Lisa Yee's first novel, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, is an absolute riot. At the tender age of eleven, Millicent completed eleventh grade. Over the summer, she plans to take college courses and (unhappily) tutor Stanford, a boy who drives her up a wall. Her mother, thinking she needs more of a social life with kids her own age, enrolls her in a summer volleyball team. There, she meets a girl who recently moved to town and does not know of Millicent's collegiate status. What's a smart girl to do?

This hilarious book reminds readers of all ages that it is okay to be smart. Millicent may feel much older than she is, mentally, but chronologically, she is still a kid. By the end of the summer, she is a little more comfortable in her own skin and proud of who she is and what she's accomplished.

Pop culture tidbit: The audio book version of Millicent Min is read by Keiko Agena, best known for her role as Lane on the Gilmore Girls television series.

When I originally read and reviewed Millicent Min upon the book's release in 2003, I said, "I hope that Yee writes more tales, if not of Millicent, then of others. She has a real knack." Happily, Yee DID write more tales, two of which are connected to Millie: Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers.

Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time parallels the events of Millicent Min, Girl Genius, retelling things from Stanford's point of view. He would much rather play basketball than study, so he's super upset when he has to go to summer school instead of basketball camp. He also doesn't want to be tutored by Millicent, but he relishes the opportunity to make her look silly when she pretends that SHE is the one being tutored.

I've known many real-life Stanfords, kids who have struggled with school and excelled in sports. I want to give this book to all of them, even if they are grown up now. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time will hopefully encourage readers to see the value in both education and athletics.

Millie's volleyball teammate tells her own story in So Totally Emily Ebers. After her parents get divorced, Emily has to move across the country with her mom. The bulk of the book is a letter to her father, filling him in on everything that goes on that summer. She tells him all about volleyball, her new friend Millie, and her crush Stanford. She misses her dad like crazy, but she finally clicks with her mom and enjoys making a new start in their new town.

Emily is a truly nice kid. Rather than act out in an angsty, cliched way after the divorce and the move, she remains perpetually optimistic and eternally kind. Emily is charming and sweet, and her story wraps up the trilogy with the smile.

Lisa Yee has also written for American Girls. Their line of Julie Albright books written by Megan McDonald introduced Ivy, Julie's best friend. Ivy then got a book all her own called Good Luck, Ivy - and Yee got to write it.

Between regular grammar school Monday through Friday, Chinese school on Saturdays, homework, and gymnastics practice, Ivy's plenty busy. She's looking forward to an upcoming gymnastics meet, but she's worried about her routine on the balance beam, having fallen off of the apparatus in an earlier competition. When she learns a family reunion is scheduled for the same time as the meet, Ivy has to decide which event to attend . . . or figure out a way to go to both!

The book takes place in 1976, so Ivy references the 1972 Olympics and Olga Korbout's balance beam routine, which won her the gold medal. Even though the book takes place over twenty years ago, the theme of appreciating your family's culture is timeless. Readers will hopefully be moved to consider the struggles and traditions of their own families.

The vignettes at the end of the book details real-life events in the lives of Chinese immigrants. This section also includes photographs of Lisa Yee and her relatives. How cool is that?

Learn more about Ivy's best friend Julie.

To learn more about Lisa Yee, read my interview with the author or visit her website or her LiveJournal.

Author Megan McDonald and illustrator Robert Hunt have created a memorable character in Julie Albright, a smart, passionate young girl who is ready to make changes and take changes as they come. Julie reminds me a bit of Dawn from The Baby-Sisters Club by Ann M. Martin, with her California cool, her compassion, and the way she is illustrated by Hunt.

Julie Albright is one of the American Girls, books which offer realistic glimpses into America's past through the eyes of young girls. The Julie books begin in 1974, when Julie is nine years old, and end in 1976. There are six Julie books in all.

Meet Julie: After her parents get divorced, Julie moves to another part of San Francisco with her older sister Tracy and her artsy mom, who opens up a shop called Gladrags below their apartment. Although Julie gets to see her father (and her rabbit Nutmeg, and her best friend Ivy) every other weekend at her old house, things just aren't the same.

Shortly after Julie starts fourth grade at Jack London Elementary School, she learns that they don't have a basketball team for girls so she asks if she can join the boys' team. The coach initially refuses her request, but Julie sticks to her guns. She learns about Title IX and turns in a petition with 150 signatures on it. The coach still refuses to hear her out, so she works up the nerve to talk to her principal about the situation and earns a spot on the team.

By the end of the book, Julie is a little more confident and a little more content. Though still sad about the divorce, she settles nicely into a pattern with her parents, and she enjoys her new home and her school.

( Read more about all of the books in the series! )

Now I'm happily picturing a grown-up Julie working in politics or education, and wishing there were more books in this delightful series.

Julie's best friend Ivy has her own book, which I also recommend: Good Luck, Ivy by Lisa Yee.

I have included the Julie and Ivy books on the Hey There, Sports Fan! booklist.

Like the other American Girls books, each of the Julie books includes vignettes explaining and depicting real-life events that happened in that girl's time period. The vignettes in the Julie books were written and compiled by historians and writers such as Susan McAliley and Nika Korniyenko.

