Timeslip Tuesday- The Factory

Egan, Kathryn. The Factory. 

January 7, 2025 by Scholastic

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

N.B. I don't want to spoil the ending, so will have to review accordingly!

Asher Doyle lives in a slightly dystopian future with a lot of climate issues, but he has a decent life with his grandmother, Nan. His mother, Lizzy, had him when she was 19, and hasn't raised him, since she has been going to college and trying her hand at a lot of different businesses. His father is senator Garrison Broom, who has given Lizzy some support but demanded that there is a nondisclosure agreement in place so that his political career is not affected. When Lizzy borrows a lot of money from the wrong people, Broom suggests that Asher go to The Factory to take part in an exciting experiment that is hoping to produce clean energy. Since Asher had a bad year in 7th grade, he's okay with going to a new school, although his grandmother holds out until the very last and doesn't want to send him. The Factory is a high security installation in the desert, and the eight new children have to be disinfected and wear white jumpsuits when they arrive. It's a sterile, lab like environment, and the children are not given a lot of information. All of them have sad backstories, and their families desperately need the money. Faith's family lost their home and were in a climate refugee camp before living with relatives. Troy's brother needs expensive care. Most are happy that the food at the school is good, and that the air conditioning always works, and that they are safe from the rampant wildfires that cause the air to be smoky. They're less happy with the online schooling, and the worst is the reason they are there: the extraction chambers. On a schedule, the kids have to don plastic t shirts, go into pods, and be covered with a gel before they are besieged with electrical currents. It makes them all feel drained, and some of the kids become very ill. A few, like Louisa, have gone away and never come back. Troy is going poorly, and his best friend, Vi, is determined to investigate. The kids have found a way to evade the cameras and meet on the roof, and start to plan how to get more information about The Factory. Asher is approached by the director, Dr. Mach, and taken to the city to meet his father. There's a military component to the place that doesn't seem to jibe with the clean energy aspect of the process. When both Troy and another girl, Zoe, become very ill, Vi and Asher cut cords to the extraction containers, which buys them some time. They manage to get into Dr. Lahiri's office and snoop at some of the records, and find alarming information. When Troy is sent away, Dr. Lahiri quits, and Asher and Vi are even more suspicious than ever. When they find that they are not alone in their feeling that something is not right and have some adult backup to their investigation, they make some progress on unraveling the secrets of the "threads" that are being extracted. Will they be able to close down The Factory before too many tragedies occur? 

Strengths: Any book that suprises me is a good thing, and this certainly took my brain on a wild whirl. Note that this is a "Timeslip Tuesday" entry, but I'm not saying anything more about WHY it is! The slightly dystopian but recognizable setting is always a good one, and the characters were varied and easy to remember. The villains are bad people, but we do get some adults who are helpful, even though it's up to the kids, of course, to save the day. The cover is good and creepy, and I think this will be one of those books that in thirty years people will look back and ask their friends "What was that sci fi title that we picked up at the Scholastic bookfair?" because everybody who liked dystopian books bought and talked about, but because it is being issued only in paperback, there are no extant copies! 
Weaknesses: This is a little on the long side, and a lot that didn't forward the plot could have been cut out. Asher likes to create backstories for people he meets, and there's a lot of description that weren't quite necessary. 
What I really think: This reminded me a tiny bit of Landon's 2010 The Limit, which also had students paying off family debt by being in a lab, or Smith's Boy X, but is really rather unique. The length and style make this more upper middle grade (Asher is an 8th grader) but it is available in a prebound format from Scholastic, like Zhao's Last Gamer Standing. 

MMGM- Better Than Revenge and some nonfiction

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Unleashing Readers

West, Kasie. Better Than Revenge
December 31, 2024 by Delacorte Romance
E ARC provided by publisher through Netgalley

Finley is a junior in high school, and hoping to get onto the school podcast team so that she can hopefully get an internship which will lead to college scholarships. She's even given up playing soccer with best friend Deja so that she can focus her efforts on this. Her boyfriend, Jensen, is a football player, and helps her prep for the audition... but ends up stealing her ideas and beating her out for the place! She's devastated, and feels like he has ruined her podcasting dreams. She and her friends plot ways to get back at him, including phoning his boss at work and complaining about him, but she decides the best course of action is to date his nemesis on the football team, Theo, and try out for the team as a placekicker. After finding Theo to be nicer than she imagined, she gets him to coach her, which makes the process fairly easy. Her grandmother is slowly being enveloped by Alzheimers, so Finley has a podcast where she interviews her grandmother about her memories of growing up in their beach community in the 1960s. She finds out that her grandmother surfed, and not only knew a local artist, but dated him. Finley tries to hunt down her grandmother's surfboard, that was painted by the artist, while she practices place kicking and falls for Theo. Will her plan to ruin Jensen's life work out, and will the revenge be as sweet as she imagines? 
Strengths: West does a fantastic job of writing romances with high school characters that also appeal to middle school students. This was a good sneak peek at some of the activities and drama that exists in high school, and Finley has a strong family life, plenty of interests, and career aspirations. While we don't really find out Jensen's motivation for grabbing the podcasting position out from under her, it sets up a good rivalry. Theo is sweet, and sees Finley as an equal; even the football coach doesn't flinch at the idea of Finley being the kicker. West has a good message (that she mentions in the afterword) that karma > revenge, and there's a nice conclusion. My favorite part was hearing about the grandmother's life, and Finley realizing that her grandmother was once her age. 
Weaknesses: Finley and her friends have some fairly mean spirited ideas to get back at Jensen, but I would have liked to know more about his motivations. If he was as equally mean spirited, I wouldn't have blamed Finley for carrying through with some of these, and she does end up backing off. I found it hard to believe that podcasting is a viable career option and that college programs are available, even though a brief internet search shows that this might be true. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like some drama with their romance and enjoyed Florence's Sweet and Sour or Hubbard's Fool Me Twice... how is that over ten years old already?

Piro Radka. Say What?: How We Communicate
May 28, 2024 by Albatros Media
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Broken down into in different types of in person communication and also long distance communication, this book explore different facets of how, why, and in what manner humans communicate. There are lots of good details about a variety of topics; how humans learn to speak, how speech actually works, how new words appear, and even some information about famous speech makers. There's even several pages on how we communicate through silence, and good examples of how one can tell a story just from a picture, even without words. The pages of what posture communicates should be required reading for middle school students, who don't always understand body language; the "Zone of Personal Space" diagram is one I might need to copy and post at my desk. Gives a whole new understanding to my concept of "personal bubble"! Also to be considered are gestures, facial expressions, and touch.

For sending messages to people who aren't near us, it's important to understand how symbols are used, and there's even a chart of Morse Code. There's a nice spread about the evolution of writing, as well as the history of written messages. Yes, both the newspaper AND the fax machine are there, right next to pigeon post! The two pages on mass communication are very interesting, and start with the first radio broadcast in history in 1906. My grandmother would have been 13! I'm a little alarmed that over half of the innovations occurred during my life time, although I am at least younger than television AND color television! The history of the telephone and the internet is both something that I wish young readers had well fixed in their memories, so the graphics for those are crucial.

