Everything, Everything

Yoon, Nicola. Everything, Everything. 2015. 310p. ISBN 978-0-553-49665-9. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Madeline suffers from Severe Combine Immune Deficiency, where anything and everything in the environment can affect her and make her sick. As a result, Madeline has been living in her house her whole life, never leaving and experiencing the outdoors. She’s a real-life bubble girl. Her mother, a doctor, works hard to ensure that Madeline is as comfortable as possible, and her nurse, Carla, takes care of her on a day to day basis. Madeline attends school online, and has an active virtual presence, but Carla and her mother are the only two people she sees in person. She doesn’t remember her brother and her father, both of whom died in a horrific car accident seventeen years ago, when Madeline was only six months old. Everyone else coming in the house has to go through the decontamination unit and experience an unpleasant cleaning cycle, and they must have a clean bill of health. Her life is an endless repetition of days, with lots of book reading, homework, movies, and games with her mother. Mainly, though, Madeline is lonely.

When a moving van arrives next door, Madeline’s life changes forever. She looks out her bedroom window only to see black-clad Olly and his sister, along with their mother and father. Madeline is immediately attracted to  Olly, but how can you communicate with someone outside the bubble? Slowly, the two of them figure how to talk to each other, and their relationship deepens. But the barrier remains, and breaching it could be deadly. What is worth more to Madeline? A safe protected life in the bubble, or the deadly risk of truly experiencing a relationship with someone? Her decision will change her life forever.

Fans of The Fault in Our Stars and All of the Bright Places will enjoy this coming of age tale where one of the participant’s health at first prevents a satisfying relationship.

This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents

Association for Middle Level Education. This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents. 2010. 66p. ISBN 978-1-56090-232-4.

Over the last forty years, educational research has demonstrated that students in middle school are at a critical juncture in their growth as individuals. As they mature physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially, they also find themselves at the crossroad of an educational system not designed to facilitate their transition from elementary students to high schoolers and beyond. This book seeks to present the sixteen characteristics that enable a middle school to successfully help its students navigate the treacherous but rewarding years that are the middle.

These characteristics are regrouped in three main areas: curriculum, instruction and assessment; leadership and organization; and culture and community. All of these characteristics are necessary for a successful middle school program. This position paper from the Association for Middle Level Education provides educators everywhere with the information needed to transform their middle schools into places where the needs of all students are addressed.   

Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure

Castellucci, Cecil and Jason Fry. Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure. Part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens series. 2015. 231p. ISBN 978-1-4847-2497-2. Available at FIC CAS on the library shelves.

The Empire destroyed the rebel base on the ice planet of Hoth and the Alliance fleet has scattered across the galaxy, trying to avoid the relentless hunt pursued by Imperial agents. As one of the Alliance leaders, Princess Leia is a special target worthy of every effort on the part of the Empire.

When the rebels discover that a second death star is being built, a desperate strategy is hatched to gather the fleet and attack before it becomes operational. But to accomplish this in secret, the Empire must be thrown off the scent. Princess Leia proposes a plan that will put her in danger by being bait for the Empire and taking their focus clear across the galaxy.

She embarks on a this mission in the guise of gathering more forces for the Alliance. Using rebe codes that are known to have been breached by the Empire, she and a small crew travel by space yacht to three planets, planting transmitters indicating where ships hoping to join the rebellion should meet. But the Empire is also listening, and a Star Destroyer is soon on their tracks, hoping to capture the elusive Princess. With the failure to complete her mission likely to lead to the Alliance fleet’s discovery and destruction, Leia and her crew must complete their objective at all costs … even if this means that innocent people will get hurt.

A short but satisfying read, this book fills in some of the questions left in suspense between the movies The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. If you ever wondered how the Alliance discovered that another Death Star was being built by the Empire and how they gathered their fleet without the Empire knowing, this book will answer that question.

Other books in this series include The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure and Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure.

Life in the War

Cooke, Tim. Life in the War. Part of the World War II: The Full Story series. 2015. 48p. ISBN 978-1-78121-233-2. Available at 940.53 LIF on the library shelves.

At times of war, life for the civilian population would be dramatically different. Civilians endured sieges, slaughters, pillages, and other violence. The Second World War, however, was unique in the way it affected the daily lives of just about every civilian in the world, from those caught in the bombing and destruction to those fleeing the front lines. Even civilians far from actual combat endured privations and worries about their love ones in the various military services.

Governments of both Axis and Allies nations attempted to make the lives of their civilian and military populations easier. Propaganda was used by both sides to boost the morale of their population while vilifying the other side. Movies, radios, newspapers, magazines, and leaflets were all employed by various government-sponsored entities to sway public opinion to continue the struggle against the enemy. Programs such as relocation, medical support, and food stamps ensured that civilians who were directly affected by destruction would be able to cope. Children were evacuated from cities. Women entered the workforce in record numbers. Rationing, various drives for resources, and blackouts were The exchange of letters continued apace, and even the German army, in its final collapse, delivered mail to its soldiers on May 7, 1945, the day Germany capitulated. Soldiers were also affected. Intense bouts of combat were followed by long periods of inactivity. Shows were organized to prop morale near the front line. Soldiers were generally better fed than the average civilian.

