#tbt: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - Going Strong for Fifteen Years!

Image: Abrams Books

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. 224 p. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1. April, 2007. 9781419741852. (Own.)

#tbt celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the publication of Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. This hilarious illustrated novel hit the ground running. Greg Heffley is at once relatable and obnoxious as a sixth grader who just can't get a break. He's mistreated by his older brother, embarrassed by his parents and constantly upstaged by his baby brother. He does have one friend in Rowley, but when Rowley's popularity seems to rise, Greg is not happy.

The book grew out of a series of webcomics at funbrain.com. Originally, three books were planned, but sixteen have since been published. The series is beloved by all kinds of readers, but especially by readers who love to laugh. 

Waiting on Wednesday: Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel

Image: Penguin Random House

Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel. 400 p. Alfred A. Knopf/ Random House Children's Books, September 6, 2022. 9780593487938.

Publisher synopsis: One teen’s summer job scaring tourists with ghost stories takes a terrifying turn when he accidentally summons the spirit of a dead girl—and she has demands. . . .

The award-winning author of Airborn delivers a roller-coaster ride of a story about the wakeful and wicked dead.

Rebecca Strand was just sixteen when she and her father fell to their deaths from the top of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse in 1839. Just how they fell—or were they pushed?—remains a mystery. And their ghosts haunt the lighthouse to this day. . . .

Gabe tells this story every day when he gives the ghost tour on Toronto Island. He tries to make it scary enough to satisfy the tourists, but he doesn’t actually believe in ghosts—until he finds himself face to face with Rebecca Strand.

The true story of her death is far more terrifying than any ghost tale Gabe has told. Rebecca reveals that her father was a member of the Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead”—malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But the Order has disappeared, and Viker’s ghost is growing ever stronger.

Now Gabe and his friends must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls. . .

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Image: Simon & Schuster

Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~11 hours. Read by Michael Crouch, Megan Tusing, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Candace Thaxton. Simon & Schuster Audio, November, 2021. 9781797133416. (Review of e-audio borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features a thriller/ allegory by the father-son writing team that brought us Dry. In their latest collaboration, entitled Roxy inspired by the opioid crisis, they personify the drugs, Oxycontin and Adderall, two medications that can be therapeutic, but also are also addictive. The multiple perspectives shift between Roxy and Addison in the first-person and siblings Isaac and Ivy in the third. The reader knows that one of the siblings will die from page one. Then, the story flashes back to several months earlier. Isaac injures himself in a scuffle with her drug-dealing boyfriend while retrieving his hard-partying sister, Ivy from a party. He's an honor student and athlete with hopes to earn a soccer scholarship to college. He has to play through his injury, so his nana gives him one of her pain pills. It works, and Isaac is able to play. Meanwhile, Ivy decides to buckle down and catch up with her schoolwork, so she agrees to take Adderall for her ADHD. The results are remarkable. She's able to focus and stay on task.

Roxy and Addison have other plans for the pair though. They make a friendly wager to see who will be the first to bring their plus-ones to the "party," where they will be tempted by stronger substances. Suspense builds as Isaac becomes dependent on Roxy and Ivy seems to turn her life around.

This character-driven novel is fast-paced and raw. The narrative style of each reader is pitch perfect. Mature teen readers, especially fans of Dry, will marvel at the world the Misters Shusterman have created-one in which good people make bad choices.

Middle Grade Monday and Audio Review: Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

Hardcover Image: Macmillan

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker (HC illustrated by Junyi Wu.) Unabridged audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by the author. Recorded Books, August, 2020. (Review of e-audio downloaded from the public library. Own HC)

Happy Monday! My spring break is over! It was relaxing and filled with books, long dog walks, yard clean-up and family visits.

Middle Grade Monday features Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker and illustrated by Junyi Wu. This collection of connected scary stories is not for the faint of heart. Seven fox kits disobey their mother and trek into the woods to visit an old vixen.They want to hear her scary stories, and she delivers. First, she tells the story of Mia, who survives an attack by her teacher, Miss Vix, who has rabies and infects Mia's other siblings and forcing Mia and her mother to flee. Next, she tells the story of Uly, the lone male kit born in a litter of seven, but born with a deformed front paw. His sisters not only tease him mercilessly over it, but also steal his food in order to starve him. As each story draws to a close, there is one less fox kit remaining to listen until a single kit remains. 

These are scary!. Not ghost scary, but real world, bad stuff can happen scary! The author's narration was understated and well-paced. Listening deprived me of the illustrations though. 

Scary Stories for Young Foxes was the author's middle grade debut and published in 2019. It earned a 2020 Newbery Honor, made the ALA Notables List and was a Booklist Editor's Choice. Last year, Scary Stories for Young Foxes: the City was published.

What's New?

"Stacking the Shelves" was a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It seems the blog is gone though, so I will just continue to post a "What's New? post whenever I receive new books. 

