Avi

This was required reading for me in seventh grade (more on that in a sec), and I remember enjoying it but didn't remember a blessed thing about it except "girl in some peril with ship shit." (I did then, and I do still, love me some ship shit.) It's 1830 something or other, and Charlotte Doyle is twelvish and has been living at a boarding school in England where she was sent by her wealthy American parents to get girl-educated for the last six or so years. (And I thought sending your kiddo show more away at the age of six to the posh school the next county over was a horror. Imagine sending them ACROSS THE ATLANTIC at a time when getting them back would take two months on a floating death trap.) She gets dropped off by her father's man of business at the ship to find that the other families who were meant to take passage on it and look after her have not shown up. So she's gonna be the most unaccompanied of unaccompanied minors on a tall ship--and the only person with lady parts! Do not mistake my facetiousness for dismissiveness--this would have been terrifying. And it is. And then things really start to get scary.

Turns out the captain may be a sadistic mad bastard (he is), and there might be a mutiny brewing (there is), and Charlotte may end up a pawn in the captain's and the crew's shenanigans (she does). Eventually the right people (mostly) are okay, and the awful people (mostly) get comeuppanced. Along the way, Charlotte has to question things she's been taught about who to trust and why, honor, and gender roles. She eventually joins the crew (and therein lies a lot of the ship shit, and it is awesome. There's a bit where she climbs the rigging to the tippy tippy top, and oh my god, the descriptions. Amazing.), gets accused of murder, and solves a mystery. The very, very end (once Charlotte is home) feels juuuust a little stuck on, but it also feels kind of right and (the good kind) of inevitable, especially for a book aimed at middle schoolers. (My adult self wanted some further grappling with the implications of What Went Down on Dad's Ship, but I think that may have lost a young audience that surely was already a little taxed by this story.)

Speaking of which. SEVENTH GRADE?! I was reading on a twelfth-grade level in seventh grade (I know this because that was a year we were tested and our teacher confidentially gave all of us our results and she was very proud and kind to me when she gave me mine.), so I was probably fine. I think the content here is the sort some adults might think their precious twelve-year-olds shouldn't be exposed to, but they're wrong. Kids love this stuff and they want to know. (I'll note that while Charlotte is aware that it's not proper for a girl to be alone on a ship with no female (or at least related-to-her male) companion, there is no threat of or even veiled reference to the fear of rape--which is surely unrealistic, but I'll allow it for the sake of the target audience.) I lapped up anything I could get about honor and right-and-wrong and but-how-do-you-know at that age. But the prose! It's lovely but a little dense, I think, for middle grade. I applaud (with a bit of a raised eyebrow) my seventh-grade teacher's fortitude at walking a general population class (not honors or gifted or anything else that might suggest we were all reading above our grade level) of twelve-year-olds through this text. Some of us probably weren't interested in the content, and I'm sure many of us struggled with the text itself. Hats off to you, Mrs. Voz. If there are angels, I hope you are with them. show less

Review of The Button War by Avi

Typically, there are three types of people who find war exciting: adolescent boys, people who profit off of war, and sadists.

In The Button War, Avi introduces us to all three kinds of people, which is shocking for a book written specifically for middle school children.

The story centers around a group of seven boys who are “all eleven or twelve years old”—that age when puberty tends to hit, and an age when, in August 1914, when the story is set, most boys show more were expected to begin learning to fend for themselves, so are often allowed to roam the streets of small towns looking for adventure and often getting into mischief.

Patryk, the narrator, helps his father make wooden wagon wheels in his shop that is attached to the small family home. The home is so small, Patryk sleeps “on a high, wide wooden shelf in [the family’s] warm kitchen.” Patryk has a clear sense of right and wrong because his family always reminds him that he must “take care of people” and is required to eat supper with them as a family every night.

Jurek is the story’s main protagonist, and is, in many ways, the complete opposite of Patryk. He’s an orphan who lives with an older sister who is constantly throwing him out of her house. He’s a terrible student, and he’s so self-centered that he’s made up a myth that he is descended from “the ancient Polish king Boleslaw the Brave,” so owns the entire forest surrounding the town, which includes a set of ruins that Jurek imagines was a castle. The boys often meet at the ruins and build a fire in the fireplace that is the primary intact remnant of the house that once stood there.

