Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Author: Beth Fantaskey
Year: 2009
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Pages: 351
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Location: Pennsylvania and Romania
Time Period: Present Day (2009)

Plot: On the first day of her senior year, Jessica is surprised to meet Lucius Vladescu, the prince of a powerful Romanian vampire clan, who claims that Jessica is Antanasia, his betrothed vampire princess. A mathlete with an exceedingly rational mind raised by hippies, Jessica finds Lucius' claims hard to believe. She couldn't be a vampire princess--she doesn't even have fangs! Besides, what about Jake Zinn, the cute farm boy next door? As she gets to know Lucius, Jessica struggles with her budding attraction to him and with the idea that vampires are real. SPOILER! When Lucius is severely injured by a horse, Jessica sees Lucius healed by drinking blood. She can no longer deny that he's a vampire, and she can no longer deny that she cares for him. On seeing Jessica's reaction to his injuries, Lucius realizes that Jessica is too tender-hearted to be a vampire princess and that she would be an easy target for their enemies. He tries to push Jessica away in a number of ways: by dating the most popular girl at school, deciding he's not going to honor the betrothal, and eventually returning to Romania without her. Jessica, knowing the horrors that await Lucius if he returns to Romania without a bride (a war between his vampire clan and hers), follows Lucius to Romania. Jessica forces Lucius to acknowledge his love for her by proving that, although he is a ruthless vampire, he could never harm her.

Comments: I didn't realize how dark this book was until I started writing the plot down--and I skipped the attempt the high school kids make to stake Lucius. When I finished the book, my overall reaction was that it is one of the better Twilight knockoffs out there. Then, as I wrote this review, almost talked myself out of that idea.

As much as I liked the story's sense of humor and I liked the chemistry Jessica and Lucius share, there is the glaring problem of the fact that the Jessica/Lucius plot comes to a dead stop right in the middle of the book. I liked Lucius for the first 150 pages. I thought he had a good sense of humor (mostly revealed in his letters home) and I liked how his respect for Jessica actually encouraged her to have some respect for herself. Then, right in the middle, he declares that he's no longer interested in Jessica and thus starts 150 pages of Lucius being a jerk and Jessica trying to get him back. This sudden switch made the plot come to a screeching halt for me, and it took awhile to get going again.

Also, for some reason, some of the names were hard for me to read. I kept reading "Antanasia" as Anastasia. And Jessica's kind-of boyfriend, Jake Zinn, will always be Zake Jinn to me.

Despite the glaring plot problem, this may still be one of the better Twilight knockoffs out there. The writing is still smarter than most. The dialog is witty, and the characters are fleshed out. Lucius is funnier than Edward ever could be, and Jessica is much smarter and more self-confident than Bella. This book is also shorter, which is a mercy.

Red Flags: Some swearing, fighting, an attempt to stake a vampire, vampires biting each other.

Multicultural Elements: Lucius is a Romanian vampire.

Maximum Ride: School's Out--Forever

Author: James Patterson
Year: 2007
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 407
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Action/Fantasy
Series Information: Second of the Maximum Ride series
Location: Eastern United States, especially Virginia, Florida
Time Period: Present Day (2006)

Plot: Maximum Ride and her five friends: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gassman, and Angel are special. Kidnapped in infancy, they've been raised in a lab where they were genetically altered. Now they are half human, and half bird, and they are trained with military defense tactics. Max and her flock have escaped from the lab, and now they're on the lam. However, they quickly meet trouble when the Erasers (a human/wolf/bird hybrid) catch up to them. Fang is mortally wounded in the fight, and he has to be taken to the hospital. The FBI finds out about Max and her flock, and a head agent offers Max the chance for all of them to stay at her house and recouperate. The next thing Max knows, she and her friends are all enrolled in a private school, and the FBI agent is talking about making the arrangement permanent. This doesn't sit well with Max, who has her own agenda: to find the lost family members of her flock, and to take down the evil power that genetically altered her flock in the first place. Can she convince the others to leave their comfortable new existence? SPOILER! When Max and her flock discover that the FBI agent is actually one of the heads of the lab where they were made into mutants, Max and her flock head off on their own again. They head for Florida for information about their past. Following a lead that points them to the headquarters of a large corporation, Max and her friends break in and are very nearly captured--but not before learning more about their past and their possible future destiny.

Comments: I picked up this book thinking that it looked like one that would appeal to boys. Even though the cover shown here isn't the same as the cover of the book I read, it has the same idea: the silhouette of a winged teenage boy. Surely that boy was the main character, Maximum Ride? It was therefore rather surprising to me to find out that Max is actually a winged teenage girl. Kudos should be sent to James Patterson for writing a very strong female character, but I still think this type of book will appeal to boys more than it will to girls.

All in all, the book was a fun, quick read. Sentences are short and to the point, as are the chapters, which average about two pages in length. Patterson's writing style fits perfectly with this setup. Dialog is quick and witty. The book is filled with one-liners. The action scenes are extremely fast-paced (and a little gruesome). And, impressively, even though Patterson gives hardly any recap of what happened in the first book in the series, the plot is still easy to follow. This is achieved by the fact that most of the book is written from Max's perspective, so you get a lot of her innermost thoughts. Even though Max is "Avian-American," she still has extremely human emotions. And lots of them since she's a fourteen-year-old teenager. This makes Max relatable even though her actions are tough.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of the book is that so much of the book is spent with hardly anything happening. This allows us to get to know Max better, and it's part of why she's as relatable as a genetically enhanced, military trained being can be, but if this series is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller, why are they taking a break to attend school? I wasn't too bothered by this fact while I was reading the book. The fast-paced dialog does help this section move along, but it's something that puzzles me now.

Themes: Evil Corporations, School, Definition of what a Family is, Saving the World

Red Flags: Violence (breaking bones, explosions, etc.) in the fight scenes.

