Dodger and Me, by Jordan Sonnenblick

Title:  Dodger and Me
Author:  Jordan Sonnenblick
Publisher:  Feiwel & Friends
Year:  2008
Pages: 176
Genre:  Fantasy
Themes:  Friendship, Family, Overcoming Fear
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:
Willie Ryan was not exactly the happiest fifth grader in the world.  He had an overprotective mother, an annoying little sister, his best (and only) friend moved away, the weird English girl from his class wouldn't leave him alone, and he hadn't made a hit for his baseball team all season.  It seemed like nothing he did worked out the way he hoped.  After yet another humiliating performance on the baseball field, Willie decides to take a shortcut through the woods to avoid seeing the other kids.  In a clearing he spies a McDonalds bag someone left on the ground.  When he goes and picks it up, he discovers that it is really a magic lamp in disguise, and when he runs his hand over it out pops...a large blue chimpanzee named Dodger.  Not exactly what you were expecting, huh?  Thus begins an unexpected romp through the familiar three-wishes territory, as Dodger tries to help Willie solve his problems-mostly by seemingly making things worse!

Review:
This is a cute book, though there is nothing hugely original about it.  Despite the "genie" being a large blue ape, the plot is very familiar-lonely, awkward boy gets magical intervention to solve his problems, which goes awry and forces him to realize that he can solve his own problems and/or learn to appreciate the things he thought he wanted to change about people.  Of course, if you are a third grader who has never read or seen any of the other variations on this theme (or the movie Aladdin), then it would feel original to you.

What makes this book really enjoyable, even if the plot is predictable for the more mature reader, is the way that the character of Dodger is written.  He is funny and sweet and crazy and slightly sarcastic, and there are a few things he says that probably only a mature reader would get.  I always appreciate it when authors throw the parents and teachers who also read their books a little bone-sort of like the "wink, wink" moments on Sesame Street that are meant for the parents who are watching with their kids.  Really, all of the characters are pretty well-written, and I think that a lot of students would feel a connection with Willie and his overprotective mother and insecurity.

Witness, by Karen Hesse

Title:  Witness

Author:  Karen Hesse
Publisher:  Scholastic
Year:  2003
Pages:  161
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Themes:  Racism, Friendship, Social Justice
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary: (from Goodreads)

The story takes place in a small Vermont town in the year 1924, revealing the devastating impact of the Ku Klux Klan on this pastoral, insular community. At the heart of the tale are two motherless girls who come to the attention of the newly formed Klan: 12-year-old Leanora Sutter, who is black, and 6-year-old Esther Hirsch, who is Jewish. 
Hesse tells her story, which is based on real events, through the eyes of 11 different characters. Each point of view is expressed in poetic form, but with a stark clarity of difference that makes the voices unique and identifiable. There is a fire-and-brimstone preacher whose sermons reveal him as a zealot and whose actions brand him as a hypocrite. There is a middle-aged farm woman named Sara who takes Esther under her wing despite the warnings of her neighbors, trying to help the child understand why the Klan has marked her and her widowed father as targets for their hatred. Esther's only other friend is Leanora, who is about to learn some harsh lessons on tolerance and hatred herself at the hands of the Klan. And linking them all together is 18-year-old Merlin Van Tornhout, a young man struggling to fit in with the adult world and determine for himself the difference between right and wrong. The remaining characters who circle the periphery of this core group reflect the various mind-sets and biases that were common during this era of fear and persecution, even in a setting as bucolic as the Vermont countryside.

Review:
This book is a gem, an example of high-quality writing for children at its finest.  This book details a pre-civil rights era America, and examines race and racial inequity not with the deep South as its backdrop, but with the rural Vermont countryside.  One of the myths that northern Americans have told themselves for years is that things were only really bad for blacks and other minorities in the south, but as Hesse clearly demonstrates that was never true.  We may not have had Jim Crow laws on the books north of the Mason Dixon Line, but that doesn't mean that out communities didn't struggle with issues of race and discrimination.

The content is not always easy to read, and there are a few of what I call "grown up" words in there, but mature 4th and 5th readers with the guidance of a teacher or parent could have some really interesting discussions about what life was like for Leanora and Esther-though there will definitely need to be some front-loading of historical context, since the novel is long on feeling and short on exposition.  That said, older students could read the novel either as a a reader or an author-the text structure is unique, free verse is something that many of them won't have a lot of experience with, and there is a lot of room for students to interpret what they are reading and to discuss character traits and character change over the course of the book.  The minister eventually ends up targeted by the clan himself, poor Marvin struggles with cultural expectations and what he knows is right, and the girls have such an innocence about them at the beginning that is truly tested through the events of the story.  Hesse has once again given us a moving, heartfelt book about a tough to talk about issue.

