Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy

The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Charlotte's dad just got a St. Bernard, and at first he and the rest of the family was taking care of it. And Charlotte liked it that way--she's not a fan of dogs. However after a few weeks the "newness" wears off and everyone is ignoring the dog, who stays chained up in the yard. Charlotte feels bad for him and starts taking care of him, even though she doesn't enjoy it. Soon she comes up with a plan She secretively comes up with a plan to buy the dog from her dad and give him away to a St. Bernard rescue so that he can find a family who will truly love him. But Charlotte has to figure out a way to make $325 in just a few months. Plus, does she really want to give up the dog?

I thought I had this book figured out from the beginning, but I was wrong! The beginning and middle of the book are kind of boring, but the ending is great!

A good read for girls 9+.



View all my reviews

The Batboy by Mike Lupica

*This book is one of the Teen Choice Award Nominees. I had to take a short break from Children's Choice because I was out of town and only packed 2 books! I was able to check this out as an e-book, luckily!*

The Batboy by Mike Lupica

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Batboy details the summer life of 14 year old Brian. Brian lives for baseball. He learned that from his dad, who was a major league pitcher before getting let go and leaving his family to move to Japan to be a pitching coach. Brian applies to be a batboy for his favorite team, the Detroit Tigers. Soon he finds out that his idol, Hank Bishop has been picked up by the team. Hank is back into baseball after getting in trouble for testing positive for steroids. He is ecstatic to get the chance to be so close to his idol, but he soon finds out that people are different on TV than they are in real life. Hank treats Brian as if he doesn't exist. However, Brian continues to be nice to Hank, despite what other people are telling him.


Along with being a batboy, Brian is also playing on his traveling team. He knows that he is not the best player on the team, but his best friend Kenny is their star pitcher. Kenny and Brian support each other through all of the events of the story.

The story is pretty fast paced, and the characters are clearly defined. The story isn't cluttered with too many characters, which I appreciate as well. The story also didn't focus on steroids, which is something that sports novels are very inclined to do, recently. Steroids were an issue in the book, but a very small one. One of the best things about this book, however, is that not all of the problems presented come to a happy ending. I love a good sports book, but the ones I've read recently are predictable; this one was different. Brian learns a lot over the course of the summer, about his family, his friends and major league baseball.

Overall, a great read for middle school students. As I was reading it I kept thinking of the kids I will personally hand this to in the Fall!


View all my reviews

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Emma-Jean Lazarus is a strange 7th grade girl. She doesn't understand any of her peers and finds them to have very messy lives. Typically, she stays out of their lives, and doesn't consider any of them as friends. However, one day she finds Colleen, the nicest girl in the school, crying in the bathroom. Emma-Jean, who only sees things in a logical manner, decides that she can solve Colleen's problem. So she does just that. She liked helping Colleen so much that she decides to help others, as well. But soon, Emma-Jean sees that helping people only intertwines her in their messy lives, and soon she has caused more problems than good. She isn't used to feeling so much regarding other people. After her dad passed away 2 years before, she stopped letting people into her life, and stopped being emotional. Everything was logical. But now she has a mess, and somehow, she has to make things right again.

Overall, the characters in this book are entirely unbelievable. They just don't make sense. No 7th grade girl would be like Emma-Jean, with the exception perhaps of an instance of Asperger's, which isn't mentioned. Also, the intended audience, middle grades, would be entirely bored and see through the fake characters. Perhaps this would be best in the hands of a 4th or 5th grader. There was a lot of potential here, but the story was forced. There is another Emma-Jean book, called Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, which picks up at the end of this book. Maybe it explores the characters at a deeper level and ties up some of the loose endings this book doesn't.


View all my reviews

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Masterpiece is a delightful tale of a friendship formed between an unlikely pair: James, an 11 year boy and Marvin, a young beetle who lives in the kitchen cupboard of James' New York City apartment. For James' birthday, he receives an ink set from his father, which springs the book into action. Marvin finds the ink and uses it to create a scene that James' parents mistake for his. The museum wants to use his talent to stage a heist, but when things go wrong, Marvin is the only one who notices. Marvin has to brave a world he's never seen, communicate messages to people who don't understand him, and save millions of dollars worth of artwork, all while not getting stepped on or squashed.

