Flora & Ulysses

Flora & Ulysses
THE ILLUSTRATED ADVENTURES

Kate DiCamillo
Newbery Medal 2014

A fun book, whimsical and cartoony but poignant. A girl with divorced parents, and a distracted, disinterested mother, saves a squirrel from a vacuum cleaner and their adventures begin. Great vocabulary, some of it comic book creative, and parts of the story are shown in comic style panels. Good read aloud.

Waiting for Normal

Waiting for Normal

Leslie O'Conner (2008)

Unfortunately, living in a trailer and dealing with hunger, neglect, reading issues, and separated families is the norm for too many children. This book touches on all of this (and more: cancer! music recitals!) in the life of a 6th grade girl but does it with a positive, confident cast of characters that brings hope to the story and reader.

Realistic but not too grim, great characters, humor. A good book to connect with lessons on empathy and recognizing other' circumstances.

Slam

Slam

by Nick Hornby (2007)

actually not quite finished with it yet, but almost. It's good and highly recommendable so far but you know how a bad ending can mess up a perfectly good book...

Ok, finished!

Unlike most teen pregnancy stories/books, especially from the male POV, this one doesn't just end in a scare or something to get the guy off the hook -- whew! that was close! This one touches on many of the dire consequences of sex: diapers, in-laws, what she looks like after having the kid, and the dreaded "is it mine?" all with humor, honesty, and the magic of Tony Hawk.

The book started slow for me, too generic, but then came an ill-fated attempt to run away from life's troubles and "magic" leaps into the future which kept me interested. It ended well so I'm glad I stuck with it.  I certainly related to poor Sam, always saying wrong things at the worst time and being totally confused with the whole pregnancy/birth/baby deal. I will make my 16 year old son read it, and recommend it to any teens.

Sex? Yes, no details but obviously they have it. A few f-bombs get strewn about as well, but appropriately.

Honus and Me

Honus & Me

by Dan Gutman (1997)

A struggling bench warmer discovers the ability to travel through time by wishing on baseball cards, and wrestles with the desire to use his power to make a lot of money (therefore getting his parents back together) or to do good and the right thing.  He does learn the importance of self-confidence, a solid stance at the plate, and speed on the basepaths.

As one with a closet full of baseball cards, none of (or all of) which will ever fetch 400k and allow me to retire to a life of leisure and reading, I cry every time I read one of these books and the valuable card gets torn or destroyed and fails to bring our hero the riches he deserves.  I do enjoy the historically accurate portrayals of the players and their game, and there is a positive moral usually involved.