Blog Tour: Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz

Welcome to the Kids Know Best Blog Tour, a two part tour featuring two different books: Theodore Boone: The Accomplice by John Grisham and Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz. For this tour, I chose to read the Alex Rider book.

And I have to confess, I have never read an Alex Rider book before, but chose it based on different things I have heard from young readers, who are fans of the series. So far, there are 11 books in the Alex Rider series, not counting Secret Weapon, which is a book of 7 short stories.

For those like me who don't know, 14-year-old Alex has been well trained to be a spy by his uncle, Ian Rider, who was a secret agent for MI6. After his uncle was killed, MI6 approached Alex, recognizing his potential, talent, and training. Now, Alex is working for MI6 and having some incredible adventures.

In the first story, "Alex in Afghanistan," Alex is sent to a remote area in the Herat Mountains, where Darcus Drake is holed up in a ancient citadel, hoping to get an old Soviet calutron working again, so he can quickly produce the uranium needed for bombs and offer it to every terrorist group in the Middle East. All Alex has to do is find it to prove it exists. Why Alex? The back way into the citadel is through some narrow ventilation pipelines.

In "The Man with Eleven Fingers," Alex's trip to the dentist for a sore tooth turns into a exciting day when he is given a free chocolate bar being handed out to passersby. But when Alex notices something wrong with the wrapper, he begins to follow the man who gave the candy out. He recognizes the driver that picks up the candy man, and decides to punt on the dentist and follow them to see what's up. No sooner does Alex figure out what's going on, then people all over London start dropping in their tracts. This was an interesting story and the ending really surprised me.

The third story is called "Secret Weapon" and involves a drug-dealer named Skoda, whom Alex had a run in with in an earlier book. Skoda has finally figured out how to sneak out of prison and take care of Alex. And his plan works, until it doesn't. This story also has a surprise at the end, and again, I didn't see it coming.

"High Tension" is a little different, as it doesn't involve any spy activity. Alex is on vacation with a friend in the South of France. When he finds himself with some free time, his host, Andrew Hale, insists that he go parasailing and enlists his wife Celestine to drive Alex to the beach. Not really wanting to parasail, Alex reluctantly agrees and is not sooner in the air, then the driver of the motorboat to which he is harnessed passes out. Getting out the air safely may require readers to really suspend their disbelief more than in other Alex Rider stories, but it's still a tense, action-packed story.

The fifth story, "Tea with Smithers" is not action-packed or a spy story, but rather a look at Alex's 'quieter' side of life. After a debriefing at MI6, Alex runs into Smithers, the man who invents and then disguises all of Alex's James Bond-like gadgets for fighting off bad guys. Smithers invites Alex to tea and when he shows up, he learns all about Smithers' life and how he became an inventor/disguiser for MI6. But when he challenges Alex to try to find his brand-new gadget, one sitting right in front of Alex, the ace 14-year-old is totally stumped. This was a fun story, and there are lots of hints as to what the new gadget is, but if you, like Alex, can't figure it out, it is a fun, surprise ending.

"Christmas at Gunpoint," the sixth story is the only one in which Ian Rider appears. During a ski trip to Gunpoint, Colorado, Alex meets Sahara Sands, a fellow teen, there with her dad, who does "something in government" The two teens have lots of fun skiing and snowboarding, but one night, he catches his uncle fighting with a man over a gun with a silencer, then he sees Sahara looking scared and being escorted into a gondola by two rather sketchy men. This is an exciting story, and Ian's lesson for Alex here is to closely observe the people he meets - how they dress, how they speak, what they eat and drink, and where they carry their guns: "You have to notice these things, Alex...all the details. People tell a story the moment they walk into a room. You can read them." (pg. 227) What does this advice have to do with the story - only everything.

The seventh and last story, "Spy Trap," Alex wakes up in what appears to be an MI6 hospital in an old abbey, and is told he was in an accident. Kept confined to bed, except for visits to a Dr. Feng, who claimed to be a therapist, Alex quickly suspects that things aren't what they appear to be. Yet, when asked questions about his life with MI6, Alex can't stop himself from speaking the truth. When he suspects his food is drugged, he stops eating and drinking and begins to control what he tells Dr. Feng. As Alex's memory returns, he begin to plan his escape, then discovers he isn't the only MI6 agent being held hostage.

