Beasley, Kate. Gertie’s Leap To Greatness.

Beasley, Kate.  Gertie’s Leap To Greatness.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  2016  249p            $16.99 ISBN 978-0-374-30261-0      elem/ms  Conflict  E-BN  

Gertie is a fifth-grade girl on a mission. She must prove to her mother, who abandoned her years ago, that she is the greatest fifth-grader on the planet, and therefore change mom’s mind about leaving town with her new husband and family. Gertie has come up with missions before, and they have never failed. But this time, it seems that things keep going wrong for her. First of all, there is the new girl, Mary Sue, who seems to dislike Gertie and turns the other kids against her. Secondly, there is Mary Sue’s mother, who turns all the other kids against Gertie’s dad, who works on an oil rig. Even Gertie’s best friend Jean abandons her. In the face of all these challenges, how is Gertie ever going to prove to her mother that she is the greatest fifth-grader in the world?

The book includes humor and pathos, and is a great character study. The plot hums along and delves deeply into Gertie’s innermost feelings, making her one of the most sympathetic characters I have encountered in children’s fiction lately. There are wonderful line drawings by Jillian Tamaki that capture the feelings, the characters, and the humor perfectly.                 

Summary: Gertie is a fifth-grade girl on a mission. She must make her mother, who abandoned her, realize just how special she is, and change her mind about loving Gertie. But along the way, Gertie encounters many challenges.         

Family-Fiction, School-Fiction, Abandonment-Fiction                                             —Carol Kennedy

Jung, Mike. Unidentified Suburban Object.

Jung, Mike.  Unidentified Suburban Object.  Scholastic/Arthur Levine  2016  265p  $16.99  ISBN 978-0-545-78226-5      ms  Science fiction  VG-BN

The reader begins by thinking that this story is about finding one’s roots.  Chloe is the only Asian-American student in her school.  She is constantly compared to a famous Korean violinist because she is good at the violin and is Korean. Or is she? Her parents will never talk about their childhood in Korea or have anything to do with Korean culture. When Chloe has a school project about family ancestry, this creates a problem. Eventually her father tells her and proves that they are actually aliens from another planet. Chloe’s life crashes in around her until her best friend helps her find perspective. It’s a great coming-of-age story with a twist.

Readers of all backgrounds can associate with Chloe’s feelings and her wish to embrace her past.  The alien twist comes as a shock to the reader, but as her friend gets her to understand, what difference does it make if she is the only Korean student or the only alien?  Girls will love it!                      

Summary: Chloe is searching for identity.  As the only Asian-American student in her school, she wants to know more about her Korean heritage, until her father tells her that they are actually aliens.  This shakes Chloe’s entire foundation. Middle school.         

Family-Fiction, Minorities-Fiction                                                                                        --Joan Theal

Medina, Meg. Burn Baby Burn.

Medina, Meg.  Burn Baby Burn.  Candlewick Press  2016  310p.  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-7636-7467-0  jr/sr   Historical fiction  E-BN   

     

The summer of 1977 in the Flushing section of New York City was one of fear due to the high murder rate, including a killer on the loose known as the Son of Sam, sweltering heat without the benefit of air-conditioning, and a power blackout. The author deftly weaves all these historical elements, as well as pop culture references, into the story of Nora as she navigates the last few months of her senior year in high school and dares to dream of a future that may be better than what her mother had. Her absent father, her abusive and pyromaniac younger brother, and her passive mother all make her life difficult, as Nora has been the one in recent years to keep the family afloat emotionally and sometimes financially. As she contemplates turning in her brother for setting fires in her apartment building and a nearby pharmacy, she must come to terms with the ways she will be viewed -- by her best friends, by her parents, and by the larger community. This is a novel that will keep the reader involved to the very end. The budding romance between Nora and Pablo is comfortably left in limbo at the end of the novel. Readers will feel that hope and fortitude are Nora’s best attributes and will easily allow her to navigate her future with resolve. An afterword succinctly relays the historical background in which the novel is set.  

Summary: Deftly weaving in historical elements of the nascent feminist movement, Son of Sam fears, and life in New York City in 1977, Nora navigates the end of her senior year in high school and plans for her uncertain future. Grades 8-12.

Family-Fiction, New York City-History-Fiction               --Lois McNicol

Bancks, Tristan. On the Run.

Bancks, Tristan.  On the Run.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss     2015  227p  $16.99  ISBN 978-0-374-30153-8  elem/ms   Conflict  VG-BN      

Ben has always wanted to become a cop. One afternoon the police come to the front door asking about his parents. Shortly thereafter his parents’ car pulls up and they take Ben and his sister away to a remote cabin. The parents stock the cabin and then take off after locking the kids inside. Ben finds his parents’ stolen money and hides it in the woods. His father discovers the money is gone. The police arrive. Ben and his sister find themselves escaping into the woods.

It is a fast-paced story in which readers will see that actions have consequences and even young people understand right and wrong. This is an excellent book for any elementary/middle school library.   

Summary: Readers will turn the pages quickly, as Ben has to deal with police chasing his parents and his being deserted and left alone in the woods.     

Adventure-Fiction, Family-Fiction                                 --Linda McNeil

Redgate, Riley. Seven Ways We Lie.

Redgate, Riley.  Seven Ways We Lie.  Amulet see Harry Abrams  2016      343p  $17.95  ISBN 978-1-4197-1944-8      hs      Realistic fiction  VG-BN

Seven flawed high-school students narrate the events begun when a rumor circulates of an affair between a student and a teacher in this cleverly-knit-together piece about the trials of adolescence and life in general. Each student faces their own internal struggles, and the way their lives are interwoven leads them to confront their obstacles and either triumph or crumple.

Author Riley Redgate manages to infuse a realism to these characters that makes readers connect easily to them, whether it is the girl with a reputation for being easy or her rage-filled theater-geek sister, or the young man who knows who he is but doesn’t dare to admit it, or the girl he used to date who constantly compares herself to others and finds herself wanting. The characters’ flaws, their “sins” as it were, are not their defining traits so much as they are the result of their pasts and their relationships, and in connecting to them, readers may make some discoveries about their own issues and how they might handle them.

It is an engaging, tangled story of strained friendships, sordid secrets and discovering what truly matters at an age when everything seems like the end of the world. There are adult elements to this book, including a romantic relationship between a high-school student and her teacher, drinking, and marijuana use, but they are handled tastefully. 

Summary: Seven flawed high-school students narrate the events begun when a rumor circulates of an affair between a student and a teacher in this cleverly-knit-together piece about the trials of adolescence and life in general.    

Identity-Fiction, Relationships-Fiction, Family-Fiction     --Bethany Geleskie