Girl Overboard

girl overboard Justina Chen Headley relationships/ stereotyping/identity
Little Brown and Company pp.; 339. ISBN-10- 0316-001129-0


One might dismiss the book as simply about a female snowboarder, but it is much more. It deals with serious issues of family relationships, living with considerable wealth and dealing with people’s own views of you as you endeavor to define yourself. Syrah is from a wealthy Chinese family who disapproves of her snowboarding even though she does so at a professional level. Due to a serious accident, she must learn to trust herself and to establish an identify within a family that seems at every turn not to want her. Struggling to find her voice, she must learn important and difficult lessons. Learning, however, does not come without pain, mistakes, and regrets. This is an excellent story. The characters and their conflicts are well drawn and carefully thought through.

When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead relationships/mystery/time travel
Wendy Lamb Books, pp., 198 ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5

This is a wonderful book with interesting, unique characters who interact with love and care, and occasional misunderstandings. It is above all a well-told story with an unusual twist. Miranda lives in New York with her single mother who is practicing to be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid television show. Miranda and her friends are free to roam their New York neighborhood even with the presence of the mentally ill “ Laughing Man”, and the neighborhood boys who make remarks as she walks by their corner. Never without her beloved Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engles, she receives cryptic notes from a stranger. Miranda must figure out what they mean and solve their riddle in order to save her “friend.” Unusual and bright, this is a must read for anyone with imagination who knows, as I do, that time travel is indeed possible.

Purple Heart

Purple Heart Patricia McCormick Iraq war/ Relationships/trauma

Balzer and Bray 199 pp., 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-17390-0

Waking up in a hospital inside a Green Zone in Iraq, Matt finds a Purple Heart pinned on his blanket. Through the fog of his TBI, traumatic brain injury, Matt seeks to understand exactly what happened that day, and why he is haunted by the death of a young Iraqi boy whom he had befriended. Even with memory loss, headaches and an injured leg, Matt simply wants to return to his unit where his buddies are, and where he can feel understood. Count on McCormick who also brought us, Sold and Cut to write a well-researched and harrowing story of the realities of the Iraq war, and what young soldiers, not much older than our students, must face on a daily basis. An excellent, but not easy read which stays in the reader’s heart and mind long after the last page is re-read.

Healing Water

Healing Water Joyce Moyer Hostetter Hansen’s disease/ historical/ relationships

Calkins Creek, 217 pp., 2008 ISBN 978-1-59078-514-0

Impeccably researched, this heartrending tale is one of a young boy named Pia who is exiled to the Island of Moloka’i when it is discovered that he has Hansen’s disease.

He hopes for rescue by his mentor and older friend Kamaka who he loves with a fierce and determined passion. As time passes his anger and disappointment grow until they overwhelm him, and he becomes a thief and bitter person whom he barely recognize as himself. Life and death in this colony of “unwanted” is brutal, and yet, there are small acts of kindness that shine as a welcome healing light. When Kamaka and his wife arrive on the island, Pia must come to terms with his inner demons or be destroyed by them. Filled with memorable characters both good and evil, this story chronicles the history of this famous colony. Realistically written, this book is an excellent one both for its accuracy, and its graphic portrayal of complicated and complex relationships.

All the Broken Pieces

All the Broken Pieces ann e. burg novel in verse/Vietnam war/relationships

Scholastic Press, 2009 218pp., $14.99 ISBN 13-978-0-08092-7

This is a sensitive treatment of a Vietnamese boy, fathered by an absentee-American father, who was airlifted to the United States during the last days of the war. Adopted by a loving and well-intentioned family, he lives in a community that has been fractured by the controversy surrounding this war. Matt is haunted by his own memories: his mother, his brother’s injury and his own guilt. He must also face the anger of a teammate who accuses him of “killing his brother.” The verse is well constructed and the imagery leaps from the pages portraying the feel and the horror of war whether experienced in the United States or in Vietnam. A thoughtful and emotional read that effortlessly pulls the reader along.