To call these short stories thrilling and action-packed is an understatement. More than once, I found myself shaking my leg to release the nervous energy as the tension of a story built. I actually thought these stories all quite good. They are well-written, there is plenty of excitement, and even though it is pretty improbable that a 14-year-old would ever be allowed to be a spy, it is still fun reading about Alex Rider's adventures. I really liked that Alex is so detail oriented, as I am as well, so I enjoyed reading all the descriptions he relates about his surroundings and the people he encounters. And Alex is quite personable. I also found that not knowing anything about the Alex Rider series, there was enough information in these stories so I never felt lost.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I definitely do. Would I read another Alex Rider book? Well, I do have Book 1, Stormbreaker on a hold at the library.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was provided to me for review purposes

Be sure to visit all the other stops on the Kids Know Best Blog Tour:

PART ONE: Theodore Boone: The Accomplice

WEEK ONE

May 6 – InRandom – Review

May 7 – Homeschool on the Range – Novel Study

May 8 – Min Reads and Review – Spotlight

May 9 – Picture Books to YA – Listicle: Non-fiction books + TV Shows for kids who are interested 

              in law

WEEK TWO

May 13 – Reading Corner for All – Crossword/Word Search + Review  

May 14 – Two Points of Interest – Review

May 15 – Homeschool by the Beach – Creative Instagram Picture

May 16 – Little Homeschool on the Prairie – Review

PART TWO: Alex Rider: The Secret Weapon

WEEK THREE

May 20 – Createexploreread – Creative Instagram Picture

May 21 – Alohamora Open a Book – Review + Playlist

May 22 – Somethewiser – Review + Video Clip

May 23 – Lost in Storyland – Listicle: Teenage Spy Survival Guide

WEEK FOUR

May 27 – @gobletoffiction – Creative Instagram Picture + Review

May 28 – Randomly Reading – Review

May 29 – Amanda Seghetti – Creative Instagram Picture  

May 30 – Ms. Yingling Reads – Memorable Moments in Alex Rider History

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

Life for 13-year-old Genesis Anderson isn't easy. Especially on the day Genesis finally comes home from school with a few girls she's been wanting to be friends with and finds her family's belongings laid out in the yard and the front door locked...evicted again. Once more, her dad has drunk and gambled the rent money away. And that means that Genesis and her mother will be staying with her overly critical (maternal) grandmother for a few days, until dad finds another place to live.

And as if dealing with an unreliable father, eviction and another new school aren't hard enough, Genesis must also contend with her own feelings of self-loathing and low self-esteem. And she knows exactly what the reasons are for feeling that way - she keeps a list of all things she hates about herself, a list begun by some cruel kids in 5th grade in a school she had once attended, and to which she has since added more things. And now she's added reason #86: "Because she let them call her Charcoal, Eggplant, and Blackie" (pg. 7). Genesis has very dark skin just like her dad, and has been told so often that she's too black by people, including her father and grandmother, that she has internalize their negative attitude.

But now, dad has moved Genesis and her mother to a big house in a more upscale suburban  neighborhood and she's been enrolled in a fancier school than in the past. Things aren't quite a bad as in the other schools she attended and Genesis even begins to make some new friends, including shy Sophia, a white girl with her own school horror story. But it is her music teacher, Mrs. Hill, who believes in Genesis' musical talent and introduces her to such greats as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Etta James, black women who learned to put their joy, longing, loneliness and soul into their incredibly beautiful eloquent  music. Can Genesis learn to use the negative voices that hold her back to finally begin to love herself for who she is?

Genesis Begins Again is a tough book to read. Genesis is so young and vulnerable, and people can be so cruel to her, and what makes it harder is the her story, in all its poignancy, is a story of so many girls just like her. At the heart of this novel is the issue around the colorism that Genesis faces every day at home, at school and within herself. She was supposed to take after her light-skinned mother and she is very aware of her father's disappointment that she didn't. Her grandmother, who intently dislikes Genesis' dad, introduces her the the brown bag test (a test he failed), and her belief that light-skin is a measure of superiority. Some of the conversations with her dad, grandmother, and even Sophia are heartbreaking to read. As are Genesis' attempts at trying to lighten her skin, all the more difficult to read knowing that they just won't work, but understanding her need to try. And try she does, with lemons, bleach, cream, even exfoliating her skin raw at one point.

I can't say I loved the book's ending, but I would still highly recommend it. I did wonder why Genesis's mother was not involved in the handling of the family's finances so that she didn't know the rent wasn't being paid, or why she didn't just take Genesis and leave.

On the whole, I thought Genesis Begins Again is a book that should be read by everyone regardless of their skin color. Sensitively written, it is an eyeopening window into the tough subject of colorism within the black community and racism in the white community, making it is a book that needed to be written for today's world.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Iranian on his mother's side and white on his father's, high school sophomore Darius Kellner is a boy who feels caught between two worlds and who believes he doesn't fit into either. At a school with a zero tolerance policy toward bullying, Darius is the constant target of two school bullies who like to make fun of his name and refer to him as a terrorist. At home, Darius is convinced he's a constant disappointment to his father, with whom he has only two things in common - a love of Star Trek and a history of clinical depression.

