Bringing Back Kay-Kay

Kothari, Dev. Bringing Back Kay-Kay
October 1, 2024 by Walker Books US

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lena has always struggled with her relationship with her older brother, Karthick. While he is generally nice to her, his mere existence seems to suck all of the air out of the room, and she feels that her parents don't care about her at all. When he goes missing on a train trip back to Lamora from summer camp in Goa, the entire family is devastated, especially since the police assume he has just run away. While her mother descends into a deep depression, Lena tries to interview Kay-Kay's friends and teachers, often running afoul of the police. She discovers some alarming things, like the fact that her brother's best friend Samir argued with her brother, and has Kay-Kay's phone. Not only that, but he's lying about it. Lena investigates Kay-Kay's room, and finds a lot of poetry in his backpack, which opens her eyes to new and different facets of her brother. Many of the poems are about friendship and how it alleviates loneliness, and Lena finds out that Kay-Kay was friends with Akash, a new boy in school who was badly injured in a science lab accident. When she can't get any answers, she decides to run away and take the train trip that her brother took. This is a dangerous thing to do, but she takes a bus, and does manage to find out things about her brother from people who talked to him. She also endangers herself, eventually ending up in the hospital having rushed into traffic. She's helped by a nice woman who calls her parents, but Lena is determined to keep investigating. Will she ever be able to find out what happened to her brother? (Spoiler: yes!)

Strengths: This novel is set in India, and it's interesting to learn about school and summer camp details in that country. While Lena's life is very upper middle class, we do meet some characters, like Stan the Man, who live a very different life that will be hard for students in the US to imagine. (He lives in a train station and works for a tea seller to survive.) It's a good thing that Lena cares about her brother and undertakes an almost impossible trek to locate him. Readers who like poetry will enjoy reading the verses that Kay-Kay has written. The mother's situation is an interesting depiction of parental depression, most likely caused by post partum depression, something I haven't seen very much in middle grade literatue. 
Weaknesses: Lena really does endanger herself frequently, and doesn't seem to have a well thought out plan for locating her brother, although she has a lot of good luck. The book is written as a letter to Kay-Kay, addressing him as "you", which sometimes seemed odd. Also, I was pretty sure for most of the novel that Kay-Kay has a crush on Akash and had committed suicide because he was gay. This is completely a "me" thing, although the poetry about being lovely is probably what led me to this thought. Certainly kept me reading to see what happened. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like adventures prompted by family problems, like Bilan's Asha and the Spirit Bird and Rauf's The Star Outside. 

The Stolen Key

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The Stolen Key (Mystery of Trash and Treasures #3)
September 10, 2024 by Quill Tree Books
Public library copy

Colin and Neveah have become friends despite their parents' competing business in The Secret Letters and The Ghostly Photos. Now, with the death of Colin's father (whom he has never met), it's harder than ever for Colin to talk to Neveah, who is constantly surrounded by her bustling family in Groveview, Ohio. Still, when he gets a wrapped box on his porch in the early morning hours, who does he text at 6 a.m. to help him open it? Colin is suprised that there is a key, but glad that his mother didn't stumble across the box, because she still won't tell him anything about his father. Neveah recognizes the key as one from Steve's Self Storage, and is quick to ask her mother to drive the two of them there, letting her assume they are on an early morning mission from her dad. The key opens a unit filled with empty boxes, but behind that there is a child's nursery. The items look familiar to Colin, and a photo album in the crib has happy family pictures of his mother and father holding him. There's also a key to something on the Schenley Bridge in Pittsburgh. Colin doesn't want another treasure hunt, but Neveah is ready to try to talk her older siblings Prilla and Roddy into doing a college visit to Carnation-Watermelon University. (I may never think of Carnegie-Mellon in any other way!) Before they can put there plans in place, however, they get a phone call from Nevaeh's mother, who has been in a car accident. They call 911, and her mother is soon rescued, escaping with a broken wrist, broken ankle, and two broken ribs. Neveah is devastated and feels guilty, and is very surprised when her parents ask her if she wants to go to Pittsburg with Colin and his mother. Felicia Creedmont had already planned a trip, although she is evasive. Soon, three Creevys and two Creekmans are driving the winding highway to Pittsburgh and staying with an old friend of Felicia, Leia. Bits and pieces of her past surface, like the fact that Leia rented rooms to college students, including Franklin Creekman, Colin's father, who was studying to be a doctor. Leia is under gag orders not to discuss anything more, so Neveah and Colin head off to Schenley Bridge, where they manage to find two locks. The key works for one, and they find a simple note celebrating the Creekmans' marriage, but when they open it, another lock inscribed with Colin's name comes off. Since they don't have the key to it, they take it with them. Colin finds out some startling information about his father, and about why his mother won't talk about him, and when his mother finds out he knows, she is very alarmed. She not only cuts short the trip, but won't take Colin home, claiming it is not safe and they don't know who might be following them. She checks them into a hotel instead, and takes away Colin's phone. This isn't helpful, because Neveah has found out that her father and a young Roddy had met Franklin Creekman... and helped him move the nursery into the storage unit. When they are at Steve's investigating they find some alarming things out, but can't contact Colin. Colin, in the meantime, has the contact information from someone in his father's past, and his mother is again alarmed to find out that he has contacted the person. What is the horrible thing that Colin's father had done, and will it cause him and his mother to have to leave Groveview?Strengths: It's fun to see two such different characters getting along and continuing their friendship, even though we didn't get to see Ree as well. There are a lot of very mysterious things going on, but the pair do a good job of following clues and finding information that Colin desperately wants. It was fun to see Prilla and Roddy on the road trip, and to learn a little bit more about Felicia's background. Don't want to spoil the twists and turns, so sorry to be a little vague! Nevaeh's desire to do more serious detecting work was satisfied by this conclusion to the series! Let's just say that Neveah's mother was wise not to take anything stronger than Tylenol for her broken wrist! 

Weaknesses: This felt much darker than the other two books, which my students will ADORE, but which seemed different from the other two books. Also, if Colin's mother had just told him the truth or at least talked to him, there wouldn't have been a story at all. I so enjoyed both families' estate clearing business that I sort of wish we had seen more of that! 
What I really think: This is a great trilogy, and the Ohio setting warms my heart. At one point when the kids were on campus, they wanted ice cream, but the shops were too expensive. So, of course, they go to CVS ( a drugstore chain) and buy a carton! AS ONE DOES. Definitely purchasing this for school, especially since as I was reading this, a student was waiting for me to return it to the public library! The only question that remains is whether or not I buy a copy for myself to go with the first two books that I own. (I buy VERY few middle grade books to keep!)