The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas

Title:  The Magic Thief
Author:  Sarah Prineas
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Year:  2008
Pages:  422
Genre:  Fantasy
Themes:  Adventure, Belonging, Magic
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery's pocket and touched the wizard's locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who or what is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic

Review: 
Being the fantasy lover that I am, I fully expected to enjoy this book, and I was not disappointed.  In the magical city of Wellmet, where you live determines almost everything about you.  People who live in the Twilight are destined to be poor and live their lives scrambling to survive.  Citizens of Sunrise are the wealthy and privileged of the city.  Conn, the main character, is from the Twilight area of the city, making his living by picking locks and pockets.  An orphan, Conn is very skilled at taking care of himself-until he meets the wizard Nevery.  Suddenly he is thrown into situations that his life has not prepared him for-a wizard's apprentice, in school, meeting the most powerful people in the city.  In Conn, Prineas has created a character  of incredibly honesty and heart.  Once he realizes that the magic is in danger, he thinks nothing of his own safety.  And while he does not always tell the whole truth, he never tells a lie, even when it would be expedient to do so.

There is only a small amount of backstory given for the way that magic and the city are connected, but it is enough that the reader can fully appreciate the plot without feeling like there are holes in reason or logic.  Even fantasy novels have their own internal rules, and the world that Prineas has created is at once familiar and new, and she takes old ideas about magic from other fantasy writers and makes them her own.  As seems to be the norm these days, especially with fantasy and science fiction novels, this is the beginning of a series, of which there are currently three.  I'd recommend them for a classroom library for fluent readers ages 8 to 12.

Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 by Eric Wight

Title:  Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000
Author:  Eric Wight
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Year:  2012
Pages:  96
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novel
Themes:  Teamwork, Setting Goals
Age Range:  2nd-5th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Frankie Pickle returns for another imaginative adventure and this time it all comes down to race cars. Well, not quite race cars, but the Pine Run Derby for scouts. Frankie is in danger of not advancing to the next ranking with the rest of his troop unless he can win the Pine Run 3000. But Frankie wants to do everything on his own so he imagines himself as a world-class sculptor, a mad scientist, and of course, a pro-racecar driver. In the end, Frankie learns that team work is the only way he won't get left in the dust.

Review:
Frankie is a character that a lot of kids can relate to.  He is messy and clumsy and always seems to get himself into trouble.  He really wants to do the right thing, but sometimes his impulsive behavior gets in the way-which pretty much describes almost every nine-year-old boy I've ever met.  Frankie is determined to do everything himself, despite the fact that his father wants desperately to help him.  Turns out, there is a family tradition of racing model cars in the Pine Run 3000, and Frankie realizes that sometimes teamwork is better than going it alone.

The ending is good, mostly because he doesn't actually win the race, which is more realistic than an awful lot of books.  But he still gets his desire to move up in the ranks of the marsupials, because his hard work was recognized even though he didn't come in first.  Considering the competitive nature of our society, and the fact that most kids think if they aren't "first" they are losers, this is a nice message.  Good addition to a classroom library.

The Year the Swallows Came Early, by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Title:  The Year the Swallows Came Early
Author:  Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Year:  2009
Pages:  288
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Family, Loss, Parent/Child Relationships
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Eleanor "Groovy" Robinson loves cooking and plans to go to culinary school just as soon as she's old enough. But even Groovy's thoughtfully--planned menus won't fix the things that start to go wrong the year she turns eleven--suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend's long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows that make their annual migration to her hometown arrive surprisingly early. As Groovy begins to expect the unexpected, she learns about the importance of forgiveness, understands the complex stories of the people around her, and realizes that even an earthquake can't get in the way of a family that needs to come together

Review:
Love, loved, loved this book!  Fitzmaurice did an excellent job taking a very difficult subject and making it something accessible to younger readers.  Groovy is a girl with goals.  She knows exactly what she wants to do with the money that her great-grandmother, the famous writer, left for her.  Groovy is going to be a chef.  She keeps a cooking notebook, and tries out new recipes for her family and friends.  One day, on the way to help her friend at his brother's store, her father is arrested.  When she finds her mother to deliver the bad news, her mother tells her that she is the one who called the police.  It turns out that her father stole the money that was meant for her education and gambled it away on one bet.