When it is discovered that Darius' grandfather in Iran has a incurable brain tumor, the Kellner family decides to take some time to visit his mother's family in Yadz, Iran. But after a thirteen hour trip, Darius arrives at his grandparents home feeling like he once again doesn't fit in - he doesn't feel Persian enough and can't even speak Farsi very well, plus he takes medication every day and feels his grandfather's disapproval about it.

When his grandfather introduces him to Sohrab, Darius becomes Darioush, his name in Persian, and for once, he begins to feel some pride in his name, rather than the shame he felt at school. Sohrab and Darius become fast friends, playing soccer with other boys in the neighborhood, sightseeing both in Yadz and it's surrounding area, learning to play Rook, a Persian card game that even Darius' father knows how to play, and celebrating the Persian New Year Nowruz with other friends and relatives all open a new world to Darius, a world in which he begins to feel a part of. With Sohrab's help, Darius begins to bee like he fits in somewhere, but will his new found confidence about who he is carrying over when he returns home to Portland, and goes back to school?

Quite simply, Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a wonderful coming of age novel that really captures what it is like to be what Darius calls a "fractional Persian." And it is also an honest portrayal of a teen living with clinical depression.

Darius is one of the more interesting characters I've encountered in my reading lately. He knows his limitations - he's a little overweight, athletics is not really his thing, he'll probably never speak fluent Farsi. Yet, he is a wonderful older brother to his sister Laleh, caring and protective of her, he is able to sense when she is going to have a meltdown and knows exactly how to divert her from it, and he has an interest in tea, way beyond just liking it. In fact, he is also a tea purist and enthusiast, even working part time in a specialty tea shop. Tea and its rituals, the reader learns, are an important part of Middle Eastern life.

No only has Khorram written an eminently readable novel with a charming, if flawed main character, he has managed to include a lot of information about Iran and the Iranian people, including the way holidays are celebrated, different food that is enjoyed (with many mouth watering descriptions), what life is like for the average Iranian person and their family. The cultural and limited historical aspects of this novel are every bit as fascinating as Darius' coming of age.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay has all the usual tropes of a good Middle Grade/Young Adult novel, including friendship, loyalty, importance of family and finding one's place in the world, and gives them a fresh new look. Don't miss this novel!

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was an ARC received from the publisher, Dial Books for Young Readers

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

The Night Diary begins in July 1947, just a month before the end of British rule in India and the Partition, the division of British India along religious lines into the two separate and independent countries of India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim/Sikh) between August 14-15. Twelve-year-old Nisha and her twin brother Amil live in what is to become Pakistan, but they will soon be leaving the only home they have known to live in the new India. Their father is Hindu, and their deceased mother was Muslim. And although the family is mixed and secular, they are still considered to be Hindu.

Nisha is a quiet, introverted girl who has just received a diary for her 12th birthday from Kazi, the family's Muslim cook and the one person with whom she feel most comfortable, besides her brother. She decides to write her diary to the mother she has never known in an attempt to feel closer to her. Nisha records the small events in her life, like spending time in the kitchen with Kazi and her developing interest in learning to cook like him, but she also records the way life is changing outside the home as the day of Partition draws closer.

As violent incidents increase against Hindus in their town of Mirpur Khas, it becomes evident to their father and grandmother that it is time to leave. Nisha and Amil can't walk to school safely any more, and even home proves to no longer be a safe haven. Leaving beloved Kazi is difficult, especially for Nisha. The family is forced to set out for India on foot after hearing about deadly violence erupting between Hindus and Muslims at the train station. The plan is to stop at Rashid Uncle's house, which is halfway to the new border.

The journey, a distance of 91 miles between Mirpur Khas and the Indian border, is fraught with perils and problems. Leaving home with only what they can carry, it soon becomes apparent that the trip is going to take longer than expected and now they have become unwelcome refugees in Pakistan. They soon find themselves traveling slower than hoped, walking is dangerous, and the air is hot and water is scarce, and then Amil becomes seriously ill from lack of water.

Eventually, the family arrives at Rashid Uncle's home. Nisha is very excited about being there because it was her mother's home growing up. She has so many question to ask her mother's brother, but he has a cleft palette and doesn't speak. Soon, Rashid Uncle and Nisha begin cooking together in companionable silence, much the way she had cooked with Kazi.

Nisha would like to stay at Rashid Uncle's, but he lives in what is now Pakistan, and they are forced to leave again. Eventually, they arrive at their destination, Jodhpur, India, and settle in. But one day, there is a wonderful surprise at their door that again completes them as a family. one that has finally found their true home.

The Night Diary, so called because Nisha only writes in it at night when everyone is sleeping, is a thoughtful exploration of one young girl seeking her own cohesive identity and home. Nisha's story is nicely reflected in and paralleled with the events of the country she knew and loved at the moment of partition, when it too must forge its own identity.