The Vanished Ones

Lucas, Chad. The Vanished Ones

January 28, 2025 by Edelweiss Plus

E ARC provided by Amulet Books

Darian has been raised by the brothers in the Order of the Right Hand on Rhodenroode Island ever since he was young, and is now a trainee. He is one of the few who have brown skin, and thinks his parents may have been from Yabaland. Life in the mission, ruled by a leader called the Apostle, is very ascetic, and all of the members of the community follow the very strict religious teachings. One of the accepted facts is that twice a year, during the spring and fall equinoxes, a boy goes missing. Darian is sad when Gregor, an older boy who also apprentices at the village bakery with him, is gone, but one of the tenents of the mission's beliefs is that nothing is to be questioned. The disappearances are blamed on the Eastern Cloister, and soon forgotten. Darian is close to Micah, a boy who doesn't often speak, and the two communicate in signs. They are punished for being close friends. While life in the mission is difficult, Darian takes comfort in being with the Bakers, but when Mrs. Baker starts to help him question the disappearances, Darian is told he will no longer be coming to the village to help. There are more and more inconsistencies in the brothers' philosophy versus their actions, and the more Darian investigates, the more he is punished. Another boy, Lowery, tries to help, because he recognizes that Darian feels the same way about Micah that Lowery feels about Seb, even if Darian himself doesn't quite realize it. When Micah runs away, Darian goes after them, and the two set off towards the Eastern Cloisters to try to find the other missing boys. When they get there, they are shocked to find nothing but burned ruins. They are almost captured by officers from the village who want to return them to the mission, but saved by Zaide, who tranquilizes the officers with darts. Zaide is from Lagoja, and takes the boys back with her to meet her sibling, Ikebi, as well as her mother, who is an elder. The boys find out secrets about the mission and the entire community, and find that Lagoja is not the wilderness they have been taught to believe. They are cared for, but have to go before the Circle of Elders to see what their fate will be. The people from Rhodenroode, referred to as the "stone men" because of the gray cast to their skin and their general demeanor, have tried to insert their influence into Lagoja, but have been rebuffed. Some of the elders don't trust the boys, for good reason, but finally allow them to stay. Darian, however, wants to travel back to the mission to try to rescue some of the boys. The Lagojans are a much more advanced society, and have solar powered trains, cars, and even aircraft, so Zaide helps Darian fly back. He meets some resistance from the boys at the mission, but when a dark and evil secret about the Apostle, they all know that the must break free from what they were taught. Will Darian be able to save himself, Micah, and his community?
Strengths: The world building in this is quite effective, and the book split evenly between the horrors of life in the mission and the freedom of the Lagojan society. There are lots of good themes of personal identity and community, and on trend discussions about religion and colonization. The mystery of what has happened to the missing trainees is threaded though the entire story, and resolved in a sensational and satisfying manner. Darian and Micah's relationship is very supportive and sweet, and they work well together to figure out what is wrong in their world. The Lagojan society is such a relief after all of the horrible treatment Darian and Micah experience at the mission. The ending works well, and I liked that Darian finally has some agency in what happens to him. 

Weaknesses: This had a decided 1980s medievalish/dystopian fantasy style to it; I felt like Richard Cuffari should have designed the cover. It's a well written book, but it's not quite the style of fantasy that my students ask for. Lucas' Thanks a Lot, Universe has circulated well, but my readers would be far more likely to pick up a book about basketball than this type of fantasy.
What I really think: This labor of love for Lucas is a good choice for readers who liked Gemeinhart's Scar Island, or allegorical tales like Sndyer's Orphan Island or Spinelli's Hokey Pokey. 

Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo (Inkbound #1)

Leathley, Philippa. Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo (Inkbound #1)
January 28, 2025 by HarperCollins

E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Meticulous Jones (Metty) and her father, Captain Moral Jones, are traveling on the London Underground, but Metty doesn't see their stop,  Darkwell. They are heading to visit Madame LeBeau, who for Metty's tenth birthday is supposed to reveal her fate. Everyone gets one, even though magic has been strictly controlled in London for decades. The train doesn't stop at the end of the line, and the two soon find themselves in an underground part of London that feels very Gothic. At LeBeau's, Metty's mother, Daphne Wollf, shows up, but isn't really the warm and supportive mother one would want. Metty meets another ten year old, Benedict Finch, who ends up with what looks like a money bag on his wrist. Metty, however, ends up with a skull being held by a gloved hand, which she interprets to mean (with the help of the guidebook she keeps by her side) that she will be a murderer, and probably have to spend her days among the ill-fated. Her father feels the same way, and moves the household to Wales. Her father goes missing, and since the housekeeper Mrs. Pope won't give her any information, Metty keeps working on her list of people she might kill, and the reasons they might be first on the list. She also steals Mrs. Pope's tether, a magical glove that can connect children to a magical network of ink through their tattoo. This has an interesting effect, and Metty manages to conjure quite a storm, and also call her Aunt Magnificent to the house. Mag decides to take Metty with her, but won't answer any questions about her father. Before she knows it, Metty is on the flying, magical city of New London, where her Aunt lives in Highfate at Winter's Knock. Her aunt is not very forthcoming with any information at all, but gets Metty settled in to the house, along with Pumpkin, Metty's gargoyle that she brought from Wales but who is illegal in New London because it's illegal to bring inanimate objects to life! Metty meets Sahar, a ghost, who teaches her how to use the Snack Pocket but does not tell her how much all of the food it provides costs! Everything in New London runs on magic ink, and the place is not without problems. For years, the Black Moth organization has been fighting against the system, angry that magic is expensive and not available as easily to everyone. Aunt Mag still won't help Metty with finding her father, which leads to Metty running off frequently. She does get her own tether, but when she steps outside the shop with it, it's stolen. She hunts down the thief, who is a girl her age names Faith who comes in handy on other adventures. Metty is still also convinced that her fate is to be a murderer, and no one disabuses her of this notion. After several ill-fated attempts to find her father, she starts to realize that he is in the clutches of the Black Moths, most likely because of her rare fate. When a surprising member of the evil organization surfaces, Metty knows that she must find her father and find against the Black Moths, with or without the help of her aunt. This looks to be the first book in a series of at least two. 

Strengths: This had many traditional elements of middle grade fantasy; Metty is aware of her powers of a certain age, magic is restricted and problematic, she has to fight the forces of evil, and she has a familiar in the animated gargoyle Pumpkin. There are some fun things, like the Snack Pocket, but this has a fairly dark feel to it that will appeal to fans of Aldridge's Deephaven or Alexander's Gallowgate. Metty is very headstrong, and determined to do what she wants to do, which will be very appealing to young readers. 
Weaknesses: So many of Metty's problems could have been resolved if her aunt had just talked to her, especially about her tattoo. It was VERY concerning that Metty is shown making a list of people she would kill and the reasons they should die; if a student had something like that at school, the police would be involved. This is just something that cannot be done in today's climate. 
What I really think: If your library has insatiable fantasy readers who can't get enough of titles like Townsend's The Trials of Morrigan Crow, Nichol's The Apprentice Witch, Bell's The Crooked Sixpence, or Hannibal's The Lost Property Office, this is an excellent choice to keep them reading. I just don't have the audience for this one. 

