Punished! by David Lubar

From Goodreads,

"Logan and his friend Benedict run into the wrong guy at the library--literally. When Logan slams into the reference guy in the basement and gives him a little lip, Logan gets punished, really and truly punished. He has three days to complete three tasks before Professor Wordsworth will lift the magical punishment that keeps getting Logan in even more trouble."

Goodreads - Punished!

Awards and Nominations:

• Keystone to Reading Book Award for Intermediate (2009)
• Flicker Tale Children's Book Award (2010)

This past school year I took the time to make multiple projects through Donors Choose which is a website that allows teachers to post projects and ask for supplies all while people around the world can donate money to help.  I posted a project to receive the book Punished! for my students because it would allow us to learn about figurative language.  I was very fortunate that a donor fully funded our project so that we could receive a class set of books.  My students were extremely excited to get the books and even more excited to read them. 

Punished! is told by a young boy named Logan who can be a little unruly at times.  One day Logan and his friend Benedict are playing tag in the library when Logan runs into a man.  The man ends up punishing Logan by making him say puns every time he speaks.  Logan must quickly complete three quests set by the man in order to get his punishment lifted. 

This book is absolutely perfect for teaching figurative language.  This book has a lot of puns, oxymorons, redundancies, anagrams, and palindromes.  The book is split so that a quest takes a chapter or two to complete, but the reader also learns what each of these things are.  While I was teaching using this book I used a unit study I purchased.  It had pages where students had to find the different types of figurative language in the chapter or they had to come up with their own oxymorons.  I think the favorite activity my students did was when we searched for palindromes.  Students were given a sheet of paper and tried to come up with as many as possible.  They sat for probably 15 minutes just working to find different ones.  Our phonics curriculum has letter cards that are located on my board.  My students utilized those and kept referring back to them.  They also applied rules that they have been taught through the phonics such as vowels that are typically doubled in a word such as "ee" or "oo".  The whole activity was a great pull of skills from the book we were reading, from our phonics program, and from basic spelling rules.  The book definitely made my students more aware of things that are used in conversation and I noticed they started identifying the figurative language people were using.  My class even pulled a pun in math using the word isosceles.  From a teacher standpoint this book is a great way to teach figurative language in a fun and engaging way instead of droning on and using worksheets. 

My students liked the book for the most part, but they had two complaints.  One was that the book had a terrible ending.  My students felt like the book ended abruptly with no exciting end.  I have to agree that the book did have a shabby ending.  Once the final quest was complete the book ended swiftly with no exciting twist to it.  The other complaint was that there wasn't a lot of action.  My students said they wanted a book that had more ups and downs with exciting points that left us hanging.  Unfortunately, this book was literally just Logan working straight through to get the punishment lifted with very few issues or problems that caused any sense of excitement. 

All in all, the book was an excellent work to use to teach figurative language.  I plan on using it as long as I stay teaching in my current grade.  The book could use more excitement and adventure, but it does the job on covering figurative language.  I think this book is perfect for use in a classroom.  I give this book 3 stars.  

The Barn by Avi

From Goodreads,

"The schoolmaster says nine-year-old Benjamin is the finest student he's ever seen-fit for more than farming; destined for great things someday. But his father's grave illness brings Ben home from school and compels him to strive for something great right now -- to do the one thing that will please Father so much he'll want to live. But first Ben must convince his older sister and brother to work with him. And together, they succeed in ways they never dreamed possible."

Goodreads - The Barn

I bought this book based on the summary, which is how I purchase 95% of my books.  The summary really led it that this book had very important ties to the education of Ben and the great things he was destined to do.  I however, feel that the summary was misleading and that this story was something else completely.

This book is told from the aspect of Ben who is just a young boy living in the 1800s.  Ben was sent to a school for a few months, until the day his sister comes to bring him home.  Ben finds out that his father has suffered an accident and is in terrible condition.  Ben, his sister Nettie, and his brother Harrison try to work together to take care of the farm and to take care of father.  Ben soon gets it in his head that building a barn will save father.  The others reluctantly agree with hopes father will improve.

This book was not what I was expecting at all.  As I mentioned before, I feel that the summary was misleading.  The summary really made it out that education would be a big piece of this book, but it wasn't.  It was mentioned a few times about Ben being smart and returning to school, but I ultimately feel that the story of family and working together had a bigger role.  Nettie was the oldest at only 15 when the book begins.  The children were literally children.  They weren't adults or almost adults.  They were young children who were having to take care of a farm and take care of their father.  I think it is amazing that these three children were able to develop plans and follow them through in order to keep everyone alive and the farm running.  This book takes place in the 1800s so things were definitely different then than they are now.  In today's world, I don't think that three children at that age would be able to keep a farm going and take care of their ill father.  That being said, I think this book really shows the work ethic that the kids had.  I think that many young adults (and adults) need to read this book and realize how easy their life is.  I know that I was definitely feeling grateful for the life I live by the time I finished this book.

While I was reading the plot of this book seemed very familiar.  It dawned on me about halfway through that the book sounded very similar to the plot of Stone Fox.  To an extent I felt like I was reading a version of Stone Fox without the snow or sled dogs.  There was the same aspect of "saving the farm" and the adult (grandfather or father) being sick.  Interestingly, The Barn was written 16 years after Stone Fox was published.  It definitely leaves me questioning if Avi took ideas from Stone Fox.

