Doll Bones

Black, Holly. (2013). Doll Bones. Simon & Schuster: New York, NY.

Awards: Newberry Honor Book Award
Grade appropriate: 6th-8th
Pages: 244
Lexile: 840L
DRA: 60
Topics: Adventure, Friendship
             Dolls, Ghosts, Family Problems

Summary: Poppy, Zach and Alice have been best friends since childhood. Ever since they can remember they have been playing an imaginary game with dolls and action figures- a game that includes pirates, mermaids, warriors, and the queen that rules and curses everything and everyone, the Great Queen, a bone-china doll that sits in a cabinet in Poppy's house. Poppy has been having dreams about a ghost name Eleanor, she is the girl who's bones where used to make the Great Queen and is asking to be buried in her grave. Afraid to be cursed by the doll, all three friends set out on a quest to deliver the doll to her grave in East Liverpool, Ohio. Their journey brings them all kinds of trouble; stealing boats, bikes, breaking into a library, and their friendship is put on the line. Weird things happen in their journey that are unexplainable; people see the doll as a real girl, the doll dissapears and appears in unexpected places, and she enters their dreams to explain her story. Poppy, Zach, and Alice will go all the way to finish their quest even if it's the last game they play.

Reader's response: Doll Bones hits many important topics related to middle school age children. One of the topics is growing up. In the book Poppy compares growing up to dying. She feels that both Zach and Alice are changing, that they spend more time doing extra-curriculum activities than playing, she's afraid of loosing her childhood friends. Zach's dad is forcing him to grow up and throws away his action figures. The other topic it covers is friendship, this three characters have been through thick and thin together. They play their imaginative game because they truly have a passion for it, even though they are scared of being teased at school if anyone finds out. Family problems are a topic amongs all three characters; Poppy's parents are always too busy, Alice's grandmother is too strict, and Zach's dad comes in an out of his life.  First time crush also comes into play in the book, when Zach realizes Alice wants to be more than friends. Besides being a great, scary ghost story, the plot can relate to many young-adult readers.

 Other books by   Black Holly:

           

Liar & Spy

Stead, Rebecca. (2012). Liar & Spy. Wendy Lamb Books: New York, NY.

Subjects: Family, Friendship, Beloning, Bullying, Self-discovery

Grades: 6th-8th

Pages: 180

Summary: Seventh grader Georges moves to an apartment in Brooklyn, NY and has to adapt to changes in his life, his father's layoff, his mother's extra shifts at the hospital, and getting tease at school. He tends to keep his feelings to himself even when his dad gives him plenty of opportunities to "pour his heart out".  He meets Safer, a twelve year old boy spy and becomes his recruit. They both spy on Mr. X, who Safer assures is committing crimes inside his apartment. Safer teaches Georges how to be observant, search for evidences, and be a good liar. Safer pushes the limit when he decides to break in to Mr. X's apartment to investigate. Georges is put in  a tough spot, he doesn't want to commit a crime himself, but he doesn't want to loose his only friend. 

Reader's Response: The novel contains rich vocabulary through out the story such as premonition, spindly, exasperation, espionage, unami and much more. The novel can be use to teach unknown words using clues from the text. Just like Georges learned to be observant to become a good spy, students can practice their writing skills by writing their observations at school or at home. The main character was names after the artist Georges Seurat, students can research about Seurat and make a painting using pointillism.

Rebecca Stead Official Site 

Lesson Plans by Random House

Other Young Adult books by Rebecca Stead:

Monster

Dean, Walter Myers. (1999). Monster. Harper Collins: New York, NY.

Young Adult Drama
Awards: National Book Award
               Coretta Scott King Award
               Michael L. Printz Award
Ages: 12 and up
Grade level: 9-12th

Summary: The novel is written in first person from the perspective of  fourteen year old Steve Harmon, who is awaiting trail for murder and facing a death sentence. He is being accused of participating as a lookout in the robbery and death of a store clerk. The prosecuting attorney, Sandra Perocelli, describes him as a monster. At times Steve feels that his defense attorney,  Kathy O'Brien, is just doing her job and doesn't believe his innocent. Steve attempts to escape his reality by writing a screen play about his own trial while waiting his sentence.

