Book review: "The Running Dream" by Wendelin van Draanen

Title: The Running Dream
Author: Wendelin van Draanen
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011

Jessica is an all-star runner, on track to really make a name for herself in the sport, until a horrific bus accident takes away one of the most important things for her: her right leg. Now, she is unable to walk well, let alone run. At first she is in a very dark place, sulky and heartbroken. But eventually she realizes she needs to get back out in the world, and get moving again.

Told in the present tense, Jessica tells her story to the readers as it happens to her. She tells us about her rehabilitation, getting her prosthesis (fake leg), and the incredible support she receives from her teammates and peers, as well as her community at large. She also makes an unlikely friend in Rosa, a freshman with cerebral palsy who has difficulty communicating and needs a wheelchair to move, but who is brilliant at math. Jessica's journey of healing both physically and mentally brings together not only the people in her school to fight for her cause, it also unites her community around her goals.

Wendelin van Draanen's writing is incredibly realistic, and it is clear she did her research. Never was I left thinking something didn't sound right or feel unsure about the medical issues, the track lingo, or the problems that Jessica's family had with insurance. Everything felt authentic, including Jessica's struggle to accept this drastic change to her life and move on. She not only had to deal with the future of her running career, but also the day-to-day difficulties and worries, like if boys would ever find her attractive now.

I really appreciated the inclusion of Rosa in this book. van Draanen could have easily focused on Jessica and her recovery alone, but Rosa adds so much more complexity and richness to the story. Rosa often writes Jessica philosophical notes, which often ground her and help her to realize what she does have instead of what she's lost. The most important message we come out with is that we need to see the person, and not the condition.

Bonus: Oscar Pistorius is briefly mentioned, which I found really great since I had been thinking about him a lot while reading this because of his competing in the Olympics this year.

This was a great, realistic, inspirational read about overcoming seemingly impossible odds to meet your goals and to truly appreciate what you are given.

Disclosure: I got this book from the library.

Note: I started to listen to this on audio, and let me save you the time: Don't bother. I thought it was horrible and had to stop a few tracks in. I just couldn't stand listening to the woman narrating; it felt like she was overacting, plus she kept raising her inflection at the end of almost every sentence.

Blog Tour: "War and Watermelon" by Rich Wallace

Thanks for joining me today at Tahleen's Mixed-Up Files for the blog tour of Rich Wallace's War and Watermelon!

Title: War and Watermelon
Author: Rich Wallace
Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 2011

It's the tail end of the summer of 1969, right after the moon landing and before Woodstock, during the Vietnam War and while the Mets started getting hot on their way to the World Series. Twelve-year-old Brody is growing up in New Jersey at this time, anticipating the jump from elementary school to junior high, playing on the football team, and trying to figure out girls—while also trying to come to terms with the bigger issues of the time. Joining his older brother Ryan at Woodstock starts him thinking about peace, love and rock and roll, and how his brother might not always be there—especially once he turns 18.

I enjoyed this story. I mean, once Woodstock was mentioned, I was all over it—I have this great fascination with that insane and incredible concert (I own one of the two CD sets of the concert's recording). There were a lot of music references, including periodic top tens listed by Brody, and very brief descriptions of Joan Baez during Brody's experience at Woodstock.

The setting is so important in this book. We see not only New Jersey during 1969, but also the attitudes of the time—racism is slipped into the dialogue like a whisper, and opinions about the Vietnam War are often vocalized by Brody's father in response to Ryan.

I did have a few minor quibbles with this book. I loved all the music references because of my love for the music of the time, but I wish there was some sort of appendix or something in the back with a little bit of info on all the musicians mentioned. A lot of kids probably won't know who Joan Baez is, or what the songs mentioned sound like (I know I didn't recognize all of them and was too lazy to look them up at the time). I also got pretty bored with the long descriptions of Brody's football games; they seemed unnecessary. I did, however, like the football game in which Brody's female classmate played touch football and did a nice job at beating the other team.

