The List by Siobhan Vivian

Book Jacket

It happens every year before Homecoming--the list is posted all over school.  Two girls are picked from each grade.  One is named the prettiest, one the ugliest.  The girls who aren't picked are quickly forgotten.  The girls who are become the center of attention.  Each one has a different reaction to the experience.

Abby's joy at being named prettiest is clouded by her sister's resentment.

Danielle worries about how her boyfriend will take the news.

Lauren is a homeschooled girl blindsided by her instant popularity.

Candace isn't ugly, not even close, so it must be a mistake.

Bridget knows her summer transformation isn't something to celebrate.

Sarah has always rebelled against traditional standards of beauty, and she decides to take her mutiny to the next level.

And Margo and Jennifer, ex-best friends who haven't spoken in years, are forced to confront why their relationship ended.

With The List, Siobhan Vivian deftly takes you into the lives of eight very different girls struggling with the issues of identity, self-esteem, and the judgments of their peers.  Prettiest or ugliest, once you're on the list, you'll never be the same.

Review

This is the sort of book every girl, of every age, should read.  Scratch that, everybody should it.  While I am so glad to have high school (and the heightened level of pre-judgment that existed there) behind me, the insecurities and beauty myths surrounding American females affects all of us, no matter how old and wise we become. 

I completely enjoyed Vivian's story.  I worried that it would be hard to keep up with eight different narrators, but the author manages to establish each character very quickly, giving them each distinct voices and experiences.  Although each girl reacts to the list differently, every one of them seemed completely authentic.  I could empathize with each, which is pretty impressive, since some of them are simply awful.

I appreciated that Vivian never let cliches run the story.  There are no overwhelmingly happy endings.  There are small personal victories for some of the girls.  There are some defeats for others.  Some of the girls I started off hating became my favorite by the end, and some that I began liking ended up disappointing me.  It was especially interesting to me to see how being on the "pretty" side of the list affected the four girls.  Although they were given instant popularity, it by no means made their lives easier or better.

The story runs extremely quickly, the characters are relatable, and I'm guessing the plot will have some sort of resonance with every reader.  I loved it.

Five out of five Homecoming Queen ballots.

Release Date: April 2012
Reading Level: Grade 7+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: YPL VIV

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Book Jacket

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places:  a city bus.  "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized.  "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter."  In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love.  With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier.

Rubin didn't have the option to uproot herself, nor did she really want to; instead she focused on improving her life as it was.  Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions: give proofs of love, ask for help, find more fun, keep a gratitude notebook, forget about results.  She immersed herself in principles set forth by all manner of experts, from Epicurus to Thoreau to Oprah to Martin Seligman to the Dalai Lama to see what worked for her--and what didn't.

Her conclusions are sometimes surprising--she finds that money can buy happiness, when spent wisely; that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that "treating" yourself can make you feel worse; that venting bad feelings doesn't relieve them; that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference--and they range from the practical to the profound.

Written with charm and wit, The Happiness Project is illuminating yet entertaining, thought-provoking yet compulsively readable.  Grethen Rubin's passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project.

Review

This book is everything--funny, thought-provoking, and inspirational.  The last line of the book jacket is totally true.  A couple pages into the first chapter, I had already started a list of things I wanted to do, mostly centered on cleaning clutter from my house or starting artistic projects.  Rubin's experiences are invigorating!  Because she writes so honestly and simply, she makes her readers believe we can affect our happiness as well.

The wisdom that stuck out to me the most was the idea of happiness as a duty.  It's true that happiness seems a bit self-centered.  Why should I put so much effort into making myself feel better?  But Rubin shows, time after time, that our happiness directly affects others.  Emotional transference occurs, definitely, but happy people are also more likely to be charitable and kind.  It's hokey, but being happy really can change the world.

It also resonated with me that Rubin wasn't looking to change her life.  She wanted to appreciate what she had.  It is so easy to get bogged down in stress that we fail to see the little bits of beauty and joy that are a part of every day.  Taking the time to slow down and enjoy life is a lesson I know I could learn.

I loved this book, and I anticipate it will be a book I reread multiple times over the years so I can re-learn her words of wisdom.

Five out of five bluebirds.

Release Date:  December 2008
Reading Level: Grade 7+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  Not currently part of Dunlap's collection.

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Book Jacket

Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch--in court-ordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject.

