Hundred Percent by Karen Romano Young, 2016

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The last year of elementary school is big for every kid. Christine Gouda faces change at every turn, starting with her own nickname—Tink—which just doesn't fit anymore. Christine navigates a year's cringingly painful trials in normalcy—uncomfortable Halloween costumes, premature sleepover parties, crushed crushes, and changing friendships. Throughout all this, Tink learns, what you call yourself, and how you do it, has a lot to do with who you are.

(256 pages)

I don't read a lot of these "middle school drama" type books because, to be perfectly honest, I often find them to be annoying and unrealistic. What real thirteen-year-olds spend their entire lives revolving around puberty, boys, and changing friendships? Neither I nor my friends were ever like that, but we did run into those sorts of kids once in a while. I didn't really get them then, and I still don't completely get that mindset.

Anyway, though Hundred Percent was actually a pretty good book, my biggest issue with it was that the kids were way too "mature" (as the adults at school put it) for their age. They throw around words like "slutty" and "sexy," make jokes about "balls," and are always listening to "Rolling Stones" songs with very suggestive lyrics. And they're not even in middle school–they're in sixth grade! Eleven-year-olds are way too young to be thinking about any of those things.

If you forget the fact that Tink and her friends are so young, though, the story itself is a good one. I enjoyed watching her grow over the course of the novel as she struggled to define who she was. I can't say I'm a huge fan of her on-again-off-again childhood best friend Tracie, who tries way too hard to fit in with the cool kids (the "circle"), but one of the great things about the way the book is written is that by the end of the story I do understand and empathize with her decisions. There are several other side characters in Tink's class who are interesting, though probably more than were absolutely necessary–I started getting them muddled after a while. My favorite of these other characters was probably Bushwack, the nice, funny, and very uncool boy Tink likes a little more than Tracie thinks she should.

Some of the topics that come up are pretty serious ones. Tracie's mom has always been single, and there are whispers that Tink doesn't really understand calling her "a slut." The man she's dating is a twice-married guy with two kids, and Tracie spends quite a bit of the book romantically pursuing his son who's two years older than she is. There's a new boy at school who holds Tink's hand and tells her that he thinks she'd look attractive without any clothes on. Ick. The way all of these issues are handled is very tasteful, but I definitely wouldn't hand Hundred Percent over to an actual sixth-grader.

Honestly, I'm not really sure who the target audience for this book is. If you think it looks interesting, then you should check it out. Let me know if you do!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Saving Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea, 2015

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Seventh grade was going to be awesome. The only thing missing was Mr. Terupt.
The kids from Mr. Terupt’s fifth- and sixth-grade classes are entering their first year of junior high school. There’s a lot to be excited about, but there are new challenges, too. Peter and Jeffrey face tough competition on their wrestling team. Alexia has a disastrous first day of school, and that’s only the beginning. Anna is desperate for Charlie to propose to her mother—what is he waiting for?! Danielle isn’t feeling so well, but she's trying to tough it out, like Grandma. Trouble with a bully makes Lukedread going to school for the first time ever. And Jessica is waiting anxiously for an acceptance to a theater retreat in New York City.
Everyone is missing Mr. Terupt. When a fight threatens to break up the group forever, they think their favorite teacher is the only one who can help them. But the kids soon find out that it’s Mr. Terupt who needs saving.
This novel includes extra content in the back of the book. Readers will find a Junior High Survival Guide with tips from the old gang!

(384 pages)

I've loved these books since Because of Mr. Terupt was a standalone, and I didn't even have a book blog. Thus many of you may not know how much I love the Terupt books. Let me tell you now: I. Love. Them. Which is why I was over the moon when I found out that Saving Mr. Terupt was actually a thing. A third Terupt book? Sign me up! I requested it from the library immediately (instead of pre-ordering it, because I was out of shelf space and trying to teach myself the Art of Patience), and snapped it up the day it came in (which was three days after its release date, thank you very much. I hate really don't like my library). I devoured it that same day.

