MMGM- Spooky Stories of the World and Sparkle

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at 

Unleashing Readers

Shearer, Wendy and Georgiev, Teo (illus.) 

Spooky Stories of the World
September 26, 2023 by Lonely Planet
Copy provided by the publisher via Sabrina Dax, publicist

Tired of reading Alvin Schwartz's 1981 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark every Halloween? Need to find scary stories from a wider range of cultures? This slightly larger book (9.5"x11") combines eerie illustrations with tales from around the world, and is a great choice for reading aloud to a class or perusing under the covers with a flashlight! 

This starts with a map of the world behind the table of contents, and the stories are organized by region, with four or five tales for each are represented. North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania all contribute. There's a brief description of the area and culture at the beginning of the chapter, as well as "More Spookiness" at the end, where various supernatural creatures, and their place of origin, are discussed. The stories are 4-8 pages long, with slightly larger text and lots of white space on the page, and accompanied by great illustrations in appropriately muted colors. The illustrations are especially helpful, since they show the background against which the stories are set, which makes them easier to envision. 

Stand out stories inclue "The King and the JuJu Tree" from Nigeria, where a king tries to cut down a tree that does NOT want to be cut down, "The Ghost Wife" from Bangladesh, where a woman is turned into a ghost and it takes a little while for her family to figure this out, and "The Two Sorcerers" from the Maori people of New Zealand. There are a couple of familiar tales, like Baba Yaga and the the death of Osiris, but most of these tales were new to me. 

There are many good collections of scary stories from different cultures out there, from the late Robert San Souci's Haunted Houses (2010) to Jones and Alvitre's 2021 Living Ghosts and Mischievous Monsters: Chilling American Indian Stories. This is a great addition to those books, and I'll probably shelve this in the 398s for the folktale aspect, especially since the effort was taken to identify the country of origin for every story.

Wilson, Lakita. Sparkle

24 October 2023, Viking Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Sparkle and her sister Nova live in Maryland with their father, who was a sit com start for ten years, and their mother, who works hard to manage their social media accounts. Sparkle has just had a successful photo shoot with a toothpaste company, and feels like this might be her big break. She also goes to a performing arts school where she is a drama major. The school's spring production is a big deal, and she and her friends Rae and Taryn try out. Sparkle is embarassed when the director, who is retiring at the end of the school year, picks her, as a 6th grader, to be the understudy for the lead. The lead, Amelia, isn't pleased that a 6th grader has gotten this perk out of turn, and Sparkle keeps the news quiet. She's also struggling with something else that she is keeping from her friends; Sparkle's hair has been falling out more than usual, and when her mother takes her to the doctor, he diagnoses alopecia in the "active hair loss" phase. Sparkle is mortified, and not happy that all the doctor has her do for a month is keep a hair journal. She tries to keep up with the play, and even tries to keep up her social media accounts, but the hair loss becomes profound. For a while, she wears a pink wig to school, and has her mother pencil in her eyebrows but an incident uncovers her baldness. Her friends are angry that she kept this secret from them, and it's devastating to have people know. She finally decides to cut off her remaining hair, and joins the National Alopecia Areata Foundation support group, where she gets the confidence to go to school without wearing her wig. There's enough outcry from others in the play that she steps down from her roles, which is hard, especially since her younger sister Nova is doing so well with the social media accounts and sponsorships. This is a good thing, because the father's residuals are not what they once were, and the family needs money. Will Sparkle be able to go forward with her acting career, and will the familiy find a way forward to support themselves while remaining true to their dramatic callings? 

Strengths: I am always surprised when the 6th graders make posters at the beginning of each year about their "dream jobs". Half want to be social media stars, and the other half want to play professional sports. I wanted to be a dentist, until I realized my math skills weren't good enough. That just shows the generational differences. Social media careers are out there, and this book shows just how much work they really take. To her credit, Sparkle not only has a plan, but she has help from her mother. She has an enormous focus on her appearance and is determined to be an influencer and actor. I'm impressed that companies are offering her partnerships; I've been blogging for almost 20 years and haven't managed that! The performing arts school is interesting, and there is all of the attendant middle school drama. This is also on trend with friends feeling hurt when other friends don't share their unhappiness with them; another generational difference I don't quite understand! Pair this with Ortega's Frizzy or Winston's Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution for other views on hair styles and hair care. 
Weaknesses: Sometimes the characters sounded so much older than middle school, but maybe that's just students in performing arts schools. At one point, Amelia complains that she can't "work on my craft and teach"; I can't say I've ever heard any of my students talking about working on their craft! 
What I really think: Having a family with famous people, and the desire to be famous, reminded me a bit of Kendrick's Squad Goals or Chase's Keeping it Real. Friend's 2018 This is How We Roll or Haddix's 2002 Because of Anya both include characters with alopecia, so there is certainly room for more books on this topic. This also reminded me a bit of Greenwald's The Real Us or Howse's Zitface in how it treated a big physical change for the main character. This could make a really interesting choice for lit circle discussions.