The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen

Title:  The Running Dream
Author:  Wendelin Van Draanen
Publsiher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers
Year: 2011
Pages:  332
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Overcoming Obstacles, Disability, Loss, Friendship
Age Range:  6th Grade and Above

Summary:  from Goodreads

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run? 

As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don't know what to say, act like she's not there. Which she could handle better if she weren't now keenly aware that she'd done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she's missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that's not enough for her now. She doesn't just want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her

Review:
 I wasn't sure what to expect from Van Draanen's book, The Running Dream.  I knew her best as the author of the Sammy Keyes series and the Shredderman series for intermediate age readers, and to be honest while I find the characters in those books pretty endearing, I wasn't sure whether Van Draanen could pull off the level of depth that a story like this seems to require.  I shouldn't have been concerned-The Running Dream is a touching story about a girl who learns to deal with the devastating loss of her dream of running in the Olympics, while at the same time learning the importance of not stereotyping someone based on their disability.

Jessica goes through the well-known stages of grief over the loss of her leg, as well as the death of her teammate in the bus crash.  She alternates between depression, anger, denial, and hope during her time at the hospital, and throughout the process of transitioning back to home and school.  Luckily for her, she has a best friend that won't give up on her, and a team that comes together to get her back on the track.

Her support system is definitely a major factor in her recovery, but what really makes her come to terms with her new reality is her friendship with Rosa.  Like many people, Jessica always assumed that anyone with the type of physical disabilities that Rosa has must also be cognitively impaired, which is often far from true.  Rosa is smart and funny and warm, and she reminded me of the character from Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind, which also busted some stereotypes about the physically disabled.  Their friendship definitely ups the emotional impact of the book.

How to Steal a Dog, by Barbara O'Connor

Title:  How to Steal a Dog
Author:  Barbara O'Connor
Publisher:  Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux
Year:  2007
Pages:  170
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Poverty, Family, Homelessness
Age Range:  4th-6th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Georgina Hayes is desperate. Ever since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment, her family has been living in their car. With her mama juggling two jobs and trying to make enough money to find a place to live, Georgina is stuck looking after her younger brother, Toby. And she has her heart set on improving their situation. When Georgina spots a missing-dog poster with a reward of five hundred dollars, the solution to all her problems suddenly seems within reach. All she has to do is “borrow” the right dog and its owners are sure to offer a reward. What happens next is the last thing she expected. 

Review:
O'Connor does an excellent job with the character of Georgina.  Basically a good girl, she contemplates doing things she knows are wrong to help her family get a place to live.  She is not always likable, to be honest.  She is horrible to her mother, who from all appearances was doing everything she could to earn enough money to provide for her children.  But it is clear where her anger comes from-her father's desertion, the loss of her friendships, and her embarrassment over their situation are a lot for a 10 year old girl to handle.

Given the current climate of shaming the poor and blaming them for their own troubles, O'Connor does a fine job of making you feel empathetic towards Georgina, her mother, her brother, and the other characters in the book.  There is Carmella, the women who becomes the victim of the dognapping, and Mookie, the homeless man who Georgina befriends during their time on the street.  Both have important lessons to teach Georgina about love, loss, and how to live in the world in a way that help rather than hinders others.  This book would be a good jumping off point for discussions about poverty, homelessness, and issues around morality and survival.  In the end it is the kindness of others that allows Georgina and her family to find a safe place to live, and in the end that is the biggest lesson learned, both by Georgina and the reader-being kind is always the right thing to be.

Gone Gone Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Title:  Gone Gone Gone
Author:  Hannah Moskowitz
Publisher:  Simon Pulse
Year:  2012
Pages:  251
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  GLBT, Relationships, Overcoming Fear,  Terrorism
Age Range:  8th Grade and Above

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. 

Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody.

Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

Review:
I will admit that I have pretty much avoided any books, fiction or non, that have dealt with 9/11 and its aftermath.  To be honest, I'm not sure that I will every be ready to read accounts, real or otherwise, of that period in America history.  It's not that I'm uniformed-I can listen to the analysis and read about the political/cultural forces that led to the attack, as well as the response of our government afterwards-but reading about what people who were involved went through and the devastating effect it had on their lives leaves me shaky and teary-eyed.

For that reason I almost didn't read this book.  Despite the fact that the main context is the D.C. Sniper murders, I kept picking it up and putting it down again.  What finally made me choose it from my (full to overflowing) shelf of young adult novels comes down to sheer vanity...I like being the go-to person for my friends and the youth I work with for the best in young adult novels dealing with LGBT themes.  In this case, vanity was a good thing!  This was definitely one of the best YA books I've read this year.

