“Grizzly Attack” is one of a series of books with the stated theme “Against the Odds”. It is a 149-page paperback published by Pocket Books, with a reported reading readability level of 5th grade.

The hero of the book is Tyler Duvall, a twelve-year-old from San Francisco. He has been allowed to fly alone to Anchorage, Alaska to visit his mother’s brother, Jake. Background facts include that Jake is a Viet Nam veteran who still suffers flashbacks from his combat experiences. He has chosen to live in an isolated spot in Alaska close to Denali National Park. The park is famous for it grizzly bears.

Jake has a soft heart.  He has taken in a couple of orphaned native Alaskan children.  Further complicating matters when Tyler arrives for his planned fishing vacation, is that his Uncle Jake is having gall bladder problems and is too ill to function.  So a pre-teen, expecting to have a carefree fishing vacation, is suddenly put in a position of extreme responsibility.  How Tyler, who is just a normal kid, deals with his natural fears and takes charge in this primitive and dangerous setting provides the theme of the story.
 

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An “Eye for an Eye” is a 168-page paperback published by Jamestown publishers.  The authors, Peter and Connie Roop, are a husband and wife team that has authored about 50 books for children.  Both the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) as well as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) have recognized their books as “outstanding.”

An ”Eye for an Eye”, subtitled “A Story of the Revolutionary War,” demonstrates that the authors know what appeals to kids in terms of story line.  Today’s pre-teen and early-teen-age girls can identify with Samantha, the free-spirited yet sensitive heroine. Readers quickly will become absorbed in an adventure story that has some basis in historical events. It is a “coming of age” book, but it does it without become overly “preachy.”
 

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“My Louisiana Sky” is author Kimberly Willis Holt’s first novel written for young readers. Published by Random House in paperback, the 200-page novel was picked as a Boston Globe-Horn Book honoree, when published in 1998.

The story is set in a small backwater town of Saitter (rhymes with tater) in 1950’s Louisiana when Elvis was just starting out and Earl Long was in one of his terms as governor.  The plot twist that makes the book unusual is the mental retardation of the 12-year-old heroine’s mother and father. Tiger Ann Parker is smart at school and a good athlete but she is at an age where the cruel remarks of the other girls in school have a bad affect on her. The sudden death of her grandmother, the one person who had kept Tiger’s family life relatively stable, was disastrous. 

Tiger is just a kid and it had never crossed her mind that she might have to assume the responsible person role that her grandmother had filled before her death. Tiger’s aunt, Dorie Kay, wants to take Tiger to Baton Rouge to live.  There in the big city she can finish school and go on to what looks to her like a glamorous life.  With some help from her aunt’s African American housekeeper, Tiger comes to realize, however, that the people and the life she really loves are right there in Saitter. She also realizes that she is more mature and capable than she had earlier thought herself to be.
 

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“Soccer Stars, On the Sidelines” is a 150-page paperback by Emily Costello. Published as A Skylark Book by Bantam Books in 1998, the reported grade level readability is 5th grade. The intended reader audience is that large group of middle grade girls who play on soccer teams. 

Fiona Fagan, the major character in the book, is a twelve-year-old who just wants to be like the other girls on her soccer team. She knows she isn’t the star on the team, but she also knows she is one of the better players. Her asthma and her need to take steps to control it have become a source of embarrassment to her. It is only when she focuses too much on what she believes other people think that she gets into real difficulty. 

There are some realistic lessons on perceived (or misperceived) peer pressure in the book. Writers like Emily Costello do a good job of weaving in some helpful guides to growing up while telling a story that young readers can relate to.
 

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