Book Review: Adaptation by Malinda Lo

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Adaptation cover image

Reese is on her way home from a debate competition with her teammate and teacher when a strange phenomenon occurs: bird strikes across North America bring several airplanes down and all air traffic is suspended. When they try to get from Arizona to their home in San Francisco in a rental car, there’s an accident in the desert. Twenty-eight days later Reese wakes up in an isolated military hospital where she’s told she had advanced, top-secret treatment to save her life.

But when Reese starts to have unsettling dreams and she notices that her scars heal quickly, she begins to wonder what happened to her at the hospital. With her friends David and Julian, she sets out to uncover the mystery.

Adaptation by Malinda Lo is a fast-paced science fiction mystery that keeps you guessing what’s going to happen until the end. It’s most successful when following the main plot line of Reese, her debate partner David, and their quest to find out what happened to them. But there’s a lot going on in the book, and I sometimes found it frustrating when the action slowed down to explore one of several subplots.

There’s the question about the bird strikes and conspiracy theories about the government’s involvement based on its continued reaction by killing birds wholesale. Reese is questioning her sexual identity and whether or not she is attracted to girls or guys. Reese’s friend Julian is involved with groups trying to get evidence of alien contact in the place known as Area 51. There’s also a difficult relationship between Reese and her unapologetically philandering dad, who is divorced from her mother. It’s a lot for a reader to take in.

That can also mean a lot to discuss if you pick this up with your book club. Because of the questioning on sexual issues, I would recommend Adaptation for groups with girls aged 16 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Soccer Sisters: Lily Out of Bounds by Andrea Montalbano

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Lily Out of Bounds cover imageLily James lives and breathes soccer. She and her teammates, her soccer sisters, have drawn up a code of conduct with 10 rules to live by. But when a new girl, Colby, subs on the team in a couple of tournaments, she leaves Lily questioning some of those rules.

In Colby’s mind, anything is acceptable in a game if it helps you to win. And breaking rules off the field is acceptable if you have fun doing it. Lily has to decide whether to stick to the code or go along with Colby’s rules.

Lily Out of Bounds, the first in a new Soccer Sisters series by Andrea Montalbano, does more than look at the game of soccer and how it’s played, though there’s plenty of soccer play in the book. It also looks at how teens and pre-teens handle the challenges of facing peers who push them in directions they are not sure they want to go.

Lily is confused about Colby’s actions. They help the team to win on the field, and off the field they are a lot of fun. But going along means she has to lie to people she cares about and play in a way that doesn’t feel right to her. Once she begins to see that Colby’s actions do have consequences, she’s more able to determine for herself what’s right and wrong.

Soccer Sisters, with Lily Out of Bounds as the first book, is a promising new series for girls aged 9 to 13.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Book Review: Every Little Thing Adapted by Cedella Marley, Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

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Every Little Thing cover imageFrom Bob Marley’s daughter Cedella, comes a new picture book based on her father’s song “Three Little Birds.” The message repeating over and over in the song is “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing is gonna be all right.” The same is true for the book, which is titled Every Little Thing.

A boy rises in the morning to great a new day, with three little birds on his doorstep leading the way. The birds are there when he sees someone sitting alone on a swing at the playground, so the boy includes the lonely kid in a soccer game that’s going on.

The birds are there when he makes a mess baking in the kitchen, but the boy’s parents hold him and tell him it’s going to be all right. And the birds are there when his mom and dad sing him to sleep at night. The illustrations, by Vanessa Brantley-Newton are colorful and fun. They include a grumpy kitty, who isn’t having as good of a day as the boy is. The kitty would like to catch the birds, but in the end, even he ends up charmed by them.

Cedella Marley includes a note in the end about the meaning the song has for her, and how it passes along an important message: “as long as we share our love with others, even if storm clouds gather, we will be okay.”

My husband and I often sang “Three Little Birds” to our daughters when they were growing up. Every Little Thing offers the opportunity to share the music along with a great story for kids. I highly recommend it.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Volunteer With Your Family to Give Back to Your Community

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Each year National Family Volunteer Day is held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. First organized 22 years ago by Points of Light, the day is meant to “showcase the benefits of family volunteering and provide opportunities for families to help communities create supportive environments for their children and each other.” It’s also a way to start the holiday season with giving and service.

While many volunteer opportunities are restricted to adults only, there are lots of things kids can do to be involved as well. Here are a few ideas for ways kids can contribute with their families:

  • Go along with their parents to deliver Meals on Wheels. Elderly shut-ins often love to see children come to their doors. When the girls in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop delivered meals a few years ago, some recipients insisted on giving something back to the girls as their own way of saying thanks. It was a good way to see that there are more ways to give than we may realize on the surface.
  • Collect items in their neighborhood for a cause they support. With a little effort kids can create a flyer to put on neighbors’ doors letting them know they will be coming by on a certain date to pick up donations. The cause can vary from old blankets and towels for an animal shelter, to canned food for a local food bank, to used winter clothing in good condition and new toiletries for a homeless shelter, much more.
  • Organize an event to benefit their schools. Do teachers need extra supplies to hand out to kids who don’t have them? Would a flowering tree look nice next to the playground? Kids can talk to their principals and find out what’s needed, then get a group of friends together to provide it.

