Books+to+Consider+Reading+Next

Here are some titles to consider reading in the upcoming months:


 * =**__When You Reach Me__ by** Rebecca Stead=

Review From School Library Journal
Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's //A Wrinkle in Time//. When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers.//–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT// //NOTE: This book is the 2010 Newbery Medal Award Winner//

Liyana Abboud, an Arab-American teenager, moves at the age of fourteen from St. Louis to Palestine with her family as she is becoming a woman during the 1970s. Liyana, her mother, and her brother have spent their entire lives in the United States, and they become immersed within the many vibrant cultures of the Middle East, particularly as they are embraced by Dr. Abbouds'relatives. What at first appears to be an ending eventually emerges into a beginning, an exploration into her heritage and family. In her father's homeland of Palestine, Liyana feels like a stranger, not fully comprehending the cultural laws or the language. However, through refugee camp children, her grandmother, and Omer (an Israeli Jew), Liyana begins to love her heritage. As she explores issues of war within Israel, Liyana discovers peace and hope despite tragedies within the diverse group of characters surrounding her. The poignant story of Liyana and her family parallels Naomi Shihab Nye's own life and experiences as an Arab-American in the United States and Israel/Palestine to craft a compelling novel. Especially during the recent events of September 11th and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, //Habibi// offers hope for peace and the opportunity to explore the often unheard story of the Arab-American experience in the United States and in Palestine. Critics praised Nye for her poetic imagery, complex characters, and insight into the Arab-Israeli conflict.
 * =**__Habibi__ by** Naomi Shihab Nye=

Thirteen-year-old Sophie, skipping between "dreamland or earthland or muleland," hears the sea calling her. Much to the concern of her adopted parents, she decides to join her uncles and male cousins on a sailing voyage from Connecticut across the Atlantic to England (and her grandfather Bompie) on a 45-foot sailboat. Not only does she want to make the trip, she feels she has to. This perilous cross-Atlantic journey will make young readers feel the wind in their hair and the salt spray on their face. Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech (//[|Walk Two Moons]//) describes the sailing experience with astonishing precision--from the smell of the sea to the intricate workings of //The Wanderer// itself. Along the way, Sophie proves her bravery and competence to the rather grumpy all-male crew; intrigues and captivates her cousin Cody with her beautiful, odd stories of Bompie that always somehow end in underwater disaster and apple pie; and spills her heart into a daily journal. Readers get another angle on her, too, as Cody keeps a log that alternates with hers. He grows to know, and like, and wonder about, his new cousin Sophie along with the reader, and as her mysterious past reveals itself bit by bit, we are all right there on the edge of our seats, ready for the boom to crash over to the other side. Sophie's adventures take her not only straight into perilous waves higher than buildings, but deep into her hidden past. This profound, suspenseful novel will pull you into its swift current and barely let you surface for breath. (Ages 9 to 13) //--Karin Snelson//
 * =**__The Wanderer__ by Sharon Creech**=

The four March sisters come of age against the backdrop of a nation forever changed by the Civil War. While their father serves in the conflict, the sisters—dutiful Meg, fiery Jo, gentle Beth, and fanciful Amy—are guided on a journey of growth and experience by their spirited mother. //Little Women// is the story of a loving and unconventional family welcoming life's joys and bravely facing life's sorrows. In part autobiographical, this is an important historical portrait of young women growing up in a post-war American society of strong traditions and modern freedoms. Drawing from her childhood in a close-knit and unique family from Concord, Massachusetts, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) created a beloved collection of works about young people coming of age in the post Civil-War era.
 * **__Little Women__ by Louisa May Alcott**

Nineteenth-century American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved //[|Little House]// books. With //The Birchbark House//, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's first novel for young readers, this same slice of history is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa girl Omakayas, or Little Frog, so named because her first step was a hop. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island. Readers will be riveted by the daily life of this Native American family, in which tanning moose hides, picking berries, and scaring crows from the cornfield are as commonplace as encounters with bear cubs and fireside ghost stories. Erdrich--a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa--spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island, read letters from travelers, and even spent time with her own children on the island, observing their reactions to woods, stones, crayfish, bear, and deer. The author's softly hewn pencil drawings infuse life and authenticity to her poetic, exquisitely wrought narrative. Omakayas is an intense, strong, likable character to whom young readers will fully relate--from her mixed emotions about her siblings, to her discovery of her unique talents, to her devotion to her pet crow Andeg, to her budding understanding of death, life, and her role in the natural world. We look forward to reading more about this brave, intuitive girl--and wholeheartedly welcome Erdrich's future series to the canon of children's classics. (Ages 9 and older) //--Karin Snelson//
 * **__The Birchbark House__ by Louise Erdrich**

