The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart

I didn't really like this book that much. It was mildly entertaining, and the brainteasers were kind of fun, but I still felt like I had to force myself to get through it. It was also kind of creepy and discomfiting in parts.

But, it was recommended to me by kids and adults alike, and everyone but me seems to like it, so I decided to add it here. If you like books about kids who are alone in the world, and are required to deal with grown up situations and defeat adults who are trying to take over the world, then this book is for you. It's very Harry Potter, or The Witches. Except I didn't like it.

A good book for 3rd to 8th grades.

Skullduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy

OK, I'm going to be honest here, guys. I've read several books in the couple, but haven't reviewed any of them. They've just been sitting in a pile waiting for me to do something about it. I could offer a host of excuses, but that's dumb. Mostly, I'm a big procrastinator. One of the consequences of this procrastination is that I don't always remember much about a book, beyond the impressions I've been left with. This book falls into that category.

I had a lot of fun reading this book, and it felt very like a Neil Gaiman story. The characters were engaging, but nothing really special. It was a standard learn who you are, and learn to love whatever it is you find in yourself type of story. But again, very fun to read.

I'd put this in the 3rd to 8th grade category.

The Tiger Rising - Kate DiCamillo

What would you do if you found a tiger in a cage out in the woods? Would you leave it alone? Or would you let it go, knowing it would probably die?

The Tiger Rising is a bittersweet book about loss, love and learning to let go. DiCamillo is becoming one of my favorite young adult authors. I've read two more of her books, which I'll hopefully review soon (when I get off my bottom and start working my way through by backlog of reviews). Because this lady? She can write.

The characters in this book are so real, so sad, and ultimately so filled with hope that you can't help but love them.

This is definitely a book for the younger set, 1st through 6th grades.

Wild Ginger-- Anchee Min

The Cultural Revolution is an interesting subject for young adult fiction, given the important role of young people in the Red Guard. I hadn’t really thought about that until I read Wild Ginger, which is set in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to making this era more real in the minds of readers, the setting offers thought-provoking themes, including political education and the role of youth in social movements.

History plays a large role in Wild Ginger, but it’s got a little something for everyone—a self-made hero, a loyal friendship, and a smoldering (if slightly disturbing) love story. The elements are relatively simple but the combination is effective, and the book is solid and well-paced. Readers will identify with Maple, whose love and loyalty are repeatedly tested.

On account of her non-proletarian background, Maple is a target for the Red Guard at her elementary school. She thinks she is alone until Wild Ginger comes to her class—a new student with light-colored eyes. Wild Ginger and Maple form a pact to stand up for each other, but Wild Ginger is determined to join the political system that has oppressed her family. When Maple and Wild Ginger fall in love with the same man, each of them makes a choice with haunting consequences.

My main criticism of Wild Ginger is that falls into the same trap as many historical books: the “villain” in the story is conveniently on what we view, with contemporary eyes, as the “wrong” side of history. It’s so formulaic for the enemy to be a loyalist, slave-owner, opponent of women’s suffrage/ school desegregation/ etc. Equating the likability of characters with a hindsight view of their political choices is far too easy, and makes no sense considering that our dogmatic view of the world is tempered as we grow older (and to make sense of this book, readers must be at least that mature). We are not surprised that the baddie in this book is the school’s Red Guard leader, Hot Pepper. It is, however, an interesting variation on a theme when Hot Pepper is supplanted by Wild Ginger herself, although the latter embraces her role and political ideology with very different intentions.

The details about the regime and revolution are pretty tame here, but the love story not so much—just a heads-up for anyone recommending this book to a student. Wild Ginger was written primarily for adults, but I think the characters would speak more to high school readers.

Ask Me No Questions-- Marina Budhos

Ask Me No Questions deals with so many of the things I care about: the aftermath of 9/11, the day-to-day lives of undocumented youth, and the realities of first-generation immigrants. I am a fan of Marina Budhos, who also cares about these things, particularly the experiences of young people. My close proximity to some of these subjects, as well as my high expectations for Budhos work, made it difficult for me to admit it, but here we are: I was very disappointed in this book.

The protagonist of Ask Me No Questions is 14 year-old Nadira Hossain, who came to the U.S. from Bangladesh when she was very young. Her family's visas have long since expired, and Nadira and her older sister Aisha grow up concealing the fact that they are undocumented. After the rollout of post-9/11 special registration and arrest policies, the family goes to the Canadian border to apply for asylum, but they are turned away and their father is placed in detention. Their mother decides to stay in the border town in a shelter, sending Nadira and Aisha back alone to live with family friends and await their uncertain future. Nadira has always felt inadequate compared to her older sister, but when Aisha succumbs to the pressure of keeping their secret, Nadira realizes it is up to her to see the family through this crisis.

