Review: Grounded

Grounded

by Kate Klise

Who would ever guess that a story about a young girl losing her father, brother and sister to a horrible plane crash could be so full of laughs? Yes, Grounded explores the aftermath of a horrible loss, but by its end, you realize that it is not really a story about death. It's a story about what it means to be alive. It's about the people who are left behind when tragedy strikes (Daralynn and her mother, in this case) and how they have to drag themselves up and back into life no matter how much the hurt drags them down.

Daralynn Oakland is a twelve-year-old tomboy living in the tiny southern town of Digginsville (population 402!). The story begins when she and her tough-as-nails mother Hattie find out that Daralynn's father, 16-year-old brother and 7-year-old sister have all been killed in a plane crash. The only reason Daralynn wasn't along for the ride was because she was (as the title hints) grounded. Daralynn and her mother--a proud and reserved woman--have always butted heads, and Daralynn had been grounded that day because she had run off to the lake to fish without letting her mother know where she was going. Daralynn already thought her mother's leash was short before her father, brother and sister's death, but once Daralynn is the only child left, her mother won't let her out of her sight.

At first, I had a bit of a hard time warming up to Grounded. I wasn't sure what to make of the casual tone used for such a sad situation. Also, many of the characters of Digginsville felt a bit like caricatures--Daralynn's flashy Aunt Josie, for example, in her too-tight clothing and too-bright lipstick. But Daralynn's genuine and straight-forward voice kept me reading. Soon I began to realize that Daralynn's seemingly emotionless tone when talking about the deaths was not bad writing--it was part of Daralynn's character. Much like her mother, Daralynn is not one to wear her heart on her sleeve. She and her mother are proud and not about to make a slobbery, blubbering mess of themselves in front of everyone. Daralynn and her mother cope with their tragedy in their own way.

For Daralynn, this means throwing herself into investigating Digginsville's mysterious newcomer, Mr. Clem. Mr. Clem has opened the town's first crematorium--that's right, a place where they cremate people. He cozies up to Daralynn's beloved Aunt Josie awfully quick and Daralynn decides she needs to figure this guy out. Through her investigation, which she journals about in letters addressed to her dead family members, Daralynn slowly starts to face the sad reality of her "A.C." life, as she calls it (life "After the Crash").

Daralynn is tough and observant, and she describes the oddball characters of her town with the serious tone of a news reporter. This provides a lot of humor since so many of the people of Digginsville are so quirky.

But while Daralynn's "investigation" provides humor and suspense, this story is really about a mother and daughter trying to find each other through the fog of a deeply tragic loss. I am a sucker for mother-daughter stories. Hattie just doesn't seem to understand her daughter, and what's worse is that for much of the book, she doesn't seem interested in trying to. This story is about the danger of letting a sad event harden your heart. As I read on, I found myself willing Hattie to open her eyes and see her daughter there in front of her, needing her. Losing those we love can so easily make us want to never take the risk of loving again, but as wacky Aunt Josie says, "Everybody needs somebody to take care of them, and it's the taking care of that makes us sweet" (p. 30). Grounded shows that no matter how many times your heart gets broken, it's always worth letting yourself care again.

Grounded

by Kate Klise

Release date: November, 2010

Things to think about as you read Grounded:

-Foreshadowing

-Tone

-Character development (How do the characters--Daralynn, her mother, etc.--change as the story goes on?)

-Setting (How does the setting--small southern town in the 1970s--add to the story?)

-Dark humor

You might also like...

Pie by Sarah Weeks

Faith, Hope and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

Review: Moon Over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

My only regret after finishing Moon Over Manifest is that I didn't read it while sitting on a gently swaying porch swing, sipping ice-cold lemonade, swatting away the occasional mosquito as a harmonica played and a steam engine sounded its passing in the distance. Reading this book is like stepping back in time, and as I came to the last lines, it was bittersweet to know that I was about to leave that world behind.

Moon Over Manifest is the story of tough and independent Abilene Tucker. At the beginning of the story, Abilene saunters into the seemingly dull Kansas town of Manifest. She is settling down (not by her own choice) for the first time in a childhood spent on the road. Well, on the rails, actually. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, many jobless men resorted to a life of hitching rides on the railroads, going from town to town in search of work. Abilene and her father, Gideon, were two such "hobos"--an unusual background for a girl of twelve, to say the least.

From the moment she arrives in Manifest, Abilene is counting down the days left in the summer. She can think of nothing but the day when Gideon, who has sent her there alone, will come to take her back out on the rails with him. But it doesn't take long for doubt to set in. Is Gideon coming back? Why has he sent her to this town? Abilene knows that he spent time here before she was born, but when she tries to learn more from the people she meets in Manifest, she gets nothing but cryptic answers and dead-ends. But whether Gideon is coming back for her is not the only mystery she has to deal with. Abilene seems to be a magnet for secrets, eerie events and strange coincidences. A threatening note leads Abilene to begin scraping at Manifest's sleepy surface and she soon discovers that underneath, Manifest is a town with a dramatic past.

A rail-riding, twelve-year-old girl makes for a very unique protagonist. Abilene's voice is strong and steady, but just when she starts to seem a little too grown-up, she reveals the fears and doubts that are underneath her big talk. Abilene is the perfect heroine for a mystery. She's a fearless investigator, a careful listener, and an unabashed snoop.

