VVMBookBlog

Crackback is about Miles Manning, a first-string high school football player who is trying to get by in school, all while trying to please some difficult people in his life–his father and his coach. Both are pretty demanding about how they give advice, especially about how Miles should be playing football. His problems with football could be helped if he was a little bit bigger and stronger, and his friend Zach wants him to do some experimenting with steroids and other substances to help make him stronger and play harder.

Besides his problems about playing football, Miles is also finding out some family secrets while doing a family history project for social studies, and he’s becoming interested in a Lucia, a new girl in his class.

Lots of football action and you really get involved with Miles and what’s going on in his life. I had never heard the term “crackback” in football, but Miles experiences a “crackback block” in several different ways in this book.

Great sports story!

What a fun book! Leo, 18 and happy to be accepted to Harvard, now looks back on the events leading up to why his scholarship to Harvard was taken away.

When Leo was 10, an upcoming trip to Canada gave him an opportunity to see his birth certificate and to find out the person he thought was his father…wasn’t. Marion X. McMurphy was his father–Marion in this case being a guy’s name. This shook up his world a little, but not as much as when he found out who Marion X. McMurphy was…the lead singer of the ‘80’s punk rock band Purge. Yes, and now all these years later, Leo’s mom was desperate to keep all this a secret.

There’s so much in this book for you to find out, like how did Leo, who was a member of the Young Republicans, get caught up in an ethics charge that would jeopardize his scholarship, how did he get hired to be on the road crew for Purge’s summer revival tour, and what will happen to Leo’s plans for going to Harvard?

Gordan Korman’s books are always funny, but I really enjoyed the humor in Born to Rock, especially how Leo’s mom coped with Leo learning about and meeting King Maggot–Marion X. McMurphy. Now I have to go back and read Son of the Mob–I hear that one is good, too.

This is one of the preview books our district gets from book publishers. We then read them and write a short review that goes back to the publisher. This is a first book in what looks like a coming series called the Gallagher Girls adventures. The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is outwardly an exclusive girls’ school but is really a front for a spy school. All subject matter taught at this school, including advanced encryption, covert operations and instruction in 14 languages, is designed to develop the girls into well-trained spies. At this point I couldn’t help make the comparision with Hogwarts, but it’s definitely without the depth of a J.K. Rowling book.

Cammie’s problem comes with she’s out on a CoveOps surveillance assignment and happens to meet Josh–a regular guy from a regular school, but of course she can’t tell who she really is or anything about herself. How much is she willing to go through in order to have this little bit of “normal” in her life?

It appears there will be more “Gallagher Girls” books in the future, so watch for sequels.

As the author of the Among the Hidden books, Haddix usually writes books that have a science fiction edge with an undercurrent of danger and intrigue, and her characters always seem to be in peril in some way. In Double Identity, a clue is in the title. Bethany suddenly finds herself in a car with her distraught parents on their way to stay with Aunt Myrlie, whom she’s never heard about before. But then her parents disappear into the night, and Bethany can’t even call them anymore. And why do people keep calling her Elizabeth? Why all the secrecy and when is she going to get some answers?

Check this one out and then try something else by Haddix–Turnabout, House on the Gulf, and if you haven’t read it yet, you have to read Among the Hidden for a disturbing look into a possible future.

As I was reading this book, I kept having the feeling that something bad was going to happen, but the way it ended really surprised me.

Doug Hanson is pretty much a loner except for his friend, the very popular Andy Morrow. They have grown up together and so have some shared secrets, including something bad that happened at the Tuttle place a few years back. But they remain friends and Andy appears to share an interest in Doug’s detailed descriptions about the latest addition to his complex model railroad setup in his basement. But what else is going on here? And what’s with Doug’s parents? What’s their responsibility in how Doug’s life has unfolded? Lots to think about and figure out.