Posts Tagged «brothers and sisters»
Friday, January 6th, 2012
by Colin Meloy, 545 pages, Grades 4-7
Student Review
Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary until a murder of crows kidnaps her baby brother Mac. They take him into a place called “Impassable Wilderness.” This place is a big green area labeled “I.W” on every map of Portland, Oregon. Prue and her friend Curtis have to venture into this wilderness from which no one has ever returned alive. They travel through forests finding not only warring creatures, and menacing figures, but friendship, as they struggle for the freedom from this wilderness. Prue and Curtis uncover a whole new secret world hidden within the trees; a wilderness called Wildwood. From talking coyotes and birds to bandit camps and an evil governess, Wildwood is packed with mysteries. Can they save Prue’s brother and get out alive? You’ll have to find out. MC
Click here to see if it’s available for check out.
Tags: adventure, brothers and sisters, families, fantasy, friendship
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Friday, May 27th, 2011
by Carolyn Coman 263 pages Grades 6-8
Hope watches her sister get smaller and smaller as her parents drive their car away. “Forget her!” they tell Hope, but she loves Honey, how can her parents abandon her on the side of the road.
The Memory Bank is told in two ways from two points of view. Honey is quickly picked up and handed a lollipop by a smiling lady and a bunch of laughing kids; her story is told in pictures, while Hope’s is described in words.
Hope cannot forget her sister, of course, and ends up being investigated by the World Wide Memory Bank for delinquent memory creation; instead of creating new memories, all Hope can do is think about her sister. Maybe the bank will hold the key to finding her.
The authors flash back and forth between these two adventures until they come together for a smashing finish.
If you like graphic novels you might also enjoy: Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch, or The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures, by Brian Selznick
Tags: adventure, brothers and sisters, fantasy, girls, graphic fiction, orphans
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Friday, May 13th, 2011
by M. J. Auch 260 pages Grades 6-9
Travis is out on the street. His father, at his wits end after his mother’s accident, lost his temper and kicked him out of the house with nothing but the clothes on his back and his mom’s old guitar.
Not only does Travis have to worry about how to survive on the street, he is also worried about the rest of his family. His younger sister had to give up going to school to take care of their three younger siblings; the three little ones are missing their mom, and don’t really understand what has happened to her; his father is so distraught he has lost one job and cannot find another; his mother, rather than being helped to recover, has been housed in a convalescent home with a lot of people not expected to get any better.
Travis has his hands full, and his pockets empty. Guitar Boy is a different kind of survival story.
Other stories about difficult family situations are Bloomability, by Sharon Creech, and If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, by Gennifer Choldenko.
Tags: Add new tag, brothers and sisters, coming of age, family problems, fathers and sons, outsiders, realistic fiction, teens
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Monday, February 7th, 2011
By Susin Nielsen, 229 pages, Grades 6-8
Violet is having a hard year. She almost poisons her step-sisters (unintentionally, of course), she breaks a classmate’s nose (less than unintentionally), she crashes into a movie star’s car (honestly by mistake), only to name a few of the mishaps of her seventh grade year. Really, Violet is only tying to make it through middle school, survive visits with her dad and Jennica (her dad’s new wife, who is fake in more ways than one), and make sure her mom doesn’t fall for the wrong guy again, but somehow nothing seems to go as planned. If only she could get George Clooney to write her back, she is sure he will love her mom and make her real sister’s and her life much better.
If you enjoy realistic fiction with a bit of humor like Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison, or Absolutely Normal Chaos, by Sharon Creech, then Dear George Clooney… might be for you.
Tags: brothers and sisters, coming of age, divorce, families, family problems, friendship, Hollywood, humor, middle school, realistic fiction, step_siblings, teens
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Thursday, November 4th, 2010
By Kathryn Erskine, 235 pages, Grade 6-8
Caitlin and her father are feeling broken after tragedy strikes their family a second time. Caitlin’s mother died of cancer three years before and now her brother, Devon, is dead after a violent incident at school. On “the day their lives fell apart”, as Caitlin calls it, Devon’s door was slammed shut and Caitlin doesn’t feel like she can open it. She misses her brother, and his room and all it holds especially a special place next to his bed where she used go for comfort. It was Devon who used to help her cope with the worlds of the town, the classroom and the playground. He always said Caitlin was brave; he even liked to call her Scout after the character in To Kill a Mockingbird. Now that Caitlin’s dad spends a lot of time crying and Caitlin, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has to be especially brave. She would like to help her family put the pieces back together, but she is not sure how to do that. After talking to the school counselor one day, she decides what they need is “closure” and she is on a mission to get it. But, first she has to find out what it is and how you get a hold of it.
For other stories about how families find closure try Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park, or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.
Tags: brothers and sisters, coping strategies, endurance, families, family problems, identity, middle school, outsiders, realistic fiction, resilience, sad stories, spectrum disorders, tragedy, Young Adult
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Monday, October 11th, 2010
by Leslie Connor, 330 pages – Grades 5-8
A sudden oil crisis leaves Dewey and his older sister to run the family’s bike shop and care for their younger siblings while their parents are stranded up north. The crunch has made the bike shop incredibly busy, and to make matters worse, a thief is stealing precious precious parts, but Dewey has a plan to identify the culprit.
