Baby Mouse: Queen of the World written and illustrated by Jennifer L. Holm. Illustrated by Matthew Holm, 2005, New York: Random House. ( 0375832297)Awards: The series has won multiple Children's Choices awards, and one title was the first graphic novel ever to be named an ALA Notable Children's Book.
- WINNER 2006 - Gryphon Award
- WINNER 2006 - ALA Notable Children's Book
- WINNER 2006 - New York Book Show Awards
Annotation: Follow Babymouse in the first of her adventures in the Babymouse series- day dreamer extraordinaire with big expectations to that wants to win over the popular girls, have straight whiskers, wear a tiara, eat ice cream for lunch and have no more homework.
Personal Reaction: Babymouse is not your typical graphic novel story for tweens. Often interspersed with imaginary daydream situations that Babymouse finds herself in. In this first book of the series, Babymouse particularly toils with the pressures of wanting to be friends with Felicia the popular girl at school and how to get invited to her slumber party but also remain true to her friend Wilson who has invited her to a movie at his house on the same night.
Although the character may be fictional and a mouse, the general theme of pressures will be one that resonates with children and teens of all ages. Especially when at one point in the story Babymouse decides that in order for Felicia to like her, she will let herself fail a project so that Felicia can turn it in as her own. Babymouse has to decide if it is worth winning her over in that way or why she even wants to be friends with her in the first place.
And while in this first copy of the series, she believes herself to be the "Queen of the Word," in other titles she's a "Rockstar," "Dragonslayer," and even a "Beach babe." It does appear though, that the book does tend to lean towards appealing to female tween sentiments. Most of the tiles are only in black, white, and pink illustrations. If boys can be brave enough to get past the pink cover, they will find themselves pleasantly surprised by how delightfully funny and relatable the storyline can be.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: 4th grade and up. Subjects and themes include popularity, imagination, friendship, and self esteem.
Genre Label: Graphic novel fiction
Dear Dumb Diary: Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jim Benton, 2004, New York, Scholastic (0439629047).Awards: New York Times best selling author
Annotation: Meet Jamie Kelly through the musings of her secret diary where she shares her innermost thoughts about the people she loves, hates, and is annoyed by. She lives in constant fear of having her future boyfriend stolen by the most popular girl at the school Angeline. When she isn't being mortified by her best friend Isabella, she's worrying about earning an embarrassing nickname that will stick with her the rest of her life and also obsessing over finding out what secrets are hidden in Angelina's permanent record.
Personal Reaction: Jamie Kelly is a dutiful observer of her peers, we learn this through her journal where she shares her annoyances of late and the strange situations she finds herself in. And after an incident where not one, but two peaches fall out of her lunch bag, she runs the risk of being tagged Peach Girl for the rest of her life. As the protagonist of our story, Jamie is a very relatable character - she is sincere about her fears, even though she overreacts to just about everything. At one pivotal point in the story, a food fight ensues in the cafeteria and the cafeteria monitor is hit with a big chunk of meatloaf, and Jamie takes the opportunity of accepting the blame so she can get to the Principal's office and steal Angelina permanent record. Only to later find out that it was Angelina herself that threw the meatloaf. Jamie toils for having taken the blame and decides once and for all to steal the file.
It is interesting to read and connect with the character and her problems, which really can also be described as adult like problems of jealousy and acceptance. Tweens and adults are not that much different after all. Later on in the story, Jamie truly has her homework eaten by the dog, and comes to school empty handed only to find that Angelina turns in the assignment as a collaboration between the two - Jamie is saved, and begins to see that Angelina is perhaps not the evil monster she imagined her to be. But being that this is only the first in a series of currently 12, Jamie Kelly is sure to get into much more shenanigans and adventures that tweens will find delightful.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: Jim Benton's own website states that this series is for Middle school readers and up. But I feel this is suitable for perhaps fifth grade. But parents will have to be wary of if they are comfortable with some of the language she uses to describe her classmates in not the nicest of ways. Subjects and themes include emotions, feelings, diaries, friendships,
Genre Label: Fiction
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: a novel in cartoons by Jeff Kinney, 2007, Abrams, New York (0810993139).
Awards: New York Times Bestseller and was turned into a feature film.
Annotation: The series that started the big wave of diary style fiction for kids and teens. Greg Heffley considers himself to be pretty normal. He's having a moment because him mom just bought him a diary, but he's convinced diaries are for sissies. And only because his mom promises him to do less chores if he writes in this journal we are taken into the world of hilarious, lazy, aloof, dreaming, and wimpy Greg.
Personal Reaction: In my realm of having worked in libraries the past few years, the only other series to cause as much sensation as was the Twilight series, and probably Harry Potter before that. As an adult, I am guilty of loving all of the books in the series. Greg is now in the seventh grade and starting to get used to the logistics of junior high and how labeled everyone can become just by how they look or seem. He's trying his hardest to blend in, but at the same time stand out and be seen as very cool. But his best friend Rowley is entirely unaware of how uncool he is and continues to do things that make him and sometimes Greg, look like they're in elementary school. It is Greg's worst fear.
As much as I enjoy the book, Greg being the main character is quite strange because he has very little redeeming qualities about him. He has complete ignorance of how he hurts others. Especially how he treats his friend Rowley, as immature as he is, so it does not come as a surprise that at several points in the books they are not speaking to each other. At least the Greg that was portrayed in the movies was given some remorse. Although the Greg of the stories has no remorse, he has other qualities that connect with the readers.
