Book Review: Roll With It by Jamie Sumner

Roll With It

by Jamie Sumner (j Sumner)

 

This current-year Golden Sower nominee chapter book is an honest and hopeful portrayal of a young teen girl who is wheelchair-dependent due to having cerebral palsy. Ellie (her preferred nickname) is also a child of divorce whose father usually finds excuses not to visit her, including having a baby with his new wife. And her grandfather suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Other than that she is a typical baking-obsessed, independent-minded nerd/outcast. When her mom decides to extend their holiday visit to “Mema” and “Grandpa” in order to help out, Ellie finds herself with two new “trailer park” friends, a gym teacher who is also a great physical therapist, and the will to persist and excel by being who she is.

 

( official Jamie Sumner web site )

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Ghost Boys

by Jewell Parker Rhodes (j Rhodes)

 

An excellent story and winner of the 2020-2021 Nebraska Golden Sower for Best Juvenile Novel.

 

This is a moving tale of a 12-year-old Black boy killed on the streets of his neighborhood. The chapters alternate between DEAD and ALIVE. He’s now a ghost but can only be seen by one person.

 

As a ghost he encounters the ghosts of Emmett Till and thousands of other boys (and men) of color who were victims of lynching, the KKK, and police shootings. In the DEAD chapters he’s trying to adjust to his new condition. In the ALIVE sections we follow the events of That Day and the aftermath.

 

The first seven sentences of the book begin:

 

“How small I look. Laid out flat, my stomach touching ground. My right knee bent and my brand-new Nikes stained with blood.
I stoop and stare at my face, my right cheek flattened on concrete. My eyes are wide open. My mouth, too.
I’m dead.”

 

Ghost Boys is a juvenile book but certainly not childish. Have a box of tissue nearby — you won’t be able to read this in public over lunch. An afternoon read that will stick with you.

[ official Ghost Boys page on the official Jewell Parker Rhodes web site ] 

 

Recommended by Charlotte K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

I Love You, Michael Collins
by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (j Baratz-Logsted)

This current Golden Sower Award-nominated youth novel is a lovely combination of humor and seriousness, told from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl writing letters to astronaut Michael Collins shortly before and during the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon in the summer of 1969. Mamie, an unusual girl to be sure, with an equally unusual best friend, Buster, is the only child in her class to choose Command Module Pilot Mike Collins as the recipient of her letter-writing assignment. This turns into an outlet for Mamie to describe her personal and home life, and she continues writing even after school is out. Without giving too much more of the plot away, not only is it a landmark summer for the space program, but for Mamie and her family members as well. And one of the morals of the story is that every ship needs a good pilot, someone who can pick you up and take you back home after any side trips you make.

[ publisher’s official I Love You, Michael Collins web page ] | [ official Lauren Baratz-Logsted web site ]

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

El Deafo by Cece Bell

El Deafo
by Cece Bell [j Bell] 

Cece has adjusted to life with a large hearing aid strapped to her chest, and she enjoys her all deaf school. When her family decides to move, and she leaves all her friends and must begin going to a school where she is the only deaf person, she is nervous that the other kids won’t like her and will make fun of her. When Cece gets a stronger hearing aide, she suddenly can hear her teacher wherever she is in the building: teachers lounge, hallway, even the bathroom. This seems like a super power and is the source of inspiration for her superhero alter-ego El Deafo. Cece learns how to accept her deafness, and how to navigate the world and the people in it.

I thought this book was somewhat inspirational. Cece struggles and even gives up at times, but in the end, she learns to be happy with who she is. This book is somewhat of a memoir, as the author tells about her life growing up hearing impaired.

[This book is a current Golden Sower nominee!] [ El Deafo page on Wikipedia ] | [ official Cece Bell blog ]

Recommended by Marie P.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?  
  New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Ungifted
by Gordon Korman [j Korman]

This is a Young Adult book but still interesting, humorous, and heartwarming to the adult reader. Donovan Curtis is a marginal eighth-grade student and always getting into trouble (he's been told he has "poor impulse control"). The superintendent catches Donovan after his latest fiasco and writes his name on a paper on his desk, planning to lower the boom the next day. Unfortunately, the paper the superintendent used to make note of Donovan's name is actually the list of Gifted Students to be transferred to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, the list which the secretary takes with her, and the next day he's unable to remember Donovan's name. His parents are proud, Donovan figures the academy is good place to hide from the superintendent for the moment, and the superintendent is quietly going crazy while seeking him. It soon becomes apparent that Donovan doesn't belong in the academy, however as a "regular" kid, he influences the nerds, geeks, and other social misfits in his homeroom - and they have an impact on him as well. This story doesn't talk down to the reader and holds your attention throughout as Donovan and the other students work on their robot project for the competition the following month, as the gifted kids are forced to attend a school dance, and school officials realize the gifted kids cannot graduate because they haven't had their sex ed class – and the solution to that problem is hysterical. This is a 2014 Golden Sower nominee (winners announced May 1 2014). -- recommended by Charlotte K. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ See Charlotte's Reviewer Profile ]

[Also available in book-on-cd format.]

[ official Ungifted page on the official Gordon Korman web site ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Staff Recommendation - Out of Order

Out of Order

by Betty Hicks

One of the 2008-2009 Golden Sower Nominees is Out of Order, by Betty Hicks. Told from the very different viewpoints of four stepsiblings, this quick but memorable read begins at the low point of the new mixed-family dynamics and works through deliberately dead tomato plants, a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, cicada snacks, Hemingway and soccer balls for Iraq to an imperfect but satisfactory ending. Ages nine to fifteen, the main characters Lily, Parker, V, and Eric share equally in the telling of this tale about how birth order gets Out of Order when two families blend. Other titles by Betty Hicks include I Smell Like Ham, Get Real, Animal House and Iz, and Busted!, all owned by Lincoln City Libraries (click author link to see the full list)! -- recommended by Kay V. - Bennett Martin Public Library/Youth Services

[ official Golden Sower Award web site ]

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Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.