Month: December 2023

The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements (J Fiction)

The Last Holiday Concert

Andrew Clements (J Fiction)

Hart Evans was officially a Palmer kid—that wonderful immersion of sixth graders from Collins Elementary School and Newman Elementary School. Out of almost 400 kids, Hart was well on his way to becoming the most popular student at Palmer Intermediate School. But all that was about to change when he decided to make his uncool chorus class a little more fun. When you combine a sweeping arts budget cut with two misfired rubber bands and a disillusioned chorus director, you get one Hart Evans who is suddenly in charge of this year’s holiday concert. What started out as a joke turns into a battle of wills between the chorus director, Mr. Meinert, and Hart. With so much infighting and time quickly running out will Hart and his class deliver the best holiday concert…or the last?

I REALLY enjoyed this book. Not only does it accurately portray middle-school life, but I was delighted that it lacked the stereotypical “bad guys” that you often expect to see in school-related books targeted for this age range: the adult, authoritative figure being the oppressor or the stuck-up popular kid who belittles the weak. Clements avoids those overused pitfalls and instead delivers a heartfelt, sweet, and human story about a teacher feeling betrayed by the institution he loves and a popular kid who suddenly realizes that he can’t make everything right simply by pleasing everyone. Both Hart and Mr. Meinert may seem very different at first, but as the story progresses, we see how much alike they are in wanting to be appreciated and valued. They even learn how to work together and in a nice twist, the teacher realizes just how much he can learn from his students and the students understand just how much their teacher has to offer.

At a time when teachers are abandoning their profession at an alarming rate, Andrew Clements reminds us that everyone wants to feel valued and needed and teachers are no exception. He shows us that leading begins with listening and reminds us of the astounding impact that a teacher can have on learning.

One of my favorite authors, Michael Morpurgo, once wrote, “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.” Facing dismissal and an overwhelming feeling of obsolescence, Mr. Meinert could have easily turned his back on his class and school, but he eventually realizes the reason that he became a teacher in the first place and that was to make a difference. And what a difference he made. Thank you teachers…everywhere.

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to: www.abebooks.com

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Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn (J Horror)

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Mary Downing Hahn (J Horror)

“YOU’VE BOUGHT a church?” That was Molly’s reaction when she found out that her mother and stepfather were planning to move their blended family to a renovated church with a cemetery in the backyard. Making matters worse is her new seven-year-old stepsister, Heather who is mean, lies, tattles, and is an overall troublemaker. Soon after they arrive, Heather discovers the grave of a girl named Helen who shares her initials AND was her age when she died. Over time, Heather begins to turn even more hateful and diabolical towards her new siblings and as Molly and her brother Michael uncover the tragic events surrounding them, things begin to get worse and more dangerous…especially when Helen comes.

Hahn delivers an eerie and suspenseful ghost story that’s spooky yet spares readers the gore that authors sometime rely on to raise the hairs on our neck. Hahn psychologically preys upon her readers’ fear of death and delves into feelings of isolation, loneliness, guilt, and jealousy through Heather’s possessive and protective relationship with her father. Heather harbors some deep-seeded trauma that is never fully resolved and this spills over into her relationship with her new siblings. Young readers won’t think twice about the obvious parental negligence of not providing Heather with the therapy she clearly requires, but they will most certainly see how unfairly Molly and Michael are castigated (especially by their own mother) for things that are clearly not their fault. In this respect, the siblings’ dislike for their parental figures is clearly warranted and make them even more sympathetic.

This is the second book that I’ve read by Hahn (the first being The Old Willis Place) and I understand why young readers are drawn to her books when desiring a good old-fashioned ghost story. The characters are well established, the story has a nice momentum and never lags, and Hahn effectively increases the tension and heightens the fear as Heather’s dependency on Helen grows stronger and more resolute. I really like how the author reverses predictable roles to create a sense of chaos and unpredictability as family members become untrustworthy or unreliable allies and antagonists turn out to be more than meets the eye. This flip really jostles the reader and keeps things uncomfortably off balance as Molly fights to separate fact from fantasy while struggling to nurture a relationship with a stepsister that clearly despises her and even threatens her with death. And you thought Cinderella had it tough!

As an adult reading this book, I thought the parents were selfish, neglectful, and terrible role models; however, young readers will overlook these self-centered people and instead delight in a heart-pounding, thrilling read that will have them anxiously flipping pages toward a rollercoaster ending. So, buckle up, hold on tight, and just wait till Helen comes.

Rating: 4/5

* Book cover image attributed to: www.abebooks.com

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The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace (Adult Fiction)

The Girl in the Garden

Melanie Wallace (Adult Fiction)

A widowed landlord. A young, abandoned mother. An elderly woman with a tragic past and her estranged daughter. A Vietnam veteran who bears the scars of war. A town patriarch and sage longing for a family. The lives of these damaged and vulnerable individuals converge in a small eastern town in the 1970s. Bleak, repentant, and tragic, their stories tell of unrequited love, repressed shame, and regret, but as their paths become intertwined, each begins to experience acceptance, forgiveness, and a second chance at happiness.

The Girl in the Garden is a first for me in that this novel—brimming with characters and dialogue—contains no quotation marks. Not a single one. Although Wallace’s writing technique is unique and immersive, this continuous stream-of-consciousness style of writing was both intensive and exhausting:

So, Claire said, the question of the day is: are you a good driver? And that caught Sam off-guard, for it meant she’d learned if not from Leonard then maybe from George—who rarely spoke in sentences that could be understood, his speech being as garbled as his mind, but then Claire had a way of making people intelligible, who knew how?—that Sam wasn’t blind in the eye over which he always wore a patch that also covered his eyebrow and some of his scarred, dented cheekbone.

This book feels more like a mind dump rather than a cohesive story and the constant ramblings often pushed my attention span to its breaking point; however, there are some endearing characters and relationships that keep the story interesting and smooths the rough patches a bit. And although this garden seems to be mercilessly overrun with tangles of ivy and carpetweed, the occasional rose manages to emerge for those readers patient and diligent enough to push through.

Rating: 3/5

* Book cover image attributed to: www.abebooks.com

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