FernFolio » friendship

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman

fernfolio — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:40:07 +0000

After she helped them successfully retrieve a priceless baseball card from the guy who swindled it from them, best friends Griffin Bing and Ben Slovak feel they have to help Savannah Drysdale track down her missing pet capuchin monkey. However a class trip to a floating zoo docked at a nearby nature preserve solves one mystery and poses another. Cleo, the missing monkey, is locked into a cage in the zoo and the zoo’s owner adamantly refuses to admit that the little creature might belong to Savannah, so that problem becomes how Griffith and his friends can rescue her before the floating zoo sails away.
Known as the Man With the Plan for his elaborate schemes, Griffin calls in all of the kids who worked on the baseball card heist, and begins work on operation Zoobreak. Along with Pitch Benson, who can climb any tree or fence, Melissa Dukakis, an electronic genius, and Logan Kellerman, aspiring actor, Griffin, Ben and Savannah reconnoitre the old boat that houses the zoo, check out the walls and fences surrounding the nature preserve, post miniature surveillance cameras, and chat up Klaus, the beefy security guard who lives on board. Armed with a plan that, he is certain, covers every possible contingency, Griffin and his team sneak in the zoo in the middle of the night, and then watch as everything goes hilariously wrong.
Savannah, who is Cedarville’s acknowledged authority on animals, becomes incensed when she realises just how bad the living conditions of the zoo’s exhibits really are, and insists that Griffin and his team remove not only Cleo, her monkey, but all of the other animals on display. The six kids have to find places to stash the forty rescued animals, and keep them safe, and hidden, until Savannah’s friend, Dr. Kathleen Alford, curator of the Long Island Zoo, returns from a trip to equatorial Africa. Unfortunately, their animal liberation project has made the news, and the police open an investigation. But, worse still, Mr. “Nasty” Nastase, the zoo’s owner, seems to be on their tail!
Written by Gordon Korman, Zoobreak is an clever, funny, and action-packed adventure about a group of grade-six misfits who know the importance of friendship. Sequel to Swindle, let’s hope there are more stories about Griffin and Bing, and their friends, ahead!
FernFolio Editor

The Odds Get Even by Natale Ghent

fernfolio — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:35:25 +0000

Boney, Itchy and Squeak are neighbours and best friends. All three boys are odd; Boney, whose parents disappeared when he was a baby, lives with his neurotic aunt and her long-suffering husband, Squeak, whose mother ran off to work in a travelling cabaret, views the world from behind World War I goggles fitted with lens made to someone else’s prescription, and Itchy contends with a father who’s an Elvis impersonator and a mother intent upon redecorating their house. Together, they built the club house in the tree behind their houses, have entered the yearly Invention Convention at their school, and weathered the attentions of the class bully, Larry Harry, and his henchmen, Jones and Jones.
Larry, aka the Fart King and Prisoner 95, seems determined to make the Odds’ lives unbearable. He and the Jones twins regularly throw eggs at the boys’ clubhouse, and ambush them on the street. Boney, Itchy and Squeaky are regularly assaulted by the bullies, especially during phys. ed. classes, which frequently end in one or other of the boys making a visit to the school nurse.
Since Larry has sabotaged their entries into the Invention Convention, the Odds have never won, even though Squeak is a scientific and engineering genius, but this year the friends are determined to win the grand prize of $500, and solve the bullying problem once and for all. Squeak thinks he’s figured out how to build an Apparator, a device that can detect the presence of ghosts, and, since the ruins of the Old Mill are rumoured to be haunted, the Odds decide that it would be the perfect place to test Squeak’s invention, and plan Larry Harry’s comeuppance.
Little to the friends know that their plans will put them afoul of the Old Mill’s current occupant, or that a chance encounter with a dog will land them in hot water and about four thousand sequins!
Written by Natale Ghent, author of No Small Thing, The Odds Get Even is an action-packed adventure about three boys, their bullies and….. a ghost?
FernFolio Editor