Written as letters to her mother, Nisha's longing to know her, fueled in part by curiosity and in part by her need for the love and guidance a mother provides a daughter as she becomes a young woman, is both poignant and understandable. And perhaps these letters have helped because as the family travels closer to the new India, Nisha begins to discover her own voice, a voice that has always been silent, as well courage, resilience, and strength within herself that surprises everyone, especially her father.

I've read a number of novels about the 1947 Partition, and this ranks up there with the best of them. Veera Hiranandani based Nisha's story loosely on her father's family and their journey from Mirpur Khas to Jodhpur, giving this novel a wonderful feeling of authenticity, so important in historical fiction. I loved the way Nisha's diary captures the sights, sounds of what is going on around her, and especially the smells and tastes from Kazi and Rashid's kitchens that she loved so much. At the same time, Nisha also captures the disintegration of different people who previously had been living in relative harmony and who become hateful and violent once the borders are drawn. As Hiranandani writes in her Author's Note, more than 14 million people crossed the border and at least one million died or were killed.

The Night Diary is a wonderful coming of age story that should not be missed, presented with honesty (there are some violent scenes) and intelligence and an objectivity that doesn't allow the reader to take sides for or against either Muslims or Hindus.

An Educator's Guide to The Night Diary is available courtesy of the publisher, Penguin Random House

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an ARC received from the publisher

This map shows India before and after Partition

The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

It’s Christmas Eve, and Wallace “Lolly” Rachpaul,12, is walking along 125th Street in Harlem, trying to get home as quickly as he can. Lolly has a new pair of sneakers from his mostly absent dad and he’s not about to let the two older boys following him snatch them off his feet. But when Lolly quickly turns the corner of 125th Street and 8th Avenue, the two boys abruptly stop, because Lolly lives in a world of imaginary protected borders, each border guarded by its own crew, and crews know better than to cross those lines.

Lolly, who is West Indian, lives in the St. Nicholas House, a public housing project on West 127th Street, with his mom and his mom’s girlfriend Yvonne, a security guard in a large toy store. His older brother, Jermaine had gotten involved with a drug dealing crew and was shot and killed outside a Bronx nightclub just a few months back and, while Lolly is still trying to come to terms with his loss, he is also trying to resist the pressure to join a crew.

One thing that Lolly does like is Legos, and he has painstaking put together all kinds of kits, following the instructions to the letter. But late Christmas Eve, he takes them all apart, suddenly wanting to built something else, something of his own. Later, when Yvonne comes home on Christmas morning, she has two garbage bags full of Legos for Lolly, and just in time. Pretty soon, Lolly has built a castle so big his mom is complaining about how much space it is taking up, so he is allowed to build in an empty storeroom in the after school program he goes to, run by Mr. Ali, an understanding, but underfunded social worker.

Soon, Lolly is joined by Big Alice, a special needs student suffering her own family loss, and who never speaks to anyone, but stays by herself reading. In the Lego room, she helps herself to Lolly’s Legos (Yvonne brings him more and more bags full) and begins building her own buildings, which resemble their neighborhood perfectly. At first, Lolly resents Big Alice, but soon the two are taking trips into midtown Manhattan, exploring the different buildings found in a architecture book Lolly was given for Christmas. Eventually, the two begin to build Harmonee, an enormous alien world, together.

All the while, Lolly, and his Dominican best friend, Vega are being harassed by the same two boys who followed Lolly on Christmas Eve. Part of a crew that wants Lolly and Vega to join them, they soon resort to violence as a means of persuasion. And it almost works…but then things in Lolly’s life take another totally unexpected turn.

The Stars Beneath Our Feet is a debut novel for David Barclay Moore. It is an all-to-realistic coming of age contemporary  novel, and Lolly is a wonderfully flawed character full of contradictions (like choosing Legos over video games). As Lolly tries to reassemble his life through the metaphor of Lego building blocks, life on the city streets is also becoming more and more complicated. Luckily, Moore has surrounded him with people who are caring and supportive - his gay mom, Yvonne, who is trying to help him through the grieving process by giving him Legos, the only thing she can do, Mr. Ali, who has recognized that Lolly needs to work through the trauma of losing his brother so violently, even his dad comes through, though not as much as Lolly would like. And their story threads together with those of Lolly, Big Alice, and Vega make this such a full-bodied novel.

Harlem is also as much a character in this novel as anyone, providing a living backdrop for Lolly’s important slice-of-life story. But, the danger those street hold for young men of color like Lolly isn’t something most people know or even think about and Moore has captured it with brutal honesty, compassion, and even humor. 

From the moment I started reading The Stars Beneath Our Feet, I could’t put it down. It may not be a book for everyone, but it is certainly a worthwhile read and, I think, a real eye-opener for many. Moore’s final message in this novel - it is not just family, but also community that can help change things for kids. 

