Real Characters

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban could be any other story about a sixth grade girl whose family isn't perfect and who doesn't quite fit in at school and yet it's so much more. What sets it apart? I think it's characterization. Zoe's oddball dad and hard working mother are presented in a loving and exasperated way that makes them extremely real characters. They don't seem to have quirks because the author thinks that will make them more memorable but because that's who they are. So, who are they?

Well, Zoe is a girl who really wants to play the piano. Unfortunately for her, her dad gets overwhelmed when he goes to the mall to buy the piano and ends up with an organ. But Zoe is a kid who knows how to make the best of things and so she starts taking organ lessons and ends up competing in an organ competition. Along the way she loses her best friend and makes a new friend who comes home after school to bake with her dad.

Her dad is the kind of guy who doesn't like to leave the house because he might get lost. Her mom is careful and detail oriented.

A great first novel.

Paper Towns, by John Green
Q has known his neighbor Margo Roth Speigelman since they were both little kids. Once they were close friends but as high school comes to a close they move in completely different circles. Q hangs out with the band nerds and Margo Roth Speigelman (you always have to use her full name) is one of the coolest of cool kids. But one night, Margo Roth Speigelman knocks on Q's window, forcing their circles to intersect. After a night of righteous pranks designed by Margo Roth Speigelman to right some wrongs and punish wrong-doers, Q thinks maybe, just maybe, they can be friends again. But then Margo Roth Speigelman disappears. The longer Q looks for her, the more he discovers about who she really is and how the surface Margo Roth Speigelman is not the whole picture at all.

Although there are some very funny moments, this is not a primarily funny book. Those funny moments balance out discussions of philosophy and poetry, real angst about what has happened to Margo Roth Speigelman, and thoughts about the meaning of friendship.