You can't always judge a book by its size. Several recent publications have few pages, but have sophistication and emotions that require middle school readers.
Deborah Ellis' 2000 book, The Breadwinner (Greenwood Books, $5.95; ages 10 and up) is an international bestseller which sold more than 125,000 copies. The heroine is Parvana, a thirteen-year-old Afghan whose father loses his leg and is taken to prison for no reason. Parvana must disguise herself as a boy and earn income for her needy family. She does so with a mix of willingness, excitement and fear.
Parvana's willingness and fear continue in Parvana's Journey (Greenwood,$15.95; ages 10 and up) and her exhaustion and loss of hope mount. The sequel begins with the burial of her father and her solo search for her mother. Along the way she faces hunger, sickness, and collects a "family" of a starved baby, a crabby one-legged young boy, and an optimistic eight year old whom Parvana has rescued from disease and mine fields. This book, dedicated "to children we force to be braver than they should have to be", requires a brave reader as well.
Another thin book is Hope Anita Smith's The Way A Door Closes (Holt, $18.95; 10 and up).Thirty-four narrative poems tell the story of thirteen-year-old C.J.'s struggle when his father walks out. The poems begin with "Golden" which describes waking in a near-perfect sounding family: 'My family is up / just like the sun, / and we are all / golden."
Smith builds the tenderness of the father-son relationship and C.J.'s admiration for his father. C.J.'s father is a wise, proud man who gives him words, "each one a gem." After C.J.'s father loses his job and leaves, we learn of the strength of his mother and grandmother whose love carries him through troubled times. "My grandmomma's hands hold / my hands and me / but mostly / they hold / everything together." In brief, powerful vignettes, we see C.J. floundering, choosing hope and strength rather than acting out, and finally, slowly accepting his father's return. Scattered throughout are emotive oils by Shane Evans who captures the nuances of tenderness, depression and family connection.
Humor comes in small novels, too, as in Gary Paulsen's How Angel Peterson Got His Name (Random House, $12.95; ages 10 and up). Paulsen dedicates his book to "all boys in their thirteenth year; the miracle is that we live through it." In his prologue he remembers a conversation with his son after the boy has experimented with peeing on electric fences. When his son asks if he'll ever stop doing things like this, Paulsen shakes his head and answers, "It's the way we are. "
These are stories of the early days of extreme sports which he notes were different because "we were quite a bit dumber then" and "there wasn't any safety gear." With rollicking good humor we hear stories of boys who dare. There's Carl Peterson, determined to set a speed skiing record behind a fast-moving '39 Ford sedan. Armed with WW II gear from the Army Surplus store, he zooms through too much snow until at last he hits a ditch and his buddies find him filled with snow "packed into every opening and crevice of his clothes and his body". Shy Orvis Orvisen loses his senses impressing a girl and is determined to remain in a wrestling ring with an enormous bear! Paulsen's stories show that boys will always be boys because hormones will always be hormones. Thank goodness they can count on Paulsen for humor and reassurance about the prevalence of this condition!