Unfriended

By Rachel Vail

     What an eye opening read, I enjoyed this quick read fairly well.  This book has you one enthralled and engaged from the first page.  Meet a group of students in Middle School, they are all trying to either be popular or remain popular.  Middle school everyone is worried about perception and being accepted by your classmates.  Beautiful friendly Brook rules the school, she is friendly and outgoing and has a crush on her best friend Clay.  Clay is mr. Cool, he is athletic and all of the girls like him.  His problem is that his perfect older brother just went away to college and he is struggling with his own identity.  Natasha dated Clay briefly and is very self centered, she wants to be the queen bee and plots to overthrow Brook.  Meet Truly, she was Natasha's best friend until 6th grade, she wants to be liked by everyone, she joins the populars through a Natasha ploy.  Unfortunately, she leaves her best friend Hazel by the wayside, angered and hurt.  

     As  the story progresses other characters come into play, but the mechanizations of Hazel and Natasha destroy Truly's confidence and self worth.  They manipulate circumstances making Truly believe that she is a bad, evil individual, which is far from the truth.  Jack, who has a crush on Truly is one of the fw people believe in her innocence.  What this book really shows is how quickly things can spiral out of control in today's technology laden world.  Cyber- bullying is a very real and dangerous situation.  Smarrt phones and anonymous apps are the rage, and people are feeling emboldened by their hidden identity.  Does everyome back together, who ends up being popular or on the fringe, you gonna have to read the book to find out.  

     This book did a few things extremely well, it highlighted the dangers of apps, social media and cyber bullying which is necessary in today's environment.  It also altered the view point to each of the main characters, each chapter is from a different perspective.  So most of major occurrences you will see from varying characters eyes.  I am giving this book a 4 out of 5 stars, I am marking it down because I felt that the chunk of the climax was missing.  In fact, I thought I missed part of the book and reread the last couple of chapters a few times.  I do think this book is a great read and encourage any student from 5th grade up to give it a try.  

Links

Author - Rachel Vail

Stop bullying

Dangers of Anonymous Apps

Dangerous anonymous apps?

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6

The Same but Different

By Holly Robinson Peete

    This unique look into a family that has been affected by autism is eye opening.  Not only is this well written it's honestly written and real world.  Meet a set of twins one of them has autism and the other is "normal".  What this well crafted story achieves is different aspects of the twins lives from both view points.  As the teen twins enter into a new school year they have a host of new challenges.  To hear both aspects of their school day interesting to say the least.  

     Charlie is autistic and has been held back to repeat his freshman year in highschool.  He hates transferring between classes, likes to wear his hoodie, his music and one of his sister's friends.  He is looking forward to not  being watched by his sister this year.  

     Callie is going into the tenth grade is smart and very protective of her brother.  She is almost maternalistic and often has to protect and mother her twin.  She resents, at times, how much of her life is centered around her twin and wants her independence  

     The two learn to get on their own, handle first dates, body changes, bullying and a family vacation.  The only downfall to this book is it left me wanting me more insights I wanted to read more about their year and how they moved forward throughout the year.  For that reason only I am giving this book a 4 our of 5 stars.  I think this book is appropriate for all students in seventh grade and higher.  If you've ever wanted insight into autism or just want a good read, this is the book for you.  

Links

Holly Robinson Peete's Autism page

Book One : My Brother Charlie

Summerlost

                                                                                                By Allie Condie

     This is a poignant tale of heartbreak and the resilient spirit of an individual to overcome the loss of not only her father but a young sibling as well.  Cedar comes to terms with her father and younger brother's death.  Ben had been autistic, but Cedar was able to understand and loved him.  It has been a year and her mother has decided to buy a summer home Iron Creek, near her family.  It should be good for them to be surrounded by loved ones while they learn to handle their new normal.  They quickly settle into a routine, but Cedar notices a young man riding by her home in a costume, and one day decides to follow to see where he goes.
     His destination is the local Shakespear in the park festival where he works doing concessions.  Even though Cedar is young, she is found a job at the festival and quickly becomes friends with Leo.  In an effort to make as much money as possible that summer Leo has concocted a scheme and asks if Cedar would like to be his partner.  The scheme is to give festival attendees a celebrity walk of Iron Creek's famed Lisette Chamberlain.  Of course, this is accomplished without any of the adults being aware of their activity.  Leo and Cedar are eventually caught and lose their jobs at the concession, yet Cedar continues to volunteer her time in the wardrobe department, where she has befriended Lisette's old friend.  In the end, Cedar and her family have decided to commemorate the loss of their loved ones by keeping and collecting items that Ben would have kept near at hand... a toothbrush, a screwdriver etc.
     This is a very enjoyable read, well crafted with some very strong figurative speech especially metaphor for example, "Sometimes I thought of the three of us as pencils with the erasers scrubbed down to the end, and the next swipe across the paper would tear through the page and make a scree sound" (Condie, 11).  I am going to only give this book a 3.5 out of 5.  Somehow the book fell flat and was anti-climatic, the developed story was not the conflict.  If you are looking for a light easy read, however, this is a good book to pick up.

