Maya and the Rising Dark, by Rena Barron

  The Oregon Reader's Choice Award is one given out to the book voted best of the year in three age categories, much like OBOB. Unlike OBOB, ORCA books are chosen by readers, young and old, who must read at least two of the ORCA books in any age category before voting for their favorite (or the best book!). It's another Oregon reading promotion program, like OBOB, but doesn't require teams or competition to participate.

    There are 8 books in this season's ORCA list for middle school, and Maya and the Rising Dark is one of them. Author Barron tells the story of Maya, a young girl living in Chicago who starts to see weird beings around her town - werehyenas, for example. She quickly finds herself trying to survive, and eventually save her father, from the collision of two worlds - hers, and the Dark. Similar to a Percy Jackson adventure, or any of the newer adventure stories on Rick Riordan Presents label, Barron creates an adventure-filled story that ties African mythology to the modern day.

    Unfortunately, it didn't work very well for me. I don't want to say the same would happen for you, because this book gets really good reviews all over. But I have to admit I found the writing a little inexperienced, meaning the story idea was solid, but the writing at times jumped without offering enough details about why it was jumping, or where, or tying it to the overall story in a satisfying way. I don't want to give you the impression that you shouldn't read this, and that you will probably enjoy it. It's not that I didn't enjoy it - I did. Just not a lot, and not as much compared to some of the other titles I mentioned. I imagine author Barron getting better with more writing, but for this one, a middling           3 paws is all I can offer. This book is okay, but there are stronger books you could read.

Wink, by Rob Harrell

    Wink is one of this season's ORCA books, and a really good read! Harrell tells the story of himself, or a fictionalized version of himself, as a younger boy when he was diagnosed with cancer...in his eye. The author writes a story that is funny and real at the same time, something not easy to do with such a serious subject. One of the beautiful things about books is that they can act as windows, allowing you, as a reader, to experience things that you might not have to experience in real life. In this case, cancer. Books also act as mirrors, so that if you read a story that describes something you know or or living through, it connects you to others and let's you know it's okay, and that there are other people trying to manage the things in life that you may also be trying to manage. 

    All that is to say Harrell does a nice job with a very serious subject. His humor reminds me of Gordon Korman, who is a master at laugh-out-loud funny stories. But Harrell is also able to convey how serious real life can be - he creates a really good balance between the seriousness of life and the humor as well. It's nice to be able to laugh at ourselves at times, and of course, we sometimes cry, too.

    The usual parts of a 7th grader's life are written into this story, such as crushes, bullies, and family challenges. It just so happens that main character Ross also has a rare cancer, too. I really enjoyed this story, laughed out loud in several places, and missed Ross and his friends as soon as I completed the last page. 5 paws!

Girl in the Blue Coat, by Monica Hesse

    This book checks a lot of boxes for me...OBOB book this season; check! Historical fiction (my favorite genre!); check! A good love story, but not in the traditional sense; check! I finished the book but can't stop thinking about the story and the characters; check!

    I haven't read any of author Hesse's other books, but I sure will! Girl in the Blue Coat is the story of Hanneke, a teen girl living in Amsterdam at the start of World War 2. Germany has invaded Holland and Jews are being rounded up and sent off to concentration camps. Hanneke has grown her own black market business, providing goods for people around town because the Nazis have taken control of every aspect of life, including necessities like food and clothing. Hanneke uses the people she knows to find wanted items and get them to those who are in need. In this way she helps her family survive, but it's a very dangerous business...if she gets caught, she would likely be killed. In the midst of this part of the story, Hanneke is asked to find a person, something she has never done before. She quickly learns of others who are secretly helping Jews escape right out from under the noses of the invaders. Even more risky than her usual "job".

    This book has romance, danger, intrigue, history, friendship, family - all as elements of a well-written, high intensity book. Without having read anything else by Hesse, she is definitely one of my favorite authors, and this is one of my fave books of the year! Along the lines of Rita Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin, Hesse is the real deal in historical fiction. You need to read this! 5 paws!

In the After, by Demitria Lunetta

     Book 1 in a series still being written, and another OBOB title for middle school for this season. I didn't see this book coming down the OBOB turnpike...a futuristic, zombie-like story that is pretty scary! Perfect for Hallowe'en, but I was a little surprised to see this listed in the middle grade category for OBOB...I think it's more of a high school book, in my pug opinion. Either way, Lunetta lays the groundwork in this first book of the series. Amy, the book's main character, is surviving as best she can in a world that was drastically changed when They took over the world. She lost her parents, her friends...existing day to day in the quiet and darkness required to keep from being eaten by some alien life form that has invaded Earth. In the After is divided into three sections, and by time I got used to the setting and story, section one ended, and sections two and three took me in a very different direction.

