Firefight

Sanderson, Brandon. Firefight. Delacorte Press, 2015.

This is a sequel to Sanderson's Steelheart, and the reader returns to the Reckoners, who have now moved on to what used to be Manhattan in order to defeat Regalia, who has been sending minor Epics to harass the Reckoners in Newcago.  David is convinced that Epics can defeat the darkness within by choosing not to use their powers, and he wants to get some reformed Epics on the side of the Reckoners to help them in their battle.  Meanwhile, Prof, himself an Epic, is convinced that all Epics are the enemy and must be killed.

I listened to Steelheart on audio CD during my commute, and I really enjoyed both the story and the narrator's interpretation. I could hear that same narrator in my head as I read Firefight, and I think this would be an easy book to book talk to even reluctant teen readers and is a great read-alike for many superhero comics.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence, "fake swearing" (new words are used as profanity, and it's pretty obvious that the words are swears, but it isn't as bothersome as standard profanity since the words are next to meaningless in our world)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Virtual Readers Advisory: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Like many others, I recently discovered Netflix's original series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. This 13-episode show follows the life of Kimmy Schmidt, a woman who was kidnapped and locked in an underground bunker by a man who claimed the apocalypse had occurred. She and her fellow kidnap victims were kept hidden for fifteen years. The show picks up after the women have been rescued and Kimmy decides to move to New York City and start her life over.

Although I was never kidnapped or held in an underground bunker, I can relate to Kimmy. When I was in middle school, my family transitioned from being occasionally involved to being heavily involved in a very strict religious group whose behavior closely mimics that of a cult. By the time I was thirty years old, I had memorized nearly half of the Christian New Testament (the latter 27 books of the Bible), I had attended thousands of hours worth of sermons, but I had never been to a Halloween party, had a sip of alcohol, seen an R-rated movie, or owned a cell phone. I wouldn't have known what a "selfie" was any more than Kimmy did.

The skirt was ankle-length, and I had a second shirt underneath my brown shirt so the neckline was high enough. My hair was still considered "too short," but I was working on growing it out.

So when Kimmy breaks out and decides that being a "mole woman" isn't going to define her, when she remains unflappably happy in spite of the tough things she's dealing with, when she has difficulty finding a job because of inadequate education, when she decides to wear light-up shoes and eat candy for dinner just because she can, I get it. I really do. She says, "The worst thing that ever happened to me happened in my own front yard. Life beats you up, Titus. It doesn't matter if you get tooken [sic] by a cult or you've been rejected over and over again at auditions. You can either curl up in a ball and die, or you can stand up and say, 'We're different. We're the strong ones, and you can't break us.'"

I don't generally advertise my past for the same reason Kimmy doesn't: she just wants to be normal. Because I love reading books and talking about books, I would definitely want to help Kimmy get caught up on the books she missed while she was in the bunker.  These are the books I would recommend to Kimmy:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.  I didn't get to read it, either, until I convinced my superiors that I was doing so for "research purposes." Kimmy has missed Harry, and I know she'd relate to him and enjoy the fantasy elements of the story as well.

Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. The main character in this book gets kicked out of her church because she apologizes to a gay student for the way her friends were teasing him.  She eventually concludes that it's okay to have religious beliefs and also believe in science, specifically evolution, and that sometimes it's good to live with unanswered questions.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Ender was taken (or "tooken," as Kimmy would say) when he was a young child and was raised to be a weapon. A big truth - that the "war games" he was playing weren't really games - was withheld from him until long after he could have used it. Kimmy could relate to this, especially as Ender tries to decide what to do with himself once the war is over.

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. Tacky the Penguin is a character in a series of children's books. He is a penguin who wears a Hawaiian shirt and always does things a little differently from his penguin friends. At the end of each book, though, Tacky ends up saving the day, and his friends are always glad to have him around. He's also perpetually cheerful, which reminds me a lot of Kimmy.

