The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

2002, first published 2001  

The traveling pants of the title are a pair of jeans bought from a charity. The four friends, Bridget Carmen, Lena and Tibby pass them on to each other during a long summer in which each of the girls grows up a little.  So, we approach the bildungsroman of the young adult.

Bridget embarks on a forbidden relationship with an older boy a coach at her summer camp. Carmen behaves badly when she is confronted with her father’s new family. The beautiful but rather shy Lena causes a misunderstanding between her and Kostos, the grandson of friends of her grandparents.  Tibby works at Wallman’s and befriends Bailey, a younger girl who is dying of leukaemia.

The pants develop a spiritual quality and bring luck and meaningfulness to each girl as she wears them        

Each chapter contains glimpse of each of the girls and is headed by a quote usually from literature though there is also a quote from a bumper sticker.

The book is 304 pages long.  The chapters are quite short. The text is blocked and in an adult serif font. Other fonts are used for had-written notes, giving each girl a different sort of handwriting. 

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Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz

                                                               

 

2015, first published 2011  

This is the ninth of the Alex Rider books.  The pace and the tension have increased even more.   There is a marked emotional tension this time as well.  He gets even closer to Jack Starbright and we also learn that there has been a meaningful kiss between him and Sabine Pleasure.   

Alex meets his doppelganger, Julius Grief. Grief is a clone of his father and in a previous novel has been made to look exactly like Alex.  Alex kills for the first time.  He confronts his evil “twin”.

Alan Blunt is about to be replaced by Mrs Jones as the head of M16. Blunt has fallen out of favour with the Prime Minister. At the end of the novel we learn that Blunt has acted in a devious way.  All is not black and white.  We are verging on YA material. Blunt comments that “A German philosopher once wrote that he who fights monsters must take care that he doesn’t become one himself.  Our work is monstrous. I’m afraid there is no escaping it” (427).  Is this foreshadowing something for Alex?  The blurb on the back of the book describes this as “Alex’s final mission”.  There is another book. Will Ale become a monster?

Alex is changed. Jack has died because of becoming involved in one of Alex’s activities. Alex has taken a life.   

We have many adult points of view here. The first 107 pages are about various criminal activities and also some of Alan Blunt’s and Mrs Jones’ work. Blunt and Jones have a significant chapter towards the end of the novel.  We are also in the point of view of Edward Pleasure near the end.

The novel ends on an upbeat note.  Scorpia has been shut down and many of its members are arrested. Alex leaves London, taking very few belongings and goes to live with the Pleasures in San Francisco.

The book is 431 pages long with blocked text in a simple font.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

2017

This tackles many themes that interest the target reader.  John Green presents us with death, cancer, depression, grief, family relationships, peer relationships and some mild peer pressure. Green also explores the notion of fiction, both in his notes within the book and in the character of Peter Van Houten, a drunk and an egoist who has at one time been a writer. 

Importantly, Green encourages us to look at those who suffer from cancer as whole people, not just as victims of a disease.  These need not necessarily be nice people. 

Nice or not, the characters are richly drawn. As we have come to expect from Green, the characters are rounded and believable. Hazel narrates the story and has been given a convincing and consistent voice.      

       

The growth in protagonist Hazel is mild and somewhat negative though we also have plenty of positives:  love, romance, gentle sex and for some, survival.   

The book is some 316 pages long so has a respectable spine. The text s blocked and a serif font, with difficult  ‘a’s and ‘g’s is used.  A bordering on adult readership is further confirmed by quit demanding language and much abstract, philosophical thought.  This edition was published in 2017. The novel was first published in 2012.        
      

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 

2015 

The monster in the title takes many forms. It is an ancient spirit in a Yew tree, a nightmare, cancer, death, illness, humanity, a caring grandmother, an almost always absent father, a group of bullies and the protagonist himself, Conor.

The concept was created by Siobhan Dowd, but sadly she died of breast cancer before she could start writing. The task was taken on by Patrick Ness but he made no attempt to replicate Dowd's voice.   

    

This is a brave novel. It tackles many young adult themes – peer pressure, family relationships, bullying and school. There is a touch of the paranormal too in the story. It also brings us face-to-face with death and illness; some of the descriptions of Conor's mother's illness are quite graphic. 

Conor is not altogether likeable yet Ness manages to make us empathise with him. 

In the end, it is up to the reader to decide exactly who or what the monster is.  For sure, it brings some wisdom and poses many questions.                     

The Bird Within Me

2020

The story is inspired by paintings, letters and diaries of the Swedish painter Berta Hansson.

There is a lot of sadness in the text: Berta is labelled as useless, she is dissatisfied with her art, especially as it does not prevent her mother, who suffers from TB,  eventually dying. Berta and her siblings have to constantly be tested for the disease and after Mother’s death the house has to be thoroughly cleaned.

We have clues that the story is set in the past: the hold the TB has, the visit of the mother to the sanatorium, we see older sister Julia putting on stockings and we see some delightful extracts from the fashion pages of an old newspaper. Father’s attitude is a little old-fashioned; Why should a girl go away to be educated?

Yet Berta manages with the doctor’s help to go away to study art.

The illustrations represent the type of work Berta would have been doing at the age she is in the story.

Who will read this text? It is rather long for a picture book and has rather more text that we would expect in a story for pre-school children. Indeed the content is more suitable for an older child or even a young adult or adult. Yet the pictures, the story and the text work together to give us an authentic picture of Berta’s life.  It is a text that the reader can return to time and time again.    

This is a highly illustrated with full colour pictures. The pictures add to the story. There are sixty-five double spreads including end-matter which add up to the 228 pages of core text.  

At the end of the book is a twelve page biography of Berta. 

   

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Set in World War II, this story brings us the themes of war, death, abuse, friendship and growth. Young William Beech poses reclusive set-in-his ways Tom Oakley a challenge when he arrives as an evacuee in Little Weirworld. There are some grim scenes and both Will and Tom have a hard time of it but the ending is upbeat.   

This is perhaps the best known of Magorian's books, many of which are set in this era. This one could be described as a modern classic.  

This is clearly suitable for the fluent ready in the latter stages of Key Stage 2 and the last two classes of junior school, ages 9-11. It would also appeal to slightly older readers and adults. 

Magorian's characters are richly drawn. She uses a close third person point of view and we get to know each one of them really well. She does flit from head to head a little which may disturb the modern reader somewhat but nevertheless we remain gripped until the end. 

I was very happy to reread this book.