    If you liked Goosebumps but now want something more mature, or you like Stephen King but are okay with something less intense, this might be a series for you! It reminded me of Divergent in that it was a decent story but not exceptionally well written or thought out, but good enough to be really popular! I If you are pretty new to the horror or zombie genre, I think you'll like this. If not, you may like it, but probably won't love it. 3 paws and a wag!

How to Survive Middle School, by Donna Gephart

 Hello, Readers!  Sorry for the huge delay in my blogging, but thank you for staying with me! I've been busy helping my human get his school year started, so I'm a little behind in my reading, but REALLY behind in my blogging! What's a dog with a blog to do?!? Well, now I'm going to try and catch up - with the blogging, mostly, because I have been reading! You just wouldn't know it because I haven't put my paws to the keyboard in a while...

To start the new school year my human and I read How to Survive Middle School - great choice for the start of the year, right? Author Donna Gephart is a really good storyteller, and one my favorite books of hers is Lily and Dunkin. Surviving middle school is the story of David and his hamster, Hammy, who are becoming famous because of David's videos he makes and posts to YouTube, modeled after the real Jon Stewart. Stewart is a comedian who created The Daily Show, before it was taken over by Trevor Noah. Anyway, David is trying to survive his first year of middle school with the usual ups and downs, like bullies, crushes, family issues, fitting in, puberty...all the great stuff middle schoolers go through in life. Gephart tells a heartwarming story with humor and sensitivity, and How to Survive will make many of you laugh out and possibly shed a few tears. 

This is the third or fourth book I've read by Gephart, and I've enjoyed all of them, just some a little more than others. This is one of her stronger books. If you like Gordon Korman give this title a try - you'll probably like this, too! 4 paws!

Glitter Gets Everywhere, by Yvette Clark

     The first teen book by author Yvette Clark, a London-born author who now resides in New York City. This is relevant because in Glitter Gets Everywhere, main character Kitty moves to New York with her dad and sister for 6 months for a change of scenery. The change is needed after the recent death of her mom, which Kitty is trying to work through from the very first pages of this story to the very last.

    This book starts off well but gets much better and stronger as it goes along. Perhaps it was just my own mood when reading on different days, but at first it seemed like Clark was trying too hard to write from the perspective of a young teenager, Kitty. But by about one third of the way into the story, the author really seemed to hit her stride, and the rest of the book was really difficult to put down! All of the characters and situations were pretty realistic and believable, and I found my pug self rooting for Kitty to have a good outcome. I won't share with you how close the actual ending was to what I hoped for, but I will say that this is a really good realistic fiction story about loss, family and friendship - and not just friendships between teens. Kitty also has a few adult friendships that help her deal with the loss of her mom. Clark builds a very good story here, worth your time. Fans of Patricia Riley Giff or Sharon Creech will really enjoy this, I think! 5 paws!

Running on Empty, by S. E. Durrant

     I haven't read anything by this Scottish author before (her first book is titled Little Bits of Sky), but instantly I was drawn to her style of storytelling. Durrant's writing reminds me a lot of A.S. King (one of my favorite authors!) but for younger readers, perhaps. Both write in a way that I find hard to describe to you...the honesty of the character's voice, and the way they both turn everyday thoughts, events and ideas into compelling stories is really amazing!

    Running on Empty is the story of AJ, who lives with his very quirky parents and has recently lost his Grandad, who we discover throughout the story kept AJ's family together and really made sure AJ was taken care of. AJ's Aunt Josephine and her family live nearby and are a big part of the story as well. But AJ is the narrator, and through Durrant's clever storytelling, we become AJ, in all the beautiful and strange ways a 7th graders navigates a complicated world. 

    I loved this short book, and recommend it to any of you who enjoy realistic fiction and above-average writing. I especially recommend it to those of you who are willing to lose yourself in someone else's thoughts for a while. Durrant is exceptional when it comes to writing "voice", and I found this book to be difficult to put down. 5 paws!

Alias Anna, by Susan Hood and Greg Dawson

      Alias Anna is the true story about Ukrainian-born Zhanna Arshanskaya. Later using the alias name of Anna, Zhanna and her sister, Frina, are being led, with their family, to what will be their deaths by the Nazis at the start of World War 2, when Germany invades Ukraine and starts eliminating all Jews. Zhanna and her family are Jewish, but her and her sister are also musical prodigies, having performed as children all over Ukraine for people at all levels of society. On the march out of Ukraine, Zhanna's father bribes a guard in the hopes that he will look away while his two young daughters sneak out of the line of people and into...a very uncertain future.

