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

Penaflor, Lygia Day. Unscripted Joss Byrd.

Penaflor, Lygia Day.  Unscripted Joss Byrd.  Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press. 2016. $16.99  214p  ISBN 978-1-62672-369-6  ms/hs  Conflict  E-BN     

Joss has been acting since age six. Now at 12, she is an intense actor sought after because of her soulful eyes and Oscar-worthy acting ability. While filming her fourth feature movie, an independent film by a well-known director based on his and his sister’s lives as victims of childhood physical and sexual abuse, Joss is called upon to recreate scenes that are well beyond her maturity level. Enter an impulsive stage mother chasing her own dreams, an on-set tutor who uncovers Joss’s learning disabilities, actors who never break character, including the abusive “father” character, the makeshift living conditions, the camaraderie of the cast and crew, and ultimately Joss, who must determine when if ever she will have some say over her life.  Joss reveals the insecurities, the isolation from peers, and other features of the less glamorous aspects of acting, as well as the constant chase for the next big role.  Readers will be unable to put this book down, as tension never ceases to throb under the everyday events on the set.  Readers will have to determine if Joss loses her soul in order to chase the dream of fame.   

Summary: Joss, 12 years old, is a child actor.  Filming her fourth feature movie, she is asked to recreate a sexual abuse scene.  Enter stage mother, tutors, and intense adult actors, and you have a realistic version of the underside of movie making. Gr. 7-10.       

Child Actors-Fiction                                                                                                   —Lois McNicol

Bowen, Carl. Elite Firefighting Crew. (Firestormers.)

Bowen, Carl.  Elite Firefighting Crew.   (Firestormers.)  Capstone Publishers  2016  223p  $8.95  ISBN 978-1-62370-756-9  ms  Conflict  E-BN            

This is an exciting action story with elite firefighters and two or more story threads.  It is a compilation of at least two shorter titles in the Firestormers series.  One involves the story of Sgt. Rendon, a female crew chief who needs to convince a group of people to leave their homes for safety.  A second major thread is the rescue of Sgt. Rodger’s brother and his crew.  These two story threads are printed in the separate titles of Bone Yard and Hot Spot.  The story lines about Lt. Garrett and Chief MacElreath may also have been published in the smaller editions.  The various story lines alternate through the chapters.
 

The story is exciting and includes lots of danger, firefighting strategies, and descriptions of equipment.  Middle-school readers will love this title.        

Summary: Fighting a wildfire in Klamath National Forest, one crew chief must convince a group of people to leave their home in the face of the fire.  Another team must perform a search-and-rescue mission for a missing crew of local firefighters.  Grades 4-8.

Fire-fighting-Fiction                                                                                                    --Joan Theal

Hirsch, Jeff. Black River Falls.

Hirsch, Jeff.  Black River Falls.  Houghton Mifflin/ Harcourt Brace      2016  328p  $17.99   ISBN 978-0-544-39099-7      ms/hs  Conflict  VG-BN

In the genre of stories about plagues that turn people into zombies, kill entire communities, reduce villages to death traps or create other insurmountable struggles, Jeff Hirsch has found a voice in this new young adult novel with a twist.  That voice is that of Cardinal Cassidy, his protagonist, who tells the story of a new community within the Quarantine Zone that he and (pre-plague) archenemy Greer are running with some of the victims.  Cassidy is writing the plot of this creative novel in a journal addressed to his brother Tennant, who, the reader assumes, has become a victim himself.  In the exposition the reader finds clarity in the search for a story line that begins this way:  Card (Cassidy) and Greer have established a community of children who they are keeping safe amidst the chaos of Black River Falls.  While Card is in town one day, he comes across a young woman who is being victimized by two men who hope to convince her that she is the lost wife of one of them.  Card saves her, falls in love with her (naturally!) and tries to find a way to build a relationship -- that is, until Greer tells him that he also has feelings for Hannah.  As if the reader didn’t have enough conflicts already, Hirsch throws in another big one.  A new corporation run by the Marvins has taken over the town, seemingly to help the victims, but it is a ruse.  What the Marvins hope to do is clear out the town and rebuild.  Extras that add spice to the plot include chance encounters with Card’s mother, a relationship between Card and a National Guardsman who helps the mountain group, the entry of the town librarian, who seems to be seeking out Card for some reason, and an answer to the big question, “What happened to Tennant?”  Hirsch masterfully builds in the subplot of Card’s father’s prize-winning comic books whenever Card faces a new conflict, adding a bit of additional spice to an already solid plot.  This novel scores a solid 10 in its ability to attract readers to its wonderful writing style, its unique plot and its intriguing character development. 

Summary: Post memory-attacking plague, Card and his former worst enemy Greer establish a community known as Lucy’s Promise in which they house children who have no place to go after losing their families.  When a corporation takes over the town, Card and Greer struggle to find answers to the question of what is best for their children and for themselves.         

Post-Apocalyptic fiction, Adventure                                                             --Squaresky(2), Martha

Keplinger, Kody. Run.

Keplinger, Kody.  Run.  Scholastic Press  2016  293p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-83113-0  hs  Realistic fiction         VG-BN

This novel has that special quality that makes it a book of note.  That special quality is the pairing of two unlikely friends, one blind, and the other challenged by her drug-addicted mother, her poverty and her reputation.  Agnes is the blind one, a teen who faces the challenge as well as the “chain” around her neck of two overly caring and overbearing parents.  Bo has the reputation.  It may be true or false, but others have formed an opinion about her as a girl to avoid.  Agnes does not judge, however, and the two forge a friendship based on need.  Their gimmick to entertain themselves?  They learn about each other by asking, “What is something you have never told me before?”  Interestingly, the use of Bo’s voice in one chapter followed by Agnes’s in another, in alternating fashion, serves not only to align the reader with each girl’s own unique point of view, but also with differing time periods, and this forces the reader to really think.  Bo’s point of view is current, whereas Agnes delves into their past.  The title indicates  that someone is going to run away, probably Bo; however, when her mother is arrested yet again, Bo finds she is not alone this time.  Agnes flees with her.  The tether of overly watchful and worried parents must be broken, and Agnes has not known how to do that until now.  The girls set out in a “borrowed” car and survive quite well until they hit a snag as they near Bo’s father’s town.  They are recognized, and they get a flat!  The resolution is real, the pain is palpable, and the life lesson is a hard one to swallow.  Teen readers will be engaged and enraged from the first page of this story to the last.  Kody Keplinger knows the blind so well that one suspects she did a great deal of research.  Wrong.  Keplinger herself is blind and knows that world intimately.  Teen readers will wonder how often she cleverly wove real life with fiction, and that is the beauty of this book.  It makes you think.

With some content designed for a more mature audience and one sexual encounter, this book is best for high-school libraries.  However, mature middle-school readers will be able to handle the profanity and the reference to the sexual act.

                       

Summary: Bo is the town slut.  Agnes is the goody-goody who is blind.  Each has a story to tell, a life of problems to overcome and a world outside of Mursey to discover.  Bo tries to find caring parents, whereas Agnes wants to break away from hers.  Can this unlikely friendship save both girls from their demons?

Friendship-Fiction, Conflict-Fiction                                                                          --Martha Squaresky