Matt Beam

Kind of reminiscent of Punkzilla, a first person, stream of consciousness, narration without the edge.

Contrary to the book cover of a boy with hockey equipment over his back, Last December is not about hockey. Steve tries out for the team in his new high school. He doesn’t make the team but makes a friend in Trevor. The story is told by Steve in a series of letters to his future baby sister about what happened that December. The prose style is almost stream of consciousness, jumping from one thought to a completely different thought at times, which can get confusing and is not all that compelling. Steve feels like his life is a mess and he’s confused. He and his pregnant single mom had to move and Steve began high school in a new town. He isn’t getting along with his mother and is unsure how he feels about having a new sibling. He is confused about girls and friends and where he fits in. He meets an older teen, Byron who teaches him about Ms. Pacman and his philosophy on life even though as time goes on Steve knows something is wrong with Byron. He goes to parties with his new friends, Trevor and Alistair, and experiments with drinking to disastrous results and makes a fool of himself in front of his crush, Jenny. This coming of age story might appeal to boys who like sports but are not necessarily jocks.… (más)

Booktalk: No doubt about it, Darcy Spillman lo-oves baseball. He talks baseball with his buddies everyday, reads biographies of ball players and hates it when the World Series is over because it means one thing: no baseball all winter. But now that Darcy is in junior high there's other stuff getting in the way of baseball: harder homework, cliques and a certain beautiful blonde named Danalda Chase. Darcy knows a lot about baseball but not much about girls. He thinks "getting to first base" means you've hit a single. Well, yeah, that is true, but not when we're talking about girls. Darcy needs a coach, someone to help him read the signals and not go down swinging. Because when it comes to girls, you never know when a spitball might be coming. Darcy definitely needs a game plan for GETTING TO FIRST BASE WITH DANALDA CHASE.… (más)

Modern, urban take on an alphabet book, The photography in the text includes pictures of letters that are found in urban or city settings, often painted on walls, or buildings. The letters are included in both upper and lower case. One page contains the letter and word and then the opposite page contains the photography of the word.

There is no story in the book, but this text can be used to provide the alphabet and associated words in a different context that is often found in children's literature. This book can also be used in conjunction with a phonics lesson as the words selected include many of the basic concepts that young readers need to learn.… (más)