    This is an amazing story, and it just gets more amazing the farther that you read! Co-author Dawson is Zhanna's son, who is telling this story to award-winning author Hood. With short pieces of what seems like Zhanna's voice woven into the story, Hood and Dawson capture Zhanna and Frina's life while under Nazi rule and beyond, trying to survive without a family, a home, money, food - only a gift to play the piano - all the while trying to hide the fact that they are Jewish, which would quickly cost them their lives in the world they are living in.

    The book is written in poetry style, which I normally really enjoy. Some of my all-time favorite books, such as The Crossover, Long Way Down and Out of the Dust are written in this style, and it works so well. With Alias Anna, however, I kept wanting to read Zhanna's story as she would tell it, in chapter format, and not through someone else's words or in this poetic style. In the other books I mention above, the writing style adds to the story. Here, it takes away from it a bit. And that is a true shame, because this is a story you should read and know. It truly is amazing! Written in regular chapter format, this is an easy 5 paw book. But using poetry to tell this story seems forced, and doesn't make the story better. Nobody's fault, it just didn't make the book better. So, I give this 4 paws...but you should read it just the same! 

Patina, by Jason Reynolds

     Patina is book 2 in Jason Reynolds' Track series, which begins with the book Ghost (reviewed last month). The series is four books long, and each tells the story of the four "newbies" on The Defenders, an inner-city track team made up of kids from all across the area, each with more than their fair share of troubles and challenges, and each with their own ways of coping (and managing) their lives.

     Patina, or Patty, lives a life complicated by the fact that her mother is diabetic and lost her legs, so can no longer care for Patty or her younger sister. But her mom is still part of their lives. Instead Patty lives with her godparents, Emily and Tony, who have both girls attending a private school. At school, Patty constantly navigates the wealthier student body, but she builds a strong friendship with one girl, Becky, who proves to be something Patty wasn't expecting. At the same time she is a new member of the elite, local track team, and the metaphors of running (away from problems, towards her true self) continue on from Ghost. 

    Having just finished Ghost for the second time (my human used it in summer school this year, so I read it again, too!) I wanted to continue the series, as Reynolds is one of my favorite writers! He uses a bit of the same catch phrases and "slanguage" that Ghost used, and that was a little disappointing to me. I know the stories are going to cross, but I didn't think Ghost and Patty would have some of the same speech patterns. That seemed a little...easy. But other than that minor detail, I enjoyed Patina quite a bit. The book reads very quickly, and her story is a good one. I will continue on in the series with the books Sunny and Lu, and I never complete a series, so that says something for Patina! Because of the repetition at times, I rate this a little lower than Ghost...but not by much. Still a good read and worth your time! 4 paws!

When the Ground is Hard, by Malla Nunn

     Wow! The first book I've read in a while that I simply could not put down! This is an OBOB book for the coming season, which is surprising as it seems to be an "older" book than I would pick for middle grade OBOB, at least when I first started reading it. When the Ground is Hard is author Nunn's debut book, and currently she has a second release (titled Sugar Town Queens, which I'll be sure to find and read!). She is a South African who moved at a young age to Australia where she currently lives. One of the things I loved about Ground is that it is obvious Nunn is not from the U.S. - her writing just has a different cadence, or rhythm, to it. It was a refreshing change of pace, and her writing is riveting! Honestly, when I wasn't reading I was trying to figure out when I could be reading again! Yep, this one is wonderful!

    This book tells the story of Adele, a mixed-race girl whose White father provides modestly for her and her Black mother. But because of apartheid laws in Swaziland, in southern Africa, where this story takes place, father and mother cannot live together, so Adele is raised by her mother while her father provides financially, but from another town, where he lives with his other (White) family. 

    Adele attends a Christian boarding school and usually is absorbed into the popular girls group. But in this new school year, she has been replaced in her girl clique, and finds herself rooming with a poor girl, Lottie, who doesn't follow the rules and likes to fight. The book is about Adele navigating race and class differences where she lives, but with many relevant issues that apply to people today, most anywhere in the world, which makes the book so good! Lottie is not what Adele thought she was, nor are the girls she used to hang with, but discovering all of that is challenging, and often hard.

    Treat yourself to this story! The writing is different because the author uses different descriptions and words than authors I often read. But that makes this book even better - it's fresh and new, and the descriptions will stay with you long after you put the book down. I hope the rest of the OBOB season is this awesome! 5 paws!