There's so much good information here, and it's in a very readable format that would be suitable for both elementary and middle school students. The graphics seemed a little goofy to me, but perhaps their bright, cartoon style will appeal more to young readers.

While I've seen several books on the history of television, the internet and telephones, and even Osborne's Who's Got Mail?: The Story of the U.S. Postal Service, I can't think of any book that lays all varieties of communication out so clearly. This would be great to use with students who struggle with various aspects of communication, but is also just a fun source of facts for general use.

Beever, Alexandra and Linero, Sol (illustrator) How to Be a Detective and Other Crime-Fighting Jobs
October 1, 2024 by Nosy Crow
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

This How To Be series from Nosy Crow (which also includes How to Be a Vet and Other Animal Jobs, as well as the upcoming How to Be a Doctor and Other Life-Saving Jobs) has a lot of great information for elementary and middle grade students who want to start investigating career options. Starting with what a detective does, and the equipment that they might use, the book continues to give more necessary details about why this is an important job, how to become a detective, and descriptions of skills that are useful to the job. There's information about how crimes are reported, investigated, and processed, as well as a section on what happens when a person goes to court. There are lots of other related jobs listed, such as SWAT team members, private investigators, Secret Service agents, and more specialized jobs such as those related to vehicles, research, and even animals. For a short time, my daughter thought about being a forensic accountant, so I actually did know about that career path!

All of the information is well illustrated by Linero's bright, infographic style drawings, and the text is well arranged on the pages. There is a lot of information, but it's broken up into shorter segments that older elementary school students won't find too challenging.

I love that there are some tips for young readers who are interested in detective work, and suggestions that they start paying closer attention to things that happen around them. There is also a list of organizations to explore.

I particularly enjoyed the history timeline, which included Kate Warne of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who became the world's first woman detective in 1856. That, combined with the fact that the first detective novel was by the US author Edgar Allen Poe, really made me wonder why the British have so many more detective shows and books than the US does. The author, Detective Beever, is a police detective in the UK.

This is a bit more advanced than Hische's Who Will U Be, but more focused on a single type of career than MacIsaac and Nelson's See It, Dream It, Do It. So many of my students want to be video game designers or social media influencers that I would love to see a new series like the 1950s Carla Greene Children's Press "I Want to Be a..." books, but with jobs like coders, engineers, and, well, still teachers!

Calling it early on 2024 reading. Don't think I'll get to too much in the next two days! 

Stealing the Show (Operation Sisterhood #2)

Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola. Stealing the Show: Operation Sisterhood #2
January 14, 2025 by Crown Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In Operation Sisterhood, we met Bo and and new stepsisters, Sunday and twins Lil and Lee, as they navigated their new life in a Harlem brownstone owned by their Auntie Sunflower. Now, we see the world from Sunday's point of view. Sunday, whose mother lives in London, is a song writer and aspiring detective, and has a great idea to put together a show for their neighborhood. Sunday's mother always reminds her that she shines, but Sunday, who often forgets her turn to make dinner and tries to put together combinations like sardines and Biscoff cookie butter, often has trouble believing in herself. The family has spent a lot of time refurbishing a local garden, which seems like the best place to put on such an extravaganza. Sunday's plans might be a little beyond her reach, as she promises that the event will have lots of celebrities. Luckily for her, teen star Talitha Thomas moves into the neighborhood, and agrees to help with the production! Sunday opens up auditions to everyone in the neighborhood, and there's a lot of interest, but Sunday has trouble organizing her thoughts and implementing a plan. Talitha isn't as much help as she would like, and can only meet for short periods. On top of this, Sunday and her sisters have a free schooling assignment to investigate historical free Black communities in the cities, and are supposed to travel around to them and gather information for a project. This does give Sunday some ideas about sharing different people's stories, and also makes her worry about her own neighborhood being gentrified. One of the outings that her parents encourage is one to the Morgan Library to see an exhibit about Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks. Sunday has a growing number of projects she needs to organize, like writing a song for the sisters' band, the script for the show, etc., but procrastinates, although she is glad to see that the idea of the performance is making her neighborhood happy. When Talitha leaves suddenly for a job in London and doesn't let Sunday know, will the performance be able to go on? 
Strengths: Sunday's family and neighborhood is filled with a wide array of talented, exuberant people who are invested in their community. Auntie Sunflower provides the family's home for free, Papa Charles runs a bookstore, Mama Hope draws maps for books and teaches cartography, and even Ms. Tyler keeps everyone on their toes by hanging out on her stoop. It's good to see a close knit neighborhood rally together around something like a community performance. I also really enjoyed all of the history that Sunday and her sisters discovered while working on their free schooling project. Younger readers really enjoy a bit of celebrity shine in books, so Talitha's life will be very interesting. 
Weaknesses: I wish that Sunday would have learned more organizational skills from Bo, but did appreciate that there was a note at the back where she outlined a bit of what she needed to do! 
What I really think: As someone who always secretly wanted to do a backyard carnival to raise money for muscular dystrophy and was never allowed, I was enthralled by Sunday's attempts to put together a community event. It seems that there should be a ton of middle grade books where characters do something similar, but I'm struggling to find them! Readers who enjoyed the first book will be glad to pick up this sequel. 

A Split Second

Marks, Janae. A Split Second

October 1, 2024 by Quill Tree Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Elise has just turned 12, and is hanging out at the fall festival with her best friends Melinda and Ivy. They haven't been friends that long, but after her friend Amelia moved away, they started hanging out. They have a fun slumber party at her house, and Elise receives a locket with a clock in it from a mysterious source. The girls eventually fall asleep, but when Elise wakes up, it's months later! She thinks at first that her sister Shay or brother Theo are pranking her. It's very odd, and going to school makes it even worse, because she finds out that Melinda and Ivy are no longer speaking to her. Desperate to sit with someone at lunch, she finds Cora, with whom she was close before the pandemic. Since the two just drifted apart, it's easy to reconnect. Elise also finds out that she has joined the photography club and is in the middle of a project. She eventually confides her very odd circumstances to Cora, who offers to help her piece together what happened. They manage to get the story of Melinda and Ivy from Amelia, whom Elise had contacted after an all-too-typical misunderstanding between the three that caused them to fall out. However, there's more to it than that. Cora was the one who gave the locket to Elise, and she has one herself, purchased from Daphne's Delights, a shop that specializes in magic. There's something more to the time slip, and Elise and Cora have to work together. Will they decide to go back to the fall festival, or will they try to make the best of their lives?
Strengths: There are some very clever things going on that caused the time travel to occur, and I don't want to spoil them! Combining magical realism with friend drama is brilliant; can you imagine missing six months of your seventh grade school year? On top of these innovations, the story is really well grounded, with Elise having to deal with small, realistic family situations and BOTH of her parents! I really wish there would be more details about family life in middle grade books. There are some spells involved, which I would absolutely have adored when I was 12, and a satisfying ending. Marks has done several good realistic fiction books (From the Desk of Zoe Washington, A Soft Place to Land), so it's interesting to see her turn her hand to a fantasy book. 
Weaknesses: This switches from Elise's point of view to Cora's in the middle, which I didn't enjoy. However, this increases the text complexity, as I recently learned from taking a Science of Reading course, so maybe this is a good thing.
What I really think: I thought this would be something along the lines of Deriso's Do-Over (2006), maybe because of the title, but it ended up being a very different kind of time slip book that I enjoyed very much. 

