Book Review: Five Flavors of Dumb

The book title is SOOOO good, I don't even need to think of a quirky title for my post.  As I was reading this book by Antony John, I kept thinking my 5th graders would love this book...except there is cursing in the book.  I would recommend this book for middle school students and above.  It is an enjoyable read and there were nights I didn't want to go to bed just so I could get a little peek at the next event in Piper's life.

The story centers on high schooler, Piper, who criticizes a hot new school rock band, Dumb, then ends up being their manager.  The catch, Piper is deaf.  The band gives her the challenge of landing them a paying gig within one month of her managerial position.  The other catch, Piper has NO idea about hard rock.  

The other players in the story:
Josh, pretty boy/lead singer
Tash, punk rocker/guitar
Will, silent type/guitar
Ed, member of chess club with Piper & eventual drummer
Kallie, eye candy & eventual "can't quite cut it" guitar
Finn, Piper's younger brother, guitar mentor to Kallie & Tash

The reader really gets to understand Piper's relationships with the band and at home.  Her parents throw a slap in her face when they take money out of her college fund to provide cochlear implants for their youngest daughter, Grace.  She is becoming more distant from her mother and to top it off her father never learned signed language (which is her preferred method of communication) even though she can read lips and her hearing aids work somewhat in completely quiet areas.

I really don't even know how to sum up more of the story other than to say, Dumb is Piper's new beginning even if the band breaks up, gets back together, breaks up...well, you get the picture.

Antony John did his research well!  I loved reading the author's note talking about the different people in my hometown of St. Louis that he wanted to thank for assisting him in the history of rock and roll, what it is like for a deaf person in society, hearing aids, and ASL classes.  


Book cover taken from antonyjohn.net

All You Need Is Love, Humor, And Friendship

Recommended for grades 8-12

The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg should be read by every high school girl--whether they are in a relationship, plan on it, or not. Humor, truth, friendship, The Beatles, and remaining true to yourself—this is one awesome and refreshing book!

The protagonist, Penny Lane (yes, she is named after the Beatles song), has decided she is fed up with high school boys and dating. During the summer before her junior year, she finally got to have a relationship with Nate, the boy she thought was the one. He said all the right things and made her feel special, but Penny catches him cheating—he blames her for it. Penny decides enough is enough!

Penny decides to start The Lonely Hearts Club, referencing the Beatles—she is the solo member. Pretty soon, Diane, who was Penny’s best friend up until 7^th grade, when she dropped everything (including Penny) to date Ryan, asks to join (Ryan secretly dumped her at the end of their sophomore year, but they remain friends). Soon after, Penny’s current loud-mouth, opinionated best friend, Tracy decides to join. Before you know it, more and more girls want to know about the club and join—a revolution has begun!

Club rules are established, meetings are held on Saturday nights, the girls eat lunch together at school, decide to go to Homecoming together (and are a HIT at Homecoming), and support each other through difficult decisions. Diane, Penny, and Tracy are the friends every high school girl should have—I would have loved being friends with them. The way the girls stand up for each other and problem solve, and support each other through many issues is incredible.

But what should Penny do when one of the nicest and not to mention cutest guys at school starts to show an interest? Is Penny in over her head? What’s a girl to do? Well, there’s no chance she will lose herself for a guy, she has plenty of friends to make sure that doesn’t happen.

What a great way to start my winter break from school!

Eulberg, E. (2009). The Lonely hearts club. New York City, NY: Scholastic Point.

The Lost Pieces To Her Life

Recommended for grades 9-12

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” -Elizabeth Stone

Does this feeling as a parent give due cause to make life and death decisions for your child? Decisions that could forever affect the way the child feels about him/herself. This is one of the many questions to consider while reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. The book chronicles the life of 17-year-old Jenna Fox, who has just woken from a year-long coma. She doesn’t remember a thing, her family has moved across the U.S., and she senses her parents are keeping something from her.

Written from Jenna’s point-of-view, even the text is structured to make the reader feel Jenna’s slight disorientation to the world she has re-entered. Short and somewhat choppy sentences, mixed with definitions of words Jenna has had to look up to remember exactly what they mean, her thoughts don’t relay any emotions quite yet.

Jenna soon finds out about the accident she was in that cost the lives of her two best friends. Jenna also finds out that she is only 10% of her original self. Only 10% of her brain survived the accident, the rest of her is bio-engineered. Jenna must deal with this overwhelming information. Her parents try to convince her it was the only choice they had, “Someday, when you have a child of your own, you’ll finally understand what a parent will do to save their child (Pearson, p. 137)”.

This book brings up many ethical issues. Jenna presents many of them: is she really human anymore; what does it mean to be human? To what extent does body reconstruction become too much? Would you make the same choice as Jenna’s parents when you have a child? Do you think parents can adore their child too much? Were Jenna’s parents right for keeping information from her at the beginning?

The book is suspenseful and thought-provoking. Readers will fall in like and sympathize with Jenna Fox’s character.

*Discussion questions and author interview included in the back of the book. Click here for book's website.