Jurek desires nothing more than to boss everyone, so is often the instigator of the boys’ challenges, most of which are typical boy-type dares to see who runs the fastest, who could catch the biggest fish, or who could build the best snow fort.

Tension in the story begins in the first chapter, however, when Patryk finds a button in the forest, and Jurek demands he give it over to him because everything in the forest is his. When Jurek threatens Patryk with a large stick for the button, Patryk finds the courage to simply throw the button far away, so that neither boy will find it again, but his unease at Jurek’s demeanor grows steadily as the book progresses.

Once Jurek steals a brass button off of a Russian soldier’s tunic, he challenges the other boys to a button war, so that the winner—the boy with the best button in a 24 hour period—gets to be “king” and carry their former teacher’s cane. Having witnessed Jurek’s propensity for violence over the first button in the forest, Patryk keeps accepting Jurek’s challenges for one simple reason—to keep Jurek, who has already demonstrated his ability to be cruel to the other boys, from winning.

Patryk is a dynamic character who grows visibly as the story progresses.
He feels compelled to do the right things, but what is right becomes clouded by war. First the Germans bomb the only school building in their small village—which gives the boys more time to wander unsupervised, then the Russians soldiers stationed there leave, only to be replaced by German and Austrian soldiers. In fact, so many more soldiers come that they won’t all fit in the old Russian barracks, so soldiers are farmed out to live in villagers’ homes.

Tragedy, naturally, follows the war, but most of the tragedy in the story is caused by the conflict Jurek—a purely selfish, narcessistic, and evil boy—exacts on his friends.

The story involves death by beating, bombing, and shooting, and does an excellent job of demonstrating why war is not exciting, but terrifying.

The story does not have a just ending, since there is little justice in war, and only a few of the boys survive the button war, but parents can rest assured that Patryk demonstrates that, while doing the right thing is not always easy or clear, continuing to help others, especially those in need, is what defines the human spirit. show less

This is an upper middle grade (or even middle school) story that has a complex take on the Revolutionary War. The book begins in 1774 in fictional Tullbury, Massachusetts, near Concord, where 13 year-old Noah Cope's family had lived for over 100 years. In 1774, tensions between loyalists (to the British) and rebels are running high, and Noah's father, the town pastor, is beaten and murdered for saying a prayer that ends with "Bless and defend, and save the king and all the royal family." In show more the harrowing aftermath, the family must abandon their home and flee to Boston, hoping for the safety of loyalists there, and to be taken in by an elderly uncle of Noah's mother. Noah attempts to join the British army, but is turned away for his youth. Instead, a family connection leads to Captain Brown, who pays Noah to be a spy while working at the Green Dragon Tavern, a favorite rebel gathering place. There, Noah meets Jolla, a freed slave a few years older than himself. While Noah is a passionate loyalist, Jolla is loyal only to liberty, and is rightly suspicious of and disappointed in both sides. Noah passes along information and goes on scouting and observation excursions, but grows increasingly uneasy about his loyalties. What he sees are acts of cruelty and savagery, as well as rampant misinformation on both sides. Jolla serves as something of a moral compass who prods Noah to think for himself, question everything, and know his OWN mind.

Highly recommended. Prolific Colorado children's author Avi's book is a gift, really, for its nuanced immersion in such a storied American historical event, completely avoiding the "this side was good, this side was bad" lens so often used. No heroes here, not even Jolla, one of the best children's book characters I've met recently. show less

A haunting novel that takes WWI as its backdrop, but its issues are universal More importantly, this book fills a gap in YA novels -- while there is a plethora of WWII fiction on the market, very little attention has been given to the Great War.

A gang of boys in a small Polish village find themselves caught up in the conflict of the First World War, daring each other to steal soldiers' military buttons. The themes of bullying and peer pressure transcend the historical context, but those show more without knowledge of the Great War may find it difficult to understand some of the plot implications (a bit more background would have been welcome). While not a perfect novel, "The Button War" is a page-turner that explores a war too often ignored in America. show less