Love From Your Friend, Hannah

Love From Your Friend, Hannah. Mindy Warshaw Skolsky. 1998. DK. 246 pages.

September 27, 1937
Dear Edward,
I got your name and address from a piece of paper I picked out of a box that says Pen Pals on a corner of my teacher's desk. I've never done this before and I don't know exactly what to say. So I'll just pretend I'm talking. 

Hannah Diamond is the heroine of Mindy Warshaw Skolsky's Love From Your Friend, Hannah, a historical novel set in Grand View, New York in the 1930s. What should you know about Hannah? Well, she's a young girl who is missing her best friend, Aggie, who moved away. She's part of her classroom's pen pal program, but, she has DRAWN THE NAME OF A BOY! And since the teacher saw her draw his name, she can't put that piece of paper back to draw another name--no matter how much she wants to. Since her first letter to him is a total disaster, she decides to focus her energy on writing letters to other people. Surely she'll be able to find someone who wants to be friends...

Here is the disastrous reply from Edward:

Dear Hannah,
I haven't got a mountain.
I have a cow.
Edward Winchley
P.S. I don't like to read books. I don't like to write letters either. My teacher made me put my name on that piece of paper.

So who does Hannah decide to write? Well, her grandma, her aunt Becky, her best friend Aggie, and the President of the United States--Franklin D. Roosevelt, for starters...

The novel is composed of her letters to other people, and the letters she receives from other people.

I loved this one. I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. I loved Hannah so very, very much!!! And I ended up just LOVING Edward!!!!

Hannah on reading:

My favorite thing in the world to do is read a book. I read Heidi, which I love, then I read another book, then I read Heidi again. If I stopped reading Heidi in between the other books, I'd be able to read twice as many books, but the thing is I like reading Heidi. So I do. (93)

Edward on reading:

Guess what I read for the second book the teacher said I had to read? Don't laugh. I read that one that you said you like so much. Heidi. Even though Heidi was a girl, you said there was a boy in it too. Peter. But you know what boy I liked the best? He wasn't a boy anymore. He was a grandfather--Heidi's grandfather. I would like to have Heidi's grandfather for a grandfather. I don't think he would bother me about talking or reading--or anything. (161)

Hannah on writing a book report:

Now, about the book report. I can't write it for you because your teacher would know just like you couldn't do my arithmetic because then my teacher would know. Teachers are like mothers--they always know!
But I can help give you some tips...
Tell the name of the book. Tell the name of the author. The Wizard of Oz was written by L. Frank Baum. Tell if you think he's a good writer. Tell the names of all the characters in the book. Tell what they did. Tell where they went. Tell who they were looking for. Tell what they finally found. Tell how they treated one another. Tell about their feelings. Tell that you read some to your sister. Tell that she liked it. Read some to a friend. Then you can even tell that your friend liked it. By that time, Edward, you'll have so many lines your teacher will leave you alone. (113)

Hannah to her Aunt Becky:

About finding me a present to make up for missing the movie, that was very nice of you. My mother said it'll be a consolation prize. But you don't have to bother knitting me any clothes because I already have so many clothes you knitted me. I have sweaters, jackets, scarves, and mittens. I even still have the red-and-white stocking cap that matches Skippy's jacket and that I wore up to the top of the mountain the time we had the big snow. And when my one galosh came off and I couldn't find it under the snow, I walked down the mountain with your stocking cap on my foot.
One thing about your knitting, Aunt Becky, it never wears out, so you see, you don't really have to knit me anything new. (74)

Read Love From Your Friend, Hannah

• If you like historical fiction set in the 1930s
• If you're looking for a great book set during the Depression
• If you're looking for a book-loving heroine
• If you're looking for a book about friendship, about pen pals, about school
• If you're looking for a family-friendly children's book 

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Kepler's Dream (MG)

Kepler's Dream. Juliet Bell. 2012. Penguin.  256 pages.

It was the middle of the night, and that's not a time when you want to be hearing strange noises. I don't care how brave you are. No one wants to be restless and almost-sleep, then rustled awake by a thudding overhead and the feeling that someone is trying to get into the room.

Ella, our heroine, is visiting a grandmother she's never met, her paternal grandmother. Her father, whom she barely knows, does not get along with his mother. But Ella has to spend the summer with someone since her mother will be undergoing treatment for her leukemia. (She'll be receiving a bone marrow transplant, I believe.) And her grandmother is her last option, her only option.
Ella's first impressions of her grandmother, of her grandmother's house, are priceless. But through the course of a summer, the eccentricity and quirks of her grandmother have become familiar and comfortable. And she's made other friends as well.