Connections: Check out the author’s website. If you like mysteries with an environmental theme, try reading Gloria Shurzynski’s National Park series.
Tags: bicycles, brothers and sisters, coming of age, energy conservation, family problems, green team, oil crisis, self-reliance, speculative fiction, survival
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Friday, September 24th, 2010
By Michael Scott – p. 375 – Grade 6-9 – fantasy
Michael Scott is a professor of mythology and was inspired by the TRUE story of Nicholas Flamel. He was actually a real person! He was born in Paris on September 28, 1330, and buried 1418, but the tomb is empty! Thus begins the myth, or history, of the alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel, immortal and still alive in today?
The Alchemyst begins in modern day New York City; teenage twins Sophie and Josh have moved there for the summer. The brother works in a bookstore for Nick Flemming (name sound familiar?) and the sister works at a cafe across the street. Right away the bookstore is blown up by mud people and a menacing character named Dr. John Dee. When Dee and his muddy henchmen storm into the bookstore, Josh is watching from a hiding place. Dee grabs Flamel’s wife, Perry, and almost makes off with the most powerful book of magic, but Josh manages to grab a few key pages before he and Mr. Flemming have to escape the explosion. Flamel believes Josh and Sophie might be the twins of the prophecy, so he wants to keep them close in the hopes of finding his precious wife and the stopping Dee from destroying the world as we know it. From the moment the bookstore explodes Josh and Sophie are on a roller coaster adventure, full of magical, mythical creatures and frightening beasts. Sequels The Magician and The Sorceress continue the perilous adventure.
Connections: Other adventure fantasies The Lightning Thief series, by Rick Riordan, Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, The Alchemist’s Cat, by Robin Jarvis
Tags: Add new tag, adventure, brothers and sisters, fantasy, heroes, mystery, mythology, survival, suspense, teenagers, teens
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Thursday, June 17th, 2010
by Jacqueline Kelly p. 340 Grades 5-8
All twelve-year old Calpurnia Tate wants is to become a scientist. She’s spent the long hot summer of 1899 in the small town of Fentress, Texas, as an amateur naturalist recording her observations of and questions about nature in a notebook–questions such as, “ Why don’t caterpillars have eyelids?” She finally thinks her parents understand her and acknowledge her dream when she begins to unwrap her birthday present from them. It’s a book, and the first word of the title is Science. Unfortunately, the whole title is The Science of Housewifery!
Calpurnia is the only daughter in a family of seven children. She has no interest in the traditional home arts a young girl at the turn of the century should be learning to make a good wife. Instead, she develops a close relationship with her reclusive grandfather, who encourages her to use the scientific method in her quest for answers about the natural world and his own quest for a new species.
This is a very entertaining read with an intelligent, spunky protagonist, family humor, sibling rivalry, and good science. Let’s hope for a sequel.
Connections: Each chapter of this novel begins with a quote from Darwin’s Origin of Species, so you may also want to read Charles Darwin : Naturalist by Margaret J. Anderson or Darwin’s Ghost: the Origin of Species updated by Steve Jones. Other good novels dealing with the theory of evolution are The True Adventures of Charley Darwin by Carolyn Meyer and Monkey Town by Ronald Kidd.
Tags: brothers and sisters, Darwin, evolution, families, fiction, gender, girls, historical fiction, humor, nineteenth century, scientific method, Texas
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Sunday, March 21st, 2010
By Lynda Durrant p. 171 Grades 5-8
What is perfection? When Rosemary Elizabeth arrives at the Shaker community of Pleasant Hill, she has plenty of delicious food to eat, spotlessly clean, white clothes to wear and beautiful surroundings. She also gets to leave her drunk, abusive father and knows that her younger brother and sister are safe, too. But, can Rosemary Elizabeth live up to the Shaker ideal of perfection with all of the rules about eating, sleeping, dressing, working, praying and talking? Even if she can, does she want to?
Connections – Other stories that depict the impact of the Civil War on the youth is Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.
Tags: abandoned children, brothers and sisters, Civil War, coming of age, community life, historical fiction, Kentucky, multicultural, self-reliance, Shakers
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Monday, January 18th, 2010
By Patricia Reilly Giff, 147 pages. Grades 4-7
Who is Wild Girl? Is she the skittish filly from South Carolina or Lidie, the twelve year-old girl from Brazil. After being raised by her aunt and uncle for the past five years, Lidie moves to New York to join her father and brother, who train race horses for a living. Her dad and brother are expecting the pink and Disney loving seven year-old that they remember from back home in Brazil, and Lidie is having a hard time showing them the strong, capable young woman that she has become. While Lidie struggles with her new life in a new home, new country, new school and new language, the filly is also having a hard time getting comfortable in her new home.
