DJ's Life in Fiction

Meggie Brooks by Daphne Woods (Princeton, NJ: Heather Press, 2010). Summary from Amazon.com : Meggie Brooks is the gripping story of a girl growing up in a small rural township in New Jersey, living an almost idyllic life, enjoying the beauty of her country environment, spending time with her sometimes dysfunctional relatives, and uncovering a family mystery. But that is only one side of the story. Although she is an excellent student, Meggie finds out early on what happens when she confronts the politically correct agenda of the schools. A young Meggie is silenced and traumatized for attempting to speak her views about global warming—views she has developed after watching a video on the subject with her parents. After that incident, she becomes wary of speaking out on issues in the classroom, and it is years before she finds the inner strength to defend her own views. She ultimately does, however, even becoming a lawyer in order to defend religious freedom and free-speech...

The Loser List by H.N. Kowitt (NY: Scholastic Press, 2011). Twelve-year-old Danny Shine has the usual problems of a geek in middle school, but he's OK with crushing on a cute girl, avoiding bullies, and hanging with his equally geeky best friend Jasper.  A run-in with tough girl Chantal lands Danny on the dreaded Loser List--written on the wall in the girls' bathroom.  His problems escalate when he tries to get his name off the list, and he finds himself in detention with scary guy Axl. But Axl turns out to be OK, or so Danny thinks until Axl implicates Danny in a shoplifting scam and alienates Jasper. Ah, but revenge is sweet, and Danny triumphs in the end, despite some public humiliation. This is an excellent pick for the legions of Wimpy Kid fans. Danny's a self-deprecating guy who haplessly lands in a tough situation. He uses his geeky interest in comics and drawing to help himself--a great lesson for kids of all ages about being true to oneself.  The pictures are ...

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (NY:  Razorbill, 2011). Josh and Emma are best friends and neighbors; at least until six months ago when Josh almost acted on his more-than-Platonic feelings and things got awkward.  Emma is serial dating and Josh is still embarrassed, but he brings Emma the AOL CD-ROM he gets in the mail for her to load onto her new computer.  Dial-up is slow, but they get on the Internet and find...Facebook.  They've never heard of it because it's 1996, yet they quickly discern that they're looking at the future: their future--and everyone else's they care to look up.  That's weird enough, but then they notice that their future changes every time they log on, and they start to think about how the present ripples into the future at the same time as what they're seeing in the future is impacting their present lives. This is such a wonderful premise, brimming with possibility, and Asher and Mackler do a great job of working with ...

The Jinx by D. F. Lamont (2011). Self-published.  Review copy provided by the author. Thirteen-year-old Stephen Grayson isn't sure what's going on, but he knows he's at fault somehow.  First he wrecks his brother's bike--spectacularly--on the first day of school, then there's the garage fire and a major explosion in science class, followed by a myriad of minor mishaps, and capped by a car crash.  And it's during the car accident that he connects the weird tingling in his hands and the subsequent disaster.  Once he's sure, he knows what he has to do--leave home.  Trouble follows him on the road, though, and soon he finds himself flung from a bus chasing down gigantic stone-like creatures and misshapen beasts, then kidnapped by some kind of neatnik cult.  The cult's leader explains that somehow Stephen has become the epicenter of a universal battle between the forces of chaos and order, and he must use his special powers to help the forces of order defeat...

Scary School by Derek the Ghost, illustrated by Scott M. Fischer (NY: Harper, 2011). Review copy provided by the author. At the Scary School, humans and scary creatures mingle, and lots of the human kids die, though some return in a different guise, like dragons. Many of the teachers routinely eat or otherwise kill students, including Principal Headcrusher, but most notoriously Dr. Dragonbreath.  The narrator, Derek the Ghost, died in a horrendous laboratory fire, but returned as a ghost because he'd always wanted to write a book, and with the Ghoul Games competition against the monster schools ahead in the coming school year, there will be lots to write about.  Kids are sure to find something funny in this humorous take on school jitters.  Sure, the other students can be mean at any school, but can they eat your brains or slash you to death?  And teachers can be frightening, but will any of them actually eat you, the way Mrs. T (a real T. rex!) does--if she's hungr...