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an ARC received from the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf

Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century by Sue Macy

One of my favorite things to do when I first began to drive was to get in the car and just go. And I did go - here, there, and everywhere, crossing the continental united states eight separate times, each time taking a different route. Little did I know that I was part of a legacy of women who took to cars with the same love of driving that I had. 

Motor Girls, Sue Macy’s latest book about women and mobility (see also Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom) traces that love from the very start of the automobile’s history, beginning in the 1890s and the very first prototypes of motorized cars. 

Motorized cars were pretty exciting and irresistible stuff back then and men may have felt that automobiles should remain strictly their domain, convinced that driving and all the perils that were part of early automobiles (things like changing tires and getting stuck in mud) would not only threaten women’s femininity, but that they were just too fragile to handle such a big machine anyway, but women had a different idea. First of all, it didn’t take long for women to realize that driving meant freedom from their previous house-bound life, a way to get around on their own, and what a boon for the women driving to rallies and fighting for the right to vote as early as 1910.  And as much as they were often not welcomed, women drivers even began participating in automobile races. 

Macy introduces readers to many of the early pioneering women, such as Lillian Sheridan, first female tire salesperson in 1917, Alice Ramsey, first woman to drive cross country in 1909, Mrs. Olive Schultz, first female taxi driver, and Mary Dexter, a nurse who drove makeshift ambulances  through war-torn France in World War I. 

Using an incredible array of archival photographs, as well as clippings from old newspapers and magazines, Macy presents a well-researched, thoughtfully written historical document of women behind the wheel. In between chapters, she has also included some pretty interesting cultural items relating to the automobile, such as some odd motoring laws, the ideal clothing to wear while motoring, and one of my favorite parts - a look at early series books written for young readers, such as the The Motor Girls, The Motor Maids, and The Automobile Girls, all of which can be found on Project Gutenberg for anyone interested (though I should add that while they may be interesting look a driving in those early days, some of the references made may be offensive to sensitive readers). 

A list of resources is included in the back matter, as is an interesting timeline and list of sources used by Macy.

Motor Girls is an ideal book for anyone like myself who loves to drive. Sometimes I think we take driving for granted and it is nice to read about how the automobile had such a tremendous impact on the lives of women in the late 19th and 20th centuries. This is a solid book that will be a welcomed addition to any nonfiction library.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, National Geographic

Soldier Sister, Fly Home by Nancy Bo Flood, illustrations by Shonto Begay

Tess, 13, is having a hard time trying to come to terms with just who she is.  Part Navajo, part white, she doesn’t feel like she belongs in either world.  Despite being a champion-fast runner, Tess’s teammates at the white school she attends in Flagstaff, Arizona, call her names like ‘Pokeyhontas,’ never seeing her as anything other than an Indian.  But when she returns home to the Rez, she never feels Navajo enough.

Tess has been annoyed at her sister Gaby, 19, for joining the Army after her friend Lori Piestewa was killed in Iraq, the first Native American woman to fall in combat.  Now, however, Tess can’t wait for Gaby to come home on a two week leave.  Maybe Gaby can help Tess sort things out for herself.  But Gaby is no sooner home, than she must tell her family that her two week leave has been cancelled, she is being deployed to Iraq, and only has a few days home.   

Tess is beyond angry at her sister for leaving, an anger that is compounded when Gaby asks her to take care of Blue, her spirited stallion, and a horse that Tess simply does not like - and the feeling seems to be mutual. 

For the first time, Gaby won’t be going with their grandmother to sheep camp at the bottom of the canyon for the summer.  Tess, who has never spent the whole summer in the canyon with them, decides to accompany her grandmother, her sheep and mares, and Blue this year.  Tess has never ridden Blue by herself, always just leading him by the reins.  But on day, while out exploring the canyon with him, a cold, soaking rain begins and, remembering her grandmother’s words that a galloping horse is the fastest way home, Tess rides Blue back to camp.  From then on, the two begin to make friends with each other.  Now, Tess determines to find the secret waterfall where she and Gaby spent precious time together, and to send some sand from it to her sister - a reminder of those times.

Little by little, Tess begins to come to terms with who she is as she develops more confidence riding Blue and through serious talks getting to really know her grandmother, a woman who knows a lot about who she is and the people who see her a just an Indian.

When tragedy strikes, Tess is faced with a difficult decision, one that will require all the strength she has, but one that will ultimately allow Tess to begin to discover just who she really is.

Soldier Sister, Fly Home is more than just a good coming of age story about family, tradition, culture. It is also a story about 'home' in the literal and metaphorical sense.  Above the canyon, the mesa, is home to the Tess who lives there in the world of school, cell phones, malls.  As the summer goes by, the canyon, a world of hogans, animals, unfettered nature, slowly begins to feel like home to the Tess, who loves the beauty of it.  And it is her grandmother who helps Tess reconcile these two different worlds within herself, to feel at home in both.  