Connections: For other stories sharing the immigrant experience, try reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, or Nory Ryan’s Song also by Giff. For other horse stories, try reading Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan, The Georges and the Jewels by Jane Smiley, or Season of Ponies by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Tags: Brazil, brothers and sisters, coming of age, family, growing up, horse racing, Horses, immigrant experience, New York, realistic fiction, school
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Sunday, September 20th, 2009
by Siobhan Dowd, p. 323 Grades 5-8
Ted loves the weather, listening to forecasts and tracking changes, but he wasn’t sure that he was going to like having his aunt (called Hurricane Glo by his father) and his cousin come for a visit. When Ted’s cousin, Salim, disappeared from the ferris wheel-like London Eye, Ted initially came up with 8 theories about what could have happened to him, including the more mundane, we missed him getting out, to the outrageous possibilities of a time-warp or Salim spontaneously combusting (Ted’s favorite). Salim’s mother and Ted’s parents are frantic with worry, and don’t listen to Ted’s ideas about where he could have gone. His older sister, Kat, does listen, and together they try to use the available clues (pictures in Salim’s camera and a souvenir photo) to solve the mystery.
Connections: Other books that have characters with Asperger’s syndrome or Autism include: Rules by Cynthia Lord, The Very ordered existence of Merilee Marvelous by Suzanne Crowley, and Al Capone does my shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.
Tags: Asperger's syndrom, brothers and sisters, cousins, first person narrative, London, meteorology, missing children, multicultural, mystery, self-awareness, Siobhan Dowd, urban adventure
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Sunday, September 20th, 2009
by Ingrid Law, p. 342 Grades: 5-7
Change can be scary, but as Mississippi Beaumont (aka Mib) approaches her thirteenth birthday, she can’t wait to see what special savvy (magic power) she will possess. Her oldest brother Rocket’s electric savvy keeps the car going and the lights on, but blows light bulbs and causes blackouts when he can’t scumble (control it). Her other brother Fish’s savvy caused a hurricane on his 13th birthday that forced the whole family to move to the Kansas/Nebraska border from their coastal home in Mississippi to avoid large bodies of water. The other changes that come with turning 13 (changing feelings, friends, fashion, etc.) prove to be more challenging for Mib. When her father ends up in the hospital after a car accident, Mib is determined to get to him and prove that her savvy will save the day.
Connections: Other books with seemingly normal kids having magical talents or in magical situations include: The Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, The Anybodies by N.E. Bode, Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, and Half Magic by Edward Eager
Tags: adventure, brothers and sisters, change, coming of age, Ingrid Law, magic, self-realization, talents, tall tale, voyages and travels
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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
by Patricia C. Wrede, p. 344 – Grades 6 & Up
Eff and her twin brother Lan live in a magical, alternative version of the the western frontier. Eff is born the thirteenth child, a position that is thought to bring bad luck to the family, while her brother is lucky 14 and the 7th son of the 7th son, a position that brings extraordinary magical power. The family moves from the civilized and secure east to the western frontier where a magical border keeps dangerous creatures like the dreaded steam dragons away from the settlements. Despite her difficulties learning and controlling magic, Eff’s teacher Miss Ochiba teaches her not only Avrupan magic but also the Hijero-Cathayan and Aphrikan styles. An expedition to the settlements outside the Great Barrier Magic tests her magical skills.
Connection: For another story that brings a magical alternative to a historical setting, try reading The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer.
Tags: brothers and sisters, coming of age, family life, fantasy, frontier and pioneer life, magic, Patricia C. Wrede, schools, twins
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Monday, May 4th, 2009
by Cynthia Lord, p. 200 – Grades 4-7
Twelve-year-old Catherine’s brother (David) has autism and regularly does things that embarrass her, so she creates more and more rules for him to live by. She also fiercely defends David from bullies like Ryan who lives on their street. During the summer Catherine goes to her brother’s speech therapy appointments and meets Jason, a boy with cerebral palsy who uses a book of words and pictures to communicate. Catherine’s friendship with Jason grows as she adds new (hip) words and pictures to his book. A new girl, Kristi, moves in next-door, opening up the possibility of a new special friendship, but Catherine is not sure whether or not to trust her new friend when Kristi shows an interest in the bully, Ryan.
Connection: The main character in Gennifer Choldenko’s novel Al Capone Does My Shirts also has a sibling with autism. — CRW
Tags: autism, brothers and sisters, Cynthia Lord, friendship, multicultural, people with disabilities, trust
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
by Jacqueline Woodson, p. 136 – Grades 4-7
In this companion to Locomotion, Lonnie Collins Motion (aka Locomotion) helps his sister Lili remember life before their separate foster care placements by sending her letters filled with memories of the past triggered by his day to day experiences. Both Locomotion and Lili are happy with their foster care families, but miss their parents and being together. The letters start to focus on the importance of peace and the realities of war as Locomotion becomes more aware of his foster brother who is in the army.
Connection: This quick read might appeal to those who like Shooting the Moon by O’Rourke. –CRW
Highlight: Watch this great interview (from Reading Rockets) with Jacqueline Woodson talking about her life and her books.
Tags: African Americans, brothers and sisters, foster home care, letters, multicultural, orphans, peace, sad stories
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by Colin Meloy, 545 pages, Grades 4-7