The Manny Files

Author: Christian Burch
Year: 2006
Publisher: Atheneum
Pages: 304
Reading Level: Intermediate (Ages 9-12)

Awards: 2007 Josette Frank Award

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Series Information: First of the Manny books
Location: New England (New York area)
Time Period: Present Day (2006)

Plot: Third grader Keats Dalinger is extremely excited about the new nanny his mother just hired--he's a boy just like Keats is! The nanny insists that everyone call him the Manny, but the fun doesn't end there. He puts fun notes in Keats' lunch, reminding him to "be interesting." He meets Keats after school wearing crazy costumes. And when Keats and his sisters are bored, the Manny always has an idea of something fun to do. Keats and his sisters India and Belly love the Manny, but the oldest Dalinger sibling, Lulu, has other ideas. She keeps notes of all of the weird things the Manny does in a notebook named the Manny Files, and Keats is afraid that she's hoping to gain enough ammunition to get the Manny fired. Lulu's done it before. Can the Manny win Lulu over too before it's too late? SPOILER! When Lulu calls a family council to reveal all of the Manny's misdeeds, Keats finally gets over his fear of his older sister and asserts his opinion that the Manny is the best nanny they've ever had. The Manny gets to stay, and Lulu learns to appreciate him as well.

Comments: I'll admit it: I originally picked this book up because it had a guy doing the Mary Poppins pose on the front of it. I love Mary Poppins! It didn't take long, however, to enjoy the book for it's own merits. The book is witty and clever, and I found myself laughing aloud many times. The plot is rather subtle, and not very developed or fast paced, but it seems the point of the book is more to show the Dalinger family and the Manny growing together and learning about each other on a day-to-day basis than it is about deciding whether or not the Manny should stay. Potentially hard issues are brought up in the book, but they're done so gently and light-heartedly that it doesn't get depressing. Keats himself is a fun, quirky character to pick as the narrator of the story. His starry-eyed worship of the Manny is endearing, as is the evidence that the Manny is someone who really encourages Keats to get out of his shell be who he really is. Younger children will enjoy the fun escapades the children have with the Manny, while older readers will enjoy the subtler themes as well.

Themes: Nannies, Bullies, Family, Death, Finding out who you really are

Red Flags: Keats' grandma dies; there are subtle comments about the growing relationship between the Manny and Uncle Max, but it's handled very gently and younger children probably won't even pick up on it.

The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave Mckean
Year: 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Awards: 2009 Newbery Medal, 2009 ALA Notable Books for Children, 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008 Horn Book Fanfare Award

Genre: Gothic fantasy
Location: A forgotten graveyard in Britain
Time Period: Present Day (2008)

Plot: When a baby boy hides in a graveyard while a man named Jack murders the rest of his family, the inhabitants of the graveyard agree to adopt him. They name him Nobody (Bod) Owens, and bestow on him the power of the graveyard, which allows him to fade from sight, walk through walls, and see in the dark. Bod spends the next fourteen years in the graveyard. He makes friends with the inhabitants, learns to read by deciphering gravestones, and learns English history from people who lived it. While Bod wants to learn all he can about the world, his not-quite-dead and not-quite-living guardian, Silas, warns him that the man Jack is still out there, searching for him. SPOILER! When Jack discovers where Bod is, he and his band, the Jacks of All Trades, infiltrate the graveyard. It will take all that Bod has learned and the help of all of his friends in the graveyard to defeat this mighty foe. However, when this is done Bod no longer needs the protection of the graveyard, and he is allowed to leave the graveyard and seek his fortune in the world.

Comments: I did something I don't normally do when I read—instead of actually reading the book, I listened to the book on CD, which is narrated by the author. Gaiman is a great storyteller, and it was fun to hear the story come to life in his telling of it. He gave different inflections to most of the characters in the book, sounding young and youthful whenever Bod spoke, ghostly and ethereal when a character from the graveyard spoke, and deep and harsh whenever the man Jack spoke. My favorite voice, however, what the Scottish accent Gaiman used whenever Bod's only living friend, Scarlet, was on the scene.

The story itself is interesting, and it grabs your attention from the very first sentence: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." Although the wording and the setting are both dark and tense, Gaiman keeps this book light, allowing the reader to experience Bod's wonder and pleasure in the world around him. The book follows Bod's adventures as he grows up, and for awhile I wondered if the tense scene at the beginning with the man Jack would ever be referred to again. The time Gaiman takes in telling the story pays off, however, when Bod uses the knowledge he gained from almost every chapter before when the man Jack finally makes another appearance.

It's the small touches Gaiman adds to this book that really make it great. With every new character introduced, the epitaph on their gravestone is read. Bod is a precocious main character, and he learns life lessons that even adults will find interesting and applicable. Even though Bod is in a situation that would never really happen, it seems completely natural that a boy in this situation wouldn't find death scary or frightening at all, which makes the book more believable. Oddly enough, despite all that happens in this book, the scenario I had the most trouble accepting was that fact that Bod was allowed to leave the graveyard and seek his fortune at the young age of 15. This is a fact that will be appealing to younger readers, however, and it's not a hinderance to the story.

I really enjoyed this book. My only regret from having listened to the book instead of reading it is that I missed Mckean's dark, jagged drawings, a few of which I have seen and which I think would add just as much character and life as Gaiman's inflections added. I'll just have to read the book again, won't I?

Themes: Murder, Family, Definition of Home, Seeking one's Fortune, Destiny, Standing up for what you believe in.

Red Flags: Bod deals with bullies, Silas gets run over by a car (but that's okay, because he's not alive), the book contains (good) werewolves, goblins, ghouls, murderers, and other creepy things that go bump in the night.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Author: Salman Rushdie
Year: 1991
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 219
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 1992 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature

Genre: Fantasy
Location: On Earth, in a city that has forgotten its name in the mythical country of Alifbay; Also, the mythical moon Kahani
Time Period: Once upon a time (but in the near past)

Plot: Rashid Khalifa is a storyteller who is so good at his craft that people clamor for his stories from miles around. However, when his wife leaves him and his son, Haroun, Rashid loses the will to tell another story. Alarmed, Haroun decides to go on a quest to restore his father's storytelling ability. With the help of the water genie Iff and his mechanical Hoopoe bird Butt, Haroun flies to the moon Kahani, where the source of all stories, the Ocean of the Streams of Story, is located. There, Haroun finds trouble is brewing. The evil villain Khattam-Shud is poisoning the streams of story, and plotting to put a stopper in the wellsprings of the ocean. Khattam-Shud has also captured Princess Batcheat, and he is threatening to sew up the lips of her and her rescuers in an attempt to rule the world and turn it into a place of eternal silence and darkness. It is up to Haroun and his friends to defeat Khattam-Shud before it becomes too late. SPOILER! Haroun and his friends succeed when Haroun manages to get the moon to start turning again, assuring that no one will ever be in complete darkness forever. Khattam-Shud's evil lairs of ice and shadow are ruined in the sunlight. Because Haroun has helped save Kahani, the people of Kahani offer Haroun a boon. He wishes for a happy ending, and arrives home to find that everyone is happy, Rashid's powers of storytelling have been rekindled, and Haroun's mother has come back home.

Comments: I read this book for book club, and it was interesting to see the different opinions people had about it. One person loved it. Another person couldn't stand the writing style. The book had many elements of a classic hero adventure tale, which is something I love, but I could see where the person who didn't like the book was coming from.

Rushdie's writing style is very epic and exotic. He frequently repeats the same idea three times in three different ways. For example, Rashid the storyteller is an Ocean of Notions, the Shah of Blah, given the Gift of Gab, etc. The repetition sets the tone of the story nicely, but it also has an edge of humor in it. This is, after all, designed as a child's tale. The humor can be somewhat off-putting because it is sometimes silly, but it is something that children should love.

This is a story that I think adults would appreciate too. Despite the sometimes silly humor and repetition, there are many layers of meaning to the story. What goes on in Kahani can be directly related to what is going on down on Earth below. The book also tries to raise the question, "what's the use of stories if they're not real?"

Haroun is a likeable character whose braveness is fueled by his love for his father and by his yearning for Rashid to be happy. Most of the other characters are somewhat cookie-cutter characters, but that works for this type of story.

I liked the story a lot, and I would recommend it to others. The ending left a little something to be desired because it all ended so suddenly and so neatly, but it is the classic happy ending that a tale of good vs. evil should have.

Themes: The power of Storytelling, Good vs. Evil

Red Flags: Haroun's mother leaves Rashid for the upstairs neighbor, who ends up being Khattam-Shud.

Multicultural Elements: Although this is a fairy tale, the characters and storytelling elements are very much influenced by an Indian/Asian storytelling influence.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Author: Ally Carter
Year: 2006
Publisher: Hyperion
Pages: 284
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Action/Adventure
Series Information: First of the Gallagher Girls novels
Location: The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women in Roseville, VA
Time Period: Present (2006)

Plot: Cammie Morgan is a second generation Gallagher Girl. She attends a top secret school for spies in Rosemont, Virginia. The residents of Rosemont think Gallagher is en elite private school for socialites, and they look down on anyone who goes there. When Cammie meets a cute town member named Josh while on a secret assignment, she can't tell him who she is. Josh likes Cammie because she not like any of the other girls at the local high school, and Cammie likes Josh because she gets to play the part of a normal girl instead of a genius spy in training. Things quickly get out of hand, however, and Cammie must decide where her loyalties truly lie: with her new boyfriend, or with her fellow classmates. SPOILER! Cammie eventually decides that she is tired of living a lie with Josh. She knows he won't like her if she tells him who she really is, so she decides to break up with him. She sneaks out of the school to talk to him, and is "kidnapped" in front of Josh by her covert operations teacher as part of the sophomore class final. Josh immediately tries to save Cammie, and learns the truth. The book ends with Cammie knowing that she truly belongs at the Gallagher Academy, but whether she and Josh can get back together remains uncertain. It is implied that Josh has been slipped a memory modification drug that will cause him not to remember the truth about Cammie.

Comments: This was a fun read. More adventure story than romance, teens will like the idea of a teenage spy who takes classes about how to blow things up instead of the usual subjects like art and history. The book has a good message as well: be true to yourself and your friends.

A book like this could be either very engrossing, or very badly written. The writing style was a little campy, but also fun and frivolous. Cammie, Josh, and Cammie's friends were all believable characters, even though they were put in unexpected and unfamiliar surroundings. An easy, light-hearted book that makes for great pleasure reading.

I did a little research on this book, and found that it's been optioned as a movie, so it may come out soon. The possible directors also directed The Princess Diaries and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which I believe are good read-alikes for this series.

Themes: Spies, First Love, Families, Friends, School, Being True to Yourself

Red Flags: None

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak
Year: 2006
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 550
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2007 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor, 2007 Ten Best Books for Young Adults, and many others

Genre: Historical Fiction/World War II
Location: Molching, Germany (just outside of Munich)
Time Period: 1930's and 40's (World War II)

Plot: On the way to stay with foster parents in Molching, Germany, Liesel Meminger's brother dies. Traumatized by the event, Liesel has a recurring nightmare about the incident. Liesel eventually learns to deal with her grief in a number of ways: She learns to read with the help of her step-father, Hans, and a select number of books she steals throughout the story. She becomes best friends with her next door neighbor, Rudy Steiner. She visits the mayor's wife, and learns of her story. When air raids come, she reads to her neighbors as they wait together in a bomb shelter. She makes fast friends with Max, a Jew her parents are hiding from the Nazis in their basement. Leisel then writes of all of these experiences in a journal, which Death later finds, reads, and relates to the reader. SPOILER! Leisel is up late one night, writing in her journal, when the street she lives on is hit in an air raid. Everyone who lives on the street dies except for Liesel, who is eventually reunited with Rudy's father and Max.

Comments: This book may look daunting, but the author writes in a very clipped, short style that makes the book easy to get through. I never consciously sat down to read this book. I read it in stolen moments, and got through a lot of it that way.