Guy Friday: Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time

Weatherford, Carole Boston and Velasquez, Eric (illus.)
Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show
March 27, 2024 by Candlewick Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Paul Robeson was an extremely talented man who overcame many adversities. Born in New Jersey in 1898 to a father who was born enslaved but became a college educated minister and a mother from a Quaker background, his life circumstances changed when he was very young. His mother passed away, and his father lost his job. He was raised by a community of friends and family when his father had work to do. He followed his older brothers into sports, and had to deal with racism in his high school. He attended Rutgers university, but did not want to go into the ministry, studying law instead. He sang, and had a career in Hollywood until he became unhappy with the stereotypical roles he was expected to play. Leaving the entertainment industry, he became interested in politics at a time when McCarthy Era witch hunts caused him to be shunned. He felt he should not have to share all of his politics publicly, but supported Communism since in its purest form, it called for all people to be treated equally. He suffered a health crisis while in Russia that had suspicious origins, and spent the end of his life in ailing health. In recent years, his legacy has been much lauded.

Weatherford has included lots of details about Robeson's life in very poetic language. There is much more information than can be found in most picture book biographies, making this suitable for research projects as well as a selection for class read alouds during Black History Month.

Velzsquez's illustrations are realistic and show what the world looked like during Robeson's life. The attention to details in period clothing and backgrounds is evident; even the vintage football uniform and pads seem authentic to me. The page design is also good, with the text being in long, thinner paragraphs to blend in well with the illustrations.

It is good to see so many biographies of previously underrepresentsed people. While Robeson's involvement with Communism gave him trouble during his own lifetime, his reasons for investigating the philosophies are more clear through today's lens. Add this to a growing number of titles about civil rights activists like Wallace and Collier's Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement, Duster and Freeman's Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader, Barton and Walthall's Moving Forward: From Space-Age Rides to Civil Rights Sit-Ins With Airman Alton Yates, Vernick and Chapman's All Star: How Larry Doby Smashed the Color Barrier in Baseball, and Duncan and Bobo's Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth.

More Christmas Titles

Jones, Richard. Tis the Season: A Lift-the-Flap Advent Calendar Full of Christmas Poems
September 3, 2024 by Nosy Crow
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

This is a unique collection of poems , since it is also a lift-the-flap Advent calendar. Each page has two beautifully illustrated poems, each accompanied by a numbered flap. Sometimes these flaps are harder to find, disguised in trees or rushes, and sometimes they are logs or rocks. Most of the flaps open to reveal animals, given that many of the pages are outdoor scenes, but some uncover people or cars. The last flap, for Christmas Eve, has a large Christmas tree. The end of the book also revealed the reason for the ribbon that ties the book together; all of the pages fold out, and on the back there are larger versions of all of the items hidden by the flaps! I suppose if one had a very long mantle or a cabinet, this books could be unfolded and displayed for the Advent season.

The illustrations have a soft, chalk pastel feel to them that seems very modern and fresh. This might be in part due to the lavish use of a pale teal instead of an icy blue shade that older Christmas titles tend to employ. The people in the book a nicely diverse, although there are many more animals than people.

The selection of poems is generally good, and highlights include Russell Hoban's (Bedtime for Frances) Winter Ducks, Ogden Nash's Winter Morning, and J. Patrick Lewis' The Red Fox. There is a good sprinkling of traditional holiday verses like Jingle Bells as well. I wish there had been some more modern inclusions, although I know getting permission for those might be harder. Some of the poems will take some explaining, due to some unusual vocabulary. I did enjoy the fact that there were poems from a variety of cultures, and that permission was sought for the usage.

This is certainly an unusual book that could become an advent staple, so I would recommend opening all of the flaps before small fingers attempt them! It's a good idea to branch out from the omnipresent A Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson when offering poetry to young readers, so Tis the Season is an interesting, holiday themed choice to have, along with Kooser, Wanek, and Jones' Marshmallow Clouds, Yolen's In and Out the Window, and Janeczko and Sweet's Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems.

Chapman, Jane. The Littlest Christmas Tree

September 3, 2024 by Tiger Tales
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Cubby and his Daddy go out into the woods with their friends, the badger and rabbit families, to cut down a tree for Christmas. Daddy helps haul everyone and all of the trees home on a sled, and the families get to work in their separate lairs to decorate the trees. The long suffering father bear puts up with Cubby's overly enthusiastic ways, untangling lights and saving cocoa from spilling as his exuberant son decorates the tree. Presents are wrapped, and Christmas festivities with their friends take place around the small but celebratory tree. After the holiday is over, Cubby is distraught to think that the Christmas tree has to be cleaned up as well, because he thinks putting the tree back outside will be the end of happiness. All three families plant their trees outside, even putting signs by them so they know who has which tree. The year passes quickly, and soon Cubby and Daddy have the little tree in their house again to celebrate Christmas.

Change is hard for children, and we forget that as adults. Christmas is a time of high emotions, and when Cubby equates his good times with the tree, he doesn't want to see it go away. My favorite part of this was the patience that Daddy had with his son; young readers probably won't pick up on this, but older readers certainly will see Daddy's exasperation!

Chapman does an excellent winter landscape, and the tree is adorable. There's something pleasantly classic about the illustrations that reminds me of the books that my own children read in the 1990s, which makes sense, since Chapman has been writing for almost thirty years! Nothing wrong with remaining true to one's style, which is reminiscent of Anita Jeram and Patrick Benson's drawings.

Since it's a lot easier to keep books than live pine trees, I'd put this book into an advent rotations with VanSickle's How To Decorate a Christmas Tree, Collins' We Disagree About This Tree, and Toht's Pick a Pine Tree to prepare little ones for the changes of the season. Wise parents, along with Daddy bear, might want to look into getting a copy of Aliki's 1991 Christmas Tree Memories to read with youngsters and get them to attach sentimental value to the ornaments rather than the tree, since digging up and replanting a tree EVERY year will quickly become unfeasible!

