INVISIBLE LINES by Mary Amato

Even with the odds stacked against him, Trevor Musgrove proves that determination and a sense of humor can work wonders.

Moving to a new school has its challenges.  Trevor, his mother, and his two younger siblings are moving into a new apartment.  It is a pretty crappy place with smelly hallways, broken elevators, and a definite criminal element.  Unfortunately, it's all they can afford.  All three kids wear secondhand clothes and sleep on mattresses from a place called Save the Children.  Trevor's mom works two jobs and that leaves him babysitting the two younger kids when he'd rather be playing soccer and hanging out with his new friends.

School could offer a breath of fresh air for Trevor.  The kids from his underprivileged neighborhood attend school along with a bunch of rich kids from a different part of town.  Trevor discovers himself in a science class for gifted kids in something known as the Summit program.  At first he is worried about not making the grade, but once he meets the unusual teacher and starts learning amazing things about mushrooms, he finds out learning is fun and easier than he ever imagined.

A big soccer fan, Trevor also finds he has a chance to try out for an elite traveling soccer league.  When he mentions it to his over-worked mother, she immediately says no way.  Too expensive and who will babysit while she has to work are her reasons for saying no, but Trevor doesn't give up easily.  He secretly attends the tryouts and gets a place on the team.  It sounds like good news, but that's when everything else begins to go wrong.

INVISIBLE LINES by Mary Amato is a fast-paced story of one boy and his fight to help his family, make his mother proud, and meet the challenges of an accelerated program.  Amato combines soccer, art, and science in a tale that will grab readers on page one.  Aimed at a middle grade audience, INVISIBLE LINES is excellent for independent reading or for use with a group.  The characters are typical middle school students in situations that will provide discussion material as well as entertainment.

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ANGRY MANAGEMENT by Chris Crutcher

If you enjoy Chris Crutcher, we'll want to check out ANGRY MANAGEMENT.  In it he revisits a number of characters from his previous books.  Montana West, Sarah Brynes, Angus Bethune, John Simet, and Matt Miller reappear in three novelettes.  A group therapist named Mr. Nak is the connection that draws these previous characters together.

Anger is the common factor in the lives of Sarah, Montana, and Matt.  In novelette number one, Sarah, who suffered disfiguring facial burns as a child, faces the anger she's lived with for years.  In the second story, Montana West continues to rebel against her controlling father, Maxwell West.  Once again the issue of freedom of speech comes before the school board of which Maxwell West is the ultra-conservative president.  Finally, in story number three, Matt Miller attempts to deal with the conflict he feels between his anger over the senseless death of an innocent, young, gay, black student and his own deep religious convictions.

Each story could stand on its own, but together they speak to the power of anger to control our lives.  The three young people have every reason to remain hostile given their back stories told so well in Crutcher's novels, STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BRYNES, WHALE TALK, DEADLINE, and THE SLEDDING HILL, but they are facing their anger and attempting to rise above it.  Even if you haven't read the above books, ANGRY MANAGEMENT is well worth your reading time.

WEDNESDAY'S WISH I HAD THE TIME #13

If you follow the reviews on this blog, you have no doubt already figured out that I am not a big fan of fantasy.  However, I'm thinking I will need to make a place on my future reading list for the INKHEART trilogy by Cornelia Funke.

The series is quite popular with my students, and they are teasing me with bits and pieces of the story in hopes that I will read it.  If the number of students asking when I plan to get a copy of the final book in the trilogy is any indication, this is a must read.  I did break down and purchase the book last week, and there is already a waiting list of readers.

ACCORDING TO KIT by Eugenie Doyle

Kit has lived her entire life on a Vermont dairy farm.  Her life is one constant routine.  It starts with the morning milking and chores and ends with the same at night.  The only variety is her dancing.

Things change a bit the fall she turns fifteen.  When a crazy kid in her high school science class takes out a knife and cuts another student, Kit's mother decides she's had it with public education.  She pulls Kit from the high school and tells her she will be homeschooling from now on.   But homeschooling for the daughter of busy farmers turns into Kit taking care of her own learning. 

