Tracking Trash

Tracking trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion by Loree Griffin Burns is an interesting book. It talks about Curt Ebbesmeyer’s study of ocean motion by tracking trash that washes up on beaches. He got started in the unusual study when his mother asked him why there were so many sneakers washing up on the shores of the ocean around her hometown of Seattle. Curt discovers that a ocean tanker had lost 5 containers of Nike tennis shoes—that’s 33,000 pairs of shoes lost in the ocean. Since shoes float, Curt was able to track the path of the shoes by seeing where they ended up on shore. He did the same thing later with the path of plastic bath toys that were lost from a ship. He uses this information to explain ocean currents and motion.

Besides how fascinating the tracking of the trash was, the idea that so much stuff is lost off of ships transporting goods from Asia to North America is staggering. No wonder we have a problem with ocean pollution. There is one point where the book shows the trash that has washed up on the shores of uninhabited islands. This book really brings home how important it is to recycle and reuse what we can to protect our natural resources.

This is another very short book with lots of pictures, but it has a powerful message to all who read it. It is interesting and has great information for reports.

Kissing the Bee

It feels like rain again today. We had a nice spring rain yesterday and it feels like we might get some more today. I am definitely ready for warm and sunny. Of course, it won’t be too long before I am complaining about how it is too hot! Can’t make some people happy, I guess!

Kissing the Bee by Kathe Koja is a great spring time novel. It is short—121 pages in length—so it is a quick read. But it is also beautifully written. Dana, Avra and Emil are best friends; Avra and Emil are dating, but the problem is that Dana also loves Emil. This is a strange romantic triangle because the three of them do everything together from working on Emil and Avra’s prom dress and tux to going on dates to working on Dana’s final biology project about bees. The story is told from Dana’s point of view and she weaves the information about bees into the plot to create wonderful figurative language. Dana plans on attending college next year on a scholarship for science writing and Avra plans to leave their small town right after prom. She doesn’t plan on waiting until graduation, but just getting in the car and leaving with Emil. Emil keeps his plans to himself.

Dana also keeps her feelings about Emil to herself because Avra is her best friend. But one day Dana and Emil take a trip without Avra to a local apiary to see the bees and everything changes in their relationship. Dana has always considered Avra to be the queen bee in the hive and has always worked hard not to upset her. But now she is in love with her best friend’s boyfriend and there is no way to avoid the inevitable. This is a great story of young love and friendship and what each means to the other.

The Nature of Jade

In The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti, Jade DaLuna struggles with her anxiety disorder, her dysfunctional family and her senior year filled with Advanced classes. Her dad wants things his way, her mother seems to be reliving high school by attending all dances and events and her younger brother would just like to read Nania books all day.

The only calming influence in her life is the webcam at the zoo where Jade can watch the elephants all night long if she wants. One night she spots a young man in red jacket with a toddler also watching the elephants. The red jacket returns each evening sometimes with the toddler, sometimes by himself. Jade becomes obsessed with meeting him. Is the baby his? How old is he? Is he married? Jade decides to volunteer with the elephants in the zoo hoping to meet the boy. Finally they meet and Sebastian is everything that Jade expected him to be and more. However, Sebastian has a secret that will cause problems for Jade and himself and their relationship. Jade must confront the reality that Sebastian has a past.

This is a very gentle romance. The story is told from Jade’s perspective as she analyzes the world. Her analysis usually compares humans to animals, more specifically the elephants she works with. There is a great cast of characters from Damian the elephant keeper to Delores the zoo ticket taker to Tess Sebastian’s grandmother to Oliver Jade’s 10-year-old brother. I really enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I couldn’t put it down on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to plant some flowers around my yard, but all that had to wait until I had finished this fantastic book!

The Innocent's Story

The Innocent's Story by Nicky Singer is a different kind of book. It is a mix of supernatural ideas that create a story that is hard to put down. Once I got into the plot, I had to know what was going to happen.

Cassina is 13 years old. On the way home one day, she and her younger sister are blown up by a bomb in the train station. Cassina becomes a "para-spirit" that can move among the living and enter into living hosts finding a place to live in the brain of the person. She first enters into the brain of her father, but finds it too hard to deal with the pain he feels. She meets other para-spirits as she moves from host to host. One of the hosts she enters is the brain of the man who set the bomb and killed her. While staying in his brain she contemplates what would make someone kill innocent people. There are some inevitable comparisons with 9/11. But it is fascinating to read how Cassina learns about the world and what happens when she is confronted with the hatred of her murderer.