Marshmallow Magic and the Wild Rose Rouge by Karen McCombie

fernfolio — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:20:54 +0000

After a year in Balgownie, a small town in the highlands, soon-to-be thirteen-year old Laurel “Lemmie” Ferguson is still haunted by what happened in Edinburgh before she and her parents moved away. Ridiculed for her highly artistic approach to dressing, and her unusual, exuberant and sometimes clumsy behaviour, by the time Laurel left her private girls school in the Scottish capital, she had been turned on by her best friends, accused of lying and jealousy, sent to see a child psychologist, and tried to run away from home.
But life has definitely improved. With the help of her terrific older sister, Rose Rouge, an art student in Edinburgh, Lemmie has learned marshmallow magic, an elaborate series of sign readings and good-luck spells designed by Rose Rouge to help Lemmie stay calm and face each day with confidence. Though her sister isn’t able to visit often, Rose’s unexpected flying visits always seem to coincide with when Lemmie needs her most.
Lemmie has also made two wonderful friends since coming to Balgownie, Morven, a gangly and kind-hearted farm girl, and Jade Song, tiny, brilliant, knowing and wise. Though they are as different from each other as chalk and cheese, the two girls are loyal and supportive, and Lemmie has shared with them many of the secrets of Rose Rouge’s marshmallow magic. Though her other classmates at Balgownie Academy do occasionally comment on Lemmie’s clothes or joke about her clumsiness, she feels that they are laughing with and not at.
Then one afternoon, while she is standing on a sidewalk with Morven and Jade, Lemmie happens to catch a glimpse of a face in a passing car. Shaken almost to the point of physical illness, Lemmie brushes off the concern of her friends, and rushes home to work a little marshmallow magic. But another sighting confirms her worst fears, that the girl who made her life unbearable in Edinburgh has come to Balgownie. Lemmie starts sleepwalking again, sparking her parents’ worry, and soon there are messages from school indicating that her behaviour at school has changed. Will she once again find herself attacked and friendless, or, with Rose Rouge’s help, will Lemmie manage to confront her fears and safeguard the life she has build for herself in Balgownie?
Karen McCombie’s Marshmallow Magic and the Wild Rose Rouge introduces three very likeable and engaging characters in Lemmie and her friends, Morven and Jade, and perceptively examines the subjects of friendship, bullying, and individuality. Everyone needs friends like Morven and Jade. Everyone needs a teacher like Ms. McIver. And everyone sometimes needs an older sister like Rose Rouge.
FernFolio Editor

The Pack by Tom Pow

fernfolio — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:25:56 +0000

Bradley, who has survived on his own almost longer he can remember, has collected his pack, Florist, a small girl with a hacking cough, Victor, more wild animal than child, and three semi-feral dogs, Hunger, Fearless and Shelter, from the doorways and back alleys of the Zone. Bradley, Floris and Victor are three among the thousands of children lost, abandoned, or orphaned during the Dead Time, when governments, institutions, and financial and social safety nets failed, stores and businesses went bankrupt, houses and offices were looted, buildings collapsed, and people were thrown into chaos.
Each day, Bradley hustles for a good trade, or works a shell game scam with the Old Woman, a fellow traveller in the mean streets of the Zone, while Victor and Floris, who are still small and innocent-looking enough to draw sympathy, beg for food in the streets. Though they live from one meal to the next, and in constant danger of being attacked and robbed for the rags on their back, the members of the pack manage well enough, sharing their meagre food and body heat in the basement of a burnt-out warehouse.
When their long day on the street is over, Bradley, Floris, Victor and the dogs crouch around the Old Woman’s fire, and listen to her stories – stories that have the power to take them far from the wretchedness of their lives in the Zone, stories the Old Woman tells about each of them, and stories she tells to teach them about the Invisible City, the Compounds, and the Forbidden Territories. Each night, when the stories have been told, and it is time for sleep, she asks her questions, and the pack replies -
“What is the world made of?”
“Ashes and dust.”
“But what cannot crumble, what cannot burn or be broken?”
“Stories.”
One day Bradley helps the Old Woman con the lieutenant of one of the Forbidden Territories’ warlords out of a sack of vegetables. Though he disappears into the crowd with his prize, the man comes after Bradley, and manages to find the pack’s hide-out. During a midnight raid, Floris is taken, and Victor, bereft, takes off after her, only to be captured and caged by the warlord’s ragtag army of boy soldiers. When Bradley goes in search of Red Dog’s headquarters, and is lured into a trap, he finds himself with only his courage, his cunning, and his stories to win the pack’s freedom, and to strike out in search a better life for all of them far from chaos and despair.
Written by Tom Pow, The Pack is a post-apocalyptical story about friendship, loyalty, and the power of stories. Pow’s words are stark and beautiful.
FernFolio Editor

