Predators and Prey

Knockout Games by G. Neri
Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Lab, [2014]
293 p. ; 20 cm.

In spite of the generally positive reviews for this book, I've got to give this novel a mixed review. I appreciate what G. Neri is trying to do - get inside the minds and hearts of kids involved in "knockout games" - the brutal crime of attacking a random stranger with the idea of knocking them out with one vicious blow. He tries this through the main character, Erica, who has landed in a rough area St. Louis after her parents split up.  She has a talent for video editing and ends up involved with  the group of high school/middle school kids who are victimizing strangers in her neighborhood with their random assaults.  She especially gets in deep emotionally with Kalvin, the charismatic leader and "Knockout King" of the group.

The novel is set in St. Louis and closely parallels the real knockout game story that transpired there. Neri does a pretty good job of showing how peer pressure, boredom, and machismo create a lure for the "game" but I just never found myself drawn in to the main character's motivations.  Frankly, she's kind of a repulsive character, getting off on editing videos of the attacks and even assaulting one of the victims herself.

Neri seems to want to just tell the story, and not preach a lot, which is fine.  But I think what he really fails to convey is the absolute terror and life altering experience that being a victim of the knockout game would be.  He tries to in the one case that goes horrifically wrong, resulting in a murder - but that is it.

I will say that the pace of the novel picks up as it goes on, especially as all of Erica's really bad decisions and actions begin to have consequences for her and those around her.

I won't be recommending it to students, but I will be curious to see and hear what students think of it if they do read it.

Music for the Apocalypse

Symphony for the City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2015.
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.    

I really loved this book.  If I were writing history for high school students, it's the kind of book I would be really proud of.  Symphony for the City of the Dead sheds light on a major event in history - the 900 day Siege of Leningrad - and does it through a unique lens - that of a world famous composer - Dmitri Shostakovich - who was intimately involved in the event.  M. T. Anderson also is able to handily place the event in the broader historical context of the Russian Revolution, Stalin's Great Terror and the horrors of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII.

There is so much to like about this book.  The reader experiences the heady artistic days of the early Soviet Union, the chilling and murderous days of the Stalinist purges, the horrors of a modern city under siege, and the triumph of art and inspiration amid such loss and violence.

This is a book I will definitely offer to any student looking for good WWII history or nonfiction about classical music, or history of Russia.  I hope it finds an audience. With nice black and white photos, and a clear and passionate style of writing - it should not be too much of a challenge for students, but I fear it might scare some kids off with it's 400 plus pages and their unfamiliarity with the Siege of Leningrad.

I should also mention that for any interested reader, it pairs nicely with David Benioff's wonderful novel, City of Thieves, which is set in Leningrad during the siege.

The book deserves praise and recommendation, and I see that it is on the long list for the National Book Award.

The Silenced Speak Again

The Silenced by James DeVita
New York : Eos, c2007.
504 p. ; 22 cm.

Someone checking out this book these days might be forgiven for thinking, "Oh, it's one of those books that has jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon," - you know, brave young teen female hero rebelling against the post-war authoritarian dictatorship, etc., etc.  But DeVita published his novel a year before Hunger Games was published and in his afterword he describes writing the book over the course of six years...    

One of the beautiful things about The Silenced, is that it was inspired by DeVita's discovery and subsequent research into the Hans and Sophie Scholl "White Rose" resistance movement against the Nazis. It gives the novel a poignancy and depth - and hopefully will intrigue some young readers into learning about totalitarianism, WWII, and resistance.

The novel is interesting, exciting and well written.  It is set in a fictional post-war dystopian future where power is wielded by the dictatorial Zero Tolerance (ZT) party.  It is a world of Youth Training Facilities (YTFs), drones, disappeared persons, informants, surveillance and censorship.

The back story to my reading this novel was my discovering that it had been reissued by Milkweed Press.  I was reading the Milkweed Press blog - with an eye toward their poetry - when the post about The Silenced caught my eye.  It's a great story - involving a class of 8th grade fans, a teacher, and even Louise Erdrich! After reading the post, I ordered a copy of the paperback with its much improved cover (see the graphic above), and I'll definitely recommend it.

Potty Mouth Powerhouse is a Four-wheel Force of Nature

Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
250 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

What's not to like about this rollicking, bawdy and well-written memoir by 21-year old Shane Burcaw who has SMA - Spinal Muscular Atrophy - a degenerative muscular disease which is likely to kill him?