The idea of having Death as the narrator is an interesting one. Despite all of the red flags written below, this book didn't seem too gruesome to me. It is a war story, so that must be kept in mind, but Death tries to find a kind of poetry in the world around him that makes the concept easier to deal with. However, Death is also extremely snarky, and his dark sense of humor sometimes got a little old. Take the last line of the book: "I am haunted by humans."

The best part of this book was the characters. They all seemed very fleshed out and very real to me. Liesel's step-father is so loving and kind you want to give him a great big hug. Liesel's step-mother is the typical hard-shell-on-the-outside, warm-and-caring-on-the-inside person. And Liesel's best friend, Rudy Steiner, steals the show. I kept rooting for him to succeed, even though he kept getting beaten down. Even minor characters such as the lady down the street and the mayor's wife have endearing qualities. Liesel was a real person to me, but having Death as the narrator made her not as fleshed out as she could be. I wanted to hear the story in her voice.

Although I liked the tone of the book, as set by Death's strange little asides and jokes, I also found the writing style somewhat annoying. Death is not a good storyteller. He gives away major plot points 50 or 100 pages before you even want to know them, and when you do get to the critical part, it doesn't seem as momentous because he'd already told the main points of the story eons ago, and he doesn't repeat them.

Overall, I liked the book. I liked the message, I loved the characters, and for the most part, I liked the writing style. I just wish the narrator had built up the climax a little more.

Themes: World War II, Nazi Party, Jews, Stealing, Friendship, Love, Books, Standing up for what you believe in, Death

Red Flags: Profuse swearing (mostly in German, so you can't understand it); Description of some of the lighter effects of war--a man comes back from war with a bloody stump for a hand, bombings, air raids, plane crash, Death talks about all of the casualties of war he has to pick up, etc.; Emaciated Jews are forced to march through the city streets; Death describes his job; Stealing books, food, etc.; Bullies.

Multicultural Elements: Max is a German Jew.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author/Illustrator: J.K. Rowling
Year: 2008
Publisher: Children's High Level Group
Pages: 111
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Fairy Tale
Location: England
Time Period: Long Ago with Present Day (2008) Commentary

Plot: A collection of five popular "wizard" fairy tales, including The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump, and The Tale of the Three Brothers (which was also told in the last book of the Harry Potter series). Each story is accompanied with commentary written by Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Comments: J.K. Rowling has a gift of being able to craft a story that combines the myth and morals of a fairy tale with humor. That's why I enjoyed the Harry Potter series, and that's why I enjoyed this book. I could imagine being told these stories as a young child, just as I was told fairy tales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk, and others. Like most fairy tales, each story ends with a moral. Even though the characters in these stories are magic, they still have to rely on their head and on their heart to solve their problems. The commentary by Albus Dumbledore points out these morals and expounds on them, and adds an extra bit of humor. For example, his note about the retold tales of Mrs. Beatrix Bloxom was especially funny. I also liked Rowling's pictures—I was impressed that she wrote the story and did the illustrations.

Themes: Fairy Tales, Charity, Service, Being Happy with what you have, Making your own Future, Importance of Love, Trickster Tale, Mortality

Red Flags: The Warlock's Hairy Heart is rather gruesome—SPOILER! It ends with the warlock cutting out a maiden's heart, and trying to switch it with his own.

Coraline

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Year: 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 162
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2003 ALA Notable Children's Book, 2003 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Movie Adaptation: Coraline

Genre: Suspense/Adventure/Horror
Location: A large house which has been renovated into apartments
Time Period: Present Day (2002)

Plot: When Coraline goes exploring in her new home, she finds a door that leads to nothing—the room behind it has been bricked up. However, weird things are happening, and Coraline is hearing strange noises coming from that door. When Coraline investigates, she finds that the door is suddenly not bricked up any more. Instead, what's behind it is an exact replica of her own house, only better and more exciting. An exact replica of Coraline's mother and father are there too, and they're happy to see her. There's just one problem. Coraline's Other Mother and Other Father and all of the other living beings in that world have black buttons for eyes. Coraline thinks this other world is wonderful, but in order to stay, she must replace her eyes with buttons too. SPOILER! When Coraline refuses the Other Mother's offer, the Other Mother takes revenge. She kidnaps Coraline's real parents, and is keeping them and the souls of other children she has captured in hidden places throughout the Other house. It is up to Coraline to find the souls of the other children and her parents before the Other Mother successfully steals Coraline's soul as well. With every soul Coraline finds, the Other Mother gets more and more vengeful. And when Coraline succeeds, she still must get through the bricked up door before she gets trapped in the Other World forever.

Comments: I have never read Alice in Wonderland, but this seems like a more menacing version of the Alice series. With that said, this may seem like an extremely terrifying book, but the scariness factor was mostly okay for me, and I don't do very well with scary. It obviously helped me that this is a horror book written for children, but I think older children should be fine with it as well. Coraline is definitely a braver, pluckier heroine than I would ever be, but that's the point. You have to be that strong when you are facing evil forces.

If this book was all about the scariness of the situation (see below for examples), I definitely would not have liked it. However, there were a few good morals/important points that helped me like the book and helped me see a point for the strangeness of it all:

1. Coraline realizes that the witch and the scary things around her don't really have any power. In the words of the book, the Other Mother "could only twist and copy and distort things that already existed" (p. 118).
2. Coraline realizes that giving in to the Other Mother will not make her happy: "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything" (p. 120). Ah Coraline, you are so wise.
   

