My 20th Caudill!

This was the final 2012 Rebecca Caudill nominee for me to read, and it was a great way to finish. Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass is a story is told from the standpoint of three very different people: Ally is happy living at a campground which her parents have been running for years, all the while waiting for a huge event - a total solar eclipse. Bree is your basic material girl, and she's extremely unhappy when she finds out that her family will be moving to that same campground and taking it over. Jack is a loner and has just flunked science, but if he goes with his science teacher's tour group to a campground (the same one, of course) for two weeks, he can get out of summer school. The three voices are distinct and authentic, the teens' problems are real, and the description of the eclipse near the end of the story was absolutely breath-taking. I loved the way the three stories came together...I bet you do, too.

Why is the land so important?

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor won the Newbery Medal in 1977, and it was a well-deserved honor. The story takes place in the Deep South in the 1930s. For Cassie's African-American family, that was a time of poverty and brutal racism, but also strong family ties and a sense of honor. The author describes in a painfully touching way how Cassie comes to understand the reasons she and her brothers are treated so differently from the neighboring white children. And now there are night riders and burnings and humiliation. Why is tall, towering Mr. Morrision really staying with Cassie's family? Why is the land so important to Papa? This is a powerful, moving story about racial prejudice and those who withstood it with pride and dignity.

A quinceañera for a tomboy?

The cover says it all for Sweet 15 by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria. Destiny is 14 and is quite happy being a tomboy and skateboarding with her buddy Omar. But her 15th birthday is coming up, and her Puerto Rican parents are all set on providing with her a big, fancy quinceañera. Destiny knows her family can't afford it, and her feminist older sister is totally opposed to the idea. Her friends try to help, but Stephanie is African-American, Erin is Jewish, and both are well off, so they don't quite get Destiny's problem. And what to do about Omar, who might be starting to like her in more than a friendly way, and Nicholas the cute new guy? The story moves quickly, the conversations are funny, and the family and friend dynamics are believable, as Destiny figures out how to speak up for herself.

"You don't aim a butterfly - you release it"

I really grew fond of the main character in The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane. Molly is in 8th grade and had always been close to her father; he loved baseball and taught her a lot, including how to throw a knuckleball, a pitch that floats through the air like a butterfly. He died in a car crash six months ago, and Molly is still working through her grief. As a way of following her heart and honoring her father, she decides to go out for the boys' baseball team. Not unexpectedly, she meets some resistance, but with help from her crazy friend Celia; Lonnie, a catcher with an artistic soul; and two understanding coaches; she makes the team. Molly's memories of her father, her interactions with her mom, and her way of dealing with the good and bad in her life are all expressed very realistically, and the sports action on the mound adds a nice touch.

Very interesting premise behind Kick by Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman. Myers is a well-known YA author; Workman is one of his teen-aged fans. They took turns writing the chapters - Workman writes as 13-year-old Kevin, who gets in trouble when he's caught driving (and wrecking) a car with his friend Christy as a passenger. Myers writes as Sergeant Brown, a police officer who can tell there's more to Kevin and Christy's story than he's hearing. There's a sub-plot about Kevin's soccer team heading into a championship; the action of the games is an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the story. Although the revelation of Christy's problem is somewhat anti-climactic, the developing relationship between Kevin and the Sergeant is great. A terrific collaboration!