Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.

It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then Reese gets a second chance when he's picked for the work program at a senior citizens' home. He doesn't mean to keep messing up, but it's not so easy, at Progress or in life. One of the residents, Mr. Hooft, gives him a particularly hard time. If he can convince Mr. Hooft that he's a decent person, not a criminal, maybe he'll be able to convince himself. From Goodreads

Walter Dean Myers has never held back from writing about the gritty truth no matter how uncomfortable it might be to read. Lockdown is yet another example of how Myers, through authentic dialogue and exceptional characterization, gets into a troubled youth’s head to show that underneath it all a kid is still just a kid.

One of aspects of Myers writing I have always been drawn to is his natural ability to write believable dialogue that readily carries the plot along. When you combine this talent with the characters thoughts and actions, the story moves steadily without long descriptive moments that can completely bog down the flow of the story.

However, dialogue is only as great as an author’s ability to create believable characters and Myers is very talented at doing just that. Reese is 14-years-old and definitely made a serious error in judgment when he stole prescription pads from a doctor’s office to sell to a neighborhood drug dealer. Did he deserve to go to juvy? Yes, and Myers’ tone does not in any way try to prove Reese’s decision was based on his mother’s drug addiction, or his father’s abusiveness. Instead using first person narrative, Myers reveals Reese’s thoughts and experiences as he deals with his poor choice. Myers also does not automatically expect the reader to accept that Reese has learned his lesson just because he is incarcerated. Reese continues to make choices that seem reasonable to a 14-year-old in a juvenile detention center, but had me shaking my head.  Through Myers characterization, Reese also begins to understand how survival inside lockdown is more than just doing time. It is easy to see why many youthful offenders end up inside the criminal system as repeat offenders. Reese frequently thinks about his future and worries that he will never be able to change. He also philosophizes about the criminal system and his future ...

... all my life I was going to be in detention. All my life I was going to be locked down in some cell or in some life with steel bars, keeping me from getting up and going someplace or dying and feeling bad anymore.

Thankfully, Myers does allow hope into Reese’s story. Reese gets a small break while in detention when he is chosen for a work release program at a nursing home.  There he comes into contact with Mr. Hooft, who is not very tolerant of Reese, and is actually quite mean at times. However, it is through this interaction that Reese shows he is capable of restraining his emotions. This restraint made me hopeful because it proved that Reese was more than a loose cannon ready to fight regardless of the consequences. Reese’s love for his little sister also provided a glimmer of hope because Reese wanted to make her happy, and she gave him a reason to keep trying.


My only complaint with Lockdown is minor. At one point in the book Toon, a boy Reese befriends in detention, gives Reese a copy of Lord of the Flies. While the allusion to the hierarchy of the juvy center was not lost on me, I was disappointed that Myers just dropped the allusion with the gift. Reese never read it, and Myers never brought it up again.

Lockdown is not a happily ever after book, when you come to the last page there is not a lot to feel giddy about, hopeful yes, thoughtful definitely, but if you only like books that tie things up neatly with a bow then this may not be the book for you.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Partial book summary from the bookjacket of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson 

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend's restless spirit.

As usual I am late coming to this book. Many reviews have already weighed in on the pros and cons of Wintergirls including the New York Times. Therefore, I have decided not to attempt another. Instead, I am merely going to write about my reactions to the story and to Anderson’s writing.

First, I found Wintergirls a dark disturbing journey into the world of one teenager’s eating disorder. As I read the book, I could not help but think, this is not a story I would ever feel comfortable recommending to my female students. Lia’s story is too honest, and implicit in its emotionality. I kept asking myself, do I want girls who have eating disorders, who cut themselves, whose self-esteem is measured by how skinny they are (which unfortunately describes a lot of girls in middle and high school), reading about Lia’s struggles? The answer was definitely no!

At the same time, I loved Anderson’s prose and style. Her prose has a poetic rhythm that mesmerizes. I was captivated by Lia’s voice and kept reading hoping that her spiral into the darkness of her disease would stop. One stylistic technique Anderson used to illustrate Lia’s thoughts, were strikeouts. I found this technique very effective in showing the little voice inside Lia’s head. I know that voice. I have one inside my head that contradicts or chastises me for the things I say and do, and while the strikeouts were far from excessive, they helped highlight Lia’s internal struggles in a way that I could related to. This is one of Anderson’s powers, telling stories that are worth reading, creating characters that are real and bringing issues to light that other writers won’t touch. Wintergirls tore at my heart. I wanted nothing more than to shake her, her mother, her father and her stepmother, because I hated being a part of her sickness and I wanted them to help her. I was involved, but like the adults around Lia, I realized that Lia had to want to be helped. So, while I will not be placing this book on my classroom shelf, I do think that it is worthy of praise and a great read for a mature audience.

Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend by Jane Harrington

Sometimes when you least expected it you come across a book that is just plain fun to read. Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend by Jane Harrington falls into this category. It was unexpected because I picked it up as part of one of the many challenges I signed up for this year, (Jane Harrington has my initials and fulfills my doppelganger challenge for The Take A Chance Challenges hosted by Find Your Next Book Here), and it is definitely an amusing read in a cute and goofy kind of way.

Brady is off on a Mediterranean, “educational coming-of-age” cruise with her mother, who thinks just about everything, from Georgia Nicholoson’s Knocked Out of Nunga Nungas, to bikinis are “INAPPROPRIATE. Before embarking on her adventure, Delia, Brady’s her best friend, writes in permanent marker on Brady’s hand a list of four things she must do while on her trip.

#1 Write real letters to your best friend every day, describing thrilling adventures.
#2 Wear the Bikini
#3 In public
#4 Meet a code-red Euro-Hottie

Brady faithfully follows Delia’s first instruction and voila the reader is becomes part of the trip via Brady’s letters. Through out the book Brady describes the progress she is making on accomplishing the other three.


Reasons I like this book:

#1 I love first person narrative especially if it written in diary (can you say Meg Cabot) or letter form. I always feel more connected to characters when I am reading their diary or letters ... as if they were actually writing them to me. I also find that authors often choose this format because it allows them to be a just a tad more humorous than third person narrative is able to achieve. Harrington also has a firm grasp on how a teenager would write using all caps for shout-outs, parentheses, and exclamation marks to reinforce Brady’s voice, without over doing it so that it becomes distracting.

#2 Brady is a funny girl. In her letters she rant about a variety of subjects. One frequent rant is about the bikini that she bought for her trip. She is uncomfortable about her recent breast develop, which she describes comically to Delia:

“You think this is no big deal. You tell me, “I’ve been wearing bikinis since I was ten!” No offense, Delia, but I don’t think you’re a whole lot bigger now than you were at ten. But me? It’s like I’ve been exposed to radiation. If you had THAT going on, you might be self-conscious about wearing a bikini, too.”
By the time Brady makes it to a beach in Nice (which much to her mother’s surprise turns out to be a topless beach), Brady has almost managed to overcome her fear of wearing the bikini in public. Then aided by an embarrassing malfunctioning clasp, the whole bikini problem becomes mute.  

#3 Sometimes I like to just read a book that takes little or no thought, one that flies by page by page, and Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend definitely is one of those books. Brady’s descriptions of the friends she meet on the cruise, her mother’s whirlwind itineraries at every port, and Brady’s inability to find that code-red Euro-Hottie while hysterical at times, doesn’t require reading between the lines. 

#4 Despite my #3 reason, I was more than satisfied with the ending, and although some readers might find it was too pat, I felt it was in keeping with the tone of the story. I actually was sorry when the book ended, and for me that is always a sign that I truly did like the book.

So, would I recommend this book to my female students (definitely not a guy book), or anyone looking to be delightfully entertained? MOST DEFINITELY!

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher

Book Summary from Angry Management bookjacket

Every kid in this group wants to fly. Every kid in this group has too much ballast.

Mr. Nak's Angry Management group is a place for misfits. A place for stories. And, man, does this crew have stories.

There's Angus Bethune and Sarah Byrnes, who can hide from everyone but each other. Together, they will embark on a road trip full of haunting endings and glimmering beginnings.

And Montana West, who doesn't step down from a challenge. Not even when the challenge comes from her adoptive dad, who's leading the school board to censor the article she wrote for the school paper.

And straightlaced Matt Miller, who had never been friends with outspoken genius Marcus James. Until one tragic week—a week they'd do anything to change—brings them closer than Matt could have ever imagined.