Links

Michigan's Shakespeare in the Park

William Shakespeare

Allie Condie

The Body in the Woods

By April Henry       

     This is a murder mystery set in the Pacific Northwest and our heroes are three intrepid teenagers that are new members of the local Search and Rescue team.  Alexis, Ruby, and Nick have their own reasons for deciding to volunteer for this group, but they never considered that they would discover a dead body on this first mission.  Or that the body would be a young homeless girl that had been murdered and of course the inadvertently have encountered the villain.  The teenagers are embroiled in the mystery as the murderer has discovered his next victim and has his eyes on one of our heroes.  

     Alexis is mature beyond her years as she cares for her mentally unstable mother and dreams of going to college.  Nick is a fatherless young man who dreams of being a hero like his dead father.  Finally, Ruby is a very intelligent and observant young lady whose parents are not happy with her involvement in SAR.  It is Ruby that is convinced that there is more to the murdered young girl and she tries to get Detective Harriman to listen to her doubts.  Of course, he is convinced he knows who the perpetrator is and ignores the teens.  The three bond in their attempt to oust the real killer, with a few mishaps along the way.  Will they be able to find the murderer before he turns his attention to his next victim or will they be able to put a stop to the death?  

     This is a very entertaining read and I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.  The subject matter of the book requires it to be mature and for mature readers, I would not suggest it for anybody younger than 8th grade.  The characters are in high school and there is some romance but I honestly do not feel that most readers would be interested in this book until high school.  The characters are well written and very recognizable.  The relationships feel genuine and plausible, it is very well written just not subject matter for middle school children.  

Links 

Parks of the city of Portland

SAR

Birds of the Pacific Northwest

On the hunt for serial killers in Portland

              

  

The Silent Boy

                                                                                           By Lois Lowry 


     Another great story by award-winning author Lois Lowry. This work of fiction is  told in retrospect, as an aging Docky or Katy looks back to a defining moment in her long life.  Katy remembers when she met her house maid and her brother, Jacob.  The siblings grew up on a poor farm and Peggy is coming to help her family.  Jacob is her special brother that has an infinity for animals but has been "touched".  That is to say, he does not communicate orally.  Jacob is allowed to roam the countryside after he has performed his chores on the farm, so Katy sees him in her family barn and on her father's rounds.  She develops a friendship with Jacob, simply because she can tell him everything.  This friendship is solidified as she learns more about this quiet boy, especially when she visits the family farm the day that her sister is born.
     Katy's best friend Austin lives next door, and as luck would have it their housemaid is Peggy's sister, Nellie.  The two sister are polar opposites both are good hard workers, but Nellie is boisterous with bright red hair and Peggy is quieter.  Nellie has her head in the clouds and wants to become a famous movie star.  Katy discovers that Nellie and Austin's older brother, Paul, are sweet on each other.  This is definitely not acceptable, for the aspiring lawyer to be and the house girl to have a relationship.  Nellie falls for Paul, yet he sees her as easy pickings.  Nellie is forced to return to her parent's farm and Paul is sent to boarding school.  What follows is the night that Katy can not forget.  The event changes everyone's lives and lands Jacob in the local asylum.
     I enjoyed this story for its glimpse into a different time, a different way of life;  the beginning of the phone, the advent of automobiles and when the United States had a definitive class system.  A lot of the rules that governed behavior where more unspoken, acceptable and unacceptable actions.  Many of these have faded from the daily fabric of our lives.  This book is an excellent read for fifth grade and up and appropriate for either gender.  Since this is one of my favorite books by Lois Lowry I give it a 5 out of 5 stars.  By the way, educators, my copy of "The Silent Boy" came with discussion questions and an interview, Happy reading!

Links 

Author: Lois Lowry 

History of Autism

History of Mental Illness - Asylum

History of treatment for autism