How NOT to be Popular

© 2008, Delacorte Press

Sugar Magnolia Dempsey (Maggie – for short) is a child of two free-spirited hippies who have moved from place to place Maggie’s entire life.  Although Maggie has inherited some of her parents’ appreciation for living an organic, natural lifestyle, she doesn’t understand why that includes uprooting her life everytime she starts to fit in.  Her parents’ latest move take Maggie from her home in Portland, Oregon and move her into Austin, Texas.  Leaving behind her best friend, and even worse, her boyfriend, her first true love.  The thought of starting over only to have to leave again is too painful for Maggie to deal with, so she decides at her new school she will do anything possible to keep from making any friends.  She dresses in outrageous clothing from her father’s thrift store, she sits alone at lunch, she verbally accosts the popular girls, and despite all her efforts, people still want to befriend her, or at least get to know her better.  After all her efforts to not be popular, suddenly Maggie is the most talked about girl at school.  The students love her for being “real,” even though Maggie feels anything but real.  She is even nominated for Homecoming Queen.  Maggie doesn’t want any of this attention, nor does she want to date the young Republican type boy who is showing an awful lot of interest in her, but the more she pushes these people away, the more it hurts.  If she was trying to avoid the hurt by not making any friends at all, why does she feel so much emotion when she hasn’t even left yet?  And what happens if this is the place Maggie’s parents decide to settle in for good, will there be anyone left by the end who will want to be Maggie’s friend?

A funny, charming story, Maggie is the kind of character who everyone can love (and it’s clear why she has always been popular). A must-read for any kid who has every had any doubts about what it truly means to fit in, and wonders if popularity is the solution to any of life’s problems.

Appropriate for ages 12+

The Hunger Games

© 2008, Scholastic Press

In the future, North America is in ruins.  The government has broken down and has been replaced with the Capitol.  At one time there were 13 districts… until the rebellion and now 12 districts exist only to cater to the needs of the Capitol. The 13th district’s memory is to serve as reminder that no one shall rebel and rise up against the way things are again.  Another reminder is The Hunger Games.  Every year, each district is forced to choose 2 tributes to represent their district – a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18.  Everyone in the age range must enter, every single year. Some of the poor even choose to barter an extra entry for a meager ration of food. In some districts it’s an honor and they train their youth to be tributes, to volunteer to take the place of those who are chosen.  In other districts, it’s a death sentence and no one would dare volunteer to go in their place. The object of the game is simple – Live.  The last tribute alive is the victor and will be showered with food and fortune, special housing and fame.  The country will watch as one teenager from their home district kills off the other or gets killed themselves, as the entire game is broadcast across the country.  Alliances are formed, but eventually they must be broken. Only one can survive. This is life and death in the most primal sense.

16 year old Katniss has been the provider for her younger sister and mother since her father died 5 years prior in a coal mining explosion (District 12 is the coal mining district – and the country’s poorest district).  Through the years, her hunting skills have developed and Katniss keeps her family in good shape. She lives to protect the one person she truly loves, her little sister.  On the day of the reaping (the ceremony in each district that selects the tributes for the Hunger Games), against all odds,  the girl who is selected is Katniss’s 12 year old sister, Prim.  Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place as a tribute, considering this a life sacrifice, but she would never be able to live with herself sending her sister off to be killed in the games.  It is the only option.  The boy’s name who is drawn turns out to be a boy who saved Katniss’s family when they were near starvation after her father died.  She feels that he is the one person she owes her life to, and now he is someone she will have kill if she ever wants to return home to her family again.

An amazing story of love, friendship, and ultimately, survival. The characters are rich and likeable.  The games are horrifying and brutal. And the questions it raises in the minds of the reader will stay long after the book is over.

It is part of a trilogy – the second book in the series will be released 9/09

Appropriate for ages 12+

Artichoke’s Heart

© 2008, Dutton Juvenile

“Mother spent $700 on a treadmill ‘from Santa’ that I will never use.”

Rosemary Goode receives for Christmas: one $700 treadmill,  two diet books, three tickets to the Healing the Fat Girl Within conference, and a collection of Emily Dickinson poems.  As a girl who has always been fat, with a mother and aunt who have always been skinny,  Rosemary has been harassed by her size 0 Aunt Mary about losing weight for as long as she can remember, and longs for her mother to just once take her side instead of her Aunt’s.   The more Rosemary is pushed to lose weight,  the more she eats. And eats. And eats.  Until after Christmas break, her weight balloons to an all-time high of 203 pounds.  Her only pair of pants that fit?  Her sweat pants, and even they are tight!  After an older overweight woman at her mother’s well-known beauty salon claims she looked just like Rosemary, Rosemary finally has her moment of realization and decides to lose weight, once and for all. Driven by a new crush at school – the football star who is himself  “enormously strapping,” Rosemary gives up her “other men – Mr. Hershey, Mr. Reese’s, Mr. M&M.”  But just as she is starting to make progress (both with her weight and with her crush), her mother is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a type of cancer.  For the first time, Rosemary doesn’t turn to food as her comfort and her crutch, she decides to see her new diet through – no matter what it takes.

Despite the sheer terror of diet, exercise, and romance, Rosemary starts to focus on the things she wants (even though she doesn’t feel that she is deserving of them – at least not yet).  A happy family, a perky best friend, an enormous strapping jock boy to call her very own.  This is all Rosemary wants – well that and to be thin. Without telling her mother or her aunt, Rosemary starts drinking Pounds-Away instead of eating her regular meals.  She uses her treadmill for more than just drying her undergarments in her room.  She even befriends one of the most popular girls at school during a impromptu outside walk.  But as the pounds start to drop off, Rosemary must come to terms with more than just weight loss.  If thin is the answer – how come there are still so many questions?

A fast paced, one sitting read – Artichoke’s Heart tells the story of family, friendship, and first love while figuring out who you are underneath the fat.

A good book for girl’s of any shape or size – appropriate for ages 13+

Currently Reading – You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn

In School Read Alouds: Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins (1st); The Missing, Book 1:Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix (5th)

the dead & the gone

© 2008, Harcourt Publishers

A companion novel to Life As We Knew it (see previous review),  this story follows the life of Alex Morales from the night the meteor hits the moon.  Alex is a junior at a prestigous high school in New York City who dreams of making it big when he goes to college. Hardwork and school have been Alex’s life for so long, but now New York City is facing a crisis.  As a coastal city, they have been hit hard by the changing tides due to the moon’s new orbit and Manhatten is slowly turning in a wasteland.  Alex’s parents have disappeared, and he’s left to take care of his two younger sisters.  As days turn to weeks and even months, Alex realizes he’s the head of the household and must grow up faster than he intended.  Facing the severity of the situation, Alex is forced to barter goods stolen from his apartment building (no one really lives there anymore – so is it still stealing if no one is there to claim it?), “body shopping”, and risk his integrity and his family’s just for food so he and his sisters can survive.  Few of the boys at his prestigious high school have returned to continue their education, many of them have been transported out of the city on the convoy buses designated to save Manhattan’s elite.  Alex’s friend Chris gave him a card that may help him and his sisters escape the treachery that is overpowering the city, but will he get the chance to use it before it’s too late??

The third book in the exciting series, This World We Live In,  brings Miranda from Life As We Knew It and Alex together (and many other characters whose whereabouts have been unknown/presumed dead) in what hopefully will be another gripping tale of survival in this new apocolyptic world (publish date – TBD).

Appropriate for ages 12+

Currently Reading: You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn, © 2008, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing