On Thin Ice by Michael Northrop

From Goodreads,

"Ked Eakins is about to lose everything.

He's just discovered that his dad has gambled away their rent money. They're going to get kicked out of their home.

But Ked is determined to fight back. He hatches a plan to save their apartment by rebuilding a vintage minibike in his school's maker space, which he'll sell for a profit.

Still, the plan is a gamble of his own: Going to maker space forces Ked into the path of a school bully, who torments him about his progressive spinal condition.

Can Ked -- with the help of some unlikely new friends ​​​​​​​-- find a way to fix the bike and save his family from going under before it's too late?

New York Times bestselling author Michael Northrop has written a powerful story a boy who ​​​​​​​-- against all odds ​​​​​​​-- decides to bet on himself and create something new from broken pieces."

Goodreads - On Thin Ice

This was the final book I received from Scholastic, and it was a bittersweet moment to read the note saying it was the last one.  The copy I received was an uncorrected proof that won't be released in stories until July.  Needless to say, I was extremely excited to be able to read this book before it even hits the shelves. 

On Thin Ice is about a boy named Ked who has a back condition that makes him stand out.  His mom left and his dad spends all their money gambling.  Ked quickly realizes that they are behind on rent and that they are going to be evicted.  He decides to make a gamble himself by using what little money they have left to purchase a Road Rokkit.  He makes plans to restore it, but one problem after another keeps happening.  The real question is will his gamble pay off and will they make rent.

This book started off really slow.  I couldn't get into it and found myself reading and finishing another book to avoid this one.  I finally sat down one evening and finished it.  After reading it, I found there was a message that kept jumping out at me, and that was resolving conflicts and making amends.  Ked had lost his friends and he thought it was because they didn't want to be with him because of his back.  Ked soon realized that if he just approached them, that there would be the possibility of making amends.  Ked approached a couple of his friends, started a conversation, and things were made better between all of them.  There was also the situation with the bully Landrover.  Landrover was constantly mean and aggressive toward Ked.  At the end of the book Ked saves Landrover and they talk and discover they have more in common than they think.  This results in them being cordial to each other instead of Landrover being mean.  I can think of a ton of people who need to read this book and learn how to solve problems with someone and make amends.  We are so fixated on electronics and social media that we don't know how to have a face to face conversation with someone and how to make amends.  This book shows good examples on how to have a face to face conversation and how to resolve problems. 

This book was an uncorrected copy and it did have some grammatical errors.  There weren't many, but I did catch some.  The book has a very slow start in my opinion.  I don't think that it would really grab and keep the attention of young students.  The book picks up as it goes, but I just don't think a fourth or fifth grader would find it engaging enough.

Overall, the book was okay.  It was a little bit of a let down.  I expected a lot more out of it, but it just didn't happen for me.  I give this 2.5 stars. 

Trapped by Michael Northrop

From Goodreads:

"The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive. . . .

Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision. . . ."

Goodreads - Trapped

I remember being in high school and experiencing the awe of snow days.  There is one day I remember in particular.  It was my senior year and the forecast called for snow.  I was sitting in my sewing class (it was a branch off of home ec...I had home ec classes for three of my seven classes..) and was talking with one of my friends.  School had just started and we kept slipping out of class to look out the doors by our classroom.  Finally it started snowing...hard.  About 30 minutes after school started an announcement was made that lunch would be served at 9:00 instead of at regular lunch time.  (Lunch was served early so that we could count the school day as a whole day instead of a half day.  This was done because of the logistics of making up school days.)  So we were all sitting around at "lunch" talking about the snow and getting all hyped up over it.  It ended up that it was coming down REALLY hard and parents were checking kids out of school left and right.  The entire yearbook staff went to our yearbook advisor and she signed us all out so that we could go home before the snow got bad.  I called my parents and told them that I was checked out and that I was sitting in my vehicle trying to get it to defrost and then I would be home.  They told me to absolutely not come home.  They sent my sister to come get me in her Jeep 4X4.  My Dad caught a ride with my brother-in-law and we met at my truck and he drove it home.  We were out of school for a few days because of how fast the snow came down.  It was pretty exciting because as seniors we all knew we wouldn't have to make those snow days up.

Now, you are probably wondering why I told this snow day story.  Had our school reacted slowly there was a chance we would have been snowed in.  Totally kidding.  I live in the deep south and in my 23 years of life I've only seen one winter where we were snowed in for an extended period of time.  But it was still all the excitement of "Oh no!  We could totally be snowed in here!  Can you imagine what that would be like?  Can you imagine all the chaos that would ensue!?"  This book made me think of this whole senior snow day experience.

The book is narrated by Scotty as he retells the events from the blizzard.  The book starts out with the kids getting excited about snow and some students discussing how soon they would be released from school.  Finally they were released.  Scotty and his friends decide to stay at school to work on a go kart.  Eventually they quit working on it and decide to go wait for them to all be picked up.  The three friends end up sitting with four others and a coach.  Things escalate and the kids all have to stay the night at school.  The mother of all snow storms continues to blow in and they have to figure out how to survive in the school without completely destroying it.  They do eventually get rescued, but not before some dramatic events take place.

I really enjoyed this book.  Oddly enough one of my favorite things was watching the snow build up on each page (when you read the book you'll know what I mean.)  I've always wondered what it would be like to stay the night in the school.  I of course hoped it would be full of shenanigan adventures, but in reality the only reason I would be staying the night in a school is if something horrific happened such as being snowed in.  And in that situation I would be doing what was necessary in order to survive.  The book was sequenced really well and told the story of the great blizzard.  I wish that the book had had date and time stamps for each chapter to kind of keep up with the time frame for what was happening.  I understand the reason they weren't there was because Scotty is telling the story and Scotty didn't have his phone with him during the blizzard.  It still would have been nice to have a time frame to watch the snow build and the survival instincts kick in.

Also, I didn't feel that I really connected with any of the characters.  Everything was really vague as far as the connection between the characters.  I didn't feel that the characters communicated as they probably really would have under realistic circumstances.  I know that if I had been trapped in my high school with two of my friends, two guys I liked, and two people I found weird or didn't like, that I would still talk to them.  I mean it's not like you could exactly turn on the TV. instead of talking to the people around you.  Maybe that's it's just my chatty side talking, but I would have gotten to know the six other people a whole lot better than when we first got trapped.  I would have really liked to see the characters interact more.  I think realistically, trapped students would probably try to entertain themselves.  If that meant searching the school for board games or books or whatever, then they would have found some way to keep themselves occupied.  We only saw things from Scotty's perspective and in my opinion he didn't talk a whole lot while he was trapped.  This was really a book of "read the whole account of what happened" instead of "here's everything we talked about and did while we were bored out of our minds and trapped in our high school."  I personally think that the characters could have all been a little more developed and probably a little more emotional and vocal about how they were feeling throughout the entire trapped adventure.  The characters were all bland.  There was nothing that made them exciting or unique.  Even Scotty was very blah.

I really wish that this book had had more of an ending to it.  I had some unanswered questions when it was all over.  The book ends rather abruptly.  I felt like the climax of the book was at the end, but it didn't have a big finisher...it just fizzled out.  I just wanted a chapter that was titled like a month later or three months later or a year later or something.  I just needed a final conclusion on what happened after.  Did the snow ever melt or were they all destined to be suffocated by the snow?  What happened to all parents?  Did any of the people who were trapped become friends?

Even with the lack of a solid ending, it was still a good book.  It was a good adventure survival book for young adults.  This would be a perfect book for someone who is wanting a book that keeps them wondering what will happen, but also looking for a book that is fairly simple to read and comprehend.  I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.