Tag: liked it

Find Layla

I found this, strangely enough, when I was researching ways to format text messages in a book. (If you’re stressing about that, btw), this book does it seamlessly.

In the process of looking at the formatting, I got hooked on the story. Then I had to read the whole thing.

Find Layla chronicles a few days (maybe as much as two weeks) in the life of a brilliant teen who is raising herself and her younger brother in squalor as her mother struggles with drug addiction and possibly mental illness.

This book is a beautiful portrayal of the survival skills and savvy–as well as the trust issues–of a kid living the way kids should never have to live. I like the way Layla and those around her are shown with full nuance. Like real people, they’re not all good or all evil, but a mixture of both. And some of the most painful hurts Layla receives come not from active aggression towards her (though there’s that), but from the ignorance of people who care about her or who mean well.

This strikes me as very real. Almost too real. It’s hard to help teens who have been forced to survive on their own for far too long. This book at least helps people understand them.

Hoot

They call this type of fiction realistic–and I guess it is, if you use “realistic” to mean that any given event in the story could conceivably happen in the world as we know it. There’s no magic, and no not-yet-invented technology.

On the other hand, I often found my plausibility stretched (the kid with good, involved parents disappears for an afternoon, and isn’t even grounded afterward?)

Still, I found the story engaging, and I wanted Roy to succeed–to fit into his new school in his new town, to get out from under the bullying jerk who has it in for him, to find the intriguing young man who runs by the bus stop barefoot, and eventually to save the endangered owls who are threatened by a pancake franchise.

It’s fun to participate in Roy’s journey toward achieving these things. The characters are well-drawn, the setting immersive, and the voice delightfully humorous. For me, this would have been a love instead of a like if I hadn’t frequently found myself thinking, “no way would that ever happen.”

Because of Mr. Terupt

One of the advantages of tutoring in English is that I sometimes get the chance to read books for young people that I hadn’t heard of before.

This one is fun. It features an unconventional teacher and his students–several of whom narrate the book.

The multiple narrators annoyed me a bit at first–I didn’t have a strong sense of whose story it was. But I came to appreciate the different voices, the different views–and the way each student was affected by this remarkable teacher.

I think many of us have a teacher like this in our lives–someone who inspires growth in both our heads and our hearts. My own was Mrs. Legato (eighth grade history). This story reminded me of her and also helped me think about how young people are profoundly affected by the people who teach them.

All in all, it was a pretty good book, sometimes funny, and occasionally poignant. I’m not sure I liked it well enough to go on to the sequels, but I’m glad to have been introduced to it.

flying in a cage

Ivory hears music in everything–in birdsong, and wind chimes, yes, but also in the noise of traffic and the rhythm of a dishwasher.

There is also music in her heart, making sense of the world and her feelings–much more sense of these things than she can make without it.

I liked this look at Ivory’s world, though I found it difficult to get into the story-in-verse form at first. Perhaps that is a good thing, though–it helped create a sense of disorientation that might be a bit like what Ivory felt all the time.

All in all, a good story, well told.

Opposite of Always

I enjoyed this fun, romantic YA, though it reminded me a bit more of Groundhog’s Day than I would prefer. (Yeah, I was never that fond of that movie.)

Still, Jack is a great character, and I love how he grows throughout this book, figuring out what is important to him.

Kate is also a well-rounded character, and I love that she refuses to be defined by her illness.

My favorite part of the book, though, might have been Jack’s friendships with Jillian and Franny, and how he (eventually) figures out how to not let his budding romance keep him from being a good friend.

I also appreciate the family dynamics here–there’s a couple of mostly functional families, and a few that are less functional–but all of them feel realistic and important to the kids in them.

All in all, a book well worth reading.

Charlie Franks is A-OK

Charlie’s not like Coco.

So, when everything seems to be going wrong, she’s determined not to be a drama queen. But keeping all her frustrations inside turns out to be a less than perfect plan.

I like how Charlie insists on being herself, and love how she comes to evaluate what’s most important to her. I kind of wish, though, that at some point she’d let somebody close to her know how she was really feeling. At the end of this book, it seems like Charlie is just as likely to keep unpopular opinions to herself as she was at the beginning, and that feels a bit isolating and confining–as if she’s only allowing herself to feel things she’s supposed to feel .


Restraint can be both wise and kind, but repression?

This story raises some interesting questions–a kind of Sense and Sensibility for a modern era.

I’m just not sure Charlie’s central problem (which I saw as her unwillingness to be open with the people around her, even those who clearly loved her) is as resolved as she thinks it is.

Check out my review of the previous book in the series, Love and Muddy Puddles (about Coco) here.

Micah McKinney And The Boys Of Summer

This was a fun read that reminded me of all the intense emotion of going into middle school.

Micah may have more serious issues in her life than most young teens, but most will relate to her difficulties adjusting to the way her body, her life, and her relationships are changing.

I liked the realism of this piece, and the young voice. It reminded me a bit of Judy Blume, in good, modern ways. Micah has some heavy stuff to deal with, including her mother’s death, but I feel like she’s handling these things in a healthier way at the end of her summer than at the beginning. And the friendships she develops–with kids her own age and with older teens–are one of the highlights of this story.

Love and Muddy Puddles

I don’t quite relate to Coco Franks’s quest to be popular, but I totally get what it’s like to have your parents tell you you’re moving away from the life you know, and your feelings about it don’t matter.

Of course, my parents never moved me anywhere quite so remote or primitive. We always (always!) had running water.

I never before realized how lucky I was.

This is a fun book, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I cringe every time Coco makes more trouble for herself, but in my heart, I get it. Sometimes life is grossly unfair and lashing out feels like the only way to get people to pay attention to what you’re feeling. Even if the only person that hurts is yourself.

Link to the book here, if you’re interested: https://smile.amazon.com/Muddy-Puddles-Charlie-Franks-novel-ebook/dp/B00HOCA7D2/

Jacob Have I Loved

Such a good book–and if I found myself a bit disappointed in the end, it’s only because the rest of the book was so astonishingly intense. For hours, I lived in the mind of Sara Louise Bradshaw, a girl growing up in the shadow of her beautiful and talented twin–feeling tall, awkward and unloved, but also working hard to shift her own and her family’s fortune.

When she works it all out, coming to terms with herself and her family and growing up rapidly in the last couple of chapters, the new attitudes feel too sudden, and it’s hard to believe that Sara Louise no longer feels the envy and insecurity that have plagued her throughout the book. She comes into her own–but it’s not at all clear to me how she manages it.

Nevertheless, for the setting alone I would read this book again. The little crab-fishing community on an island that’s being reclaimed by the sea is both beautiful and harsh, and I’m nearly seduced into wishing I’d grown up in a tiny town on a salt marsh.

Ridiculous, seeing how I don’t really like salt water, or beaches, or being out in the sun much…

Sara Louise herself is also a character I’d love to spend time with again, and her story reminds me that life’s greatest dramas happen at home.

Like I said, such a good book.

Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue

I always enjoy reading works by the RMFW Writer of the Year nominees, and this little gem by Jeff Seymour is one of the reasons why. It has sparkling wit, swashbuckling adventure, and a delightfully idealistic heroine, who starts out a foolhardy tomboy, but ends up a thoughtful and courageous leader. The artwork is beautiful as well.

The target audience is middle grade, but I enjoyed it immensely myself, and my tween years are long behind me. If you like fantastical worlds and kids who take on impossible odds, this might be a good story for you as well.