Stead, R., & Gartner, K. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books.

                 

This novel begins in the common “in medias res’ or in the middle with a postcard and Miranda’s mother planning for an appearance on $20,000 Pyramid.  It is set in New York City in 1979.  Miranda is a 6^th grader who is considering writing letters to the ever elusive you.

Her mom’s lawyer boyfriend visits them often.  Miranda keeps her favorite copy of “A Wrinkle in Time” with her always.  Moving back and forth on a fluctuating timeline Miranda keeps receiving notes and realizes that who ever is sending them knows all about her and things that haven’t happened yet.  There are many references to being open minded in order to “understand” things.  Marcus appears.  He is the student who punched Miranda’s friend at an earlier time. Miranda receives several notes that reveal many future events.  Ultimately Miranda gives her mom the law school applications (she has planned to use the money from playing Pyramid for this.)  At the end, we find out that in spite of his negative behaviors, Marcus is the magic thread.

With a lexile of 750 this book targets grades 6 – 8.   It falls under the genre of Science/Historical Fiction.  It addresses adolescent issues as well as magic and the supernatural.  This text could be used in as part of a science discussion on the passage of time and motion.  It could also find connections to The Time Machine when they enter High School.  This novel was a Newberry Medal winner and is certainly one I would recommend.  I found several sites that provided learning links as well as lesson plans using this text.  It might work for middle-school ages but the content level would be a bit immature for a high school audience.

Black, H., & Wheeler, E. (2013). Doll bones. New York, NY: Doubleday Children’s Books.

Zach, Poppy and Alice have always been friends.  They love playing with action figures and, imagining worlds where they participate in adventures.  Suddenly at one point, Zach’s father throws out his action figures declaring that he is way too old to be playing with them.  Zach decides that he is going to stop playing altogether, and quit being friends with Poppy and Alice completely.  The girls go visit him and tell him about a succession of strange and eerie events.  Poppy is convinced that she is being haunted by a china doll that claims to have been made of the ground up bones of a murdered girl.  They decide they have to return the doll to the girl’s home or they will be cursed forever.  Eventually they find themselves at the cemetery where Zach breaks down and confesses what his father did with his figures.  He lies down at a “willow” in the cemetery and this is where they bury the dolls.  They end up returning to their respective parents agreeing to keep their story alive.

This book was seriously creepy.  With a lexile of 640, its target audience is grades 5 – 9.  I enjoyed the suspense of the novel and its approach to dealing with “growing out of” certain things.  I think kids this age will be able to relate to having treasured items thrown away without a care.  I felt the text was well written and that the character development helps to make them characters you want to know and invest in.  The game played by the kids is one that younger students might enjoy and it can be used to teach kids plot development.  Playing the game can also build critical thinking skills as they try to figure out what they want to happen and where they want their imaginary characters to end up.  While I would recommend the book, 8=9I was bothered by the sudden ending.  It almost felt anti-climactic.

Angleberger, T., & Rosenstock, J. (2015). The strange case of Origami Yoda. New York, NY: Henry N.

Abrams.

In this book the main character Dwight is a 6^th grader who is considered weird by his classmates.  One day he decides to an origami finger puppet of Yoda from Star Wars.  Imitating Yoda’s voice, Dwight provides advice to his classmates using Yoda as his “spokesperson.”  It doesn’t take long for the kids to believe that this ‘Yoda’ is actually connected to The Force.  Tommy decides to write a case file about Yoda to prove that he is real and another student Kellen does the illustration.  One student Harvey, attempts to disrupt their case file and prove that the Yoda is not real. 

The layout of the book is perfect for young readers.  It fits in the comedy/humor diary and journal genre.  Its target audience is grades 3 – 5 and deals with middle school issues and understanding yourself and others.  The lexile reading level is 760.  This novel is perfect for this age group.  The pages appear to be crumpled (just like middle-school kid’s papers).  The novel looks like a ‘case file’.  It has doodles in the margins like notes and illustrations that fit the context.  I think this might be a great way to introduce a new generation to the Star Wars franchise.  It could easily be adapted in the classroom for learning to write abbreviated notes, organization and keeping track of events.  I loved this book and so did my 14 year old son, even though he is a bit old.  It was a perfect connection to his video gaming on the Xbox.  There is also tons of fan fiction regarding this volume of the 3 volume series

Smith, A. (2014). Grasshopper jungle (p. 400). New York, NY: Dutton Books.