Obviously, Groovy is devastated.  And feels betrayed.  And generally hates life.  Around the same time, her best friend's absent mother returns.  He is devastated, and feels betrayed, and generally hates life.  Both of these characters are living situations that go beyond the usual "my parents just don't understand" that populates much of children's literature, especially for this age range.  But there are children who might read this book that also have awful parental situations.  And, like this book, their stories do not always end up with a happy ending tied up in a bright shiny bow.  Fitzmaurice has written a book that tells children that being deeply angry at a parent is OK, but that eventually you are going to have to make some kind of peace, either with your parent or inside of yourself, in order to move forward.  The book also highlights the healing power of forgiveness, but with the recognition that sometimes forgiveness is hard, or not possible at all.

Teacher Resources:
HarperCollins Reading Guide

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

Title:  Insurgent
Author:  Veronica Roth
Publisher:  Harper Teen
Year:  2012
Pages:  525
Genre:  Dystopian Science Fiction
Themes:  Family, Survival, Oppression, Identity
Age Range:  8th Grade and Above

Summary:
Roth has created a fictional Chicago in ruins, cut off from the rest of the world by a high fence.  The lake and river have dried up, and the people who live within the city must get their food from farms on the outskirts of town.  Society has been divided into five factions:  Amity, the peaceful food growers; Erudite, the ultra-intelligent innovators; Candor, whose purpose is to always find and tell the truth; Abnegation, the self-less leaders of the community; and Dauntless, the fearless peace-keepers and informal police force.

Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent series.  It follows Tris Prior, former Abengation, and her love interest and fellow Dauntless fighter, Tobias, in the aftermath of the battle between Erudite and Abnegation for control of the city.  Tris and her friends are on the run from the Erudite leaders and the Dauntless traitors who have joined them.  As the old order breaks down, Tris and her fellow divergent are targeted by the Erudite.  They find temporary safety with Candor, but everyone knows that the current situation can't stand.  When Tris find out that the Erudite attack was a cover for the theft of valuable information from Abnegation, she sets her sights on discovering the information and bringing down Erudite.

Review:
As I wrote when I reviewed Divergent last year, this series is an anomaly for me, in that I am completely engrossed in the fictional world Roth has created, even though I don't really like the protagonist that much.  Tris is a complicated character, for sure, but her aggressive nature and her instincts to fight first and ask questions later is pretty antithetical to my worldview.  This book actually helped me like her a bit better, though.  She becomes a much more sympathetic character once she is loaded down by guilt over the acts of violence she committed in the first book.  Sad, but true...I liked her better when she was suffering.

Roth's fictional society and the rules under which they live provide rich fodder for discussion about how society is organized, and about governmental power.  Each of the factions provides the basis for a discussion about the relative merit of each aspect of humanity in society.  And Tris's journey through grief and guilt can lead to discussions of friendship, family, and being true to yourself within a crazy world.  Or you can just read it for the pleasure of reading a fast-paced story filled with action and adventure.  Either way, I recommend this series to anyone who loves science fiction generally, and dystopian fiction specifically.

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

Title:  The Maze Runner
Author:  James Dashner
Publisher:  Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Year:  2009
Pages:  374
Genre:  Dystopian Science Fiction
Themes:  Survival, Adventure
Age Range:  9th Grade and Up

Summary:  (from Goodreads)
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. 

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

Review:  
With the enormous amount of dystopian young adult fiction out there, it is not hard to find a book or series that appeals to anyone who loves dystopian literature.  I loved the Hunger Games series, the Unwind series,  and I'm right in the thick of the Divergent series right now.  But Maze Runner fell short for me, for reasons that I'm not sure I can accurately articulate.

Part of it goes to the fact that there is a male protagonist, while most of the other books in this genre that I love (those mentioned above as well as Life As We Knew It and This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer) have female protagonists.  While I don't usually find the gender of the main character problematic, the whole feel of this book is a little testosterone heavy for me.  That said, I'm sure there are  young adult males who find the female protagonists of those other books I mentioned not a perfect fit for them.  If you are looking for a dystopian series that will appeal to male readers, then The Maze Runner and its sequels are probably a good investment.

My other issues with the book have to do with the nature of the plot itself.  It reads like a straightforward story of survival against an oppressive "other"-the Creators-but I found that I was not necessarily buying the underlying premise.  At least, not until the end, when thing started to make a bit more sense.  But even those revelations felt a bit contrived, with some deus ex machina thrown in in the form of an unknown narrator who is only present a few times throughout the book to provide some sense of what might be going on behind the scenes.  It left me feeling as though all of the heroism of the characters was for naught, since there were people behind the scenes continuing to pull their strings that they were unaware of.  

While I did not love this book, I didn't hate it either.  I suspect that there are those who follow this series as faithfully as I followed The Hunger Games or Divergent.    I think it is a good addition to a classroom library, but I'm not sure there is enough substance there to make it a good book to use in classroom discussions.