Kepler's Dream is about a dysfunctional family who has a rather unique opportunity to heal, to mend, to come together. Could Ella  help bring her father and grandmother together again? Perhaps. For Ella who has never really known her grandmother and does not really know her father, it's an unique opportunity, for she'll get a chance to get to know them, to get to love them, to make them a part of her family.

But Kepler's Dream is also a mystery. And Ella's curiosity and determination to solve the mystery, to learn WHO stole her grandmother's precious book, Kepler's Dream, is the beginning of that opportunity. This mystery is the catalyst for a family to come together again.

I liked this one. I definitely liked it. There were places I just loved it. I liked the narrative voice, how Ella's reading influences her as a narrator. I love her grandmother's bookish lifestyle, and how she's always getting book deliveries. I liked how these relationships, friendships, happened naturally--nothing forced, nothing instant, nothing magical. I loved getting to know Ella at a very vulnerable time in her life. The thing I absolutely LOVED about this one were Ella's letters to her mom.

Read Kepler's Dream

• If you like bookish heroines
• If you like children's mysteries
• If you like family books, plenty of drama but heart as well

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Unbreak My Heart (YA)

Unbreak My Heart. Melissa Walker. 2012. Bloomsbury. 240 pages.

I definitely enjoyed Melissa Walker's Unbreak My Heart. I thought it was a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon. Clementine, the heroine, is an emotional mess when the novel opens. All will come to light as the story unfolds chapter by chapter, but, essentially she's lost someone really super-close to her, her best friend, Amanda, someone she's known and loved since grade school. Why are these two friends no longer speaking? (Or at least with words that can be repeated?!) Well, it has a little something to do with the notion of being betrayed. It's up to readers to decide just how much betrayal was involved and if Clementine is deserving (or not) of a second chance.

Unbreak My Heart is an intriguing YA book in that there are two stories unfolding at once. 1) The present summer (the summer before her senior year) where she is on a three month sailing trip with her parents and her younger sister, Olive. 2) The previous school year (her sophomore year) where readers see Amanda and Clementine and their friends and boyfriends. Readers, of course, know this is building to something allegedly BIG and SHATTERING.

The summer might be lonely, incredibly lonely, for Clementine, if it wasn't for meeting James, a cute red-haired guy with issues of his own. James and his Dad are sailing for the whole summer too. With James and tag-along Olive, Clementine does stop moping occasionally. And James does awaken something in her...

Read Unbreak My Heart

• If you're a fan of Melissa Walker, Sarah Dessen, Elizabeth Scott, Deb Caletti, Susane Colasanti, etc.
• If you're a fan of YA Romance, particularly YA Romances with an emphasis on music and playlists.
• If you're looking for YA novels with complexly drawn characters, particularly if you're looking for well-drawn families. Truth be told, it's rare for parents, sisters, etc. to get fleshed out. But I think she did a great job making this feel like a real family on a real vacation. 
• If you're looking for YA novels that explore the tension of friendships and relationships.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

My Extra Best Friend

My Extra Best Friend. Julie Bowe. 2012. Penguin. 224 pages.

 I'm Ida May and I could use a little light. That's because I'm digging around in my bedroom closet, trying to find my flashlight. If I had a flashlight, it would make looking for one a lot easier. 

This is Ida May's fifth adventure, and I still love and adore this character!!! I do, I just love seeing the world through Ida May's eyes. I love her observations and her insights. There are times, of course, when Ida May just doesn't get it, especially in My Extra Best Friend. But. I think this just makes her more realistic, more authentic. 

In My Extra Best Friend, Ida May is off to Meadowlark Camp with her classmates: Jenna, Brooke, Stacey, Randi, Meeka, Jolene, Rusty, Tom, Joey, and Quinn. The girls will all be staying in the same cabin, with the addition of one more camper, a girl named Liz. Could this Liz be the same Elizabeth or "Lizbutt" of days of old? You know, the Elizabeth who moved with her family to New Mexico and never, ever, ever, ever, ever wrote to Ida May no matter how many letters Ida May sent her. That Elizabeth.

While the novel is definitely about the full camping experience--arts and crafts, singing, swimming, hiking, etc. It is also a novel about trust, friendship, and accepting change and growth as a good thing. The lesson, of course, is a good one. Brooke and Ida and Liz all have something to learn it seems.

The Friends for Keeps Series:

My Last Best Friend
My New Best Friend
My Best Frenemy
My Forever Friends
My Extra Best Friend

Read My Extra Best Friend

• If you want to meet one of the best girl heroines ever, I just LOVE Ida May. 
• If you are a fan of the Friends for Keeps series by Julie Bowe
• If you are looking for great books to share with young readers; probably 8+ unless you've got an advanced reader ready for long chapter books.  

