasn't as compelling as I expected, although it is indeed a good story. Due to both the popularity of dystopian stories as well as the need for diversity in literature, I would add this book to my library's collection if it weren't already there.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Inhuman, Killer of Enemies

Masterminds

Korman, Gordon. Masterminds. Balzer & Bray, 2015.

Eli lives in the remote town of Serenity, where no one does anything wrong and there's never any crime or any problems. Even the streets are named for peaceful things: harmony, amity, etc. One day Eli and his friend try to ride out of town to explore the desert, and Eli is assaulted with throbbing pain. He's taken by helicopter to the hospital, and his friend is whisked away to his grandparents' home out of town. Before he leaves, Eli's friend leaves him a message: "There's something screwy with this town." Will Eli be able to figure out what is screwy here, and can he do it before he or the other kids in town suffer the consequences?

This book is part mystery, part action-adventure. Because the town is so squeaky-clean, there's no violence or profanity to worry about, but there's plenty of intense mystery as the kids try to work through what's going on. This book would make an excellent classroom or library read-aloud, and will be an easy one to book talk to my patrons. Strongly recommended.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: none (seriously; a kid gets in trouble for taking too many donuts, but that's about it)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Poop Fountain!, What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World, The Mysterious Benedict Society