When a new girl moves into the East Tennessee Children's Home, her charisma has an immediate effect on Maddie, the story's narrator. Maddie's scrapbooks filled with pictures of the houses she dreams of living in serve as a catalyst for Murphy, as she gathers a fledgling group of unlikely friends around her. Together they build a fort, and spend time there dreaming of futures that compensate for their pasts. Maddie's own history, including a mother who abandoned her as an infant, pales beside Murphy's stories of her parents, well-respected research scientists who died tragically. When Murphy leaves suddenly and her past is revealed to have been an alternate reality to the truth she cannot accept, the group that is left must struggle to deal with their own difficult lives and Murphy's place in their memories. While insightful readers will suspect the newcomer's lack of truthfulness early on, that won't stop her compelling personality from leaping off the pages. Maddie is the more staid character, but still a distinct and likable person. The foster children's backgrounds are believable, diverse, and engaging, and readers familiar with eastern Tennessee will appreciate the references to real towns and cities that are sprinkled throughout the text. Despite being a remarkably different story from the author's __Dovey Coe__ (Atheneum, 2000), this novel also offers unique and memorable characters. //Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL//
 * **__Where I'd Like to Be__ by Frances O'Roark** **(Review from from School Library Journal)**

This book is as sweet a confection as the cherry cordials its 12-year-old protagonist is so fond of eating. Willafred Havisham is starting to put down roots in Bramble, Cape Cod, where her grandmother runs a candy shop and where she's made a friend. She is hoping that her mother will stay here longer than the two years they usually live anywhere, and that she will remarry. Stella is a successful wedding planner who is unaware that her daughter has been adding her own touch for years: she sews cherry pits into the hem of the gowns for good luck. When a celebrity wedding goes awry because of this, Stella feels her business is ruined and the two leave town. The girl's letter to her mother about the meaning of the pits (they represent love) provides emotional heft to what has up to that point been just a pleasant story. Chapters begin with a quote from a book or, less successfully, from a character in this novel. These allusions may prompt readers to look into some of Willa's favorite books and writers.//–Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA//
 * **__The Wedding Planner's Daughter__ by Coleen Murtagh Paratore** **(Review from from School Library Journal)**

(Summary provided by [|www.gmilcs.org] (a consortium of local libraries) The summer of 1899 is hot in Calpurnia’s sleepy Texas town, and there aren’t a lot of good ways to stay cool. Her mother has a new wind machine from town, but Callie might just have to resort to stealthily cutting off her hair, one sneaky inch at a time. She also spends a lot of time at the river with her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist. It turns out that every drop of river water is teeming with life all you have to do is look through a microscope! As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and learns just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century. Debut author Jacqueline Kelly deftly brings Callie and her family to life, capturing an unusual year with unique sensitivity and wit.
 * **__The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate__** **by Jacqueline Kelly**

In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world.
 * === **__The Giver__** **by Lois Lowry** (Review by Publishers Weekly)===

"Are you a gifted child looking for Special Opportunities?" This curious newspaper ad catches the eye of orphan Reynie Muldoon. After taking exams that test both mind and spirit, Reynie is selected along with four other contestants--Sticky Washington, a nervous child with a photographic memory; irrepressible Kate Weatherhill; and a tiny child who lives up to her name, Constance Contraire. The children soon learn they've been chosen by mysterious Mr. Benedict for an important mission: they are to infiltrate the isolated Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, from which messages of distrust and compliance are being broadcast into the minds of the world's citizens. Debut novelist Stewart takes some familiar conventions--among them, an orphan struggling against evil forces (Harry Potter, anyone?)--and makes them his own. But like the Potter books, his story goes beyond mere adventures, delving into serious issues, such as the way sloganeering can undermine society--or control it. Through its interesting characters, the book also tackles personal concerns: abandonment, family, loyalty, and facing one's fears. The novel could have been shortened, but Stewart writes with such attention to the intricacies of plot and personality, his story rarely feels slow; only a significant disclosure about Constance seems forced. Smart kids who like Blue Balliet's books are the natural audience for this; but, read aloud, the novel will attract many others as well. Illustrations to come.
 * === **__The Mysterious Benedict Society__** **by Trenton Lee Stuart** (Review by Booklist)===

The recent Newbery medalist plunks down two more strong-minded women, this time in an 1849 mining camp--a milieu far removed from the Middle Ages of her first novels, but not all that different when it comes to living standards. Arvella Whipple and her three children, Sierra, Butte, and 11-year-old California Morning, make a fresh start in Lucky Diggins, a town of mud, tents, and rough-hewn residents. It's a far cry from Massachusetts; as her mother determinedly settles in, California rebelliously changes her name to Lucy and starts saving every penny for the trip back east. Ever willing to lose herself in a book when she should be doing errands, Lucy is an irresistible teenager; her lively narration and stubborn, slightly naive self-confidence (as well as a taste for colorful invective: "Gol durn, rip-snortin' rumhole and cussed, dad-blamed, dag diggety, thundering pisspot," she storms) recall the narrator of Catherine, Called Birdy (1994), without seeming as anachronistic. Other characters are drawn with a broader brush, a shambling platoon of unwashed miners with hearts (and in one case, teeth) of gold. Arvella eventually moves on, but Lucy has not only lost her desire to leave California, but found a vocation as well: town librarian. With a story that is less a period piece than a timeless and richly comic coming-of-age story, Cushman remains on a roll.
 * **__The Ballad of Lucy Whipple__** **by Karen Cushman** (review by Kirkus, 1996)