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

fernfolio — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:29:30 +0000

Once a year all the residents of District 12 must attend the reaping, during which two names are drawn from those of everyone between the ages of 12 and 18. The girl and boy chosen will become District 12’s tributes to the Hunger Games, a televised spectacle in which 24 youths will battle to the death until one lone survivor remains.
Sixteen-year old Katniss Everdeen has had to grow up quickly. Following her father’s death in a mining accident and her mother’s lengthy fall into depression, Katniss had to become her family’s breadwinner, stealing under the security fence that separates the district from the wilderness beyond to find food. Mindful of her late father’s lessons, and with the help of her friend Gale, Katniss learns to forage for plants and berries, and hunt and fish for game. With this food, and with the money she is able to earn by selling some of it in the black market, Katniss is able to keep her mother and little sister, Prim, fed and clothed and sheltered.
On that morning of the reaping, Katniss is nervous because her name appears on 14 slips of paper in that ball from which one slip will be drawn, one for every year since she turned twelve, and the others for the times she has had to go and ask for extra rations for her family. But it is her little sister Prim’s name that is called out, and horrified, Katniss, runs forward to offer herself in her sister’s place. Too quickly, she finds herself saying her final good-byes to her mother and sister, and being escorted to the train that will take her, and her fellow tribute, Peeta, to the Capitol.
In the days that follow, Katniss and Peeta are coached in strategy, survival tactics, and combat in preparation for entering the arena where the Hunger Games will take place. Like always, the exact location of this year’s arena is kept secret, so that tributes won’t have any idea about the climate or terrain until the games begin. Though wary about becoming friends with Peeta, since, inevitably, only one of them can hope to leave the arena alive, Katniss is won over by the young man’s kindness and honesty. Their team decides to play up their tentative friendship, and sells it to the television audience as a romance, something, they hope, will garner the tributes from District 12 some healthy sponsorships, which might give them a fighting chance at survival once the games begin.
From the start, Haymitch, her drunkard of a trainer, has told Katniss that her only chance of surviving the initial bloodbath that will follow the opening of the games is to get away from the other tributes as quickly as possible. So, rather than making a grab for some of the mountain of supplies that are offered, Katniss runs for the trees. She survives the first day, but is soon feeling the effects of dehydration as she tries desperately to find water. In the torturous days that follow, she will be witness to unspeakable acts of savagery and violence, and have to choose between making her own way, or forging a partnership with someone else. And finally, Katniss will have to choose what is more important – winning the game and reinforcing the Capitol’s control over her actions, or affirming her growing belief that there may be some things more important than winning.
A thought-provoking collision between Survivor and Rome’s gladiatorial games, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games will grip intermediate readers’ attention from the very first page.
FernFolio Editor

Ten Ways to Make My Sister Disappear by Norma Fox Mazer

fernfolio — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:06:18 +0000

Grace “Sprig” Ewing ought to be having the best year of her life. She is ten, her favourite number, she has terrific parents, a wonderful older sister, and Bliss, her faithful and supportive best friend. But somehow nothing seems to quite right anymore in Sprig’s life.
Her father, an architectural engineer, has left on an extended business trip to Washington D.C. to discuss the building of schools in Afghanistan, and Sprig misses him terribly. She is also afraid he might be sent to Afghanistan to oversee the building of these schools. Her mother is a bank manager and works long hours. Though she makes a point of doing things just with Sprig, such as going with her to the Mother Daughter Reading Club, she has also had a little talk with her about learning to control her emotions and not crying at the drop of a hat.
Worse, since she turned twelve, Sprig’s sister Dakota has become impossible. She is constantly telling Sprig what to do and what not to do, and exerting her right, as the older sibling, to choose first, speak first, and make decisions on behalf of her younger sister. She has stopped playing with Sprig, preferring to spend time with Krystee, whose taunts and sarcasm leave Sprig feeling angry and powerless, and has discovered boys, especially Thomas Buckhorn, probably the cutest boy in the whole United States.
Fortunately, Sprig’s best friend, Bliss, shares her feelings about Krystee, and sympathises with her frustrations with Dakota. But Bliss also seems to have developed an interest in boys, namely Russell Ezra-Evans, the super-sized version who sits behind Sprig in class and who is constantly knocking into, hitting and kicking her. Yes, she knows he probably cannot help it, he’s so large that he has trouble controlling his body parts, but discovering that Bliss thinks Russell is “sort of adorable” leaves Sprig feeling like she’s been left behind.
Ten Ways to Make My Sister Disappear explores the thoughts and feelings of a gentle yet resilient young girl on the cusp of adolescence as she learns just how complicated and difficult and wonderful relationships with friends and family can be. Written by Norma Fox Mazer, this is a novel that will speak to younger sisters and girls coming to grips with adolescence.
FernFolio Editor

