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I like to call these books "weepies." Some children adore books that make them cry. Some parents can't figure out what the attraction is to these "downer" books.
| Carey, Janet Lee |
Wenny Has Wings
Eleven-year-old Will and his seven-year-old sister were both killed after being hit by a truck, but Will resisted following his sister into the golden light because he was worried about his parents. So he came back. During the weeks and months he was in the hospital while his broken bones healed, Will writes letters to his sister. Sometimes they are angry, sometimes funny. He got the idea from James, a therapist Will's grief-stricken parents have hired to help Will cope. Will is not only angry with Wenny. He is plenty mad about the way there is no air to breath in his house and he feels like his father is angry at him for surviving. Neither of his parents are giving Will the emotional support he needs.
There is a lot to like about this book in spite of the fact that this particular eleven-year-old has coping skills far beyond his years. Don't forget the tissues.
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| Couloumbis, Audrey |
Getting Near to Baby
This Newberry honor story is told by twelve-year-old Willa Jo, who at the opening of the story is up on her Aunt Patty's roof to watch the sunrise. However, she finds herself unable to come down once the sun has risen and her mute little sister has come out to join her. While they bake in the summer heat on top of the roof, Willa Jo thinks about the events which has brought them to live temporarily with childless Aunt Patty and Uncle Hob. This is a sad story with a hopeful ending.
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| Creech, Sharon |
Chasing Redbird
This is an absolutely sweet story. Zinnia Taylor is tired of being used by boys to get close to her gorgeous older sister, she is tired of folks asking her, "which Taylor are you?" She wants to be and do something special. This story is placed under the sub-genre of death because Zinnia's favorite aunt had died and she and her uncle are still grieving.
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| Creech, Sharon |
Love That Dog
A novel told in blank verse, Love That Dog is the poetry journal of Jack who starts his journal by refusing to write poetry because that's what girls do. Eventually, he writes poetry but only allows his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry to put it up on the board anonymously. Jack grows as a poet from September to June in this funny and sad book.
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| Crutcher, Chris |
The Sledding Hill
Crutcher is no stranger to censorship. His compelling novels are filled with hurting teenagers who try to deal with what life serves up and are written using language that teenagers often use. In The Sledding Hill, we have a dead narrator, Billy Bartholomew, who is sticking around because he feels he has to help his best friend, Eddie Proffit recover from the dual loss of his father and Billy, both in violent accidents, in the space of a month.
Crutcher cleverly inserts himself as a character in the book as author of the book Warren Peece, which the high school librarian has assigned in her Really Modern Literature class. Eddie loves the book and the class. Warren Peece contains some "bad" language and a gay character which offends a student and the parents of another. They take their complaint to the school board, which happens to be dominated by an English teacher, Mr. Tarter, who is also pastor of the fundamentalist church in town. When the school administration pulls the book and forbids the librarian to teach it, Eddie, who has had his own problems with Reverend Tarter, decides to take him and the issue of intellectual freedom on.
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| Fine, Anne |
Up on Cloud Nine
Ian and Stolly are best friends. In fact, they are practically brothers as Ian's adoptive parents often step in to feed, nurture and protect Stolly in the absence of his successful, workaholic parents. Stolly is an unusual boy, perhaps mentally ill, but his friend likes to think of him as being on cloud nine, instead of confronting his fears that Stolly needs to be protected from himself. This book is often unbelievable, but quite an engaging read.
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| Fleischman, Paul |
Whirligig
This story is told in four parts and is about a boy named Brent. After being humiliated at a party, he makes a series of bad choices which results in the death of an innocent girl. It is the story of his healing and redemption and recommended for students in grades 7 and up.
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| Freymann-Weyr, Garrett |
When I Was Older
I read Freymann-Weyr's newest book, My Heartbeat, a few months ago and loved it so I wanted to try When I Was Older, her first novel. I liked it very much. Sophie Merlinger lives in New York City with her sister and mother. Her father was kicked out of the house several years earlier but visits occasionally. He is charming but irresponsible. Sophie is very bright and thinks she wants to go to medical school. She's upset because all of her friends who are boys seem to want to become boyfriends and that is the last thing that Sophie is interested in, so she is losing her friends. A new friend enters her life who would like to be a boyfriend, but respects Sophie's wish to be just friends. This makes Sophie happy, right?