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (MG)

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. Uma Krishnaswami. Illustrated by Abigail Halpin. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages.


Dolly Singh's fabulous face floats across the screen of the TV in the family room. Two happy sighs float off the couch, one from Dini and the other from her best friend, Maddie. Dini is a Dolly fan. She has been forever, from the time she discovered that Dolly's first movie, in which she was just a kid, came out the day--the very day!--that Dini was born. You can't be more closely connected than that. Maddie is a fan because best friends share everything.

If you like quirky books, then I'd definitely recommend Uma Krishnaswami's The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. There is something odd and playful about the storytelling in this middle grade novel. There are many, many books about moving for this age group. Though not all moves are such big moves--from America to India. There are books about the struggles of best friends staying best friends after the move, and about how bittersweet it is to start to make new friends. But how many 'moving' books are as quirky as this one?!

Dini is more than a little obsessed with the actress Dolly Singh. And the only thing keeping her spirits up after she learns the news that her family will be moving to India for several years is the dream that maybe just maybe she'll meet her favorite actress when they move to India. True they'll be staying in a very small town or village. True, that village isn't exactly near Bombay (yes, she knows it's not called Bombay anymore, but that's how she'll always think of it) where the star lives. But anything is possible, right? And with two girls wishing so very hard...it has to improve the chances, right?!

There are so many characters in this novel! So many intersecting stories or coincidences. It's a very silly, very playful, yet at the same time heartfelt story about life.

Read The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

• If you're a fan of Indian movies or musicals
• If you're a fan of multicultural stories
• If you love quirky stories that are odd and delightful all at the same time
• If you don't mind coincidences 
• If you're looking for a book with playful monkeys

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Running Dream (YA)

The Running Dream. Wendelin Van Draanen. 2011. Random House. 336 pages.

My life is over. Behind the morphine dreams is the nightmare of reality. A reality I can't face.

Jessica was a great runner, a star of her school's track team. But one day on the bus ride back from a meet, something horrible happens. Someone crashes into their bus. Lucy, her teammate, dies, and Jessica loses her leg. The novel is about how she copes with that loss. How the loss of a leg, at first, is the loss of a dream. But how through that loss she's able to see some things more clearly than before. Like how much her teammates really do care about her. So much that they sacrifice their time and energy and put all their heart and soul into fund raising for her. Like how she sees another classmate for the first time, a classmate in a wheel chair for quite another reason. Rosa was always so easy to ignore before, but now she's seeing her as a real person worth knowing.

So The Running Dream is a novel about hopes and dreams and perseverance. It is an emotional novel, of course. But it isn't purely inspirational. Jessica is, in many ways, just an ordinary girl with ordinary problems. Like how the guy she has a crush on doesn't really see her like that--not really. And how she struggles with keeping up in math, etc.

Read The Running Dream

• If you're interested in sports stories with heart
• If you're looking for an emotional, inspirational read
• If you're looking for YA novels about friendship and family

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip (MG/YA)

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip. Jordan Sonnenblick. 2012.  Scholastic. 304 pages.

The first picture is a wide-angle shot, taken through the chain-link fence of the backstop behind home plate. There's a boy standing on a pitcher's mound in full uniform: green and gold. His cap is pulled low over his eyes, and his unruly black hair sticks out below the brim in all directions. He leans in toward home plate, his throwing arm dangling loose at his side. He must be looking in to get his sign from the catcher.

I expected Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip to be good--really good. Why? Well, Jordan Sonnenblick rarely--if ever--disappoints. He's an amazing writer; he's great at writing characters that I just love. His stories tend to be emotional and compelling. Though almost always they have a lightness to them as well. Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip did not disappoint. While I'm not sure that it is my favorite, favorite Sonnenblick novel--he's written so many that I just love!!! It is easy to recommend this one.

The hero of Curveball is Peter Friedman. The summer before his freshman year in high school, he plays his last baseball game. The injury in his arm is so severe that doctors tell him he'll never, ever be able to play the game he loves so much. So who is he if he's not a great pitcher and catcher? Who is he if he's not a great athlete? Well. He'll have plenty of time to figure that all out.

One of the main characters in Curveball is Peter's grandfather. I just LOVED him. I think there aren't enough--could never be enough--YA books that highlight the special relationship between grandparent and grandchild. Inter-generational stories make me happy, very happy. Even when they're sad. Even when they're bittersweet. Peter and his grandfather are incredibly close. And so it's not all that surprising that Peter's interest in photography becomes all that much stronger. (His grandfather was a professional.)

So Peter's interest in photography leads him to take a class where he meets a girl that wows him...

This YA book has it all. Great characters, good storytelling. It's just an enjoyable read!

