Middle Grades Pick: Quicksand Pond

Quicksand Pond
by Janet Taylor Lisle
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2017
240 pages
ISBN: 9781481472227


Quicksand Pond is the story of two strangers, young girls who meet on a pond in New England one summer. Jessie's family (minus her mother) travels to Rhode Island for the summer renting a decrepit cottage on the shore of Quicksand Pond and steps away from the Atlantic shores. Older sister Julia is not thrilled to be carted off to the backwoods where wi-fi is a joke. She soon discovers the beach and the local kids. Jessie finds a raft at the pond's edge and like a true adventurer, she pushes off on it to the middle of the pond. Without a pole or paddle, the raft is nearly worthless. Jessie uses reeds to pull herself back to shore hours later.

Local kid Terri Carr makes her presence known from the start. She tells Jessie about old stories that have become legends in the town. A husband and wife murdered in the big house on the pond years ago, the crime never solved. People drowning. Another house burned to the ground. Folks around there know who is responsible but Terri is not saying. Terri has her own baggage--her father has a mean temper and a quick hand.

An old woman lives in the huge mansion still. She was a girl when the family was murdered--they were her parents and she witnessed the crime. Now she's an old lady subject to flights of fancy. According to her nurse, the old lady never makes sense. But....what if Miss Cutting isn't just babbling? What if she carries the clues to solve the old cases?

Quicksand Pond has all the elements that make a strong middle grade read--an old unsolved mystery, a couple of drownings, a town rife with rumors, family money and family secrets, a rural setting far enough away from city life, a father who has failed, a family in ruins, two very different girls who meet and become friends, and an unknown villain who wants to keep the past buried forever.

A quick and enjoyable read!

Highly, highly recommended grade 4-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Beach Read Pick: The Lake House

The Lake House

by Marci Nault

Gallery Books

2013

 400 pages

Dive into this poignant novel rife with sweet romance, unlikely friendships, jealousy, tragedy, and hope. The lake community is small and secluded. Families living here have vacationed here since their childhood and now their children are all grown and have children of their own. Close-knit and guarded, the community does not welcome visitors, not even one of their own.

Victoria Rose grew up in a house on the lake. When the small, sleepy community wasn't exciting enough for her, she set her sights on Hollywood, becoming a famous actress, even winning an Oscar. Now, fifty years later, she's returning to the lake house from her youth. Her childhood friends are cold and downright mean, except for Molly--they remember when Victoria fled without saying good-bye and they haven't forgiven her for abandoning them and acting superior to them and their ways. High school sweetheart James still lives on the lake, and Victoria surprises herself by looking over at his house wondering if he's home and still awake.

Heather Bregman is a famous travel writer  being marketed by her fiance Charlie. Charlie is pushy and arrogant, riding Heather's coattails and using her to make money. Heather sees a small lake house for sale and flees Boston. It doesn't hurt that hot guy Tom visits his grandfather who lives in the lake house next door. Heather's dream is to fix up the small Victorian cottage and live and write in peace.

This is not the dream of the tight-knit elderly community. They don't want an outsider in their midst, and they don't want Victoria around either. Sarah and Agatha aren't worried. Victoria has never stayed at the lake. They figure she'll run away soon if history repeats itself.

What the community never counted on is that Victoria and Molly accept and welcome Heather. Although they are old enough to be her grandmother, Victoria and Molly help Heather and try to make inroads with the others.

This story is one of forgiveness and redemption, a story of deep and lasting, life-long love, a story with heart and compassion. If you read one book this summer, make sure it's The Lake House.

Highly, highly recommended for book clubs and summer reading. Some mature content, some "loose" conversations.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Non-Fiction Pick: Andrew Jenks: My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker

Andrew Jenks: My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker
by Andrew Jenks
Scholastic Press
2013
224 pages

Available March 1, 2013

If you’re under twenty-five and watch MTV, you know who Andrew Jenks is. Jenks is a wonderkid of film and ideas. He started the Hendrick Hudson Film Festival when he was just sixteen years old. By age 24, he had his own documentary series on MTV called “World of Jenks.”

