It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
at
at
and #IMWAYR day
at
How to Stop Freaking Out: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Cool When Life Feels Chaotic
September 10, 2024 by Workman Publishing Company
E ARC Provided by Netgalley
This short, highly illustrated book helps kids and tweens understand more about why everyone occasionally "freaks out" and what can be done to manage these episodes and to hopefully freak out less. There's a lot of good explanations about things like the various response to challenging situations, where kids might find themselves being Freezers, Fighters, Flee-ers, Flipper-Outers or Fixers. Teen magazine-style quizzers help to determine this, and there are a number of these quizzes throughout the book to bring home lots of different points. There are some acronyms, like FART (Feelings, Automatic, Reactive, Too Far) and BuRPs (Button [pushing] Reduction Practices that will help kids remember what they are facing in times of emotional crisis. There's a great list of reasons why people freak out (no one ever taught you not to, you've had practice, it feels good in the moment, others in your life freak out), as well as solid scientific explanations of brain science. The most useful part of the book is probably the 26 Button Reduction Practices, which range from "breath" to "Yoga". There's even a discussion about mental health days, and I definitely appreciated the admonition that you should only take these if you actually need them. The book is rounded out with a good resource list of other books to consult.
I'll probably buy this for my library for one of the reasons mentioned for freak outs; many of my students appear not to have been taught how to avoid these. My mother's BuRPs pretty much started and ended with "ACT like we did not raise you in a barn"; growing up, I was unaware that freaking out was an option. And no, my mother NEVER lost her temper or had meltdowns. You... just didn't. However, this is much more common today, and I have on many occasions had to sit with kids in the library and remind them how to do box breathing or to tell me five things they can see, hear, etc. Since I am not licensed to deal with emotional crises, having a book like this gives me something to hand students that might be more useful to them than anything I can offer!
Pyron, Bobbie. Octopus Moon
March 25, 2025 by Nancy Paulsen Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this novel in verse we meet Pearl, who lives near the Gulf of Mexico, wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up, loves to run, and hangs out with her best friends Rosie and Mia, who has a collection of headbands with ears that she wears to school. As fifth grade begins, however, she finds it harder and harder to find joy in any of these activities. Like her Granddaddy, who frequently takes to bed with "headaches", she oftens finds getting up and getting to school difficult. Her parents, and her 9th grade sister Laurel, can see this, but while her mother is worried, her father thinks she is just going through a phase. After she doesn't make the track team, cuts off her hair (which she has struggled to maintain), and has teachers raise the alarm at conferences, her parents do set her up for therapy with Dr. Jill. She is reluctant to attend at first, and doesn't tell her friends what is going on. They have their own problems, after all; Rosie is being raised by her grandmother, since her mother is unreliable, and has financial difficulties, while Mia's parents are fighting and her mother sometimes doesn't get out of bed. Dr. Jill does help, and tells her that depression is an illness, and gives her tools to help her cope. She wants Pearl to do one impossible thing a day, and to put beads on a string when she does. When she finally tells Rosie, Rosie can't understand what Pearl would be depressed about, because her life is perfect in comparision. She quickly understands that it doesn't matter; depression is an illness, and is a good support to Pearl. Mia realizes that her own mother's problems might be similar. After Granddaddy has a stroke and struggles with physical therapy, he also admits that his lifelong struggles are related to depression. Pearl's mother is the head of public relations for the Gulfarium, which is Pearl's happy place, and when the organization needs to raise money, Pearl manages to step up to help. Thanks to Dr. Jill's help, she is able to help organize a 5k, get back to running, and even speak at the events. Dealing with her mental state is still an ongoing struggle, but with the help and support of friends, family, and a trusted professional, she is able to keep her head above water.
Strengths: Since COVID, there has been a big push for social emotional learning in schools, and lots of attempts to raise awareness about mental health issues. My school now has a Hope Squad, and an advisory where students are supposed to identify feelings, learn breathing techniques, etc., so Octopus Moon is definitely right on trend with the cultural zeitgeist. While Pearl does meet a little resistance (her father thinks that depression is an emotion rather than a disease, and her mother's parents have no use for the diagnosis at all), she does get the help she needs and is able to make some progress and feel better. Most of the book is about her navigating the depression, but it's nice to see her get involved with planning the fundraiser for the Gulfarium, both to see her progress and to give a little more motion to the through-the-school-year plot. The author's note about her own experiences with depression contribute additional depth.
Weaknesses: Pyron's other works are more dog and adventure related (A Dog's Way Home (2011), Dogs of Winter (2012), A Pup Called Trouble (2018), Stay (2019)), so fans of her earlier work might be surprised by both the format and the subject matter of this newest title. Also, I wish that Pearl had been in 7th or 8th grade; it can be a challenge to get readers in these grades to pick up books about younger students.
What I really think: This is a lyrical, "heart print" book that teachers and librarians will love and cry over. Interestingly, the connection between water, marine creatures, and sad topics happens frequently, in such books as Allen's The Line Tender, Braden's The Benefits of Being an Octopus, Dee's My Life in the Fish Tank, Kelly's Song for a Whale, Messner's The Seventh Wish, the Morris' Willa and the Whale, Santat's The Aquanaut, and Wilson's The Longest Whale Song.
In this novel in verse we meet Pearl, who lives near the Gulf of Mexico, wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up, loves to run, and hangs out with her best friends Rosie and Mia, who has a collection of headbands with ears that she wears to school. As fifth grade begins, however, she finds it harder and harder to find joy in any of these activities. Like her Granddaddy, who frequently takes to bed with "headaches", she oftens finds getting up and getting to school difficult. Her parents, and her 9th grade sister Laurel, can see this, but while her mother is worried, her father thinks she is just going through a phase. After she doesn't make the track team, cuts off her hair (which she has struggled to maintain), and has teachers raise the alarm at conferences, her parents do set her up for therapy with Dr. Jill. She is reluctant to attend at first, and doesn't tell her friends what is going on. They have their own problems, after all; Rosie is being raised by her grandmother, since her mother is unreliable, and has financial difficulties, while Mia's parents are fighting and her mother sometimes doesn't get out of bed. Dr. Jill does help, and tells her that depression is an illness, and gives her tools to help her cope. She wants Pearl to do one impossible thing a day, and to put beads on a string when she does. When she finally tells Rosie, Rosie can't understand what Pearl would be depressed about, because her life is perfect in comparision. She quickly understands that it doesn't matter; depression is an illness, and is a good support to Pearl. Mia realizes that her own mother's problems might be similar. After Granddaddy has a stroke and struggles with physical therapy, he also admits that his lifelong struggles are related to depression. Pearl's mother is the head of public relations for the Gulfarium, which is Pearl's happy place, and when the organization needs to raise money, Pearl manages to step up to help. Thanks to Dr. Jill's help, she is able to help organize a 5k, get back to running, and even speak at the events. Dealing with her mental state is still an ongoing struggle, but with the help and support of friends, family, and a trusted professional, she is able to keep her head above water.
Strengths: Since COVID, there has been a big push for social emotional learning in schools, and lots of attempts to raise awareness about mental health issues. My school now has a Hope Squad, and an advisory where students are supposed to identify feelings, learn breathing techniques, etc., so Octopus Moon is definitely right on trend with the cultural zeitgeist. While Pearl does meet a little resistance (her father thinks that depression is an emotion rather than a disease, and her mother's parents have no use for the diagnosis at all), she does get the help she needs and is able to make some progress and feel better. Most of the book is about her navigating the depression, but it's nice to see her get involved with planning the fundraiser for the Gulfarium, both to see her progress and to give a little more motion to the through-the-school-year plot. The author's note about her own experiences with depression contribute additional depth.
Weaknesses: Pyron's other works are more dog and adventure related (A Dog's Way Home (2011), Dogs of Winter (2012), A Pup Called Trouble (2018), Stay (2019)), so fans of her earlier work might be surprised by both the format and the subject matter of this newest title. Also, I wish that Pearl had been in 7th or 8th grade; it can be a challenge to get readers in these grades to pick up books about younger students.
What I really think: This is a lyrical, "heart print" book that teachers and librarians will love and cry over. Interestingly, the connection between water, marine creatures, and sad topics happens frequently, in such books as Allen's The Line Tender, Braden's The Benefits of Being an Octopus, Dee's My Life in the Fish Tank, Kelly's Song for a Whale, Messner's The Seventh Wish, the Morris' Willa and the Whale, Santat's The Aquanaut, and Wilson's The Longest Whale Song.
October 15, 2024 by Penguin Workshop
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Maya Greenspan lives close to New York City, in New Jersey, where her mother Sarah and Babushka Clara run the Russian Gourmet Deli. She helps out a lot, as did her father. However, her father is moving into his own apartment, and her parents have told her they are separating, but she can't tell anyone. Maya does confide in her best friend, Val, who is also the only one who knows about Maya's "hot hot feeling" of anxiety. Maya's dad, who decided that being a lawyer didn't work for him, has been trying to gets enough stand up comic gigs to find an agent, and hopes to hit the big time. Maya also tries her hand at telling jokes, because humor helps her deal with her anxiety a bit. When her favorite teacher, Ms. Banta, tells the class that there will be a talent show, Maya doesn't want to get up in front of others, but when she finds out that her father has been approached by the PTA to emcee the show, she feels that this would be an opportunity to get him to come around more. She really wants to get her parents back together, despite Babushka's dislike of her father, and is encouraged that her mother is quite nice when they are all together. When Maya spends weekends with her dad, he sometimes takes her to his shows even though he's not supposed to, and she is a little surprised that he sometimes has jokes about the food in the deli. He's excited that Maya is trying stand up, and gives her a book about comedy and helps her workshop ideas, including her catchphrase "ain't it funny". Maya notices that Ms. Banta seems to exhibit some of the behavior that Maya does; she's always dressed in a precise way, does things in multiples of three, and dislikes germs as much as Maya does. After Ms. Banta has a panic attack in the deli, Maya is very worried about her. She researched OCD and anxiety on the internet, and even tries to talk to her mother and grandmother about the evidence of these that she sees in herself, but they make light of her concerns and say that she comes from a long line of worriers, but that if she is strong, she'll be fine. Maya doesn't feel fine. She has to deal with Barry, who purposefully messes with things on her desk and makes fun of her, Mrs. Nelson, a classmate's mother who is demanding at the store, her father's growing amount of gigs, and preparing for the talent show. She's also worried about Ms. Banta, and even visits with her mother. Mrs. Nelson is trying to get Ms. Banta fired. When her father has to go to Canada for gigs the week before the talent show, and Maya finds out that he has never intended to move back home, it's too much for Maya. She has a panic attacks in class, and is sent to Ms. Graham, the school nurse. Ms. Graham takes her seriously, and talks to her mother. Her mother and father both explain that the father has had problems with anxiety as well, but they've always tried to hide it from her. Ms. Banta isn't well enough to come back this school year, but is looking for a therapist. Maya begins therapy for generalized anxiety disorder and OCD, and has exercises to try to help her manage her conditions, and she and her family begin to find a way forward. There are some recipes at the end of the book.
Strengths: There are a lot of students in middle school who are dealing with parents who are separated or divorced, and there are relatively few books on this topic. I enjoyed the Russian deli setting, and found it interesting that Maya was able to speak a bit of Russian. Babushka's stoic demeanor is something that is very true to people in a certain generation; I have many of the same beliefs that she does! The talent show is a good framework to support the many things that are going on. Ms. Banta's condition is helpful to see, and I was glad that it was explicitly stated that the school couldn't fire her for mental health issues. Val is a good friend, and Maya does eventually get help with her problems. The stand up comedy was woven in to the story effectively as well. There was a lot going on, but it was all deftly presented.
Weaknesses: I'm conflicted about the language that Maya uses to describe how she feels. "Hot hot" feeling is descriptive, and middle school children don't necessarily have any better way to describe their feelings, but it was sometimes confusing. I'm not sure how it could have been done differently.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Mackler's Not If I Can Help It, Piontek's Better with Butter, Baron's The Gray, or Sumner's The Summer of June. I'll probably purchase this, because there are a growing number of students with anxiety, so it's important that they see themselves in books and that others meet in print situations that may occur in real life. The fact that this wasn't JUST about Maya's anxiety really helped.
Weaknesses: I'm conflicted about the language that Maya uses to describe how she feels. "Hot hot" feeling is descriptive, and middle school children don't necessarily have any better way to describe their feelings, but it was sometimes confusing. I'm not sure how it could have been done differently.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Mackler's Not If I Can Help It, Piontek's Better with Butter, Baron's The Gray, or Sumner's The Summer of June. I'll probably purchase this, because there are a growing number of students with anxiety, so it's important that they see themselves in books and that others meet in print situations that may occur in real life. The fact that this wasn't JUST about Maya's anxiety really helped.
Sounds like all of these books have a lot to offer when it comes to social-emotional learning. Thanks for highlighting them!
ReplyDeleteI think there are a lot of kids suffering from anxiety, depression, panic attacks, or who are in situations where these happen, so all three books sound good additions for a school library. It's good to know they are there.
ReplyDelete