MMGM- Titles for Young Feminists

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Unleashing Readers

Elliott, L.M. Truth, Lies, and Other Questions

January 14, 2025 by Algonquin Young Readers

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Patty Appleton is glad to be one of the first female Congressional pages in 1973, but it's not an easy position to be in. Her father is a prominent psychiatrist and Republican fund raiser, so her mother, Dot, is scandalized when Patty mentions things to the press like that she's "not a bra-burner". Patty's dating Scott, who is very conservative, but while she is busy in D.C., he's been playing tennis with one of her friends. Patty is in the thick of things, meeting prominent politicians, and spending the weekend with her cousin Simone, who is much more liberal, and her aunt Marjorie, who is working for the women's caucus with the sull support of her husband. Patty hangs out with fellow pages, Will and Abe. Abe is much more liberal, and frequently makes disaparaging remarks about President Nixon, who has run into trouble. Will is a bit different; his brothers all joined the military, and while one of his brothers was held as a POW, we see his anguish as one is killed just as the military operations are wrapping up in Vietnam. Patty is having trouble aligning the attitudes and social mores she has been taught with the new information she is getting everyday. Being a page isn't easy; senators snap their fingers when they want something, and there are no concessions for a women being a page; Patty isn't allowed to carry a purse, so when she has her period, she tries to keep one of the new adhesive backed pads in a suit pocket that she has to sew onto her double knit skirt suit herself, with Simone's help. She also has to adjust to the new guy that Julia is dating, and the continual struggles in the news with the ERA and the fight over women's rights and issues. Patty's mother is also struggling; she seems to have more and more prescription pills that she's taking, and she even gives Patty a handful of Obetrol when she looks like she's gained weight. The ingestion of that drug goes slightly more smoothly than Simone's experience after someone drops an acid laced sugar cube in her Fresca at a party. Patty is concerned that her father is having an affair, and has to deal with Scott's feeling of sexual entitlement as well. There is a LOT going on in 1973, and Patty is right in the middle of all of it. How will she manage her changing world? 

Strengths: This book absolutely picked me up and dropped me directly into Aunt Marjorie's 1973 living room, watching television while sitting on a harvest gold Colonial style couch on avocado green shag carpet. The fashions, the attitudes, and the NEWS felt so immediate that I half expected to be transported to that time. Had I smelled a strawberry lip smacker, I might have been. This had two distinct levels; there is the absolute swirl of politics, and Patty's life as a Congressional page that was 100% influenced by everything going on around her. Modern teens might wonder if their counterparts in 1973 paid this much attention to the news, but they absolutely did; I was only 8, and still followed what was happening with Watergate in the news. Many of the Herblock political cartoons looked VERY familiar. It makes perfect sense that Patty fully believed in all of her mother's expectations, and even uses them to diffuse a situation with police officers when Simone's modern attitudes almost get them arrested. But, seeing everything that she does definitely changes her, almost as much as it changes her mother. Not only does Elliott weave these two strands together brilliantly, but she inserts constant popculture references seamlessly. Final Net hair spray, black patent leather go go boots, and strawberry Lip Smackers make an appearance in the first chapter. There are copious historical notes on historical figures at the back, as well as source notes and a bibliography. This really is a tour de force of 1970s history. 
Weaknesses: "Gag me with a spoon" was not a phrase that a teen on the East Coast would have thought to herself during this time period. I will, of course, defer to Elliott, who is about six years older that I am, and whose historical details are 99.9% accurate, but I doubt just this one! 
What I really think: As much as I would like to have this available for my middle school students, it will be most successful with high school audiences. There is a LOT of political information, which is all extremely well researched and explained, as well as backed up by period photos and articles, but there is also some suggestions of sexual content and rape that will be better understood by older readers. Reading this along with Balis' and Levy's Bringing Down a President is highly encouraged. This begs to have a play list to go with it; plenty of songs are mentioned, and I imagine that high school readers would be mesmerized by Helen Reddy's I Am Woman. 

Copeland, Cynthia L. Drive

January 7, 2025 by Algonquin Young Readers

E ARC provided by Netgalley

In alternating timelines, we follow the path of real life aeronautical engineer and race car driver and fictional Alex, who moves to her grandparents' farm with her novelist father. (Sort of a spoiler ahead, but you can tell from the pictures what is happening.) This takes us back to 1962, when young Guthrie is traveling around to compete in as many races as she can find, driving a Jaguar. When the car breaks down, she ends up selling it, and it's Alex's grandfather who buys it. Guthrie has trouble getting a new car, as well as finding sponsors, since the auto racing world is so heavily male centric. Eventually, Rolla Vollstedt agrees to help her, and arranges for her to drive in the Indy 500. While she qualifies, using another driver's car, her vehicle does not. This is just one of many disappointments that she faces in her career. Even though she is a popular media presence, the interviews focus more on what she's wearing than her racing abilities, and the men at the race courses are routinely jerks. She does have the support of her own pit crew and team. She gets the chance to race against another woman in 1976, Arlene Hiss, but Hiss drives poorly and never races again. Things don't really improve that much, but Guthrie perseveres, even driving with a broken wrist at one point. 

Alex is struggling a bit with moving in 2019; her father is so intent on writing his novel that he completely ignores his daughter, who seems to have no other support since both grandparents have passed away and there is no other family in the picture. Using her grandfather's notes, she starts to restore the Jaguar. Heading in to town to consult some books at the library, she does find an ally in a local librarian who gives her magazines. Alex thinks that the woman is bringing dinner to the house to try to date her dad, but later in the book we find out that it's really in order to support Alex. Alex finds some parts that she needs, and eventually unearths some paperwork from the garage that leads her down the Janet Guthrie rabbit hole. Armed with this new information and a renewed sense of purpose, Alex enters a local car competition, but the judges and participants are not welcoming or helpful. Her father comes through, and she does manage to meet the female internet mechanic whose tips she has found useful. 

Strengths: Car racing was certainly something I never followed as a tween, so there were many things that I learned and that suprised me in this book. First of all, why was there even car racing going on in the 1970s? There was a gas crisis! The name Janet Guthrie sounded familiar, but I couldn't have told you the first thing about her. The interweaving of the two story lines works well, especially since Alex meets her own problems with sexism at the car show. This will hopefully encourage young readers to investigate family history while their grandparents are still around! 
Weaknesses: I need to see a final copy of this; the illustrations seemed very different from the author's other work, and some of the people were hard to tell apart, but this might have been because I saw an earlier draft of the pictures. 
What I really think: I will definitely purchase this, and would love to see more graphic novels with feminist themes set in the 1960s and 70s. There are plenty of memoir type graphic novels set in the 90s, but they are all more whiny instrospective. Of course, women in the 60s and 70s weren't really thinking about their "problems", because there was always someone to remind us about how hard things were during the war or the Great Depression, and there was work to be done! (See Copeland's Cub for another look at the way girls were treated back in the day.)

Alexander, Lori and Santo, Rebecca (illustrator). 

Seeds of Discovery: How Barbara McClintock Used Corn and Curiosity to Solve a Science Mystery and Win a Nobel Prize

January 28, 2025 by Clarion Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Born in 1902, Eleanor McClintock's family was supportive of her endeavors, and even changed her name from the "delicate" Eleanor to the more assertive Barbara! She and her siblings were active and curious, and Barbara even asked her mother if she could wear bloomers instead of dresses when she played outdoors. Her father was involved in World War I, so Barbara got an office job at 16 and spent long hours in the library reading and educating herself, but when he returned, she was able to attend college at Cornell. She studied science, which was unusual at the time, and became insterested in chromosomes in corn. After graduating in 1923, she continued her graduate studies, often going into the fields to pollinate plants, and wearing pants to do so. Along with Harriet Creighton, she worked out that genes pass on traits and these genes are on chromosomes. They published a paper on the topic, but it was still difficult for McClintock to find a job. She spent time traveling around the US doing research until she was offered a position at the University of Missouri. She did experiments with X Rays, finding that they could fray chromosomes, and studied mutations. She eventually got a position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she could concentrate on research, in 1941, and became the first female president of the genetics society in 1945. Her work was steady and groundbreaking, but she was forced to retire in 1967 because she was 65 years old. That didn't stop her from continuing her research, and in 1983 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her work was instrumental in many developments in the field, such as the Human Genome Project and CRISPR technology. She passed away in 1992. 