As the book opens, Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc.  But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a "friend" looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client.  She assures herself that the case--a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed--will be short and sweet, and will involve nothing more than the most boring of PI rituals: surveillance.  But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence.

Meanwhile, Spellmania continues.  Izzy's brother, David, the family's most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkepmt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy.  And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication.  The only unsurprising behavior comes from her parents, whose visits to Milo's bar amount to thinly veiled surveillance and artful attempts (read: blackmail) at getting Izzy to return to the Spellman Inc. fold.

As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy's personal life--and mental health--seem to be disintegrating.  Facing a housing crisis, she can't sleep, she can't remember where she parked her car, and despite her shrinks persistence, she can't seem to break through in her appointments.  She certainly can't explain why she forgets dates with her lawyer's grandson, or fails to interpret the come-ons issued in an Irish brogue by Milo's new bartender.  Nor can she explain exactly how she feels about Detective Henry Stone and his plans to move in with his new Assistant DA girlfriend...

Filled with the signature side-splitting Spellman antics, Revenge of the Spellmans is an ingenious, hilarious, and disarmingly tender installment in the Spellman series.

Review

It's hard to review later installments of a series.  What is there to say?  Yup, still funny!  I still tear through the book!  I still can't wait for the next one!

All true.  But I find that I do have some new thoughts concerning the third book about Izzy Spellman.  Mainly that I am impressed that a story about a girl putting her life together (albeit slowly) and growing up is massively entertaining.  There is the beginning of understanding and trust amongst the Spellman family members.  I especially loved exploring the relationship between Izzy and David.  More of that, please!

Rae has gotten less interesting.  But it's totally okay, because Izzy the narrator says the same thing.  What was adorable and hilarious in a 12-year-old is just obnoxious in a 16-year-old.  She had her moments, but my Favorite Sibling Award is now firmly in the hands of David.

And Henry.  Oh, Henry.  I love Izzy's perspective on romance--mainly that she can't handle it.  She spends most of the book trying to convince herself that she doesn't like him.  And no matter how that turns out, I adore an adult couple that attempts to prank a 16-year-old and fails.  That's good storytelling.

But mostly, it's still funny!  I still tear through the book!  I still can't wait for the next one!

Four out of five secret basement apartments.

Release Date: March 2009
Reading Level: Grade 9+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: Not currently part of Dunlap's collection.

Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst

Book Jacket

Lulu always gets what she wants.  Even if it takes screeching till the lightbulbs burst, throwing herself on the floor, kicking her heels, and waving her arms in the air.  Until now.  For when she asks her parents to give her a brontosaurus for her birthday, they say--for maybe the first time ever--"No!"

So Lulu takes matters into her own hands and finds herself the perfect brontosaurus for a pet.  Or is he?  I'm not telling.

Beloved children's author Judith Viorst and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Lane Smith bring to life a raucous heroine and an elegant brontosaurus in an irresistibly fresh and funny story with an ending that will surprise you again...and again...and again.

Review

Who knew that the best way to get an obnoxious kid to stop screaming is to have a brontosaurus claim her as his pet?  If only there were more brontosauruses around.

I knew I would like Viorst's story in her introduction, in which she explains that she knows brontosauruses are now called apatosauruses, but she doesn't care.  I agree.  It will always be a brontosaurus to me.  Just like Pluto will always be a planet.

The writing is very clever and funny.  I loved how Lulu stomps out of her house, and her parents immediately relax and eat cookies, enjoying the silence.  Lulu is a little terror, and while her change of heart seemed abrupt, and...how does becoming a pet make you polite?...it was still a fun story to read.

Four out of five third endings.

Release Date:  September 2010

Reading Level: Grade 1+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: MONARCH

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Book Jacket

Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family's new car!

In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure.  But she soon found out that black travelers weren't treated very well in some towns.  Many hotels and gas stations refused service to black people.  Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws...

Finally, a friendly attendant at an Esso station showed Ruth's family The Green Book.  It listed all of the places that would welcome black travelers.  With this guidebook--and the kindness of strangers--Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma's house in rural Alabama.

Ruth's story is fiction, but The Green Book and its role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indignities of Jim Crow are historical fact. 

Review

This is a great introduction to segregation and discrimination for kids.  The grossness of the time is evident, but it is also balanced by kindness and a family of people willing to help each other out.  This is a great topic to introduce to kids, discussing a recent past in which people were treated like animals for no other reason than the color of their skin.  I especially liked practical Ruth asking, "Why don't they want our business?  Wasn't our money just the same?"  Ridiculous.