Spanking Shakespeare

I am not sure what to say about Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner. It is really laugh-out-loud funny, irreverent and borders on obscene in parts. It’s not a book for everyone, but if you are looking for something to make you laugh and don’t mind reading about bowel movements, sex and other adolescent issues, this is a good book for you.

Shakespeare Shapiro is a senior at Hemingway High School where the major project for all seniors is to write a memoir. In his memoir, Shakespeare shares the funniest and most embarrassing moments in his life, from being born on Hitler's birthday ("Whenever I did anything wrong, my father would call me Adolf") to his father's blackmail techniques ("I'm about ten seconds away from telling you things [about our sex life] that will haunt you for the rest of your life," his father cheerfully threatens an 11-year-old Shakespeare). With his dysfunctional family and terrible luck, it is easy for the reader to feel sorry for Shakespeare even as he sinks into bouts of self-pity. However, Shakespeare meets Charlotte and realizes that his life is not so bad after all. Keep in mind that nothing is off limits to Wizner: he pokes fun of bodily functions, sex and religion in this book.

Gray smudges make it look like a teen really slaved over the writing and revising of this book. I even tried several times to unfold the corner that is part of the unusual appearance that makes this book different.

Like I said, this book is not for everyone, but if you enjoy off-color humor, you will enjoy Shakespeare Shapiro. The author Jake Wizner teaches 8th grade English and History, so it is easy to see where some of his humor comes from.

Golden

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Today is a great day to be a Kansan as the KU Jayhawks won the National Championship last night. With the game going into the overtime, we all stayed up too late watching the ending, so everyone is dragging today. But it is still exciting! Go Jayhawks!

I love fairy tale books. Who knew? I sure didn’t know that I did, but I really enjoyed reading Beastly by Alex Flinn and I just finished Golden: A Retelling of “Repunzel” by Cameron Dokey. And I thought it was a fun read also.

In Golden, Rapunzel’s mother makes a deal with a sorceress that if she does not love the baby just as she appears, she would have to give the baby to the sorceress to raise. Rapunzel is born with no hair and with no hope of ever having any and her mother who is beautiful is horrified and thinks she is horrific looking so she gives her to the sorceress. However, the sorceress has an alternative reason for wanting Rapunzel as her own.

Rapunzel is raised by the sorceress and she has a very happy and content life until they are forced from their home and the sorceress tells Rapunzel that she had another daughter who has been cursed by an evil wizard and locked in a tower. She hopes that Rapunzel can figure out a way to break the curse and free her daughter. What happens is an interesting twist on an old fairy tale. And the fun twist at the end is how Rapunzel gets her long beautiful hair!

Dairy Queen

I know that you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I loved the cow wearing a tiara on the front of this book. It is the reason I picked it up to read it in the first place. So many great books have terrible covers that they don't encourage readers to read them that I really love it when a publisher gets it right and has a great cover like this one.

And Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock lives up to its great cover. Life has been difficult for DJ Schwenk since her father injured his hip. At 15, DJ quits basketball so she can take over the milking on her family's dairy farm. So she is not feeling optimistic about a summer filled with milking, cleaning the barn, and baling clover until a family friend sends Brian Nelson to help out. Brian is the quarterback from a neighboring rival school and his coach thinks that working with DJ over the summer will get him into shape for football in the fall. Brian has looks and brains, but he is a slacker and this causes friction with DJ. However, training Brian for football is the best part of her summer. And everything seems to be looking up until DJ decides that she is tired of living life like a cow. She does everything expected of her. "I just did what my parents told me, and my coaches, and [my friend], and [my dog] even. . . . I was nothing but a cow on two legs." So DJ decides to break her "cow mentality" and do something no one expects: go out for her high school football team. This causes problems with her father who doesn't like anything out of the ordinary, her best friend, and Brian who plays for an opposing team.

Don't get me wrong Dairy Queen is about so much more than football. There are family issues, problems with friends, even a budding romance and of course, cows! This is a great novel for all and even if you have no interest in sports, you will enjoy DJ's story of her 15th summer.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel The Off Season that continues DJ and Brian's romance and tells what happens with her family.