The Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman

For some reason I wanted to know about the explorer Marco Polo, so I turned to this new biography by one of the great writers of nonfiction for children and teenagers. It's a beautiful book, shaped like a picture book with richly-colored medieval illustrations. However, it is not a book for children. It's definitely a book for middle school kids on up to adults. It explains very clearly who Marco Polo was (an Italian boy growing up in Venice in the 1200s) and what he is famous for (wild tales of his 24-year-long journey to China and back again). Marco's book called The Description of the World changed how Europeans saw the rest of the world, but Freedman tells us right away that some people think Marco Polo was just a big liar. The book nicely summarizes Marco Polo's voyage and the tales he told (he ended up in prison and his cell mate wrote the book), and tells us again at the end about how some scholars doubt his claims. I thought it gave me the perfect amount of information and helped me understand why Marco Polo's name is still known today. It's probably not a book that your average middle school kid would pick up, but it's well worth reading.

A Brief Chapter in My Imossible Life by Dana Reinhardt

There’s lots going on in Simone’s life. She has a best friend who is dating a jerk, a brother who is suddenly handsome and popular, and a crush on a guy who serves coffee at the local food co-op. Simone, an atheist who fights for causes she believes in and works for the American Civil Liberties Union, is caught off guard when her parents tell her that her birth mother wants to meet her. At first she resists, but when she finally lets Rivka into her life she learns about her previously unknown Jewish heritage and how important family and traditions can be. In the midst of great sadness, Simone finds happiness in a romance and satisfaction in being a supportive daughter. This is a realistic story about a high school girl growing up, changing, and learning that there is more to life than she ever imagined. Recommended for readers in grades 8 and up.

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

Holly is only 12 years old when she flees from a creepy and abusive foster father. Before she runs away, her teacher Ms. Leone encourages Holly to write in a journal. This book is the journal she writes during the seven months she spends hiding, running, and trying to stay alive. She hides in a truck, jumps onto a train, walks, and rides buses. She steals food or eats at soup kitchens. She sleeps outdoors, sometimes under a deck, sometimes in a cave, and finally in a cardboard box. She lives in fear of being caught and of other homeless people who threaten her. I found myself really wanting to know what happens to Holly in the end, and I think middle school readers will feel the same way. This book does not gloss over the realities of being homeless, but I’m guessing that in real life homelessness is even more nightmarish than Holly’s story conveys. If you like reading about young people with big problems, you should read Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Wow. This book made me want to stock my basement with food and bottled water. This is the diary of Miranda, a 16-year-old who experiences the end of life as she has always known it. A meteor hits the moon and knocks it out of its orbit. There is no immediate effect on Miranda's family in Pennsylvania, but it quickly leads to planetary disaster--tidal waves destroy the coasts, volcanoes erupt and block the sun, and supplies of food and energy are completely disrupted. Miranda and her mother and two brothers stockpile food and try to survive as things get worse and worse. Little by little everything normal is gone--phone service, electricity, school, even sunlight. Miranda's family eats less and less and must live through the winter huddled by the wood stove in one room of their house. And they are the lucky ones. They have firewood and some canned food, and so far they haven't gotten sick. This book will make you think about all the things you take for granted and about how you would react to "the end of the world."

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Well, I finally read my first Tamora Pierce book. And it was good! There are some fantasy books that I love, but I'm just not drawn to them like I am to historical or realistic fiction. Anyway, I can now see why so many good readers devour books by Tamora Pierce. Alanna is a strong, heroic young girl who wants to be a knight, but in her world, like ours, it's not something girls do. So she disguises herself as a boy and goes to the palace for training. She is small and gets picked on, but she works hard and has a gift for magic, and so she triumphs eventually. It's a very convincing fantasy world without dragons or strange creatures. It's almost a combination of medieval times and a fantasy world with sorcerers and magic. This is a good starting point to get into Tamora Pierce's books because she wrote many more books about the land of Tortall.

Weedflower by Cynthia Kahodata

This is the first novel I have read about the experiences of the Japanese in the World War II internment camps. Sumiko is the main character, and the book starts on Dec. 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor is attacked. Sumiko and her family are Americans of Japanese descent, but are taken from their homes and forced to live in what are basically prison camps just because they are Japanese. Her grandfather and uncle are taken to a camp in North Dakota, and she and her family are sent to a camp in the desert of Arizona. This is a quiet book, well-written and descriptive, told through the eyes of an introspective young girl. I appreciated the book for it's portrayal of history, but I have to admit I didn't find the plot very compelling. I do recommend it for students who want to learn about the time period, but be a patient reader and don't expect a lot of action or twists and turns.

Sigmund Freud by Kathleen Krull

This is the third book in Krull's series called Giants of Science. As usual, she has written a short, gossipy, and surprisingly interesting biography of a person that kids would normally find pretty dull. Freud was truly a pioneer in the field of psychology—before he came alone no one thought that a person could be helped by talking about their problems. Freud was the first to realize that people had a subconscious--the memories and feelings we are not even aware we have. Freud listened to people's dreams and thoughts, and found that once people confronted what was in their subconscous they could move on with their lives. Freud also had a lot of weird theories, especially about sexuality, and Krull shares those with readers. He was also pretty full of himself and hated for people to disagree with him. Of the Giants of Science books, I would say this is not as strong as the books on Leonardo or Isaac Newton, but if you want or need to know about Freud and you're looking to be entertained, this is definitely the book to read.