But it is Blue who finally takes Tess 'home.'  Gaby has told Tess that if she ever got lost riding Blue, he would always find his home if she loosened the reins and let him.  And he literally does, twice when they are out riding in the canyon.  But Blue also takes Tess home in the figurative sense when she is forced to make a decision about him that will determine who she is from than on. 

All of this is told in Nancy Bo Flood's beautiful lyrical storytelling style.  I lived in Arizona for four years, and really fell in love the land.  I think you will find some of the most breathtaking places on earth there. Flood's beautiful descriptions really made me feel an acute homesickness for the Arizona landscape.  Flood has made her setting every bit as much a well-developed main character as she has Tess and her grandmother.

And while I loved Soldier Sister, Fly Home, I did think it was not without one flaw that really bothered me.  I felt that Tess's grandmother was perhaps too stereotypical, sounding like the wise Indian speaking in aphorisms.  Ironically, this seems to happen in the canyon than up on the mesa, where she seems more like a real character and less like a stereotype.  

I should mention also that there are scenes in Soldier Sister, Fly Home that may upset readers sensitive to animals being killed, though it is never done gratuitously or cruelly in this novel.   Also, there are a number of Navajo terms used throughout the story and there is a Glossary and Pronunciation Guide at the back to the book.  

A Writing Prompt Guide has been prepared by Nancy Bo Flood and can be download HERE 

This book is recommended for readers age 11+

This book was an ARC sent to me by the author

The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen by Mitali Perkins

Sunita Sen, 13, is a typical California teenager who likes to play tennis, eat pizza, do well in school and really likes Michael Morrison, with whom she has just spent the summer.  She also has a best friend since first grade, Liz Grayson, and a riva for Michael's affections - the very flirty LeAnn Schaeffer.  Oh, yes and Sunita is an Indian American who has really not given a lot of thought to her Indian heritage.  That is, until her grandparents, Dadu and Didu - arrived from Kolkata for a year long visit with Sunita and her family.

Suddenly, her professor mother goes from wearing tailored suits and silk shirts to wearing sarees, a red dot on her forehead and red powder stripe in her hair to indicate she is married.  She even quits her university job for a year to stay home and cook Indian food for her family. And when she tells Sunita no boys in the house, not even to play ping pong in the basement, she apparently drives Michael right into the arms of LeAnn.  Sunita has cut herself off from Michael anyway, not wanting to tell him about her grandparents and thinking he wouldn't like her Indian family.

As her grandparents settle into the Sen household, Dadu decides to plant an elaborate garden of flowers and vegetables in the backyard, while Didu becomes hooked on American soap operas, in particular, one called Endless Hope, even deciding to participate in the Endless Hope Plot Solution Contest (this is a very funny side-storyline).

But as time goes on, and Sunita misses Michael, and resents his apparent attraction to LeAnn, and as she watches her mother's attempt to be the perfect Indian daughter for her parents, she becomes angrier and angrier and begins to withdraw from everyone.

Can Sunita learn how to happily be both Indian and American?

The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen is what I like to think of as a journey or process novel. The single event, her grandparent's visit, that brings on the conflict of cultures that Sunita feels is the start of her journey towards understanding who she is.

And Sunita is an interesting character.  At first, she is somewhat bratty, pouting, getting angry, and even lashing out at home and school, totally stunning her parents when she finally, angrily, tells her mother what she thinks of everything.  But the beauty of coming of age novels, is that there is generally definite positive growth for the main character, and Sunita certainly does grows.

Sunita seems to epitomize the dilemma of adolescents who are standing between cultures and feeling like they must choose one over the other.  Feeling confused, lost and alone, she turns to her grandfather for company, gradually realizing how very wise he is about human nature, so that, ironically, it takes this visit from her Indian grandparents to teach Sunita how to embrace both cultures.

Original 1993 Cover

I really liked The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen.  It takes a serious topic and handles it with a nice measure of respect, seriousness and humor. And along the way, the reader learns a good bit about Indian culture and customs.  And I loved the way Perkins has treated the intergenerational theme.  I thought they were realistically drawn, avoiding the kind of grandparent stereotypes so common in a three-generation household.

It was originally published under the title The Sunita Experiment in 1993 and I believe it is Mitali Perkins's debut novel. I thought that Perkins did a phenomenal job capturing Sunita's personality and her conflicted feelings about her heritage.  I read this on the heels of Born Confused, Bombay Blues and a few other more current books about Indians or Indian Americans, and I felt that even though this came out 23 years ago, it doesn't feel at all dated except that no one has a cell phone.

Actually the only thing I didn't like was Sunita's daydreaming scenes related to her favorite movie Casablanca.  Even though I got the significance of them in terms of her awakening awareness of how other cultures are presented in movies (and books), I still felt it interfered with the narrative flow, but not to the point that I wouldn't still highly recommend this book to readers.

