Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (Booktalk)

It's really embarrassing when your imaginary friend keeps showing up without warning. Oh, wait, it's worse when you're in fifth grade and you HAVE an imaginary friend, as Jackson does. Jackson's imaginary friend is Crenshaw, a very, very large black and white cat with definite opinions about everything.

Creshaw tends to show up especially when things are not going well for Jackson. He first appeared in first grade, when Jackson's dad was struggling with a a disease called multiple sclerosis. And later on, closer to the present time, he starts showing up when their family has lost all their money. I like Crenshaw. He leaves little gifts and signs, things that only Jackson likes. Like purple jellybeans. Jackson really likes those.

But Crenshaw is freaking me out a little. You know what he keeps telling Jackson? "You need to tell the truth to the person who matters the most of all." Tell the truth. And who is the person who matters the most of all? And will Crenshaw every vanish, or is he with Jackson for life?

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate. 245 pages. Feiwel and Friends, 2015. Booktalk to grades 3-8, depending on students' reading levels. Great read-aloud.

Goodbye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead Booktalk

Bridge is a middle school girl who got hit by a car which she was younger and she almost died. That's her on the cover with a friend of hers. She's fine now, and she has two best friends whom she loves and trusts: Tab and Em. Tab is very headstrong and opinionated: she's a bit of a tomboy, and she loves history and politics. You'd never catch Tab putting on makeup or showing an interest in it. Emily is more traditionally "girly" and the boys notice her; she's good at sports and knows more of the "popular" kids. Emily also has a boyfriend but doesn't want to call it that.

When you look at the three girls' personalities, they're actually fairly different, but they get along well and support one another loyally. Yet something changes when someone - we don't know who - gets Em's boyfriend's phone and finds a personal photo of Emily. This person forwards the photo to someone who then forwards the photo, and so on and so on. It's not a naked photo, but it's not a photo that Emily wants "out there." You'll have to read the novel to see the description of the photo!

So who did this? Can we trust Em's boyfriend? And more importantly, will Em survive the mean words and harsh words headed her way? And will her two best friends understand what she is going through? Will they stand by her? And who is this mysterious stranger alluded to in the title, "Goodbye, Stranger?" Read and find out.

Goodbye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead. 304 pages. Wendy Lamb Books, 2015. Booktalk to middle school and high school. 

Book talk: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

High school is hard, but if you're Arnold Spirit -- "Junior," to everyone -- you're the only Native American at a high school full of mostly white kids. Smart, beautiful white kids who have money and nice clothes and cars and parents with jobs.

Junior is poor. Junior was born with a big head and should've died at birth because he had problems with his brain. He has a lisp, a stutter, ugly clothes, an alcoholic dad, and a best friend - Rowdy - who will not speak to him. Junior lives on a reservation -- called "the rez" -- and he knows that being poor and Indian really, really sucks. Forgive my language. I'm just quoting him.

From the time he was born, Junior has had to struggle for his survival. Everything he has, he has had to fight for, whether literally or physically fist-fight for. On the first day of high school on the rez, Junior picked up a textbook. When he saw the name inside, he realized the textbook was over 30 years old. That's what the Indian kids get: not even second-best. The dregs. It angered Junior so much that he threw the textbook, and it hit his teacher right in the face, resulting in a suspension for Junior.

Every cloud has a silver lining -- sometimes even for Indians -- and the teacher convinced Junior to attend a better school, named Rearden, twenty-two miles away from the reservation. You know how poor Junior is? He often has to hitchhike those 22 miles to and from school. A few times he walked the whole way, and he got blisters. It was awful. You try being the only Indian in a school full of whites. See how long YOU last.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. 230 p.
2008 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Fiction. 2010 Young Readers' Choice Award.
Booktalk to high school.

Sherman Alexie

Booktalk: Hold Still by Nina LaCour (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

Ingrid and Caitlin are best friends. Ingrid is really, really obsessed with photography – she’s good at it, too – and she keeps these wonderful, quirky journals which are a composite of her drawings, feelings, and questions. The two are inseparable, and although they have other acquaintances (crushes, friends, etc.), they sort of make up their own world. Caitlin’s the more practical, pragmatic of the two. But then Caitlin’s world changes completely. The worst happens. Ingrid commits suicide.