The message of the story is both eduational and uplifting, but what really deserves mention are the pictures.  The setting comes alive, the characters are vivid, expressive, and realistic.  My absolute favorite picture was of Ruth and her parents singing loudly in their car, mouths happily stretched wide.

Stories about discrimination in the 1950s make me mad, and I generally hate them.  I just can't stand what we humans do to each other out of ignorance and hatred.  However, Ruth and the Green Book is a nice change of pace.  The badness is all there, but the story is ultimately one of love and kindness.

Five out of five brown bears.

Release Date:  August 2010
Reading Level: Grade 1+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: BLUESTEM

Uglies: Shay's Story by Scott Westerfeld

Book Jacket

Uglies told Tally Youngblood's version of life in Uglyville and the budding rebellion against the Specials.  Now comes an exciting graphic novel revealing new adventures in the Uglies world--as seen through the eyes of Shay.  Tally's rebellious best friend who's not afraid to break the rules, no matter the cost.

A few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, Shay eagerly awaits her turn to become a Pretty--a rite-of-passage operation called "the Surge" that transforms ordinary Uglies into paragons of beauty.  Yet after befriending the Crims, a group of fellow teens who refuse to take anything in society at face value, Shay starts to question the whole concept.  And as the Crims explore beyond the monitored borders of Uglyville into the forbidden, ungoverned wild, Shay must choose between the perks of being Pretty and the rewards of being real.

Review

I loved getting to see Shay's perspective!  She's such an interesting character, someone who figures out the pitfalls of her society before Tally, who falls in love with Tally's boyfriends before Tally does, but who has to stand by and watch as Tally gets all the credit (and all the boys) that Shay first discovered.  That would be....excrutiating. 

It was also great to see Uglyville and New Pretty Town in graphic novel format.  All dystopias should have pictures!  Okay, maybe not all of them, but it helped getting a sense of what was different in Shay's world compared to ours.  My one quibble is with the uglies themselves...they were not ugly.  In the slightest.  They had comic-exaggeratedly perfect bodies and lovely faces.  I know that the whole deal is that even "uglies" aren't necessarily ugly, but I would have liked to see Shay's skinniness rather than curves, or maybe seen a plump kid or two.  Nope, they're all adorable.

Each chapter begins with a helicopter view of the city, with a pinpoint on wherever the Specials are looking.  It gave a nicely ominous feel to the story, since we now know that the Specials allow uglies to explore, that they watch them and use them.  It made Shay's story stand out as a new thing--while she treads a lot of the same ground that Tally did, we the readers know what will happen, so we get that information right away.  Kinda nice.

Four out of five hoverboards.

Release Date:  March 2012

Reading Level: Grade 6+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: GRAPHIC WES

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

Book Jacket

To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is just your average, ordinary fourteen-year-old.  But Michael is anything but ordinary--in fact, he is electric.

When Michael's best friends, Ostin Liss and cheerleader Taylor Ridley, make an accidental discovery, the three of them learn that there are other kids with similar powers--and that someone, or something, is hunting them.

After Michael's mother is kidnapped, Michael will have to rely on his wits, his unique power, and his friends to combat the hunters, free his mother, and save the others.

Review

I liked this book.  It was a fun, quick read with lots of dialogue and interesting plot points.  Evans has real skill for running gags that shift just before becoming old (like students calling Ostin 'Dallas' or 'Tex' because they can't remember his real name).  And the way in which the seventeen superkids both get their power and exhibit their power was nicely plausible.  I kind of didn't realize there were so many different ways electricity could affect a person.

Can you since that there is a "but"?  There is.  I just didn't think the story was very polished.  It's almost too quick...the bad guys jump from bad to good to bad before you can really doubt their motives.  The good guys band together so instantaneously that you have to wonder why they didn't get their act together sooner. 

It was also a bit worrisome to me that the kids jumped into a kind of scary revenge mode.  Some gleefully sprayed mace in unarmed guards faces, and others punished the bad guys with their worst nightmares.  That's probably realistic, but....I don't like my heroes to lower themselves to villain's standards!  Or if they do, I want it to be addressed and considered.  But no, the revenge stuff was painted as giddy and good.  It just made me cringe.

There's supposed to be a sequel, and while I enjoyed reading Michael Vey's story, I doubt I'll find out what happens next.

Three out of five surges.

Release Date:  August 2011
Reading Level: Grade 6+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: YPL EVA