From the list!

Found, by Margaret Peterson Haddix--This book came in the other day and no one was waiting on it. Well, that probably changed about thirty seconds after I checked it out, so I read it like lightning, and then my 13-year-old said, "Hey! I've been wanting to read that." So the requestor had to wait another two days. Sorry!

I would like to say, I'm sorry I put off reading this until after school got out. I would have loved to have talked about this when I went on my school visits. It has suspense, mysterious appearances and disappearances, lurking strangers, and main characters who are adopted. What makes this adoptee story special is that Jonah Skidmore has always known he was adopted and he's okay with that. His parents are great, his younger sister is tolerable, and he has never felt out of place. Until the day he goes to the mailbox and finds a letter addressed to him which says nothing more than, "You are one of the missing." He dismisses it as a prank until a second letter arrives, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."

In a far-reaching story which involves an airplane which appears out of nowhere and vanishes again, the FBI, and grown-ups with hidden agendas, Jonah must actively strive to solve the mystery of who he is and where he comes from. Instead, he finds himself stuck in the middle of two groups who each want him for their own purposes, and he must decide which to follow without fully understanding what exactly either choice means for him.

The story paced really well. The action moves along at a great clip without leaving you breathless, and the downtimes don't make you grumble, "Get on with it already!" The characters are believable in their uncertainty and their determination. Jonah's sister, Katherine, provides a more objective perspective in helping Jonah and his friend, Chip, as they try to solve the mystery.

This book is the first in a new series. The second title, available now, is Sent, and the third, out in late August, is Sabotaged.

A hitch in my plan

I am unable to review the SCBAN books with any regularity from this point forward, as they are in high demand from the students who are actually required to read them. I will continue to post reviews of other books in the Lexington County Public Library System. But not today.

Spinelli Forever! (or not, 'cause even protons die)

Smiles to Go, by Jerry Spinelli--Will Tuppence has every thing planned. He will accomplish his goals, then die, and live on forever as the protons that make up his body spread around the universe. Then he learns that protons, the one constant in the universe, do in fact die. They flash out of existence. Suddenly, life is full of uncertainty.

His faith shaken, Will begins to see every thing and everyone around him in a different light. Even his life-long friendship with BT and Mi-Su is changing.

Jerry Spinelli has drawn his characters to be memorable, not entirely predictable. This means there are times you don't like them, even Will. There are times you find their actions and motivations questionable and the results and consequences either lacking or unrealistic. If you think about real life, though, you don't always like everything your friends do, and there are not always appropriate results and consequences. Good decisions do not always produce happy outcomes. Bad decisions do not always produce negative outcomes.

I really enjoyed this book, and it is prompting me to want to read Mr. Spinelli's other works, such as Stargirl.

Snowboarding Suspense

The White Gates, by Bonnie Ramthun--Torin Sinclair moves from California to the snow-covered mountains of Colorado as his doctor mom starts a new job. The very first night, his mom is called to her clinic to treat a member of the high school snowboarding team. Other members of the team are there, and they make reference to a "curse" as they stare hatefully at Tor and his mom. They walk out without telling him what they mean. As Tor goes through his first days in town, he is met with unexplained hostility and pity in equal measure. When he goes to pick out snowboarding equipment, he finally makes some friends who reveal to him the tale of a long-gone Ute Indian determined to keep her land safe. With the help of Drake and Raine, Tor navigates the uncertainties of a new school, a new sport, and an old curse.

A fast-moving mystery story, The White Gates is interspersed with lessons on snowboarding technique and Ute history. These bits are handled deftly and with a light touch so that the reader is not distracted or made to feel as if he or she is sitting in a classroom. I was really impressed with Ms. Ramthun's ability to draw her characters to make them more than stereotypes. Drake and Raine are in some ways more fully fleshed-out than Tor, which is unusual in secondary characters. Which is not to say we don't come to know Tor. The author is exceedingly good at showing us the heart of her characters without using an excess of words to do it. I really enjoyed my trip through The White Gates, and I highly recommend it.

Non-Fiction: Colonial

Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak, by Kay Winters, illustrated by Larry Day--The near universal opinion in my household (or at any rate, the independent readers therein) was that this is a beautiful book about the Boston Tea Party. Beautiful and boring. The illustrations by Larry Day are very nice, but the text assumes too much knowledge on the part of the reader, and is too spare. Generally speaking, I appreciate authors who use as few words as possible to get their points across, especially in children's books. In this case, however, Kay Winters was downright miserly in her use of language. The text is set in irregular columns, as though it is trying to look like poetry. But it doesn't read like poetry. Ms. Winters uses a different character point of view on each two-page spread and focuses mostly on how the characters are feeling as opposed to why. The whole book--text and illustration alike--fails to convey the urgent energy which must have accompanied the build up to this cathartic event in Colonial America. For a historical non-fiction book, remarkably little history is imparted.

Paralyzed by fear

The Leanin' Dog, by K. A. Nuzum--Dessa Dean is eleven years old. She and her father live in the woods, trapping, hunting, and fishing for their food. As the book opens, Dessa Dean is trying to work up the courage to step off the porch, into the snow. Fear holds her back. We learn that a while back her mother, a diabetic, fell into a coma and froze in the snowy woods while Dessa Dean looked on helplessly. Her own ear-tips were deadened by frost-bite by the time her father discovered her sitting by Josie's body. Since he brought her home, Dessa Dean has been unable to leave the house, not even to go to the outhouse. She stays inside, cooking, cleaning, and doing all the things her mother used to do, in addition to her schoolwork. One day, while her father is out hunting and checking his traps, there comes a scratching at the cabin door.

Dessa Dean opens the door to discover a dog, a beautiful fudge-colored dog, favoring one leg as she runs off the porch and back to the woods. The book chronicles Dessa Dean's efforts to befriend the dog and the dog's efforts to protect Dessa Dean. It is beautifully written, although I think younger readers will be a bit put off by the lengthy descriptions of Dessa Dean's meal preparations. These things are important, though, as they show us how little Dessa Dean and her father have and how hard they have to work for everything they do have. When disaster strikes, we have a deeper understanding of the devastation. This book is on the Children's list, but older children and teens will have a better appreciation for the details and themes.

Suspense cycle

Shift, by Jennifer Bradbury--Have you ever had a friendship that seemed so close and so important, you knew it would last forever? And then you slowly realized it had faded away? Or, maybe you could pinpoint the exact moment of falling-out: a major argument, a long-distance move. What if your friend simply disappeared?

Chris Collins and Win Coggans have been best friends since grade school. After graduating high school, they bicycle across the country from West Virginia to the state of Washington. They plan to spend a day or two with Win's uncle in Seattle before catching a bus back home to get ready for college. Only, a day before they reach Seattle, Win keeps going while Chris stops to change a flat tire. He vanishes, leaving Chris to finish the journey to an unfamiliar city and without the name of Win's uncle. Circumstances during the trip have been such that Chris does not tell either family that Win left him. When he gets back home, he tells the families what happened and answers a bunch of questions. He believes Win abandoned him deliberately and is by turns hurt, angry, and worried.

Shortly after Chris begins college classes, an off-duty FBI agent comes to see him. Win's father has hired him to investigate Win's disappearance. Mr. Ward tells Chris there is no uncle in Seattle, and the mystery really takes off.

The story moves along at a good clip, although the alternating past/present of the chapters was a tad frustrating sometimes. I developed a lot of sympathy for Chris and, against my better judgment, Win. He seems to be all jerk, but there are moments when he really comes through for Chris and for them as a team. Solving his disappearance becomes critical, and in the end, conscience-searing.