Rachel Friedman and Eight Not-Perfect Nights of Hanukkah and David Atherton's Christmas Cookbook for Kids

Kapit, Sarah. Rachel Friedman and Eight Not-Perfect Nights of Hanukkah

September 3, 2024 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus 

Rachel, fresh from her adventures in Rachel Friedman Breaks the Rules, is determined to prove that Hannukah is the BEST holiday, especially when one of her classmates, Mason, can't understand why she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Her best friend, Maya, agrees, and the two come up with a list of seven fantastic things they can do to make Hannukah even more spectacular. The other challenge Rachel faces is the fact that her older brother, Aaron, has decided that he isn't interested in the holiday at all. Since he is the one who masterminds the Lego Mennorah, Sarah's eight days get off to a rough start. When her father forgets the potatoes for latkes, it's looking even more grim. Aaron does step up to help with spinning dreidls, but they really are not as exciting as Rachel would like. She does get a sparkly leotard for a present, which is okay, but not as good as a race car for her doll. She has to make a snow Maccabee by herself, and when the family goes skating, she pulls at Aaron to get his attention, and he falls and breaks his leg! Since this happened in front of a girl he has a crush on, it's even more devastating, but gives some insight as to why he has been distracted. Aaron tells Rachel that it's okay to be jealous of Christmas, or curious about the competing holiday, and Rachel realizes that everything in life has good points and bad points, and not everything goes smoothly. Maya and her family come over for dinner and bring jelly doughnuts, and the girls are ready for their (hopefully!) next adventure. 

Strengths: I'm a big fan of holiday related books (starting with Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family's portrayal of Purim), and in December there are a lot of requests for Christmas and Hannukah books. There are very few Jewish students in my school, so I can see Rachel's interaction with Mason resonating with many students. I enjoyed that Rachel and Maya were determined to have the best holiday ever and made plans for New and Exciting Things; this is something I would definitely have done when I was in elementary school. Of course, plans often go awry. Rachel's relationship with Aaron was realistic, and it was nice to see that they got along even if they disagreed. There's a happy ending, and Rachel has a better understanding of her own feelings about Hannukah and her Jewish identity as well as more insight into how others perceive the holiday. The page illustrations will appeal to readers as well.
Weaknesses: I wonder if Aaron should see a doctor about possible brittle bones. It seemed odd that he would break a leg the way he did, but then, one of my children broke a foot running across a field!
What I really think: There is such a good selection of early chapter books about elementary characters from different cultures going about their day-to-day lives now, so Rachel is in good company with Nina Soni, Ellray Jakes, Lola Levine, Jada Jones, Alvin Ho, and Bea Garcia.

Atherton, David and Cottle, Katie (illus.)

David Atherton's Christmas Cookbook for Kids

September 24, 2024 by Candlewick Press

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I'm a huge fan of Atherton's books, and have copies of my own of David Atherton's Baking Book and David Atherton's Make, Bake, and Learn to Cook Vegetarian. This has slightly different illustrations than the other volumes, and they include a lot of red and green to go with the holiday. This is unapologetically about Christmas, and also very British. There are sausage rolls with cranberry sauce, mince pies, marzipan, scones and carrot cake with turnips or butternut squash instead of carrots. Atherton's work usually centers around healthier cooking, so there's some red and green cannelini bean hummus, and well as a Christmas tree pull apart bread that gets its color from spinach and pesto. For those who want to embrace British ways but can't stand an actual steamed pudding, there's a chocolate version, and also an iced crown cake. I'm not sure I'll buy this for my school library, but I had a lot of fun reading it! 

The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor: A Christmas Mystery

Frantz, Eva, Sandström, Elin (Illustrator), and Prime, Annie (Translator)
The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor: A Christmas Mystery
October 12, 2023 by Pushkin Children's Book 

Flora Winter and her mother, Linn, rent a cottage in the Swedish countryside for winter break in 1975. Ms. Winter is a writer, and since Flora's father has passed away, some quiet time to work in the country seems like a good change of pace. They are on the von Hiems estate, where the manor has been abandoned since a tregedy in 1925. Fridolf, who has rented the property to them, lives in the Washhouse. Flora is fascinated by the manor, and daydreams about living there as she investigates the property. There is even a garden labyrinth, and Flora asks if she would be able to clean the flower beds around the house as a project. She does here odd voices that seem to call to her, catches glimpses of shadowy figures, and befriends a local boy, Egon, who seems to come and go very quickly. After Fridolf slips on the snow and has to go into the hospital, Flora becomes more interested than ever in the history of the estate. She pokes around in the attic and finds a hatbox with a hat that fits her perfectly, and once again hears whispers. She finds out that the von Hiems family ran a local glassworks factory, and also that people in the town are interested in tearing the manor down in order to boost the areas appeal as a summer destination. We get to see some of the family history unfold in 1925, although Flora does not. Rigmor (called Riggy) was the gardener's daughter and nanny of the von Hiems' youngest child, and fell in love with the oldest son, Robby. He was supposed to marry the daughter of the rival Marton family. This is the same family trying to tear down the estate in 1975. Robby and Riggy continue their romance, and when Riggy is expecting, they know this will be quite the scandal. Flora, who doesn't know this, is researching the house at the local library, and runs into other girls who live in the town. There are rumors of a treasure hidden in the manor, and Flora, who has fallen in love with the place, is determined to find it. When information surfaces linking her family to the von Hiems, will this help Flora and her mother be able to give up their life in the city and settles in the country?

Strengths: In the 1970s, there must have been an inordinate amount of long abandoned houses, because I remember reading books that were very similar to this one. Curry's Poor Tom's Ghost, Arthur's A Candle in Her Room, McKillip's The House on Parchment Street, Snyder's The Ghosts of Stone Hollow-- there seemed to be a lot of books where there were ghosts, some time travel, family secrets, and general light creepiness. Helmersbruk Manor would have been right at home with these other tales, so I love the fact that it was set in 1975. Since this was written recently (and translated from the Swedish), it's not surprising that Flora's father had died, but this does give her a lot of opportunity to investigate the estate while her mother is writing. We get a lot of family history and some intrigue, as well as some ghostly time travel. There's also a bit of Christmas involved, both in the setting of the book and in the timing of the historical tragedy. I was drawn right into the book, and, like Flora, really wanted to investigate the manor! 
Weaknesses: This was fairly slow paced, and I'm not sure how middle school students are going to feel about the Riggy/Robby romance, and the resultant baby. My readers are most interested in murderous ghosts, and the ghosts in this book are all pretty tame. 
What I really need: This is a slightly eerie, atmospheric ghost story that will make fans of Chalfoun's The Treasure of Maria Mamoun, Bowman's Where the Lost Ones Go, or Burch's Finch House happy. 

