Singing the Dogstar Blues

Book Review
Trecia Garrick


Author: Alison Goodman
Title: Singing the Dogstar Blues
Publisher: Penguin Group
Price: $16.99
Grade Level: Grades 8 and up
ISBN: 0-670-03610-2
No. of Pages: 261
Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: Recommended

Curriculum connections: Leisure reading, space, future

Review:

Joss knows that becoming a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for Neo-Historical Studies will be risky. Especially this year, since this will be the first time the Centre has ever had an alien student. Little does she know that the alien will chose her to be it’s partner, and her own life will be put in danger.
Joss is a rebellious girl with a strong personality who grew up mostly on her own. Her mother is a famous newscaster who didn’t seem to have time for her daughter and shipped her off to boarding schools from the time she was twelve. She knows nothing about her father other than he was a sperm donor. She has been kicked out of numerous schools over the years and knows that her spot as a time travel student at this prestigious school is shaky. As long as she remains the partner of the new alien student, Mavkel, she figures that her spot will remain secure. Even if it means that she will become the target of hate and prejudice from people who don’t want an alien at the university.
As Joss becomes friends with Mavkel she realizes that it needs more than just to learn about time travel. Mav comes from the planet Chorian, where everyone has a twin that they must co-exist with. Unfortunately Mav’s twin died and without it, Mav becomes very sick. Joss realizes that the only way to help it is to break the university’s rules by sneaking into the time travel lab and go back in time. Will she be able to help Mav and return back to the university safely?
Singing the Dog Star Blues is fast-moving and suspenseful book that readers should find hard to put down.

Surviving the Applewhites

Book Review
Trecia Garrick


Author: Stephanie S. Tolan
Title: Surviving the Applewhites
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $17.89
Grade Level: Grades 5 and up
ISBN: 0-06-623602-9
No. of Pages: 216
Genre: Humor



Exaggeration: All of the characters in the book are eccentrics who are extremely talented in a variety of artistic ways and have quirky personalities as well. Just a few of the characters include the four year old boy who talks non-stop, so fast, that you can’t get a word in edgewise, a teenage son who is such an introvert that he has holed himself up in his room to explore his artistic talents and hasn’t been seen in months, and an aunt who has a guru named Govindaswami and believes in meditation daily.

The idea that a family would pull all of their children out of school and let them roam free from day to day, letting them decide and write their own curriculum for their own schooling.

Hostility: Jake doesn’t want to be at the Applewhite farm or any other place that potentially has rules.

E.D. doesn’t want Jake to be at their farm and she doesn’t want to share the curriculum that she has created for herself with him, especially the butterfly project.

Randolf Applewhite makes the entire Traybridge Theater Company angry by refusing to cast a typical production of The Sound of Music.

Incongruity: There doesn’t seem to be a more unlikely place for a rebellious teenager like Jake Semple to fit in as with the Applewhites.

Incongruity
Resolution: Through the realization that the Applewhites could accept Jake for who he is, Jake is able to overcome his negative and self-destructive behavior, and find a direction in life.

Irony: Jake, who has spent his whole life being rejected and destroying things, ends up playing the hero in The Sound of Music where he saves the Von Trapp family.

The Applewhite farm is called “Wit’s End” but it is where Jake finds peace and meaning in life.

As much as Jake tries to turn people away from himself, he becomes the favorite of four year old Destiny and the dog, Winston.

Superiority: E.D. feels superior to the rest of the Applewhite clan because she is the only one who follows society’s rules and can create and follow a plan.

Randolf feels superior to the theater and rejects all of their preconceived ideas on what the cast of The Sound of Music should look like, casting instead a crew of multiracial actors simply because they were the only talented people who auditioned.

Mrs. Montrose feels superior to Randolf and cancels the show when she decides he isn’t doing a good job directing and hasn’t cast her daughter in the part she wants her to have.

Surprise or
Shock: Jakes initial meeting with the Applewhite clan as they hysterically try to catch the crazed goat Wolfie.

Jake realizing that the majority of the Applewhite family doesn’t react, either positively or negatively, to him the way he is used to society reacting.

When the butterflies from Jakes’s project end up so tame that they land on people, drink from bowls of sugar water and Destiny keeps one as a pet.

A trick or
Twist: E.D. tricks Mrs. Montrose into not canceling the show by inviting her and her daughter to dinner and promising that her daughter could audition for the role of Gretyl again implying that her father would certainly cast her this time around.

Word Play: Creative Academy suggests a school, but instead of classes, everyone is expected to follow their own interests and there is no educational plan.

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

Book Review
Trecia Garrick


Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Title: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
Publisher: Harpertempest
Price: $16.99
Grade Level: Grades 8 and up
ISBN: 0066237580
No. of Pages: 266
Genre: Contemporary Problem Fiction

Rating: Highly recommended

Curriculum connections: Leisure reading, psychology, student rights

Review:

Little did Matt Donaghy know that when he jokingly made some remarks to his buddies about blowing up the school, someone would report those remarks as serious threats. In a day and age when any small indication that someone is threatening a school, the police don’t hesitate to react. Before he knew it, Matt was being pulled out of class in front of everyone by detectives and hauled off down to the station for questioning. Even though his friends knew that the remarks had just been made as a joke, none of them come forward and defend him. The only person who decides to come to his defense is a girl named Ursula that Matt hardly knows and certainly has never been friendly with.
Ursula seems to be a hard edged, critical kind of person. She is large in stature and views herself as less than attractive. She has built of wall of protection around herself by becoming somewhat mean and obstinant so that no one wants to mess with her. Inside, she struggles with intense feelings, both good and bad, but has a strong sense of what’s right and wrong.
When she hears what has happened to Matt, it infuriates her. She decides to go and tell the truth in Matt’s defense and by doing so Matt is exonerated. But even after the truth has come out, people continue to treat Matt differently. As Matt struggles to regain his old reputation, things seem to go downhill. His family begins to receive threats, they decide to sue the school and he becomes more and more ostracized. Through the course of events, life brings Matt and Ursula together and a new friendship is formed.
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl has believable characters and situations that many young readers can relate to.