Get Real

Reality Boy by A. S. King
New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
353 p. ; 21 cm.

I wasn't sure I'd like this book, but it is well-written, interesting and nicely plotted. The novel picks up with now 16 year old Gerald who achieved dubious fame as a 5 year old reality TV "star" - appearing in a Nanny 911 type show where he was supposedly "the troubled child" because he defecated around the house to express his anger and frustration.  Due to this unpleasant behavioral trait, Gerald, got nicknamed "The Crapper" and has never lived it down.

The novel follows Gerald as he deals with his anger, powerlessness, and developing romantic relationship.  We learn there were a lot of terrible truths that were papered over by the reality TV producers and that the troubled one wasn't really Gerald.

There is a lot of humor, heart, and depth to Reality Boy (it really is a fun read) and I'll recommend it to students asking about a good book to read.  My main complaint with this book is that in the interest of heightening conflict - the villains of the book (you'll have to read it to find out) are stunningly villainous (downright sociopathic/psychopathic).  It's not that such characters don't exist, it's just that I didn't quite believe it in this context.  That said, Reality Boy is a good book that should appeal to a wide variety of readers.

Wealth Gap Becomes Abyss

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
New York : Schwartz & Wade Books, [2014]
292 p. : ill., geneal. table, map ; 25 cm.

With the current trend of the rapidly widening gaps between the very rich and everyone else in the US and globally, the sad tale of the Romanov family ought to serve as a cautionary tale.  But how to convey the complexity of the last Russian Tsar - a timid man who desperately did not want to be the ruler of Russia, but also a dictator who gleefully launched waves of repression against dissidents and Jews which killed thousands?  And how to do it for a high school audience?  In The Family Romanov, Candace Fleming has done a remarkable job on meeting the challenge.

Her book is an extremely well researched book, but reads a lot like a novel.  She also balances the "Dowton Abbey" gawking at the obscene opulence of the Russian elite with alternating sections that powerfully describe the horrible poverty and oppression of the Russian peasantry and workers.  

from the LOC (also on the books cover)

I love reading about Russian history and about this period just before and during WWI, and this book is a great addition to that list.  Fleming does a wonderful job of including enough illustrations and of explaining the basics of the Russian Revolution (no easy task).  She also manages to flesh out each of the members of the Tsarist family and conveying the both the historical and human sides of the story of their downfall and eventual murders.

This would be a great book to recommend to any student who is curious about the Russian Revolution, but doesn't want a dry history of the events.  It answers a lot of the basic questions, but also stokes the curiosity of any historically minded person who will definitely want to read more.

Robophobia

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
New York : Vintage Contemporaries, 2012, c2011.
396 p. ; 21 cm.

Robopocalypse picks up a fairly common theme in popular culture - the specter of intelligent machines turning on their human creators.  This has come up in movies such as 2001: a Space Odyssey, The Terminator, and I, Robot.  Wilson writes a tense and informed thriller that picks up at the very end of a cataclysmic war where humans have barely managed to defeat machines with AI that have waged a war of extermination against humanity.  Following this opening, the rest of the novel is a retelling of the events of the initial machine uprising, the ensuing war, and humanity's success in fighting back.  There's a lot of action, exciting plotting, and some gruesome machine-on-human violence (e.g. pluggers - little machines programed to take their sweet, agonizing time boring into humans and drilling away until they reach the heart, where they explode).

Given the exponential growth of computer systems and devices and human dependence on them it is no wonder that people worry about where this technology is taking us.  And it's a question that scientists, such as Stephen Hawkings, and institutions like Smithsonian Magazine, take seriously.  

If you are looking for a fast-paced, exciting tale of dystopian survival - Wilson scores a home run with his book.  With a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, Wilson writes convincingly of the frightening technological capabilities of interactive machines gone rogue.  There are military droids, assassin "smart" cars, drones, and self-replicating/self assembling machines that nearly succeed in wiping humanity from the globe.  Given the current life/death dependence of human on digital systems (e.g. energy, transportation, finance, military, etc) and the almost limitless spending on "smart" lethal military machines - there is a lot to think about and ruminate over after reading Wilson's book.

My main complaint with the book is that it reads like the novelization of a movie.  Each chapter feels mostly like the set piece of the parts of an action movie - the onslaught, the specific roving bands of survivors, the few "liberated" robots, etc.  If you like that style of fiction you will love this novel.  And if you don't, but like that kind of movie, hold on, because Robopocalypse - in spite of many delays - is still likely to end up as a blockbuster action movie (probably under the direction of Steven Spielberg).

I'll definitely recommend this book to any students who are looking for an action packed dystopian novel.

Head Games

Noggin by John Corey Whaley
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014.
340 p. ; 22 cm.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this one as much as I did, but when I saw it was a National Book Award finalist, I thought I'd give it a try.  I'm glad I did; it was really fun (and thought provoking).  Whaley has a great premise for his novel - Travis Coates, a 16 yr old young man dying of cancer opts for an experimental procedure to cryogenically freeze his head in the hopes that in 10 or 20 years he can be revived with a donor body.  The procedure works, and instead of having to wait 10 or 20 years - he is revived after just 5.

Great, right?  Not so fast.  The novel then unfolds with all the difficulties that Travis must face: his beloved girlfriend has moved on, his friends are in college, he's just a sophomore in high school, and he's a celebrity news phenom.

This novel is able to be fun, thoughtful, imaginative, and tenderhearted.  There is a lot to think of as one reads Noggin - the fleeting nature of time, the process of grieving (and ungrieving!), the nature of relationships, maturity, friendship, and - of course - love.

Noggin is definitely a book I'll be recommending to interested readers.