Review: Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

Tags: middle grade, dystopian, global warming

Summary

Jaden is the daughter of Stephen Meggs, the renowned scientist who has created a StormSafe community that guarantees protection from the monster storms and tornadoes that are ravaging the entire earth due to climate change. Jaden should feel lucky for the chance to live with her father in the StormSafe community for a summer and attend Eye on Tomorrow, a prestigious science camp for young people. However, unexpected discoveries in the process of working on storm dissipation models with her new friends Alex and Risha make Jaden suspicious of what her father is really working on for his research. The truth is shocking and horrifying, but is there anything that Jaden and her friends can do to stop innocent people from being hurt by the storms?

Review

Kate Messner is a queen when it comes to middle-grade contemporary literature, but her take on MG dystopian does not disappoint. EYE OF THE STORM is a relevant story that contains the meticulous research and believable characters that are trademarks of Messner’s writing.

It’s hard to read EYE OF THE STORM today and not think of the frightening tornadoes that have recently hit the US. It makes the premise all the more believable, the book all the more a great read for kids. Messner blends meteorological science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot, and the book’s message—that if we don’t start doing something about today’s global warming, then the future will be grim indeed—is quite clear. It’s the best way to give kids an important lesson: cool science tossed into an exciting story, the moral easily extrapolated from the all-too-possible setting.

Some things that did frustrate me a little with EYE OF THE STORM were how polarized the adults were, and how dramatic the plot and narration got at times. EYE OF THE STORM felt very much like an “adults did bad things, and now it’s up to us kids to fix the problem” tale, which to me felt like the too conveniently easy way to drive the story’s message home to readers. The last half or third of the book felt like an endless event of friends screaming life-or-death orders/suggestions to one another, storms tearing up things, and glass shattering. Think a scene from the movie Twister, only played out over the course of 100 or so pages. The marathon demands on my heart were rather exhausting and perhaps, I think, not that necessary.

Nevertheless, EYE OF THE STORM is sure to delight its intended audience of middle-grade and juvenile readers. This is one I’d definitely put in schools, libraries, and gift boxes. Relevant, well-written, and exciting, Kate Messner’s latest book deserves to be read.

Cover discussion: I love how unique it is! I love how it keeps the same style as Kate Messner's other MG novels but has a more intense spin to it.

Walker Childrens / Feb. 28, 2012 / Hardcover / 304pp. / $16.99

e-galley received from publisher and NetGalley. Thank you!

Review: The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner

Review: middle grade, contemporary, science, family

Summary

Gianna Zales is a seventh-grade cross-country star, but her running career and glory is jeopardized by the upcoming science project deadline. Gianna must collect and identify 25 leaves, but that’s a hard thing to do when your grandmother’s memory is failing, the mean girls at school are out to get you, your father drives you to school in a hearse, and you’ve never been one for deadlines. Still, perhaps with the help of some fantastic people in her life, Gianna will be able to learn from all her hardships, while still completing her leaf project.

Review

Kate Messner is a shining voice in middle-grade fiction. Her characters will rank right up there with Sharon Creech’s for best-friend potential.

Messner effortlessly introduces us to the totally normal yet exceptionally charming Zales family within just a few pages. Characterization leaps off the page: Gianna’s mother, father, little brother, and grandmother all sound like they could be your next-door neighbors, the smoothness with which their characters are developed an unfortunately rare accomplishment in fiction. There are hardly any stereotypes, and those that are a bit flat (like Gianna’s mean classmates) are completely excusable and perfect in their two-dimensionality.

The story is a beautiful weave of school troubles, family troubles, dealing with memory loss, and exploring new romantic feelings for your close friend. That’s a lot to pack into a book, but it never feels overwhelming in THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Messner proves that it’s not about the number of issues you are or aren’t allowed to include in a book, but rather the way the author integrates the problems. And she does it beautifully.

Kate Messner is undoubtedly one of my favorite middle-grade authors. Her prose is effortless and her characters rich, and readers of all ages will be able to fall in love with the characters and find a bit of themselves in the book. THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z transcends its genre boundaries and becomes a classic tale of growing up that will reach anyone’s heart.

Similar Authors
Sharon Creech


Cover discussion: Oh how I love how original, colorful, and whimsical these covers are. They seem to have lightened the image between the hardcover and paperback; not a big deal!

Walker Books / Sept. 14, 2010 / Paperback (reprint) / 224pp. / $6.99

Copy...uh, I don't remember how I got the copy I reviewed in 2009, but I own a copy now!

Review: Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner

Tags: middle grade, ice-skating, competition

Summary

Claire Boucher loves two things: her family’s maple syrup farm and competitive ice-skating. So when she gets the chance to train at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Facility with a world-class coach, she is simultaneously terrified and excited. Making the commitment to the sport involves sacrifices—time with her family and best friend, long commutes several days a week—but it’s also a dream come true for her.

Or is it? The more Claire immerses herself in the competitive ice-skating world, the more she realizes how cutthroat it is. Some of the girls who train with her would do almost anything to make it big, and Claire must decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice for her ice-skating dreams.

Review

If all middle grade were written as well as this, I think I just might read middle grade forever. Kate Messner’s second novel is just as fun, heartfelt, and engrossing as her first. It sent me in ecstacies of delight over how much I loved it!

I don’t know much about either collecting sap or ice-skating, but SUGAR AND ICE made me wish I were Claire. She is a delightful protagonist, full of love for her friends, family, and passion, but also young enough to experience the vulnerabilities of dealing with new situations. Her love for ice-skating is so inspiring—Kate Messner describes the skating scenes beautifully—that when she is knocked down by the cutthroat attitude of the ice-skating world, it breaks your heart. I constantly wanted to reach into the book and help Claire out a little: no, don’t listen to that girl, she’s just jealous of you! Skate for yourself and forget about how others might be judging you!

Supporting characters are colorful and varied. In particular, Tasanee, Claire’s good training friend, is Asian, and likes to read popular paranormal YA. A character--and author--after my own heart. I dare you to go into this book and try to figure out which books she reads. So the friends are well-developed, but the mean girls, to my delight, are, too. There’s a reason why people turn out mean, and in SUGAR AND ICE we see the different ways that meanness can exert itself, and what drives the girls to desperate measures.

Overall, SUGAR AND ICE is just so wonderfully heartwarming and real, I have lost my ability to put into words how much I loved this book. It will remind you of the best and worst of middle-grade girls without the pettiness that sometimes crops up in this age group. Readers of all ages will fall in love with Claire and Kate Messner’s writing!

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 5 out of 5 - Kate gets the most incredible, artistic covers. This perfectly captures Claire's passion for ice-skating and her family's maple tree farm. The cover just radiates all this warmth and good-feeling.

Walker Books / Dec. 7, 2010 / Hardcover / 288pp. / $16.99

ARC picked up at BEA. Thank you, Walker Books, for this treasure!!

Waiting on Wednesday (66)

Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner

For Claire Boucher, life is all about skating on the frozen cow pond and in the annual Maple Show right before the big pancake breakfast on her family's farm. But all that changes when Russian skating coach Andrei Grosheva offers Claire a scholarship to train with the elite in Lake Placid. Tossed into a world of mean girls on ice, where competition is everything, Claire realizes that her sweet dream come true has sharper edges than she could have imagined. Can she find the strength to stand up to the people who want to see her fail and the courage to decide which dream she wants to follow?

I absolutely adored The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z and so was waiting eagerly for this book, which I think had a different title when I first learned about it. And look: there's a girl who does sports! How cool! And I love the cover; I loved Gianna Z's cover, and this one looks as if it was done by the same artist. Just so much love all around, and I don't think this can disappoint me. Hooray for middle-grade novels written by sweet authors!

Sugar and Ice will be published in hardcover by Walker Books for Young Readers on December 7, 2010 (though I'm hoping I might be able to ask for one at BEA. Wish me luck!).