For Review:

Image: Penguin Random House

Hope Wins: A Collection of Inspiring Stories for Young Readers edited by Rose Brock. Philomel/ Penguin Young Readers, May 10, 2022. 9780593463932. 

Publisher synopsis: In a collection of personal stories and essays, award-winning and bestselling artists from Matt de la Peña and Veera Hiranandani to Max Brallier and R.L. Stine write about how hope always wins, even in the darkest of times.
Where does hope live?

In your family?

In your community?

In your school?

In your heart?

From a family restaurant to a hot-dog shaped car, from an empty road on a moonlight night to a classroom holiday celebration, this anthology of personal stories from award-winning and bestselling authors, shows that hope can live everywhere, even—or especially—during the darkest of times.

No matter what happens: Hope wins.

Contributors include: Tom Angleberger, James Bird, Max Brallier, Julie Buxbaum, Pablo Cartaya, J.C. Cervantes, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Stuart Gibbs, Adam Gidwitz, Karina Yan Glaser, Veera Hiranandani, Hena Khan, Gordon Korman, Janae Marks, Sarah Mlynowski, Rex Ogle, James Ponti, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Ronald L.Smith, Christina Soontornvat, and R.L. Stine.

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The Snowy Owl Scientist by Mark Wilson. 96 p. Scientists in the Field series. Clarion Books/ HarperCollins, April 19, 2022. 9780358329596.

Publisher synopsis: Are the snowy owls in trouble? Venture into the Alaskan arctic and the summer realm of these predator birds to find out. Discover the diverse species necessary to owl survival, how climate change is affecting the landscape of their nesting site of past millennia, and what it takes to do field research in this action-packed addition to the award-winning Scientists in the Field series.

It's July on Alaska's North Slope, and scientist Denver Holt is in Utqiagvik surveying nests. Denver has been coming here since 1992, and the snowy owls he studies have been coming here much longer: thousands of years.

With its mix of coastal, low-elevation tundra and a rich presence of lemmings, the North Slope is the only area in Alaska where snowy owls regularly nest. How do snowy owls decide where they will nest? How do they manage to arrive at locations where food will be abundant? What drives the success of these delicate tundra ecosystems? These are the mysteries Denver is trying to solve to help ensure a bright future for these elegant hunters.

Is that cover not the most beautiful thing to behold? I love it.

Purchased: nothing!

What's in your mailbox this week?

Fact Friday: And We Rise: the Civil Rights Movement in Poems by Erica Martin

Image: Penguin Random House

And We Rise: the Civil Rights Movement in Poems by Erica Martin. 154 p. Viking/ Penguin Young Readers, February, 2022. 9780593352526. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Friday! So my break is winding down and I didn't read as much as I wanted, but got a lot of decluttering work done around my house. I also had the windows and carpets cleaned and the tile floor was waxed by a guy I have been using for more than 30 years. I also had some tree work done. My husband is probably rolling over in his ashes because he was adamantly opposed to any tree removal. In fact, he bought a special tow cable and used his Jeep to yank a fallen fir back upright, then attached the cable to a nearby maple tree to keep it standing. Needless to say, it didn't thrive. I feel like I'm living in a new house. 

Fact Friday features And We Rise: the Civil Rights Movement in Poems by Erica Martin. In her debut collection of poetry, Ms. Martin combines her love of writing and U.S. History to walk young readers through the Civil Rights Movement from the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, which ruled "separate but equal" unconstitutional. Not much changed in the Jim Crow south despite the ruling. And then, the marching started.

The poems use a variety of forms and effective use of white space and are accompanied by black and white historical photos from the era. A timeline follows an author's note and each poem is sourced. There are suggestions for further reading and bonus content.

There are many powerful moments in this spare collection. It's unusual, yet effective.  

#tbt: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Image: Simon & Schuster

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Uglies series #1. 425 p. Simon Pulse/ Simon & Schuster, 2005. (Own.)

Happy Thursday TMS! Spring break is winding down for me and the weather finally got nice yesterday. I had hoped to get into the yard this break; instead, I've been continuing my decluttering of 36+ years in a house.

#tbt features Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Uglies was published in 2005 and is book one of what was originally called the Uglies Trilogy, but eventually expanded to become a quartet. and then Later, it was spun off into another series, the Imposters, set in the same world and, most recently, a new series featuring the main character, Tally Youngblood was published.

Three hundred years in the future, the population is segregated by age with the youngest members growing up with the Littles before transferring to the Uglies to spend their tween years till the age of 16, when they transfer to the Pretties island, undergo extensive cosmetic surgery and live a life of continual partying. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Main character, Tally Youngblood cannot wait to become a pretty. She misses her best friend, Peris, who turned sixteen before her, so she swims across the river with the hope of seeing him. Instead, she meets Shay, who has no desire to turn Pretty and may or may not be working with a group of likeminded runaways who have formed a settlement called, the Smoke.

This dystopian is on the long side, but the action and themes of identity, beauty and humanity keep the reader engrossed and panting for the second book, Pretties, as Uglies does end in a memorable cliffhanger.