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea by Sy Montgomery, photos by Nic Bishop

I had never even heard of a tree kangaroo before I read this beautiful book. It's a mysterious and endangered species that only lives in a remote part of New Guinea. This is really a book about how scientists do their work, and how exciting it can be to discover new things. A group of American scientists join up with some people from New Guinea to go deep into the forest and look for tree kangaroos. They live in tents in rather miserable, wet conditions, but they are fueled by their excitement to find and track these animals. They capture a couple of them and put computer chips and radio collars on them so they can be studied in the wild. Their habitat is vanishing and their live are in danger, so these scientists are really on a mission to save the tree kangaroos from extinction. The photography is stunning, but I did wish for even more photos of the tree kangaroos rather than of the surrounding forest. Read this if you like animals or if you dream of making discoveries of your own.

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

It seems like nothing to us that astronauts have been to the moon, but back in 1969 it was miraculous. The whole world watched, and it was not guaranteed that the astronauts would make it back alive. Lots of books tell about the three astronauts and their experience, but no other book tells about the 400,000 other people who made it happen. This book has big, beautiful photographs of the voyage, and interviews and information about all kinds of workers--the people who sewed the space suits, designed the parachutes, created the lunar module, and programmed the computers. One really interesting part of this book is that it describes all the points when things almost went wrong. Several times they almost gave up and didn't make the landing. This is a book that's fun to browse or to read all the way through.

Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman

If you are interested in magic chances are you know something about Harry Houdini. He is the most well-known American magician of all time, and he is most famous for his amazing escapes. This is a guy who would lock himself upside down in a barrell full of water and somehow free himself minutes later. He could get out of any handcuffs or chains, break any lock, and swallow hundreds of needles. This book won't tell you how he did his tricks, but it tells you how he performed the biggest trick of all--turning himself from a poor, short, immigrant kid into a wealthy and legendary magician. If you want to know about him, this is the book to read. The author, a magician and writer himself, even knew Houdini's wife, Bess. I have to confess that I think the writing in this book is often overdone--too full of colorful language and strange metaphors, but it is entertaining and you will learn a lot.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

A high school girl has a secret that has made her best friend hate her. She is isolated and alone, but through the course of a school year she learns to face what happened to her and become a stronger person. Sounds a lot like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, doesn't it? Yes, there are similarities, but Just Listen is at it's heart a different book. It is really about how a true friend can change your life, open you up to new things, and help you do what's best for yourself. Owen, the big guy with the iPod, and Anabel, the teen model, are an unlikely pair. Owen has "anger issues," but is completely honest. Anabel, who should be angry, keeps everything inside. This book also has mean girls, an anorexic sister, and some romance. It is a mature book, but one that I highly recommend to 7th and 8th grade girls.

Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman

Everyone has heard of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, but Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith? They were teenagers who, like Rosa Parks, refused to give up their seats on the bus. Freedom Walkers is the story of all four of these people, and thousands of others who came together to fight injustice. For over a year the African American people of Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride city buses. Many were poor and had to get to jobs that were miles away, but they walked and car pooled and got to work some other way. At night they came together at meetings throughout the city where they inspired and encouraged each other to continue the nonviolent struggle. There were bombings, people went to jail, and it took a long time to win, but they did. I read this book and admired these people--even wished I could have been one of them just to be a part of something so big and so right. Russell Freedman is an outstanding writer--if you want to know more about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this is the book to read.

Gilda Joyce and the Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison

Gilda Joyce is a high school freshman and self-proclaimed "psychic investigator." She agrees to attend a private girls school called Our Lady of Sorrows simply because she hears rumors of it being haunted by the ghost of a student who drowned there several years in the past. Gilda is smart and sassy, but doesn't make many friends because she is busy investigating the haunting and finding out that Delores's death might not have been an accident. Rather than doing psychic investigations, Gilda does real detective work and uncovers a secret society called The Ladies of the Lake. This is a combination high school girl book/mystery that will be enjoyed by middle school girls. It did make me want to keep reading, but I did think it was too long and could have been shortened and made better by a good editor.

How to be Popular by Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries books, has a knack for writing books about ordinary high school girls and how they really think and talk. In this book, Steph Landry has been harassed for five straight years by Lauren Moffit, queen of the school. Just before her junior year, Steph acquires a book called How to be Popular, and uses its tips to transform herself into the most popular girl in school. But her popularity lasts one week before she is challenged to be true to herself and not to Lauren and her fabulous boyfriend. Readers know all along that Steph is fine just the way she is, and that her best friend Jason is probably going to turn out to be her soul mate, but it's fun to read about all the twists and turns. I don't think this is Meg Cabot's best book (honestly, I think the first few Princess Diaries were fantastic and deserve some literary respect), but it's a fun story for girls in grades 6-9. I also recommend Teen Idol, Avalon High, and All American Girl, all by Meg Cabot.

Tunnels of Blood by Darren Shan

This is book three in the Cirque Du Freak series that is extremely popular with middle school kids (mainly guys). I confess that this is the first one of the series that I have read all the way through, and I read it because someone in my Prime Time class challenged me to read it for the Winter Reading Challenge. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was boring! I was surprised at how little action there was except right at the end when Darren comes up against the evil Vampaneze. I also thought the writing about Darren's romance with Debbie was terrible--no real kids would talk that way. I think it's great that kids love these books, but they are not for me! I'd much rather read a vampire book with better characterization like Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.