Adrian FogelinRecensioni

I feel like the cover and the title of this story was kind of misleading or like I usually do -- I expected something completely different. The "magic" in Some Kind of Magic comes from an old hat from a missing uncle. Cody, who's almost seven and shares a birthday with his uncle, gets his brother and his brother's friends along on an adventure. Their adventure starts with following where Cody's new hat leads them -- to an abandoned home. It ends up revealing a truth from the past and guiding the friends towards a summer that will change their lives forever.


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Cody is the sweet, rule following, hat wearing one in the group. Ben is his older brother who is tired of his little brother hanging around and the one everyone follows. His girlfriend Cass is caring and isn't afraid of keeping up with the boys. Neither is her best friend, Jemmie, who is always up for a challenge and talented at sports. Justin, the final member of the group, is a talented pianist whose skills on the piano hasn't given him the courage to tell Jemmie how she feels.


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The different POV's were a bit unorganized. I had trouble keeping track of them. That was the downside of the story. The upside is that after getting used to where the story was taking me, I got swept up with the mystery of it all. This had more mystery than magic, but this story of friends ended up being tearjerking even if it wasn't perfect. I think that knowing that this is more of a middle-grade read and that this story is more about mystery and friendship will set you up with a good experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Publishers for allowing me to read Some Kind of Magic in exchange for an honest review!

I chose VOYA code 4Q because the quality of this book is great, but not without some lapses. The writing captures the characters and the author even portrays the racist father in such a way that the reader can empathize and understand him. That's a hard thing to do. At times, though, the falls over into the cliche category. I chose 3P because I'm not sure the subject matter will really entice a lot of young adults.

The central plot line of this book is the development of a friendship between two 12-year-old girls. The girls become friends when Jemmie's family, a black family, moves in next door to Cass's family, a white family, in Tallahassee, Florida. The friendship is founded on the girls' mutual love for running. The girls read aloud to each other from Jane Eyre. They work through the novel together and provide their fresh teen/tween commentary on it. The novel explores not only Cass's white father's racism against the family moving in next door -- he builds a fence as soon as he hears a black family bought the place -- but also Jemmie's black mother's preconceived ideas about the white family that built the place. I agree with the School Library Journal review, which states, "The rationale behind bigotry is well fleshed out and delicately examined, but sometimes feels a little over done. Nevertheless, the characters are believable and the story line is sensitive and honest."

This book is really a work in its own right, an exploration of racism and racial bias. The book provides a tie-in to and contemporary criticism of the Charlotte Bronte classic, and does a good job of creating interest in it. I read Jane Eyre ages ago, but it was good fun to have the plot revived for me in this way. Crossing Jordan uses the classic work as a way of bringing the girls closer. Young adult readers will gain exposure to the classic, and the novel will pique their interest in the classic. Crossing Jordan cannot be critiqued based on its faithfulness to Jane Eyre. It's a different story entirely, but one that incorporates the classic to achieve its own literary ends.

The pacing was off for me - there were some boring stretches in the new neighborhood and then all of a sudden all this gang activity. There wasn't enough character development for me and I felt like the characters made decisions that didn't make a lot of sense. I couldn't buy that Livvy's parents would let a bunch of people live in their empty houses - that has to be a liability.

A realistic, engaging story with some nice touches of humor. Good portrait of a family and community coping with economic hardship and the many problems that accompany it.

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2001. RGG: Sweet story about two girls who overlook the color of each other's skin to become best friends and help the adults in their lives overcome their racial biases as well.

I liked this book most for the back-and-forth repartee between the two young woman protagonists, Cass, white and poor, and Jemmie, her new African American neighbor. They are believable, likeable, life-affirming, funny, and perfectly paired, as friends and as an amazing track running team dubbed Chocolate Milk. They read Jane Eyre to each other, and stumble over its meaning with each other, through a fence Cass' dad put up between their houses when he heard the new neighbors were Black.
The book is not edgy. It's not going to surprise you, even if you can't guess the exact details of the denouement. There will be a race, maybe. But it's a good-hearted book taking on a subject, race-relationships, that needs more attention. On a more basic level, it's a book about a great friendship.

In the book Crossing Jordan, an Afriacan American family moves next to a white family. The white family are racists and build a fence to avoid them. The white family has a daughter named Cassie and she looks through a knothole at the family as they move in. The other families daughter, Jemmie, sees her and Cassie challenges her to race at a nearby track. They quickly become friends and relize that they have a lot in common. Their families find out that they are friends, but that is not going to stop them. They make thier families realize that it doesn't matter what color you are, we are all the same. In the end the families are friends and have dinners together occasionally.

It's a good story, you always wonder what will happen, and it uses wonderful writing techniques and details.
5Q, 5P; No opinion on the cover art, due to lack of a cover.
Ths book is best suited for middleschoolers on up.
It was selected because it was completely black. Upon opening it and reading the letter on the first page, it was decided to be the perfect book.
Grade (of reviewer): 9th
MS-AHS-NC

Two things separate Cass and Jemmie: race and a high fence built by Cass's father to separate them from their black neighbors. However, neither is a high enough obstacle to their friendship. During the hot summer in Tallahassee, Cass and Jemmie share their passion for running while linking their families together. Fogelin's book is fast-paced, with funny dialogue and an emotional ending. Recommended for ages 11-14.

Awards: VOYA 2000 Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers; ALA (Yalsa) Best Books for Young Adults 2001; IRA 2000 Notable Books for a Global Society (honor book); 2003 National Book Festival title for Florida; numerous state awards, including Garden State Young Readers Ward, the Georgia Children's Book Award, and the Pennsylvania 2001 Young Adult Top Forty.

Crossing Jordan begins with a fence: a statement that their neighbors are not welcome, and a symbol for segregation. On one side of the fence is a white family and on the other side is an African American family. Both families have one commonality: they each have a middle school star runner, Cass and Jemmie. The two girls are first to disobey their families’ orders and become friends over their love for running and the book Jane Eyre. Their friendship remains a secret until tragedy strikes and one family needs the other.

This is a great example of a multicultural friendship where the girls literally cross the fence and become one unstoppable being. Together they are Chocolate Milk.

I liked this book a lot and found Justin to be a sympathetic believable character. I liked his unconventional relationship with Jemmie and her grandmother Nana Grace, the fact that his parents' rocky relationship was not romanticized, the introduction of the war in Iraq, and of course, Justin's discovery of his musical talents. Also found the natural flow of race relationships and youth/elderly relationships very refreshing.

This Book is about the chocolate milk runners.

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Study, study, study. Fisher Brown is a junior in high school and his life consists of studying. Son of the high school guidance counselor, Fisher feels the pressure to excel in academics.

Ever since the day Walt Brown's wife left and never came home, he has focused his life on doing the best for his son. He leaves inspirational sticky notes everywhere, and urges Fisher to make every effort count. "THE BIG DAY" is coming up - the SAT test - and he considers it Fisher's ticket to a scholarship and an Ivy League school.

A week before the SAT, Fisher's grandmother is scheduled to be moved into a nursing home. Mr. Brown agrees that Fisher should stay at home and study while he takes care of the move. He knows Fisher is dependable and can take care of himself over the weekend and get himself to school the following week, so he can concentrate on getting Grandmother moved.

However, no one counted on Fisher meeting Lonny, a drifter whose brother lives next door to the Brown's. When Fisher's dad leaves on his trip, Lonny invites Fisher to take the weekend off from studying to help him with a little project. The two take off by Greyhound bus on what Lonny promises to be an adventure.

THE REAL QUESTION takes Fisher on an amazing and at times dangerous journey. His experience, although taking him away from home, helps him learn more about himself, his dad, and perhaps see another side to the mother who left years ago. Adrian Fogelin's writing is filled with humor, emotion, and heartwarming characters that make the story truly remarkable. This is a book well worth having in any collection.