Read Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip

• If you're interested in baseball
• If you're interested in photography
• If you like realistic romances
• If you're a fan of Jordan Sonnenblick
• If you like coming-of-age stories with a strong emphasis on friendship

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A Year Without Autumn (MG)

A Year Without Autumn. Liz Kessler. 2011. (October 11, 2011). Candlewick Press. 304 pages.

"Stop the car!"
"What?" Dad swivels around in his seat. The car swerves.
"Good grief, Tom!" Mom squeals, gripping her armrest as she pulls a wad of tissues out of her purse.
"Stop the car!" I repeat. It's going to be too late in a minute. I grab the tissues and shove them over Craig's mouth.

Time travel. Need I really say more?! For me, that was enough--more than enough--to seek out this one! Jenni is best friends with Autumn. These two friends are quite different from one another, but they have a few things in common. They both have little brothers. Jenni is big sister to Craig and Autumn is big sister to Mikey. Though the two don't attend the same school anymore, they've sworn to be best friends forever. And they mean it. Of course they mean it! What could ever come between them?! It does help that the two see each other every year the last week of August. The families vacation together at the same place, each has a time-share condo. The vacation is just getting started when IT happens...
Jenni impatiently decides to take the old elevator up to visit her best friend. She saw the owner fixing the old elevator, so she's relatively sure it's working again. But the truth is this old elevator has been out of order for many decades and it isn't really for guests' use. It takes Jenni a few hours to realize the truth of the matter...she learns it when she arrives back at her place and everyone--including herself--is a year older. Where did the year go?!

A Year Without Autumn is dramatic, very dramatic. For SOMETHING happens in that 'missing' year that changes everything. Jenni will have to put the pieces together herself--for the most part--because asking questions may not be an option. The more she tries to explain about what happened, the crazier she sounds. Can Jenni find the answers to her questions? Can she find a way to go back in time? Can she get her life back?

As I said, A Year Without Autumn is dramatic. It's a very compelling read. I think Jenni is a LOT braver than I would be in that elevator. Especially once she learns the truth of it--what it does. But she's determined and loyal and I can't help liking her for that.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Unforgotten Coat

The Unforgotten Coat. Frank Cottrell Boyce. Photographs by Carl Hunter and Clare Heney. 2011. Candlewick. 112 pages.

I hadn't seen this photograph since the day it was taken, until now. Even so, I can tell you anything you want to know about it. 

Julie, our narrator, remembers two Mongolian boys who joined her class the second week of summer term. The novel has a reflective feel to it. She remembers their strangeness at first. Their coats. Who wears coats in summer?! But there is something fascinating about their strangeness, their newness too. And the two ask Julie to be their good guide.

These two boys act really strange. They do. Julie does try to understand their culture, their country, their beliefs, their customs. But it's a strange new world, in a way. For example, like the time they invite themselves over to her house, and beg Julie's mom to let them do an emergency baking so they can bake a dough boy to trick the demon that is after them. (They want to trick this demon into eating the dough boy instead of one of them.) And that isn't the only unusual incident.

I can't tell you exactly what happens next, if these two "vanish" as they fear they might or not. But I can say that it is a one weird story about (illegal) immigration.

Honestly, this one left me confused. I almost feel silly for being so confused. But if this one was supposed to wow me or charm me, I just didn't get it. The use of photographs was nice, but I'm not sure exactly what story they're telling. How they fit in with the whole story.

I did like the author's note, for the most part. And I wanted to like this one more than I did.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Darth Paper Strikes Back (MG)

Darth Paper Strikes Back. Tom Angleberger. 2011. Harry N. Abrams. 176 pages.

It is a dark time at McQuarrie Middle School...when did it start? I can tell you exactly when it started.
The first day of school. The very first day of seventh grade. We didn't even get one good day. We got, like, five minutes.

Darth Paper Strikes Back is the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Sixth grade is over, seventh grade is just beginning. And it seems the wisdom of everyone's favorite origami Yoda isn't as revered or respected as in previous days. Teachers and administrators aren't so fond of the "disruptions" made by Dwight and his paper puppet. And there are some in the class who are oh-so-tired of it all. Or at least tired of Dwight getting all the attention. Harvey a student who can be a little mean at times--but isn't quite a complete bully at heart--comes to school with Darth Paper. And thus a NEW saga begins.

So the novel begins with bad news. Dwight has been kicked out of school. He may or may not be allowed to return after a few weeks. His case has to come before the school board. His friends want to help him, of course. And so they set about writing this casebook as to why Dwight and his origami Yoda are positive influences on the school, on the class. They're defending their friend.

So the book has multiple narrators. And there are many stories to tell. If you liked the first book, then you'll definitely want to read this one! It's an entertaining read!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews