Boy Toy: A Review

Josh Mendel has a secret. Except everyone knows what it is.

Everyone seems to know what happened five years ago. Everyone seems to think they understand.

But no one does. Not really.

Years later, Josh is graduating high school soon and still trying to make sense of the pieces left in the aftermath.

But with so many broken parts Josh isn’t sure any of it–not baseball or Rachel or even closure with Eve–will be enough to make him whole again in Boy Toy (2007) by Barry Lyga.

Find it on Bookshop.

When Josh was 12 his history teacher sexually abused him. Repeatedly. Since then Josh has been haunted by both the abuse itself and the fact that he is certain everyone in his small town knows exactly what happened thanks to Eve’s detailed confession.

Now 18, Josh is still processing what happened and his own part in moments he’d rather forget. His best friend never asks Josh about what happened. And Rachel, a girl he accidentally frightened shortly before the abuse came to light, suddenly wants to be a part of Josh’s life again.

Josh still isn’t sure what he wants. Chapters alternate between Josh’s present and past as he sifts through the beginning of Eve’s interest in him, the actual abuse, straight through to the disastrous day his parents found out what had been happening. The dual stories blend together seamlessly to create one complete picture of a broken young man who is still trying to put himself back together.

Lyga is an excellent writer and brings a nuanced, unexpected edge to this story of abuse and healing. Boy Toy has some troubling, gritty moments but it is an ultimately compelling must-read.

Possible Pairings: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Leverage by Joshua Cohen, Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti, The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee, And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard, Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy, Teach Me by R. A. Nelson, Consent by Nancy Ohlin, Sprout by Dale Peck, Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Pirates at the Plate: A Picture Book Review

Baseball games can get heated at the best of times. But when pirates and cowboys face off anything can happen. With famous figures like Long John Silver at bat while Wild Bill Hickok pitches under the direction of coach Bat Masterson, this game is sure to be one for the ages.

The bases are loaded and relations between the teams are getting heated when the game reaches an unexpected conclusion in Pirates at the Plate (2012) by Aaron Frisch and Mark Summers.

With only thirty-two pages, it’s sometimes difficult for picture books to have any real twists or surprises–unexpected outcomes that are a shock even to older readers.Frisch and Summers have created one such book in Pirates at the Plate.

With eye-catching illustrations that look like retro television footage complete with lines through the images, Summers’ artwork bring this epic baseball battle vividly to life. Frisch’s text leaves plenty of room for wordplay as the Cowboy bullpen is filled with bulls and a Pirate steals a base only to literally steal it in his loot sack.

When the game goes in an expected direction courtesy of one very imaginative boy, the story is nicely tied up–at least until the next day’s game. Pirates at the Plate is truly clever and sure to garner a few laughs. However, it is also filled with baseball terminology that may not translate well for non-sports fans making this a must-read for baseball fans but a harder sell for readers who are in it for the cowboys (or the pirates).

Possible Pairings: Half-Pint Pete the Pirate by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Geraldo Valerio, Shark Vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld, Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs and Paul O. Zelinsky, Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown, How I Became a Pirate by David Shannon, Casey at the Bat by Ernest L. Thayer and Christopher Bing, Bad Day at River Bend by Christopher Van Allsburg

Maniac Magee: A Review

They say Maniac Magee was born in a dump. They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring.

They say he kept an eight-inch cockroach on a leash and that rats stood guard over him while he slept.

They say if you knew he was coming and you sprinkled salt on the ground and he ran over it, within two or three blocks he would be as slow as everybody else.

They say.

But before anyone said any of those things, Jeffrey Magee was just a normal boy. At least he was until he was orphaned and ran away to Two Mills a year after. No one knows why it took him a year to get to Two Mills. No one knows where the truth ends and the myth begins.

This is what we do know: Finsterwald is gone now but kids will never sit on those front steps. Two Mills still has a Little League and a band shell. Cobble’s Corner is still at the corner of Hector and Birch and the man behind the counter still has the clump of string. And grade school girls still sing about Jeffrey Magee, though they might not know him by that name.

If you want to know about Maniac, just run your hand under your movie seat and be very, very careful not to let the facts get mixed up with the truth in Maniac Magee (1990) by Jerry Spinelli.

Find it on Bookshop.

Maniac Magee was the 1991 Newbery winner and recently selected as number 17 in Betsy Bird’s 100 Greatest Children’s books poll over at her blog A Fuse #8 Production. It is also a surprisingly rich story given its 184 pages (paperback edition).

Part legend, part tall tale, Spinelli spins a yarn here about an ordinary boy who, through his own ingenuity and maybe a bit of luck, does extraordinary things–things that have the power to change the lives of those around him. But at its core, Maniac Magee is a story about a boy looking for a place to call home and a family of his own.

Spinelli skillfully captures the wonder of youth in his writing here. Maniac Magee is a wonderful, fun story that is more than ready for a book discussion.

Possible Pairings: Lucky Strikes by Louis Bayard, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, You Don’t Know Me by David Klass, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The Key to the Golden Firebird: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

I’m embarrassed to say that this book has been on my to read list for almost as long as it has been published. But then I started following the author’s blog and her twitters and they were so amazing that the idea of still not reading any of her books became unbearable, especially since the author is so awesome that I want to write to her and ask if we can be friends. So, last week I put every YA book I could think of that I had been dying to read on hold. The Key to the Golden Firebird (2004)  by Maureen Johnson was at the top of the pile.

May doesn’t always understand her older and younger sisters, she isn’t even sure she looks like them. But even though May lacks their athleticism or general interest in sports, the three Gold sisters were family; they always had each others’ backs.

That was before their father’s death shattered their previously strong family unit.

Brooks, the eldest, is so busy drowning her sorrows that everything else begins to fall to the wayside. Things get even worse as she begins to run with the wrong crowd and her drinking escalates.

Palmer, the youngest of the Gold  sisters, is trying to understand all of the changes at home while being the youngest member of her school softball team. But as the pressure and anxiety build, Palmer begins to wonder if she’ll ever be able to cope with anything ever again.

That leaves May, the smart, responsible middle sister. While her mother is working overtime and her sisters struggle through their own crises, May is left to handle the more quotidian tasks of making dinner and otherwise ensuring the continued (albeit relative) stability of their household. Adrift among a family in crisis, May is putting on a brave face as she balances work, school, and the even more daunting task of learning to drive. When May’s lifelong friend, and sometime nemesis, offers to teach her to drive things get even more complicated. Unlike driving, there are no instructions for grieving . . . or falling for the last person you ever thought you would.

As the girls drift apart each gravitates, in their own way, to their father’s 1967 Pontiac Firebird and also the site of his death. The Golden Firebird might be a horrible reminder of everything the Golds lost, but it might also be the key to finally moving on.

This book is written in the third person. Segments are told from each sister’s perspective with the bulk of the story going to May since it is, arguably, her book. Initially the structure was surprising, but it makes sense since a significant amount of this novel is about how the Gold sisters relate to each other–seeing events from each of their perspectives both complicates and clarifies these relationships. The novel artfully traces the healing process of each sister, and the family at large. Although some things remain up in the air the story ends, as it should, with a sense that these characters will make it through.

Johnson became one of my favorite writers before I ever opened one of her books, but The Key to the Golden Firebird showed that my admiration was well-founded. The story here is incredibly compelling and the characters come alive on the page.

Possible Pairings: If I Stay by Gayle Forman, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson, A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell, The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle, Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker