Californium by R. Dean Johnson

Californium by R. Dean Johnson is told totally from a guy’s perspective. That guy is 14 year old Reece who is beginning his freshman year at high school and trying to be cool after just moving to California in the early 1980s with his family. Reece hangs out with Treat (a Mohawk-wearing kid who does not seem to care what anyone thinks) and Keith (who thinks he gets it all, but really doesn’t).  Together the trio form a punk rock band and rely on friends like Edie and Cherise to build interest in their music.  

Honestly, it seems that this crossover book may have more appeal for adults who will want to look back fondly (or maybe not so fondly!) on life as a high schooler in the 80s – think Breakfast Club, right? The main characters are definitely immature – although they do grow. Being so young and naïve, the characters are unlikely to hold interest of older high school students. There might also be appeal, though, for middle school students who are themselves dealing with the questions of acceptance and transition to high school.  

The humor in Californium (subtitled “A Novel of Punk Rock, Growing Up, and Other Dangerous Things”) is not quite as much fun as other books about young teenage boys - Carter Finally Gets It, for example. However, debut novelist Johnson offers authentic voices and does a credible job of making us feel invested in Reece, Treat, Keith and the band over a rather long read. Elements of romance, strained family relationships, and typical teen angst mix with a couple of surprising twists as the story proceeds. If you are feeling nostalgic, pick up Californium and be transported to 1980s high school in Southern California. 

Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon

I enjoyed reading Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon; it provided a chance to join Lux in escaping the pressures of modern daily life and time travel to an earlier, simpler time. 

Living in San Francisco in 1975, Lux is a single mother of five year old Benno.  When he heads East to spent time with her parents, Lux heads to Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon for a camping trip.  There, she finds “the fog” and crosses through into 1906 and the meadow of Greengage Farm where a few hundred people were trapped in isolation after the famous earthquake. Lux becomes enthralled with the community and looks forward to her visits which can only occur on the day after a full moon – if the fog appears.  She embraces the hard physical work and builds strong relationships with Greengage’s founder, Joseph Bell (who shares the narration with Lux), his wife, Martha, his sister, Fancy and other residents.

This novel is as much about Greengage and the life there as it is about Lux’s relationship with Benno, with her extended family – especially her estranged father – and with her supportive friends and neighbors in San Francisco.  If Lux inadvertently stays too long in Greengage, time shifts in the modern world and she can miss months or years in her child’s life.  Although one has to obviously suspend belief due to the time travel and often craziness of Lux’s lifestyle, Valley of the Moon is an easy to read story – perfect for an enchanting summer escape.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon is definitely worth considering for your next adult book group selection.  This debut novel, set in England, oscillates between 1967 and 1976. The title refers to good and evil, the “goats” and “sheep,” of Matthew’s Gospel (25: 31-46), a metaphor for sorting according to actions towards one another.

A primary narrator is almost 10 year old Grace, who with her young friend, Tilly, sets out to solve the mysterious disappearance of a neighbor, Mrs. Creasy.  Grace is certainly precocious and in some ways reminiscent of other child sleuths, like Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce, but she is not as astute (leave that more to friend Tilly) and is more anchored in the life of a neighborhood where people care deeply about what others think.  In fact, being different, which applies to Grace and Tilly as well as to outcast neighbor Walter Bishop, carries a high price in this small-minded, insular community. Author (and psychiatrist) Cannon has one of her characters assert, “People tend to believe things just because everyone else does….They don’t search for proof, they just search for approval….”

As the summer heatwave begins in 1976, the girls decide to look for God in order to make everyone happier and to bring Mrs. Creasy home and the residents of the avenue together.  Their search leads to discussions at numerous houses along the street and to the implication of long buried secrets, many associated with a fire that occurred nine years earlier. The story is told deftly and humor is often interspersed (as when a new family moves in). The Trouble with Goats and Sheep received a starred review from Booklist.  Publisher Simon & Schuster provides this online readers’ guide and an excerpt.