I would probably pile a few [dozen] more books on her stack, like The Adventures of Beekle, The Martian, and Escape from Mr. Lemoncellos Library, because I love connecting books and people, but I would want to chat with her a bit and let her explore first.  She'd probably be overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS and want to read and listen and watch and experience, so it might be a while before Kimmy could nail down her specific reading preferences. She'd probably spend a lot of time just staring in amazement at the bookshelves, like I stared at the choices in the big-box grocery store, where entire aisles are devoted to varieties of pickles: "There're just so many OPTIONS here; how in the world does anyone choose?"

Fish in a Tree

Hunt, Lynda, Fish in a Tree. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015.

Ally has changed schools a lot, and every time she gets to a new school, she uses bad behavior to cover up the fact that she cannot read easily.  She mouths off to teachers and spends more time in the principal's office than the principal herself does.  Ally is really good at math, but her reading difficulties have caused her grades to plummet, while her mom assures her that she would do better if she just tried harder.  Ally has tried and tried; how hard is hard enough?

I loved this book.  I love the description of dyslexia from the perspective of the person struggling with it. I loved Ally's substitute teacher and his willingness to help all of his students, even to the point of staying after school to help Ally while waiting for her IEP to kick in. The addition of Ally's brother as a character / role model for Ally was great. Not only would this book be an excellent addition to a public or school library, it should be on the to-read shelf for every teacher as a reminder that sometimes bad behavior doesn't mean the student is trying to be bad; sometimes it's a cry for help.

Recommended for: middle grade, educators and those who work with children
Red Flags: Ally is teased quite a bit by her classmates and called dumb (the "r" word is never used)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, El Deafo, Absolutely Almost, Rain Reign

Stella by Starlight

Draper, Sharon. Stella by Starlight. Atheneum BFYR, 2015.

Stella's North Carolina town has been invaded by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  Stella already knew that there were different rules for her than for the white children in her town, but this becomes even more obvious with the KKK becoming a part of her town. When a neighbor's house is burned to the ground, Stella witnesses her neighbors banding together to help each other, regardless of color.

Stella is a very likable character; I enjoy the fact that she gets up at night to "practice writing" since she thinks she's not very good at it.  I was glad for the historical details, especially the mention of the fact that African-American men who wanted to vote had to pay a fee and take a complicated test, while white men could simply sign their name to the list of registered voters. This book would be an excellent read-alike for Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, especially for slightly younger children. Historical fiction isn't usually an easy thing to sell to kids, but this book would make an excellent classroom read aloud as well.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: obvious racism (no uses of the "n" word, however); one family's house catches fire and for a while the reader thinks one of the children has been trapped inside the building
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Unstoppable Octobia May, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, One Crazy Summer 

Class Visits

These are not my kiddos and not my library, but it's a pretty good representation.

Do you ever have classes visit your library as a field trip? We have classes visiting all the time, usually kindergarten or first grade classes who are visiting the public library to get their first library cards and learn about what is available there.  When these young students visit our library, we give them a tour of the library, read them a story (or two), then give them each their own library card and allow them to check out books, provided, of course, that their parents filled out the card application and returned it to the teacher, etc. etc.

In the past two weeks, however, I have had two separate high school classes visit our library. In both cases it was a smaller class, one from a special education department and one from an alternative learning center. Obviously my normal kindergarten library tour wasn't going to work with these older students.  Instead, I gave them a tour, emphasizing the way the books are organized and where to find important things (computers, DVDs, the bathroom, the graphic novels).  When our tour was finished, I gave them a short scavenger hunt to complete; their teacher offered a school-based reward for the first student to finish.  After our scavenger hunt, I gave a quick book talk over a half dozen books I had chosen earlier and allowed the students time to browse or to ask me questions about books they'd like to read.

In both cases, I like to emphasize that the library staff wants to HELP our young patrons, that we are here to answer their questions and that we love, LOVE talking about and recommending books. I always mention our programs as well; the teens were especially excited to hear about the summer reading prizes this year (teen finishers will be allowed to participate in the Game Truck event that will be happening at our library).  I want our patrons, from the youngest to the oldest, to know that the library is here for them and that we offer a wide variety of things they can do.

What about you? What do you do when classes visit your library?