Tales from the Rushmore Kid

August Recommendations--Lynn Becker Book Picks

Novels:

I finally got to read THE MIDNIGHT WAR OF MATEO MARTINEZ, by Robin Yardi, and I’m so glad I did! This funny novel features Mateo, a fourth-grader in Santa Barbara, who is obsessed with knighthood and who, aboard his silver bicycle, Steed, tries to recover his trike (ok, maybe it’s his sister Mila’s now) and save the neighborhood from a gang of thieving skunks. Mateo also has troubles with his ex-best friend, Johnny, who’s been hanging out with thuggish Danny Green. Plus, his mom’s on his case for not holding Mila’s hand on the way home from school, as if Mila listens to anything he says! Mateo is a good guy with a great sense of humor, and some incredible nighttime adventures. (MG)

NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST, by Eric Lindstrom, features blind high school junior Parker Grant, whose father died three months ago, and who hasn’t cried since. Parker is one tough cookie who loves to run, dispenses relationship advice on the Junior Quad, and wears a vest with buttons that say things like “Yes, I’m blind, get over it!” Parker’s Rules are a strict code of conduct that people in her life have to embrace. But when Scott Kilpatrick, breaker of Rule #1, forever subject to Rule # INFINITY, transfers to her school, Parker begins to lose her way. Lindstrom’s novel has great voice, characters, and is a terrific look at living and loving while in high school. (YA)

E. K. Johnston, author of The Story of Owen, Dragonslayer of Trondheim, brings us a very different story in EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR. Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, at the top of her game and on top of the world. Now, in her last year at cheerleading camp, someone has done the unthinkable. She has been drugged and raped at a camp party, and nothing will ever be the same. This is a good solid look at what it takes to survive. (YA)

The War That Saved My Life--Lynn Becker's Book Picks

August’s Book of the Month is the impeccably crafted, heartwarming, and life-affirming THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

Ten-year-old Ada’s mam keeps her locked up in their squalid one room apartment because Ada is “a cripple.” (She has a clubfoot.) When her brother, Jamie, gets older and more independent, Ada resolves to fight for a better life for herself by learning to walk. She does, and just in time, too. London’s children are being evacuated to the countryside and Ada and Jamie sneak off to join them. A Kent woman, Susan Smith, reluctantly takes them in, but it’s not an easy transition. Susan is kind, but building a family takes time.

Because Ada has never been educated or allowed outside, it’s heartbreaking to see how little she knows of the world. She’s strong and determined, however, and she teaches herself all kinds of things, beginning with how to ride the pony in the meadow outside her new home. Slowly, slowly, Ada grows healthy, learns to read and write, and finds friends in the village. But the emotional abuse inflicted on her all those years by her mam has taken its toll, and trusting that this new life won’t disappear is almost impossible.