Far-Fetched

Papademetriou, Lisa. Far-Fetched
February 4, 2025 by Scholastic Inc.

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Even though she is anxious about many things, Lizzie Morris-Artino decides that she will run for the secretary of her class for her upcoming 8th grade year so that her father doesn't feel compelled to send her to Greenwood Academy with her sister Linden. As she frets over sending the application, her friend Monique (egged on by her other friend Harry) hits submit for her! Her anxiety increases when she finds out the popular but mean April is also running. Lizzie's parents are very concerned about her, and know that her anxiety is a problem. They talk about getting her a therapist, and her mother suggests more exercise, some coping mechanisms suggested by the school psychologist Dr. Funk, and even the possibility of getting a dog. Lizzie manages to hang in there, even when her panic causes her to do poorly on a test. She has a crush on the cute Rex, but of course her mind reverts to worst case scenarios when she sees Monique talking to him. She is also enjoying hanging out with Ant, who even helps her with her new dog, Bella, when Bella runs away at a park. Her social studies teacher, Ms. Dobbler, assigns a project, and tells everyone that the grade will be averaged with the test on which Lizzie got a C+, so Lizzie wants her partners Harry and Ant to do a really good job on their project on the Epic of Gilgamesh. April is ramping up her campaign with social media posts, but Lizzie is able to hold her own thanks to a good video of Bella catching a Frisbee that he attaches to a slogan about fund raising for a class trip that is in jeopardy. When her mother surprises her with a "Emotional Support Dog" vest for Bella, and decides to go to school with Lizzie, take the dog, and not ask permission, Lizzie is rightfully mortified. Luckily, the vice principal diffuses the situation. Lizzie is conflicted. Bella is helping when she is at home, but she doesn't want the attention that having Bella at school would bring. Not only that, but her friend Harry is very allergic to dogs. April continues to snipe at her, and when Lizzie feels sick right before she and her group are supposed to present their project, Ms. Dobbler won't let her step out to the restroom. Lizzie then spectaculary vomits into the trash can and is taken to the nurse by Monique. April, of course, uses this against Lizzie on social media, and even in the campaign speech. Lizzie thinks about dropping out, but when faced with April's smug visage, instead calls April on her mean behavior during her speech and focuses on the real issues at hand. Lizzie wins, in part because Harry and Ant spin the video loop of her vomiting and make it look like she's throwing up dollar bills. While her grandmother remains judgemental and unpleasant, her mother sees the error of her ways and apologizes, and sets up therapy for Lizzie so that hopefully her eighth grade year will be less angst filled. 

Strengths: I was very glad that Lizzie not only had good friends in Monique and Harry, but had romantic prospects in both Rex and Ant. Young readers really appreciate that sort of hopefulness. While I have never seen elections for middle school class officers in my 26 years of teaching, Papademetriou does portray these in a realistic way. Lizie's relationship with Linden was generally pleasant, and the two had good conversations about why Linden was sent to Greenwood and about how unpleasant their grandmother is. Bella's status as a therapy dog was pretty iffy, but the school reacted in an entirely appropriate way, and while it was super uncomfortable, I loved that Lizzie was able to stand up to her mother at the meeting with the principal about bringing Bella to school, and that the principal thought it was an important meeting to have. The glimpses of home life, with the father being kind of checked out but cuddling up with the dog as he worked from home all day, and with the mother playing soccer, going to book club, and thinking about starting law school. Middle Grade readers spend a LOT of time with their families, so seeing how families interact with fictional characters is always a nice touch. 
Weaknesses: I love Papademetriou's work. I do. I even enjoyed this book. But I have had enough of using "Karen" as a perjorative, and it's used here when Lizzie says her mom could "go even more Karen-y". Substitute this with any inappropriate cultural epithet you can imagine. Is this what we want to teach young readers is okay? I think not. This is the third Scholastic title in a month that has made this choice. Where are the editors? The grandmother is portrayed as very negative as well, although Ms. Dobbler at least gets a chance at redemption when she visits Lizzie in the nurse's office and gives her a pep talk. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Papademetriou's other work or Scholastic's WISH novels, or novels that depict characters with anxiety, like Baron's The Gray, Camerons' Ripley: Fire Station Five, Crocker's Dad's Girlfriend and Other Anxieties, Dilloway's Five Things About Ava Andrews, or  Greenwald's Absolutely, Positively Natty, Harrell's Popcorn, Khan's Drawing Deena, LaRocca's Mirror to Mirror,  Piontek's Better with Butter, Sumner's The Summer of June, or Uhrig's Mind Over Monsters.

 

Saturday Morning Cartoons- How to Draw a Secret

Chang, Cindy. How to Draw a Secret

February 4, 2025 by Allida

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Cindy lives with her mother and two older sisters, Jess and Em, in California. Four years ago, her father moved back to Taiwan, but her mother has not let the girls tell anyone that the parents are separated. This makes a project that Cindy has to do for Mrs. Tembrock's class a little difficult, since it is all about What Family Means to Me. Cindy is a great artist, and her teacher, as well as her friends Grace and Kelsi, want her to submit her project to a contest. Cindy is angry at her father, who last visited for her fifth grade graduation, so when he calls with the news that her Nai Nai has died, she is not thrilled to travel to Taiwan for the funeral. She brings her journal with her, and captures some of the events in her drawings. There are many preparations for the funeral, but there is also some fun like shopping and eating delicious food. When the father visits with a small boy, Cindy and her sisters are devastated to find that he is the reason that their father left, and also the reason he will not be coming back. Their mother did not know how to tell them that their father was in a new relationship and had a son, although the older sisters guessed. Cindy must find a way to make peace with her father's decisions, and see if she can make a "perfect" picture of her imperfect family, now that she is able to share this news. 