Strengths: I have a standard biography of McClintock that I really want to read now (Cullen's 2003 Barbara McClintock: Geneticist) because I didn't realize how groundbreaking she was! People who find important work that they enjoy and to which they can devote their entire lives fascinate me. I wonder if she and fellow scientist Norman Borlaug ever met? She faced many challenges, and the book doesn't sugar coat these; I found the statistic that there weren't as many women students in college as men until 1979 fascinating. Studying science was much harder when it was not attached to home economics, so it was impressive that she was able to continue her work with fairly little drama AND that she was able to not only publish papers under her own name but that she was awarded the Nobel Prize as an individual! I'm definitely buying a copy of this for our biography section and recommending it to students. It's a good length (128 pages), and has lots of attractive illustrations. 
Weaknesses: I wish that this hadn't made so much of McClintock wearing pants. Many, many women were able to accomplish all sorts of things while wearing dresses; my grandmother had a huge vegetable garden that she tended into her 90s, and she never wore slacks! Of course, I might be the only woman out there who thinks that skirts are part of my feminist heritage and should be embraced. 
What I really think: Readers who want a bit more information than Clinton's She Persisted series will enjoy this interesting biography about a STEM pioneer who deserves a lot more attention! 

Rise of the Wrecking Crew (The Vanquishers #3)

Bayron, Kalynn. Rise of the Wrecking Crew (The Vanquishers #3)
October 8, 2024 by Bloomsbury Children's Books
E ARC provided by Netgalley

After their adventures in The Vanquishers and The Secret of the Reaping, Boog and the Wrecking Crew are back, faced with an even greater problem than before. Nathalia, aka Nightshade, is still intent on causing chaos, and the situation in San Antonio is so dire that the schools have pivoted to virtual learning because of vampire sightings. The Vanquishers head out of town, and Boog is surprised that her parents and their comrades in vampire fighting have a secret lair in the side of a mountain. It's been abandoned for years, so Miss Kim, Mr. Rupert, and the others have to check equipment and clean up a bit, but before long there are supplies and the group is trying to figure out their next step, especially since Mr. Alex and Aaron are vampires and add to the general sense of chaotic urgency. Boog confronts her mother when she finds out that there were samples in the lab, and that the holding cells look like they were designed for children, but her mother reassures her that the samples were donated, and she was trying to figure out how to help the children, who were sent to safety in a vampire hive. Mr. Rupert shows the group the historical archives, which include all manner of artifacts, including Dracula's teeth. A sample of Dracula's blood, however, is missing, and this is particularly bad. Because it is so powerful, if a vampire like Nathalia were to ingest it, it would give them super powers. Even though not all vampires are bad, they are all dangerous, so when an ancient vampire appears in the command center, the parents are very worried. After an attack by the Department of Vampire Affairs (DOVA) that also includes vampires, some of which the group kills, it's evident that the group really needs to go back to the city and find Nathalia and her hive. They're holed up in the kids middle school, and Boog in particular is determined to do her part to fight them. Will the Vanquishers, and the Wrecking Crew, be able to finally neutralize Nathalia and her particularly bad version of vampire-dom? 
Strengths: Even though this is billed as the conclusion to the series, it seems like there is room for another book, so we'll see! There's plenty of vampire lore, and even some new things, like the fact that vampires can be stopped in their tracks by rhymes! The Vanquishers' headquarters is a nice change from the family homes on the cul de sac, and is stocked with plenty of cool technology and history. This was a nice blend of planning and fighting, and I loved that Boog and the other Wrecking Crew kids finally stand up for themselves and tell the parents they want to fight. It is a little strange that this depicts a world where there are always different levels of vampires around, in the way that the characters in Weinberger's Zombie Season always have to deal with zombies; there are a lot of similarities in these two series, including the involvement of the parents! 
Weaknesses: Even though I love having parents involved with adventures, this means that there were a lot of people, and since it's been a while since I read the other books, I had some trouble remembering who was who. Also, there are a lot of shades of gray when it comes to how evil vampires are, which might confuse some younger readers. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like more complex and nuanced vampire tales with more fighting and less romance, like Brown's Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting or Birchall's How Not to Be a Vampire Slayer. 

Saturday Morning Cartoons- Chickenpox

Lai, Remy. Chickenpox
January 14, 2025 by Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks

E ARC provided by Netgalley.

In 1994, author Remy Lai was living with her family in Indonesia, but she tells the story of her family's bout with chicken pox from the point of view of her oldest sister, Abby. Abby is 12, Amy is 11, Remy is 8, Andy 6, and Tommy just 3. This makes the household a bit like "a wild zoo" from time to time. Abby will do just about anything to escape the ruckus, including taking piano lessons, and spending lots of time at her friends Julia and Monica's houses. When the two want to meet Abby's siblings, she reluctantly has them over, but when the kids pester them, Abby finds herself fighting with them. Julia makes the comment that Abby is acting like "a fourth grader", which hurts her feelings. Julia comes down with chicken pox and is out of school, and Abby is wary of hanging out with Monica because of the comment, hanging out with her friend who is a boy, Sandy. When the Lai's go to a local hotel pool to swim, Remy notices that she has mosquito bites, but when the other children seem to have them as well, they get hauled to Dr. Sutanto, who diagnoses chicken pox (called "watery pox" in Indonesian). Abby seems to have escaped them and is glad, since her siblings have to be quarantined for 7-10 days, but she wakes up the next morning with them as well. The progression of the disease is nicely laid out for modern readers who have not experienced this; there's even a nice author's note talking about the vaccine that was available shortly after her experiences. Everyone is sick and laid low for a while; Abby rebounds a bit more quickly, so ends up trying to help her mother and amuse and cater to her brothers and sisters. Sometimes this goes awry, like the time that she suggest the forbidden game of "ghost" that involves covering each other with flour. Abby ends up having to clean up the mess, and as the oldest, is always blamed. Things are difficult with Julia and Monica; at one point, Abby calls Julia, and based on their conversation comes to the conclusion that she "like likes" Sandy. She tells Monica this, and is surprised that Monica is a little cold toward her. At one point, Abby calls Julia's house, but ends up telling Julia's mother that the remark about being like a fourth grader hurt her feelings, and Julia's mother cancels a birthday party. Abby is later able to fix this mistake. There are some sisterly successes, like when Abby must watch the other children while her mother takes Tommy to the doctor because his chicken pox have become infected, and she encourages them all to create a library with check out cards, and this keeps them amused for some time. Eventually, everyone gets better, and Abby manages to talk to her friends and figure things out, so that when she returns to school, it's not so bad. 

Strengths: This is definitely a historical topic that we needed, before all of the authors are too young to remember what having chicken pox is like! Having it set in a family with five children makes it much more interesting; of course they all got sick at the same time. Adding a bit of friend drama, and explaining how the land line was the only way to communicate was a good move. There are some other things like VHS tapes and video rental stores that also have a tiny bit of explanation for middle school students, who at this point in time were born around 2010-2013! This was a fun but informative graphic novel from the author of Ghost Book, Pie in the Sky, and other popular titles. 
Weaknesses: There could have been a few more 1990s references, but since this is set in Thailand, the popular culture was probably not quite the same. There are some good fashion depictions; I'm glad that chicken pox are gone, but we could use more bright colors! I was a little surprised that Abby and her siblings scratched their pox; I remember being coated in calamine lotion and being told that horrible things would happen to me if I scratched (I was younger than Remy!). I remember my mother taking her long fingernails and trying to scratch in between my pox!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want a historic look at a bygone disease, or who enjoy graphic novels with family interactions, like Lloyd's Squished or Tang's Parachute Kids. 
 

Killer Harvest

Krovatin, Christopher. Killer Harvest

September 3, 2024 by Scholastic Inc.

Public library copy

Marcus, Andrew, and Angie have all been dragged by their families to a harvest festival in Gentle Valley after getting into trouble of different sorts. A lot of the problems centered around grades, or getting in fights, but Angie managed to make the entire girls' soccer team go bald because they made fun of her, and Kris Siddiqui dresses in full goth attire and decked a kid who teased her. Gentle Valley is a little too happy and gung ho for all of them, and they are especially suspicious of organizer Liv Thompson, whose daughter Elena seems to realize that the whole festival is an overdose of wholesome, from the apple bobbing to the constant excellent food. Anything that has the faintest whisper of spooky Halloween elements is banned, and carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns is strictly forbidden. There is a corn maze, and when the kids go into that, it is particularly creepy, especially when they see a scarecrow in the center called The Harvester, and two other kids they meet, Anthony and Zach, go missing. Despite hearing rumors that The Harvester will grab kids after dark and turn them into pumpkins, Kris decides to carve a pumpkin, and when she does, there is a weird blue light that emanates from it, and she thinks she sees a creepy boy from the corn maze. Trying to figure out what is going on, the kids stay up late, and see The Harvester stealing Angie's brother Greg. When they venture out, they run into other kids in the pumpkin patch, and begin to realize that the rumors are true. They manage to save Greg, and head to the town's local history museum to try to figure out what is going on. They overhear adults talking, and realize that their worst fears are true. In order to secure a good harvest, Gentle Valley lures families with problem children to the festival, turns them into pumpkins, and then covers up the police investigations. With some input from Elena, the kids manage to save Anthony and Zach, as well as other children, and set the town on a different, less violent path. Or do they?

Strengths: Gentle Valley sounds like a great place for a weekend trip in the fall, doesn't it? That makes it even creepier when The Harvester appears and the kids are in peril. It was a good decision to make the characters older, and also to have their behavior problematic, because then the adults are less likely to take them seriously. There's plenty of running around in creepy fields at night, and I am not sure that I will ever be able to go into a corn maze; certainly never later than 8 a.m. so that I have plenty of time to get out before dark! Kris' obsession with Halloween and all things goth will speak to some readers who long black nail polish and excessive eye liner. Elena, as a local kid, was a good inclusion, and I loved the scene at the local history museum. This is a short, fast paced title with a fantasic cover. 

Weaknesses: While I can forgive improperly translated Latin ("Mors fortium praemia does not mean "death favors the strong" because praemia is the noun version of rewards, not the verb form, and fortium is not plural. I would have suggested just replacing "Mors" for "fortuna" in Terence's phrase "fortuna fortes adiuvat".),  it's harder for me to be okay with referring to Liv Thompson as a "cult Karen". Yet again, if we don't want young readers to use negative stereotypes, we need to model that behavior in their literature. 

What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want lots of Halloween details with their creepy corn maze titles like Sutherland's Field of Screams or Arden's Small Spaces. 

Again, if authors have questions about Latin translations, just e mail me. If I can't figure it out, I know people who can. 

Union Square Kids- Creepy Titles

Priestly, Chris. Freeze
January 14, 2025 by Union Square Kids

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Maya wakes up with a feeling of unnamed dread one  morning. Her mother is at work, so she gets herself off to school and meets up with her friends Carla, Jason, and Tomas. The librarian, Mrs. Vargas, brings them all to the library, and tells them the regular teacher, Mrs. Miller, is absent, and Mr. Kumar will be running the class. The substitute starts them on a writing exercise, telling them they will be creating scary stories. He gives them some parameters and writing prompts, and the students get to work. Maya, who is frequently in trouble for speaking out of turn, notices a girl outside the library, who comes in to the room in a silver winter coat. She starts to work on the story, and when Maya points out that they are supposed to put their names on the papers, not the title of their work, the girl replies that Winter IS her name. Maya has trouble concentrating, but it is soon time for the stories to be shared. Tomas reads his Snow, and paints a grim tale of the students seeing a painting of creepy snowmen with their names on it. Maya feels like she is right there, seeing the painting change and the snowmen coming to life. Carla revisits a local legend of an abandoned factory by the canal, where children broke through the ice years ago and drowned, in Ice, and again, Maya feels this viscerally. Jason's Flood imagines a graveyard by a local park being flooded, and the graves disgorging the undead inhabitants. The children escape, but another rainstorm comes closer to the school and zombies again attack. Shaken, Maya shares her own creation; a spin on the Jack Frost stories her mother has told her. It is so real to her that she even accuses Winter of being the one who caused a scary part of the story. When Winter gets up to recite, all of the other tales come together, and her secret and creepy identity is revealed. 

Strengths: I love that Barrington Stoke's titles have been brought to the US, since they specialize in dyslexia friendly titles. This is just around 100 pages, and has a nice, large font and plenty of white space on the page. Priestly does a lot of horror titles, and manages to create a good, creepy story but also modulate it for emerging readers. Maya isn't a bad kid, but her behavior makes her harder to be believed, so the others in the room think she's just being strange, instead of understanding that she is dealing with a dangerous ghost! 
Weaknesses: There are only four children in the class? No matter. Too many characters can make the text harder to understand. I did find myself wondering if in the original, Mr. Kumar was called a "supply teacher" instead of a substitute. I think this is what substitutes are called in the UK, but US readers would not understand that at all! 
What I really think: This is similar to this author's Union Square Kids Seven Ghosts, and will be popular with readers who like connected scary stories like the ones found in Poblocki's Tales to Keep You Up at Night, and Szpirglas' Book of Screams.  

Priestly, Chris. Stillwater
January 14, 2025 by Union Square Kids

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rosie lives in London at the start of World War II, so is sent out of the city with her classmates and her teacher, Miss Baxter. The group ends up in a very picturesque village. Rosie isn't picked by a local resident until most of her classmates have already gone to homes, but Mrs. Taylor and her daughter Mary seem nice. Rosie is polite, and thanks them, just like her mother told her to. She settles into her new accomodations, but Mary takes an evil turn, tells her that she doesn't want her there, and then bites her own arm! Of course, her mother is alarmed, and ready to send Rosie back, but attributes the behavior to missing her mother. Mary tells Rosie that she thought about sending her away, but thinks it would be far more fun to torture her! Rosie tries to be brave, even though Mary tells all of the children of the village and the Evacuees not to talk to her. Rosie does see one friendly face, a girl swimming in a pond,  but Mrs. Taylor is alarmed when Rosie asks if they might all swim there. The pond was the site of a witch execution that killed seven women years ago, and also the site of a drowning of a young girl when Mrs. Taylor was a child. When the girl in the pond asks Rosie to bring Mary to her, she's worried. Eventually, Mrs. Taylor tells her the real story; the girl who drowned was named Vera, and was Mrs. Taylor's best friend. The two fell out, and Vera wouldn't talk to Mrs. Taylor, so she dared Vera to swim in the pond. The girl ended up drowning, and Mrs. Taylor has always felt bad. Rosie tells her foster mother that Mary is with other children at the pond right now, planning to swim. The two rush there, and manage to save Mary, but Mrs. Taylor drowns. Rosie's mother comes from London to retrieve her, and on the way out of town, Rosie sees Vera and a young Mrs. Taylor together, and figures that Vera was just lonely all those years. 