Chris Crutcher fills these three stories with raw emotion. They are about insecurity, anger, and prejudice. But they are also about love, freedom, and power. About surviving.

And hope.

I am a huge fan of Chris Crutcher. So, when I saw Angry Management (angry is not a typo), at the library last week I scooped it up As the summary states the book centers around three separate stories about six different kids. It brings together characters that Crutcher created separately over a fifteen-year span and extends their stories further. I for one often become so involved with a character that when the book ends I wonder what happens next, and hope that the author will satisfy my curiosity in a sequel. However, in the forward Crutcher admits that he does not like writing sequels, and lets face it sequels are often a disappointment.  Angry Management; however, allowed me to become reconnect with some of those old friends.

Now here comes the gushy part, I loved, loved, loved this book. I loved how Crutcher took characters I met years ago like Sarah Brynes, and continued their stories, but does it in such a way that new reader will not feel a loss of continuity. I loved the emotional content that unlike some of the books I’ve read of late, did not focused on the new “hot” boy in school that everyone either loves or hates, the mean, popular girl who rules the school through intimidation, or an on again, off again, on again romance. I also loved the emotional impact (contentment, surprise, anger, sorrow, horror, and deep sadness) each story had on me as a reader.

When I read other reviews of this book before sitting down to write my own, I was surprised that many of them had negative comments about finding too much of Crutcher’s voice in the stories. I on the other hand love his voice, after all this is what makes a book different from one to the next. If I pick up, oh say a Meg Cabot book, there are certain reasons I like Cabot’s book and a lot of that has to do with her own unique voice. I love that Crutcher has the ability to capture teenager’s thoughts and dialogue in a clear and authentic way, and that he takes issues he is passionate about (child abuse, first amendment and adolescent rights, racism, forgiveness) and gives those issues a voice through his characters. I love how he exposes the flaws that make teenagers teens and allows them to struggle through the reality of growing up, without making everything about the happy-ending. His characters are scarred, fat, abused, tormented, outcasts, and insecure, and folks, those are all too often the realities for many middle and high school teens. Crutcher’s overall message is that despite the wrongs in the world that good exists and can “stomp” out the bad. He clearly illustrates through his characters that there is always hope if you choose it over despair, and that is a message I want to read about and share with young adults.

Rating: 5 Cherries   

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

Book Summary from Skunk Girl bookjacket

If Nina Khan were to rate herself on the unofficial Pakistani prestige point system – the one she’s sure all the aunties and uncles use to determine the most attractive marriage prospects for their children – her scoring might go something like this:

+2 points for getting excellent grades
–3 points for failing to live up to expectations set by genius older sister
+4 points for dutifully obeying parents and never, ever going to parties, no matter how antisocial that makes her seem to everyone at Deer Hook High
–1 point for harboring secret jealousy of her best friends, who are allowed to date like normal teenagers
+2 points for never drinking an alcoholic beverage
–10 points for obsessing about Asher Richelli, who talks to Nina like she’s not a freak at all, even though he knows that she has a disturbing line of hair running down her back

In this wryly funny debut novel, the smart, sassy, and utterly lovable Nina Khan tackles friends, family, and love, and learns that it’s possible to embrace two very different cultures – even if things can get a little bit, well, hairy.


I had high hope for this novel when I read the jacket blurb, and while I did find Karim’s writing flawless and the insights into the Muslim culture seen through the eyes of Nina, the story’s narrator, eye opening and even humorous, I am afraid I found the story long and the conflict monotonous. I really had a hard time plowing through Nina’s struggle to cope with her need to fit in with the American high school culture, which clashed so dramatically with what her Pakistani parents’ expectations. In the first 150 of the 231 pages Nina pines after Asher, a new boy who starts dating Serena, her nemesis and the “antonym” (blonde, blue-eyed and breasty) of Nina (dark-skinned, hairy and flat-chested). As I continued to read I really hoped that the point of the book would be worth the time it took me to read it. At the end, the only thing I was satisfied with was that I actually finished the book.

Rating: 2 Cherries

The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon

While browsing the stacks at the library, Michael Harmon’s  The Last Exit to Normal definitely caught my attention. I had no idea what the book was about since the back cover was about another of Harmon’s books Skate. The title, however, was enough to make me want to check it out, but it was the story and the characters that kept me reading.