This book highlights family life, both that of James and Marvin. Their families are different, but each learns how much he values his family. The friendship that develops between the two pleasantly evolves, despite the differences between them. They have to learn to work together in order to solve the mystery of who stole the art from the museum.


My favorite quotes from the book:

A little danger was worth it just to mix things up, to add some surprise to life. -- Masterpiece

Who could have imagined that the world would be such a complicated, interesting place? When you saw different parts of the world, you saw different parts of yourself. And when you stayed home, where it was safe, those parts of yourself also stayed hidden. --Masterpiece

A great friendship was like a great work of art. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe. It was a happy, lucky accident, finding some kindred part of yourself in a total stranger. --Masterpiece



View all my reviews

Oggie Cooder

Oggie Cooder #1 by Sarah Weeks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is an odd book about an odd boy named Oggie Cooder. Oggie has a unique talent: he "charves." Charving is carving things, in Oggie's case, states, out of slices of cheese. Oggie charves when he is nervous or anxious or bored. However, when a tv talent show comes to town, Oggie will be faced with a decision to remain true to himself or sell out for the glamour of Hollywood and the pressure of his friends.


The book has a good lesson, but I couldn't wait to get done with it--charving is just not a big interest of mine. Kids in 2nd-3rd grade might enjoy it more than me!


View all my reviews

Franny Parker by Hannah Roberts McKinnon

Franny Parker by Hannah Roberts McKinnon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Franny Parker is a summer story of a girl growing up in Oklahoma. She is known for rescuing animals and people from all over the rural community bring wounded animals to her to nurse back to health. One day, Franny notices a boy and his mom have moved into the house just down the road from her. She meets the boy, Lucas, and they form a friendship. They spend a lot of time together, helping the wounded critters and Franny begins to learn more about his past, however there is something he keeps hidden.

Lucas and his mother are reserved, and seem to be hiding something from everyone. One day, a stranger shows up at their house and they no longer come outside. Franny's family has their suspicions, but the Dunn family doesn't seem to want help. When an accident happens at Franny's house, they have to rely on the community around them to help, and then figure out how to help Lucas and his mom.

This is such a sweet, innocent story that deals with hard issues in an honest way. The sense of small-town community is evident through the group of old women who get together weekly to quilt and discuss the happenings of the town. There is also such a strong sense of family, reflected in Franny's life, and a broken family with Lucas. There are secrets, love, mystery, and adventure in this story.

I would recommend this for 10-13 year olds. The book tackles hard issues, but does so with grace and hope.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are my favorite quotes from the book:

"Sometimes even the kindest gestures get boxed up wrong and arrive on your front porch in pieces. You've just got to try to remember what it started out as, is all."

"I understand now what I learned that day. That the world outside our barnyard fence was large and strange, a shock to the gauzy comfort I had wrapped myself in all those years."

"Sometimes people do desperate things."

"These people on the wall, your people, they had hope in the bleakest hour. And that hope runs in a family. Can't you feel it coursing through your veins right now?"

"Another thing I learned is that family comes in all shapes and sizes. And family's not just the people you share your blood with. Take the power of friendship. There are lifelong friends you can't seem to shake, and new friends who find themselves in your backyard. Just like family, a good friend will stand by you, pull you into a living room of laughter, or out of the flames that lick the sky above you. Friendship is a powerful thing."


View all my reviews

Baseball Great by Tim Green

Baseball Great by Tim Green

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Josh is a 12 year old who is excited for baseball season to be starting. His middle school team is planning to have an awesome season. However, on one of the first days of practice, his dad comes and tells him that he won't be playing for his middle school team. His dad was a first round draft pick to play in the Majors, but an injury kept him in the minors for his entire career, which just ended. His dad doesn't want what happened to him to happen to Josh, because Josh has the potential to be a baseball great. So he takes Josh to Rocky Valentine to try out for his team, the Titans, who have a chance at competing at Junior Olympics. Josh soon finds himself in a world of weight lifting, hard practices, and super stacks--a protein drink that he has to drink every night to repair his muscles from the intense workouts.