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| Hannigan, Katherine |
Ida B...an her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world
In my humble opinion, Ida B... should have won the Newbery this year. While Kira-Kira is a very lovely story. Ida B grabbed me immediately. She is quite a distinctive, likable, real character. I started smiling on page one, burst into tears a short time later and rooted for this little fourth-grader to find her way for the rest of the book. She is quite an individual with a unique set of problems, sometimes caused by her own stubborness.
This novel could also be used as a great example of descriptive and figurative language.
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| Hoffman, Alice |
Green Angel
This book requires you to work and therefore, is not for everyone. However, it is a beautiful and lyrical novel of loss and renewal. Green is fifteen. She is angry with her parents and sister when they leave her behind to travel to the city to sell their vegetables. She chooses not to say good-bye to them and that is the last she sees of them. They die in a terrible fire and Green is left on her own. This slim book is beautifully written, filled with metaphors and symbolism, and beautifully designed, with heavy pages and gorgeous illustrations. Hoffman's other YA novel, Aquamarine was more straightforward, this novel is for those readers who like to fill in the blanks.
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| Holt, Kimberly Willis |
Keeper of the Night
I did not enjoy this book as much as I did her other novels and I am not sure why. The book got wonderful reviews. Isabel is thirteen and lives on the island of Guam. She is trying to hold her family together after her mother commits suicide. Her fisherman father is uncommunicative, her little sister begins wetting her bed and having nightmares, and her younger brother begins carving his anger into his bedroom wall and finally himself. Isabel has become the caretaker of the family and has no time to sort through her own grief and guilt as well as the normal grief that comes with being an eighth grader.
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| Kadohata, Cynthia |
Kira-Kira ( Winner of the 2005 Newbery Award)
Kira-kira means glittering or shining. It was Katie's first word taught to her by her sister Lynn, who tries to use often. Katie adores her older sister who earns straight A's, plans to go to college, buy her parents seven houses and live either in Chicago or near the sea. They move to a tiny town in Georgia so that Katie's parents can get work at the local chicken farms and someday save enough to buy a house. They are Japanese-American, one of only thirty such families in the area. The girls are trying to adjust to being friendless and invisible at school and missing their parents while they work long hours. Then Lynn gets sick.
This story is told in a memoir style by Katie, who while not a brilliant student, is a careful observer of life and people. While sad, it is not maudlin and Katie is a likable character who under goes significant transformation and is incredibly strong when she perceives herself to be weak.
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| Koss, Amy Goldman |
Side Effects
Fifteen-year-old Izzy feels a lump in her neck one morning, mentions it to her mother, who signs her out of school later that day to go to the pediatrician's for a check-up. He recommends an x-ray. Izzy and her mom are barely home when the doctor calls back saying that Izzy has lymphoma and sends them to children's hospital.
Izzy is abrasive and funny, her mother cries 24/7, her father walks around in a daze and her little brother is truly ticked off at the changes around their house. The tone is never maudlin thanks to Izzy's sometimes inappropriate sense of humor. She does use some crass language, but Koss paints a realistic picture of a young person facing a life-threatening disease complete with supersonic puking and the excrutiating pain of some chemotherapy.
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| Johnson, Angela |
looking for red
I read this book because I liked The First Part Last and wanted to read more by the author. This slim little novel is about a twelve-year-old girl named Mike who lives by the ocean with her parents and best friend and brother, Red who "was there one minute, gone the next." Sparingly told by Mike, we learn of her family and friends and the story of what happened to Red as Mike is able to tell the story.