Reader's response: This novel is written as a screen play with journal entries mixed in. The novel lets readers visualize as they read, specially the descriptions of life in the penitentiary. It can be used to teach many skills in reading and writing. Advance readers can response to the issues raised in the novel such as the practices in the justice system and life in the institutions while citing information. It is a good resource to teach students how to write a screen play or drama. It is an excellent novel that can be use across curriculum. It can be included in reader theater class, students can perform the novel in a school play since it is written in that format. It can be part of a government class when studying about democracy, the justice system, due process of law, and the judicial system. In Social Studies it can be use to teach the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Another example, is to use the novel in a debate class using text evidence students can take and defend the main character's innocence or guiltiness.

Walter Dean Official Site

Lesson plans by We the People Program

Other Young Adult Books by Walter Dean Myers:

Gabi: A Girl in Pieces

Quintero, Isabel. (2014). Gabi: A Girl in Pieces. Cinco Puntos Press: El Paso, TX.

Awards: YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

Grades: 7th -12th

Pages: 284

Summary: Gabi is a Mexican-American senior in high school that finds poetry to be therapeutic and powerful. Besides dealing with her mom's constant reminders to loose weight, she also carries the load of dealing with her father's addiction, the pregnancy of her friend Cindy, and the coming out of her friend Sebatian.  She often argues with her mom for giving her younger brother more freedom only because he's a boy. And just in case the load is not heavy enough, her mom is having a baby! Gabi is having a difficult time being Mexican-American. Gabi is a hardworking student and wants to to attend Berkley and move out when she graduates. Her mom, rooted in her Mexican traditions, wants her to first learn how to do house chores order to find a husband. Cindy writes all types of poems to describe her feelings regarding family relationships, love, self-worth, death, culture, and pains and pleasures of adolescence. 

Reader's Response: What I enjoy most of reading this book is the many connections I can make with Cindy. I'm also Mexican-American and being Mexican-American can have its pros and cons, but just like Cindy I learned to take the positive from each ethnicity and make it my own. I enjoy the many words and phrases in Spanish used through out the story, it gave the characters their unique personality. What I appreciate was all the poetry inside this fiction story. For every sweet or bitter event, there was always a poem pair with it, as well as the names of poets and their poems. I actually looked up some that were mentioned in the novel. This is a great novel to let students read autobiographically if they can relate growing up being Mexican American or read vacarious 

to look through the window of the life of a Mexican American girl. This book is also a great book to teach fiction and poetry.

Isabel Quintero Official Site and Twitter

Poetry Foundation

Teacher's Guide by Cinco Puntos Press

Other poetry fiction novels:

The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman. (2007). The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Hachette Book Group: New York, NY.

Young Adult Fiction
Age range: 12 & up
Page count: 230
Awards: National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Summary: Arnold AKA Junior lives with his family in the Spokane Indian reservation. He gets ridicule because he was born with hydrocephalus (swollen of the brain), but fortunately he has his warrior friend Rowdy that defends him from anyone and anything. Arnold draws to be understood, he finds humor in his troubled life by drawing cartoons about the events and people that surround him. Mr. P, his teacher, advices him to leave the reservation and pursue a better education. Arnold wants to be successful so he enrolls at Reardan, a rich, all white school. Being the only Native American Indian in the school he has trouble fitting in. He is consider a  traitor for leaving the reservation. He feels life is a struggle trying to be an individual and being a member of a community.When he joins the school's basketball team and has to play against his reservation, he is consider an even bigger enemy, even by Rodwy. Arnold becomes friends with kids at Reardan and he finds out that if he lets people in to his life they can be pretty amazing, even they're a world different.

Reader's response: The book is based on the author's own experience and gives the reader an opportunity to look at the lives of American Indians today. The author does an excellent job of describing how many people of a minority community, including myself, feel or are made to feel when attempting to break away from the life we were expected to live. Just like Arnold, we try to find success while keeping our culture and heritage alive.
Arnold's diary is hilarious! It kept me laughing out loud the entire time. And the comic illustrations just add to the humor. I enjoy the 1st person narrative of Arnold, the author did a fantastic job of bringing out the character's unique personality in every page. He has a way of describing a sorrowful event and turn it into a funny story without trying too hard. He's a natural. I found myself literally crying and laughing at the same time.

Lesson plans by Penguin Random House

Sherman Alexie's Official Site and Twitter

Also read Thunder Boy by Sherman Alexie: