For the young, or young at heart

There's a lazy Susan full of medicines on my kitchen counter, a mountain of laundry in my closet, and a stack of finished books on my nightstand. Yep, I've been sick. For four days, to be exact. With bronchitis. So during all the doctor-prescribed naps and while my kids are watching movies and even while taking my breathing treatments, I've been reading. Sounds ALMOST like a vacation (except I can't breathe, so not so much).

I've been reading along a theme, actually--young adult books. My students just finished performing book talks, which were AWESOME. I loved hearing the kids get excited about their books and seeing their classmates go check out books they'd heard about. I did the same and came up with three to read right away.

Paper Towns
by John Green

This is by far the most adult-y of this list. I would not recommend it for most middle school kids. In fact, it's about high school seniors in Florida who are weeks from graduation. The main character is a boy with a crush on his neighbor, who used to be his best friend but then she got too popular for him. One night senior year she shows up at his window (they're neighbors) and takes him on a wild night of pranking her friends. The next day she disappears. And he spends the rest of the book looking for her. It's a bit of a coming of age story, with some smart literary allusions and a lot of crude boy humor. I didn't love it like I did The Fault in Our Stars, probably because it's just more boyish. I do think John Green does a great job appealing to teenagers and where their hearts are.

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

This book makes me sad. It's PERFECT for middle school boys --action packed, full of that dystopian stuff that's so popular, even has some swearing but since it's a different civilization they make up the swear words. It's perfect. Except it's not. I skim-read most of it because it was full of little cracks that my attention span would trip over. I don't think most middle school boys would notice, and the ones in my class sure don't seem to, but the writing just isn't good. The descriptions of what could be amazing scenes are kind of blurry. The figurative language is off kilter, leaving me less clear on what something looks like. And the characters truly all seemed the same. That fact bothered me the most and I couldn't put my finger on it until the one girl in the story gets introduced A LONG way in, and she seemed just the same as all the boys. Needless to say, I won't be reading the rest of the series. But your nephew/son/grandson/postal carrier's kid might like it!


Wildwood

by Colin Meloy

This one is just too sweet. In a good way! Maybe another reader won't have the same delicious reaction to this book, but it was recommended by a really sweet student and I kept picturing her as the main character. Prue, a thirteen year old girl from Portland, goes on a wild adventure in a mystical wood after her baby brother is kidnapped by crows. The land Prue discovers reminds me of Narnia in many ways, and the girl she is reminds me of myself, my daughter, my mother, all my favorite girls ever. I love Prue. The book is full of allegory for current social, political, and environmental issues, which may make it over the head of the average middle schooler, or may make it the perfect book for all ages. I will definitely read the rest of the series and may have to buy they all for myself. Love.

My current book could not be further from this list. All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenting by Jennifer Senior is a research based non fiction treatise on how parenting is different today and in many ways harder and yet more wonderful than it ever has been. It reads like every mommy blog but without the humor. I find myself agreeing with every paragraph and then looking up to see my one year old crawling out the dog door. I'm not sure I need a book to tell me about modern parenting.