With a movie in the works, which will no doubt bring this tale of mutiny on the high seas to a new generation, //The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle // deserves a second look. I actually reread this book about once a year; it was the book that inspired me to become an author. Not only is it a Newbery honor book, but Charlotte's tale has received accolades as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and, when it came out in 1990, it was a School Library Journal Best Book. With the words, "Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty", Charlotte's tale begins. Charlotte swears to tell us the truth of her voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1832 in all its detail, and as a narrator, she does not disappoint. Set in an age where propriety was the main concern, Charlotte is the lone female passenger on a ship bound for America. **To complicate matters further, the ship's captain is losing his mind and his descent into madness is heightened in intensity by the plotting of his mutinous crew. More than that, however, the story is about Charlotte herself. She grows from the first pages of the book from a naive girl into a young woman who questions what she knows is not right. There are few literary heroines today who demonstrate the same amount of self-awareness, candor, and moral compass that Charlotte does. She learns that, ultimately, your choices in life are what define you, not your circumstances. ** In a dramatic departure from her fairy tale fare, Levine (Ella Enchanted) creates a chiaroscuro effect as she contrasts the bleak days and colorful nights of Dave Caros, an orphan growing up amid the Harlem Renaissance. When his woodcarver father dies in October 1926, Dave's older brother, Gideon, goes to live with their Uncle Jack in Chicago, but none of Dave's relatives can afford to take him. Dave's stepmother places him at the Hebrew Home for Boys (nicknamed Hell Hole for Brats), and the 11-year-old vows to run away. But first he must retrieve his most prized possession, his father's carving of Noah's Ark, which was stolen by the superintendent Mr. Bloom (aka "Doom"), who is infamous for beating up boys. In the meantime, Dave finds a way to sneak off the grounds for the evening. Thus begins Dave's secret life, revealed through his first-person narrative. On his first night out, he meets Solly, a self-proclaimed "gonif" with a heart of gold, who uses Dave as a sidekick in his fortune-telling gigs. Solly introduces him to an avant-garde group of thinkers, painters, writers, musicians and Irma Lee, the young niece of a prominent African-American socialite. As Dave waits for the opportunity to reclaim his carving, he settles into his double life. His fellow "elevens" at the orphanage emerge as distinct, colorful personalities who come through for him time and again. Mr. Hillinger, the unwittingly hilarious art teacher who cannot complete a sentence, becomes a champion for Dave's artistic talents. And his nocturnal adventures lead to an abiding friendship with pretty and kind Irma LeeAas well as shed light on a fascinating corner of American history. In describing 1920s Harlem from a child's perspective, Levine articulates what it might have been like for anyone exposed to such innovation in art or the sounds of jazz for the first time: "It was wide-awake music, nothing like the waltzes Papa used to whistle. If I could have painted it, I would have used bright colors and short straight lines." This poignant and energetic novel, inspired by the author's father's childhood, comes with an all's-well-that-ends-well conclusion that brings a sense of belonging to Dave and his orphan friends, yet delivers a surprise as well. The Artful Dodger has met his match in Dave.
 * =__The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle__ by Avi (review from The Children's Book Review)=
 * =__Dave at Night__ by Gail Carson Levine (review from Publishers Weekly)=

The addition of the invented country of Bergania (think The Mouse That Roared) to the otherwise recognizable landscape of Europe on the brink of WWII provides the setting for this adventure. Tally, a student at a progressive school in England, becomes enamored with the mountain kingdom via a newsreel and persuades the authorities to send a school group there to participate in an international dance exhibition. Once there, Tally, an unsinkable heroine, helps rescue Karil, the young crown prince, from a corrupt government and then from the Nazis and finally from his oppressive guardians. Each member of the supporting cast of this deftly constructed tale is a gem, from the mysterious, charismatic biology teacher to Tally's father, a dedicated and idealistic doctor; from Julia, abandoned by her movie-star mother, to the plumber-turned-hired-assassin who murders Karil's father, the king. The plottings, near escapes, secret identities revealed, and ethical dilemmas are decorated with the particular wry, confident humor that is Ibbotson's trademark. "At school they say Nazi spies are going to come down on parachutes disguised as nuns. Well, I know nuns; I wouldn't be fooled -- you can tell by their shoes." This is a fat book that needs to be, requiring each of its 377 pages to work out all the politics and personal relationships that finally slot together in a neat, satisfying, romantic ending.
 * **__The Dragonfly Pool__ by Eva Ibbotson (review from Horn Book)**

What if the costumed workers at historical sites really lived there, and tourists watched them through hidden cameras rather than from pathways? What if those workers and families were not allowed to leave, ever? Jessie lives in the 1840s, or so she believes until her mother sends her on an escape mission outside the fence, where it's 1996. The suspense and the cataloging of differences as they appear to Jessie are the best parts here. The resolution of the plot, which includes the revelation that the inhabitants have been used for scientific experimentation, comes too fast, but the quirky twist on time-travel fiction will keep the attention of readers. //- Mary Harris Veeder//
 * **__Running Out of Time__** **by Margaret Peterson Haddix (review from Booklist)**