Strengths: Of all the scary ways that ghost could try to kill you, I think luring your into water and drowning you is probably the worst and scariest! I'm a huge fan of evacuee tales and often think about what it would have been like to have been one of the teachers sent out of London with the children. Makes ANYTHING that happens in my school day seem easier. Pairing a murderous ghost with this historical period was brilliant, and adding in Mary as this needlessly evil character makes it even better. I really enjoyed this one. This is a quick 100 page book, in a dyslexia friendly font, so great for emerging readers, like all of the Barrington Stoke books. 
Weaknesses: While many young reader in the UK probably have heard of the Evacuees during WWII, it's not common knowledge in the US, and my readers might need a bit more information, unless they've read Albus' A Place to Hang the Moon or Bradley's The War That Saved My Life. Also, the ending is a tiny bit disturbing, since Mrs. Taylor does die, leaving Mary seemingly alone, just so she can keep a ghost company! 
What I really think: If Brown's The Girl in the Lake or Hahn's Wait Til Helen Comes are too difficult for a reader who wants a good murderous, drowning ghost, this is a great choice to offer instead. 

Danilo Was Here

Burgess, Tamika. Danilo Was Here 
January 21, 2025 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Danilo Osorio's life in the Chorillo neighborhood of Panama City, Panama, is very difficult in 1990. Operation Just Cause, the US military operation that targeted Manuel Noriega, the ruler of the country who was involved in drug operations, damaged Danilo's neighborhood very heavily in December of 1989, killing many of his neighbors, destroying homes and infrastructure, and damaging the apartment where his family lives. His father has gone to the US to find a job after a knee injury made it impossible for his to play baseball or work construction. Danilo's mother works night shifts at a super mercado, and he is in charge of taking care of his younger sister, Amara. He used to play baseball, but has no interest in it after his father's departure. It's not unusual for fathers to go to the US and never come back, but Danilo hopes this is not the case. When the We Care charity puts together a fun day for the local children, Danilo agrees to play in a baseball game with his best friend, Julian. He's surprised to see Coach Cox, a US baseball trainer who knew his dad, at the game, but when his Tio Beto insists on introducing Danilo, he finds out that the coach is interested in bringing Danilo to the US to attend his two month training camp. Danilo doesn't want to go, to his mother's chagrin, but things worsen quickly for the family. The Osorios' apartment building is condemned, as is his aunt and uncle's, which is especially bad since the aunt is expecting a baby. With nothing else to be done, everyone whittles down their possessions, stores a few things, and goes to live in an old airplane hangar that is divided up with curtains. There are two meals a day, but it's too far of a commute for the mother to get to work. Danilo realizes that it's better for everyone if he accepts the coach's offer. Soon, he is off to San Diego, living with the Anderson family, and attending the baseball camp. This is also difficult, since Mrs. Anderson thinks he doesn't speak English and is insensitive. It is nice to live in a big, comfortable house, but training is brutal. Danilo is the only Black player, and most of the team ignore him. Brian, who is a friend of Christina Anderson's, is nice to him. While he tries his best, Danilo is still suffering from having lived through the invasion, a fact that is pointed out to him by the teacher of Grayson Anderson's music therapy class. Grayson is on the autism spectrum, and has trouble accepting Danilo's presence in the house, although the two start to connect over a shared love of the accordion. Danilo is determined to find his father, and after confiding in Christina, learns that he lives about an hour away. Christian and Brian are helpful, but things are still difficult. After a less than optimal meeting with his father, Danilo has to decide whether to continue on at the baseball camp after the first two months, or  to return to his family in Panama. 

Strengths: Burgess' Sincerely Sicily is one of the only middle grade books I have seen with a Panamanian character, so I loved that this not only had a lot of history, but also involved baseball. I have a fair amount of students who have immigrated from a variety of locations, and I like to have stories for them and their peers that show an array of immigrant experiences to foster empathy. Gratz's Refugee is a title that many teachers like to use as a class title, but I liked this one even better. Danilo's life isn't easy, but he does what he needs to do in order to try to make things better. There are a few details about life in the 1990s, and some television shows and other pop cultural items are mentioned, as well as the very antiquated conceoot of writing letters and mailing them. I think my students will pick this up because of the bright cover, and be pleased with the contents. 
Weaknesses: 1990 was my first year of teaching, and I don't remember seeing any students diagnosed on the autism spectrum until about 2005, although perhaps California was more aware of the issue. I would not have minded a short note at the end about the history of Panama, because most of my students won't have any background knowledge about this era. 
What I really think: It's always good to see books that deal with different points of history. This is a great choice for readers who like their history mixed with a little bit of sports. It reminded me a little of Corbett's Free Baseball (2006) or Volponi's Game Seven (2015), but both of those involved Cuban ball players. Reading this might encourage students to find out more about Rod Carew and other Panamanian players! 
 

The Legend of the Last Library

Cole, Frank L. The Legend of the Last Library

August 6, 2024 by Shadow Mountain

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Juniper Knox lives in Syphon City after The Blight has killed most of the trees and the world is a horrible place. She and her grandfather, who are in very bad health, lives in The Mounds, run down apartments with sketchy electrical supply. They would be even worse off if their landlady, Ms. Gupta, didn't have a soft spot for them. Juni tries to bring in money by "plifting"; scrounging abandoned places for paper to sell, since the necessity to burn all wood and paper products during The Blight made paper extremely rare. Juni's parents were archaeologists who were killed in Harker's Village while trying to find the fabled Last Library, so her grandfather doesn't want her going there. Of course she does, and she and her friend Doler find some interesting items. Sadly, the Novexus Nikos, robotic dogs who are set to kill, follow them into the building. They are saved by Kobyn and his dog Lewis, who distract the dogs so they can escape. This outing brings them to the attention of the sort of evil Quaze, a girl their age who was there when they found the items, and says they are hers, as well as the really evil Ullred O'Donnell, who has Nikos as well as governmental power. Juni and Doler turn over the paper to Quaze, which makes her rich and dangerous, but keep an odd piece of plastic with a vaguely familiar symbol on it. This turns out to be a library card, and combined with a box left by Juni's parents, the key to finding the Last Library. Juni gets the box (known as the Overdue Archive) opened and finds out that it communicates with her in the form of Zeno, a robotic holograph. There is also a note from Obadiah Wixom. Reading the actual book is so much better than reading on a tablet from the Global Database of Learning or "uplinking" information directly to her brain. After visiting Kobyn and talking to his mother Garland, who knew Juni's parents, and who has information that can lead the group to the location of the library. It's been hidden very well, and it turns out that since Juni has one of the books, she is the only one who can get into the building. It's a treacherous experience, and she has to lower herself down a dark shaft to get the others access to an elevator. The technology used is impressive, and Zeno is there to help. Family secrets also come out, and the group gets to experience the glory of the library briefly before Ullred shows up with his forces to tell them that the library is going to be dismantled and sent to museums. Juni manages to take the hard drive to the Global Database of Learning, but the group is not able to save everything. Will they manage to change the world with what they did find?