In addition to bringing us a likable and original heroine in Abilene, Clare Vanderpool does an excellent job of making her book impossible to put down. The story moves back and forth between Abilene's life (Manifest, 1936) and glimpses of the past (Manifest, 1917), through stories told by the medium Miss Sadie and through letters and trinkets found underneath the floorboards of Abilene's room. Vanderpool transitions into these flashbacks so enticingly that you can't help but read on. All this past week, my eyelids sagging, I would try my darnedest to find a good stopping point, but when I saw that the end of the chapter was leading into a new flashback, I just couldn't bring myself to close the book. I needed to know what new secrets would be revealed, so I kept reading on, no matter the time. (For a teacher, on a school-night, that's saying a lot!)

While Moon Over Manifest is an excellent mystery, this is really just a clever disguise. At its heart, this is a story about family and community and what it means to make a home. It's also a story about...well, stories. Everyone in Manifest has a story, and there is something sacred in their tellings. As Miss Sadie's stories of old Manifest become more and more frequent, Abilene realizes that "As much as I had a need to hear her story, she had a need to tell it. It was as if the story was the only balm that provided any comfort" (p. 154). As the summer creeps on, Abilene realizes what an honor it is to have been invited, not just into the stories of the people of Manifest, but into their lives. In this novel, Clare Vanderpool both celebrates and demonstrates the magic of a well-crafted story. Now, go pour yourself a glass of lemonade and get to reading it!

Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

Release date: October, 2010

Newbery Medal Winner, 2011

Things to think about as you read Moon Over Manifest:

-Mood and setting

-Narrator, tone and voice

-Foreshadowing

You might also like...

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Review: When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead

Oh my goodness. My students were not kidding around when they recommended this one. When I asked them what we should do for a read-aloud together, several very eagerly recommended When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. What intrigued me was that they couldn't quite peg it as a particular genre. ("It's kind of realistic fiction...but also a fantasy...or sci-fi, maybe? But with mystery too--and it takes place in New York!") Any novel so clearly forging its own genre-path seemed worth a look. I vetoed it as a read-aloud (so many of the kids had already read it), but I made a mental note to check it out. It took me a while, but I finally got around to tracking it down at the bookstore. That was two days ago. Within 48 hours, I had read the book and--voila!--started this blog. (When a book causes you to inadvertently burst aloud, "This is AWE-some!" on a crowded subway car, well, you've just got to share it with people.)

My reading life was probably at its most passionate from the ages of 9-13, and this is a big part of why I love teaching what I do (6th grade Reading, Writing and Social Studies). During those years, I devoured books. Packing for summer camp was always a challenge because it involved an impossibly-heavy duffel bag of books, not one of which, I assured my mom, I could do without. Don't get me wrong, I was a reader through high school and college and continue to be, but there was nothing like the way I completely lost myself in the worlds of the books I read at that age. And even now, as a teacher, I am not nearly as well-versed in middle-grade literature (the teacher-y term we use for books aimed at this age-group) as I would like to be--especially the more recent additions.

Well, When You Reach Me has completely snapped me out of it! I was instantly sucked into this book and I cannot wait to explore more of what has been going on in the last decade of middle-grade reading (and go back and revisit some of my long-lost pals--The Giver, Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting--sigh). BUT--don't let me get ahead of myself. Let's talk about When You Reach Me...

The book begins with eleven-year-old Miranda, speaking to a mysterious "you." This "you" has apparently instructed her (through an anonymous note) to write a letter that explains "what happened." This request has Miranda totally perplexed and more and more freaked-out with each event of the book. As the plot unfolds, Miranda realizes that the mysterious note-writer knows things that should be impossible to know. Is she being watched? Is she in danger? Who is leaving these strange notes?

But to make When You Reach Me sound like another thriller or mystery is just too simple. The real beauty of this novel was in the characters. Miranda is so real and likable. She is street-smart and vulnerable at the same time. The novel takes place in New York City (the upper west side) in the late 1970's, but it could easily take place today. In fact, Miranda reminded me constantly of many of my own city-kid students. She's so clever and independent, but, at the same time, loving and sensitive to the feelings of others (in spite of herself, at times). Still stinging from the sudden and confusing end of a deeply close friendship, there were so many moments when my heart hurt for her as she tried to regain her balance and move forward, making new friends, navigating the city and, all the while, trying to figure out those creepy notes. You can't help but like Miranda, and so you end up completely sucked into the mystery, trying to solve it with her.

This book pretty much has it all. It has a mind-boggling mystery, quirky characters, ongoing allusions to the classic A Wrinkle in Time, the heartache and excitement of moving from childhood to adolescence, a pretty fun throwback to the 1970's game show The $20,000 Pyramid, and beautiful moments that crack you wide open and feel like a flashlight landing on the heart of things. Here is one of the loveliest:

"Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. It's like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten. And the way you usually act, the things you would have normally done, are like these ghosts everyone can see and pretends not to."

(p. 144)

Miranda has a wisdom that sneaks up and surprises you at the unlikeliest of moments. So (in case you couldn't tell), I highly recommend When You Reach Me. It's a workout for the brain and the heart.

When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead

Release date: July, 2009

Newbery Medal Winner, 2010

Things to think about as you read When You Reach Me:
-Foreshadowing
-Allusion
-Setting (both time and place)

You might also like...

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex