skip to main |
skip to sidebar
If she knows nothing else, Jessica knows one thing for absolutely sure: She is a runner. Jessica lives for running, and is one of the best on her school's track team. She just beat her personal record in the 400 meter. But then, just a few days later, her team's bus was in an accident on the way home from a meet. One of their teammates was killed, and Jessica's leg had to be amputated.
Now Jessica doesn't know who she is. And she has no idea how she's supposed to figure it out while surrounded by well-meaning doctors, friends who don't know what to say to her, overbearing parents, and an irritating younger sister. Not to mention the guilt that she has over the financial troubles that her parents are having because of fighting insurance companies. But with the support of an undaunted best friend, her track team and coach, and something of a new cheering squad, Jessica begins to recognize that the finish line doesn't always have to be an ending, and she can finally see the new start that is unfolding in front of her.
Recommended for older middle grade readers and all high school girls. This is a fast-paced read with not only a positive message, but also really likable characters, which sometimes makes all the difference!
Reviewed by kate the librarian.
Karl Stern is a skinny kid who gets bullied by his high school classmates more than he would like, but he's always been able to hide in the background of life for most part. He's living in Berlin during the reign of Hitler and the Nazis, but having been raised in a family of no practicing religion, he certainly does not consider himself a Jew. And his fair looks do not broadcast his ethnicity either, something that separates him from his younger sister and her dark features.
But it doesn't take long for the fact that he is a Jew to get him expelled from public school, beaten, and even left for homeless. For a while he still has his boxing as a refuge, but even that gets taken from him eventually. Along with his parents and his sister, he must figure out how to survive even when it becomes harder and harder to believe that the injustice against Jews won't last forever . . ..
Recommended to mature middle grade and high school readers. Here is portrayed a unique perspective of Nazi-era history. The Berlin Boxing Club was named the 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Teen Readers and was placed on the YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.
Reviewed by kate the librarian.
"Stupid Fast : The summer I went from a joke to a jock" definitely illustrates Felton Reinstein's life one high school summer. But it doesn't even begin to encompass all that he goes through in those short - um, long - months.
Felton has grown. All of a sudden, he has hair everywhere, his body is catching up to his ginormous hands, and he is stupid fast. A few weeks in the locker room with weights and he is stupid strong, too. Everybody notices, but Felton still pictures himself as a small, weak kid, with nothing much to offer anybody. The football team latches onto him, Aleah - the daughter of a professor staying in town for the summer semester - definitely notices him, the crazy lady at the nursing home screams every time she seems him, and he seems to be driving his mother further and further into Crazy Town. Felton doesn't even begin to know how to start to figure life out. So he runs.
This is an original novel with an original voice. Felton experiences every single sort of growing pain possible, making him both a frustrating and sympathetic character. This one is perfect for young teenage boys, despite the f-bombs, and should let them know that life moves on, people aren't always what they seem, and maybe their lives aren't all that bad.
Reviewed by kate the librarian.
Posts
