Tag: book reviews

2023 Five Star Middle School Books

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It’s been another crazy year of reading, with my current total at 343. Much of that has been kids/teens reading through homeschooling and Cybils Awards first round panelist reading. So, like last year, I’m not picking favorites but highlighting my 5 star reads by category. Here are the 12 nonfiction and 2 fiction middle school books that I rated 5 * on Goodreads.

Muzoon: A Syrian Refugee Speaks Out by Muzoon Almellehan with Weandy Pearlman. 299 pages. 2023

What happened to Muzoon, age 14, and her family when the civil war in Syria started to hit too close to home? An escape that leaves the reality of ‘home’ a question. I think this will appeal to a lot of middle schoolers as well as teens. We need more Muzoons as role models for our kids (and even for adults like me!). Inspiring.  (Amazon)

Your Freedom, Your Power: A Kid’s Guide to the First Amendment by Allison Matulli with Clelia Castro-Malaspina, illustrator Carmelle Kendall. 192 pages. 2023

Do you have a political or current events kid? This is a visually inviting non-partisan book full of excellent information about the things Americans hold dear; freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition. Told in a conversational manner with fun examples. (Amazon)

Plague-Busters!: Medicine’s Battles with History’s Deadliest Diseases by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal. 176 pages. 2023

Do you have that kid that enjoys gross stories or interesting facts? This is sure to please. Full of fantastic illustrations and written with great humor and fun. It will teach them loads of history without them even realizing it! (Amazon)

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adam’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki. 132 pages. 2022

A gorgeously illustrated book about the Japanese American incarceration during WWII, a terrible time in this country’s history. The photos and art make this feel like a graphic novel. While this is a middle school book, older teens would probably appreciate it more. (Amazon)

Just Jerry: How Drawing Shaped My Life by Jerry Pinkney. 160 pages. 2023

I ❤️ illustrator Jerry Pinkney and any fan of his over 100 children’s books is going to want to pick up this memoir. The copy was almost done, but only sketches of the final artwork were done before he died in 2021. The sketches were used in the book. This is for the artist in your life. (Amazon)

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport by Caren Stelson, illustrator Selina Alko. 40 pages. 2023

The story of the children put on trains by their parents to escape Nazi controlled homelands. The Kindertransport movement took almost 10,000 children to Britain at the outbreak of WWII. Most of them never see their families again. An important book. This is a picture book, but the content is best for middle schoolers. (Amazon)

The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin. 208 pages. 2021

A perfectly illustrated memoir about growing up in Cold War Russia. His observations on communism and his experience as a Jewish boy in Russia during the 1980s make this a compelling read. Told with great humor. (Amazon)

Climate Warriors: Fourteen Scientists and Fourteen Ways We Can Save Our Planet by Laura Gehl. 72 pages. 2023

Timely. Important, Inspiring. Tackled big things with approachable ways to make a difference at home. Science is always evolving and it’s imperative that we all stay up to date. For that kiddo who loves science or is interested on conservation. Colorful layouts make it fun. (Amazon)

Cities: How Humans Live Together by Megan Clendenan, illustrator Suharu Ogawa. 96 pages. 2023

A fascinating look at the old, the new and everything in between. It’s an oversized picture book, but with lots of reading on each page with huge pictures and graphics. This covers things like mapping out a city, getting around, water, electric, food, at different points in history.  (Amazon)

Rebel Girls Rock: 25 Tales of Women in Music. 68 pages. 2023

I loved the mix of women in this book! Most I’d heard of, but not all. I also loved the full page drawing of each. An entertaining and well laid out book sure to hold your musical middle schooler’s attention. (Amazon)

Astonishing and Extinct Professions: 89 Jobs You Will Never Do by Markus Rottmann, illustrator Michael Meister, translated by Ashley Curtis. 88 pages, 2023

This oversized, illustrated picture book was SO MUCH FUN. The professions start with the oldest and end with a job that Jason had when he was a teen, sadly extinct now. And, no, it wasn’t a professional fartist, walking toilet, or ornamental hermit, althought those are all in here! Buy it for a kid, but make sure you read it yourself first. (Amazon)

Benjamin Franklin’s Wise Words: How To Work Smart, Play Well, and Make Real Friends by KM Kostyal, illustrator Fred Harper. 127 pages. 2017

Presents 50 quotes from Poor Richard’s Almanac with a bit of history. I loved the full page illustrations. An appealing book that has bite-sized life lessons. (Amazon)

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. 237 pages. 2011

This book was so good I didn’t even mind that it made me cry twice. Not just tears in my eyes, but having to close the book and grab some tissues.

Conor’s mom has been sick awhile and he’s having trouble at school. When a monster appears he’s scared, but nothing can be as scary as his nightly nightmare. The monster tells his stories and Conor’s life continues to get worse.

This is the illustrated version and it’s so good! This is a kids book, but it goes to dark places. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s so much to say! 

This is a middle school book, but with teen issues. (Amazon)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. 137 pages. 1989

Ann-Marie and her best friend Ellen are making the best of growing up with Nazis on every corner of their town, until one night the unthinkable happens at the local Jewish synagogue and now the Nazis have a list of Jews.  Ellen’s parents leave her with Ann-Marie’s family as they flee and what happens next is so emotional and horrifying that I became attached very quickly.  Ann-Marie and her family take extraordinary risks to do the right thing.

Historical fiction at it’s finest. This is was a Newbery Award Winner for a reason. (Amazon)

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

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Cover ImageFinished listening to on 11-17-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1929

“When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me. I pulled her down and kissed her and felt her heart beating.”

Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American serving as an ambulance driver in the Italian army during World War I.  Catherine Barkley is a nurse who meets and flirts with Frederic before he is wounded on the war front. He recovers in a hospital in Milan with Catherine as his nurse and the two begin a love affair.  Before Frederic is sent back into duty Catherine finds out she is pregnant.  I’m not going to say more because I don’t want to give too much away. 

I’ve read that this is one of the best war novels ever written and that it is one of the best love stories ever penned.  I don’t agree with either of these, although I do think it does a great job of bringing the war to life and it is a grand love story.  Some of the problem may be that the character of Catherine felt very flat to me.  She felt like she was written by a man and, well, not all that sympathetic.  Surprisingly, I did enjoy the aspects of the war Hemingway chose to share.

This is an American classic, but because it is a war story I avoided it.  And somehow I earned my degree in English Education without ever having read a Hemingway novel.  I decided to listen to it and was pleased with the reader, John Slattery.  He did an excellent job.  Some of you may know him from his current job on the tv show Mad Men.

The Empty Chair, by Jeffery Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 11-12-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2000

“You have movement of one lumbrical- the ring finger of your left hand- and good shoulder and neck muscle control.  You could lose some or all of that.  And lose your ability to breathe spontaneously.”  -Chapter 2

Lincoln Rhymes and Amelia Sachs are back in book three of this popular series.

Lincoln is in North Carolina for a risky spinal cord surgery and he’s brought Amelia and his aide, Thom, with him.  Lincoln is hoping for any small improvement and Amelia is discouraging him from taking the risk.  The local sheriff, a cousin of a NY friend, asks Lincoln to help with a kidnapping case in the few days he has before he goes under the knife.  Garrett, Insect Boy to locals, has kidnapped two girls and Lincoln and Amelia work with local authorities to track him down.  Once in jail, Amelia is drawn to Garrett’s vulnerability and becomes convinced of his innocence.  She makes a decision that will change her life forever and pit her against Lincoln.

I cannot say enough good things about this series and this one was a nice change of pace.  It focused more on the relationship between Lincoln and Amelia and the southern locale offered a colorful backdrop to the story.  That said, this was my least favorite of the three so far.  There were too many people involved in excessive twists and turns.  I still recommend, but start with the first one, The Bone Collector.

I Married A Communist, by Philip Roth

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Finished 10-8-08, rating 2.5, fiction, pub. 1999

Nathan Zuckerman, the narrator from American Pastoral, is back and this time he is tackling the McCarthy era.  Nathan reconnects with his high school English teacher, Murray Ringold, after many years and the two reminisce  about that turbulent time in their lives.  Murray’s brother, Ira, was a famous radio actor back in the day and took Nathan under his wing.    Now that Ira is dead Nathan gets to find out everything he had not known about his mentor when he was younger.

Ira was a Jewish communist and marries a beautiful actress in hopes of living the American dream.  He had money, a beautiful wife, an expensive home, fans who loved him, and hopes for a child one day.  Instead he was thrust into an unsatisfying marriage that came with a troubled and spiteful step daughter.  When the marriage went south, his wife fingered him as a communist.

I really didn’t like this book much.  It lacked a story I cared about it.  I wasn’t drawn to the characters.  It made some fine points about that period in American history, but I found myself skimming paragraphs at a time.  I much preferred American Pastoral.  The next book for the class is The Human Stain.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating, by Steven Brown

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private InvestigatingThe Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating. Finished 5-21-08, rating 3.5/5, non-fiction, 2nd Edition 2007

“I can’t think of anything more interesting than being a private investigator.  But it also has hour after hour of sheer tedium.”   Chapter 1

Are you thinking of hiring a private investigator?  Are you considering a career in the field?  Do you think your spouse is cheating on you?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this is the book for you.

This book covers a wide range of topics and handles each with ease and humor.  The first section of the book details what you need to do if you are interested in a career.  How do you break into a field where there are many more applicants than jobs?  Details such as firearms training, salary, licensing, camera and computer needs, and desired skills are all covered.

The book then moves into the do-it-yourself section.  The basics of how to find someone, how the courthouse works, and how to beat the telephone company are all covered.  I must admit that I spent a few hours checking out some of the free databases online that the book suggested and had fun until I put my own name in and realized how easy it was for someone to get information about me!

The next section they call on-the-job training.  It covers the interview, the neighborhood investigations, and surveillance (including tips on tailing someone).  It gives intruction and ideas for pretexting, which basically means what lie to tell to get the most information.  It offers six ways to get around caller id and also offers a whole chapter (16) on how to tell if your spouse is cheating.

The books was interesting, useful and full of stories of the author’s own investigations.  I was amazed at how much information was covered.  If you are ever in need of a private investigator I would recommend buying this book first.  You will save yourself a lot of money.

The Poet by Michael Connelly

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The PoetFinished 5-13-08, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1996

“It’s lucky no one else knows what our most secret thoughts are.  We’d all be seen for the cunning, self-aggrandizing fools we are.”    Chapter 15

This was a great mystery.  A killer was mutilating bodies after he killed them and then once a detective became obsessed with the case the detective was killed too.  This went undiscovered for many years because the detective’s deaths were ruled suicides.  But reporter Jack McEvoy just lost his twin brother and doesn’t want to believe it was suicide so he sets out to prove it wasn’t.

Once Jack convinces his brother’s partner he sets out to see if he can prove it had been done before.  Jack flies to Washington DC to investigate and inadvertantly opens a FBI task force before he can go public with his own story.  Jack then must force his way into the story and begins his whirlwind journey with the FBI.

This book has it all: grief, revenge, love, murder, guilt, and the chase.  If you love mysteries you cannot go wrong with this one.  This will keep you guessing til the end.  I know Connelly has a current mystery series and I bet when I find the time to read one it will be good too!