Strengths: Juni's ability to scavenge and to help out her grandfather while still managing to finish out the school year is a good example for young readers, and she is a fearless character. There is a lot of good family history that I don't want to ruin, and I was glad that Juni knew how to read (not everyone does, because of the uplinking) and enjoyed her book. It's also heart warming to see that there is a supportive community around her to help her find the library. There haven't been as many dystopian novels published recently, and there is always a demand for them. 
Weaknesses: I had a lot of questions about the world building that weren't answered. Young readers will not be quite as bothered about most of them, and maybe they will be addressed in a sequel. Does Juni really make any money plifting? Wouldn't there be massive copyright issues with the Global Database of Learning? Why couldn't the elevator in the last museum have started at the top? How did Novexus get started, and how are the citizens okay with the Nikos roaming around? How dangerous is the acid rain, since Juni comes in contact with it? Also, I was hoping for a bit of happiness when the Last Library was found, but things took a dark, dark turn that library lovers might not appreciate. 
What I really think: Readers who enjoy dystopian worlds that involve pieces of current society, like Perry's Scavengers, Ford's Forgotten City, or Peterfreund's Omega City will find Juni's world intriguing. This also reminded me a little of Fry's Jupiter Pirates series Magoon's Robyn Hoodlum. I have vaque memories of another book where paper is scarce, and a girl went to visit someone who had a typewriter and had a museum of some sort, but I can't for the life of me think of the title. 

MMGM - Old School

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Korman, Gordon. Old School

January 14, 2025 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Dexter Foreman's parents have exciting international careers and are currently in Belgium, so he's been living with his grandmother Adele for most of his life. They reside in the Pines Retirement Village, and since his grandmother listed his age as 60 to cut down on questions and paperwork, no one has questioned why he's being tutored by members of the community instead of going to public school... until now. Since questions did arise when he didn't take social security, a truant officer shows up and lets him know that he WILL be getting on the bus and attending Wolfs Eye Middle School. Dexter, who enjoys his life, and hanging out with his friends (including 99 year old Leo), isn't thrilled. He's even less thrilled when he gets on the bus and has to listen to the ignorant comments of soccer star and mathlete Jackson as well as the boorish Ronny. Ronny's sister, Gianna, is nice to him, but since she's a fledgling reporter for the school newspaper, she's more interested in finding out more about this new kid with a brush, briefcase, and questionable wardrobe. Ms. Napier, a school counselor, worries that he will have trouble fitting in to the school environment, especially when he fixes a radiator in a class on the school tour! Dexter does okay, and his education at the retirement village has been top notch, getting his a place on the math team, but also angering Jackson, who is used to being the best. He also manages to use his training from Archie, a former bare-knuckle fighter, to get Ronny to injure himself while trying to beat Dexter up! Jackson is so angry that he sends a letter to Dexter, forging the school board president's name, that claims that Dexter can do a capstone project to prove that he can move ahead in school. He talks to Leo, who was part of a code breaking "Bunker Boys" team from Wolfs Eye High School, and the two start a project that incorporates lots of topics. Dexter also ingratiates himself to the staff by fixing the coffee maker and even pours concrete to fix a long broken step in the school, which is over a hundred years old and in danger of being torn down. Gianna writes an in-depth new student feature on Dexter that he doesn't really appreciate, but her editor still has her relegated to writing articles about the school laminator. He even helps out Ronny by sharing his lunch with him, but when Dexter whips out his Swiss Army knife and deftly removes the back of the snack vending machine to retrieve a bag of chips that Ronny paid for but didn't get, he is promptly suspended for having a weapon at school. He goes back to learning at the Pines, but Gianna visits and brings other students with her. Soon, many of the students are bonding with the retirees, finding Earl Grey tea a great beverage, and understanding more about Dexter's background. There's to be a board hearing about his suspension, and all of the students plan to go. Dexter also plans to present the project that the board wanted, and is set to have Leo help him. When Leo falls and hits his head, having to go to the hospital, Gianna steps in to help with the presentation, which also ties in to the board's decision whether to save the school or not, since the school is a historical site due to the Bunker Boys meeting there. Dexter is able to return to school, but also has to deal with an understandable loss. 

Strengths: Having characters who march to the tune of their own marimba is always a good way to make stories fun and engaging, but it's a tricky line to walk. Korman, of course, walks it perfectly. Dexter isn't obnoxious or super quirky (which my readers don't like); he just is a bit different. He likes to fix things, doesn't quite understand the tween cultural zeitgeist, and has his own interests. The best part is that he is able to interact with jerks like Jackson and Ronny with the insight of a much older person. It's completely realistic to believe that Dexter would have been immediately suspended for having a knife, even if teachers saw him with it earlier. There's another character, Teagan (who lived in New York but visited her grandparents at the facility), who was Dexter's only friend his age, and her transformation into someone who no longer enjoyed being at the facility or hanging out with Dexter was completely realistic. Like all of Korman's writing, this is a fast-paced, humorous story that also tugs at the heartstrings in a way that actually appeals to young readers and teachers alike. I highly suspect that Korman closes his eyes over his coffee every morning and takes several minutes to remember what it was like to be in seventh grade. 
Weaknesses: It seemed unlikely that Dexter would be forced to go back to school so quickly, and even a bit suspicious that his parents spent years away from him, no matter what their careers. (Even though Henry Reed set that precedent.) Not sure senior facilities give demerits that result in loss of shuffleboard privileges, or that schools would let stairs go unrepaired. Still, all of these things make the book funnier, and are absolutely in sync with the middle grade books I remember in the 1970s. A sort of Pippi Longstocking effect, perhaps. Now, I think that we need to see more of these ALMOST possible things in middle grade literature! 
What I really think: Grandparents and grandparent figures are an underutilized resource in middle grade fiction, although we are starting to see some fantastic characters like Cyrus Hale in Spy School or Gram in Danny Constantino's First Date. Bringing in so many at once, and constrasting them with a variety of middle school students was inspired. This is a great choice for readers who enjoyed Meyer and Levy's Let It Glow or Sonnenblick's Notes for the Midnight Driver. I need to go back and read Korman's Schooled, which has some similar details. 

Picture Book Sunday- Bears

Horáček, Petr. A Best Friend for Bear
April 7, 2022 by Walker Books
E ARC Provided by Young Adult Books Central

Black Bear would like to have a friend, so he goes out into the forest to try to find one. He meets Brown Bear, who is, coincidentally, trying to find a friend as well! The two decide to work together to find a friend, and search all over, to no avail. They eventually start a rousing game of hide and go seek, and take turns finding each other. When Brown Bear hides particularly well, Black Bear is disappointed. When Brown Bear surprises his seeker by greeting him from atop a branch in a tree, the two decide that perhaps friends are easier to find than they had hoped. After all, looking for a friend was much more fun with someone else.

