Al Capone Does My Shirts - 2012 Book #17

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko was a great read. This book is told by the main character: a twelve-year-old boy named Moose. His dad just got a job as a security guard/electrician at the Alcatraz prison, so his family moved to live on Alcatraz Island. He hates the move, but a lot of the guards' families live on the island, and they also moved so his sister could go to a special school. His sister has some form of autism, and a lot of the story is centered around how his family deals with that, since at that time, nobody really knew anything about autism or how to deal with it. Moose tells about how he and his family deal with that, while he's also going to a new school and trying to make friends and get used to life on the island. Some of the other kids on the island get up to some pretty crazy antics, and Moose has to decide if he's going to join them or not.

One thing that Moose is excited about is baseball. The kids at his school get together to play baseball once  a week, and he feels like he's finally found a place where he fits in at his new school. But then, his sister doesn't get accepted into the school his family had been hoping she could attend, and Moose has to watch his sister every day after school. His mom wants him to take him everywhere that he goes, but he's pretty sure it would be a bad idea to take her when he went to play baseball.

As the book progresses, it's interesting to see how Moose's relationships with the other characters int he book change. This book has some really good character development. One thing that was a little confusing in reading this book was when Moose would start talking about things that had happened in the past. Most of the story is told in present tense, which has always been kind of weird to me in novels, but then Moose talks about things that happened when he was younger, so it's a little confusing occassionally when he's having flashback kind of moments. One thing I really liked though about the format was that at the beginning of each chapter, it has the date, so it's really easy to tell exactly how much time has passed since the last chapter.

This was an easy read, but it also had some good messages and great character development in a well developed story. There is a sequel to this book that I am excited to read.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - 2012 Book #16

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville is a story about the boy Jeremy Hatcher who unknowingly ends up buying a dragon's egg when he happens upon a magic shop while running away from bullies at school. Once he discovers that it's a dragon's egg he has, he struggles to figure out how to take care of the dragon on top of other things going on at school. At school, there's a girl who likes him and who has declared her intent to kiss him, there are the bullies from the beginning of the story who continue to bother him, and his art teacher seems to hate him. This last one seems particularly hard for Jeremy to deal with since art is his favorite subject, and no matter how hard he tries, his efforts never seem to be good enough to his teacher.

As the dragon grows, it becomes harder and harder to keep it a secret, not just because of the dragon's size, but by how much it eats and also Jeremy wants to tell others about the dragon. His best friend is curious to know what's going on in his life, and Jeremy's not sure that his friend will believe that he's been raising a dragon, especially since the dragon seems to be invisible to everyone but Jeremy.

This book is a fun, easy read and shows the growth in the relationship between Jeremy and his dragon, but it could have been a lot longer and more in depth. The book kind of skims over lots of time and doesn't go into a whole lot of detail about particular aspects of the story. There could be a lot more character development if the book was a little longer with more added scenes in the times that are just skipped over. But overall, it was a good read.

The Education of Bet - 2012 Book #15

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted was a very good read. I read the whole book in one sitting. This story takes places sometime in the 1800's. The narrator of the story, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a maid. When her mother died along with the master and mistress of the house from typhoid fever, she and their son, Will were taken in by his wealthy uncle, Paul and raised together until they got older. At that point, Paul's relatives were apalled at how he was raising the two children as equals when clearly they were not. Will was sent off to one school after another, while Elizabeth was left home where she lived not as a servant, but not as a member of the family either.

When Will comes home after being kicked out of school for the fourth time, Elizabeth gets upset at him. It has always been her dream to go to school and receive an education, and Will's had the opportunity his whole life and has just thrown it away. Will admits it's because what he really wants is to go join the military, but his uncle doesn't approve. Elizabeth, or Bet as Will calls her, comes up with a plan that can help them both do what they want. She convinces Will to help her "become a boy" so she can go to school as him, leaving him free to go join the military. He agrees to her crazy plan and helps her learn how to walk and talk like a boy as well as how to dress and write like a boy. Finally, it's time for her to go start school. The two head off to live their dreams, both not really knowing what they're getting themselves into.

Bet is shocked by what she finds at school. She has had an extremely sheltered life at Will's uncle's house and is totally unprepared for bullies, attractive roommates, and school dances, but she is determined to learn as much as she can while she has the chance for an education. Bet finds it harder sometimes than she thought it would be to hide the fact that she's a girl, but she finds friends she can trust with her secret in unexpected places who agree with her that girls should be able to have an opportunity to gain an education.

The one big problem I had with this book was that it wasn't long enough. It seems to rush through certain parts of the story where there could be some more details and added character building to get to the end of the story. Also, at the end of the book, it simply ends right after revealing some major secrets that were kept hidden throughout the entire book. The ending is decent, but it leaves the reader with a lot to guess at. The reader just has to assume that certain things happen or will happen in the story. But, overall, it's a good read.