When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan

Golio, G. (2011). When Bob met Woody: The story of the young Woody Guthrie. Illus. by M. Burkhardt. New York: Little, Brown. Folk singer Bob Dylan grew up as Bobby Zimmerman, the son of Jewish parents who dreamed of their son becoming an engineer. Instead, he was drawn to music and songwriting. This partial picture book biography examines the social and musical influences that created Bob Dylan--even explaining how his fondness for the poems of Dylan Thomas led to his name change. Despite his somewhat privileged upbringing, the future Dylan, who would go on to write some of the most famous protest songs of the 1960s, related to the stories about humble folks struggling to make a living. Woody Guthrie used his own musical talents to bring attention to those particular struggles. Perhaps they resonated so powerfully with Dylan because he often felt as though he were an outsider even in his hometown. Although brief information is provided about Dylan's early years, the focus of this book is his meeting with an ailing Guthrie who would provide inspiration for Dylan's future work. The author does not stint on Dylan's more questionable qualities such as his tendency to embellish his background so he seemed to have grown up working class and poor when nothing could be further from the truth. This is another strong effort from the author of last year's Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix.  This one needs to be read while listening to music from Dylan and from Guthrie in order to establish the proper mood. While the story is told in simple engaging fashion, a treat for the ear and heart, the acrylic and oil illustrations offer another treat: a folksy artwork for readers' eyes.

Fake Me a Match

Barnholdt, L. (2011). Fake me a match. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. Seventh grader Avery is in the middle of adjusting her life to accommodate her mother's impending marriage and the addition of a stepsister to the family. She is hopeful that Blake will turn out to be a BFF since she's just been dumped by her former best friend Sophie Burns. But her adjustment will require quite a bit of patience since Blake is accustomed to having things her way right now. Avery is also busy with the school charity project which involves a matchmaking service, and she decides to match up Blake with Sam, a neighborhood boy who Blake has a crush on. Somehow, things don't work out the way she expects, and she and Sam are matched. When they realize that they actually like each other, Avery must figure a way to keep both Blake and Sam happy.

Favorite Line:
"Will is obviously kind of clueless when it comes to middle school politics, otherwise he woudl have taken one look at Sophie's manicured nails and curled hiar and Michael Kors jeans and he would have known that she was not the type of friend that becomes your BFF" (p. 91).

The Visconti House

Edgar, Elsbeth. (2011). The Visconti house. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.  Middle grader Laura Horton and her family move from their home in Melbourne into a somewhat ramshackle and shabby house that some would consider to be a mansion. Laura's family is a bit eccentric with her mother cluttering the house with all of her various art projects, a penchant for the dramatic, and the collection of decidedly different albeit interesting friends. Laura herself has trouble fitting in at school as does Leon, another student new to the school. Laura is the butt of teasing because of her love for writing--she is constantly working on a story about dragons, even in school--while Leon is regarded as fragile compared to many of the other students. Somewhat to her chagrin, Leon and Laura become friends, growing closer as they try to uncover the house's secrets. Rumor has it that the original owner built this house for the woman he lived, but there is some tragedy surrounding that story.

As the two solve the mystery behind the story of the Visconti house, Laura is offered entree into the popular group of girls at school, but in order to claim her place, she initially rejects Leon's invitation to attend the school dance together. Does fitting in mean that Laura must give up the parts of her that are unique as well as shunning someone with whom she has so much in common? This story for middle graders makes it clear how high the price for fitting in may be.

Mission (Un)Popular

Humphrey, A. (2011). Mission (Un)popular. New York: Disney/Hyperion. It's the start of seventh grade for Margot Button and her best friend Erika, and they're all set to choose the perfect outfits for the first day. Maybe this will be the year she will finally catch the eye of Gorgeous George, the guy she's had her eye on for years. But Erika's mother decides to move her to a parochial school in order to remove her from the more unsavory elements in public school. Although the girls vow to keep their friendship alive, through a series of miscommunications, things fall apart. In addition to having lost her best friend, Margot has a lot on her mind: Her eyebrows need plucking, her triplet siblings need minding, and her new stepfather needs ignoring. She feels lost at school without Erika and is relieved when Em, a transfer student from New York, befriends her. Em is outspoken and daring and gives the school Mean Girl, Sarah, a run for her money. Naturally, Sarah strikes back, and the war is on. As Em's campaign against Sarah escalates, Margot finds herself becoming increasingly popular with her classmates--but at what price? As she moves further from the person she once was and the friends she once had, Margot hardly recognizes herself. Once Margot realizes that Em has some dark secrets in her past and has no problem with stretching the truth, she also wonders how much she can really trust her new friend.

Middle grade readers will enjoy the humor and realism in this book while realizing how quickly things can go wrong when the truth is stretched even a tiny bit. The characters have some complexity, and even the antagonist has her own motivation for behaving as she does. While there is much to admire about Em, there is also much to disparage, and readers may find themselves thinking about the many reasons for certain kinds of human behavior and realizing that bullying comes in many different forms.

Favorite Lines: "It's weird, isn't it, how other people's photos are boring...but you can look at a photo from your own life for ages" (p. 375).

"He flipped his hair, and suddenly I could see it. Em hadn't been that far off when she's said he was like a Surfer Ken doll. Gorgeous George was always cool, always well dressed, and he was incredibly hot. But he was also kind of empty, and a little bit plastic. Like another accessory in Barbie's closet" (p. 380).

Greek Myths

Turnbull, A. (2011). Greek myths. Illus. by S. Young. Candlewick. I've always loved reading myths and dreaming of the mortals and immortals that populated these myths.

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

Krishnaswami, U. (2011). The grand plan to fix everything. New York: Atheneum. Eleven-year-old Dini and her best friend Maddie love everything about Bollywood especially the beautiful, daring, and always optimistic star Dolly Singh. When her mother moves the family to Swapnagiri, a small town in India, for two years, Dini is dismayed and not exactly excited to leave everything familiar behind. The only thing that might make the move palatable is that Dolly lives and works in India too, and Dini thinks she just might meet her idol.

Hatch!

Munro, R. (2011). Hatch! Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Children. Upon discovering a nest, who hasn't been intrigued about what lies inside the eggs in that nest? This clever picture book provides some answers in an interactive fashion. The author/illustrator devotes two two-page spreads to each winged creature. The first spread asks readers to guess what kind of eggs these are and then on the facing page offers interesting clues and odd facts about the bird. The facts are contained in a colored shape precisely the shape of the egg or clutch of eggs on the facing page. When the page is turned, two brightly colored pages reveal the answer to whose eggs these are and offer even more interesting facts about the bird. Particularly appealing is Munro's refusal to paint the birds in isolation. Instead, she depicts them in their familiar natural habitat and shows other species that can be found in the same area, reminding readers of the interconnectedness of life. Thus, a mallard duck family is shown coexisting with a great blue heron, an alligator, an osprey, and a frog. Although readers are likely to be familiar with most of the nine birds she features, they certainly will not be familiar with the facts she provides or the particular characteristics of the eggs. The use of India ink and colored ink for the illustrations as well as plenty of space around the eggs allows the eye to be drawn to each unique egg, none of which is exactly alike. The back matter offers places to find more information as well as interesting bird-related vocabulary. Knowing how the author chose the particular birds for this text would have made it even better. This book would be a nice addition to a collection containing the impressive An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long.