The mixed media illustrations are very colorful, and the dark tones in the woods are particularly well rendered. There's something about the bears' faces that makes me think about a children's book from the 1960s, a Whitman's Tell A Tale story, about a boy going into the woods and befriending a bear who was perhaps imaginary, but I can't think of the title. There is definitely a familiar, feel good air to the illustration style!

Young readers will recognize that the bears are being a little bit silly, and should just be friends with each other, but watching them go about their quest is still a fun journey. The only thing that they missed doing was to have a picnic! Of course, today's children probably don't know that old song.

Learning how to find friends and to keep them is a developmental task that young children seem to struggle with, so this is a good book to encourage them to look around them at people they might already know, and perhaps make friends that are hiding in plain sight! Pair this with other titles that explore the vagaries of friendship like Martin and Aserr's How to Make a Friend, Bailey and Song's A Friend for Henry, Percival's Meesha Makes Friends, and Napoli and Stoop's Words to Make a Friend.

Shum, Benson. Imagine You and Me
January 23, 2024 by Dial Books

E ARC Provided by Young Adult Books Central

Parker and Randall are best friends, and spent countless hours together playing, building sandcastles, and exploring. When they come across a group of other bears, Randall is too shy to approach them, but Parker pushes him. Sadly, the bears can't see Parker. The group plays kickball, and Randall doesn't feel competent, but once again, Parker encourages him to participate, and the bears are supportive of his efforts. Soon, Parker is left behind on walks, riding the bus, and finds herself playing more and more on her own. Randall barely notices her absence, but eventually misses his friend. He revisits the beach, has an ice cream cone, and thinks about his friend. Parker comes to the beach, and the two build a sandcastle. They also meet a small bear who can see Parker, and the two enjoy each other's company. In the end, Randall goes off with his bigger bear friends while Parker plays with her new friend, but each of them has happy memories of the other to sustain them.

There are a lot of picture books about making friends or losing friends, as well as about imaginary friends, but this is rather different from those. I don't read a lot of picture books, but this seems to be an unusual book about outgrowing a friend. It's an important message, and works well along with other bittersweet books about relationships like Woodcock's Silver Linings, Salbury's The Best Friend in the Whole World, and the Davidsons' A Pocket Full of Sads.

Shum's artwork is bold and colorful, and Parker and Randall both have very expressive faces. I'm not sure how their eyeglasses stay on without a bridge over their noses, but the fact that they both have round, red rimmed frames reinforces the depths of their friendship.

This is a somewhat sad book, but losing friends who outgrow us, or whom we outgrow, is a part of life. There is acknowledgement of the sadness, but also a good example of remembering the good things about one's friend while enjoying new ones.

Turcotte, Roxane and Lucie, Crovatto (Illustrator). The Sun Never Hurries
July 23, 2024 by Pajama Press
ARC Provided by Young Adult Books Central

Charlie's Papa Joe has an hourglass, and he tells her he likes to remember that days are made up of small precious moments, just like the grains of sand. When Charlie is hungry, she asks if they can go to a restaurant, but instead, Papa Joe takes his time making a delicious soup. The two walk to the village instead of driving, and Charlie notices all of the flowers that they would have sped by in a vehicle. They have ice cream cones at a tiny ice cream shop run by Grandpa Joe's friend, who crafts her ice cream out of strawberries and patience. They go out to a small island in a boat that Grandpa rows, and find a swing that he made out of branches. As she asks her grandfather about whether or not they took their time during the day, he says it's important that they watch the sun set, because it is never in a hurry.

I'm not a fan of being busy, so I loved Grandpa Joe's philosophy, and the effective way that he is able to share it with his granddaughter. As the comedian Steven Wright said, “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”! Charlie is very accepting of this new philosophy, and spends time looking at the falling leaves and the sun shining on the water.

The illustrations are rendered in bright but warm oranges and yellows, with accents of gray and green, and are very lovely. They add to the leisurely feel of the book; it's the literary equivalent of sitting outside with the sun shining on your face! I can see this being a favorite bedtime story, especially after busy days of running around.

I love the idea of slowing down and taking in all of the small and precious moments that make up an ordinary day. After reading this book, it would be a great activity to have children write a stories about some of the things that their families do that might not be hurried affairs. Slow the world down and savor this book, along with All Around Us by González and Garcia, On a Magical Do-Nothing Day by Alemagna, Tiny, Perfect Things by Clark and Kloepper, and Up The Mountain Path by Dubuc.

Just Kitten Around (Bodega Cats #2)

Burgos, Hilda Eunice and Faison, Siara (illustrations).
Bodega Cats: Just Kitten Around (#2)
January 21, 2025 by Henry Holt and Co.
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this illustrated chapter book, Yesenia (who is Miguel's cousin from Picture Perfect) is feeling very anxious about fifth grade. There's a lot going on, and she feels that she has to excel at things, like science fair, that her three older sisters did when they were her age. Dr. Morales, her physician, recommends getting a pet to help her with stress. Since a cat at Miguel's bodega has had kittens, the family goes to adopt one there. Yesenia admires a yellow kitten who is a little wild; Miguel's family calls her pura candela (a firecracker). The parents are concerned, but let Yesenia take Candy home. The cat is an immediate problem, especially since the parents don't really want a pet. Candy hangs from the curtains, smashes a vase, pees on the carpet, and eventually scratches Lucita, Yesenia's four year old sister. Yesenia doesn't mind; she's impressed that the kitten does her own thing, no matter what anyone says, but the parents react by banishing the cat to a cage. Yesenia has some problems at school, and has recently gotten a "D" on a social studies test. She's so afraid to show it to her parents that she forgets her mother's signature, even though her teacher is very understanding and asks how she can help. There is a social studies project that she's working on with her friend Frankie. At one point, Candy manages to jump out of a window, and decides to hang out with other cats on the street, to mixed results. Yesenia goes looking for Candy, but the kitten runs away from her. While she and Frankie are going around their neighborhood, taking pictures for their history project, they look for Candy, and eventually find her. The kitten's absence softens the parents' attitudes toward her, so when Yesenia gets in trouble for doing poorly in school and forging the mother's signature, she decides to run away. She gets locked into the school library when everyone is gone for the day. She regrets her actions, and the custodian lets her out, and her family forgives her as well. 

Strengths: Up until the 1970s, even young adult novels would have occasional illustrations, and I'm a big fan of bringing this back. Would Charlotte's Web have been the same without the Garth Williams' illustrations? Beverly Cleary's teen novels without the Joe and Beth Krush pictures? Donald Sobol without Leonard Shortall? No! Kittens are absolutely adorable, so it's great to see Faison capture Candy's antics. Yesenia's problems are ones that will resonate with later elementary readers, who might make some of the mistakes that Yesenia makes. I would also like to see more family dynamics portrayed in books; I do have a few students who come from larger families like Yesenia's, and when I was growing up with just one younger brother, I was enthralled by books like All of a Kind Family. 
Weaknesses: I'm not sure that getting a kitten for Yesenia was great for the animal! Things work out in the end, but I found it hard to believe that any doctor would suggest adding a cat to an already very busy and crowded family situation, especially when the parents were so angry about having an animal! I'm also not a fan of encouraging children to run away to solve their problems, especially in the city, but this did turn out well in the end. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Jacobsen's Twig and Turtle or Brown's Lola Levine series, but seemed a bit young for middle school readers.