The Benefits of Being an Ocotpus by Ann Braden

Zoey is a middle-schooler who has more on her plate than any 12 year old should.  She is taking care of her three young siblings while her mom works as a waitress at the Pizza Pit.  They may not have much, but they have a roof over their heads thanks to Lenny, mom's newest boyfriend.  As Zoey begins to slowly come out of her shell at school, she starts to find her voice and take action.  She no longer wants to see her mom abused by Lenny, even if he does give them a place to stay.  And when her best friend Fuchsia needs her, Zoey is there for her.  She learns that just below the surface is a strength that we all have that allows us to do what is right in the face of adversity. 

The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden was a wonderful novel dealing with the difficulties of poverty, the effects of domestic violence, and most importantly finding your voice and strength when things are hard.  It is a story about finding that strength that lives just below the surface, the strength to do what is right, even when it is the hardest thing in the world to do.  

From Amazon:

NPR Best Book of 2018, Bank Street List for Best Children's Books of 2019, Named to the Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher List, Maine's Student Book Award List, Louisiana Young Reader's Choice Award List, Rhode Island Middle School Book Award 2020 List, 2020 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award Nominee

Some people can do their homework. Some people get to have crushes on boys. Some people have other things they've got to do.

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there's Lenny, her mom's boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.

At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they're in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it's best if no one notices them.

Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses.

Unfortunately, she's not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia's situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they're better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she's ever had?

This moving debut novel explores the cultural divides around class and the gun debate through the eyes of one girl, living on the edges of society, trying to find her way forward.

Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson

I was fortunate enough to do another review for ALAN Picks.  The following is my review of Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson:


After the death of their older brother, Adam Moynihan and his brother Jeremy find themselves dealing with not only that loss, but also the separation of their parents.  Their mom and dad couldn’t deal with the grief associated with Greg’s death and have decided to deal with it separately.  Now Adam is staying with his dad every other weekend and he isn’t pleased.  But when he visits his dad’s apartment for the first time, he meets Jolene, a girl who is also on the every other weekend plan with her dad.  Jolene is witty, spunky, creative, and passionate, but unfortunately is stuck in the middle of a nasty relationship between her parents.  But Adam and Jolene have found each other amid the chaos.  Their friendship is sometimes the only thing holding Jolene together as she struggles to find the self confidence to pursue her dream.  As Adam’s family begins to heal, Jolene worries what will happen to her friendship if he is no longer visiting the apartment twice a month.  Through the bond they have built, Adam is able to help her through her worries and save her when she most needs saving.  Can the future they have envisioned have a chance to become reality? 

Every Other Weekend is a beautiful novel about the healing power of friendship and love.  It reminds us that there is someone there for us, even when loneliness seems overwhelming.  It is a novel that will touch the reader’s heart as they navigate the immediate friendship and growing love between Adam and Jolene.  This story will have you wishing for a continued future for these two characters as they deal with the grief and tragedy that these two have already encountered.  And most importantly it will fill the reader with hope in the belief that these two are well on their way to a beautiful life.  
 


From Amazon:

Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.

Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.

Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Wow!  This book!  I'm really just glad that I was alone when I finished this book.  The tears were flowing, but it such a great way.  This story is about hope and perseverance and acceptance and family and friendship and so many other incredible things.  This one is several years old and I am just sad that it took me this long to discover it.  If you want a story that will fill you with hope, go pick up The Running Dream. 

The Running Dream is the story of Jessica, a star runner on her high school's track team.  Shortly after breaking the league record for the 400m, she is in a terrible accident, an accident that claims the life of one of her teammates along with Jessica's leg.  Now instead of dreaming about breaking records, she has to wonder if she will ever walk again.  But with the help of her coach, her teammates, her parents and friends, and a new found friendship with a classmate, Jessica can once again think about the future.  She can now see a future where she sees people for who they really are.  She can see a future where she runs again.  She can once again see a future where she steps up to the starting line.   

From Amazon:

When Jessica is told she’ll never run again, she puts herself back together—and learns to dream bigger than ever before. The acclaimed author of Flipped delivers a powerful and healing story.

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She’s not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope, Jessica feels that she’s both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don’t know what to say act like she’s not there. Jessica’s embarrassed to realize that she’s done the same to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she’s missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that’s not enough for her now. She doesn’t just want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.

“Inspirational. The pace of Van Draanen’s prose matches Jessica’s at her swiftest. Readers will zoom through the book just as Jessica blazes around the track. A lively and lovely story.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Wow!  It is so hard to put in to words the beauty of this novel.  The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is such a powerful and compelling story of not only race and discrimination, but the horrible atrocities that happened in a Florida reform school. 

