37. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

I read the actual hard-covered book, only the second one so far this year.
2018, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House
176 pgs.
Middle Grade Realistic Contemporary Fiction
Finished  4/9/19
Goodreads rating:  4.30 - 3971 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:  Contemporary Brooklyn, NY

First line/s:  "We think they took my papi."

My comments:  Hmmm.  This book is beautifully crafted, with kids opening up to each other in loving, generous ways.  But I have a few misgivings about it.  The six kids portrayed all have different difficulties, experiences, ethnicities ... too many to make it seem at all real, just convenient for a good story.  It's never revealed why they are all put into a "special" class of only six kids.  There seem to be no (or very few) learning disabilities, physical disabilities or particular special needs.  So why are they "special?"  I taught fifth grade for years, and I can't quite imagine something like this taking place without more goofing around, hurt feelings occasionally, more misunderstandings....  I feel badly that I can't rate it any higher, there are just too many things I'm left bothered by.
     Note:  The dialogue was not put within quotation marks, but italicized.  I really liked this.

Goodreads synopsis:  Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.
          It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them—everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

3. Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

read the actual book from Bosler Library
20016,, Little Brown & Co.
223 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished 1/5/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.08 - 5679 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary Brooklyn, NY

First line/s:  "Pop groans.  He's having bad dreams again.  I hear Ma trying to comfort him.  My little sister, Leda, squirms.  I whisper, 'Hush.  Sleep,' and tuck the sheet beneath her chin.  We share a bed.  She turns over on her side, her feet kick my knees."

My comments:  I was teaching fifth grade in 2001 when 9/11 happened and fourth grade fifteen years later.  It's such a difficult thing to discuss with kids.  For the first few years it was easier to talk about, because students were around during the horror and, even if only peripherally and protectively, heard about it.  But as years passed, some parents didn't want to scare their kids and were reluctant for it to be taught in school.  I read this in anticipation of having an "Examining 9/11 through Literature" session at the library for tweens, but I'm still unsure if I'd use this title.  As an adult, I loved the way it was written and the way all the information about that atrocious time period evolved throughout the book.  I loved that Rhodes put Deja and her family in a homeless shelter, and I love that she also used a wonderful, safe school for her to go to - yes, they exist!  The ending was a little to sugary, but the entire concept was excellent, powerful, and very, very really.

Goodreads synopsis:  From award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes, a powerful novel set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks.
          When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and community will culminate with one big answer about two tall towers once visible outside their classroom window, Deja can't help but feel confused. She sets off on a journey of discovery, with new friends Ben and Sabeen by her side. But just as she gets closer to answering big questions about who she is, what America means, and how communities can grow (and heal), she uncovers new questions, too. Like, why does Pop get so angry when she brings up anything about the towers?
          Award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes tells a powerful story about young people who weren't alive to witness this defining moment in history, but begin to realize how much it colors their every day.

1. Grounded - Heather Ordover

Supposedly #1 in a series (called The Seven) ....

Read on my iPhone

2013, Crafting a Life Books

482 (endless) pgs.

YA fantasy-ish

Finished 1/1/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.19 (this is very hard for me to believe)

My rating:  (1) Yuck

1st sixth - Tucson, AZ, the rest in Brooklyn NY and Stockbridge, MA

1st sentence/s: "This all started because I lit my boyfriend on fire."

My comments:  Holy catfish, this book was NOT for me.  It was endless, but I had no other book on my phone so this was it. I so badly wanted to like it, particularly for the parts that described Tucson so beautifully, but this was a definite DRONE....on and on and on and on with very little meat. Sketchy, too.  There are so few books that I flat out don't like, and my apologies to the author, but....

Goodreads book summary:  Hannah Rose was able to convince herself that she was a normal teenager, even though she usually knew exactly what was about to happen next. Until one day when she set her jerk of an ex-boyfriend on fire-from 15 feet away-propelling herself into a world of weirdness.       
          Rosie is sent to live with her aunt in Brooklyn. There, Rosie discovers a family legacy of strange abilities and dangerous talents. Her training tests her gifts-and her patience-but over the summer she does begin to learn to control her unique skills and meets a boy with equally dangerous strengths. Together, they find a sort of peace that neither has ever experienced, and it looks like it will last-until disaster breaks them apart in a way neither saw coming.

23. Gingersnap - Patricia Reilly Giff

2013, Wendy Lamb Books, Random House

147 pgs.

Written for Middle grades

Finished 5/2/2014

Historical Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 3.37

My Rating: Liked it - with reservations (see below)

TPPL

Setting: 1944 Brooklyn, NY

1^st sentence/s:  "I'll be right there, Rob," I called.  Did my brother hear me?

My comments:  :This was a good story, but there were several weird additions and subtractions that keeps it only "good."  The protagonist, Jayna, has a ghost accompany her once in awhile throughout the story.  Why?  For me it was unbelievable and pointless.  And finding a long-lost grandparent or extremely close friend-of-the-family?  Even in the 1940's if there was a death in the family, survivors would be sought, contacted....  Then there was the useless, confusing-a-that-point prologue.  The finding-a-new-family and the setting of Brooklyn were wonderful and could have been more deeply explored.  Oh well.  On to the next....

Goodreads Summary:  It's 1944, W.W. II is raging. Jayna's big brother Rob is her only family. When Rob is called to duty on a destroyer, Jayna is left in their small town in upstate New York with their cranky landlady. But right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna a secret: they may have a grandmother in Brooklyn. Rob found a little blue recipe book with her name and an address for a bakery. When Jayna learns that Rob is missing in action, she's devastated. Along with her turtle Theresa, the recipe book, and an encouraging, ghostly voice as her guide, Jayna sets out for Brooklyn in hopes of finding the family she so desperately needs.

Beautiful Yetta, the Yiddish Chicken - Daniel Pinkwater

Illustrated by Jill Pinkwater
Feiwel and Friends (McMillan), 2010
32 pages
$16.99
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: azure

Mr. Flegelman is taking his organic chickens to the city (which happens to be Brooklyn) to be sold. "The truck pulls up in front of Phil's Poultry World, and with a tear in his eye, Mr. Flegelman begins to unload the crates."

And now, the fun starts. When Mr. F. speaks, his words, "Good-bye, my dear chickens," appears in a talking cloud above his head. Then we see the line written in Hebrew and then the phonetic pronounciations of the Hebrew words. COOL!

Well, Yetta the chicken breaks free and takes off into the streets of Brooklyn. Freedom! Each time she speaks to herself, we can see the translations and pronounciation. Of course the pigeons she meet can only speak English...and they're mean. But when Yetta saves a bright green parrot from a cat, she is adopted by a flock of Brooklyn's wild parrots - and they speak Spanish! So everything they say is translated from Spanish, including the pronounciations!

Happy, happy ending to a very clever story. And there's an explanation of the Hebrew alphabet at the end of the book.