FINISHED: 
Engle, Margarita. (2014). Silver people: Voices from the Panama Canal. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[The blatant racism and horrific conditions surrounding the monstrous undertaking of the construction of the Panama Canal is told through the voices of characters such as Mateo, a 14-year-old Cuban who lies about his age in order to be able to work on the project; Anita, a young, female herb collector/seller; Henry, a Jamaican hoping to send money back home; and various U.S. historical figures such as U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (“All around me, workers with shovels / are making the mud fly, the white / Americans supervising while black / islanders dig, on hillsides / so steep / and unstable / that it would be a real / waste to risk wrecking / valuable / machines”).  Engle’s devastating free-verse novel eloquently lays out the racial injustice between the whites and Europeans (paid in gold and referred to as “gold people”) who acted in more supervisory capacities, and those of color (paid in silver, they became known as the “silver people”) who had to not only deal with deplorable and dangerous working conditions, but also segregation and horribly inadequate living conditions.  Especially compelling are sections containing poems from the voices of the jungle flora and fauna who also had to endure this environmentally disruptive project, with howler monkeys stating, in all caps, “WE HATE YOUR BOOM / WE FEAR YOUR BLAST / WE ROAR OUR FURY / GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY,” and trees lamenting “but our only movement / is growth / less / and less / growth / after each sunrise / of dynamite explosions / and sharpened blades / of the ruthless / ax.”  There is hope, though, as Henry and Mateo become friends (“Then we sit / together, / medium-dark / and dark-dark, / as if / the bizarre / Canal Zone rules / did not / matter. / They don’t.”), and Mateo and Anita marry.  In the Epilogue, a letter written from a character attending the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, mentions that though there is plenty hailing this new “man-made Wonder of the World,” no mention whatsoever is made of the “silver people” and what they endured. “No one cares because no one knows,” he writes. Well, thanks to Engle’s elegant and affecting novel, more will now know.  Included are a Historical Note and Selected References.]


STARTED:
Sedgwick, Marcus. (2014). She is not invisible. New York: Roaring Brook/Macmillan.

[.]


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FINISHED: 
Hartinger, Brent. (2013). The elephant of surprise. Seattle: Buddha Kitty.

[.]


STARTED:
Engle, Margarita. (2014). Silver people: Voices from the Panama Canal. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[.]


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FINISHED: 
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2014). The battle for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.


[.]


STARTED:
Hartinger, Brent. (2013). The elephant of surprise. Seattle: Buddha Kitty.

[4th in the Russel Middlebrook series (which includes The Geography Club).]

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FINISHED:
Feldman, Jody. (2014). The Gollywhopper Games:  The new champion. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Being the middle of three boys in his family, Cameron is used to not getting very much attention, but his time in the limelight has arrived when he is chosen to participate in the 2^nd Gollywhopper Games.  Naturally, Cameron makes it through the preliminary rounds to snag a spot in the final games, and it is here that he has to work through a series of word puzzles and challenges that take place in the magical, and unbelievable, Golly Toy and Game Company Headquarters.  This sequel to Feldman’s own The Gollywhopper Games (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2008) lacks the punch and wonder of its predecessor, not giving the reader a full sense of the world she has previously created. The answers to some of the puzzles leads Cameron and the other contestants to specific toys in the Golly Toy catalogue… thus making them so that we have to follow along while Cameron solves them, without getting a fair chance to do so ourselves, which is half the fun of a book of this sort.  In addition, some of the tasks/puzzles are strictly physical and, quite often, unbelievable (an enormous, indoor “wasteland” of rocks, caves and ponds??) and difficult to visualize.  While there are valuable messages about honesty, which ends up getting Cameron more attention that if he had kept quiet and won the million dollar prize, and finding your place in your family dynamic, those who appreciated the first title will certainly find enough to like here, but they may need to wait until the (teased) third book in the series to find what they are truly craving.]


STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2014). The battle for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[LOVE LOVE LOVE this series and push it on anyone and everyone who comes into the library.]


*

FINISHED:
De Angeli, Marguerite. (1949). The door in the wall. New York: Laurel-Leaf/Random House.

[Not my favorite Newbery winner, but better than I expected it would be.  For whatever reason, I thought that this was a fantasy title (a la Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain]...


STARTED:
Feldman, Jody. (2014). The Gollywhopper Games:  The new champion. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[LOVED the first one!  SO happy to see that there is now a sequel!!]


*

FINISHED:
Barakiva, Michael. (2014). One man guy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[Alek Khederian wants nothing more than to spend the summer at tennis camp, but his persnickety Armenian-American parents are forcing him to do summer school so that he can take honors-level courses in the fall.  A whole new world opens up to Alek, however, when Ethan, one of the “bad” kids at school who is also taking summer school classes, convinces him to skip school and take a train into New York, and even more so when Alek finds out that Ethan is gay.  Alek’s discovery and acceptance of his own sexuality happens too quickly, and some dialogue doesn’t ring true (“You two are so cute.  And you’re so lucky.  Gay is so ‘in’ right now.  I’m totally thinking about going lesbo.”), but there are some refreshing turns, like a bomb that Alek’s mother drops about her heritage, and how Alek’s parents respond to finding the two boys alone and shirtless in Alek’s room.   Frequent references to the Armenian genocide expose a brutal history of which many may be unaware, and the novel tackles the complexities that can arise when we expose certain aspects of our identities.  A recipe for stuffed grape leaves is included in this solid tome that deals with its subject matter in a refreshingly non-“issue” fashion. .]

STARTED:
De Angeli, Marguerite. (1949). The door in the wall. New York: Laurel-Leaf/Random House.

[Brushing up on past Newbery winners.]


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