Middle Grade – Page 2 – Required Reading

Graphic Novel, Memoir, Middle Grade, Non-Fiction

El Deafo

February 12, 2015February 10, 2015 Shay Shortt

by Cece Bell

ISBN 978-1-4197-1020-9

“Superheroes might be awesome, but they are also different! And being different feels a lot like being alone.”

When four-year-old Cece suddenly becomes violently ill, she wakes up in the hospital unable to hear, and has to be outfitted with a hearing aid. The next year she starts kindergarten at a special school for deaf kids where she learns lip reading. But when first grade rolls around, it is time for Cece to go to her neighbourhood school, where she will be the only deaf student. Trying to fit in at a new school is challenging enough, but Cece also has to wear the phonic ear, a large, two-part hearing aid that allows her to hear her teacher so that she doesn’t have to lip read all the time. Cece desperately wants to be taken for normal, but the phonic ear constantly draws attention to her deafness, and makes friendship complicated. Trying to make sense of her difference, Cece conjures up the character of El Deafo, who turns her disability into a superpower. Then Cece’s dream becomes a reality when her classmates realize that Cece can hear their teacher wherever she is in the school thanks to the microphone component of the phonic ear.

El Deafo is autobiographical but stylized; it draws on Cece Bell’s own personal experience of deafness, but the characters are portrayed as cartoony rabbit-like creatures, giving it a certain distance from real life. The graphic novel format gives Bell ample opportunity to experiment with the visual representation of sound. When the batteries in Cece’s hearing aid start to fade, the big black letters in the speech bubbles fade to grey and then go blank. When people fail to look at Cece so that she can read their lips, the speech bubbles are empty. But best of all is the way Bell shows that while Cece can sometimes hear the sounds just fine, they aren’t clear enough to understand; these speech bubbles are full of nonsense words, leaving the reader just as lost and confused as Cece.

While El Deafo is definitely about hearing loss, friendship is also a major theme. Cece just wants to find a friend who will treat her normally, and not make a big deal about her deaf friend, or do inconsiderate things like turn the lights off at a sleepover, leaving Cece unable to lip read. Cece’s first friend doesn’t make a big deal about her hearing, but she is also bossy and doesn’t want Cece to have any other friends. Her second friend is much less bossy, but she calls Cece her “deaf friend” and speaks so loudly and slowly that Cece has trouble reading her lips. However, there are complications and misunderstandings even with those friends who do treat her well, often because Cece struggles to pluck up the courage to speak up for herself.

Stories about kids with disabilities tend to contain a certain amount of bullying, but while the other kids in El Deafo are sometimes rude and inconsiderate, they are rarely outright mean. However, their behaviour still often results in Cece feeling excluded and lonely. Mostly, however, El Deafo is about Cece’s own internal conception of what it means to be deaf and therefore different. As much as she needs to find a good friend who accepts her and treats her well, she also needs to accept herself. One of the most heart-breaking moments in the story is when Cece refuses to learn sign language because she is worried people will stare at her. Bell is careful to point out in the afterword that these are her own personal memories from childhood, which aren’t always fair to the other people in the story, who were mostly well-intentioned but didn’t necessarily understand what they were doing wrong. Cece’s El Deafo character doesn’t just turn deafness into a super power; El Deafo is Cece’s more assertive self, the one that is brave enough to stand up and explain when something that her friends are doing is actually making things more difficult for her. Cece’s struggles with communication are complicated by her deafness, but not solely due to it, and many of her experiences will be recognized hearing readers, as well as members of the deaf community.

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You might also like Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Fiction, Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA+, Middle Grade

Drama

January 27, 2015January 16, 2015 Shay Shortt

by Raina Telgemeier

ISBN 978-0-545-32699-5

Callie has loved theatre, especially musicals, since attending a production of Les Miserables as a child. Quickly realizing that she couldn’t sing, Callie gravitated towards the stage crew of her middle school theatre group, where she becomes head of set design for the department’s production of Moon Over Mississippi. There she struggles to realize her grand visions on a limited budget, particularly her dream of incorporating a spectacular cannon into the show. But the drama department also has plenty of rivalries and personal dramas, including relationships between the performers, and conflicts between the different technical departments. When two cute twin brothers join the show, Callie’s life in the drama department becomes even more of an emotional rollercoaster.

As in real life, Raina Telgemeier’s fictional drama department is a haven for misfits and gay kids, who are welcomed by their peers. Truly reminiscent of the middle school years—even for those of us who didn’t actually go to a middle school—Drama brings to life familiar scenes of friendship and early romances. It is a daring for a middle grade book in that it features a young gay character who is slowly starting his coming out process, figuring out how to tell his friends and family. Telgemeier’s story mirrors the structure of a play, incorporating different acts, and setting an intermission in the middle of the story than allows for a jump cut to the dress rehearsal, moving the story along nicely. Her familiar bright, cartoony style echoes her popular autobiographical comic Smile, as well as her work on the Babysitter’s Club comics.

