January Favorites

On a previous blog, I would post monthly recaps of my favorite reads. I've decided to start doing it on this blog. Each post will have a variety of books I really enjoyed reading, whether they are children's or young adult, fiction or nonfiction, graphic or prose.


Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. I love this beautifully creepy collection of short stories. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked it up - I’d heard a lot of buzz about it, but thought it was just a fairy tale graphic novel. I was pleasantly surprised! The stories aren’t outright scary, but they’re delightfully unsettling, and quick and easy to read.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Ada was born with a clubfoot, and her mother is ashamed of it. Because of that, Ada has never been out of the house, never learned anything, even though she is…or at least THINKS she is, 10 years old. Her little brother Jamie, on the other hand, is their mother’s favorite, and can play outside and attend school. As the war gets closer to London, Jamie is going to be sent to the country to stay safe. Ada sneaks out with Jamie, and they get on a train with the other children from London. People who live in the country are going to take in children until World War II is over, but what if no one wants Ada and Jamie? This was a very engrossing book, and I don’t usually enjoy historical fiction. The ending of this book is one of the most satisfying I’ve read in a long time, with a perfect last line. Highly recommended! Check out my video review: A Book a Minute.

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham. I love Lauren Graham, mostly as Lorelai Gilmore, so I was worried I was going to imagine her as the character in this book. Luckily the story is about Franny trying to make it as an actress in New York, and she’s silly and funny, so imagining Lauren Graham as the character totally fit. I love reading about people trying to make it as actors, so I loved this book. The overall resolution was a little obvious, but there were nods throughout the book that Graham knew what was going on, so it seemed a little less hokey. The ending itself was very well-written. I’d love to read more from her.

Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt. This graphic novel is beautiful. Overall it looks very simple, with scratchy pencil drawings, but there are so many details in the images. The story is about a girl who used to have friends, until they abruptly turn on her and she is the class loner. It’s a story that’s been told over and over again (and I feel like most of the books I’ve read recently deal with this issue), but it’s well-done, and worth a read since it’s quick.

FAVORITE RE-READS Matilda by Roald Dahl. I haven’t read this book since childhood, and I was delighted that it’s still just as entertaining to read as an adult! I’m a huge Roald Dahl fan so it was fun to start reading his works again. I read this right as I saw Matilda, Tim Minchin’s musical, so it was nice to compare the book to the musical (which actually stayed fairly true to the story)!

One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis. I previously read this in February 2013 and loved it - the review from my now-defunct blog is actually in the paperback version! I loved it just as much re-reading it now. I remembered the biggest plot point, but had forgotten a lot of the little twists along the way so it was a lot of fun to read again. Still highly recommend this book if you want a fast-paced, suspenseful read.

Operation Pucker Up

Plot Summary
Seventh-grader Grace Shaw is ecstatic when she beats out the eighth grade theater girls for lead in the school’s production of Snow White. Things don’t seem so great, however, when she can’t even tell her mom and sister the good news because her dad showed up for dinner after living on his own for months. It only gets worse when Grace realizes she’ll have to kiss one of the most popular boys in school in the final scene of the play - and she’s never been kissed before! Her two best friends get to work developing “Operation Pucker Up” - a detailed plan to get Grace kissed that fills a notebook. But no plan can go off without a hitch, and that includes Grace’s life onstage as well as at home.

Critical Analysis
Alpine’s first middle grade book is very well-written and strong. Her first novel was for young adults and really enjoyable, but it seems she’s found her niche with tween writing! She makes the characters come alive as relatable people, and good role models for tween girls. The family dynamics are perfectly done, handling a sensitive topic like parental separation with ease. The emotions are not overly sentimental, and there is genuine humor in the story, not silly gimmicks aimed too young for the targeted age group. Alpine’s explanation of theater terms are just right - not too long for those who already know the meanings, and just enough to make readers with no theater knowledge feel in-the-know.

Resources
+     Lockhart, E. Dramarama. New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2007. Print.
Two friends who try to avoid attention go to a summer theater camp where one becomes a star, and one doesn’t have the talent she originally thought; both are forced to rethink their friendship.
+     Matson, Morgan. Since You’ve Been Gone. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for           Young Readers, 2015. Print.
Emily’s parents are playwrights, and though they’re not the focus of this novel, it’s a great book that has a lot of theater infused into the storyline.

