A Book Review Starring "Hold Tight, Don't Let Go" by Laura Rose Wagner

The short version:
In the aftermath of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake that destroys their home and kills their mother, 16 year old Magdalie and her "sister" Nadine must live with their uncle in a makeshift camp. When Nadine's American father sends for her, Nadine sort of promises to send for Magdalie. Left essentially on her own for the first time in her life, unable to attend school anymore, Magdalie must adapt to a new way of life while searching for a way to make money so she can join Nadine in America.

The long version:
How long ago must an historical event have occurred to constitute it being the basis for a novel of historical fiction?

I want to call this historical fiction (and I mean that in the best of ways) even though it takes place just five years ago. Wagner does an excellent job of integrating not only the larger events of the earthquake but the daily minutia of life after the earthquake into the narrative of the story. Sometimes when you read historical fiction you get that kitchen-sink feeling that the author was so jazzed to learn his or her stuff that she threw it all in the book. But there is a nice sense of restraint here, Wagner illustrates the devastation of the earthquake as it appears to this 16 year old girl, not in any overwritten, all-encompassing encyclopedic way. She's able to express the craziness and devastation, but also the tedium of having nowhere to go and nothing to do, no jobs or home to attend to.

Aspects of the narrative felt like a first novel. Some of the plot points were very pointed, not terribly nuanced, but still effective. Later in the novel there's a pleasant romance subplot that doesn't feel entirely necessary.

But none of those things detract from the novel overall, in which Wagner has created an engaging main character whom you want to follow and see what happens to her all the while getting an intimate look into a part of the world that feels so far away.

Quite a commendable first novel, particularly given such a large undertaking of melding a traditional narrative with historical events set in (what was for me) an unfamiliar culture.

A Book Review Starring "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander

The short version:
Told in verse, 12 year old twins Josh and Jordan Bell are starters on their junior high school basketball team. But when Jordan gets close to the new girl at school, Josh feels a rift growing between them that grows as their team moves closer to the championships.

The long version:
Endearing and charming middle grade read. Alexander does an excellent job of describing the action and minutia of basketball with vernacular that's accessible and still feels true to a 12 year old voice. The familial relationships between Josh, his brother and his parents are quite lovely.

While the main plot revolves around basketball, it's also a book about how the rules of basketball apply to life. Alexander intersperses the narrative with "basketball rules" that even those not acquainted with the game will have no trouble identifying as life lessons for a middle grader.

The plot takes an unexpected darker turn, unexpected even though Alexander sets the reader up for it quite well. While surprising in a way I wasn't prepared for, this wasn't my novel to write. Maybe I was just too involved, a testament to the writing, but Alexander manages the darker turn and the ensuing conclusion with eloquence and grace.

A Book Review Starring "Game" by Walter Dean Myers

The short version:
New York City senior Drew is looking forward to the second half of basketball season. He's the starting guard at James Baldwin Academy and is hoping a winning season will translate into an athletic scholarship. But he'll have to adapt to the unexpected when a white transfer student gets a starting position and he's forced to consider his coach's team ethic even when he'd rather shoot and play individual ball.

The long version:
My first Walter Dean Myers book!

And what a great first book to start with. As you read his slim book (218 pages) you feel you're in trusted hands. He writes with a confidence and ease that masks the work he put into it.

Drew is an engaging main character you want to follow from the start. He's smart, interesting and well-liked, yet young and still has things to learn, especially when it comes to playing team basketball and adapting to other personalities. His first-person narration is very entertaining and a clear testament to the writer as Myers infuses his narrative with the vernacular of an African-American teen that's accessible and flows well throughout and at the same time is insightful within the mindset of a teen character.

There's a lot of basketball narration to the story. I always find description of sports events hard, even if you're familiar with the sport. Myers has lengthly narrations of multiple games, he not only creates narratives that are visual and fast paced like a game, but does so from Drew's point of view with a street and basketball slang mixed in that comes across seamlessly and makes for an easy read.

I couldn't help reflecting on Myer's New York Times editorial from last summer in which he reflected upon his own childhood growing up without books that were written about and for kids like him. You can't help but feel as if he wrote this book for his younger self, and all the younger selves of him out there today. "Game" was written in 2008 and there's some references to the internet or cell phones that put it in a present day historical context, but Myers also manages to give a nice sense of timelessness to it so you can see the book aging well for kids ten years down the line.

Regarding the size and page length. Myers manages to do a lot in 218 pages. It's a compact book, both in page number and size (maybe it's 8x6 inches, eyeballing it alone) and I think it makes for an inviting book, particularly when it comes to boys who aren't of the million-page-fantasy-tome reading variety. And I think there's something to be said for a book that doesn't physically intimidate a reluctant or occasional reader.

A Book Review Starring "Little Peach" by Peggy Kern

The short version:
Michelle, 14, finds herself alone in the world after the death of her caretaker grandfather, and abandonment by her drug addicted mother. Clutching half an address of a former friend, she boards a bus to New York with the last of her money and soon finds herself befriended by Devon upon arrival. With few options, Michelle takes him up on his hospitality and promise of family, only to be quickly indoctrinated into child prostitution alongside with Baby and Kat, the other members of his "family."

The long version:
A dark, well-researched and plausible tale of human sex trafficking. Kern has not only written a sure handed, tight (for it's a slim 190 pages) drama but it moves quickly and provides a vivid, explicit rendering of a way of life most of us don't have much first hand exposure to. Michelle is a sympathetic, well drawn main character you empathize with from the start. There is much in the way of drug abuse, rape, profanity, pedophilia and physical abuse and while it's told with a strong degree of explicitness, all are used within the context of the story.

Perfect for fans of Sapphire's Push, Melvin Burgess's Smack, Patricia McCormick's Cut, and Ellen Hopkins novels.

(Review of an Advanced Reader Copy)