The first thing I discovered was that it had been too long since I read the first two books. It took me a few chapters to remember the ins and outs of who was who. It didn't help that there were three girls and three boys (all conveniently crushing on each other in three neat pairs), and the girls sometimes got kind of muddled together. Then there were pieces of peoples' pasts that I had to scramble to remember, especially Jeffrey's - the whole dead brother thing is never explained at all in this book, and it took me a while to remember what on earth was going on with him. My other main complaint is that it felt like things were constantly escalating. Not that escalating tension is a bad thing (and frankly, Buyea did a great job in general with it), but that every single stinkin' chapter ended with "little did we know, it was just the calm before the storm," or something to that effect. It's like, I get it. Things are going to get worse. Quit saying that and start showing me.

But then, I also really liked how things continued to escalate throughout the book. We start out all happy and gay, excited about a new school year and pledging to remain the best of friends, and then slowly sink lower and lower into the tension and stress that is middle school, until everyone is at pretty much complete odds with each other. I still absolutely adore Mr. Terupt, and I was completely behind everything the gang did as they fought to help him. I saw literally every twist coming (except the one with Jessica, when she went you-know-where and met you-know-who), but that didn't stop me from feeling bad for Mr. Terupt, and rooting for him to come out on top.

I always loved how there were so many different characters telling the story in the Terupt books, because it allowed a more complete view of events - and it made it possible to actually have six main characters I could still keep straight (most of the time). I continued to enjoy reading about six very different kids in Saving Mr. Terupt, and I appreciated the fact that they were all struggling with very different issues throughout the book and yet the narration never began to feel disjointed.

All in all, I really enjoyed Saving Mr. Terupt. I don't think it's quite as good as the first two books, but they're so good that it's only in comparison that it comes up (slightly) lacking. I still recommend it to all fans of the previous books, and would even recommend it on its own merits to people who haven't read the rest of the series, except it wouldn't make one bit of sense if you came in without all the backstory from the first two books. But yeah, definitely a great book. Someday I'll buy the second and third Terupt books and complete my collection (which is currently a collection of one).

Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, 2015

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“Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.”
Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike. 
(288 pages)

I'm back to using speech recognition software to write my reviews. I can't tell you how frustrating this is - my own body is betraying me. For those of you who don't know, I fell off a horse last September and tore a ligament in my left (dominant) wrist. After a few months of splinting, I got an MRI in November and had surgery two weeks before Christmas. I spent about a month using speech recognition software because it was too hard to type school assignments, emails, and blog posts all with one hand. I've been off the software for a few months now, but in May I had three AP tests and this past Saturday I took the SAT. I guess I over did it, because my wrist hasn't felt this bad for a very long time. I'm back to speech recognition software, splints, and even using a sling when the pain is at its worst.

I've had a pretty hard time this last school year. My temporary disability has caused me stress, multiplied the effort it takes to complete an assignment, and very likely hurt my grades. In a way, this is sort of like Ally's dyslexia: she has spent her whole life stressing about her inability to read, laboring over what should have been simple assignments and getting terrible grades because she literally could not do the work. However, my struggles have been with a (hopefully!) temporary issue that has caused me physical pain. Ally's struggles have existed since she first began learning to read; her pain is not physical, which is often easier to deal with, but mental. She has grown up believing that she is stupid and worthless, living in fear of being discovered as the practically illiterate girl she really is. This mental and emotional pain is far and above anything that I have ever experienced, and hopefully ever will experience.

Because Ally doesn't just have dyslexia; she has spent her whole life hiding that dyslexia (though she doesn't know what it's called) from the world. She has moved often enough, because her father is in the military, that no one has ever caught on to the fact that she doesn't complete schoolwork because she can't, not because she is lazy or trying to be a troublemaker. She has grown shall around herself and is used to living very lonely life, a life of being teased and made fun of and getting sent to the principal's office. It is truly beautiful to watch her leave that shell behind. Hunt does a lovely job of showing how Ally blooms under the mentorship of a teacher who not only cares about her academic struggles, but about her emotional struggles as well.

I can't tell you how much I loved this book. You're just going to have to repeat yourself to discover what a gem it really is. The themes are serious but not overwhelmingly dark, the characters are nuanced and compelling, and Ally's dyslexia is painted in a very realistic light. By all means, go read this book!