STACKED

books

Finally by Wendy Mass

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Every time I read a Wendy Mass title, I fall more and more in love with her style and her ability to get into the minds of middle schoolers so perfectly. Finally, her latest release, is no exception: Mass depicts a funny and adorable 11-year-old-turning-the-big-12 in Rory.

“When you’re 12, you can,” is a common phrase Rory’s learned to live with. But she doesn’t just live with it, she takes stock in it. You see, Rory has been keeping a list of all the things she will be able to do when she turns 12, including getting her ears pierced, getting a cell phone, riding a roller coaster, getting an instant messenger screen name, and more.

But things won’t be as easy as she thinks, when she first has to leaf through stacks of pamphlets on different cell phones and cellular plans in order to pick one out. Nor will it be easy when she finds out that the number she gets for her phone actually belongs to an out-of-business pizza place and she begins receiving phone calls for extra large sausage and pepperoni pizzas while she’s sleeping and garlic-topped pizzas in the middle of class. And let’s not get started on what happens when she gets her ears pierced.

There’s good news though! Rory’s school is the site of a movie screening, and the lead actor in the movie is the oh-so-swoon-worthy Jake Harrison. When she and her friends hear the film crew will be casting for scene extras, you better believe she’ll be there…it just might be with some interesting physical issues that have come up as a result of her birthday list.

Finally is a fast-paced, hilarious novel that will take readers back to one of the most exciting ages in their lives, and it will resonate with middle schoolers who are themselves struggling with the challenges of never being old enough or mature enough to do some of the things that their friends do. Mass captures an authentic 12-year-old here that never once feels forced, too old, or too young. This is a page turner in the sense that as a reader, you want to see Rory succeed, but you also get a kick out of the terrible things that happen to her (don’t worry — none are terrible in the sense of bad, but rather in a funny sense).

Here’s a bonus for readers: if you’ve read 11 Birthdays, Leo and Amanda make an appearance in this book, too. In fact, the line when they are introduced is something to the effect of “Something weird happened on their birthdays last year, and it brought them together but they won’t tell anyone what happened.” I was laughing quite hard at this point, and I think that other readers will get a kick out of their reappearance in Finally.

This book would be an ideal readalike to Lisa Greenwald’s My Life in Pink and Green, a title that I’ve talked to middle schoolers a few times and which they report back to me they adore. The main characters in both are driven individuals with a lot of spunk and creativity, but they both have faults. There is a good family surrounding each, which is refreshing to see.

After reading this one, I’m so eager to dive into Mass’s forthcoming The Candymakers and to go back and read through some of her titles I’ve missed. If you haven’t been reading Mass, Finally may be a great place to begin, since it is a quick read and introduces you to her humor and character style quite well. This book is appropriate for middle schoolers and older, and it is a completely clean read.

Non-Fiction: Watch This Space – Designing, Defending, and Sharing Public Spaces

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One of the best books I read in my life has been Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place. The book is a treatise on the value of the third place — somewhere people can go that is not centered on consumerism and is neither work or home. Think cafes in Europe, pedestrian malls, libraries, museums, even the internet.

Hadley Dyer and Marc Ngui, a pair of Canadians, have taken this idea and made it accessible to a younger audience. Watch This Space: Defending, Designing, and Sharing Public Spaces is a non-fiction, fast-paced, and engaging read directed at teenagers that seeks to highlight how important it is to have safe spaces in the world where teens can interact with one another and with all members of society. The book is colorful and quick to connect to, and it serves a great purpose in defining what a public space is and why it is important for teenagers to care about these things.

A quick overview of the history and intricacies of designing public spaces was quite interesting: when I was a teenager, there weren’t a lot of mall restrictions, for example, but the authors highlight how many malls have implemented rules meant to keep teenagers out or from congregating. Dyer and Ngui repeat throughout, though, that malls AREN’T public spaces; rather, they serve as an example of what a public space should be for teenagers: appealing, spacious, well-lit, and inviting to partake in any number of safe activities.

In addition to defining and illustrating the history of public spaces, this book gives teenagers a list of HOW to get involved with their communities. There is a do-it-yourself activity in designing a space, as well as a list of places where teenage input is valued (including things like the public library’s teen advisory board).

Be aware, though, there is a definite bias in this book, much like there is in Oldenburg’s book, and that bias is against the American life style. That’s not to say there is a bashing of it in any way, but as a reader I was quick to sense that there was the belief that the American mode was inadequate and there was little work in improving it. I don’t necessarily believe that, though some of the points made were valid — a lot is also overlooked in the progress America has been making in developing public spaces in a suburban-dominated country.

Watch This Space is a book that would be a fantastic book discussion choice. It can be read quickly and discussed in one session. I think teens would get easily fired up about this and could easily become motivated to get involved in their worlds. A good book talker can sell this one without problem. I think there is a real opportunity to pique the interest of socially conscious teens who may be coming back asking for some of the titles of books by well-known sociologists quoted throughout. The book is a worthy title for adults to read, too, especially those who work with teens or think that teens are often forgotten about in our world — you, too, may be motivated to be their advocates.