You can find some thought-provoking discussion questions for The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was purchased for my personal library

MAY IS ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

After spending time in a high-security juvenile facility from which he ran away, Joseph Brook, 13, is placed in a foster home in rural Maine.  The Hurd's have a small farm and along with their son Jack, 11, Joseph is expected to get up early in the morning and do chores before school.  Soon, Joseph has won over Rosie, a cow who moos her love for him whenever he comes to milk her.

But while life with the Hurd's may be better for Joseph than a juvenile facility, school is another thing, especially after the other kids find out the he has fathered a child at his age, a 3 month old daughter named Jupiter he is forbidden to ever see.  Jack, who has been a model student, suddenly starts acting out out solidarity with Joseph, and a tenuous bond begins to form between the two boys.

It's clear that Joseph had been badly abused at the juvenile facility he was put into, though he refuses to talk about it.  But little by little, Joseph begins to feel more comfortable in the Hurd household, and he even finds support among some of the teachers at the school he attends with Jack, though there are plenty of faculty who take an instant dislike to him and students who seem to enjoy bullying him, sometimes physically.

And, little by little, Joseph begins to open up to Jack about the events that led up to Jupiter.  How he met Madeleine, also 13, a wealthy girl often left home alone and how they fell in love with each other.  Now, all he wants now is to see Jupiter, and be her father.  But Madeleine died in childbirth and child services want Joseph to give up his parental right so that Jupiter can be adopted.  Joseph has no intention of doing that and when he finally decides to find Jupiter, Jack is right there helping him.

But when Joseph's real father shows up with a lawyer, insisting that Joseph is a minor and he is the only one who can sign away any parental rights, it becomes clear that he isn't acting out of concern for Joseph, but only in the hope of extorting a lot of money from Jupiter's wealthy maternal grandparents, money he feels he's entitled to.

It is a scenario that can only lead to tragedy.

The story is narrated in the first person by Jack, so that the reader gets a relatively straight-forward, but rather naive version of Joseph's story, nicely unclouded by any moral judgement. Jack, who was pretty excited to finally have an older brother to hang around with, was from the start on the side of Joseph, and unlike most of the people in Joseph's life, Jack sticks by him no matter what.

Orbiting Jupiter was recommended to me by so many people, I couldn't wait to read it.  It is a short book, so well written, that extra words, explanations, descriptions would have cluttered it up and diminished its impact.  I was riveted from the start, reading it on one sitting.

I found it to be a sad, sobering look at how we treat children who are dealt a rotten hand from the start and are caught in unhappy, dangerous circumstance they are, for the most part, powerless to change.  Wherever Joseph should have found support and trust, he had only found neglect and abuse until he meets Madeleine and later, the Hurds.  By the end of the book, my sadness had turned to anger - at the adults who were responsible for Joseph's life before he got to the Hurds.

Orbiting Jupiter is a heartbreaking story of betrayal and neglect, but also one of friendship, hope, and trust - and Jack leads the way.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Author Gary Schmidt talks about Orbiting Jupiter in this short video:

Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton

One night, young Jack is drawn to a dark old abandoned house mostly out of curiosity.  When he finally opens the door and enters the house, he finds 12 people sitting about a table in the dark, each with a candle in front of them.   Asked if he will be joining the group, Jack says yes and a thirteenth chair and candle are brought to the table for him.

After introductions are made, an evening of ghostly storytelling begins.  Jack is naturally a little scared, after all, he's been told about what go on in this house, amazing stories, and although Jack didn't believe what he was told, he's still relieved to be sitting nearest the door, just in case.

One by one, the chairs occupants tell their stories.  Some are traditional tales like "Let Me Sleep" and "The Red Tree," with endings that will give you chills and maybe even creep you out a bit.  Other stories are more modern, like "Beneath the Surface" and "Snowstorms."

As each tale is told, the teller snuffs out their candle and moves their chair back from the table so Jack can no longer see them.  As the room gets darker and darker, Jack worries about what he will say when his turn comes.  No unnatural, haunting story comes to mind and each time another person is chosen to tell a story, Jack is relieved that he has been given more time to come up with something.

But, alas, no more can be said about Jack without giving the ending away.  Just know this, it is rather ironic.

Each storyteller has their own distinct personality and they are of various ages, and seem to have come from different time periods, though I think that there is a preponderance of more modern stories.  For instance, the tale told by Amelia, a young school age girl sitting next to Jack, is a modern story called "The Girl in the Red Coat," and is about a young girl in school being bullied, and is totally riveting nonetheless.  As is "The Wrong Side of the Road"which might make you think twice about using your GSP next time you need it, and "Unputdownable" a story that may make you hesitate the next time you reach for a book that the library has discarded and put on sale.