His HBO film “Room 335” captures him moving into an assisted living facility and interviewing its older residents as to what is the meaning of life? Jenks finds that there was nothing to do all day except, “…board games, TV watching, nail polishing, and mealtime. And bingo. Bingo was big.” The movie shoot transforms his thinking. Jenks says, “I thought I was going to make a movie about a nursing home….I thought I was going to make a movie about old people, but left knowing that the movie was about Tammy, bill, Josie, Dotty, Elinor…” He sees them not as old people but as friends regardless the huge age difference.

The New York Post raved about the documentary, “It’s a gorgeous, hilarious, sad, wonderful, unblinking look at the joy of life—even at the end of it.”

This book documents each of Jenks’ endeavors in film and his job as correspondent for MTV covering the 2012 presidential election. Not just a filmmaker, Jenks felt that his job was to “vocalize their (young people’s ) interests.” The statistics are grim for people under 30. An average college student graduates with student debt and no hope of securing a job. 25% of those who had moved out of their parents’ house have had to move back home. Jenks believes that young people are getting the shaft from politicians. Most tax money supports programs for the elderly: Medicare gets $486 billion, yet education only gets $68 billion. And Jenks wants to be a “conduit” for his generation.

The blurb from the back cover says it best, “I want to tell the stories of my generation. I want to be a filmmaker that is able to capture what my generation thinks, how they act, and what they ultimately stand for.” (Andrew Jenks)

Highly recommended grade 7-up. Any future filmmaker/thinker, creator will love this book. Jenks’ book will resonate kids who dream big dreams.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Chick Pick: My Life Undecided

My Life Undecided
by Jessica Brody
RR Donnelley & Sons Company (Farrar Straus Giroux)
2011
299 pages
(Amazon has it listed as 320 pages, but my copy has 299)

Blogger's Note: I find the idea of a teen using a personal blog to make her decisions quite quirky and wish I had thought of this idea!)

Funny, quirky, comic, quick-witted, and over-the-top melodramatic Brooklyn Pierce is a character girls will love. She is so confused and in so much trouble, she turns to the "people" of the Internet to make her life's decisions for her. Since she burned down her mom's model home and faces arson charges and tons of community service hours in a local nursing home, she knows the decisions she has been making on her own just aren't good ones. She feels genetically pre-disposed and blames her DNA for making bad decision.

So Brooklyn posts her blog "My Life Undecided" and asks readers to choose for her. Their job is to choose which book she should read for English--The Grapes of Wrath or The Old Man and the Sea. Their second vote is whether she should sit alone in the cafeteria like a leper or hide out in the library like a wimp. A total of eleven people find her blog and decide she should read The Grapes of Wrath and have lunch in the cafeteria. Brooklyn is true to her blog readers and follows their directions.

Brooklyn sits alone at lunch and tries to eat quickly so she can escape, but as luck would have it, she begins choking on canteloupe. Lucky for her, someone grabs her from behind and wraps arms around her waist causing the canteloupe to dislodge. Her savior is a boy from her English class--Brian Harris. She's never noticed him before probably because she used to hang out with only the most popular people and Brian is just a quiet guy. Brooklyn soon nicknames Brian "Heimlich" on her blog and hot guy Hunter becomes Rhett Butler--in one comic moment, Brooklyn originally names him "Red" Butler, but her blog readers correct her and tell her the name is actually "Rhett."

When "Rhett" invites Brooklyn to a funky downtown club that his father has just opened, she knows it's off limits. Her parents would never allow her to go. She dearly wants to go and hang with Hunter, "Rhett," but leaves the choice to her blog followers. The majority assures her to stay away; it will only get her in trouble. Brooklyn follows them again and goes to dinner with her parents just blocks away from the club.

Performing community service in a nursing home is no laughing matter, but Brooklyn meets a crotchety old lady named Mrs. Moody who allows her to read to her. Soon Brooklyn actually looks forward to her visits and decides maybe old people aren't so bad after all, especially moody Mrs. Moody.

Brooklyn pines over Hunter, "Rhett" and can't see the good guy standing right in front of her Brian "Heimlich." It takes her blog readers to spell it out for her. In a cute twist, Brooklyn finds out Heimlich has been following her blog for weeks! Readers who like girl-y picks with plenty of comedy and drama will love My Life Undecided.

Highly recommended grades 7-up. No language, no sex, but mention of underage drinking and a "party." No more details mentioned other than that there was a party and people were drinking.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not received monetary compensation for this review.