A Summer Secret by Kathleen Fuller

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Sometimes we all need to read outside our comfort zones, and for me, that generally means picking up a fantasy book. But because I’ve been reading more and more fantasy, I decided I need to read more in the Christian/Spiritual fiction arena. This is a growing area in the publishing world, and at my library, these books fly off the shelf.

Last week, I spent a few days in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Though A Summer Secret, the first in Kathleen Fuller’s forthcoming “The Mysteries of Middlefield” series is set in an Amish area of Ohio, the setting really got me into the book.

Mary Beth, a 13-year-old Amish girl, has spent many of her days sketching out by the abandoned barn near the end of her family’s property. It doesn’t belong to her family, and she’s been told not to go in there since it wasn’t stable. But, she likes the freedom she gets in going down there and drawing, so she rationalizes that as long as she stays outside the barn, she’ll be fine.

The more time she spends down there, though, the more she notices strange things happening. First, it was a button (and the Amish do not wear buttons but instead use pins). Then, some of the juice boxes in the barn begin to disappear. Her journal, which she has left in the barn, has also been rifled through. When she runs into her twin brother down in the barn — and yes, he’s not supposed to be there either, but he has been hanging out down there at night to get away — they discover the footprint of a sneaker that definitely belongs to an outsider.

The twins soon find their uninvited guest is a boy of their age who has run away from foster care. Throughout the book, Mary Beth and her brother will forge a relationship with Sawyer, helping him survive and thinking up ways to make his life stronger. But when a strong crack of lightning strikes the barn, Mary Beth and her brother may just find themselves in heaps of trouble with their family for sneaking around and lying.

A Summer Secret is a strong middle grade novel, and while there is a very Christian bent to the story, it is never overwhelming. Because the story is set in the Amish community, it works quite well. I thought that Fuller did a good job of incorporating some of the Amish language into the book, as well. For me, this is the sort of book that is an easy sell to girls in the 11-14 year-old range since it is clean and has enough mystery and intrigue to keep the story moving.

Some loose ends in the book didn’t tie together, including Mary Beth’s mother’s pregnancy. It’s easy to see coming from the start of the book, and it would have been worthwhile to tie up at the end. The characters of Mary Beth and Sawyer are pretty well developed, though the other characters do not seem as well fleshed. I think this is made up for with the quick pacing. I was a little disappointed in the end of the book, as it wraps up a little too cleanly and conveniently and in my mind, a little unrealistically.

My real disappointment with the book is the narrative style. This is told in a third person voice, and I believe that had this story been rewritten in first person, it would have been built on stronger bones. I’d love to hear Mary Beth’s inner voice since she’s such an interesting character. I think this may have been a missed opportunity to really get behind her and show us as readers why she wanted to help Sawyer and how her faith and Amish values helped her make the decisions she did.

I read A Summer Secret while waiting for my plane home and on the first half of my flight. It’s a fast read and keeps readers hooked. I was pleasantly surprised in this genre, and I plan on seeking out further books in this ilk since there are definitely good reads here. Fuller herself has penned some adult books, as well, and I’m eager to see if she can delve into the psyche of any of her main characters, as I’d love to read about the Amish lifestyle straight from that mindset.

* Review copy provided by the publisher, though the book is available now.

Shelf Check!

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One of my big goals for bloggiesta was to get my books all onto shelves in a workable way. When we moved into our house, many of my books fit onto these three shelves. And yes, they are arranged by color. I straightened these guys out this weekend:


I also had a book shelf in my living room that houses my soon-to-be reviewed titles and my currently checked out library books. There are also a couple of recently purchases titles up there (I need to reread The Hunger Games and Catching Fire before Mockingjay comes out). I reorganized those bad boys this weekend so it matches the scheme on the office shelves.


This weekend, we added another member to our bookshelf family to our bedroom. My husband reads in bed at night, and he puts his books down on the floor. Not usually a problem, except when you have cats who like eating paper. So, in addition to a place for him to store his books, it was the perfect spot to organize my BEA haul.

And there you have it, a look at my home library. Most of the ARCs don’t stick around: they go to my work where I give them away to the kids I work with. So while it looks really full, the first set of shelves is my “real” personal library.

. . . and don’t books look prettier on a shelf in color order? It’s inspiring to me.

Summer Reading Challenge

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Inspired by Michelle at GalleySmith and Abby at Abby (the) Librarian, I, too, am joining in on the summer reading challenge for adults. I am a good reader of adult non-fiction, but I’m not as strong with adult fiction.

This summer, between June 15 and September 15, I will read or listen to 10 adult fiction titles. I am going to try to review them all here, as well.

You can check my progress on this post throughout the summer.

Do you have a summer reading goal? If not, here’s your shot to join in the fun and challenge yourself.

A summer of reading adult fiction:
1. The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum
2. Golden Grove by Francine Prose
3. Greyhound by Steffan Piper
4. Cum Laude by Cecily von Ziegesar
5. I Thought You Were Dead by Pete Nelson
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15.