Austin Szerba is a descent kid who it totally confused about his sexual identity.  Set in a dystopian atmosphere he can’t figure out why he feels attracted to his girlfriend, Shann, and his best friend, Bobby, who is a confident homosexual.  Using 6 ft preying mantises to end the world is definitely a new perspective and could easily symbolize the over the top consumption of natural resources.  Many sections of the text are focused on Austin’s obsessive sexual thoughts.  “Smith has a lot on his mind from the grand tapestries of history to teenage sexual confusion to ideas of military investments in technology derailing otherwise sound science into horrifying ends to the hypocrisy of anyone attempting to tell someone else how to live a life that’s ‘proper’”.

The target audience for this book is supposedly grades 9 – 12 with a lexile of 910.  Personally I found way too much of this content personally offensive.  It is not for those who find it difficult to cope with the language common in teen-aged culture today.  It is a coming of age book, which deals with ideas of sex, sexual orientation, war, violence, substance abuse and strong language.  I’m not sure I would feel comfortable recommending this book but I can see my students becoming wrapped up in the characters and the creatures.  One website referred to potential readers as “precocious.”  Precocious is definitely not the word I would choose.  For me it would be more appropriate for mature readers.

King, A. (2010).  Please ignore vera dietz.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

This story is told primarily through the eyes of the Protagonist, Vera and her now deceased friend Charlie. Prior to his death he betrayed Vera by selecting a group of friends known as the over her.  They tormented her in some pretty awful ways.  She uses drinking as a way of coping with Charlie’s death and struggles with the knowledge that she has information about his death that no one else knows. In notes Charlie left in his tree house, Vera learns that Charlie and his girlfriend had been making sex videos for money.  When Charlie decided he wanted to quit, Jenny broke up with Charlie, threatening to burn down the store and kill him. Vera eventually goes to the police with the info she has before she and her father leave on a road trip.

The target audience for this book is 9^th – 12^th grade at a Lexile of 830.  It falls under the YA Mystery/Suspense genre.  It deals with such difficult subjects as grief, loss, death.  I loved the way the story progressed.  There is some strong language, violence and adult content, but I enjoyed the novel.  It was easy to relate to Vera and Charlie as I had a friend in high school that was my friend in private but not in front of his very cool friends.  He never really mistreated me too badly but he admitted what he was doing and 35 years later actually contacted me on Facebook and apologized after a mutual friend of ours passed away.

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York, N.Y.:  Greenwillow Books.

This is a story about Moby, Sarah and Virgil.  Moby is an overweight high school senior whose best friend is a girl named Sarah.  Suffering burns when she was 3 years old, she has significant scaring and refuses to speak which lands her in the hospital.  Moby visits her everyday reminding her of their experiences of being bullied in Jr. High. At one point Moby joins the swim team and begins losing weight, but he quits out of fear of losing Sarah.  We find out that Sarah is faking her illness to “have time to think.”  This is when we learn that the burns were caused by her father (Virgil) and that she is extremely afraid of him and what else he will do.  Eventually, Virgil attacks and tries to kill Moby, which gives the police a reason to arrest him.  Sarah is adopted and given a second chance at a happy life.

Staying fat is a great book about coping, choices and coming of age.  Its target audience is 9^th through 12th grade with a reading lexile of 920.  It addresses the common high school experience from the perspective of the bullied.  It has moments of poignancy and anticipation.  Some good follow up texts are Life is Funny – Frank, Fat Kid Rules the World – Going and Mexican White Boy – de la Pena.  This text could easily be used to discuss the social issues of abuse and bullying.  Some essay topics could include compare and contrast of several characters of your choosing.  Analysis of character development and discussions regarding friendship and bullying could also be developed for instruction.

Myers, W. D. (1999).  Monster.  NY: Harper.

Monster is set in Manhattan and Harlem, NY in the city lockup and partially in the neighborhood where the main character Steve Harmon lives.  In this story Steve is on trail for murder where he faces 25 to life if he is convicted.  It is written in both script and diary form supposedly by the main character.  The murder occurs while Steve was supposedly participating in a robbery.  It goes back and forth between the present and flashbacks.  Even though he is on trial there is no real clear information that puts him at the scene, in spite of being implicated by another.  It gives a close up yet very adversarial view of the judicial system and its underlying tenants of prejudice.  Ultimately Harmon is found not guilty, but his attorney’s reaction lets him know that not everyone is convinced of his innocence.

This novel’s target audience is grades 9 – 12 with a reading lexile of 670.  It is considered YA fiction.  The book includes issues such as the African American experience with the criminal justice system, elements of peer pressure and nature and consequences of violence and crime. I found the text to be intense. The alternating writing genre for this book would make it applicable for instruction in both drama and writing.. It does contain some vivid descriptions of violence as well as some adult content, which I think needs to be addressed before beginning the reading.  This text could also be used for considering the civil rights of people and how the constitution is applied.  Lesson plans abound for this text in both ELAR and Social Studies.