MMGM- Swimming with Spies

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Lucyk-Berger, Chrystyna. Swimming with Spies
December 3, 2024 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Sofiya lives in Sevastapol with her father (Tato), who runs the local dolphinarium, in 2014. Her mother has left them, and is now living in Moscow, although they haven't heard from her. Sofiya, who is talented artist, often lets Ilya pay her to do his homework, since his family is well to do, and she's trying to save money for a ticket to Moscow. When she gets into a fight with Ilya at school, his father, Major Chaban, cuts a deal with the principal. Ilya shows up at the dolphinarium, and is supposed to work with Sofiya on several public outreach programs with the dolphins. Sofiya isn't happy, since being with her "pod" and especially her favorite dolphin, Colin, is where she feels comfortable after a grueling day of having to put up with people like Ilya! Still, the two manage to get along, even though Ilya seems scared of the dolphins. For good reason: Sofiya's Babushka, who was a marine biologist who worked with the Russian military in Soviet times, tells Sofiya about how Ilya's mother was killed after he fell off a boat his father was driving and nearly drowned. The mother was her mother's best friend, which is one of the reasons that Sofiya's mother left and went back to Moscow. The dolphinarium is struggling with funding, and Tato hopes to increase involvement with the community in order to raise funds. Currently, there is a dolphin therapy program attended by people with disabilities, but Sofiya is put in charge of setting up a summer camp for children, and Ilya is supposed to help with the web site. All of this changes when President Yanukovych flees Ukraine. At first, it is hoped that a better president will take his place, but instead, the Russians start to m over in to take over Sevastapol. There is a vote, and 97% of the residents apparently want Russian control, although the options on the ballot were limited. Sofiya has found out that the facility used to be used for Military Marine Systems, and Major Chaban has his eye on the facilities as well. She and Ilya are working with the dolphins and trying to teach them sign language, posting some of their progress on social media. Eventually, Tato is told that in order to keep his job, he will need to get a Russian passport and join the military, but he is concerned that if he does that, he will be sent to fight. Ilya doesn't agree with his father, and eventually agrees to help Sofiya with a daring plan; teaching the dolphins to follow boats, releasing them into the wild, and having rescue groups from Odessa save them and take them to a facility in that city. Will they be able to pull off this daring plan?
Strengths: There were a lot of interesting things about Ukraine, as well as the training of dolphins, in this book, and it was a good combination. Sofiya has a typical tween obsession with "her" dolphins and doesn't seem to quite understand how serious the situation is. Her relationship with Ilya is interesting, and watching them work together while learning about what the other's life is like will appeal to young readers. The idea of cultural identity is also dealt with well; Sofiya's father is Ukranian, and her mother is Russian, and at one point, she has to decide if she is one of the other. Most tweens aren't faced with such a stark choice. Since this area of the world has been in the news frequently over the last several years, this is an excellent title to have on hand. This author seems to usually write books for adults, but I didn immediately suspect as much, which is a good sign that she understands middle grade fairly well! 
Weaknesses: While I am not usually a fan of info dumps, I could have used a few lessons in Ukranian history from Babuska. The annexation of Crimea would have occurred when today's readers were babies, and Sofiya would have been born after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, so some background would have been helpful on several levels. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for anyone who enjoyed Alex London's Tides of War series (Blood in the Water and Honor Bound, 2014) or who wants more recent history about Ukraine. 

Pulled Under

Dalton, Michelle. Pulled Under
May 7, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Izzy loves living in Pearl Beach, and working at the Surf Sisters shop with her best friends, Nicole and Sylvie. When geeky Ben comes in to the shop, asking them to hang a poster for his employer, Parks and Rec, she is intrigued, even if he is wearing coaching shorts and white socks pulled all the way up. He's not from around the area, but is visiting for the summer from Madison, Wisconsin while his parents are embroiled in a bitter divorce. The two quickly feel a connection and start enjoying summer together; getting pizza at Luigi's car wash, taking surfing lessons, and hanging out at the beach. Ben even impressed Izzy's parents, who are both high school teachers, and Ben and Izzy's father bond over their shared love of cross country running, and even mention training together for an upcoming race. Izzy gives Ben a "beach makeover" so he doesn't look so ridiculous, and have long talks. Ben has just broken up with Beth, and Izzy feels that he can't really be interested in her, but he is. He tells her that she is unique, and wants to hear what SHE has to say. This leads to sweet kisses and a lot of time spent in each other's company. Ben even pushes Izzy out of her comfort zone a little and encourages her to enter a local surfing contest that determines the King of the Beach. Izzy is leery of her own skills, but Ben tries to show her how good she can be. There are a few rocky moments, but the two go to fourth of July celebrations together, and enjoy their fledgling romance. Ben has to go back home to deal with his parents right before the contest, but has the Surf Sisters shop design a custom surfboard for Izzy... inspired by her eyes. When he comes back, things are tense because he will leave forever all too soon. He manages to further cement himself in Izzy's good graces by saving the Surf Sisters shop from being bought out, and in the end has the best news: his mother didn't send him to Pearl Beach to escape the acrimonious fighting going on with his father, but because she wants to relocate to Pearl Beach and bring Ben with her. The two can look forward to a senior year filled with car wash pizza and sweet kisses along the sandy shore. 

Dalton's work is classic young adult romance at its best, with ordinary teens working, hanging out, and falling in love in fun locations, stressed only by questions about how long the romance can last before they are cruelly parted by fate. This makes books like Pulled Under perfect for today's middle grade readers, but may leave today's angst-ridden teens wanting more complications and more mature language and situations. 

I loved that both Izzy and Ben had jobs, and had to work seeing each other in around those obligations. It was also fantastic to see Izzy's parents in the picture, telling silly jokes and having embarrassing questions about American History with her new boyfriend. I would think that teenagers probably see more of each other's families, even today, than most books show. 

There are some things in this that seemed dated; one of Izzy's jobs at Surf Sisters is to help women pick out bathing suits that make them look comfortable, and the dialogue around this aspect of body image has changed very drastically since 2014. It's a short scene, and easily glossed over, but I would be curious to see what readers who were born when this was originally published would think about this. 

This would have been a favorite of mine when I was in high school. To me, aspirational romances go smoothly and are not beset by trauma and tragedy. Hand this to romance readers who want a great beach read that's not too different from the work of Kasie West or Jennifer L. Smith, and is less angsty than Blecher's Listen to This, Miller's Not if You Break Up with Me First, or Jones' Courtesy of Cupid. 

Cartoon Saturday- Fresh Start

Galligan, Gale. Fresh Start
January 7, 2025 by Graphix
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rising seventh grader Ollie is just as glad to be leaving her international school in Frankfurt, Germany, especially after embarassing herself at a year end assembly, and falling out with best friend Rebecca. She and her sister, Cat, who is two years younger, are excited to be moving to Chestnut Falls, Virginia, with their father, who is a diplomat from the US, and their mother, who is originally from Thailand. The two siblings have an imaginary world that figures largely in their play, and Ollie is obsessed with the Quilly anime, and this sometimes causes Ollie to daydream and embarass herself. There are some things that are different in a US school, including the Pledge of Allegiance, state maps, and the English measuring system, and Ollie is on the lookout for possible friends, even drawing a "friend index" and making comments about the likelihood of making friends with various people. Nina is obviously too popular, so Ollie declines her invitation to eat lunch with her friends. Eventually, Zoe Kwon, who wears a lot of cosplay outfits to school, reaches out, and the two hang out together. Zoe's friends are willing to befriend Ollie, even though she thought that they wouldn't want to hang out with her. This includes Nina, whom Ollie discovers (at a sleepover at Zoe's) is part Thai. Their mother's bond, and soon Ollie is taking Thai language classes. After Ollie asks to be allowed to go to Anianicon to meet the group's idol, Sugar Rose, Ollie also finds herself roped into dance classes as well. There is growing tension between the parents and Cat, especially after Ollie is allowed to adopt a hedgehog. The parents don't ask Cat is she would like a pet as well. Ollie also gets a phone, and Ollie starts to feel that her parents aren't treating Cat fairly. The family is planning on staying in Virginia, and are able to visit the father's parents sometimes, but when Ollie makes Nine angry by giving her anime character a backstory different from the one Nina herself envisioned, Ollie starts to wish that she could move again and get another "fresh start". When Cat gets into a situation where her "friends" have created a fake social media account in her name, Ollie is able to see past her own problems to help her sister figure out what to do, and show her parents how they are not treating her sister fairly. 

