Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

towersfallingTowers Falling
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Available July 12, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Deja’s family loses their home and are forced to move to a shelter, she starts fifth grade at a new school. She’s embarrassed by her family’s situation and braced for judgment from the other kids. Instead, Ben, also a new kid, and Sabeen, a sweet girl who covers her hair with a scarf, become Deja’s new friends. As their teacher, Miss Garcia, begins a unit about history connecting to the present, the class learns about the World Trade Center towers falling on September 11, 2001. The material covered in the classroom is gentle and oblique, but Deja feels there’s a much more gruesome truth that no one dares to tell her. Her questions and research lead her to a harder realization: a connection between her father’s anxiety and respiratory illness and the terrorist attack that caused the collapse of the towers.

Before I picked up this novel and still now that I’ve finished it, I can’t help but admire the author for tackling the topic of the September 11 attack as the basis for a middle grade story. For the most part, I think the topic was handled with extreme care. Deja’s dad is extremely uncomfortable at first when he learns that the school is teaching his daughter about the terrorist attack. He visits the school and speaks with Miss Garcia and the school’s principal. I liked the inclusion of that element. It felt very real and natural, and certainly something that concerned parents may do. Deja had her own anxiety about what would happen as a result of her father’s visit, and her friends and trusted adults in her life were able to reassure her.

At one point Deja and Ben skip school to visit the memorial site where the World Trade Center once stood. They return home to find worried and angry parents, but there’s not much discussion about it beyond that.

I can only find one issue with the story. Many scenes take place in a classroom or other forum where someone else educates Deja about the history of the September 11 attack. This leaves the book feeling a bit preachy at times. Sometimes Deja privately processes the information she’s been told. Those were some of the most powerful moments in the story. She begins to understand how much the past affects her present, something so simple but so true and nicely woven into the plot of this tale.

Cultural Elements
Deja and her family are African-American. Her mother moved to the United States from Jamaica, as she says, for a better life. Ben’s grandmother comes from Mexico. Sabeen’s family is from Turkey. They are practicing Muslims. Deja meets Sabeen’s parents, grandmother, and her uncle and enjoys dinner with them of traditional Turkish foods. Sabeen also makes Turkish delight and baklava to share with her friends.

The diversity of the character cast felt very organic and natural to the story. I enjoyed the richness it brought to the novel, and especially the descriptions of the food prepared by Sabeen’s family, as it sounded delicious!

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Deja’s friend Sabeen and her family practice Islam. She briefly discusses the prejudice against Muslims that her family faces in America and how hurtful this is to her family.

Violent Content
Deja and Ben watch videos online showing the towers falling. She notices people leaping from the building.

Drug Content
Her father suffers from a debilitating illness. At one point Deja wonders if the doctor has changed his medicine.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Save

Save

Save

Review: Ophelia Adrift by Helen Goltz

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Ophelia Adrift
Helen Goltz
Atlas Productions

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Newly orphaned, Ophelia Montague moves to the coast to live with her uncle. She soon finds her feet among the locals and takes on a history project learning about shipwrecks in the area. She meets Jack by the sea one night and falls deeply in love with him. Jack feels drawn to Ophelia, too, by a powerful force outside his control. He longs to be with her, but fears she may destroy him if she comes too close. Ophelia doesn’t understand the secrets Jack carries. She only knows she wants to be with him. When Jack reveals the cost of being with him, the price may prove too high for Ophelia to pay, and it may be too late for her to escape.

I liked that the story switches to a lot of different points of view. We see some scenes from Ophelia perspective, others from Jack’s, and still others from Adam or Holly’s viewpoint. I liked the way this drew the focus of the story onto the different relationships in Ophelia’s life rather than letting it be completely swallowed by her obsession with Jack.

The romance between Jack and Ophelia is definitely a dominant force in the tale. I found it a little hard to swallow the strength of their passion for each other because it didn’t seem to have much of a base. Why does she like him? Because she does. Why does he like her? Because they’re soul mates. It was kind of just supposed to be something readers never question. I kept waiting for there to be some revelation about a connection between Ophelia and Jack’s ancestors or something like that. Something that gave reason for the “meant to be” idea.

