The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman

Eddie Ball lives in a trailer park with his mom.  She works at a Finkel Foods but is dismissed when the company starts losing sales.  About that time Eddie, with the help of a friend, Annie, enter a competition hosted by Finkel Foods and wins the chance to earn one million dollars if he can hit a shot from the foul line during half-time of a NBA playoff game. Eddie works hard to get ready for the shot, but Mr. Finkel is working hard to stop him. Will Eddie's hard work, and supportive friends and family get him through?

I read this book because it is one that is sometimes one of the Battle of the Books titles.  It is cute, and I like the friend relationship between Eddie and Annie. I wondered if the writer would have him make the shot or miss it but then learn a valuable lesson.  It could have gone either way and have been a good book. Gutman is an interesting author.  I have enjoyed some of his books, and really disliked others.  I think this one is somewhere in the middle.  No rave review, but a good choice for a youngish child who likes sports. (2006, 126 p.)

PS: This book suffered from a series of unattractive covers. 

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

This is a memoir of a man who dedicated his professional life as a lawyer to trying to help people on death row and others with unjust sentences of life imprisonment.  Stevenson explains that poor black people and people with mental diability are much more likely to end up on death row than average white people are.  He recounts several cases when people were convicted of crimes on little evidence, just because they were convenient and helpless scapegoats for police trying to pin a crime on someone.  Other of the people he describes were imprisoned as juveniles and spent their whole adult life in prison with no chance of parole.  Still others he tried to help were women who had still born babies, but were convicted of killing their infants. It is a heart wrending story told with honest and accessible prose. 

I read this book because I had read several fluffy novels in a row and thought I was ready for something a little more serious.  It was super serious, but I am glad I read it.  I thought it was interesting that he clamed that black people in the US had gone through four kinds/periods of oppression; inslavement up until the civil war, Jim Crow laws until the mid 1900's, civil rights struggles of the mid1900's and mass imprisonment starting in the 1970's.  In my mind I knew that blacks were over-represented in prisons, but I had never put it on a similar level of oppression as enslavement or Jim Crow laws. The story of Stevenson's strugglesto find justice for wrongfully imprisoned black people at least suggests it is a problem much bigger than most people think. The book has been made into a motion picture, and as a result it is on the top of the Overdrive checkout lists right now. (2014, 336 p.)

Crispin and the Cross of Lead and Crispin at the Edge of the World by Avi

Astor's son has always lived with his mother on the edge of starvation in a small town in 14th century England.  His mother has been shunned for some reason her son doesn't understand, and he shares in her status.  When she dies of illness, Astor's son doesn't know where to go or what to do, but he soon discovers that the overseer of the manor wants him dead as well.  A kindly priest gives him a cross that used to belong to his mother, tells him his birth name is Crispin, and urges him to flee the city.  Out on the open road Crispin meets a juggler, called Bear, who takes him on, first as a servant and then as an apprentice.  The juggler is also more than he seems, and soon both he and Bear are running from the magistrates.  Will Crispin ever truly be free?

In the second book Bear and Crispin meet a pagan midwife and her harelipped ward. When the old woman is killed by an angry mob lead by the town bailiff, Crispin and Bear take the girl, Troth, under their care and together they flee the town and continue to search for a place where they can live in peace.  The constant stress takes a toll on Bear, and more and more Crispin must step up and make sure they all stay safe.


I read The Cross of Lead because I was considering using it for a Parent/Child book club.  After I finished it I decided to use a different book.  It is well written and the characters are sympathetic, but I think is was a bit too gritty for the age group that comes to my book club.  It also bothered me that they swear by various body parts of Jesus and God throughout.  Although these oaths are perhaps historically accurate, and most people wouldn't think of them as swearwords, that is what they felt like to me. (2002, 268 p.)