Callie’s romantic life was a bit overly busy, including two crushes (not an unrealistic number), but also a friend with an unrequited crush on her, and being mistaken for a friend’s girlfriend, after she’s spotted hugging him when he comes out to her. The constant changes in direction in her love life did sometimes threaten to overwhelm the story of the play, but things were on track to work out relatively well, before Telgemeier goes in for one twist too many, and actually ends up undermining a powerful scene. However, Drama remains a thoughtful and sympathetic story that gives middle grade readers credit for being able to deal with subject matter that is often present in their own lives but absent from fiction intended for them.

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Also by Raina Telgemeier:

Sisters

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade

The Iron Trial (Magisterium #1)

September 9, 2014September 8, 2014 Shay Shortt

by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

ISBN 978-0-545-52225-0

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book at ALA Annual 2014. All quotes are based on an uncorrected text.

“They all yelled in excitement. Tamara yelled because she was happy. Aaron yelled because he liked it when other people were happy, and Call yelled because he was sure they were going to die.”

Callum Hunt has been raised by a single father, who has taught him to fear and avoid magic, which took his mother’s life in the last mage war. But as the son two legacy students of the Magisterium, he must attend the Iron Trial, and do his best to fail the admissions test. If he passes, he will face a terrible choice between becoming a servant of the Magisterium, or having his magic bound, and his memory erased. But despite Call’s best efforts to fail the Iron Trial, one of the Masters sees something in him, and chooses him as an apprentice. If he can survive his Iron Year at the Magisterium, he will have learned enough to control his magic, and leave the school forever. But the Magisterium knows how to bind its apprentices tight, and in a year, Call may not want to leave after all, whatever his father has taught him.

Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown) and Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) team up for The Iron Trial, the first in a planned series of five books about a magical world haunted by its war-torn past. Given Clare’s background as a writer of fan fiction, comparisons to Harry Potter are inevitable, and certainly there are parallels beyond the magic school setting. Call’s mother died saving him from The Enemy of Death, a Voldemort-like figure who defected from the Magisterium. Once at school, he becomes friends with Aaron and Tamara, forming a familiar trifecta consisting of two boys and a girl. However, those who dismiss The Iron Trial as a Harry Potter rehash may not have read all the way to the end.

In the introduction to the Advance Readers Edition of The Iron Trial, Black and Clare write, “We wanted to tell a story about a protagonist who had all the markers of a hero: tragedy and secrets in his past, magic power. We wanted people to believe they knew what kind of story they were in for. And then we wanted them to be surprised…” However, the first major reversal doesn’t come until about 200 pages in; subverting tropes means setting up expectations beforehand, and the first two-thirds of the book are heavy on world-building. Anyone who quit before that point could be forgiven for thinking they had been reading an unremarkable addition to the magic school genre. However, the book really comes together in the final 100 pages, where we see Black and Clare making good on their promise to surprise readers that “are familiar with the tropes of fantasy.” The Iron Trial clearly acknowledges its debt to Harry Potter, and other magic school books that have gone before, while paving its own way forward. This is a series to watch.

Action Adventure, Challenges, Fiction, Middle Grade, Mystery

Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies

December 19, 2013 Shay Shortt

by Jordan Jacobs

ISBN 978-1-4022-7560-9

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book at ALA Midwinter 2013.

“With her entire being, Samantha wanted to be an archaeologist, just like her Uncle Jay. On weekends, her parents would sometimes drive her from their home in Davis, California, and drop her off at her uncle’s university on the far side of San Francisco Bay. Samantha and Jay would talk for hours, sprawled among his notes and photographs.”

Twelve-year-old Samantha Sutton dreams of being an archaeologist when she grows up, just like her Uncle Jay. So when her Uncle invites her to spend the summer helping him on an excavation at Chavín de Huántar in the Peruvian Andes, it’s a dream come true. Unfortunately, the only way to convince her parents to let her go is if her thirteen-year-old brother, Evan, goes too. Sam is determined not to let her brother ruin her summer, even when the grad student assigned to supervise them seems to prefer Evan, despite his lack of interest in archaeology. Unfortunately, Adam’s prejudice isn’t her biggest problem. Chavín de Huántar is being looted despite the careful precautions being taken at the site, and tensions between the archaeological team and the local government are rising. Residents of the valley blame El Loco—the Madman—for the thefts, and it is up to Sam to figure out if El Loco is really the culprit, or just a ghost story.

I picked up this title to fill out the Action Adventure category of the Eclectic Reader Challenge, but for the most part, there was more mystery than action or adventure, as Samantha tries to suss out who is looting the site. Most of the action and adventure comes towards the end of the novel. The mystery takes a while to build up, and the interim is about archaeology, navigating a foreign culture and language, and sibling rivalry. These are all great themes, and Jordan Jacobs does them justice. I particularly liked his attention the ethics of the situation, and the conversation Sam and her Uncle have after the grave of an Incan girl is unearthed on the site. Jacobs is an archaeologist himself, and this book does a much better job of representing the realities of the discipline than other media kids might be familiar with, such as Indiana Jones, or Tomb Raider. However, I think that young readers might appreciate a little more action mixed in with the educational material. If I found this book to be a bit slow-paced, I can only imagine how it would feel for a kid. I would recommend this title for middle grade readers with a strong interest in archaeology or South America, but I think other young readers might struggle to get through it. It could also work well in the classroom in conjunction with a unit on Peru, or ancient civilizations.

