Book review - Love is Both Wave and Particle

Title: Love is Both Wave and Particle
Author: Paul Cody
Genre: Realistic fiction
Similar books: Paintbrush by Hannah Bucchin
                      A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Rating:

a lovely story, but not for everyone

Summary (provided by publisher): This achingly beautiful novel considers how to measure love when it has the power to both save and destroy.
Levon Grady and Samantha Vash are both students at an alternative high school for high-achieving but troubled teens. They have been chosen for a year-long project where they write their life stories and collect interviews from people who know them. The only rule is 100% confidentiality—they will share their work only with each other. What happens will transform their lives.
Told from the perspectives of Levon, Sam, and all the people who know them best, this is a love story infused with science and the exploration of identity. Love Is Both Wave and Particle looks at how love behaves in different situations, and how it can shed light on even the darkest heart.

My opinion: Non-linear. That's what stands out most to me about this book. While the heart of the narrative is fairly straight forward, the narration doesn't follow a linear path. It will for a while, but then we get another character who's perspective is years (or more disconcerting for me, weeks) in the past. We rehash known events from a secondary or tertiary perspective. Its a lovely exploration of relationships and families and the damage we inflict on one another, knowingly or otherwise. But it falls firmly in the odd category, so it's not a book for the easily discouraged. The thoughtful, though, could read it over and over and keep discovering something new.

More information: Love is Both Wave and Particle releases August 1.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Rabbits

I have a couple of bigger craft projects in the works. In the meantime, here's a little craft kit for your entertainment. I have a growing fondness for these little kits. They usually only cost a dollar or two and are pretty cute. Their decoration is limited if you use the provided markers (in this case, a trio of obnoxious neons) but acrylic paint opens up a world of options.

Picture books for everyone

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

The premise of this book is simple: a boy's kite gets stuck in a tree and he tries to get it out. It's his methods of retrieving the kite that make the book genius. First he throws a shoe at it. Then the other shoe. And a list of increasingly absurd items, all in an effort to knock the kite free. Each item he throws, as the title suggests, get stuck along side the kite. Even very young kids can see the absurdity and humor of a little boy tossing a cat (much less a whale, a firetruck, and the family car) into a tree. Older kids will giggle just as much as their younger counter parts, and in their case this book can be a starting point for a discussion of effective problem solving.

Non-fiction book review - Get Coding

Get Coding by Young Rewired State

This is an excellent selection for kids interested in getting started with developing web projects. The directions are clear and concepts are reinforced without flatout repetition. It doesn't insult the reader's intelligence. The book is framed as a specific set of projects but encourages experimentation, so the lessons are easily extendable. And while the scope of the lessons is narrow there are plenty of resources included so an ambitions reader could easily use these resources to implement a more complex project. It was also nice to see a book that explained how three coding languages work together to create these projects rather than focusing on just one.

More information: Get Coding! releases August 1.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Last in a Long Line of Rebels

Title: Last in a Long Line of Rebels
Author: Lisa Lewis Tyre
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: How to Stage a Catastrophe by Rebecca Donnelly
                      Finding Fortune by Delia Ray
Rating:

What a delight!

Summary (provided by publisher): Lou might be only twelve, but she’s never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil War-era house is about to be condemned, she’s determined to save it—either by getting it deemed a historic landmark or by finding the stash of gold rumored to be hidden nearby during the war. As Lou digs into the past, her eyes are opened when she finds that her ancestors ran the gamut of slave owners, renegades, thieves and abolitionists. Meanwhile, some incidents in her town show her that many Civil War era prejudices still survive and that the past can keep repeating itself if we let it. Digging into her past shows Lou that it’s never too late to fight injustice, and she starts to see the real value of understanding and exploring her roots.

My opinion: This novel has the perfect level of complexity for young readers. Tyre yses an exciting plot (the hunt for treasure) to address more serious topics (such as past and present prejudice). While the plot was a bit obvious at times and made a few logical leaps, it was ultimately compelling reading. There is a scene in which Lou discovers her ancestors were slave owners. The shame of our family history can be very real and shake our image of ourselves. This book is worth reading for that scene alone, and the rest of it is just as good.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Sock puppet surfer dude

A local thrift store got the inventory from a yarn shop that shut down. With serious bargains on yarn I couldn't help myself. I bought several hanks of tapestry yarn with no clear idea of what I would do with them. Turns out, tapestry yarn makes pretty good puppet hair. Another trip to the thrift store may be in order...

 

Book review - Fires of Invention

Title: Fires of Invention
Author: J. Scott Savage
Genre: fantasy/sci-fi
Similar books: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
                      The Voyage to Magical North by Claire Fayres
Rating:

had my doubts for a while there

Summary (provided by publisher): Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and “invention” is a curse word.
Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion—an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.
Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they’ve ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on—and quite possibly their very lives.

My opinion: Steampunk and closed societies are unusual subjects for middle grade readers but it works pretty well in this instance. I had lots of ideas about the secrets behind the city of Cove early on, their reasoning behind seclusion and the technology ban. The reality was far from my suppositions. That revelation put this book on shaky ground for me. I couldn't see the connection behind their history and the rejection of technology, not for an entire culture. Once I was able to accept this tenuous plot point, the rest was pretty compelling reading. I loved the exploration of creativity, innovation, and character all mixed together.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.