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

fernfolio — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:58:02 +0000

Following the death of their mother, fifteen-year old Prosper takes his five-year old brother, Bo, and sneaks onto a train bound for Venice, a place neither boy has ever visited but that looms large in both their imaginations because of their mother’s stories. He is desperate to get them far from Germany and their aunt Esther Hartlieb, who is determined to adopt the angelic-looking Bo, but who is not interested in his teenaged brother.
Once in Venice, the boys are taken in by a gang of street kids who live in an abandoned cinema, and survive by picking the pockets of wealthy tourists and with the help and support of the mysterious Thief Lord. The Thief Lord, no more than a teenager himself, calls himself Scipio and supplies them with money and goods, some of the profits of his thefts from the great palazzos of Venice. Scipio doesn’t live with the others in the cinema but arrives, masked and cloaked in a black cape, to pay them visits there at odd hours of the night, bringing money and food and books and clothes.
Prosper and Bo rapidly grow accustomed to their new lives with Ricco, Mosca, and Hornet, and come to love Venice, an ancient city of maze-like streets and canals built on a series of islands in the Adriatic off the northeast coast of Italy. Though Prosper worries about his friends’ illegal activities and constantly lives in fear of being found by aunt Esther, Bo revels in the freedom and adventure of their new lives.
Then one day, Prosper bumps into a man with a walrus moustache, a man who takes a good look at him, and then seems to follow when he and the boys start making their way back to the cinema for the evening. The man, a detective named Victor Getz, has been hired by Prosper and Bo’s aunt Esther to find Bo so that she can take him back to Germany. Prosper and his friends lose the stranger, but the boy’s suspicions grow when he sees the man standing at the water taxi dock, as their boat puts out into the Grand Canal. Fearing the worst, Prosper disguises himself and Bo, and gets Ricco and the others to help him keep Bo from view, yet Victor proves more than a match for a handful of ragtag street kids and their elusive teenaged protector.
Burdened with providing for and protecting his friends, as well as growing personal troubles of his own, Scipio needs a lot of money. When he and his gang are offered a fortune by an elderly Conte to steal a broken wing made of wood from a private house in Venice, Scipio accepts the strange request but, before the theft can be carried out, an unexpected revelation rocks the Thief Lord’s gang and threatens the safety of every one of the kids living in the Stella cinema. The burglary doesn’t go according to plan. Caught by Ida Spavento, the woman who owns the house, and the wooden wing, pursued by Victor Getz, and his client, Esther Hartlieb, and hunted by the local police, the gang must pull together all of their resources to save themselves and their friends.
Written by the wonderful Cornelia Funke, The Thief Lord is a magical tale that explores the themes of family and friendship, poverty and wealth, and childhood and old age against the richly detailed backdrop of Venice, one of the proudest and most beautiful cities in the world.
FernFolio Editor

Mattland by Hazel Hutchins, Gail Herbert and Dusan Petricic

fernfolio — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:32:05 +0000

When Matt’s parent move again, this time to a new house in a new subdivision, Matt finds himself with no one – and nothing – to play with. Standing on bare ground littered with scraps of construction materials, Matt sees a stick and feels like breaking it, or hitting something with it, but when he picks it up it feels comfortable in his hand. So Matt draws a line with the stick, one that quickly fills with water, and so is born Snake River, the first feature of a young boy’s imaginary world.
Using rocks and puddles and mounds of earth, as well as the building scraps, Matt creates rivers and lakes, mountains and hills, farms and cities, roads and railway lines. He does it all with the help of the outsider, a girl who appears and offers him first a popsicle stick, and then all of the small treasures that she can find, berry containers, pine cones, metal keys, and broken bits of tile.
Then the rain begins and threatens Mattland until help comes unexpectedly, saving the children’s creation and forming the basis on new friendships.
Mattland is written by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert in words and phrases that slip comfortably from the tongue to create images that evoke the best of childhood. The illustrations, by Dusan Petricic, are wonderful; his use of perspective and colour underscore the central messages of friend making and the imagination.
FernFolio Editor