Related Activities
This book will make you want to put on a play! If you have the time and resources, go for it! If this isn’t an option for your class or for a library program, take a shortcut! Ask students to pick a favorite play or fairy tale, and they can read the parts aloud like Grace’s table read. This way, you get the feel of a play without needing costumes or sets. You could even gather other classes or library patrons for an audience!

Read it for yourself!
Alpine, Rachele. Operation Pucker Up. New York: Aladdin, 2015. Print.

Lola Zola, a series for tweens

Plot Summary
Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush: Lola Zola is understandably upset and confused when both of her parents are laid off from their jobs at the auto plant. She’s only eleven years old, but she feels the fate of her family resting on her shoulders, and she won’t let them drown in debt. Lola decides to start a lemonade stand in front of the house, enlisting her best friend Melanie to help. But after buying all the ingredients and treating her fair-skinned friend to a sun-blocking umbrella, Lola is out of money—and no one seems to like her lemonade that much, anyway. But Lola won’t give up. She finds a secret ingredient and engages in some covert marketing, and her business booms! Then Slime Bucket, an annoying boy from school, starts selling limo-nade from the trunk of his father’s limo, right across the street from Lola! Will her enemy ruin her business before Lola is able to save her family from bankruptcy?

New Girl on Salt Flat Road: Lola Zola begs her mom for a bra, just wanting to be like all the other girls in middle school, but her mom keeps saying Lola doesn’t need a bra yet. She wants her daughter to stay a child, while Lola is really to grow up! Especially when a new girl moves in, a girl that Lola and her best friend Melanie dub “Tween Queen Pauline” due to her gorgeous hair and curvy body. Zola feels like the chosen one when Pauline invites her to the mall to try on bikinis (even though Lola doesn’t fill hers out) and to a makeup party (even though Lola isn’t allowed to wear makeup). Unfortunately, this makes Melanie, Lola’s best friend, feel left out. But when Lola discovers that Pauline shoplifts and likes boys—including Lola’s crush!—she isn’t as sure that she wants to be Ms. Popularity.

Critical Analysis
Lola Zola is a great new series for tween girls. Lola has a huge personality, making the books fun even while they tackle issues like unemployment, alcoholism, and peer pressure. The characters in the books come off the page, even when they play minor roles. The books use a lot of slang, which will appeal to tween readers.
     There are a few sections in New Girl on Salt Flat Road where the timeline jumps a bit from present time to flashbacks (sometimes just an earlier instance in the same day) that is confusingly worded, but overall the books are very accessible for tweens, written in their language—literally, in the case of current slang, but also written for their grade level.
     Lola Zola is published by “Brown Girls Publishing” (which does NOT exclusively print African-American books OR African-American authors) and the character often laments about her wild hair, but otherwise nothing is explicitly stated about Lola’s race. Which doesn’t matter, of course, though the series seems to be about people of color (especially if you judge both books by their covers). This doesn’t detract from the story at all, but I think it would be a great opportunity to highlight a strong, bold girl of color - IF that is what the authors intended. Melanie, Lola’s best friend, is frequently mentioned as being pale and freckling in the sun, so it would be just as easy to slip in a few phrases about Lola’s race.

Personal Response
Growing up, I was a big fan of the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It follows Alice from elementary school, and just ended with a book catching us up to Alice’s 60th birthday! I can see the Lola Zola series stretching out like that, growing up with the girls who read it and acting as a guide and inspiration as they do. I was a shy kid so I loved reading about characters that were bolder than me, and Lola is definitely that girl! She’s very sassy, but at the same time she is relatable and faces issues that most girls face, so it’s inspiring that she deals with real issues while still being true to her personality. I would really like to see this turned into a TV series, or even made-for-TV movies, because the stories are so vivid that I think they could translate really well to screen, and reach even more girls in the process.

Related Links
Keep up with Lola Zola on the blog: LolaZola.com and on Twitter: @tweenorama. Get your own copies of the books from Amazon: Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush and New Girl on Salt Flat Road.

Read them for yourself!
Winograd, Marcy and Jackie Hirtz. Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush. Houston, TX: Brown Girls Publishing, 2014. Print.

Winograd, Marcy and Jackie Hirtz. New Girl on Salt Flat Road. Houston, TX: Brown Girls Books, 2015. Print.

*Disclaimer: I was sent free copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.