Themes: Importance of Family, Sticking up for What You Believe In, Confronting Fears, Learning that Immediate Happiness is not always the Best Kind of Happiness, Using Your Head to Think Through Problems

Red Flags: Battling a Witch, Humans turning into Blobs, Disappearing Parents, A Man who always has Rats up his Sleeves/Under his Hat, Sinister Plots, People with Buttons for Eyes, An Animate Yet Disembodied Hand Chasing Coraline. (For the Movie: A Claymation/Digital Lady who is Mostly Naked)

Chalice

Author: Robin McKinley
Year: 2008
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pages: 263
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy
Location: Willowlands
Time Period: Not specified

Plot: Mirasol was a simple beekeeper until the leaders of the country, called Master and Chalice, were killed in a violent fire. Suddenly, Mirasol's bees are making fountains and fountains of honey—a sign that Mirasol is the new Chalice, destined to protect the land and help keep it whole. This is not an easy task, especially since the next Master left Willowlands seven years ago to become a priest of fire, and therefore he is now more fire than human. The people are wary of their new Master, and others are considering revolting and finding a new one. Mirasol knows that losing another Master so soon would completely destroy Willowlands, and it is up to her to keep the land together, no matter what the cost.

Comments: Robin McKinley is one of the authors I keep track of. When a new book of hers comes out, I tend to read it without even looking to see if I'll like it first. I like her continued theme of strong female characters who have to embrace their true potential in order to save the country. Even in the strangest of circumstances, her characters are believable, and the world they inhabit is believable too.

There is one thing that is sometimes off-putting to me, however, and that is the fact that McKinley's writing style is very much a stream of consciousness. This sometimes leads to large tangents in the middle of conversations, and going in roundabout ways to make her point. This style is what makes the characters believable, but there are some times when I'm reading a book, and I just wish she would get to the point.

I kind of felt this way when I started reading Chalice, but when I finally sat down and read it and just relaxed into the story, it didn't matter as much. I think I like this book more than her last few offerings, but that might be because with this book she goes back to the fairy tale feel that her last two books were lacking. Beauty and The Blue Sword will probably always be my favorite Robin McKinley books, but this one is one of my top picks too.

Themes: Beekeepers, Monarchs, Duty, Fire

Red Flags: Nothing too graphic, but there is a light battle sequence and a description of a forest fire.

Kensuke's Kingdom

Author: Michael Morpurgo
Year: 1999
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 164
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Adventure/Survival
Location: An island somewhere in the Indian Ocean
Time Period: 1988

Plot: When eleven year-old Michael's parents decide to leave their home in England to pursue their dreams by sailing around the world for eighteen months, Michael is ecstatic. One stormy night halfway through the voyage Michael and his dog Stella are thrown overboard. Michael and Stella are miraculously saved by a seventy-four year-old Japanese man who lives on a nearby island. Even though the Japanese man provides Michael with food every day, he does nothing else with Michael, dividing the island into two separate parts and refusing to allow Michael to build a signal fire. Months go by. Frustrated with his imprisonment on the island, Michael avoids the man's warning not to swim in the ocean, and is attacked by a deadly jellyfish. The man rescues Michael, and the two finally bond as the man, named Kensuke, cares for Michael's wounds. SPOILER! Michael learns that Kensuke was washed up on the island during the World War II when the ship he was serving on was attacked by American bombers. Kensuke has had some contact with the outside world—enough to know that his home, Nagasaki, was destroyed by an atomic bomb, which most likely also killed his family. He also hid on the island when men came to the island on a hunting trip. Left alone for years and years, Kensuke has come to the conclusion that man is innately cruel. This is why he avoided Michael at first. As they get to know each other, Michael encourages Kensuke to learn to hope again and to consider going back to Japan. When Michael's parents finally find the island, Kensuke refuses to come with Michael, convinced that he needs to stay with his new family, a group of orangutans. Kensuke makes Michael promise that he won't share his story for ten years. When Michael finally speaks out about his experience, he learns that Kensuke's family is still alive.

Comments: As I was writing the outline of this story, I realized how depressing it sounds. Michael meets a man who has decided that man will always want to kill one another, and he doesn't want to live in that kind of society any more. This, however, is not the point of the story. Although the book does have a somewhat sad tone, it also has a stronger hopeful one. Kensuke has worthwhile goals in life. He takes pride in beauty, and he does everything with care. He has come to learn to love his neighbors the orangutans, and he stays on the island out of a want to protect them instead of out of fear of the unknown. This story has many different elements that should appeal to a wide range of readers. This book reads a lot like a modern day Robinson Crusoe. There's the adventure aspect, with details of a life at sea and the courage it takes to life a life of survival on a deserted island. The book also has a philosophical side, discussing the need of man to stop and reflect and learn to love his surroundings. I also liked how some harder issues such as the bombing of Nagasaki and man's cruelty to animals was brought up. It was a very well-written book and I enjoyed reading it.

Themes: Life at Sea, Shipwreck, Survival, Leaving the world a better place than you found it.

Red Flags: Men come on the island to kill the adult monkeys and steal the babies. Seagulls trying to eat baby turtles, Jellyfish attack, Michael is thrown overboard and separated from his parents.

Multicultural Elements: Kensuke is Japanese

Spacer and Rat

Author: Margaret Bechard
Year: 2005
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Pages: 183
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2006 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Genre: Science Fiction
Location: Freedom Station, an asteroid that has been colonized by humans located in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Time Period: Far Future, when Earth is too crowded an people move to other planets in an attempt to survive.

Plot: Jack is a Spacer, a person born and raised on the asteroid Freedom Station. Kit is a Rat, a child who now has to scrounge for food since her parents died and left her alone at Freedom Station on the voyage from Earth to the asteroid colony Seattle Prime. Rats are particularly frowned upon by the people living in Freedom Station, who believe that if a person is not contributing to their community, they are just wasting valuable resources. Jack wants nothing to do with Kit, but when his friends try to corner Kit and turn her in for a reward, he feels sorry for her and helps her escape. Suddenly Jack finds himself involved in a problem he never expected. Before Kit's dad died on the journey from Earth to Freedom Station, he created the first sentient robot, a robot who named himself Waldo. Now different warring factions are trying to steal Waldo, hoping to use his advanced technology to create the new ultimate weapon. Jack must help Kit and Waldo escape the authorities and find transportation to Seattle Prime, where a colleague of Kit's father lives, before it's too late. SPOILER! After many close calls and daring adventures, Jack, Kit, and Waldo discover that the colleague at Seattle Prime is actually the leader of one of the terrorist groups that is trying to kidnap Waldo to make the universe's next ultimate weapon. Unsure of where to go or how to hide, Waldo decides to go off on his own and try to create other sentient robots to form his own colony. Convinced that splitting up is the best way to go, Kit returns with Jack to Freedom Station, where she will try to find a job and wait until Waldo sends her word that he's safe.