For more ideas, check out these resources:

GenerationOn

Points of Light

Hands On Network

 

Book Review: My Bad Parent by Troy Osinoff

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My Bad Parent cover imageMy Bad Parent: Do As I Say, Not As I Did by Troy Osinoff has to be seen to be believed. Osinoff has collected photographs of parents doing questionable things with their kids. Some seem staged to be funny, like the smiling child with the diaper over her head, while others are candid shots where the parents seem to have no clue that they are doing anything wacky to their kids.

Many photos fall into the latter category, including kids riding on motorcycles and kids with guns. Osinoff has grouped the photos into chapter-like categories and added comments. Some you’ll find down right funny, while others will have you shaking your head and calling for a child license to be issued before anyone can get pregnant.

My Bad Parent is a great book to leave out as a conversation starter at your next party or as a gift to expecting parents. For more fun you can visit Osinoff’s website, My Bad Parent.com.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Armpit of Doom by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrations by Rafael Domingos

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The Armpit of Doom cover imageKenn Nesbitt knows how to make kids laugh while getting them to read poetry. His newest collection, called The Armpit of Doom: Funny Poems for Kids, continues that tradition with 70 new poems.

Featuring illustrations by Rafael Domingos, The Armpit of Doom is titled after the opening poem about a girl who walks into her brother’s bedroom and encounters a smelly surprise. Other poems are about kids who eat paste, don’t want to go to bed and even write their own poems. Here’s an excerpt from that one, called “I Wrote an Awful Poem.”

“I wrote an awful poem;

it was bad in the extreme.

I showed it to my sister

and it made my sister scream.

I never knew a poem could be

such amazing fun.

But that was just a blast,

I think I’ll write another one.”

Some poems made me chuckle, others made me laugh out loud. I expect it will be a hit with kids who like taking an irreverent look at the world around them. And if you read The Armpit of Doom with your kids, it could inspire you both to take a stab at writing your own funny poems.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review and Giveaway: Dear Teen Me, edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally

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Dear Teen Me cover imageWhen you’re in high school, it’s easy to think that you and your friends are the only ones who have challenges and everyone else has it good. It’s also easy to think of adults you admire as falling into the category of kids who had it good in high school. After all, if they have grown up to become successful, they must have known what they were doing all along, right?

Not so, according to the writers featured in a new anthology called Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves. Edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally, Dear Teen Me features letters from 70 young adult authors, included Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, Joseph Brushac and Leila Sales.

Many of the authors included in the collection wrote letters to their younger selves, hoping to encourage them to get through some hard days ahead. There are also a few illustrated letters and general Q and A’s, with questions such as “Who was your celebrity crush,” and “What was your most embarrassing moment?”

Each author writes with candor, some about issues you may not expect, such as cutting, contemplating suicide, dealing with eating disorders and sexual orientation. There are also stories of authors who were shy, had unrequited crushes, experienced problems with family members, felt insecure, and more. Every story offers an insight not only about the author, but about the common experience that many teens face on the way to find out about and becoming their true selves.

Dear Teen Me is a word of encouragement to any teen who may be experiencing difficult times and believes she is the only one going through problems like hers. It is also a great way to get insight about authors who write for teens. Each letter is accompanied by a short bio that includes books the author has written, so it can also be a great place to find new titles to read.

Learn more about the contributors, and get a link to each author’s website, by checking out the Dear Teen Me website, where you can also find a few great trailers. And don’t forget to leave a comment below with either a short note to your own teen self or why you’re looking forward to reading Dear Teen Me so you can be entered into the giveaway. I’m giving away one copy signed by four or five of the authors to a reader in the U.S. or Canada. Please comment by midnight (PST), on Monday, November 19, 2012 to enter. Please note: the giveaway is closed. Congratulations to Diane on winning.

Publisher Zestbooks provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O’Connor

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Keeping Safe the Stars cover imageSince their mother died, the Star children have lived with their grandpa, Old Finn. The family keeps to itself on the family farm Old Finn refers to as Eden in rural Minnesota. But when Old Finn develops an infection that sends him to the hospital in Duluth, 13-year-old Pride is left in charge of the farm and her siblings, 9-year-old Nightingale and 6-year-old Baby.

But even a self-sufficient teenager can’t run a household with no money and no transportation. When the kids start to attract attention from neighbors and concerned adults, they know they must find a way to reach Old Finn and find someone who can be in charge to keep them safe before the state takes them into custody.

Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O’Connor shows that even smart, capable kids are vulnerable when the adults they depend on experience unexpected illness or injury. After suffering the tragedy of his daughter’s early death and fighting to gain custody of the children, Old Finn is understandably reluctant to invite other people into their circle.

Yet one adult in charge is a thin thread to keep a family together, as everyone discovers when Old Finn goes away too. It takes ingenuity from all three children, help from neighbors and others in the community, as well as a bit of kindness from strangers to find a solution. Reading about the Stars and their situation is certain to provoke thoughtful discussion of the safety net parents can put into place to care for their own children in the event of the unexpected.

Keeping Safe the Stars is a compelling story that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion in this review.

 

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