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

"Good fences make good neighbors." That's what Cass's dad said when he found out a black family was moving in next door. Cass even helped him build the fence. But as the new neighbors moved in, Cass couldn't help but be curious. Watching through a peephole in the fence, Cass's blue eye found a brown eye staring back at her.

Cass asked Jemmie, "Do you like to run?"

Jemmie responded, "Run? Girl, I don't run, I fly. Can't nobody beat me."

The race was on. They both sneaked out of their homes the next morning to find out who was fastest, and instead found "Chocolate Milk."

This is the story of their friendship. It's also a story of crossing boundaries, change, and eventual acceptance. Theirs is a natural friendship, a friendship that's tried by the bigotry of Cass's dad, and the stubbornness of Jemmie's mother. It takes the misfortunes of a tiny baby for the parents to begin tearing down their mental fences.

Adrian Fogelin does a beautiful job of portraying tenuous relationships that exist among people trying to understand cultures different from their own, The girls are sweet and fun; their dialogue is well-written, immersing the reader in the long, hot, dog days of summer in Tallahassee, Florida.

CROSSING JORDAN leaves the reader with hope for future generations, that they will be inspired to appreciate each other, just as Cass and Jemmie were inspired to call themselves Chocolate Milk. This is the first book of Adrian Fogelin's that I've read, and I'm sure I'll be looking for more of her titles.

The Big Nothing is about a boy named Justin Riggs who isn't popular of athelic, he's not even that tall. And these days his world is falling apart faster than his sneakers. His best Friend Ben spends all his time with his new girlfriend. His dad has hit the road, maybe for good; His mom is having a hard staying vertical, and his older brother is being deployed to Iraq.There is nothing much left for Justiin to do but pot his brain in neutral and slide into the state he calls the "Big Nothing."

Not my favorite book, but 4/5th grade girls would like it.

Sorta good. I liked the author's drawings throughout, and I liked the characters well enough. But the book was sooo slooow! It was almost 300 pages, and too many scenes seemed too long and drawn out or not necessary at all.½

Fisher Brown has a one-track mind -- study, study, study. His dad is the high school counselor and all he worries about is getting Fisher into a good college. Fisher's grandmother is moving to a nursing home and his dad has to go help. Fisher is staying home alone for the week. He is expected to go to stay home and study, but Fisher has other ideas.

Lonny, a drifter, invites Fisher to take off for the weekend and help him put a roof on his friend's house. He promises adventure and a chance to get away from studying. It sounds great to Fisher, but he doesn't know what is about to happen.

There is no AR test for this book at this time.

a great book about interacial friendship

Sissi Carroll (The ALAN Review, Spring 2000 (Vol. 27, No. 3)
In her first novel for young readers, Fogelin writes a moving story of two adolescents females, Cassie, who is white, and Jemmie, who is African American. Through their common interest in running, and because they are neighbors (whose yard are separated by a fence through which they talk) the girls develop a friendship that even their parents' racist traditions and attitudes cannot prevent. Inspired by her actual experience in a mixed race neighborhood in Tallahassee, Florida, Fogelin gently shows the reader that negative attitudes can be absorbed by children and teenagers, and that sometimes, it is through the innocence of children that adults can learn about tolerance and appreciation for those who are racially or otherwise different. Fogelin does not paint either family as more at fault than the other; both Cassie's and Jemmie's families believ the girls should avoid contact with a person who has a different skin color. Cassie and Jemmie are talented runners who challenge each other on the track, but they are also thoughtful adolescents who support each other when their families try to keep fence between them. At no point in the book does Fogelin preach to her readers, yet her message about the negative potential for prejudices to be inherited, and the strength of teens to transcend long-established prejudices, is clear and inspiring. Genre: Overcoming racism/Young female athletes. 2000, Peachtree, $10.97. Ages 9 to 12. This book has won the following awards: This book has being n Nominated for several awards such as the Garden State Teen Book Award, Georgia Children’s Literature Awards, etc.