Teen Tuesday and Arc Review: Cracking the Bell by Geoff Herbach

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Cracking the Bell by Geoff Herbach. 256 p. HarperCollins Publishers, September, 2019. 9780062453149. (Review of arc)

I try to have a system to manage my arcs and book purchases. Sometimes books get buried in my tbr pile. I was rearranging piles late this summer and uncovered this one. I immediately felt guilty because I adore this author's books and here it had been out nearly a year! My apologies.

Teen Tuesday features Cracking the Bell by Geoff Herbach. Isaiah lives for football. Getting into football literally saved his life. He loves everything about it - the feeling of being part of a team, the strategy, the adrenaline, the action and, the hitting, especially. But after getting his bell rung in a crucial game, Isaiah can barely stand without feeling dizzy and can't hide the severity of his injury from his mother. His doctor tells her that he should stop playing for his own safety. Isaiah can't do that.

This complicated story is compelling from the very first page. Isaiah has a difficult back-story that readers slowly learn over the course of the book. Isaiah is a sympathetic character with understandable anger issues, making poor life choices before finding himself in football. There are no easy answers here and readers will root for him as he tries to find his way. Highly recommended. 

Arc Review: Brave Like That by Lindsey Stoddard

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Brave Like That by Lindsey Stoddard. 266 p. Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers, June 2, 2020. 9780062878113. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Eleven-year-old Cyrus Olson grapples with courage in this gentle, first-person narrative. Eleven years earlier, he was left at the door of the fire house as an infant. The fire chief found him, brought his to the hospital and decided to adopt him. Cyrus has grown up at the fire house and loves all the firemen, but worries because he knows he isn't brave enough to run into a fire. His dad was a star football player as a kid. Cyrus loved peewee football but now that it's tackle, he no longer does. He is afraid to disappoint his dad. On the day of his eleventh birthday, a stray dog is left at the firehouse, but Cyrus' dad says no to the dog - only Cyrus has already fallen in love. 

If you are a fan of Ms. Stoddard's Just Like Jackie, you know that you're in for a treat. She excels at creating vivid, relatable characters. And, as in Just Like Jackie, there is an wonderful grandparent/ grandchild relationship. Cyrus' grandmother has recently had a stroke and lives in an assisted care facility. She took on much of Cyrus' care while his dad was at work. Now, though she can't speak due to the stroke, Cyrus tries to understand what she's saying in other ways. 

Tween dynamics and dialogue are spot-on as well. She absolutely nailed the portrait of the emerging alpha athlete. Something happens between fifth and sixth grades that causes seismic friendship shifts. With boys, it's usually sports and with girls it's harder to define. Yet, it's classic fodder for middle grade novels because it's real and primal and hurts so much! You can't have too many of these books on the shelves because they are balm to injured souls, to those left behind.

While Brave Like That is a gentle coming-of-age story, there's some real suspense surrounding the web of Cyrus' lies as well as a dangerous fire and, of course, what's going to happen to the dog. Brave Like That hits all the right notes.

Middle Grade Monday: Cog by Greg van Eekhout

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Cog by Greg van Eekhout. 206 p. Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers, October, 2019. 9780062687077. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Middle Grade Monday features Cog by Greg van Eekhout. Cog may appear to be a twelve-year-old boy. In actuality, he's a six-month-old android. Cog, short for Cognitive Development is the brainchild of Gina, a scientist for UniMind. The two live together in a house where, Gina teaches Cog. Cog is hilariously literal. "I live in a room with a bed where I lie down. It is called a bedroom." Or, "The dishwashing machine just washes dishes. It is not good at conversation." 

Cog is encouraged to learn from his mistakes. After he learns that good judgment comes from learning from mistakes, he decides to go out without Gina to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. This results in disaster, for when he regains consciousness, he finds he is trapped inside the UniMind complex and Gina has disappeared. The scientists there are not as nice as Gina. They keep performing experiments on him, looking for something called the X-Module. He does not like these experiments and finds a way to escape the complex with the help of ADA, the sister he never knew he had, a trash-robot, a dog-robot and a robotic car. 

This fast-paced adventure is often hilarious and very suspenseful. It is also surprisingly deep, prompting the reader to ponder philosophical questions like, what it means to be human and whether free will actually exists. 

Hand Cog to a reader who wants action or a reader who wants to laugh or a reader who is into AI or...really, any reader. There's something to please all kinds. Oh! How I loved this book!

Picture Book Review: Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph

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Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph. unpgd. Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers, December 3, 2019. 9780062367266. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publicist.)

Can one have too many books on the shelf about being oneself? Not if the book is Odd Dog Out, which is a story in rhyme that actually works in that it trips off the tongue quite easily. It's also jaunty and fun to read aloud. But the illustrations are the stars. Striking, exuberant, humorous and eye-catching all spring to mind. There's an energy that is just contagious in each spread. I'm getting ahead of myself. What's it about?

Odd Dog is, well odd. She stands out in a sea of dachshunds who all look the same. No matter what she tries to do, she just doesn't fit in, so she goes on a road trip to find her people. Of course, her people reside in Hollywood, only now everyone looks just like her. Is this a good thing?

Celebrating and encouraging differences should happen all year long; but now, during this reflective time of resolutions to be better, might be a nice time to share Odd Dog Out. As mentioned above, this book is great for reading aloud. Visit the link to the book's page on the HarperCollins website for a printable activity! 

If you have readers who love doxies (as my dachshund-loving friend calls them) they need to know about it. Display it prominently and it won't sit. I promise.