This book would make a really nice companion to a school unit about America in the late '60s. There are themes that are for more mature audiences (there are a lot of references to marijuana and partial nudity), but the language is simple and easy to understand. It's a great way to give younger teens a look at what life was probably like for their parents. I'd recommend it to lovers of the '60s, music lovers, or sports fans looking for a good read.

Audiobook Review: "Front and Center" by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Title: Front and Center
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Publisher: Listening Library, 2010 (print version available from Graphia, 2009)
Narrator: Natalie Moore

**Possible spoilers follow in summary**

D.J. Schwenk is back again, this time looking forward to her basketball season in her junior year of high school. Things are getting sort of back to normal, at least, as back to normal as they can after her brother Win ended up in a wheelchair and with her mom with him in a rehab facility. But things quickly get hectic again, as D.J. not only has to deal with navigating high school, but also with worrying about college scouts, getting a basketball scholarship, and having a new boyfriend. Plus there's Brian Nelson, who keeps showing up out of nowhere, even though she is darn sure she's through with him. Right?

**Spoilers done**


Again, Natalie Moore does a superb job narrating as D.J. in this final installment of the Dairy Queen trilogy. D.J. has more dealt to her in this novel, but instead of it focusing on how she deals with everyone else's problems, this plot focuses strictly on D.J. and how everyone is expecting so much of her when it comes to her basketball playing. She's an excellent player but is incredibly intimidated by Top Ten college ball, mostly of screwing it up and letting everyone down.

I was never sure what D.J. would decide when faced with complicated and difficult situations. She is so unused to be in the spotlight that she isn't sure how to react or what to choose, and I really felt for her. I wanted her to be happy but I also wanted her to make the right decision for her, and it was hard to tell what that was. Either way, I was rooting for her.

It's rare that I grow so attached to a group of characters. I felt like I wanted to be a part of the Schwenk family, even though it's made VERY clear that they have a lot of faults. I'm very sad that I won't be able to follow D.J. through her senior year and on to college. (Fingers crossed for another book!)

If you haven't read/listened to this trilogy, please do yourself a favor and do. There is humor, wonderful three-dimensional characters, great relationships and realistic everyday issues. Love love love it.

Disclosure: I got this audiobook from the library.

Audiobook Review: "The Off Season" by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Title: The Off Season
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Publisher: Listening Library, 2007 (print edition from Houghton Mifflin)
Narrator: Natalie Moore

Starting where Dairy Queen left off, D.J. tells the story of the fall of her junior year. Things seem to be going her way finally, what with playing for her high school's football team, spending time with Brian Nelson, and doing better in school. Her older brothers are talking with her family again, though her oldest brother Win is still a bit distant. But D.J. lets us know right away that this won't last, since she tells us she's writing all this in a hospital. Things start to go downhill when she and Brian end up in a feature for People after a misunderstanding (which is kind of hilarious, by the way). Things quickly get worse after Amber runs off with Dale, her girlfriend, and D.J. has to stop football because of an injury. But the worst event happens during one of Win's college games—he gets hit in just the wrong way, causing a spinal cord injury that leaves him partially paralyzed.

Still told with humor, though the story D.J. is telling is clearly more serious than her previous one, The Off Season is an entirely satisfying sequel. D.J. is growing and maturing, though it's subtle and happens gradually as each incident crops up in her life. Once again, she becomes the glue that is keeping her family from falling apart, taking responsibility for things her parents and her brothers can't quite handle. She keeps a brave front and does what she can for everyone she loves. It's really hard not to like D.J., and I definitely wouldn't mind having her for a sister.

What I think I love most about D.J. in this book is how she realizes she not only needs to do what's best for her family, she also needs to do what's best for her. She discovers the path she needs to take, and once she does she's a stronger girl for it. She finally begins to truly see and understand her own worth, and I love that.

I also learned a lot about sports injuries, told in a way that is incredibly easy to understand. Because D.J. is a novice to this stuff herself, she does a great job at explaining what happens to her brother and the path he's going to have to take. There's a lot of easy-to-understand (not to mention interesting and useful) science going on here, which is always a plus.