I felt very unsettled while reading the book, which I hold up as a testament to the author's ability to accurately capture the mood in Washington, D.C. during the sniper scare.  The general mood of anxiety, dread, and confusion was perfectly mirrored in the way that Craig and Lio felt as they tried to navigate not just the external world, but their own emotional landscape.  Both of them had been scarred in some way, Lio very specifically by the events of 9/11 and his mother leaving the family, and Craig by his ex-boyfriend's mental breakdown.  Both boys felt as though the foundation on which they'd built their lives was shaky, much like we all felt a bit shaky in the year or so after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Basic assumptions they (and we) had made about what was safe and stable in our lives had been called into question.  In fact, it was sometimes uncomfortable to read this book.  Moskowitz did such a good job drawing me into the emotional lives of these two boys that I'd find myself, like them, feeling restless and unsettled while I was reading, but in a way that enhanced the story, rather than diminishing it.  I think this novel is excellent, and I could see it being used in a high school history class as a way to draw students into the way society responded and changed after 9/11.

Legend, Marie Lu

Title:  Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile
Year: 2011
Pages:  320
Genre:  Dytopian Science Fiction
Themes:  Oppression, Social Justice
Age Range:  8th Grade and Up

Summary:  from Goodreads

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets

Review:
I've read a lot of young adult dystopian fiction in the last couple of years, and like most genre literature it gets to be repetitive in nature.  Repetitive in theme, elements, character archetype.   But what I've come to realize over the years is that good fantasy and science fiction writers are like great chefs.  Two chefs can take the same basic ingredients and make equally satisfying variations on a similar theme.

I would call Lu an adequate chef.  I think that she does a decent job with the basic elements of dystopian fiction-government control of the population through lies and manipulation, characters who fight against that control, manufactured wars, etc...Having June and Day come from such different worlds allowed Lu to invite the reader into the worlds of both the powerful and powerless in the Republic, and proved important to the plot later on when June was able to use her access to help them escape from danger.  It is not a cookie cutter novel, much like the Twilight clones that came out during its heyday.  There are some decent discussion topics that could be developed from the plot, and the book definitely has some merit in comparing and contrasting it to other titles in this genre.  It is the start of a series, so if you are looking to hook a reluctant reader this book provides opportunities for further reading (Prodigy and Champion are the next two in the series).  Definitely a good choice for a classroom library.

Bliss, by Lauren Myracle

Title:  Bliss
Author:  Lauren Myracle
Publisher:  Harry N. Abrams
Year: 2008
Pages:  444
Genre:  Horror
Themes:  Friendship, Good vs. Evil
Age Range:  9th Grade and Above

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

When Bliss’s hippie parents leave the commune and dump her at the home of her aloof grandmother in a tony Atlanta neighborhood, it’s like being set down on an alien planet. The only guide naïve Bliss has to her new environment is what she’s seen on The Andy Griffith Show. But Mayberry is poor preparation for Crestview Academy, an elite school where the tensions of the present and the dark secrets of the past threaten to simmer into violence. Openhearted, naïve Bliss is happy to be friends with anyone. That’s not the way it has ever worked at Crestview, and soon Bliss is at the center of a struggle for power between three girls—two living and one long dead.

Review:
I read my first Stephen King book, Carrie, when I was in eighth grade.  It was scariest thing my 13 year-old self had ever read, but it was more than that.  King has a way of making his characters completely believable, even when they have completely unbelievable experiences or powers.  Obviously King was never a teenage girl, but you'd never know it from the way he wrote that character.  Her loneliness and confusion and rage and painful naivete were things I recognized in myself in some form or another.

Lauren Myracle achieves a similar feat in this novel, and in fact the plot is almost an homage to Carrie.  Bliss is a typical teenager in most ways, though her life on the commune certainly didn't prepare her to deal with the girl-culture of a 1970s prep school.  But she's smart and kind and determined to do he right thing, even when she's not entirely sure what that is.  She befriends the awkward, unliked Sandy, who starts out as a good friend to Bliss, but becomes more and more needy and creepy over time.  Sandy is communicating with the ghost of a long dead witch, who convinces her that a blood sacrifice is necessary for Sandy to get revenge on all of the people who've tormented her.  When Bliss decides to help the most popular girl in school, Sarah Lynn and her African American boyfriend be together, she unwittingly provides the spark that pushes Sandy into action.

Malevolent is not too strong a word to describe the tone of this book.  Bliss's character is torn between wanting to be a friend to Sandy, and being scared of her.  And Sandy herself is afraid of the ghost character as much as she is drawn to her.  But it's not just the supernatural characters that are scary.  Between the mean girl culture and racism the book has plenty of emotional tension.  This is a perfect book for teens who love to be scared, and would make a great addition to a classroom library.

