Clea has trouble getting her brain to stay concentrated. She's smart, loves chess and wants to do well at school but when it comes to sitting down and getting the job done she always seems to fall short. What is infuriating to her is that she knows she can do the work, she knows the answers to the tests and the homework but she simply can't get this to translate from her mind to the page. Her friends start to notice, as do her parents, and it becomes an issue for everyone. When her parents take her to a psychologist and she's eventually diagnosed with ADHD, things start to become clearer for her but it doesn't help that she feels ashamed, embarrassed and angry. When her parents threaten to take her school chess program away, she becomes even more withdrawn. Then her best friend abandons her, fed up with her outbursts and erratic behaviour. Everything seems to be falling apart for Clea, the question is, will she take the advice of those around her or will she follow her gut and try to forge on as she has before? I really loved FOCUSED by Alyson Gerber. Not only does it educate the reader about ADHD, it does in a way that isn't heavy handed or preachy. Clea's personality leaps off the page, you are rooting for her every step of the way, even when she does the wrong thing which everyone does occasionally. Also, you learn a ton about chess which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, Gerber has created a truly believable setting that tackles an important and often overlooked and wrongly dismissed topic. Can't recommend this el enough, get it into the hands of students ages 11+ today!
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Kiera Johnson has a secret that is getting harder and harder to keep. By day she's an ace student and one of the only black teens at Jefferson Academy but at night she's the creator of a massively popular online role playing game called SLAY. SLAY is a haven for gamers who for years have endured racist abuse in other online formats. Kiera keeps the fact that she's the game's creator hidden from her parents, her sister, her friends and even her boyfriend Malcolm, who is passionate about fighting white oppression, one of those tools being, in his opinion, video games. However, disaster strikes when a teen in Kansas is murdered over the game's built-in coin system. The boy's family and the media demands a response from the game's elusive creator. Not to mention the fact that SLAY is labelled racist, dangerous and responsible for generating gang-like mentality amongst its players. Lawsuits are brought up, prison sentences are mentioned. Kiera is consumed with dread and panic. Kiera's only solace is her friend Cicada, one of the game mods who lives in Paris. Kiera has never met her but finds a kindred spirit and a calming presence while talking to her. As the walls start closing in and Kiera finds herself loosing a grip on her sanity, she must make an impossible choice: reveal herself to the world and lose the only escape she's ever had in her life or try a last ditch effort to save the game she and hundreds of thousands of others love. SLAY is a brilliant new novel for fans of gaming and for anyone struggling to be themselves, struggling to live up to the expectations of others. Kiera is someone who feels like she has to apologise for who she is, someone who intimidates her white classmates just because of the colour of her skin. Her white friends come to her for advice on how not to appropriate black culture which is exhausting, as if Kiera is the last word on everything that revolves around black history and culture in general. I loved the supporting characters, Malcolm, her boyfriend, starts out as a passionate yet angry man who studies white oppression and black culture fervently. This passion eventually descends into something troubling for Kiera, and she must make hard choices when it comes to her love of SLAY and her love of Malcolm. Her sister Steph and her parents are supportive, tough, annoying and worried about her. In short, they are very well written. Morris has created a very unique and believable gaming atmosphere in my opinion. Many moons ago I was a fan of Everquest and played it often. SLAY opened my eyes up to the racism, sexism and overall toxicity of online gaming culture. I did not experience this in Everquest but this is down to two things, I am a straight white male and I wasn't that huge of a player, it didn't consume my life. Reading SLAY prompted me to do some research into this and I see it is a huge problem. This is an atmosphere that teens I work with in the library are dealing with, some of them on a daily basis. It really brought something I should have known more about to the forefront and i'm grateful for it. I highly recommend this novel to ages 14+ Owen feels like there's nobody he can talk to, life at home is hard. His mum isn't doing too well and Owen isn't himself at school. When he discovers a stone soldier on a bench in the park, Owen finally finds someone he can talk to, someone who really listens. Then the town council announces that they're removing the soldier. It's old, it's cracking, it's an eyesore they say. Owen knows the soldier is important, he just needs to find the right words to make everyone else see it the way he does. This is a really touching story about loss and friendship. Anyone who has ever found it hard to do the right thing, stand up for yourself and what you believe in will connect with this little gem immediately. I can't wait to get this into the hands of our students at Glenthorne, there's a lot here to discuss, highly recommend it. Maggie is 11 and lives with her family in Fennis Wick. They are cut off from the rest of society. This protects them, they're told, from the dangerous Wanderers, people who roam the countryside, burning down villages and taking what they want. In Fennis Wick there is a rule, the eldest child of every family must be sent to fight in the Quiet War when they turn 14. They're sent to Camp, then they're never seen again. This is the rule, and Maggie's brother Jed is the eldest child. Maggie often feels invisible being the middle child, Trig, her younger brother, is full of charm and energy and Jed is the strong backbone, the fighter, the one everyone adores. When a chance encounter puts Maggie face to face with Una, a Wanderer, she is torn as to what to do. Does she report her to the mayor? Does she help her? Una is asking Maggie for antibiotics for her father. Una says he has a bad wound on his leg and needs help, but everyone knows that Wanderers are liars. What Maggie does will change Fennis Wick forever. I loved this novel, Maggie is a smart, razor sharp protagonist who quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) fights for what she believes in. It's a dreamy and smart dystopian adventure. I recommend it for ages 11 up, great writing! |
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