Strengths: This is a fictionalized account of the author's own life, but brought into a more modern time. There are a not too many books about students who attend international schools (MacLeod's Continental Drifter and Matula's The No-So-Uniform Life of Holly Mei are the only two I can think of) and it's something I wish would see more of, along with characters who move a lot because of parents in the military. Ollie's obsession with anime, and her dislike of parental enforced activities, are both absolutely true to life. The typical tween concerns, like art club, sleepovers, and friend drama, have not changed all that much since the 1990s; I'm adding Galligan to the list of authors who could have been my students. (To be fair, the first students I taught are now 48 years old...)
Weaknesses: I shouldn't find the anime style star eyes and over the top emotions as annoying as I do, but Ollie's reactions to rival Misako's in the Bounce Back series. This is something that will probably not irritate actual tweens who are into anime. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for fans of this author (Freestyle, The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels), or of graphic novel style fictionalized memoirs like Bermudez's Big Apple Diaries,  Cook's Puzzled, Hale's Real Friends, Krosoczka's Sunshine, Martin's MexiKid, Mercado's Chunky, Ogle's Four Eyes.  Rodriguez and Bell's Doodles From the Boogie Down, Russo's Why Is Everybody Yelling, Santat's A First Time for Everything, Soontornvat's The Tryout, Todd's Timid, Xu's Alterations, and Yu's Lost & Found. 

Well, this graphic got out of hand. And yes, I know it doesn't include Smile. 

Wolves at the Door

Watkins, Steve. Wolves at the Door
December 3, 2024 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Asta, her mother, and her younger sister Pieta leave Königsberg after the British bomb it in 1944, and go out to her grandparents'farm at the edge of the Romincka Forest to live. Her father is in the army, but they haven heard from him in a while. The grandparents have Wehrmacht guards who are supervising Allied prisoners of war who are working on the farm. As the war continues, the mother makes a plan to go to live with a cousin in Hamburg, and also shows the girls an abandoned cabin where they can hide if anything happens. One day, when the village is out hunting rabbits, the Red Army attacks, and the girls are glad to have the option. Their mother escapes and comes to get them, and tells them that their grandparents have perished. The three head north to get on a ship to cross the Baltic, and team up with Monika, her infant brother Riki, and father Herr Muller. They all secure tickets for the ship, and manage to fight the crowds to get on it. Sadly, the Wilhelm Gustloff is bombed by a Soviet submarine, and while the mother throws the girls onto a lifeboat, she perishes, like about 90% of the other people aboard. Along with Gerhard, a young boy who attaches himself to the girls, they are supposed to get on another ship, but head the other way and decide to go back to Königsberg. Since this is a good distance, Gerhard offers that his aunt and uncle have a farm near the Memel Forest, and after a lot of traveling, sometimes using abandoned carts, they manage to get there. The aunt and uncle are long gone, and there aren't many resources left in the house, but Pieta has suffered from frostbite, and having shelter is a boon. Asta and Gerhard hunt rabbits, bashing in their heads with rocks. They hide this from Pieta, because she is sensitive but really needs to eat. Gerhard is interested in the Lithuanian Forest Brothers, who are seen frequently in the woods around the farm, but they are no help when the Red Army attacks and burns down the house. They end up joining forces with a number of other children (the Wolfskinder), many of whom meet terrible ends. Eventually, Asta finds out from a soldier that Hitler is dead and the war is over, and she and Pieta decide to make the long journey to Hamburg to find their aunt. 

Strengths: Watkins has a couple books about war (Blood on the Road (2018) about Vietnam, and Sink or Swim (2017) about WWII), and brings an interesting twist to the stories. I haven't read too much about the war in the Baltics, but know that it was a particularly fraught situation. Asta and Pieta's experiences would have been all too common, and we see this from both of their perspectives. The way they interact with others on their journey and help each other gives a small spot of hopefulness in a very grim tale. There are several major historical occurrences mentioned, like the bombing of Königsberg, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, and the children in the Memel Forest, which will be helpful in leading WWII enthusiasts to do further research. There are plenty of good details about life during this time period, and the message is very clear that war is not healthy for children and other living things. 

Weaknesses: I could have used more up front information about when this was set. I was able to look up when Christmas was on a Monday, and pin this to 1944. Even though I had a friend in the Wehrmacht and was in this general area, I still had to look up a lot of background information to help me understand what was going on. I also would have been just as happy to have the entire tale told from Asta's point of view, since Pieta was very young. 
What I really think: This is a very somber choice for older readers who like their World War II stories to have a survival aspect to them, like Nielsen's Lines of Courage, Skrypuch's Traitors Among Us, or Nannestad's We Are Wolves, which is also set in East Prussia. 

My So-Called Family

Gordon, Gia. My So-Called Family

November 12, 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
E ARC provided by Netgalley

Ash Dalton has been in foster care since her mother was arrested and jailed for methamphetamine production when Ash was four. She had a number of placements, including one she hoped was going to be permanent, but which fell through when the parents were expecting twins. She has lived with Gladys, and even moved to a different house so that Gladys' adult son Jordan, his infant son Marcus, and Marcus' mother Renee could live there as well. Renee works at a local grocery store and is kind to Ash, but Jordan is volatile, fighting with Renee, sometimes hitting her, and yelling at Ash. In school, Ash is treated badly by classmates, who don't support her "masculine" style of dress. Some classmates, like Matt and Wiz, Photoshop offensive pictures of her and spread them around to other students. Luckily, she does have a friend in the quirky Gentry, whose mother passed away, leaving his father struggling with making sure Gentry had clean clothes, which led him to dress in things like bowling and old tuxedo shirts. Ash also is treated well by Joss, and isn't quite sure how she feels about her, although Gentry thinks Ash has a crush on the girl. Some of the teachers are more supportive than others; Ms. Moua and Ms. Kim seem to care about Ash, and even the gym teacher is understanding when Ash is late because she doesn't want to change in front of other people. In Mr. Mann's class, there is a family tree assignment, and Ash doesn't know what to do about it. Things continue to worsen at home, with Jordan cutting down trees on the property and making her watch Marcus when she should be doing homework. On a couple of occasions, she goes to Gentry's house, and his father Sam is very understanding, but also lets her know that he will be talking to her case worker. When Jordan becomes angry after Ash stands up to him, Ash calls the police, worried that Jordan will hit Renee or Marcus. After that, Gladys tells her to spend the night at Gentry's to let Jordan cool down, and Ash knows that she has to get help with her situation. She lets both Ms. Kim and her gym teacher know, and finds help from Joss, who is dealing with the fact that her "friends" are homophobic and say mean things about the fact that she has two fathers. One of Joss' fathers was in foster care as a teen, and with several adults reporting Ash's situation to social services, she finally gets the help she needs. 