Chicken Boy by Frances O’Roark Dowell

fernfolio — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:25:44 +0000

For twelve year-old Tobin McCaully, seventh grade begins pretty much as every other grade, even though he’s now attending a middle school. He’s still saddled with the reputations of his hell-raising older brothers and sister, he’s still the butt of Cody Peters’ jokes, and he’s still trying to lay low enough to fly under the radar of his teachers, his school mates, and his family.
Since his mother’s death from cancer, Tobin’s family has lost its centre; his older brothers and sister are rarely home, stopping in only long enough to catch a quick night’s sleep or change their clothes, and his father, a construction worker, puts in long hours on the job, followed by longer hours in the local bar. Dishes don’t get done, laundry isn’t washed, the trash piles up for weeks on end and, for a young boy the worst thing of all, the house is frequently devoid of anything edible. Every chance he gets, Tobin heads to his grandmother’s house. His granny loves her truck, though it’s debatable whether she ought to be allowed to drive it, her endless string of “boyfriends”, fishing and Tobin.
When Tobin tackles Cody Peters after he makes lewd remarks about their English teacher, another boy, Henry Otis, jumps into the fight to help, and Tobin reluctantly discovers that he has landed himself a friend, one who ignores rebuffs and eagerly shares his passion for chickens. Tobin finds himself drawn into Henry’s extra-credit science project on chickens, listening with growing interest to his new friend’s daily lectures on the art of raising chickens, and his musings about the chicken soul. He meets Harrison, Henry’s younger brother, and a tycoon in the making, who is determined to make the boys’ fortune selling the eggs produced by their flock of five, and then ten, birds.
With Henry as his friend, it isn’t so easy, anymore, to ignore homework assignments and daydream in class. Tobin finds himself taking an interest in school, and making friends among his classmates for the first time in his school career. He approaches his grandmother about coming to live with her, but she tells him she’s too old to look after a young boy.
But, when his grandmother reports his father to children’s aid and social workers arrive to inspect the state of the house and interview Tobin, the tension between her and his father explodes into anger, and Tobin finds himself torn between his unconventional grandmother and his negligent father. In the end, it’s Henry and the chickens who offer Tobin solace and hope.
Chicken Boy is a wonderful tale about a family who loses its way following the death of a loved one, and about a boy who simply needs the love and companionship of a friend and five chickens to turn himself, and his family, around. A moving story, beautifully told by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Not to be missed.
FernFolio Editor

Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend by Mélanie Watt

fernfolio — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:22:51 +0000

Afraid of getting close to someone who might prove dangerous, Scaredy Squirrel has never had a friend. But, bored and tired of thinking up activities to do by himself, Scaredy leaps at the opportunity to make friends with the goldfish who lives in the fountain near his nut tree. While the goldfish might not be the most exciting companion, Scaredy is confident that, since he has no teeth, the goldfish won’t be a biter. He prepares carefully before approaching the goldfish, making a list of things he will need to make a good first impression, including mittens to cover his sweaty paws and an air freshener for that pine-tree scent, and drawing a detailed map to plot his course from the nut tree to the fountain.
Scaredy gets all the way to step two of his plan when the unexpected happens, and he is confronted by a dog. Though terrified, at first, but this large, smelly and exuberant creature, who has a full set of teeth, Scaredy learns that friends are sometimes found in unexpected places and that relationships involve a certain amount of risk!
Once again, Mélanie Watt has woven a story about a small creature whose social anxieties mirror our own insecurities. Her striking illustrations compliment a text that is both humorous and touching. A fine sequel to Scaredy Squirrel!
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend won the 2008 Blue Spruce prize.
FernFolio Editor