Comments: As is common with many science fiction and fantasy novels, it sometimes takes a while for the author to explain the concept of the book and do a little "world building." Bechard does a good job of world building without making the text slow down too much, but I found all of the slang a bit hard to get used to, and each time I picked the book up it took me a bit to adjust to the rhythm enough to figure out what was going on. Who knew that "spam" would be a swear word in the far future? "True fact." Once I got into the story, however, the plot flowed nicely and it built up to a very satisfying and exciting chase scene in the climax. The ending was somewhat open-ended, which made me wonder if this book has a sequel planned. While the slang may be off-putting to some people, readers who enjoy science fiction will probably enjoy this book.

Themes: Space Colonies, Sentient Robots, New Technology, War, Learning to get to know people before you judge them.

Red Flags: Mild things: Breaking in to a store; Stealing; A lot of swearing, but not with words we consider swear words; Someone is shot, but it turns out they were just hit with a stun gun instead of an actual gun with bullets.

Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Year: 2005
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 425
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2006 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Genre: Science Fiction
Series Information: First of the Uglies series
Location: The Smoke
Time Period: Unknown Future

Plot: Tally Youngblood can't wait until she turns sixteen. Then, she will undergo mandatory intensive plastic surgery and be able to go live with her best friend Peris, who lives in New Pretty Town. New Pretty Town is a suburb of the city where all the "New Pretties" live with only one goal in mind--to have fun. Then Tally meets Shay, a girl Tally's age who scorns the idea of living in the idealistic world of the Pretties. Instead of showing up for her mandatory operation, Shay runs off to join the people who live in "The Smoke." The people in The Smoke are in hiding, and the authorities want to hunt them down. One of the authorities (called the Specials), Dr. Cable, refuses to let Tally have her operation until she follows Shay into The Smoke wearing a tracking device that will allow Dr. Cable and the Specials to hunt Shay and her friends down. Tally does as she is told, but she becomes conflicted when she meets the people of The Smoke, especially a boy named David, and she hears their side of the story. SPOILER! According to David and his parents, a beautiful body is not the only thing you get when you go in for your mandatory operation at the age of sixteen. The doctors also create lesions in your mind so you don't question authority. Tally had decided that she wanted to stay in The Smoke, but when she accidentally sets off her tracking device and some, including Shay, are captured, and when she hears of the Specials' scheme, Tally volunteers to turn herself in and become a Pretty in an effort to help David and his family undermine the Specials from the inside.

Comments: Westerfeld raises up some interesting issues in this novel. What does a perfect society look like? What would it act like? Is it worth taking away people's free agency to create this society? One appealing thing about this novel is that these issues are present, but the characters and story are strong enough that they can stand alone and the novel is not too preachy. Tally is a little whiny for me, but she's also plucky and ready for adventure. I can see why this is such a popular series.

Themes: Image, Conformity, Utopian Societies, Big Brother Societies, Rebels

Red Flags: There is some violence, but it's not very graphic, Tally wanders into a sort of orgy garden when she's sneaking into the New Pretties' area, but nothing is described.

The Arrival

Author/Illustrator: Shaun Tan
Year: 2006
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Pages: 128
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2008 ALA Notable Book, 2007 New York Times Best Illustrated award, 2008 Ten Best Books for Young Adults, and many many others

Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Location: A new land
Time Period: late 1800s/early 1900s

Plot: A man travels by steamship to a new and exotic land, where the animals, food, words, currency, and almost everything else about the place are completely unfamiliar to him. SPOILER! With the help of friendly people and the companionship of an odd gilled animal that resembles half lizard half dog, the man builds a new life in the country, and sends for his family to join him there.

Comments: This wordless graphic novel was completely different from what I expected it to be. Tan captures the immigrant experience in a somewhat disturbing, surrealistic style, but that is how a person feels when they've moved to a strange new place. The pictures are absolutely beautiful. Depicted in rich sepias and dark blacks and grays, Tan even gives the book the feeling of an old photo album by making some pages look crumpled and mold-spotted, and by including cracks and tears in the pictures. It is obvious that he spent a lot of time on this book, and I appreciated the note he included in the back that talked about all the research he did and how he tried to model his pictures after old photographs of Ellis Island, the Titanic, and other subject-appropriate depictions of the past.

Themes: Immigration, Coping with Change, New Places, Oppression, Friendship

Red Flags: Disturbing images of what immigrants to the new country have left behind: a battlefield strewn with skeletons, large men who are setting the city on fire, long tentacled arms looming over a city.

Multicultural Elements: The main character is Caucasian, but he meets many different people from many different cultures.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Author/Illustrator: Dav Pilkey
Year: 1997
Publisher: Blue Sky Press
Pages: 121
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Comedy/Graphic Novel
Series Information: First Book in the Captain Underpants series
Location: Jerome Horwitz Elementary School
Time Period: Present Day (1997)

Plot: George Beard and Harold Hutchins are best friends who attend fourth grade at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. They love to play practical jokes and they love to create a comic book series called Captain Underpants ("Fighting for truth, justise, and all that is pre-shrunk and cottony"). When the school principal, Mr. Krupp, catches George and Harold playing a practical joke, he punishes them by making them his servants. In order to get out of their punishment, George and Harold order a hypno-ring, hoping to hypnotize Mr. Krupp so he will do their bidding instead. When they jokingly use the hypno-ring to make Mr. Krupp become Captain Underpants, Mr. Krupp takes off most of his clothes, uses the red curtains as a cape, and runs out of the school, looking for someone to save. George and Harold follow Mr. Krupp, and the three find themselves in the middle of a plot by Dr. Diaper to take over the world. SPOILER! George, Harold, and Captain Underpants work together to thwart Dr. Diaper and his evil robot henchmen, and they head back to school. George and Harold figure they should probably undo the hypnosis on Mr. Krupp, but they can't find the hypno-ring's instructions, and they end up throwing water on Mr. Krupp to wake him up. Since Mr. Krupp was awakened from his hypnosis the wrong way, any time someone snaps their fingers he becomes Captain Underpants again, setting up the premise for the rest of the series.