I loved reading Thirteen Chairs.  There is something for everyone and each tale has an originality about it.  On some level, the tales reminded me of all those ghost stories we all told as kids at sleepovers or around the campfire, but these are much more sophisticated and polished.  I think that some of the themes and tropes like the effect that the sudden constant, mysterious ticking of a clock can have on an otherwise calm, orderly person may be recognizable but they have a new twist in these short haunting tales.

Thirteen Chairs is a perfect Halloween book, but fun no matter what the day is.

What are Dave Skelton's top 13 scariest stories for Halloween?  You can read all about them HERE

This book is recommened for readers age 12+
This book was an EARC received from Edelweiss/Above the Treeline

Happy Halloween!

The Golden Compass: The Graphic Novel (Volume #!) adapated by Stéphane Melchior, art by Clément Oubrerie

**Contains Spoilers**

By now, most of us know the story of Lyra Belacqua, the young girl raised by the scholars of Jordan College, Oxford, and her daemon Pan, full name Pantalaimon. living in an alternate world very much like this one.  But Lyra's world is ruled by the Magisterium, a theocratic organization that wants to control its subjects by taking away their free.

When she learns that her uncle, Lord Asriel, is coming to give a lecture to the scholars, Lyra hides in a cupboard to spy on them, but instead she witnesses one of the scholars poisoning his drink.  Luckily, she is able to warn Lord Asriel about it just in the nick of time.

During Lord Asriel's lecture, Lyra learns about Dust, cosmic particles that form when matter becomes consciousness, thereby making it the physical form of consciousness.  Dust accumulates on adults, but not children, who are thought to be innocent and who don't have the kind of developed consciousness that an adult has.  Dust also binds daemons to humans.  Daemons are not little devils, as the name might imply, but are the physical manifestations of the human soul.  Because a child's consciousness isn't formed yet, their daemons can change form at will, eventually taking on a permanent form that will be reflection of their human's soul.

Lord Asriel also shows the scholars pictures of a parallel universe that can only be seen through the Northern Lights, and he finally convinces the scholars to fund his research on Dust up near the Arctic.  Lyra is curious about the information Lord Asriel shares, and wants to go North with him, but he refuses to let her and leaves.

Later, while out with her friend Roger, he suddenly disappears.  Back at college, Lyra next meets Mrs. Coulter, a charismatic women and a friend of the scholars.  Mrs. Coulter volunteers to care for Lyra, but before she leaves Jordan College, Lyra is given an Alethiometer, a device that tells the truth to the questioner, and told to never let Mrs. Coulter know she has it.  At first, Lyra enjoys her new circumstance, but when a servant tries to steal the Alethiometer, she runs away and ends up in the hands of the Gyptians, canal-boat dwellers, and learns that they also have children who have disappeared suddenly, just like Roger.

The head Gyptian, John Faa, tells Lyra the truth about her parents - that they didn't die in an accident, but are Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, and one of the elder Gyptians helps her understand how the Alethiometer works.  When they learn that Lord Asriel is being held prisoner in an ice fortress by enemies, they decide they must help him,   Meanwhile, Lyra is hiding from Mrs. Coulter, but when she discovers where Lyra is, they  the Gyptians decide to head North fast.

Yes, I know that there is more to The Golden Compass, but this is where volume 1 of the graphic novel ends (does this mean that the possibility of 9 graphic novels will be required to cover Philip Pullman's excellent His Dark Materials trilogy?  It would appear to be so.)

I loved comic books as a kid, and now, I love a good graphic novel, but this isn't one of them.  I found the story lackluster, and was annoyed that it left out a lot of important information for understanding what Pullman was trying to say in his original novel (which is why I went into so much detail above).  Lyra often comes across rather like a brat, and I found I didn't much like her.  Textwise, this just didn't work for me.

Nor can I say I liked the art very much.  The cover held so much promise, but most of the illustrations were not great.  Everyone looks mean a lot of the time, not just the "bad guys." Sometimes, as I was reading one section of the story, I found that there was a sudden jump into a different part of the story without warning or explanation why and that felt very disjointed.  One of the good things about comic books was that a text explanation always accompanied a change scene, so that what was going on in the following frames was comprehensible.  The same would have been nice here.

I loved reading The Golden Compass with my Kiddo when she was in middle school, and we had the pleasure of meeting Philip Pullman at the time, who was here getting an award at Queens College, Queens, NY.  So I was really looking forward to reading this graphic novel - but alas, it wasn't even good enough to entice me into any kind of excited anticipation of the next two installments, but it has made me want to re-read the novel.

This book is recommended for kids age 12+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

We're celebrating Graphic books every Thursday thanks to Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading, Alyson Beecher of KidLit Frenzy and Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan of Assessment in Perspective