Out of the stories covered here, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the series with the most content about the roles families play in the lives of tweens. He has very complex relationships with all of the members of his family. And he is very conscious of how what they all do affect him and each other.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: Should be junior high and up, but it is enjoyed by probably 3rd grade to high schools. Subjects and themes include middle schools, junior high, friendships, family, diaries, and humor.
Genre Label: Fiction
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: Jim Benton's own website states that this series is for Middle school readers and up. But I feel this is suitable for perhaps fifth grade. But parents will have to be wary of if they are comfortable with some of the language she uses to describe her classmates in not the nicest of ways. Subjects and themes include emotions, feelings, diaries, friendships,
Genre Label: Fiction
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: a novel in cartoons by Jeff Kinney, 2007, Abrams, New York (0810993139).Awards: New York Times Bestseller and was turned into a feature film.
Annotation: The series that started the big wave of diary style fiction for kids and teens. Greg Heffley considers himself to be pretty normal. He's having a moment because him mom just bought him a diary, but he's convinced diaries are for sissies. And only because his mom promises him to do less chores if he writes in this journal we are taken into the world of hilarious, lazy, aloof, dreaming, and wimpy Greg.
Personal Reaction: In my realm of having worked in libraries the past few years, the only other series to cause as much sensation as was the Twilight series, and probably Harry Potter before that. As an adult, I am guilty of loving all of the books in the series. Greg is now in the seventh grade and starting to get used to the logistics of junior high and how labeled everyone can become just by how they look or seem. He's trying his hardest to blend in, but at the same time stand out and be seen as very cool. But his best friend Rowley is entirely unaware of how uncool he is and continues to do things that make him and sometimes Greg, look like they're in elementary school. It is Greg's worst fear.
As much as I enjoy the book, Greg being the main character is quite strange because he has very little redeeming qualities about him. He has complete ignorance of how he hurts others. Especially how he treats his friend Rowley, as immature as he is, so it does not come as a surprise that at several points in the books they are not speaking to each other. At least the Greg that was portrayed in the movies was given some remorse. Although the Greg of the stories has no remorse, he has other qualities that connect with the readers.
Out of the stories covered here, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the series with the most content about the roles families play in the lives of tweens. He has very complex relationships with all of the members of his family. And he is very conscious of how what they all do affect him and each other.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: Should be junior high and up, but it is enjoyed by probably 3rd grade to high schools. Subjects and themes include middle schools, junior high, friendships, family, diaries, and humor.
Genre Label: Fiction
The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang by Amy Ignatow, 2010, New York, Amulet Books. (9780810984219).
Awards: N/A
Awards: N/A
Annotation: This isn't a diary (it is), it is an experiment by two best friends, Julie and Lydia that are on the verge of starting Junior High and have decided to document and report their observations of how to be popular so that they too can become a part of the cool kids at school and become noticed for good reasons, not for embarrassing ones.
Personal Reaction: This book, which is now a three part series, came out not that long ago and has been a surprising breath of fresh air in the genre of tween lit. At first it may not seem so different, but inside, the book touches on many different societal issues with a single parent, gay parents, multi-racial characters- things you do not usually see in books! Those subjects are not the core of the story but part of it, it blends in perfectly well. The journal is written and illustrated by Julie while Julia acts as the guinea pig for the experiments to gain popularity. They document these strange, hilarious, and often failing experiments in detail and full color - such as bleaching your hair with Clorox bleach, taking up knitting, and running away just to mention a few. All stemming from a fear that once they enter junior high, they will be considered weird and unpopular.
At the most critical point in the story, the writing turns from Julie's hand to Lydia's because of a moment at school where Lydia finds herself embarrassing Julie in order to make herself look better. A saddened Julie breaks off their friendship and Lydia finds herself documenting and drawing (albeit) poorly, the situation and her attempts to restore the friendship. The girls learn to see each other other friends but still maintain their relationship through the connections they make while doing activities separately. They may call it research, but little did they know that is what real life is about.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: 4th grade and up. Subjects and themes include popularity, best friends, school, journals, and friendship.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: 4th grade and up. Subjects and themes include popularity, best friends, school, journals, and friendship.
Genre Label: Fiction
Smile by Raina Telgemeier, 2010, New York, Scholastic. (9780545132060)
Awards: Honor Book in the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and made the New York Times best seller list
Annotation: One minute you're meeting Raina as the story begins, the next minute she's falling down and knocking out her two front teeth. This is a major theme of this book as the cover easily shows - you follow Raina as she loses her teeth, and the journey to get them back.
Personal Reaction: As if it wasn't already strange enough for tweens and teens to be going through puberty and starting a new point in life, now Raina has to deal with the emotions of the fact that her two front teeth fell out after she tripped, and the way they were put back in makes her look a little weird. It does not help that her friends are not very friendly or sympathetic about her situation. She allows them to continue making fun of her and making her feel uncomfortable because she thinks that's what she's supposed to do so they stay her friends.
At a crucial point in the book where Raina begins to feel that her life is changing it really does. The big earthquake hits in San Francisco and she feels different. She's changing grades again. Only to be followed by the news that she's going to have to have her damaged front teeth removed so that her braces can slide her other teeth over and eventually close the gap. She feels ashamed and scared and her so called friends again do not make her feel better.
The most striking part of this book is the simple fact that it is partially based off the authors real life, hence the same name as the main character. Raina is telling us part of her own true story through a graphic novel, it what seems to be a way to genuinely connect with young readers.
Curricular Connection/Subjects/Themes: Junior high and up because character details junior high all the way until the first year of high school. Subjects and themes include dental care, self esteem in adolescence, beauty, and friendship.
Genre Label: Graphic novel.