Everlost, Neal Shusterman

Title:  Everlost

Author:  Neal Shusterman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Year:  2006
Pages:  313
Genre:  Fantasy
Themes:  Hero's Quest
Age Range:  6th-9th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Nick and Allie don't survive the car accident...
...but their souls don't exactly get where they're supposed to get either. Instead, they're caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It's a magical, yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.


When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he's found a home, but allie isn't satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the "Criminal Art" of haunting, and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

Review:
Love love love Neal Shusterman!  I think that his stories are always so creative and interesting, and after hearing his speak about his process at a conference in the spring, I have a pretty healthy respect for his imagination.  Unwind was one of the best young adult books I read in the last few years.  Everlost has the same inventiveness, and a great sense of heart.  The idea of souls existing in an alternate state, separate from the world of the living while still being able to observe, is not a new one.  But Shusterman adds some new twists, like the fact that only children stay behind, or that some places are so important that they continue to exist in Everlost even after they are destroyed.  The most emotional moment for me as an adult reader was when Allie and Nick discovered the World Trade Center towers in the New York skyline.  Over time, I think that younger readers will lose the sense of what that really means, but for me it was such a beautiful thought-that the emotional impact of the Trade Center towers was so strong that they will exist forever in more than just our memories.

What I really liked about the story was that unlike lots of ghost stories, what made this story scary was not monsters (thought there were some) or violence (though there was a little bit).  What was scary was the idea that living in Everlost caused you to lose your identity.  The longer you're there, the more you forget about yourself, and you fall into routines that create weeks and years and decades and centuries that are exactly the same, day after day after day!  Also, the whole "sink to the center of the earth" thing was pretty scary for this claustrophobic person to think about!

The end of this book sets up a conflict between two of the main character, Mary and Nick, that resembles a typical good vs. evil dynamic, but it more true to life, in that each person is acting out of what they think is best for the other "Afterlights", as the children living in Everlost are called.  The twist-they love each other as much as they disagree about the true nature of Everlost.  I am curious to see how Shusterman resolves the storyline, and whether Allie and Nick and the rest of the Afterlights ever get to that white light at the end of the tunnel.

Secrets of the Cicada Summer, Andrea Beaty

Title:  Secrets of the Cicada Summer
Author:  Andrea Beaty
Publisher:  Harry N. Abrams
Year: 2008
Pages: 176
Genre: Mystery
Themes: Overcoming Loss
Age Range:  3rd-5th Grade

Summary: 
Lily is invisible-not because people can't see her.  Anyone who was looking would see her.  But no one looks her way, not anymore.  After the death of her brother, Pete, Lily retreats into silence, and over time people stop paying attention to the girl who never speaks.  And that is just fine with her.  Lily has a secret, one that she is sure will make her father stop loving her if he finds out.  No one sees through her silence, until Tinny comes to town.

Tinny, 12 years old like Lily,is a rough customer.  As soon as she shows up in the small town of Olena, IL to stay with her Aunt Fern, bad things start happening.  Candy starts disappearing from Aunt Fern's store, and then money.  Tinny blames it on Lily, who can't defend herself without admitting she could talk all along. And then, a mean looking man shows up looking for Tinny.  Lily has to uncover the mystery and save Tinny-but it will mean confronting not just the mean looking man, but her own grief and guilt.

Review:
Cicada Summer is a sweet story about a little girl dealing with some pretty serious issues.  Her mother died when she was too young to remember her, and her brother died in a tragic accident when he was 12 and she was 10.  Despite the loving care of her father and kindly Fern, she has so much guilt over her part in her brother's death that she tries her best to disappear-staying silent, sidling around town just out of everyone's vision.  But this makes it easier for her to learn things that grown-ups might not want a child to hear, which in turn helps her become a real life detective, like her idol Nancy Drew.

 The story goes back and forth between present day and the time period right before and after Pete's death.  Beaty uses the flashbacks to develop Pete's character, so that the emotional impact is heightened when the truth of what happened to him is finally revealed.  By then the reader has also come to care about not just Lily, but her father and Fern and even that rough ol' Tinny.  The narrative structure makes a good model for early writers.  They can practice writing their own story that includes both flashback and present day.

The one criticism I have is that the resolution of the mystery happens very quickly, in just a few pages.  What was meant to be a suspenseful scene with the mean looking man cornering the two girls ended up feeling a little bit rushed to me, lacking in detail.  Perhaps that was to keep it from being too scary for the intended audience, and it may be my reading it as an adult that makes it seem that way, but it did feel like a whole lot of build-up for a pretty slim ending.  But I think this book could be used as a read aloud, in guided reading, or as part of a classroom library.

Teacher Resources:
Teachingbooks.net Lesson Plans
Wild Geese Guides Discussion Guide