Kirsten's parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has fallen under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna.It seems like only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side. Walker's goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin. But he's a good kid. So is his friend Matteo, though no one knows why hell do absolutely anything that hot blond Brianna asks of him.But all of this feels almost trivial when Kirsten and Walker discover a secret that shakes them both to the core. Fast paced, marvelously funny, and brutally honest, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period touches on universal truths about human nature. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

The latest from Newbery Honor author Choldenko is an earnest contemporary story about race, set in a California middle school. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Kirsten, the overweight daughter of a doctor, and Walk (short for Walker), son of a striving single mother, the issues raised are spot-on for this age group. Kirsten's world, micromanaged by her overly involved mother, is battered by her parents' fighting and her best friend Rory's newfound chumminess with queen bee Brianna. Walk has been separated from his friends by his mother's decision to send him to private school on scholarship. One of only three African-American students at Mountain School, his outsider status makes him approachable to Kirsten, whose falling-out with Rory leaves her in dire need of lunch-hour companionship. This under-the-microscope examination of the often cruel, always dramatic dynamics of junior high will be enough to pull many readers through to the provocative if melodramatic revelation about the real connection between Walk and Kirsten. The humor that fueled much of Choldenko's Al Capone Does My Shirts is missing here, and her choice to tell Kirsten's story in first person and Walk's chapters in third person makes the narrative a little choppy. But the questions she raises about identity, race, prejudice and the true nature of friendship should provide ample food for thought. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 5-8-A lack of friends and being overweight dominate Kirsten's thoughts as she enters seventh grade at Mountain, a prestigious private school in California. Rory, her good friend since kindergarten, suddenly deserts her in order to join a group of popular girls. More troublesome are Kirsten's parents, who are not speaking to each other. Her mother knows that her daughter is suffering but offers little understanding. She urges her to diet and to hang out with the girls who are rich, thin, and mean. On the first day of school Kirsten and a new boy, Walk, an African American, are both late. He already feels out of place, since he is distinctly in the minority. Both of them have to attend Saturday detention. There, Brianna, the snooty leader of the pack, gets Kirsten into serious trouble by putting the teacher's wallet into her backpack. Only Walk defends her. Alternating chapters between Kirsten's and Walk's point of view, Choldenko convincingly covers the middle school scene but does not hit her stride until the middle of the book when she drops a bombshell. The sparkling characterization and touches of humor are real pluses. Family dynamics and socioeconomics are delineated by contrasting Walk's single mom's difficult life to Kirsten's ultra comfortable life in the suburbs. Money, however, doesn't insulate Kirsten from the pain of relationships gone sour. Nor does lack of money make Walk any less brilliant in observing life around him. Racism, snobbery, prejudice, and honesty are part of the tumultuous twists that ultimately convince Kirsten that, indeed, she does matter.-Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Between her parents' constant arguing and the defection of her best friend to the inner circle of A-list mean girls, the start of seventh grade is tough for Kirsten. It's no easier for her classmate Walk, who has left his inner-city school to become the only black student at an expensive private school. Kirsten's first-person narrative alternates with third-person narration centered on Walk. The two threads run side by side for awhile, occasionally touching and eventually intertwined, until they become knotted in ways that make sense only when each family owns up to its long-held secret. The author of the Newbery Honor Book Al Capone Does My Shirts (2004), Choldenko has a talent for pithy dialogue and vivid narration that brings each scene sharply into focus. With two main characters facing different challenges and several minor characters with troubles of their own, this short novel takes on a great deal and handles it pretty well, telling the story clearly and managing the shifting points of view with ease.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2007 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.