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| MacLachlan, Patricia |
Edward's Eyes
Jake is part of a large family and has a vivid memory of his introduction to Edward, his younger brother at his birth. The two are extremely close and Edward is quite unique. Edward, in turn, forms a special attachment to the next new baby. In fact, he names her before she is even born. When tragedy strikes, Jake must come to terms with loss and find a way to go on. There was a lot to like about this short book; nice sibling relationships, quirky Edward, but it felt a little too rushed. |
| Shusterman, Neal |
Everlost
Everlost is where Nick and Allie wind up after they died when the cars their fathers were driving hit each other head on. Unfortunately for Nick and Allie, they collide as they are heading "toward the light." Nine months later, they awaken near the scene of the accident in a "dead zone" and they meet Lief, a child who died near the beginning of the twentieth century.
Lief is afraid to leave the forest which died and passed over into Everlost because when an "afterlight" walks in the world of the living, they sink and Lief is terrified of sinking into the center of the Earth. He is also terrified of the McGill, the Haunter and other marauding bands of the souls of children who got lost on their way "to the light."
Shusterman imagines a fascinating world which is like our own, peopled with interesting characters and filled with humor as well as adventure and mystery. It's a real page-turner.
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| Sonnenblick, Jordan |
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie
Steven Alper sits on stage at his graduation from eighth grade and reflects on the year. His five-year-old brother was diagnosed with leukemia in October and his and his family's world was turned upside down. His mother quit her teaching job to care for Jeffrey, his father retreated into silence and Steven retreated into his drumming and did little or no school work except journaling in English class but turning down the pages so his teacher wouldn't know about his brother's cancer.
This is not a predictable novel about cancer. It is often laugh-out-loud funny. Despite the eight year difference in age, Steven and his brother are very close. Steven is a likeable character and life in his middle school sounds real. All-in-all, a satisfying read to laugh and cry over. Thanks to Mrs. Mak for suggesting the title and loaning her book to me!
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| Swanson, Julie A. |
Going for the Record
Seventeen-year-old Leah Weiczynkowski eats, sleeps and breathes soccer. In the beginning of the summer before her senior year, she makes the regional Olympic Development Team and is on her way to making the National Olympic Development Team and getting noticed by college soccer coaches. She is bursting with this news when her number one fan and "chauffeur," her dad picks her up from tryouts. Unfortunately, he has news of his own. During the week she was away at tryouts, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has about three months to live.
This is a weepy with a capital w, especially at the end. It is also a lovely story about an athletic girl and her wonderful relationship with her parents. It is also a good soccer story.
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| Turner, Ann |
Hard Hit
Tenth grader Mark Warren seems to have it all, a family that gets along, a dog, friends, baseball. He's a great pitcher thanks to talent and demanding coaching from his dad and his baseball coach. He even has a crush. So he's a hard hit with his pitching, but he and his family take a hard hit when one phone call turns his life upside down and he and his family learn that his dad has pancreatic cancer.
Every word counts in this slender novel as Turner packs the details and emotions of the rollercoaster that is life with a cancer patient.
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| Yeomans, Ellen |
Rubber Houses
In this spare, blank verse novel, Kit shares the events of what should be one of her most exciting years; spring of her junior year to spring of senior year. Instead, she divides her year into five parts corresponding to the rhythms of baseball, her favorite sport and a passion she shared with her brother, Buddy, eight years her junior.
In April, Buddy is diagnosed with cancer and is dead by August. Kit and her parents each retreat into their own worlds of grief. To their credit, her parents send Kit to a group assisting young people who have lost a sibling. By the following spring, Kit has begun to heal.
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| Zinnen, Linda |
Holding at Third
Thirteen-year-old Matt Bainter has a lot on his plate. He is the middle child of a large family, a baseball prodigy and his much-adored nineteen-year-old brother may be dying of cancer. For the last year, Matt has been his brother Tom's rock with his can-do attitude. Now Tom's only hope is an experimental stem cell treatment at a university hospital a few towns away. Matt agrees to leave his school and his baseball team and start over; for Tom, so that he can be there for Tom to get him through the next hurdle. His new school is thrilled to have him on the team. Everyone thinks Matt can handle the pressure. Can he?
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