Strengths: While there are a number of middle grade novels about tweens in foster care, they usually are depicted as having come from difficult situations, but having a much better experience when they arrive at their current placement. It's good to have a wide variety of experiences of foster care depicted, so that young readers don't see the experience as monolithic. Ash, who tries to wear very androgynous clothes, is not described as transgender, and again, this is a portrayal that I have not seen in books, although there have been a number of girls in my years of teaching who dress in more traditionally "masculine" ways. I loved that the teachers were keeping an eye on Ash, and that she had so many adults helping her out in the end. The friendship with Joss and Gentry were very sweet, and there was even some explanation of why some of the bullies were so particularly mean. 
Weaknesses: It always seems odd to me that teachers wouldn't be aware of bullying; Ash is treated very badly pretty openly. Also, eating lunch in the library does not solve problems. The teachers at my school long ago gave up family tree projects, and best practice for assigning projects is to give students a choice, which is especially important in the case of a project like this. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who found Moranville's Forget-Me-Not Blue or Carter's Forever, or a Long, Long Time interesting. It also reminded me a bit of Toalsen's Something Maybe Magnificent in that the home environment was problematic. 

#WNDB Chapter Books

While most of the books I review are most suitable for grades 6-8, I read a number of picture books and early chapter books for Young Adult Books Central. I love the range of cultures that we've seen represented in early chapter books since 2014. If you work with younger students, definitely check out some of these!

Fang, Vicky. Ava Lin, Best Friend

June 4, 2024 by Candlewick

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central 

Ava is a very 2020's kind of gal; she's impetuous, fearless, and often acts without thinking. Her family reacts productively to her most of the time, and keeps her worst impulses in check. It's interesting to compare characters from the history of early chapter books; Haywood's 1930s era B is for Betsy would be considered quite the prissy, too well behaved girl today, and Parks 1990s Junie B. Jones would probably have a diagnosis, medication, and a therapist! Ava is somewhere in the middle, and is a realistic, young character who is trying to figure out her life.

This is a very early chapter book, and perfect for readers who are the same age as Ava, and just starting to be able to hand more extended text. The black and white line drawings are expressive and help support text comprehension.

Ava would be a good friend to Hiranandani's Phoebe Green, DiCamillo's Bink and Gollie, and Manushskin's Katie Woo. I would love to read some of these with a first graders and see what they think of the different ways that children behave in books!

Good Points Ava is very excited to be starting first grade, especially since her cousin Nikki, who is in fifth grade, met her very best friend when she was that age. Ava is well prepared, with two lunch boxes and a dress with pockets. She is excited about Spaulding Elementary and her teacher, Ms. Montgomery. She sits next to Kushi, who seems friendly enough. At lunch, Kushi offers her a delicious looking crunchy snack, but having seen how her parents act when they are offered something to try, she declines, even though she is disappointed. Later, Ava finds a small, sparkly jewel stuck to her chair, and puts it in her pocket. Because Kushi has been so nice, she offers the jewel to her, and is sad when her new friend actually accepts it. Of course, this means that Ava is able to have some crunchy snacks until Ms. Montgomery reminds them that there is a very strict no sharing policy. Ava likes small, exciting finds like snail shells and anything sparkly, and these often end up in her pockets. So does a crayon, and her mother decides that Ava has to wear a dress with no pockets to school. Of course, Ava finds a sparkly stone while the class is doing a mosaic art project. To keep it safe, she puts it in her EAR. This results in Ava's mother having to come get her and take her to the doctor to have the stone removed. Ava gets to wear pockets again, and is now friends with Kushi. She has yet to fully bedazzle her notebook, but she's working on it, and will be able to progress further in Ava Lin: One of a Kind, which is being published in January of 2025. 

Vaughan, Aliya and Azzouz, Rakaiya (Illustrator).

Wrestling Against Anger: Sulaiman's Challenging Neighbour #4
June 18, 2024 by Kube Publishing Ltd
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Sulaiman lives in a housing estate with his mother, father, and young sister Hannah. He is glad to take more responsibility and to help out, so is glad to be asked to go to the local store to get bread and milk. However, there is a man who has been hanging out in the area, yelling at passersby. He is older and doesn't look particularly kempt, and he shouts his abuse at everyone. Sulaiman's mother reminds him to be kind, and the idea of patience and self restraint is repeated by his judo teacher. When the man, Mr. Cartwright, yells at Sulaiman's family when they are on their way home from the market, Sulaiman thinks that he might need to use his judo skills to protect his family. Instead, Mr. Cartwright falls and hurts himself badly. Sulaiman's father is passing by the market, and insists that they all wait until the paramedics arrive. The mother gets a blanket from their apartment, and even though the man is still angry and shouting, they all wait. When help arrives, Sulaiman's father wants to go to the hospital with Mr. Cartwright, in case he needs anything. The doctors think Mr. Cartwright has a broken hip, but it turns out to just be some high blood pressure and heart issues that could be helped by reining in his anger. He eventually warms to Sulaiman's family after it is apparent that his own family situation was unfortunate. They invite their neighbor to join them at a charity fair on Christmas, and he surprises them by cleaning up well and being friendly. Sulaiman's parents remind him that it is important to be kind to everyone, even those who seem to deserve it least.

This is the fourth in a series of books that includes A Race to Prayer (Salah): Sulaiman's Rewarding Day, Turning Back to Allah: Sulaiman's Caving Calamity and Learning to Deal with Loss: Sulaiman and the Tides of Change, and is published by a press that devotes itself to Muslim authors and issues. There are a lot of religious details that are worked into the story in a realistic way, and there are even quotes from religious texts to support the various ideals.

This has a definite British feel to it, but most of the story will be accessible to US audiences as well. I appreciated that Sulaiman was involved in judo, and had squabbles with his younger sister. The parents were both very supportive, even though they were busy working and taking care of the household.

There are full color interior illustrations that will appeal to readers who like pictures with their stories. Looking at the cover, I thought this might be a graphic novel, but it wasn't. The text is simple, and the book is only about 80 pages long, so this would be a good choice for emergent readers who enjoyed family stories with Muslim characters like Nuurali's Sadiq series, Faruqi's Meet Yasmin!, Khan's Zayd Saleem or Rauf's The Boy at the Back of the Class.

This was rather didactic in tone, and reminded me a tiny bit of either the Veggietales or Davey and Goliath videos, even those are aggressively Christian. Something about the combination of story and illustrations had me humming the Veggietales theme song to myself!