At first it seems like fun, but things get boring pretty quickly.  Math means helping her mother with the farm accounting, science is helping with the chores and milking and listening to her father's schemes to increase revenue for the farm.  She reads a lot and decides to keep working on the research she started at school for a project about bats that fascinates her.  Physical education is, of course, her dance classes.  One benefit of the homeschooling deal with her mother is that her dance classes increase to three times a week.

Being around her parents 24/7 doesn't always bring out the best in everyone.  Kit is fairly certain that her mother tries to be as mean as possible by complaining and finding fault in everything.  Her father attempts to calm the waters between mother and daughter, but often the only escape Kit can find is heading down to her grandfather's trailer or going up into the haymow to dance away the stress.

ACCORDING TO KIT by Eugenie Doyle is the story of one year in the life of a young girl whose dreams of an exciting future don't fit with her dairy farm lifestyle.  As her day-to-day story unfolds, readers get to know Kit and will admire her determination to make her dreams of dancing as important to her mother as they are to her.

CANDOR by Pam Bachorz

Candor is the ideal place to live.  The houses are beautiful, the town is picturesque, and the kids are perfect.  That is as long as the music is playing.

Oscar Banks lives in Candor.  He has lived there for most of his life.  Actually this wonderful town is the creation of his father Campbell Banks.  The family needed to get away from Chicago and the memories of a terrible accident that took the life of Winston Banks, Oscar's older brother.  Mr. Banks designed Candor to be a model community, and now there is a waiting list of people hoping to move there and live happily ever after.

Of course, there's a catch.  Creating a pretty location is one thing, but how does one control those who come there to live?  The answer is brainwashing.  Mr. Banks uses subliminal messages hidden in music to create perfect residents for his perfect community.  The minute prospective clients enter Candor, they are subjected to constant music.  The messages tell them they want to live there, and once they do, the messages keep them on the straight and narrow path of ideal citizens.

Oscar has been aware of his father's methods for quite some time.  Using his father's own special technology, Oscar has created alternative messages that have allowed him to resist being brainwashed like the rest of the population.  In fact, he has his own rather profitable business going.  When he finds a new young resident with access to large quantities of cash, he reveals the secret of Candor and offers to make it possible for them to escape.  Business is good until Oscar meets and falls in love with Candor's newest resident, Nia.

CANDOR by Pam Bachorz is sure to stick with readers beyond the turning of the last page.  She has created a scary yet fascinating place where good intentions have run amok.  Every normal (or rebellious) teen who reads CANDOR will no doubt have at least a dream (nightmare) or two about what would happen if their parents learned of such a place.  Enjoy!

LEIGH ANN'S CIVIL WAR by Ann Rinaldi

Ann Rinaldi has added to her amazing collection of historical fiction.  LEIGH ANN'S CIVIL WAR focuses on a family in the Conferate South battling not only the nation's Civil War, but also their own family's inner problems.

Leigh Ann has been raised by her two older brothers since she was about four years old.  Their mother who claims she was never meant to be a mother took off leaving the children with her husband.  At first he was busy running the family-owned textile mill, but then he fell ill and the responsibilities of the mill and running the family went to his sons, Teddy and Louis. 

Now that the war has begun responsibility has increased yet again.  The two brothers head off to battle, but soon return when one is injured and the other is needed to keep the family business from falling into northern hands. 

Being the youngest, Leigh Ann has escaped a lot of the family tension, but as the Yankees get closer and closer to their plantation, family turmoil escalates.  With her father now unable to take care of even his own personal needs, papers have been filed declaring her oldest brother Teddy to be her legal guardian, however, her mother sees it as an opportunity to step back into the family lay claim to whatever she can. 

With the Civil War as the backdrop for the story, readers are able to watch history unfold as well as what happens within Leigh Ann's family.  An older sister is secretly married while visiting her soldier boyfriend, and she returns pregnant.  Tension increases in older brother Teddy's marriage as he spends more and more time keeping the mill running.  Despite a crippling war injury, Louis is elected mayor and takes on the responsibility of running the town.  All the while Leigh Ann tries to behave as a good southern girl should, but her desire to help her family often causes her to step beyond the boundaries set by her brothers. 

In this new release Ann Rinaldi highlights the South's struggle to hang on to their way of life as war crept closer and after the Yankees took control.  She artful reveals this one family and its efforts to survive and protect their own during dangerous times.