The power of Ask Me No Questions comes from its basis in fact—there were Muslims who sought asylum in Canada after 9/11, immigrant detention remains a common law enforcement practice, and immigration enforcement practices are still haphazard as the court proceedings described in the book. Plenty of this story rings true to me, but without context I can see how the characters and their situation may not be believable. The family’s religious and cultural identities are not explored, and Nadira is the only well-developed character. Furthermore, young readers may not fully remember the radical nature of security policies enacted in the wake of 9/11; without that context, the story would seem like Kafkaesque fiction.

I was willing to overlook those shortcomings, but Ask Me No Questions was ruined for me by something else. To explain, I will have to tell you something about me: sometimes it’s possible to suspend my disbelief, but I am one of those people for whom illusions are easily shattered by technical error. (My own family can attest to this, having suffered through many a loud objection during critical movie scenes.)

It will therefore not surprise you that my belief instantly evaporated when the lawyer and judge talked seriously about the family’s adjustment of status application though, as a matter of law, the family was not eligible for legal permanent residence. Budhos ends the story on a hopeful note, but not one—frankly—that has any basis in reality.

Although a young reader wouldn’t necessarily know that, when combined with the lack of character development, the error gave the whole book a hastily-written and poorly-researched feel. There are people who live like Nadia and Aisha, and I wanted Ask Me No Questions to respect the inherent truth of their stories and do them justice. However, the political message is what drives this book, not the experience of people— bitterly disappointing.

When You Reach Me-- Rebecca Stead

I knew something was up when two staff at my favorite book store listed When You Reach Me (a young adult novel!) as one of their Top 5 books for the year, and every single review I saw was favorable. I ordered it and by the time it uh, reached me, it had won the 2009 Newbery Medal. I don't have many award-winners on my reading list, for reasons previously mentioned, but I was so intrigued by the reviews-- purposely vague, but enticing-- I didn't think twice about picking up this book.

There is so much going on in When You Reach Me I can’t describe it, and it’s done so flawlessly that I won’t do the book the disservice of trying. It’s a mystery involving a sudden attack on a friend, a missing housekey, a series of unsigned notes, and the growing feeling that something terrible is about to happen. It’s suspenseful and deeply, surprisingly emotional at the same time. It also alludes heavily to my mom’s favorite book ever; it freaked me out a little bit because I felt the book was written especially for me, but I think other readers will feel the same way.

The best thing, the absolute best thing about this book, is that it totally made me feel like my childhood self. Reading it was electric and effortless. I think when I was younger all books seemed like that to me, but it’s been a long time since I’ve finished a book in the course of a single weekday. I structured that day around reading time. I positively tingled with anticipation during my non-reading hours. I stayed up late at night to finish it, and when I finished it I got scared when I turned off the light. It made me feel uncertain about reality in a way that I thought could only happen when your mind is inexperienced and malleable.

You'll have to experience it for yourself.

What are you waiting for?

Da Word-- Lee Tonouchi

“Who can tell the class what is wrong with Barry’s writing?”

“Oh Barry, he da kine. He stay abundantly writing in one freestyle kine manner using, I mean utilizing, large quantities of neologisms, ah?” Mits attempted trying fo’ incorporate as many of da new coconut-kine vocabulary words as he could remembah into dat one response.

“The problem is that both Barry AND Mits use too many colloquialisms,” Laurie volunteered, dis time without raising her hand.

“Try like, dat not wot I sed?” Mits whispered into my ear.

I want to call Lee Tonouchi an author, but he’s more than that. Tonouchi is also a language advocate, a promoter of the literary power of Hawai’ian Pidgin (aka Hybolics). When I prepared to read his collection of short stories, Da Word, I was a little concerned that the writing would feel gimmicky. Tonouchi’s common usage of Pidgin in mainstream and academic outlets—graduate school papers (including his Masters thesis); book reviews, letters to the editor, features, and columns; his resume (and interview) for the Ford “Emerging Pacific American Leaders in the Arts Convening”— is not without cultural statement. He calls himself “Da Pidgin Guerrilla,” not shrinking from his role as a linguistic and cultural activist. That said, I needn’t have feared Da Word— Tonouchi is a master of narrative voice.

There are many deep, conceptual things at work in Da Word, both linguistic and literary, and one could easily go there in a classroom setting. On the other hand, the stories are just plain entertaining and, for the most part, humorous.* I could see it being very relatable for young male readers. Beyond the language itself, Da Word is full of observations about Hawai’ian culture and the islands' relationship with Mainland. Overall, very insightful and broadening, but also a lot of fun.

*There is one story in particular (“Black Leather Hot”) with mature content—not graphic, but troubling. For this reason, I recommend Da Word for 8th grade and up.