How do you live your life when your best friend dies? How do you go to school and face the people who knew you primarily as part of a pair? How do you survive? Why do you survive? Now that people just pity you, will anyone your age like you just for you? How do you make sense of the way in which life changes?

There are different ways in which Caitlin survives. Some of these ways she’s aware of, and some she may not be. No one can ever take Ingrid’s place, but there are people out there who are kind, interesting, and forgiving; some of them are well camouflaged, but they’re right there, hiding in plain sight.

The subject matter of this novel may be painful, but it’s a fascinating read, for many reasons. Ingrid foresaw that Caitlin would be alone and in tremendous pain, and she did something really nice for Caitlin to help her. Find out what it was in Hold Still by Nina LaCour.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour. 229 p. Dutton Books: 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012 for high school. Booktalk to high school. Contains sensitive subject matter.

Booktalk: The Leanin' Dog (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Desssa Dean has an unusual life. She lives in a cabin in the deep woods with her father, who must hunt or find all their food. Their neighbors are coyotes, birds, and squirrels. Her mother died, and Dessa Dean is pretty lonely. She also has daymares, which are sort of like nightmares, only she’s wide awake, and re-living the time in which her mom died. If anyone needs a friend, it’s Dessa Dean. It’s pretty normal for her to be completely by herself in the cabin while her dad goes hunting. There are no people nearby, either. If a bear comes along, Dessa Dean has got to fend for herself. But there’s a dog who shows up scratching at her door one day. It wants to make friends with her, but it’s too frightened to stay. She chases after the dog but can’t get him to come back. Dessa Dean can’t forget this dog, but she hatches a plan, which involves a delicious meat stew offered as bait. That looked like one hungry, lonely dog. The Leanin’ Dog by K. A. Nuzum.

The Leanin’ Dog by K. A. Nuzum. 250 p. Joanna Cotler Books, 2008. Booktalk to middle school. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012.

Booktalk: 11 Birthdays [Virginia Readers' Choice]

You know the acronym BFF? Remind me what it stands for. Right: best friends forever. Amanda and Leo were pretty much destined to be BFFs. They were born at the same time in the same hospital, and a mysterious old woman prophesied to their mothers that Amanda and Leo would be the best of friends. The same old woman asked their mothers to celebrate their birthdays together each year, and the two moms half-heartedly agreed to. It sort of sounds like something out of a fairy tale, right? The plan mostly worked, for a while. Amanda and Leo had great birthday parties together and they were really good friends. However, at their 10^th birthday party together, Amanda heard Leo talking about her to a friend of his. He basically said that Amanda didn’t have many friends and that his mom made him share parties with her. That really hurt her feelings. So naturally, the two are no longer friends. Amanda’s 11 birthday party is coming up, and for the first time, she and Leo will be celebrating separately. But remember how these two are destined since birth to be BFFs? Fate has a funny way of bring former best friends together again. 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. 267 p. Scholastic: 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012. Booktalk to intermediate grades (3^rd-5^th) and 6^th grade.

Booktalk: Bink & Gollie [Kate DiCamillo; 1]

Kate DiCamillo is one of my favorite children’s authors. In her latest book, Bink & Gollie, you can see how different Bink [using the book’s cover, point to Bink, the short blonde] and Gollie [tall, brunette] are. Like most friends, they have their differences. Bink loves crazy, wildly colored socks. Gollie does not. Bink likes taking her pet fish, Fred, to the movies. Gollie does not. Gollie longs to go on long journeys in the mountains without a snack. Bink does not: not at least, without a snack. But in spite of their differences, you can tell they’re super loyal best friends to one another. One more reason to read this book: you have to check out their tree house. These two best friends have the coolest tree house ever! Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo.

Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo. 81 p. Candlewick Press, 2010. Booktalk to younger elementary [K-3].