Burcaw's book has been positively reviewed, and rightfully so.  Publisher's Weekly states: "His honesty, tempered by mordant humor and a defiant acceptance, is refreshing, even as he thumbs his nose at the disease that is slowly stripping him of the basics." Booklist notes, "Burcaw's smart, gracious, and funny take on his life is an object lesson in positivity, and this eloquently written and moving memoir would easily find a home in both adult and youth collections."

The thing I love about Burcaw's book is his ability to be both positive and life affirming, but also angry, cynical and unsparingly honest.  He also is really funny and at times raunchy in describing many situations he has found himself in.  He is not afraid to be blunt about his fears, his dislikes, and the painful and humiliating ways his disease has affected his life.

I would definitely recommend this book to students.  There is a lot to admire in this book and so much to learn.  

A Ghastly Gift Worth Opening

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
New York, NY : Orbit, 2015.
438 p. ; 21 cm.

Maybe I'll become a fan of zombie novels yet, after reading this one.  It's a darn good read - creative, exciting, moving, well-plotted, and thoughtful - a real gift of a book.

I love a sci-fi book where the premise is somewhat believable - be it the moon getting pushed into a new orbit or a supervolcano blasting away out in Wyoming - there is something very unsettling about terrifying science fiction that has one foot in reality.  In The Girl with All the Gifts the zombie plague that is the setting for this novel was unleashed by a fungus that really does exist, and really does turn its victims into zombies (fortunately the victims currently are only ants).   So this novel has human zombies that are compelled to eat living humans, but - and here is where the author gets creative - some of the zombies are not full zombies; in fact, these semi-zombies are children who retain the full suite of human emotions, abilities and more (they just happen to also be compelled to eat living humans).

And so the novel opens by dropping the reader into a militarized research outpost where the pitiless Dr. Caldwell searches for a cure at the expense of the inmates of the outpost - the semi-zombie children who are being taught classes and kept more or less as prisoners.  Of course the novel would not be much of a thriller if things stayed at this stage, so inevitably the outpost is attacked, overrun, and only a handful of survivors tries to make their way back to one of the few cities where humans are safe from the zombies because of military protection and rule.  The trip back is an adventure.

However, what puts this novel above the usual zombie, survival, dystopian thriller story are the intense and deep relationships that develop between the survivors on the run - one of who happens to be the potentially dangerous little half-zombie girl, the one with "all the gifts."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an exciting thriller (especially a zombie thriller), but who also wants a layered, satisfying, and thought-provoking read.

Ghostly Thrills

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
New York, NY : Point, 2014.
312 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm usually no fan of books about serial killers - but I decided to read this one since it got many positive reviews, including being chosen for YALSA's 2015 Top Ten Quick Picks for reluctant readers.

I found Famous Last Words an entertaining read.  I liked that its focus is not so much on the details of the murders that are happening in the world of the main character, but instead on the life of teen protagonist, Willa, as she has wrestles with grief over her deceased father and her radically new life in Hollywood where her new step-father is a well-known and very wealthy movie director.

To complicate matters, there is a ghost in the new house where Willa and her mother now live.  Willa also has to navigate life as a new student in a new high school where she makes one new friend, Marnie, and comes to have a reluctant friendship with Wyatt, her lab partner who has a creepy obsession with the murders. Throw a very cute and romantic young assistant to her new father into the mix and the plot just zooms along.

It's not a great read, but it's a fun read, and one I'd recommend to any student asking if we had a good thriller, or murder mystery, or ghost story, or romance - or all of the above!

King Ick

King Dork by Frank Portman
New York : Delacorte Press, c2006.
344 p. ; 22 cm.

Some books work for me and some don't.  This one just didn't, which surprised me since it received a lot of very positive reviews.

As someone who has been working in public schools for over a decade, I found what Booklist calls "a humorous, scathing indictment of the current public education system" to be instead a cynical, crass and deeply dishonest portrayal of public school life.  The high school of Dorkworld is a vicious place where faculty gladly and frequently bully students, where bullying by students is completely accepted and condoned, and where the academics are non-existent.  That would all be ok, if the intention of hte book was to create a exaggerated parody of public high schools.  Additionally, the teachers in Dorkworld are a bunch of imbeciles, bullies, fools, and/or pornographic criminals - and the academic world they preside over is one where even the AP classes offer little more than inane fluff.

Finally, the main "hero" of Dorkworld is supposedly an unappealing outsider subject to bullying, ridicule and insults - but as the novel ends it becomes apparent that he's really as crass as any of the pathological normals that he hates, considers himself better than everyone else, and somehow ends up as the sensual boy-toy of two rather attractive girls.

The writing is pretty good.  Dialogue is well done.  But for me this book just lacks heart.