Strengths: This was a great virtual trip to Taiwan, and it was interesting to see scenes of the streets, shops, and restaurants there. The family dynamics are interesting, with the older sisters, secretive parents, and extended family both in the US and in Taiwan. While family projects like the one Cindy is assigned are increasingly rare (for reasons just like Cindy's!), I always enjoy seeing children's doing homework, and love that Cindy was concerned about missing school. Mrs. Tembrock was very understanding. The drawing style is very pleasant, and I enjoyed the color palette. (The green on the cover is very much the color of the 2020s!) This seems to be set in the modern day, since characters have smart phones and FaceTime each other. 
Weaknesses: I am beginning to worry about all of the troubled childhoods of graphic novel artists. Did not one but Jennifer and Matt Holm have the occasional happy time growing up? I'd much rather read a fun memoir like Sunny Makes a Splash, but the vast majority of graphic novel memoirs are sad. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want to explore the sometimes difficult issues of families who have to exist in more than one country at a time, like Yang's Parachute Kids or McLeod's Intercontinental Drifter. 
 

Happy Women's History Month!

Cortez, Rio and Semmer, Lauren (illus.) The ABS of Women's History

January 14, 2025 by Workman Kids

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Not content to list just one person, event, or term per alphabet letter, Rio Cortez (The ABCs of Black History) takes a deep dive into women's history and fourth wave feminism in this rhyming picture book. Appropriately, under BOOKS we see several different authors, including Joan Didion, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Maya Angelou, and continue all the way through to Zora Neal Huston's zeal. Some of the concepts are more abstract, like "knowledge" and "dreaming", but other letters get more concrete examples, like the very necessary addition of Ms. Magazine. A wide range of historical figures and movements is covered.

At the end of the book, there is a very complete listing of all of the topics covered arranged under each letter, so the people are given dates and a brief of their activities and influences. Movements, events, and terms relating to women's history are also explained. This makes the book much more useful for research, since the entries give young readers enough details to use to locate more complete discussions of the topics.

The entries are all very poetic, usually employing meter and an almost Emily Dickinso partial rhyme scheme. I can see this being a popular read aloud choice for Women's History Month. The illustrations are striking and modern, as well as very colorful. The people portrayed are very diverse, with different ethnicities, body types, and identifications. There is definitely a very modern, updated sensibility in the approach to feminism.

Collective biographies are always a great way to introduce readers to a variety of people of whom they may never have heard. Have The ABCs of Women's History available all year long, but especially in March, for readers who enjoyed Colors of Awesome!: 24 Bold Women Who Inspired the World Chen and Desierto, Stand Up!: 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change by Cooper and Johnson, 101 Awesome Women Who Changed Our World by Adams and Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World by Hood, Blackall, and Martin.

Grush, Loren and Stefoff, Rebecca. The Six -- Young Readers Edition: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts
February 11, 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

"If you can see it, you can be it." When I was growing up in the 1970s, I certainly was not aware that there were any women astronauts, and this book really lays out the historical reasons why I didn't see any of these pioneering women during my formative years. Even though I was allowed to stay up late in July of 1969 to see men walk on the moon, the journey of these six women (Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Rhea Saddon, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Anna Fisher) is really even more impressive than that first spectacular mission. 

I liked how we get to see a lot of each women's growing up years; this is especially good for young readers who haven't experienced the difficulties that women had going into certain fields in the 1960s. That all of them were able to pursue science fields, thinking they would be good preparation for getting NASA programs, is remarkable in itself. I was especially interested to read about Saddon, Lucid, and Fisher, since I hadn't really heard of them. The fact that Saddon and Fisher were pregnant while pursuing careers in space was fascinating; my mother almost had to stop teaching when she was pregnant, so the pressure to keep this fact hidden must have been immense. 

After learning about the women's early years, we get a good look at how their experience with NASA was. Having to compete against each other for key roles, such as being the US woman to go into space, must have been very difficult. The book does a great job at laying out relationships without the space program, challenges that were faced, and personal difficulties that played into each woman's career. 

Perhaps my favorite scene in the book is the portrayal of Nichelle Nichols, of Star Trek fame, filming a recruitment ad for NASA aimed especially at women and people of color. Had I seen THAT when I was preparing for college, I might have been much more interested in space. 

Massimino's Spaceman (Adapted for Young Readers): The True Story of a Young Boy's Journey to Becoming an Astronaut (2020), Buckley's Michael Collins: Forgotten Astronaut (2019), Bolden's Star Sailor (2024), but it's much harder to find books specifically about women in the space program. This is a long book (at 342 pages, only 100 pages shorter than the adult version), and the ARC didn't have any pictures in it, so it's a better choice for more mature middle grade readers who have a decided interest in women's history or NASA. More casual readers will want to pick up the fantastic book by O'Shaughnessy, Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space, which does a great job of telling one of the stories of The Six, beautifully illustrated with a wealth of Ride's personal photos, which is still one of my favorite biographies.