In the ARC version that I read, there are quite a few copy errors. Sometimes two sentences would be separated by a comma. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge error, but things like that tend to trip me up. They may be fixed before the final version is released, though.

In reading some of the author’s notes about the story, I was excited to learn that the shipwreck mentioned in the tale did really happen, and many of the details about the sailors themselves were pulled from records about the real men aboard the vessel. I found it fascinating to have that bit of history pulled into the contemporary story. It definitely added some intrigue and made me want to learn more about shipwrecks.

Also – I loved coming across the various places mentioned in the Australia setting. Until recently, I worked for a company that creates 3D city models, and we had modeled many of the sites mentioned in the story. So that was kind of a cool thing for me that even though I’d never been to those places, I could visualize some of them from our models.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Intense kissing. Ophelia offers herself to her boyfriend, but he responds telling her that she will only share his bed when she is his wife. Adam receives a young woman into his room while wearing only boxers. No details about what happens after, though Ophelia wonders vaguely.

Spiritual Content
Ophelia believes she’s encountered a ghost and does some online research as to whether that could be true. One thing she learns is that (according to her research) if the ghost only partially appears and is missing some part of himself, then it may be a demon rather than a ghost she’s seeing.

Violent Content
Two of the local boys wind up in a fist fight over an old family feud. Ophelia researches records of shipwrecks in the area and learns about some of the sailor’s deaths at sea. A few of these instances are described in some detail.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Save

Save

Save

Review: To Get to You by Joanne Bischof

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

To Get to You
Joanne Bischof
Mason Jar Books

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Becca’s dad is involved in a serious accident, Riley vows to do whatever he can to help her. As her family packs up their motor home and takes off to be with her dad, he watches helplessly as she leaves him behind. A call asking for help is all it takes to send Riley on a journey after her. But then his car breaks down and Riley finds himself stranded with only one option: to call the father who abandoned him for fortune and fame as a pro surfer. Determined not to let his dad back into his life, Riley plans on keeping his head down and focusing on what matters: making it to Becca’s side. But the long journey isn’t without its own ups and downs, and Riley has to admit that there’s more to his dad than he wanted to credit him with. The two hammer out their differences as they cross state lines, making their way toward Becca’s family and the girl Riley hopes to make his future with.

At first, I wasn’t sure I’d like this book. The pro surfer thing didn’t really resonate with me, and I worried that it would be kind of too feel-good or obnoxiously clean or something. While the writing is very clean, I found the story to be largely authentic. I liked that Riley finds value in Becca and wants to protect her, even from things he thought were okay in his own past. Honestly, I liked Riley, period. I liked his dad and Saul, too. I thought Saul made a great third wheel and really brought some humor and warmth to the story in some of its harder moments.

I loved that Riley connected with not only Becca but her larger family, too. In my own life, my parents were kind of those sort of people, where our home was a place our friends liked to be, and their connections went beyond my sister and me to include my parents as well. That model definitely resonates with me as an authentic expression of Christianity, so I enjoyed that part of To Get to You, even though it was a smaller, less central element.

Overall I found this book to be a great clean read with a strong spiritual center. It’s the first time I’ve read anything by Joanne Bischof, but I’d definitely read other novels she’s written. To Get to You is a 2016 Christy Award finalist, an honor I think is well-deserved.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Riley makes some oblique references to his past dating experience, stating that he probably owes some girls an apology. We never get specific details about what happened, but we definitely sense his shame and how foreign Becca’s family’s strict rules are.

Spiritual Content
Riley has a mentoring relationship with a local pastor who holds him accountable. Riley thinks a lot about wanting to treat Becca right according to the guidelines her conservative Christian parents set for her.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Brief references to the fact that Riley used to smoke.

Save

Save

Review: The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Loose Ends List
Carrie Firestone
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

With Maddie’s high school graduation behind her, she and her friends make lists of loose ends they want to wrap up before leaving for college in the fall. When Maddie’s Manhattan grandma, Astrid, announces she’s terminally ill and is taking the family on a “death with dignity” cruise, Maddie’s summer plans take a turn. Maddie has never dealt with death well, but now she’s facing the loss of her closest confidante. As the trip unfolds with one exotic destination after another, she rediscovers family connections, falls in love, and braces herself for the most difficult grief she’s ever experienced.