Comments: I can certainly see why Captain Underpants is so popular. The story has a lot of things in it that young boys find appealing: superheroes, practical jokers, jokes about bowel movements, and more. Pilkey tells a fun story, and he keeps readers' attention with his sense of humor, cartoon drawings, and one can never forget the Flip-O-Rama, which allows children to make the pictures on the pages move in actions scenes. Some parents might not want to let their children read these books because of some of the jokes, but most of the jokes stay on the clean side and are harmless. A good suggestion for reluctant male readers.

Themes: Superheroes, Practical Jokes

Red Flags: Jokes about bowel movements, Adults dressed only in underwear or diapers.

Multicultural Elements: Although very much a cartoon, George is also an African-American

The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse

Author/Illustrator: Bruce Hale
Year: 2000
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Pages: 95
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Mystery/Detective
Series Information: First of the Chet Gecko series
Location: Emerson Hicky Elementary
Time Period: Present Day (2000)

Plot: Chet Gecko is a fourth grade private eye at Emerson Hicky Elementary. When Shirley Chameleon tells Chet that her brother Billy is missing and that she will give Chet a stinkbug pie if he can find Billy before the school football game, Chet is on the case. In order to figure out where Billy is, Chet must outsmart his teachers, deal with bullies, perform many and various hijinks, and dodge detention. Although he doesn't originally want the help, he pairs up with Shirley Mockingbird to solve the case. But the school bully, Herman Gila Monster, is on the trail too, and he's out to stop Chet before he uncovers too much. SPOILER! After Herman and his gang catch Chet and Shirley and tie them to the school diving board, dangling precariously over the school swimming pool, Chet and Shirley finally figure out the last clue to the puzzle. The two manage to untie themselves and race out to the football field just in time to find Billy Chameleon (who was off willingly helping Herman with his pranks) and thwart Herman in a plot to undermine the school football game.

Comments: Children may read this book for the mystery, but they are more likely to enjoy it for the satire. Almost every line in the entire book is a pun or a joke or a farce of some kind. Chet isn't a very good detective, but children probably won't worry about that. Another fun aspect of the book is the fact that all of the characters are animals, so they do animal things. For example, since Chet is a gecko, he can climb walls, stick out his tongue to trip bullies, and detach his tail or use it to pick a lock at will. The text is broken up with fun ink and pencil drawings, which will be welcome to reluctant readers. Because of the drawings, this book may look like it's meant for younger readers, but the satire may make it more appropriate for older children who will better understand the jokes.

Themes: Detectives, Bullies, Football, Mystery, School, Missing People

Red Flags: Although these animals talk, they still eat worms and flies and whatnot.

Harriet the Spy

Author/Illustrator: Louise Fitzhugh
Year: 1964
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 300
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Series Information: First book in the Harriet the Spy series. There are a few other authors who have written Harriet the Spy novels inspired by Fitzhugh's character
Location: Manhattan, NY
Time Period: Present Day (1964)

Plot: Eleven year-old Harriet M. Welsch is determined to become a writer someday. In the meantime, she practices by spying on her neighbors and writing down what she thinks of them in a notebook that she keeps with her at all times. When Harriet's nurse, Ole Golly, leaves to get married, Harriet fells like a very close friend has gone away. Soon after, the children at school find Harriet's notebook and they read all of the mean things Harriet has written about them. The children form a club excluding Harriet and try to find ways to pay her back for all of the mean things she has said. Feeling exiled, Harriet begins to revolt. She refuses to do her school work and she writes in her journal more and more. However, instead of helping Harriet feel better, it just makes her more lonely and more rejected by her classmates. SPOILER! When Harriet's parents find out about her odd behavior, they try a number of things including banning Harriet from writing and forcing her to see a psychologist. Nothing works until they talk to the principal and get Harriet put in charge of writing the sixth grade newsletter. Harriet finally has a constructive place where she can write without alienating others. Harriet asks for forgiveness from her friends and learns more about what it takes to be a good writer.

Comments: This book is different from what I thought it would be. For some reason, I imagined that it would mostly be about the funny characters Harriet sees on a day-to-day basis. Although this is an aspect of the story, this book is more than that, and I can see why this book is a classic. Although this book takes place in the 1960s, I can imagine something like this happening today. This book explores how a child might feel at the loss of a loved one or at the loss of friends. It also discusses how everyone should treat each other with respect, and how one should ask for forgiveness when they are wrong. Harriet is a precocious child, and even though she deserved a lot of the trouble she got into, she was still a sympathetic character. Children who have dealt with loneliness or the loss of loved ones might identify with Harriet.

Themes: Loss of Loved Ones, Keeping Secrets, Telling Secrets, Getting Revenge, Asking Forgiveness

Red Flags: Harriet says some rude things in her journal, but nothing too offensive.

The London Eye Mystery

Author: Siobhan Dowd
Year: 2007
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Pages: 323
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Mystery/ Children as Detectives/Locked Room Mystery
Location: London, England
Time Period: Present Day (2007)

Plot: When a mysterious stranger walks up to Ted, Kat, and their cousin Salim as they are waiting in line to buy tickets for the London Eye, the three are conflicted. The stranger is offering a free ticket for one of them with no strings attached, but they know they shouldn't accept gifts from strangers. After they accept the ticket, Ted and Kat are extremely confused and worried when they see Salim get on the London Eye, but they never see him get off. The police are called to investigate Salim's disappearance, but no one will listen to the children's theories. Not content with waiting for the police to find Salim, Ted and Kat make up a list of theories of what could have happened to their cousin, and they set out to investigate each one. SPOILER! Ted eventually figures out that Salim must have staged his own disappearance by changing his clothes while he was on the London Eye. Although Ted's parents, his aunt and uncle, and even Kat won't listen to him, the police pick up his tip, which leads them on the correct trail. They find out that Salim had thought about running away from home so he wouldn't have to move to New York with his mother, but he changed his mind and got lost on the way back home. Ted and Kat figure out where Salim must have gotten lost, and Salim is reunited with his family.