Based on the experience of way too many boys at the all too real Dozier School for Boys, Whitehead tells us about it with the experience of Elwood Turner, a boy with a bright future who unfortunately ends up in reform school.  We see how these boys endure the physical and sexual abuse of those in charge, while at the same time hearing how not all boys were lucky enough to make it out alive.

This novel is powerful and heartbreaking.  It is maddening to know that this abuse went on for over a century while our country overlooked the atrocities that so many suffered.  While this is a fictional account, it is based on the real lives of so many boys who "attended" this institution in Marianna, Florida.  It should serve as a memorial not only for those whose lives were taken from them, but also for all of those who were fortunate enough to survive the cruel hands of those they were entrusted to. 



From Amazon:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men."

In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.

The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.

Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power was an intense and captivating story.  It will keep you on the edge of your seat as you cheer on Hetty and the other girls who have been trapped at their private school.  This is a book about friendship and the lengths you will go to save it.  It is a story about resilience, and power, and the fight you have when everything seems to be against you.  Wilder Girls is a unique story that will have you turning the page faster and faster as the story goes on.  

From Amazon:

"Celebrates the resilience of girls and the earthshaking power of their friendships. An eerie, unforgettable triumph." --Claire Legrand, New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn

"Wilder Girls is so sharp and packs so much emotion in such wise ways. I'm convinced we're about to witness the emergence of a major new literary star." --Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation

A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh, new debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you've read before.

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton is an exceptional read.  It is such a fun and funny read, but also touching, emotional, and thought-provoking.  It is a story about figuring out your place in the world while trying to make it a better place.  It is about taking the risk to try and change the status quo, even when everything seems to be working against you.  I really can't say enough good things about this book.  

From Amazon:

Cliff Hubbard is a huge loser. Literally. His nickname at Happy Valley High School is Neanderthal because he's so enormous-6'6" and 250 pounds to be exact. He has nobody at school, and life in his trailer-park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide.

There's no one Cliff hates more than the nauseatingly cool quarterback Aaron Zimmerman. Then Aaron returns to school after a near-death experience with a bizarre claim: while he was unconscious he saw God, who gave him a list of things to do to make Happy Valley High suck less. And God said there's only one person who can help: Neanderthal.

To his own surprise, Cliff says he's in. As he and Aaron make their way through the List, which involves a vindictive English teacher, a mysterious computer hacker, a decidedly unchristian cult of Jesus Teens, the local drug dealers, and the meanest bully at HVHS, Cliff feels like he's part of something for the first time since losing his brother. But fixing a broken school isn't as simple as it seems, and just when Cliff thinks they've completed the List, he realizes their mission hits closer to home than he ever imagined.

Razor sharp, moving, and outrageously funny, Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe is an unforgettable story of finding your place in an imperfect world.

Let's Go Swimming on Doomsday by Natalie C. Anderson

The second novel from Natalie C. Anderson, Let's Go Swimming on Doomsday, is a powerful and intriguing story about love, family, sacrifice, terrorism, and hope.  From the very beginning, this novel will grip you with Abdi's tale.  It is exciting and tense and will keep you flipping the pages as you root for this young boy who has tried so hard to save his family.  As a reader, you get a glimpse into the terrorism and crime that grips Somalia and the lengths that some will go to in order to escape this terrible fate.  Doomsday is another fantastic read from this exceptional storyteller.  

From Amazon:

Forced to become a child soldier, a sixteen-year-old Somali refugee must confront his painful past in this haunting, thrilling tale of loss and redemption for fans of A Long Way Gone and What is the What
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When Abdi's family is kidnapped, he's forced to do the unthinkable: become a child soldier with the ruthless jihadi group Al Shabaab. In order to save the lives of those he loves, and earn their freedom, Abdi agrees to be embedded as a spy within the militia's ranks and to send dispatches on their plans to the Americans. The jihadists trust Abdi immediately because his older brother, Dahir, is already one of them, protégé to General Idris, aka the Butcher. If Abdi's duplicity is discovered, he will be killed.

For weeks, Abdi trains with them, witnessing atrocity after atrocity, becoming a monster himself, wondering if he's even pretending anymore. He only escapes after he is forced into a suicide bomber's vest, which still leaves him stumps where two of his fingers used to be and his brother near death. Eventually, he finds himself on the streets of Sangui City, Kenya, stealing what he can find to get by, sleeping nights in empty alleyways, wondering what's become of the family that was stolen from him. But everything changes when Abdi's picked up for a petty theft, which sets into motion a chain reaction that forces him to reckon with a past he's been trying to forget.

In this riveting, unflinching tale of sacrifice and hope, critically-acclaimed author Natalie C. Anderson delivers another tour-de-force that will leave readers at the edge of their seats.