Author Megan McDonald also writes about contemporary girls. Check out The Sisters Club, which is also an American Girls book, and the Judy Moody series, which is illustrated by Peter Reynolds.

Amy Goldman Koss often writes about survival - not in the (wo)man-versus-nature sense, but more in the day-to-day: surviving a medical ordeal (Side Effects), surviving a school-related scandal (The Cheat, Poison Ivy), surviving the dissolution of friendships (The Girls). For years now, whenever middle school students or their parents ask me for a book about a clique, I immediately tell them about The Girls. Amy recently got in touch with me, and we talked about determination, dedication, and do-gooders.

Growing up, were you ever part of a clique?

I think we careen in and out of countless cliques between the cradle to grave, and the stings and squirms that go with social life and relationships are a life long phenomenon. Grown women can feel just as snubbed by other PTA moms as their daughters can by snotty classmates. Equally, adults look for ways around inviting dull neighbors or creepy co-workers to join them for drinks after work. No? Someone recently told me that their 88-year-old aunt approached a table of ladies in her new rest home and was told that all the seats at that table were taken. We adults pretend that all that stuff is behind us, but there you go -- we're never too old to pretend!

( Read more... )

Visit the author at http://www.AmyGoldmanKoss.net

In GENTLE'S HOLLER, Kerry Madden introduced young readers to Olivia (better known as Livy Two) Weems, a twelve-year-old with a passion for books and music. Livy has eight siblings of various ages and temperaments, a sweet mama, and a starry-eyed daddy. Money's tight - Daddy's music fills the heart and ears more than it fills the pocketbook - but the Weems make do, and their household is always bursting with family, love, and music.

GENTLE'S HOLLER is the first in The Maggie Valley Trilogy. LOUISIANA'S SONG will be hitting the shelves in May, and it is just as precious as the first book. The author is currently working on revisions for JESSIE'S MOUNTAIN, the final book in the trilogy. (Read more about the books.)

Kerry Madden and I recently discussed the real-life relatives that inspired her novels.

The Weems were influenced by your immediate and extended families. Which character is the most like you? Like your husband?

I think of a few. I was a bossy tyrant to my own younger siblings (two boys and a girl) like Becksie when I babysat them, which was a lot. I made them dress up as orphans from Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre or prairie children. I braided my sister's hair in tight, severe braids. I mixed bowls of gruel to sample - they refused, of course. I also read like Livy Two, and I was as shy as Louise in public and very tall as a kid. And there were times as I was writing GENTLE'S HOLLER when I also felt like Daddy [Weems]: a dreamer, hoping and struggling to have faith that this story would find a home. I worried about making a living for my family, yet I could not stop writing these kids.

My husband, Kiffen, is like Cyrus as a little boy, but he's also very much like Emmett in the way he can skip stones, play the harmonica, whittle, and love his sisters. And he has a great love for our own children - a patience to play with them and work on projects with them - he takes great joy in them like Daddy in the Weems' family.

Take a journey through Kerry's official website, MySpace, and LiveJournal.

Megan Shull writes truly refreshing and realistic stories for kids and teens. Here now are my thoughts on her three books to date.

Yours Truly, Skye O'Shea - Ages 8 and up

Shortly after Skye enters middle school, she feels overwhelmed by her homework, her first crush, and her afterschool sports. Skye worries that she'll never be as skilled or as smart as her older sisters, twins Shannon and Shelby. At home, they always make Skye feel as though it's two against one. On the ice, all three girls excel at hockey. Even after Skye makes the big team, she thinks she has push herself even more in order to prove her worth.

Skye's the Limit - Ages 8 and up

The summer between sixth grade and seventh grade is here, and most of Skye's friends are going to typical summer camps or taking vacations with their friends. Skye decides to go to an outdoor camp in Vancouver, even though she's a little scared to be so far away from home. Both her inner strength and physical strength are tested as she battles homesickness, makes new friends, learns how to kayak, and bicycles her heart out. This book shows kids that it's natural to be worried about going to a sleepaway camp, and that while a different sport or activity might seem weird at first, they should give it a try - they just might discover a new and exciting hobby!

After you read these books, I bet that you, like me, will be wishing there were more Skye stories.

Amazing Grace - Ages 13 and up

Amazing Grace is an absolutely sweet story about a tennis pro who takes a much-needed break from it all. It has so much heart and it made me smile. Readers can't help but root for Grace to find her way. I feel that Amazing Grace is the one of the best attempts at the "de-celebrity" or "makeunder" storyline, something which many teen books have tackled in recent years. Amazing Grace is plausible and realistic without ever relying on modern-day tidbits and namedropping to make it more hip and marketable. This is the story of a girl who wanted and needed to get out of the spotlight and lead a normal life. I highly recommend this book.

I am looking forward to Megan Shull's next release, Penelope: A Girl's Manifesto, now slated for a May 2008 release from Hyperion.

Related Booklists: Full of Grace, Hey There, Sports Fan, But I Don't Want to Be Famous!