On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck

This book is set at the beginning of the US's involvement in World War II. Davy Bowman's brother goes off to war in the Army Air Corps. Davy and his best friend Scooter have many adventures, some funny, some more serious. Davy and Scooter help to round up scrap metal, paper, and rubber to help with shortages. They meet many interesting characters along the way.

Genre: historical fiction (United States, World War II)

Topics: shortages, rationing, school, boyhood, World War II, bullies (boy and girl)

Mrs. Beckwith's rating: 4 of 5

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Down the Rabbit Hole: an Echo Falls mystery by Peter Abrahams

Ingrid Levin-Hill finds herself right in the middle of a murder investigation. She was one of the last people to see Cracked-Up Katie alive. Down the Rabbit Hole is a mystery with suspense woven in. Because Ingrid knows she will be considered a suspect, she decides she has to find out who killed Katie before the police do so she can be cleared. Ingrid has many adventures along the way to discovering the guilty party, many of which are illegal or ill-advised.

Note: This book contains swearing.

Topics:Alice in Wonderland, soccer, Sherlock Holmes, family issues, murder, acting, theater, first crush

Genre: mystery, suspense

Mrs. Beckwith's Rating: 3 of 5

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The Invention of Hugo Cabret won a controversial award...the Caldecott Medal. Why was that controversial? Caldecott awards go to artists. Hugo Cabret is a very thick book, but only has about the equivalent of 100 pages of text in it. The story is told through a combination of the text and the accompanying illustrations. If you don't look at the illustrations, you miss some of the storyline.

Hugo is trying to survive alone after his uncle dies. Part of what he wants to do is discover the hidden meaning of the automaton that his father left to him.

Topics:

Genre:

Mrs. Beckwith's rating: 4 of 5

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Rules by Cynthia Lord

Catherine, the main character of this book, has a younger brother who is autistic. I really liked this book because of how it showed relationships between those with disabilities and those without. I wish there were more kids (and adults) out there like Catherine. Part of what you read about in this book are those who are mean to individuals with disabilities. Sometimes I think people forget that everyone has feelings that can be hurt and that everyone has a desire to be liked and valued. I think Catherine is a believable character. She doesn't think everything is just wonderful. She struggles with what people think of her, always having to be the responsible one, etc.

Topics: autism, peer relations, disabilities, family issues, friendship, loyalty

Genre: realistic fiction

Mrs. Beckwith's rating: 5 of 5

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5 of 5 again?

You might be wondering why nearly all of the books I've put on this blog have been 5 of 5s. Well, I volunteered to be a reader for potential award winning books. I'm in the final round right now, so everything I'm reading was recommended by someone(s) as being a really good book for middle schoolers. They've been right. I haven't read a bad one on the list. Once February rolls around, I'll be reading other books from the shelves at KTMS and will most likely read a few books that don't rate quite so well.

Another thing to know about me is that I love to read. I even read cereal boxes, believe it or not. Every once in awhile I pick up a book that I just can't force myself to read, but that doesn't happen very often. I really like adventure books and books with strong characters. Books I enjoy least are ones that don't seem to go anywhere and ones like the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series. I know there are lots of tweens and teens who like those books, but I'm not too fond of them. If you want to know more about those books, talk to Mrs. Divine. She and her daughter keep up on those titles.

Happy reading, KTMS students! If you have a good book recommendation, let me know about it. I hope to start a book blog for students in the near future. Keep watching for it!

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach

Based on the cover, I most likely wouldn't have read this book. However, an 8th grade student recommended the book to me. She was right. It was fantastic! It wasn't at all what I expected.

Hero and her family move to a new town. It's hard for Hero to fit in with her strange first name. Hero's dad is an expert on Shakespeare, and Hero and her sister were named after characters in one of Shakespeare's plays.

Hero soon meets her elderly next-door neighbor, Mrs. Roth. She establishes a friendship with Mrs. Roth and a guy from school, Danny, who also likes to spend time with Mrs. Roth. Mrs. Roth and Danny get Hero involved in a mystery that surrounds the house Hero's family moved into. Family secrets surface throughout the story.

One of the interesting threads in the story is who Shakespeare really was. Was he really the Shakespeare we know about, or was the author really someone else using a pen name? Several things from English history surface and are quite intriguing to ponder. Sure made me wonder!

Topics: secrets, friendship, mystery, English history, family conflict, starting at a new school

Genre: realistic fiction

Mrs. Beckwith's rating: 5 of 5

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Peak by Roland Smith

Peak is a Junior Library Guild selection book which means it's supposed to be good. Yep. It was! Peak is a 14-year-old boy who absolutely loves to climb. He is the son of two mountain climbers, though his mother no longer climbs. At the beginning of the book, Peak gets caught climbing a skyscraper in New York City. Through some negotiating, his birth father, a world-famous mountain climber, takes Peak away from NYC for the adventure of a lifetime...an attempt to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest.

Part of what makes this book so interesting is that it's written from Peak's point of view. Because of the agreement with the judge, Peak needs to leave NYC before he's done with the school year. His teacher gives him a writing assignment, and the book is Peak's project.

I only know a little about climbing, but now I feel like I know a lot more. If you actually have climbed before, I'm sure this book will get the adrenaline flowing! There is so much interesting detail. I knew that it was a major feat to climb Mt. Everest, but I wasn't sure why. Now I know. It's rather amazing that anyone makes it alive. (Note: people do die in this book, and corpses are seen.)

Another thing I found interesting was reading about the Sherpas, Chinese soldiers, and people from Tibet and Nepal. I found myself realizing yet another reason why I'm glad I'm an American citizen with the freedoms we have.

Topics: mountain climbing, family, Mt. Everest, Buddhist monks, Sherpas, Tibet, Nepal, Kathmandu, conflict, competition

Genre: realistic fiction

Mrs. Beckwith's rating: 5 of 5

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Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Hattie Big Sky takes place in 1918. Seventeen-year-old Hattie lives in Iowa, but moves to Wyoming to complete the homestead requirements her late Uncle left for her. The book does a great job of describing what life was like in 1918 during the end of World War I (WWI) (known then as The Great War). When Hattie arrives in Wyoming, she discovers she has a lot to learn. She learns to do everything from caring for animals to building fences to cooking and baking with the materials available. Because WWI was still on, there were shortages on food and other things. People had to learn to make do with what they had.

For me, one of the most powerful threads in this story was the way German Americans were treated. Because the primary enemy in WWI was Germany, many German Americans were discriminated against by their fellow Americans just because they spoke German, ate German food, or practiced German traditions. People who supported or were friends with German Americans were also targets of bigots. It was a little unsettling to read about how cruel people were to each other all in the (false) name of "patriotism."

All in all, a good read...very well written.

Topics: life in 1918, German Americans, World War I, discrimination, friends

Genre: historical fiction (1918)

Mrs. Beckwith's Rating: 4 of 5

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