Overall, this book was just okay.  It lacked excitement and there was a constant hope of father getting better that just never happened.  I feel like the ending was quick and done, with nothing to tell us what happened after the barn was built.  It has a good story, but it is so similar to Stone Fox that it was honestly a let down for me.  I give this 2 stars.

Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

From Goodreads,

"When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive."

Goodreads - Dry

I am guilty of not drinking nearly enough water.  My boyfriend is constantly telling me that I'm not drinking enough water and that I need to stop drinking Pepsi or apple juice or milk.  And I have to admit he's right.  I need to drink more water.  While reading this book I had a constant longing for a cold glass of water. 

This book takes place at the exact moment that the taps go dry in California.  Everything is fine until people start to panic and fight for every precious drop of water.  Over the course of the book we meet Alyssa and her brother Garrett, their next door neighbor Kelton, Jacqui the street smart girl, and the rich boy Henry.  The five stories intertwine quickly as they try to survive the great tap out.  The biggest question is if they will find water or if they will die trying.

This book was not what I was expecting, but it was honestly everything that I needed.  I live in Arkansas where running out of water is a foreign concept.  There has never been a time in my life where I have worried where my next sip of water would come from.  We don't have to conserve water by limiting showers, not filling swimming pools, or not watering our plants and yard.  This isn't a life I'm familiar with.  So naturally, this book was quite the eye opener.  I can't even imagine having to live like the residents of California during a drought or even worse, during a time where there is absolutely no water running through the tap.  I feel like this book definitely educated me on water crises.  You never imagine that a resource like water would disappear, but it clearly happened in this book.  Not only did this book paint a picture of drinkable water becoming scarce, but it showed the true human nature of people.  When it came down to it people were only worried about themselves and their immediate family.  People were not worried about their neighbors or their friends.  They were only worried about themselves.  I think this book gives a pretty accurate picture as to what would happen in a water crisis like this. 

One thing that I found interesting was the way the story was written.  The book was broken into parts, and in each part the story was told by alternating points of view from Alyssa, Kelton, Jacqui, or Henry.  There were also snapshots that showed what was happening elsewhere that would eventually come into play with the main characters.  I still don't know how to feel about this story structure.  I typically frown on books that have varying points of view because I feel the story is just incomplete and scattered.  This book didn't leave me with that feeling.  This book was written so that when one character concluded their part of the story the next person picked up where it was left off.  I didn't feel like I missed information or events because each character continued the story, just from their point of view.  I feel like the snapshots in the story were not needed.  They gave minor points of view from characters that would never have a large part in the story.  I felt like it was wasted information and that it could have easily been omitted.

Overall, this book was extremely well written and informative.  I got a different perspective of life in California and the challenges they can and do face.  This book is perfect for young adults.  After reading the acknowledgements I realized this book is to be turned into a movie.  I couldn't find much information about the movie, but I am definitely excited to see it.  I give this book a solid 5 stars. 

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

From Goodreads,

"Hunter. Autumn. Summer.
Different homes. Different guardians. Different last names.
Different lives.
But there is one person who binds them together.
Kristina.

Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster---crank---her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A predisposition to addiction and a sense of emptiness where a mother's love should be leads all three down the road of their mother's notorious legacy. Sex, drugs, alcohol, abuse---there is more of Kristina in her children than they would ever like to believe. But when the thread that ties them together brings them face-to-face, they'll discover something powerful in each other and in themselves---the trust, the hope, the courage to begin to break the cycle.

Fallout is bestselling author Ellen Hopkin's riveting conclusion to her trilogy begun by Crank and Glass. It is a revelation and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person's problem."

Goodreads - Fallout

Awards and Nominations:

• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2010)

I am so glad that I have finally finished the Crank series.  I think I expected Fallout to follow the storyline of Kristina, but that wasn't the case in this book.  Fallout tells the aftermath of Kristina's addiction through the eyes of three of her children.  The story alternates between Hunter, Summer, and Autumn and their struggle to find love and avoid the cycle of addiction. 

I struggled with this book at the beginning.  I found the alternating story lines difficult to keep up with and the connections weren't clear.  I was well into the middle of the book before I discovered Autumn and Summer's connections to Kristina.  I wish that that information had been shared at the beginning of their storyline.  I struggled to keep Summer and Autumn's stories separate because I felt that there were some similarities between the two.  Hunter was easy to keep separated due to his being a male and being raised by Kristina's parents.  The concept of having the three stories of the kids was a great idea, but it was not executed well.

I do however love that the final book was the story of Kristina's kids.  The reader was able to see the impacts of her doing drugs and how it has impacted their lives.  All of the kids at some point in the book faced the issue of addiction or of teenage troubles.  Hunter cheated and smoked weed, Autumn had sex and was possibly pregnant and was quickly gaining a drinking problem, and Summer had a boyfriend doing meth and ran away to be with him.  All of these kids had problems and I think it was directly connected to Kristina's addiction.  I think this book is a wonderful example of how your choices can affect others later down the road.  Many people don't see drugs and alcohol as being part of a cycle.  This book is a prime example of how you get sucked into the cycle and you have to fight to get out and stay out of it.  Unfortunately, these kids were having to constantly fight to avoid turning out like their mother. 

This book was large, and by large I mean over 600 pages.  It made it difficult to hold because it was so thick, but that's just a personal complaint.  The book was an interesting conclusion to the Crank series.  I would love to know what happened to the actual children and how their life has been changed forever by the monster.  I give this 3 stars.  The mixed story lines were complicated and the book was too long and dragged on forever.  If you've read the first or second book, then I recommend reading Fallout.