Nothing in Ben Campbell’s life has been normal since his father announced three years ago that he was gay, and his mom leaves, and his dad’s boyfriend Edward moves in. To retaliate, Ben turns rebellious smoking pot, getting drunk, and skipping school. After getting arrested Ben’s Dad and Edward decides to leave the city and move Ben to Rough Butte, Montana, the small rural town where Edward grew up, and in Ben’s mind “the last exit to normal for a family that would never be normal”. Here Ben must deal with more than coming to terms with his father’s sexual orientation. There is Edward’s tough mother, Miss Mae, who refuses to accept Ben’s smart mouth or lazy ways; a next door neighbor, who is a bitter man, beats his son, and locks him in a closet for just talking to Ben; and a psychotic teenage delinquent, who is out to get him. But Rough Butte does have one perk, Kimberly Johan, who Ben falls in love with at first sight. This coming of age book has lots to offer: romance, quirky characters, heroism and candid discussions about homosexuality and child abuse.

While there is no denying that the title of Harmon’s books is alluring, what made his book a great read were his characters and the surprising interactions that occur between them. Ben’s voice is strong and honest. Even after three years of dealing with his father’s alternative lifestyle, Ben is still angry, which comes out in a variety of ways. He has a sarcastic humor that is often snide, contemptuous, even caustic at times, but his honesty is real. Ben’s bluntness about his life is the reason I found him such a likable character. Another character that helped make this book funny despite the deeper issues it dealt with was Miss Mae, Ben’s “dadmom’s” mother.  Miss Mae is as straightforward as they come, and how Miss Mae and Ben interact is almost comical. A typical example of this interaction is when she meets Ben for the first time. After establishing that Ben’s dad is “one of those funny guys” like her son, she asks Ben, “You funny?” Ben replies, “You mean funny like a homosexshul or funny like a comedian?” Miss Mae then points out that Ben’s got a mouth on him and frankly states,”That’s gonna change.” Never dealing with a woman like Miss Mae, Ben’s mouth continues to get him into trouble.  She whacks Ben upside the head with her wooden spoon, chases him with a broom, and banishes him to the woodshed “till he learns some respect”. Ben slowly grows from the petulant teen trying to get even with his dad into a guy, who gets out of his own way and helps save others and in the process begins healing the riff between he and his dad.  By the end of the book he recognizes that his life isn’t too bad and that he might even belong in Rough Butte, Montana.

Many middle school librarian might find the subject matter of homosexuality and child abuse too risqué for their shelves because of the younger grades. However, The Last Exit to Normal definitely suggests that adults should carefully examine how their choices affect the children in their lives. It also advocates that teenagers should question and act when those choices can cause serious harm. I strongly recommend this book.

Rating: 4 Cherries

White Gates by Bonnie Ramthun

Bonnie Ramthun grew up in an old mining town in the mountains of Colorado, so the setting for her book, White Gates, is a natural backdrop since it makes use of snow covered Colorado mountains, hidden mines, and snowboarding to create a fast paced mystery. Her characters are realistically drawn and help make this book an entertaining read.

When Torin’s Sinclair mom gets a job as the town doctor in Snow Park, Colorado, Tor can’t wait to learn to snowboard. However, on Tor’s first night there, a member of the high school snowboarding team dies. “It’s the curse,” everyone whispers. Tor’s new friends Drake and Raine explain that there’s an old Native American curse on the doctors of the town. Snow Park can never get a doctor to stay. Tor and his friends must piece together a mystery involving an old mine, a Ute curse, the entire snowboarding team—who just might be blood doping in order to win competitions— and an attempt to save the wild river otters of Colorado. In order to complete the puzzle, will Tor have to ride the deadly White Gates? And how will he survive the avalanche that follows?

I found White Gates interesting on several levels. First, the mystery surrounding “the curse” was well thought out and certainly added to the suspense of the story. Tor, being the new kid in town, provided the reader with a strong character to identify with and Drake and Raine were naturals, as Tor’s new friends. The descriptions about the setting and the sport of snowboarding, lends credence to the mystery. The narrative also helped maintain a pace that moved the story along. White Gates is definitely a book that will appeal to a middle school audience especially those who like mysteries, and sports.

Rating: 4 Cherries