Volume two, Samantha Sutton and the Winter of the Warrior Queen, is due out in January.

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This title fulfills the Action Adventure requirement for my participation in the 2013 Eclectic Reader Challenge hosted by Book’d Out.

Fiction, Humour, Middle Grade, Science Fiction

Fortunately, the Milk

October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 Shay Shortt

Author: Neil Gaiman

Illustrator: Skottie Young (US) / Chris Riddell (UK)

ISBN 978-0-06-2224077-1 (US) / 978-1-4088-4176-1 (UK)

“I think there should have been some nice wumpires,” said my sister wistfully. “Nice, handsome, misunderstood wumpires.”

“There were not,” said my father.”

Mum has gone off to a conference to present a paper on lizards, and Dad is left alone with his two kids. He thinks he has the situation under control, but after making tea and hot chocolate, there’s no milk left for breakfast cereal, or worse, for that essential morning cup of tea. Dad goes out for milk, and returns much later, spinning a wild tale about being kidnapped by aliens, held captive by pirates, traveling through space and time with a stegosaurus, and nearly being eaten by wumpires before finally making it home. Or possibly he got caught up talking with Mr. Ronson from over the road. But whatever happened, fortunately, the milk made it home, too.

Playfully told by Neil Gaiman and comically illustrated by Skottie Young (US edition) or Chris Riddell (UK edition), Fortunately the Milk is an imaginative lark through space and time. Dad’s adventure is filled with shameless exaggeration and matter-of-fact ridiculousness. Parents will appreciate the lengths to which Dad will go to spin his story, and kids will delight in the way his children try their best to catch him out. The plot has a slightly Whovian feel, albeit the sort that you might find from a Dad telling his kids a story about the legend of the Doctor, as opposed to an episode of the show itself.

The American edition is illustrated by Skottie Young, whose exaggerated art style lends itself excellently to Gaiman’s over-the-top narrative. Look especially for Sister’s imagining of “nice, handsome, misunderstood wumpires.” Young also wins extra points for depicting bottled milk, while Riddell opts for a carton.

The Dad of Chris Riddell’s book is reminiscent of Gaiman himself, although the hair isn’t nearly wild enough. If you are reading the UK edition, don’t skip the afterword on the artist; keep a special eye out here for the wumpire Pale and Interesting Edvard. There is also a fantastic fold out page in the middle of the book, featuring Splod, the “god of people with short, funny names.”

The good news is that no matter where you live and which edition you will be getting as a result, Fortunately, the Milk is an excellent tongue-in-cheek adventure. Though different, both artists bring their own sense of humour to bear to complement Gaiman’s writing.

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Also by Neil Gaiman:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Chu’s Day

The Graveyard Book

Sandman Volume 1

Click-Clack the Rattlebag

Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Fiction, Humour, Middle Grade, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Poison

March 12, 2013April 11, 2013 Shay Shortt

by Bridget Zinn

ISBN 978-1-4231-3993-5

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book at ALA Midwinter 2013. All quotes are based on an uncorrected text.

“She didn’t like children at the best of times, and now was certainly nowhere near the best of of times. It was even possibly the worst of times, though Kyra kept thinking she’d hit bottom only to discover that things could still get worse.”

Sixteen-year-old Master Potioner Kyra had made a pretty good life for herself in the Kingdom of Mohr. After defying her parents’ wishes and becoming a potioner’s apprentice at age ten, she quickly mastered her craft. She set up the Master Trio of Potioners, and met her fiancé in the process. But after attempting to assassinate her childhood best friend, the Princess Ariana, Kyra has been forced to go on the run. Her former teachers, business partners and the entire King’s Army are all out to get her. With nowhere left to turn for help, Kyra makes an uneasy bargain with master criminal Arlo Abbaduto, who provides her with the means to track down the princess, who has gone into hiding. Accompanied by her pet pig, Rosie, and a strangely persistent young man named Fred, Kyra sets out to save the Kingdom from certain doom which only she can prevent.

More fairy tale than fantasy, Poison is a whimsical, irreverent romp through a classic magical kingdom. Although the publisher has recommended this novel for grades seven to twelve, I would suggest it for readers at the lower end of that spectrum, as well as upper middle grade readers. While not without its surprises, Poison may be a little too predictable for older teens. Fortunately, Zinn’s saucy and impertinent attitude and her willingness to make fun of the clichés and conventions that make the plot predictable ultimately save it from itself. Despite the potentially dark premise—what if you had to kill your best friend to save the world?—Poison is much more humour than drama. I suspect that The Princess Bride was a strong source of inspiration for this novel. Although it was not my cup of tea, I would recommend it as a fun read for readers in the 10-14 range.

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