Again, Natalie Moore does an excellent job at narrating. She's probably one of the best narrators I've ever come across in my audiobook listening, definitely top three. She rocks that Wisconsin accent and talks just like teens would, a job made easier for her by Murdock's grasp on teen dialogue. In this second book I've listened to narrated by Moore, I realized how good a job she does at distinguishing each character's voice from everyone else's. She makes it very clear who is talking. She also makes it clear when D.J. is speaking to other characters in the book versus when she is narrating the story, which gets two thumbs up from me.

I loved this book, both the story and the narration. I can't wait to listen to the last in the trilogy, though I will be sad that I'll be done with D.J.'s story! I highly recommend this to pretty much everyone. It's just a great story with great characters, and it's told really well. Go read it! Or listen to it. You won't regret it. (Side note: As of right now, the print edition is only $3.47 on Amazon! Totally worth the buy. You can click on the link at the top to get to the page.)

Disclosure: I got this book from the library.

Audiobook Review: "Dairy Queen" by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Title: Dairy Queen
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Publisher: Listening Library (paperback Houghton Mifflin), 2006
Narrator: Natalie Moore

D.J. Schwenk has a lot to deal with. Not only is she the only daughter out of four kids, she is pretty much in charge of running the dairy farm her family owns, at least ever since her dad's hip got really bad. Her older brothers (both football stars when they were in high school) aren't talking to the rest of the family because of a fight they had with their dad, her younger brother doesn't talk, and her mother has two jobs that take up all of her time. Her dad is trying to learn how to cook (slow going). She got an F in English last year. And her friend Amber is starting to act really weird. And to top it all off? Brian Nelson, quarterback of her high school's rival's football team, is being forced to work for her family the summer before their senior year, and D.J. has agreed to train him.

D.J. has some major self-esteem issues—she fully believes that she is neither pretty nor smart, yet just accepts this as cold hard fact. It bothers her a little sometimes, but mostly she just does what needs to be done without too much to say about it. In fact, she does a lot of stuff that needs to be done, including the majority of the farm work, which irritates her a little, but again she says nothing (after all, D.J. knows that good, old-fashioned hard work is one of her greatest talents). She does everything that's expected of her, until Brian makes a comment about how she's just like a cow and will do pretty much whatever anyone tells her to do.

This gets her thinking. She notices a lot of the people in her town of Red Bend are like cows, going through the motions without deviating from the norm, at least not really. D.J. decides she does not want to be a cow. And so she makes an awesome decision. She is going to try out for the Red Bend high school football team. How great is that? I never get to read about girls trying out for sports dominated by men, and D.J. decides to do it without really worrying about how she'll be treated by other people. In fact, her biggest concerns are a) how her father will take it (hint: not well), and b) how Brian will take it (hint: worse than her dad).

I enjoyed watching (or listening) how Brian and D.J.'s relationship developed over the course of his training and the summer working on the farm. Their hatred grows into a grudging friendship, which, for D.J., eventually turns into a bit more. It's a slow transition, but how refreshing to have a realistic crush in a YA book.

As D.J. starts to work toward goals for herself, she becomes more confident, though it's subtle. She doesn't rag on herself as much as the story progresses. One thing I didn't like at first is how she references to the present (a few months after the action of the story takes place); I like to not know about anything that might happen in the future unless it's through some kind of foreshadowing. But afterward, it made sense to me and I wasn't so annoyed by it anymore.

Murdock lightly touches on heavier issues like sexism and sexuality, along with her main themes of deviating from the norm and what is expected. She handled it all very well, working it into the story without forcing it or making it an issues novel.

I was also a big fan of the language. Typical teen speak, without sounding too forced. This was probably helped by Moore's fantastic narration. She had a slight Wisconsin accent, completely taking me into D.J.'s story. Plus she emphasized and read phrases in certain ways that I might not have necessarily done while reading it, and I think it was for the better. It all sounded completely natural, and I loved it.

And again, I'm going to come back to this: D.J. tries out for football. SO awesome. For some reason I really like football stories or stories with football, despite my lack of interest in the sport itself. Weird. But I totally loved this audio book and highly recommend it, even if you're not a football fan.

Disclosure: I got this audiobook from the library.