VVMBookBlog

When you pick up a book, you can usually look on the back or inside front cover of the book jacket and find out something about the book. Well, not this one. In fact, it says the book is very hard to describe and to say anything would give away important parts of the story.

And now that I have read the book, I agree.

The subtitle of this book describes it as a fable. Dictionary.com defines a fable as “a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters.” There are so many moral lessons to learn from this book, but they are all lessons for humans, not animals.

Bruno is 9 and he is the main character. That does not mean this is a book for readers who are 9. In fact, the story is disturbing enough that perhaps it should have the for-more-mature-readers star by its title. To appreciate the flow and content of this book, you really should have some very basic knowledge of the Holocaust and the actions of the Nazis in Germany in World War II. Only with some background information can we look at Bruno’s world as he sees it through his very naive 9-year-old eyes, and understand the horror of what is really happening around him.

A key element in the story is the image of the high fence near Bruno’s house in “Out-With” where he meets to talk with his friend Shmuel, the boy in the striped pajamas. It makes me think of all the other “fences” in our world that divide people by race, religion, class or other human factor.

So read this book, but be prepared–it will leave you with a lot to think about. And maybe that’s where the fable part come in.

Brady Parks is 13 and has some serious stuff on his mind. He lives with his working class family along the Maryland shores of the Chesepeake Bay. And he just did something for which he is now being called a hero. But, if you go back in his life just a little, MAYBE he could have done something that would have kept that accident with the red kayak from ever happening in the first place.

But the biggest secret of all goes back even further and that’s the secret that’s really causing him some problems. If he tells what he knows, his two friends will be in serious trouble with the law, and Brady knows he has some guilt along with them. But how can he face the people he respects in his life while knowing what he knows? The characters in this book are so well done that we as the readers feel every moral dilemma that Brady feels. What would we do if we were Brady? I wonder…..

Jordan Sonnenblick may be my new favorite author. He can have you laughing and then all tear-y, all on the same page!

The first book I read by him was Notes from the Midnight Driver, and at my first booktalks this fall, I said it was the best book I read this summer.

And now I’ve read Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie, and it’s another winner. Steven is 13, super-talented on the drums, has parents who sometimes embarrass him, and a younger brother, Jeffrey, who adores him.

And then Jeffrey gets sick, really sick with leukemia, and Steven’s whole world changes. Steven tries not to tell his friends or any people at school but his behavior starts to give him away. His mom is away in another city at the hospital with his brother for tests and treatments, and his dad is home with Steven–but too caught up in his own sadness to help Steven figure out how to cope with everything.

Yes, it’s a sad story but it’s also written with such a great sense of humor. So give Dangerous Pie a try, and then follow it up with Midnight Driver.

Another book from Shusterman’s Dark Fusion series, this one combines a little from the Goldilocks story and a lot from the Greek myth about Medusa. Do you know about Medusa? Do you know what she looked like and what happened to people when she gazed upon them? Well, I don’t want to tell you all of that here because that gives away too much of the story.

But, the story starts with Parker Baer being really interested in his new nextdoor neighbor, Tara. Tara is very exotic with long spirals of blond hair that sometimes seem to be living! She lives by herself in a huge mansion, she always wears sunglasses, and she seems really intent on watching and analyzing people in kind of a creepy way to see who to get to know. Eventually Parker gets so caught up in her presence that even when he realizes that she is really dangerous, it’s out of his power to do anything about it.

Other books in the Dark Fusion series include Red Rider’s Hood and Duckling Ugly–more fairy tales with a definite twist!

After reading this book, fast food might never look the same to you! Find out secrets behind those tasty French fries, where that hamburger comes from, and wait ’til you see the list of chemicals in that strawberry milkshake! And especially, where does that red/pink/purple food coloring come from???

Lots of interesting history of fast food production, marketing strategies that get us to buy fast food, and the unfortunate consequences for some kids who grow up eating a diet of too much fast food and sugar-sweetened pop.