Lee, Lyla and Ho, Dung (illustrator).
Mindy Kim and the Mid-Autumn Festival (Mindy Kim #10)
September 26, 2023 by Aladdin
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Mindy'a father gets a call from Korea that his own father has passed away. After a hasty consultation with his wife, Julie, they tell Mindy that the family will be traveling back to attend the grandfather's funeral and celebrate Chuseok with the extended family. Mindy has good memories of her Harabeogi, but is excited to go back to Korea, and to see her Halmeoni (grandmother). First, they have to drive from Orlando to Atlanta, and it's a long flight. The extended family welcomes them, and the preparations for the funeral and the Chuseok celebration begin. Mindy is able to talk to her cousins, who miss Harabeogi even more than she does, and gets a lot of insight into the traditional ways that lives are celebrated. She helps with the shopping and food preparation, and is interested in the way that the feast is presented to the deceased ancestors before the living are invited to partake. The Kim family has a burial plot in the mountains. There's a lot of traffic, since everyone is celebrating, but the family plot is deeply historical, and Mindy learns a little about the 25 generations of her family whose ashes are interred there. The family also goes to a historical village so that Mindy and her cousins, as well as some of the aunts and uncles, can play traditional autumn festival games. Mindy knows that her Harabeogi would want the family to enjoy themselves for the holiday, and is glad that he is first and foremost in everyone's mind as the celebrate both the festival and his life.

Elementary school students often experience their first funerals around this age, and it is frequently a grandparent who passed away. Funerals vary from culture to culture, but books depicting funerals are a good way of helping children navigate both their grief and unfamiliar experiences.

It's very common for children to not know their cousins well or see them often, so it was good to see Mindy get along with her cousins, and to be able to hear their memories of her grandfather without being too jealous. I loved that she also got some insight into her father's younger years by talking to her uncle.

It is more common to find picture books about death and grief, and while this is certainly a major part of this book, it is more a book about being with family and celebrating together. Several other popular chapter book series touch on holidays and celebrations as well, so I would recommend Florence's Jasmine Toguchi: Mochi Queen, Saadia Faruqi's Marya Khan and the Incredible Henna Party, and Reem Faruqi's Anisa's International Day as titles to consider if you like this Mindy Kim installment.

The Empty Place

Cole, Olivia. The Empty Place
November 12, 2024 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Henry Lightfoot (whose real name is Henrietta), has struggled for a year after the disappearance of her father. If happened on her birthday, which adds another level of sadness to everything. He was an explorer, and a content creator for a YouTube channel who talked about having adventures. He went missing from the nearby Quivandel forest, which seemed very out of character. Henry has tried to come to terms with the disappearance, hanging out with her best friend Ibtihaj. When her father shows up, again on her birthday, Henry is glad he's back but has a hard time dealing with all of the emotions he return brings up. He gives her a necklace wrapped in a map, and doesn't have a good explanation for what happened. It would have been helpful if he had, because when she goes into Quinvandel to try to get away from the tension at home, she falls. She thinks it is a sinkhole, but it goes on for longer than she suspects it should, and when she lands, she is in a strange place, being pursued by monsters. She eventually runs into a boy who takes her to his community. Angie is the one who deals with newcomers to This Place, but even she doesn't have a lot of answers. No one does. There are a lot of odd things that happen; when new people come, their names appear over beds in the dormitory, and if they manage to leave, the name disappears. Javier cooks for everyone, even though no one really needs food. There's a concensus that time works differently , but no one seems to know how one can leave. Henry meets Wolfson, who was lost and came to This Place when he was very young, and who has only the vaguest memory that his mother and grandmother weren't nice. Ndidi, who is from Nigeria, isn't quite sure why she got lost, either. Things are becoming unsettled in the area, with animal attacks increasing, weather being odd, and time slipping about in even more unusual ways than it normally does. Henry works with Wolfson and Ndidi, who help out Angie, but also tries to follow her father's map and find clues to his existence in This Place. She talks to Christopher, the junk man, who has her father's compass, but he isn't helpful. She manages to get into the Small Place and meet Emma, who has managed to leave, but who has come back again. She manages to get to the fountain of truth, but it tells her that her father is a thief. When one of the women in the community house is bitten, the three children go on a quest to meet the witch, also known as the woman at the top of the world, to try to figure out a cure. Will they be able to figure out what is going on, and how to return to their homes? 

Strengths: The idea of slipping into another world is always amusing, and is always open to new interpretations. In titles as wide ranging as Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), Jones' The Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998), or Durst's Even and Odd (2021), there is something very appealing to middle grade readers about having adventures far from one's home. There are scary elements as well, since everyone wants to get home, but no one knows how. Henry puts in a good effort to discover facets about her father's personality as well as his visit, and attempts to use this knowledge to get home herself. This title explores the concepts of truth, being "lost", and discovering things that one must learn before being able to learn and grow. 
Weaknesses: Most portal fantasies have a little more action an adventure than this did. It was also a bit disconcerting that no one in This Place seemed to know much information about it, and we never really get a good explanation of what has happened to either Henry or her father. This has a bit of a young adult feel to the philosophical exploration. 
What I really think: This might be a good choice for readers who enjoyed allegorical fantasies like Britt's The Lost Track of Time or Malienko's This Appearing House. 

Brooks, Nick. Everything Interesting Keeps Happening to Ethan Fairmont

November 5, 2024 by Union Square Kids

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

While I really enjoyed Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, I can't get my students (who are apparently oddly fantasy averse) to pick it up. There's probably a children's literature PhD thesis in this; do my students tend to pick up realistic, humorous books about sports and confine their fantasy to murderous ghosts because we are a Midwestern, suburban environment? I don't know. If your students like science fiction and fantasy series, definitely take a look at this one. 

From the publisher:
Nick Brooks, award-winning filmmaker and acclaimed author of Promise Boys, presents the thrilling conclusion to the Ethan Fairmont trilogy in which Cheese the alien returns to Earth to warn Ethan and his friends of an impending alien invasion.

Before last summer, Ethan’s life was rather uninteresting. Now, Ethan can’t stop interesting things from happening . . .

After a small, six-eyed alien crash landed into his life, Ethan made a new otherworldly best friend. Now Cheese has returned to Earth, bringing his family and a warning of the Light Thieves’ plans to invade. Ethan is already reeling from the kidnapping of his beloved guinea pig, Nugget, and a dangerous reality sets in after one bold Light Thief sheds its disguise to attack Ethan on his front lawn.

Ethan needs his friends now more than ever, but as he and RJ continue to clash, tensions continue to rise within the group. On top of all that, he still hasn’t figured out how to deal with his feelings for Di. With an alien invasion on the horizon, and The Bureau for Weird Happenings indisposed, can Ethan and his friends work together to save Earth once and for all?

E.T. meets Stranger Things in the final chapter of this remarkable middle grade sci-fi adventure series, perfect for readers ages 8 to 12.