When I finished The Cross of Lead, none of the other books I had on hold had come in yet, so I went ahead and read the second book in the series.  I liked it as well as the first, but was a little disappointed to come to the end and realize that the story continues in a third book.  I should have known--book series rarely just come in two.  I may or may not read the third the next time I am between other reading choices.(2006, 234 p)

The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park

Two brothers in ancient Korea love the annual New Year's Kite Festival.  Kee-sup loves to make kites using amazing care and exactness.  His younger brother Young-sup has a natural gift for flying kites, reading the wind and instinctively knowing how the kite will react.  The two boys catch the eye of child emperor, and break with tradition while forming a special friendship.

This is an interesting historical fiction.  It is not new but it is on The Battle of the Books list this year so I thought I would read it.  It has some relational conflicts, but it is completely devoid of violence or malice. There are no fight scenes or battles, or evil overlords. It is a good choice for a younger advanced reader, or for kids whose parents don't want their kids reading the rougher stuff.  (2000, 136 p.)

The Real McCoys by Matthew Swanson

Moxie McCoy is a grade school age detective. She has read all of the Abigail Adams, Girl Detective novels multiple times and has the sleuthing thing down pat.  When the school's stuffed owl mascot, Eddie, is stolen, Moxie is on the case.  She is sure that if she solves the mystery she will get the top Eddie award.  But is she the best McCoy for the task?

This book has an interesting format.  Each page has illustrations and creative type setting, a little like the Geronimo Stilton books, but in black and white.  I would call it a "highly illustrated" book, but it isn't quite like a Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diary because the illustrations are more incorporated with the text.  It think it will be a good transition book for readers who are trying to move from graphic novels to more text dense literature.

Besides the format, the story is cute.  Moxie's eagerness is charmingly exasperating to all the adults in her life.  Under it all, she is is kind and lonely girl, looking for a friend.  I think the books multiple starred reviews are well deserved.  (2017, 322 p.)

Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes

This is a typical "dealing with the changes that comes with hitting puberty" book.  Joylin is a lady jock, and her favorite thing to to with her best friend, Jake, is to shoot hoops.  Then suddenly her attention keeps getting captured by a cute boy.  She makes her first attempts at makeup and wearing a skirt.  Her period starts and Jake gets a crush on her other best friend (who is a female). She gets through it all with only a few painfully awkward moments.  The interesting thing about this is the writing style.  The chapters are all very short and the language is minimalistic and snappy.  It was clearly written for a different group than the wordy fantasy novels.  I actually think it is a book that a reluctant reader lady jock would be willing to pick up and read.  I think Ms Grimes hit her target audience right on. 154 p.

Can you tell that I am trying to read a larger variety than usual?  It is because I am at the reference desk a lot now and I find I am only good a recommending some kinds of books.  So I am trying to improve my potential for service by trying new kinds of books.

Trouble-Maker by Andrew Clements

I am a fan of Andrew Clements.  I read just about everything I find that was written by him.  His books are short, and very readable.  They are all about young people, usually in 6th grade, who somehow realize they can do something extraordinary or change their life in some way.  There is always an adult involved, who ends up either mentoring the kid, or changing their own bad personality trait because of the child's example.  That basic plot summary fits Frindle, The School Story, The Landry News, and many others. It is a basic plot summary of this one as well.  Clay has been a troublemaker throughout grade school.  His pranks are mostly harmless, but earn him frequent visits to the principal's office.  Then one day Clay's brother, Matt, gets out of jail, and informs Clay that he is going to turn around his life, so that he never has to go through what he just went through.  Matt gets him to cut his hair, and buys him a new wardrobe.  Clay admires his brother enough that he promises to try to stop causing trouble at school.  It isn't easy.  His best friend has always been his willing accomplice in his pranks, and is not sure he likes the new, straight-laced Clay. Even though this is so much like Clements' other books, his character writing is such that the reader soon finds himself cheering for Clay, and hoping that the principal with give him the break he needs to go forward with his new resolve. Where as the last review, The Swallows and the Amazons, was a low/high book, this one is a good high/low (high age, low reading level) option.  A fifth or sixth grader could read and enjoy the story, even though it is closer to a 3rd or 4th grade reading level. (140 p.)