I really can’t decide if I liked this book or not. I felt like the writing was pretty solid. The characters were well-developed. The plot made sense, and the emotional situations deeply moved me. One of the issues Maddie faces is that her anxiety manifests itself in her body in the form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. There are a couple of comments about her ruining thong underwear because of her condition, and she mentions feeling an upset stomach now and then, but it doesn’t overtake the story. I’m not sure it was perfectly integrated into the story, but I really liked the concept of including a character with this issue. I also loved the family saying about snow globe moments and how that tied in with other parts of the story.

My biggest hurdle with the story was in the form of a moral dilemma. I’ll include more explicit information in the spoiler section at the end of my review. I have really mixed feelings about this issue and I think maybe it would have been an easier read for me if at least some character had expressed the doubts and concerns that I felt, and there had been more dialogue about the choices the characters were making. Instead, I kind of felt like I was supposed to automatically approach the issue the same way the characters did, and the fact that I did not left me out of sync with the rest of the novel.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Maddie graduates high school without losing her virginity, not for lack of trying. She relates a brief incident in which she and her boyfriend have a failed attempt at sex. Later, she begins seeing a boy and they eventually have sex. No details about her exchanges with this boy, but they do make a point to be together frequently.

Before the cruise, Maddie’s grandmother introduces her wealthy upper class, white family to “the love of her life,” a black Jamaican man. Some family members have a difficult time accepting this relationship. There’s a brief discussion later about how Astrid was against her daughter marrying a Jewish man at first. And how coming to understand that her son was gay was also a difficult transition for her, though now both her son and her son’s husband have close and loving relationships with her.

Maddie’s cousin is a pretty promiscuous girl. At one point she relates a drama about the size of her boyfriend’s penis, and soon everyone in the family knows about it. Maddie also discusses this topic with her boyfriend. In one part of the trip, Maddie walks in on her cousin having sex with an unknown man.

There are some comments about Maddie’s grandma’s VHS porn collection and Maddie’s curiosity over whether her grandma and her lover are having sex. Her entire family is pretty open about these things.

Spiritual Content
Maddie has a short conversation with a friend about whether or not they believe in heaven or afterlife. Her friend expresses a belief that the dead sort of watch over us and communicate with us through benevolent signs. At Wishwell island, patients are offered some spiritual counseling. Maddie’s family doesn’t seem to participate. At one point, Maddie discusses her earlier obsession with the Holocaust, inspired by the discovery of her Jewish heritage.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Maddie’s brother is described as being a stoner. He, Maddie and some others gather in a hot tub to share a joint. Patients aboard the Wishwell use marijuana to manage pain.

Maddie’s mom is an alcoholic, and her drunken behavior causes some embarrassment to Maddie and her family. Maddie doesn’t drink, but her cousin and other teen characters do. (In some of the international settings, the legal drinking age is 18, so they’re probably not breaking any laws there.) More than one character gets drunk and commits some behavior later regretted.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

SPOILER ALERT
As a part of the cruise, patients have an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and participate in an assisted suicide. I had a lot of mixed feelings about this issue, and overall I think Firestone tried to show some different angles. One character, a young mom, decides the assisted suicide isn’t the best outcome for her, and that she should spend all the remaining minutes she has with her family instead.

I’m not sure what my personal choices would be were I faced with a terrible, fatal illness, so I don’t want to be judgmental. I know that I have a really difficult time with the idea that suicide somehow becomes this courageous choice for someone terminally ill. I really struggled with this issue through every page of the book.

Save

Save

Review: The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You
Lily Anderson
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Trixie’s rivalry with Ben goes all the way back to first grade. Now in senior year, there’s no undoing those long-standing battle lines. Until Trixie’s best friend starts dating Ben’s and the group forces them to call a truce. But letting go of her dislike is easier said than done, even when it turns out Ben might possibly be hiding surprisingly pleasant qualities beneath his ridiculous mustache. But when a cheating scandal leaves Trixie’s BFF expelled, Trixie’s determined to rally the troops and prove her bestie innocent. The investigation may shatter her newfound alliance with Ben.