Comments: The London Eye Mystery is proof that good classic mysteries are still being written. Dowd does a good job of slowly giving out clues that will keep the reader guessing what happened until the very last pages. SPOILER! I was very impressed with Dowd's version of how Salim got off of the London Eye without getting the attention of Kat and Ted, but the end clue of Salim happening to slip into a condemned building without getting caught right when Ted's father was locking up the building was a little thin to me. I don't think this will be a detraction for most young readers, however. end spoiler One thing that makes this book different from most classic mysteries is Dowd's narrator, Ted. Ted is a very smart person, but there is an air of mystery about him since his family always talks about his unnamed brain disorder that makes him very good with facts, but not so good at reading people. This gives an edge to the story, but it isn't creepy. In fact, it makes the reader want to root for Ted more. Children will like trying to figure out this mystery along with Ted and Kat, and will enjoy the surprise ending.

Themes: London Eye, Missing People, Mysteries, Divorced Parents, Moving

Red Flags: A dead body is discovered that Ted's dad has to identify, but it isn't accompanied by any sort of description.

Multicultural Elements: Salim is half Pakistani, and his father is Pakistani, but this doesn't play into the story at all.

Genesis Alpha

Author: Rune Michaels
Year: 2007
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 193
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Science Fiction/Mystery
Location: Anwhere, USA
Time Period: Present Day (2007) or very near future

Plot: When Josh was born, he saved Max's life. Max was dying from cancer, and in desperation, his parents turned to InVitro Fertilization. Josh was the fertilized egg whose DNA was the closest match to Max's. Josh was born, and the stem cells from his umbilical cord were injected into Max to cure him from the cancer. In Josh's mind, this makes him and Max more than brothers. Even though Max is now away at college, the two keep in touch by playing an online game every Saturday called Genesis Alpha. One Saturday when Max doesn't show up for their weekly game, Josh is blown over when he learns that Max has been arrested for raping and murdering a fellow college student. Suddenly, Josh is faced with large moral questions: Does he believe Max could have done such a horrible thing? If Max is guilty, is Josh also responsible for the girl's death since he saved Max's life all those years ago? Will Josh also turn out to be a killer since the two of them are so close both socially and genetically? SPOILER! Josh is forced to confront all of these questions when Rachel, the murdered girl's sister, shows up at Josh's house insisting that Max is guilty. Rachel and Josh find evidence that Max really did commit the murder. Then Josh finds out that he is not only a close DNA match to his brother, but he is actually an illegally made clone of his brother. Josh must come to terms with both of these revelations in order to realize that he and his brother are not the same person, and his fate is his own.

Comments: This psychological thriller is a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down. Michaels isn't afraid to ask some very hard questions, but she does so with morality that wouldn't keep me from recommending it to younger teenagers. I think young adults are curious about subjects such as cloning, nature versus nurture, destiny, morality, and many of the other issues Michaels brings up. Readers follow Josh on his moral quest through Josh's first person narration. The pace of the book was slightly slower than I expected, but it keeps the reader's attention. Josh is a very believable character, and his voice rings true. I had more trouble with believing Rachel would do some of the things she does, but her methods are definitely effective. Because of the red flags listed below, I wouldn't recommend this book to people who are especially squeamish, but I think young adults will appreciate the way Michaels brings up age-old questions with a modern-day twist.

Themes: Stem Cell Research, Cloning, Morality, Destiny, Social Gaming

Red Flags: Rachel cuts herself with a knife, rusty screws, and anything else she can find, but there isn't much description about it.

The Chocolate War

Author: Robert Cormier
Year: 1974
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 253
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Series Information: Sequel: Beyond the Chocolate War
Location: Trinity High School
Time Period: Present (1970's)

Plot: Jerry Renault is a new freshman at Trinity High School, a Catholic private school. The unofficial leader of the school is a gang called the Vigils. Headed by Archie Costello, the Vigils terrorize the underclassmen by forcing them to complete "assignments." When the school fundraiser comes up, Jerry is given his first assignment by the Vigils: refuse to sell chocolate for the first ten days of the fund raiser. Bristling under being forced to act a certain way, Jerry decides to take a stand for himself, and refuses to sell the chocolates at all, even after the ten day deadline is up. SPOILER! The Vigils (and Brother Leon, the unofficial head of the school) are not happy with Jerry's display of defiance, and they set out to break him. It all culminates in a scene where the entire school has turned out for a fight between Jerry and Emile, a pawn of the Vigils. Jerry loses the fight right as the teachers come and intervene. The Vigils have made their point that no one should cross them.

Comments: The Chocolate War is sexually explicit, contains offensive language, and is violent. No wonder the ALA Banned Books site lists The Chocolate War as the second most-contested book in the year 2007, and it is frequently high up on other frequently contested book lists as well! (You might have to scroll down a bit to see this). Oddly enough, of all of the complaints against the book, the thing that bothered me most about it was that the adults were condoning the Vigils' behavior. Brother Leon not only stood by and allowed the Vigils to terrorize Jerry, he actually encouraged it. Another upsetting part of the book was the ending, wherein SPOILER! the bad guys win. Instead of Jerry triumphing over evil, the book focuses on a theme written on a poster in Jerry's locker: "Do I dare disturb the universe?" Some teenagers might like this book for its psychological battle with this question. The book definitely did hold my attention through to the very end. Although they are nowhere near the same, this book reminded me of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in both voice and theme, but The Absolutely True Diary succeeds for me where this one fails because of its hopeful outlook on life.

Themes: Dealing with Loss, Gangs, School Fundraisers, Competitions

Red Flags: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence