Book Review: Lost at School by Dr. Ross Greene

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Title: Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them
Author: Dr. Ross W. Greene
Publisher: Scribner
Hardcover: 303 pages
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

Frequent visits to the principal's office. Detentions. Suspensions. Expulsions. These are the established tools of school discipline for kids who don't abide by school rules, have a hard time getting along with other kids, don't seem to respect authority, don't seem interested in learning, and are disrupting the learning of their classmates. But there's a big problem with these strategies: They are ineffective for most of the students to whom they are applied.  

It's time for a change in course.  

Here, Dr. Ross W. Greene presents an enlightened, clear-cut, and practical alternative. Relying on research from the neurosciences, Dr. Greene offers a new conceptual framework for understanding the difficulties of kids with behavioral challenges and explains why traditional discipline isn't effective at addressing these difficulties. Emphasizing the revolutionarily simple and positive notion that kids do well if they can, he persuasively argues that kids with behavioral challenges are not attention-seeking, manipulative, limit-testing, coercive, or unmotivated, but that they lack the skills to behave adaptively. And when adults recognize the true factors underlying difficult behavior and teach kids the skills in increments they can handle, the results are astounding: The kids overcome their obstacles; the frustration of teachers, parents, and classmates diminishes; and the well-being and learning of all students are enhanced.  

In Lost at School, Dr. Greene describes how his road-tested, evidence-based approach -- called Collaborative Problem Solving -- can help challenging kids at school. 

Backed by years of experience and research, and written with a powerful sense of hope and achievable change, Lost at School gives teachers and parents the realistic strategies and information to impact the classroom experience of every challenging kid.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Do you believe that kids do as well as they are able or as well as they want to? Dr. Ross Greene believes that kids do as well as they are able and oftentimes, adults treat the problem as if the kids are wanting to misbehave. The truth is that kids who have the most behavioral challenges do so because they lack the skills necessary to behave appropriately and the disciplinary actions most often taken -- suspension or detention for school, or grounding, loss of privileges, etc. for home -- don't make a difference because while they reinforce what kids are doing wrong, they're not showing kids how to change their behavior.

That is where collaborative problem solving, or Plan B comes in. It functions to address the concerns of both adult and child, teaches children problem solving skills, and allows both adult and child to be heard.

I really like what Greene is saying and he explains everything in a way that makes sense -- I think that schools and even parents can really benefit from reading this book and taking its advice to heart. I use the collaborative problem solving strategy with many of the students that I tutor, and I've seen great results from it. If nothing else, giving them a voice in the conversation and letting them tell you why they're acting the way they are is a powerful tool for building a relationship.

Lost at School is easy to follow and pretty much covers everything, from what Plan B is and the theory behind it, to addressing all sorts of common questions that may come up. I did find the "real-life" conversations and story annoying and tedious to get through -- they were too scripted and perfect to allow me to see how the theory actually worked in a real-life situation.

But I do suggest that you take a look at this if you work with kids and have to deal with discipline. I could see it being especially helpful for school personnel and parents.

Book Review: Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

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Title: Gameboard of the Gods
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Series: Age of X, Book 1
Hardcover: 464 pages
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.  

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher at BookExpo America.*

Okay, so when I first started reading this, I was a bit flummoxed and I maybe, may have reacted a little too strongly. It went along the lines of:

What is this?! This isn't Richelle Mead! What's all this science fiction stuff doing in here? Where's the witty banter? The paranormal stuff? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

But then I calmed down. Because, as it turns out, there is witty banter and quite a bit of mythology/fantasy elements. Mead just had to set the scene for us. And after a few dozen pages, I started to really get into the story.

This is definitely a science fiction book (yes, with mythology elements -- SO COOL!) and most definitely not young adult, but I became a Richelle Mead fan through her Georgina Kincaid series, and I actually prefer her adult books. I'm also a huge fan of science fiction -- just transitioning from my expectations of what Mead usually brings to what she brought with Gameboard of the Gods was a little difficult.

With that said, Gameboard of the Gods is brilliant and I am amazed by Richelle Mead's talent and skill all over again. This is a terrifyingly realistic portrayal of a futuristic society in which the government severely limits religious practice, and the gods are starting to fight back. I loved the characters, and I especially loved the tension that fills Justin and Mae's relationship. (But, let's face it: creating a dynamic like that is Mead's forte.) There's also a lot of action where Mae kicks some serious butt.

*sigh* I love strong female characters.

The way the story unfolds is masterfully done; at the beginning, it all seemed very on-the-level and I wasn't really sure where the story was heading, but then clues and pieces of the puzzle started to drop in to create a story and a world I totally wasn't expecting. And it's not like the revelations ever end, either. Right up until the very last page, new facets are added to the world and the characters that live in it. Of course, not everything is resolved and I still have TONS of questions and ponderings about what's to come, but that's why this is a series, right?

Well done, Mead. Well done. I'm hooked.

Summer Has Started! SYNC Offering Free Audiobooks through August

It's no secret that I love my audiobooks, and I know summer has started when SYNC starts offering their free summer audiobooks. I'm a little late to the party this year (sorry, guys), but up until August 21, SYNC will be offering two free audiobooks a week -- a popular YA title paired with a classic.

These downloads are completely free, and once you get them, they're yours. They don't expire and you're free to listen to them whenever you wish. I downloaded some titles last year (GREAT ones like Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor), and I'm definitely going to be downloading some titles this year. There are some great ones up for grabs, like The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (available June 13 - June 19), and Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (available Jul 18 - Jul 24).

Check out the schedule here and set some sort of reminder for yourself so that you can snag free copies of your desired audiobooks. Let me know which ones your most excited for! Personally, I have my eye on The Raven Boys for next week.

Available this week (until June 12):

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1: The Mysterious Howling
by Maryrose Wood

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Enjoy!

Audiobook Review: The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

Title: The Templar Legacy
Author: Steve Berry
Narrator: Paul Michael
Publisher: Books on Tape
Duration: 15 hours, 42 minutes
Series: Cotton Malone, Book 1
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was-and its true nature could change the modern world. 

Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts-and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind. 

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who's far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she's not alone. Competing for the historic prize-and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses-is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. 

Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world-and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5

I wanted to give this religious/mystery/thriller genre another try, because it's so popular! When I dislike a popular book or genre, I feel like I'm not giving it a fair chance. So, even though I did not at all like The Da Vinci Code, I ended up reading The Templar Legacy. I've heard some people call this the "poor man's" Da Vinci Code, but I don't agree with that. It's pretty much the same premise and kind of has the same characters, but the writing is better (and less offensive) than The Da Vinci Code. That still doesn't make this book good, though.

I see the interest that this book may have for people, and if you can overlook writing filled with clichéd phrases and characters, go for it. The plot is interesting and I like that these sorts of novels take a for-granted story and twist it on its head. But I just couldn't get past the writing. There's a lot of telling instead of showing and a lot of unnecessary direction that I feel like I simply didn't need as a reader. When someone started talking, the dialogue would be interrupted to simply tell me that the other person listened. Like this:

Alyssa told Georgina, "Well, I'm not so sure about that."

Georgina listened.

Alyssa continued, "You see..."

So, that got annoying fairly quickly. Along with that, there was just too much explanation and information dumps, making it a slow, tedious read. If a quarter to a third of this novel were cut out, I think it'd be a better story.

Despite my dislike of the story, I thought that the narration was good. Not anything extraordinary, but enjoyable -- Paul Michael did a good job with what he had. It just didn't hold much interest for me.