Trixie and her friends attend a school for geniuses, so their classes are far more advanced than the usual high school fare, and each month the entire class list is posted according to GPA ranking, fueling some pretty competitive tension. The social world within the school is really well-developed. I wanted to take some of the courses mentioned. I felt like I could picture the hallways and cafeteria and understand the complex relationships between the characters. B. Calistero = super awesome. I loved the way he turned out to be a pretty crucial part of the story and a link between Trixie and Ben.

Trixie and Ben definitely had great chemistry. Even when they hated each other, it was absolutely electric. Even when the hate shifted, the tension never slipped. I loved their geeky banter. Some of the references I followed pretty easily (Firefly Forever!!!) and others were not hard to decipher (Marvel vs. DC… I’ve been on the periphery of enough of those battle lines.) The enthusiasm and rivalry really sucked me into the story.

Trixie’s two best girl friends were a little harder for me to grasp. I liked Harper, but I felt like I never really got Meg. I loved enough of the other characters that it didn’t matter. I worried about the cast size as I’m often overwhelmed and confused by stories with tons of named characters, but I think I was able to keep everyone straight because they each had pretty specific roles or identities.

Other than the use of strong language, the story is pretty clean. The quick banter and geek chat made it a really fun read. The romance is definitely swoon-worthy.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Meg references some social experimenting with boys, but no details on what precisely her experiments entail.

Spiritual Content
Trixie and her friends celebrate Halloween by attending a Harvest party and Haunted House.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Save

Save

Review: It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel
Firoozeh Dumas
Clarion Books

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Zomorod Yousefzadeh and her family move (again), she decides to take the opportunity to start fresh and try to fit in with her new California schoolmates. The first thing to go? Her name. She adopts the classic Brady Bunch Cindy as her identity. After a rough start, she begins to find true friends. But when unrest in Iran turns into an American hostage crisis, Cindy begins to catch glimpses of an uglier side of the Land of the Free. Cruel bumper stickers and slogans send chilling messages to Cindy and her family. Cindy tries to protect her parents from some of the cruelty, and her friends try to encourage her that not everyone feels so negatively about Iranians. Ultimately, Cindy has to navigate her own way through the crisis and find the balance between devotion to her family, pride in her heritage, and the freedom to pursue her own individual identity.

This is the story of a young Iranian girl in the United States during a time when anti-Iranian sentiments run high. Even though we’re talking about the late 1970s, much of the conflict and hate Cindy and her family faced made me think about the way Muslim families in the US are sometimes treated in the US today. The hate and fear-based unkindness were wrong then and are just as wrong now.

While the exploration of American feeling toward Middle Easterners or Muslims is a heavy topic,  it does not dominate the story. In fact, Cindy is a spitfire girl who’s determined to stay positive and help her family as much as she can. She’s funny and kind—one of my favorite parts of the story was her voice and way of describing things. It absolutely captured, for me, what it was like to be in middle school and the kinds of friendships I had. It made me want to call my own Carolyn and Howie (Cindy’s friends) and retell our own stories from those times.

I loved this story for its own sake. I will always enjoy tales about an awkward middle school girl finding her people, discovering who she is and what really matters. At its core, that’s what Cindy’s story is, and her sense of humor and her compassionate heart make her an incredible heroine.

Beyond that, though, I think we need narratives like this one. A young Middle Eastern girl is a girl like any other girl. This story reminds us to be angry that a girl and her family face prejudice for their nationality. It reminds us of the common bonds we share as human beings, of the value of the freedoms we have as Americans and the responsibility we have to use those freedoms to promote life, liberty and happiness in the lives of those around us.

I definitely recommend this book. My daughter is ten and I really want us to read this book together this summer. The author has some great classroom resources listed on her web site, and information about the Falafel Kindness Project, a project that promotes creating a safe, bully-free environment for kids.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Cindy and her family are non-practicing Muslims. At school, she’s friends with a Christian and a Jewish girl and there’s a brief conversation about how they worship the same God.

Violent Content
While Americans are held hostage in Iran, Cindy’s family encounters hostility from neighbors and strangers. Someone leaves a dead hamster on the family’s doorstep. One man enters their house wearing a shirt that says “Wanted: Iranians for Target Practice.” Cindy briefly discusses the differences between American freedom and life in Iran, where the shah had protestors killed and free speech was a right guaranteed to the people.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Save

Save