At first, Josh is bullied by the older boys--the Titans are an under-14 team, and Josh is only 12. But he works hard and shows them that he is worthy to play on their team. He makes some friends on the team, but is slowly losing his previous friends, Benji and Jaden, though they never abandon him when he needs them.

Once he is "in" on the team, one of his teammates pulls him aside and gives him a bottle of pills. Jaden's dad works at the hospital, and using his reference books they find out that the pills are steroids. Rocky has been supplying them to his team to give them an edge against competition. Josh doesn't want to go to the police, so he and Jaden and Benji come up with a plan to make everything right.


This book had a plot line that was entirely predictable, however it is a decent read for middle school boys who are interested in baseball. It also brings up some issues that are relevant to middle school kids, such as father-son relationships, family finances, boyfriend/girlfriend pressure, bullies, and drug use in sports. If I was a 12 year old boy, I probably would have enjoyed it more!


View all my reviews

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Savvy by Ingrid Law

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Savvy is about a young girl named Mississippi (Mibs, for short) and her family, the Beaumont's. The Beaumont's have moved from Florida to "Kansaska-Nebransas" because of Mibs' brother's savvy. The thing about the Beaumont's is that when they turn 13, they get their savvy, a special talent, a hidden secret. Her brother, Rocket, can create electricity. Her other brother, Fish, can create powerful rain and storms. Her mother's savvy is that she is perfect. Her father is the only one who doesn't have a special savvy. They appreciate their savvys, even as they battle to contain, or scumble, them.

A few days before Mibs' 13th birthday, her Poppa gets into a terrible accident. Her mom and oldest brother make the trip to the hospital to see him, but once Mibs figures out her Savvy-that she can hear people's thoughts if they have ink on their skin-she feels that she can help Poppa and decides to make the trip to the hospital herself. She convinces Fish and the neighbor's kids, Will and Bobbi, to stowaway in a Bible salesman's bus to head to the hospital.

The only problem is, the bus turns the wrong way. The book tells the tale of how these kids make their way to Salina to their Poppa, with all sorts of adventures along the way. Themes of love, friendship and mostly family run deep in this book as the Beaumont children learn to scumble their savvys, and learn that friendship comes where it's least expected.

Ingrid Law has written this book with a light-hearted spirit, even though the book is not all happy-feel good, even in the end. I am excited to read the follow up, Scumble!

She also infused fun vocabulary throughout the book. Here are my favorite words from the text:

froufrou frippery, full on foofaraw, rumpus, niminy-piminy, bugaboo, catawampus & cockeyed, stodgiest old codger, brouhaha, flimflamming, flummoxed, higgledy-piggledy, tchotchkes, gewgaws, rumpus....

And, some of my favorite quotes:

“That night, I prayed that no one-no one- would come to my birthday party.” -- Savvy

“I had to find Poppa and I had to use my savvy to wake him up.” -- Savvy

“We get born and sometime later we die. And in between we're happy, and sad, we feel love and w feel fear, we eat and we sleep and we hurt like everyone else.” --Savvy

“Every good country home needs a place to sit and think and watch the clouds go by.” --Savvy

"A savvy isn't a sickness or a disease, Mibs," grandpa told me. " It's not magic or sorcery either. Your savvy's in your blood. It's an inheritance, like your brown eyes or your grandmas long toes or her talent for dancing to polka music." --Savvy

"You never can tell when a bad thing might make a good thing happen." --Savvy

I wouldn't let the voices of bullies or meanies or people who barely-hardly knew me work their way in to my brain and stick. --Savvy

I realized that good and bad were always there and always mixed up together in a tangle. --Savvy



View all my reviews