Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2: Rodrick Rules

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2: Rodrick Rules. Book 2 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. 2008. 218p. ISBN 978-0-8109-9473-7. Available at FIC KIN on the library shelves.

Back in middle school for another year, Greg Heffley is having as hard of a time as last year. First, he’s still being ignored since he touched the cheese. But worse, his brother Rodrick has threatened to reveal the most embarrassing secret about Greg to the whole school.

Through trials and tribulations, Greg recounts his summer off and tells the story of his school year from September to December. Great once again gets involved in the craziest pranks and must survive both a talent show, a house party, a visit to his grandfather, and, most importantly, his older brother Rodrick!

Hilariously written and illustrated, fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid will enjoy Greg’s further adventures, which continue in this volume and in Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3: The Last Straw.

Tanks Inside and Out

Haskew, Michael E. Tanks Inside & Out. Part of the Weapons of War series. 2012. 160p. ISBN 978-1-4488-5980-1. Available at 623.74 HAS on the library shelves.

When German soldiers saw the first tanks roll over trenches and barb wires during World War I, they didn’t know what to make of it, but they knew warfare as they knew it had just been revolutionized. Capable of quicker travel than a horse, able to survive punishing assaults, tanks evolved and became the primary vehicles of World War II as they rolled through Russia, France, and every other theater of war.

In this book, Haskew documents the evolution of the tank from its humble beginnings as a slow behemoth to a seventy-five tons deadly machine of war, capable of firing a projectile miles away with accuracy and able to travel for hundreds of miles. Tanks from the First and Second World Wars are presented, along with Cold War era and current tanks. Each tank is discussed through illustrations and photographs and features specification charts that describes their capabilities.

If you liked this book, take a look at Warships Inside and Out to learn more about the evolution of warships. Other books you might be interested in include Aircrafts of World War I and Modern Weapons Compared and Contrasted: Naval Vessels.

The Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Woodard, Colin. The Real Pirates of the Caribbean. 2011. 24p. ISBN 2940012921963. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

You know all the names that entered into legend: Black Beard; Calico Jack Rackham; Mary Read and Anne Bonny; Charles Vanes. But what led them to enter piracy? This short book discusses the reasons why many were willing to seek a life under the black flag instead of legitimate work, from the War of Succession taking place in Great Britain to a global recession that led to a collapse of sailor wages, from a parity of armaments between royal navies and merchant ships to the interests of American colonies to acquire plundered goods for cheap.

This short book describes the British Royal Navy’s inability to combat the rise of piracy in the early 1710s, and it being outclassed by pirates at the height of the black flag in 1715-6. Finally, the Navy was able to restore order, but less because it actively did so than because economic conditions improved enough to remove the threat of piracy.

An impressive amount of information, this book will delight those who love to read about pirates and historical events.

Shipwreck! Debbie Kiley’s Story of Survival

O’Shei, Tim. Shipwreck! Debbie Kiley’s Story of Survival. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4296-0089-7. Available at 910 OSH on the library shelves.

Debbie Kiley has always loved the water, and from a young age took sailing lessons. She raced yachts professionally, and when she had the opportunity to be a crewmate on a ship heading from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Florida, she jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, the captain was not very good, the rest of the crew was ineffective, and even the captain’s girlfriend got in the way. So when the ship hit a hurricane, it promptly sank, and the five people aboard barely managed to hang on to a life raft. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of their crisis.

The life raft was soon surrounded by sharks, and, with a lack of water and food, the sun shining down hard on them, Debbie and the other four were adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, with little hope of rescue.

This story of survival is uplifting and shows that with effort and dedication one can live through a disaster. If you like this book you’ll enjoy Lost at Sea! Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s Story of Survival.

Lost at Sea! Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s Story of Survival

Doeden, Matt: Lost at Sea! Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s Story of Survival. 2007. 32p. ISBN 978-0-7368-6780-1. Available at 910 DOE on the library shelves.

Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her fiancé Richard Sharp have always loved the sea. They were ready to sail around the world in the boat Richard built when the opportunity came to move a yacht from Tahiti, in the South Pacific, to San Diego in California. At first everything went well, but it was hurricane season in the Pacific, and soon encountered hurricane Raymond.

The ship barely survived the hurricane, but Richard did not and was swept away. Tami was knocked unconscious, and when she woke up she was afloat, but the ship was ruined. Tami had to rig a sail and hope that the winds would be enough to move the ship to Hawaii, the closest land mass.

This story of survival is uplifting and shows that with effort and dedication one can live through a disaster. If you like this book you’ll enjoy Shipwrek! Debbie Kiley’s Story of Survival.

Women Heroes of World War I

Atwood, Kathryn J. Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics. 2014. 256p. ISBN 9781613746899. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

At the onset of the First World War, men rushed forward, draped in patriotic fervor, to fight for their country against their enemies. But women, too, wanted to participate in what promised to be a great adventure. Women were not formally allowed to join the military, but they could serve in many roles to protect and defend their home and their country.

This book tells the story of sixteen brave women who were active participants during the First World War. They were spies, helping Allied soldiers to escape back to Britain. They were journalists, reporting on the horrible conditions of the battlefield, the hospitals, and of the people at home. They were nurses, who volunteered to serve in misery-filled hospitals both behind the front and in field conditions. They were soldiers, who fought and died alongside men, who commanded and led troops into battle, and who accomplished amazing feats and were rewarded with medals and recognitions.

Mostly forgotten and replaced in popular imagination by the women resisters of the Second World War, these women were just as courageous and dedicated. Read their fascinating stories and discover what made regular people step up and become heroes.

If you enjoy this book, you will also like Candy Bomber, about a US Air Force pilot during the Berlin Blockade. A graphic summary of the First World War can be read in Trenches, Treaties, Mud and Blood while The War to End All Wars provides an excellent overview of this conflict with beautiful illustrations.

Falling into Place

Zhang, Amy. Falling into Place. 2014. 304p. ISBN 978-0-06-229504-0. Available at FIC ZHA on the library shelves.

Liz Emerson has it all. She’s part of the popular crowd at Meridian High, and with her friends Julia and Kendra they rule the cafeteria and the social life of the school. But Liz is unhappy. So much so that she believes the world will be a better place without her. She plans her own suicide and makes it look like an accident when she hurls her car over a bridge during an icy winter day, on the same day her father died falling from the roof ten years ago.

But Liz never really understood the Newtonian laws of physics, and as she lay shattered and broken among the wreck of her Mercedes, she can only contemplate that the sky has never been this blue. And all of this happens right at the beginning of the book. As she lays dying in her hospital bed, unconscious and unaware, her friends wish for her survival, and hope that Liz is fighting as hard as she can. But they don’t know that Liz gave up on herself a long time ago. As the narrator eloquently points out, some people die because the world didn’t deserve them. Liz, however, feels like she does not deserve the world.

Liz is mean. She destroys lives because she can. She doesn’t like who she became, and she’s not sure where she went wrong. But she did, and now she can’t get out of the persona she built herself. Through snapshots and moments told in relation to the wreck, the reader sees previous events and Liz’s evolution from nice girl to monster is outlined, from her own perspective as well as that of her friends and enemies.

This book offers a different perspective on suicide. Generally we see how bullying pushes the victim towards attempting suicide, as in Thirteen Reasons Why. Sometimes we read about the impact of what happens to a relative or a friend of the attempter, like Black Box or Zoe Letting Go. But rarely do we see the road that leads a bullier towards suicide. The hard themes of this book will drop a tear or two and make the reader ponder what Liz never understood: That for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Just because Liz was never called out for what she did does not mean that she did not ultimately suffer from it.

Fans of e. lockhart’s We Were Liars and Gayle Forman's If I Stay will enjoy this book, as any lovers of tragedies.