When the war finally came to an end, million of soldiers had to be demobilized and returned home. Allied soldiers benefited from programs such as the G.I. Bill to help them reintegrate civilian society. Axis soldiers were on their own. By the end of the war, an estimated 52 million people had died, forever changing the fabric of civil societies around the world.

Other books in this series include Home Front, War in the Pacific 1941-1945, and North Africa and Europe 1940-1945.

Rip Tide

Falls, Kat. Rip Tide. Book 2 of the Dark Life series. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780545178433. Available at FIC FAL on the library shelves.

A few months after the events in Dark Life that allowed Gemma to find a new family, she has moved out of Ty’s family home and has returned to live on the surface at the trading station. Ty is disappointed, but Gemma admits she just can’t live in the ocean because she sees ghosts.

During one of his underwater swims off the continental shelf, Ty discovers a large underwater craft. The Nomad belongs to Surfs, and the ship itself has been sunk, and all of the doors have been chained … from the outside. The inhabitants were condemned to a freezing death far below the surface as their heat ran out faster than their oxygen.

At the same time, Ty’s parents are attempting to bypass the Commonwealth by securing a new market for their undersea agricultural goods. They have negotiated a deal with another group of Surfs that will allow farmers and Surfs to exchange goods and services, making each of them less dependent on the Commonwealth.

But when they are kidnapped by the same Surfs they were supposed to deal with, Ty and Gemma must discover where they are. Unfortunately, the first place to go look for clues is Riptide, a station filled with outlaws, criminals, Topsiders, and … the Seablite Gang. In a race against time, Ty and Gemma will need to make desperate choices and decide who they can trust. The lives of two communities depend on the answers they find ...

The Outcasts

Flanagan, John. The Outcasts. Book 1 of the Brotherband Chronicles series. 2012. 434p. ISBN 0-14-242194-4. Available at FIC FLA on the library shelves.

Skandians love the sea, and boys are trained from a young age to become the most fearsome mariners in the world. But even in tight-knit communities, there are always outsiders and outcasts. Hal’s mother was an Araluen who was captured and served as a slave before being granted her freedom. His father, Mikkel, was one of the most fearsome Skandian warrior but he was killed in a raid when Hal was very young. At death’s door, Mikkel got Thorn, his best friend, to promise to care for his boy. Though Thorn suffered his own accident and felled in despair and drink, he eventually came around and fulfilled his promise to Mikkel.

Hal is industrious and is always working on new inventions. He even purchases his own ship, the Heron, and designs a revolutionary set of sails that increase the ship’s speed and maneuverability. His friend Stig also has problems. His father stole from his wolfship before leaving, and the stigma has marked him as an undesirable by association.

Now it’s Brotherhood training, and all the boys of the village are called upon to participate in activities designed to test their endurance, agility, and ability to work together as a group. Hal, Stig, and the other village outcasts end up grouped together, and now they must learn to work as a unit so they can win and join the wolfship of their choice. But in this competition, not everyone is playing fair …

This companion story to the Ranger’s Apprentice will be appreciated by fans who love the world John Flanagan designed.

How the Toilet Changed History

Perdew, Laura. How the Toilet Changed History. Part of the Essential Library of Inventions series. 2016. 112p. ISBN 978-1-62403-787-0. Available at 644.6 PER on the library shelves.

This review, unlike every other review I’ve ever written, starts with a personal anecdote. I have had many a conversations with students over the years about the relative merits of different historical periods, particularly with references to the “good ol’ days.” Invariably, the arguments degenerate until two magic words come out: Indoor plumbing. I’m a fan of indoor plumbing, and can’t imagine living without it in my house. You can't convince me that any historical period before indoor plumbing was better.

So when this book came along, I thought I would give it a go. I was convinced I knew just about every piece of information that this book contained. Was I wrong! Though the ancient Romans knew all about sanitation (at least, what was visible to them) and had built large aqueducts and sewer systems to handle waste, this knowledge was lost during the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent periods referred to the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. Bodily functions were frowned upon by early Christians, and this distaste percolated to today, when we rarely talk about pee and poop (snickering middle schoolers, this one’s for you).

Castles and other structures featured chutes where waste could be dumped, but most had cesspools in the basement or just threw their waste out the window. Many communicable diseases were transmitted this way and contributed to the outbreaks of several plagues. The invention of the flush toilet eventually led to the creation of sewer systems to move the waste around, but politics got in the way of sanitation. In London, the summer of 1858 was particularly hot and dry, and the Thames river, where eventually all of the city’s waste ended, all but dried up. The stench was unbearable. As the river runs by Parliament, elected officials had no choice but to deal with this situation. The modern sewer was born.

Today we are experiencing a partial collapse of our infrastructure. Sewers are aged and need replacing. Treatment plants have reached their useful life. There is little political will, however, to spend tax dollars fixing a problem that is all but invisible at the moment. Perhaps another Great Stink like the one that afflicted London will convince politicians that our water and waste infrastructure deserves to be maintained and cared for, otherwise we will all need to dig up holes and dust off our old New England outhouses. I prefer my indoor plumbing.