The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

Genre: Horror, Middle Grade, Mystery
Source: I purchased a copy

India Hill Brown has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I purchased this book after reading "The Girl In the Lake.  I love a good ghost story.  The difference between other ghost stories and the type that this author writes is the historical message.  Her characters are African American.  Her ghost stories came about because of an injustice. In the case of this story, Iris and her neighbor and best friend Daniel break the rules and go out the night of the first snow. To make matters worse they sneak into the forest across the street so their parents won't see them. What they end up finding while making snow angels is a grave of a young girl named Avery. Now Iris is being haunted. The grave is that of a young girl who was buried in a segregated cemetery. Avery doesn't want to be forgotten. That is why she is haunting Iris.  

If you think this is a long gone issue think again. Iris knows what it is like to be forgotten. She is the captain of her middle school's step team.  Her mom notices on the TV news her middle school and all the club captains being recognized. That is, all except her and her step team. It seems that they are always being forgotten. Emails just seem to get lost. I know for a lot of people who are white like me they often don't see the big deal in this. I do. I have never understood why people feel they should judge other's worth based on their skin color.  I am aware there are many African American Cemeteries that have been run down, forgotten about, or evern worse. bulldozed away to make room for other buildings.  I like the fact that this author isn't afraid to to address these issues. If there is one thing I hope her books do for the kids who read them is spur them into noticing these injustices and working toward a solution. I look forward to many more books by this author, and I look forward to putting them into the hands of my students. Awesome book!

The Girl in the White Van by April Henry

Genre: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Mystery
Source: I purchased a copy

I absolutely love this author’s books.  She takes young people and puts them in situations that are a nightmare in themselves.  Savannah is a young girl who is kidnapped. She is taken out to an old trailer where she finds Jenny. She is another kidnap victim and has been held for ten months. Savannah and Jenny are completely different. Savannah takes Kung Fu and so she fights back.  Jenny seems to have just given up until she meets Savannah.  As they try to escape knowing the danger the tension is brought to a whole new level. Just like in her book, “The Night She Disappeared” the author has given us a character in Savannah that is willing to fight back. This action keeps the story moving forward. I love how her characters are strong girls, or girls who find the strength to do what they didn’t know they could do. I had to wait until the summer to read this because my students handed it from one to the other.  I can make sure to get this book into the hands of my students.  

Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward

Genre: Young Adult, Adventure
Source: I purchased a copy. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This was one of the stranger books I have read. I had actually started it last year and never finished it. Today was as good as any day to finish it.  Eliza is not very out-going. She and two of her friends go down near the swamp. When her friends leave her to take a picture outside a cave she walks on. Suddenly she finds herself falling through the earth.  Eliza is found by a group of people who have fallen down as well. They’ve not been able to find a way out so they have formed a colony.

Eliza learns many things about herself while she is underground. She learns to be more assertive. She learns what true friends are. The friends she had on the surface were not true friends. She learns you can’t just sit back and wait when things take a wrong or bad turn. Sometimes you have to step up and go for what you want or what you know you should do.

For me I felt the ending needed a bit more. It was like watching a movie build up to the end and then you want to know what happened next, but never find out.  I will still recommend this book to my students and others who like adventures and young adult books.