MMGM- Kyra, Just for Today and Marked Man

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

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Unleashing Readers

Zarr, Sara. Kyra, Just for Today

March 5, 2024 by Balzer + Bray

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Kyra and her mother Meg have a good life along the coast in California. Not great, but much better than five years ago, when Meg was struggling with active alcoholism. Her mom's been clean for a while, and the two have a routine. Her mother has a cleaning business that keeps them fed and in a decent apartment, even if they struggle to pay some bills. Meg is thoughtful about her recovery, goes to an AA meeting every week and talks to her sponsor. Kyra goes to a group, too, and is friends with Lu and her older sister Casey, who also attend. Their father is an alcoholic who left the family, and their mother remarried Steve, who is a high school friend of Meg's, so the families are very close. Lately, Lu has been hanging out a lot with Till and her group of friends, which disconcerts Kyra. Over winter break, Meg is given the opportunity to spend time for free in a client's house in Lake Tahoe, provided that she cleans it. Since Kyra has never seen snow, she's excited to go somewhere, especially since everyone else in her class seems to travel as well. The two have a great time, but when they get back, something seems off with Meg. She's working longer hours, sometimes sleeping past her alarm, and Kyra is very worried that she has started to drink. There are even a couple of days that she calls Kyra off sick from school so that she can help clean. Kyra is afraid to say anything in her support group or to Lu, especially since her friend is spending more and more time with the "cool girls". Kyra is able to hold things together until she burns her ankle making caramel, so that she can make cookies for Lu's birthday. Unable to get ahold of her mother, she calls Casey, who takes her home. Casey's mom takes Kyra to the urgent care to get her ankle looked at, and when Meg is finally located, it's decided that Kyra will stay with Lu's family for a while. Meg has started drinking again, and while it's not as bad as it had been, it's still worse than a "slip". In some ways, it's a relief to be a Lu's house where she is taken care of, and to finally know what is going on with Meg, but it's also hard to deal with friend issues and problems at school when she is worried that the life she has built with her mother might all crumble. Will Meg be able to regain her sobriety and keep life on an even keel for her and Kyra?

Strengths: I've been a fan of Zarr's work since Sweethearts (2008), and especially loved her entry into the realm of middle grade, A Song Called Home (2022). While there are many books with middle school aged characters facing really bad life situations and dealing with grief, it's much more realistic to see tenuous situations that are generally pretty good, but which can go bad in the blink of an eye. It's interesting to see how a young character copes with having to take care of herself and her parent, and to see the skills that Kyra is able to develop. She cooks really well, likes to clean, and does well with schoolwork when she is not worried about her mother. The depiction of a support group is helpful in case readers might be in need of one themselves; the details of what goes on at a meeting, as well as the links to help find where they are held, could be very useful to the right reader. The best part of this was the sense of resiliency and optimism. It wasn't a "oh, everything will be perfectly fine" sort of vibe, but rather one of quiet optimism that hard work and care will pay off, if only "just for today". Sometimes that's all we can hope for. 

Weaknesses: This moved a little bit slowly at first, but I started to realize that this gave the book a palpable feeling of dread that mimics Kyra's emotions. I think that my readers will like this, although I do wish the cover were slightly different. 

What I really think: It seems like there were more books about children dealing with alcoholism in the 1970s, but we are seeing a few more in the last couple of years, like Petro-Roy's Life in the Balance (2021), Bailey's Snow Foal (2021), Walter's The King of Jam Sandwiches (2021), Englefried's Learning to Fall (2022), and Lord's Home Away From Home (2023). This is the kind of sad book that does very well with my students, so I will definitely purchase a copy. 

Florio, John and Shapiro, Ouisie.

Marked Man: Frank Serpico's Inside Battle Against Police Corruption

March 19, 2024 by Roaring Brook Press

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Born in 1936, Frank Serpico's life started out in a fairly typical fashion. Immigrant parents, working in the family store, high school graduation, serving in Korea. He eventually made it into the police academy, and that's where things get interesting. He had several different assignments, and tried to move up in the ranks, but lacked the ability to read the room, which made it hard for him to get ahead. He dressed differently, and perhaps didn't connect with other officers or superiors who would have helped his upward movement. Of course, this served him well when he was exposed to the corruption in the police force. Upon receiving an envelope with $300 in it (which was a lot of money back in the 1960s; my mother was making $3,000 a year as a teacher), he feels immediately that it isn't right to keep it, and tries to talk to several people about it. He learns that this is considered part of the job, and that most of the policemen are on the take. When he tries to consult "good cops" and go to the newspaper, he finds out that even the editor of the newspaper pays bribes to the force so that the newspaper trucks don't get tickets. It's hard to fight that kind of system, but he eventually helps break a story, and for a while, there is some upheaval in the force and people brought to justice. Of course, if we look at other instances in the book, some from the 1990s when headlines screamed that someone was bringing home $4,000 a week in dirty money, it seems that Serpico changed very little. He was injured in the line of duty and eventually left the police force to live a quiet life after the 1973 Peter Maas book about his experiences was turned into a 1973 movie with Al Pacino. 

Strengths: For as violent and dangerous as Serpico's life was, the book is fairly tame. There's plenty of suspense and danger, but most of the book is concerned with how Serpico tried to work within the system to change things. There's just enough of an overview of his life before and after this rather short period of time when he was involved in trying to uncover corruption. There are a few pictures, lots of source notes, and this has the same appeal that this team's 2019 War in the Ring: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, and the Fight between America and Hitler has. An excellent choice for starting a research project or just getting a short dose of interesting history. 
Weaknesses: There is one f-bomb at the very beginning of the book, in a quote from Serpico himself, which wasn't unnecessary. It would have been nice to see some of the impact of Serpico's work on current policing, but it's not the fault of Florio and Shapiro that the law enforcement system has changed all too little. 
What I really think: This is a fairly short book (160 pages including lots of end notes), and there's enough interest in true crime in my library that I will purchase this to hand to readers who have gobbled up all of the Denson FBI Files books or Sullivan's graphic novels like Escape From Alacatraz. 

City Girls and The World Divided by Piper

Lopez, Loretta. City Girls

March 12, 2024 by Triangle Square

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Elisa has come from El Salvador to live with her mother, whom she hasn't seen since she was four years old. Her mother, who came to New York without documentation, deemed the journey to the US too dangerous, and left Elisa with her abuela. There, she was mistreated by the grandmother and also abused by a scary "chicken man" who haunts her dreams. She is working with a lawyer, Leah, who is interviewing her and working on her case for asylum. Elisa is slowly getting used to being with her mother, who is pregnant, and her mother's boyfriend, Octavio. At school, Elisa is doing fairly well, and befriends Lucia, whose mother is an oncologist and. The family is much better off that Elisa's. They are struggling with their own issues, however; Lucia's grandmother in Mexico has died, and when the book switches to her perspective, we learn that Lucia suspects her father is cheating on her mother. This is a lot to deal with at the age of eleven, but it's not as much as Alice has to deal with. Another classmate, Alice's father is a famous jazz musician who is older. Her mother gave up her musical career to raise Alice, and the free thinking "hippie" lifestyle doesn't go over too well with either Elisa or Lucia's families. Still, the girls befriend Alice, who is struggling with her mother battle with liver cancer. Lucia's mother is her oncologist, and when a new liver becomes available, the girls all hope that Alice's mother will get better, and that Alice's rage will be dealt with. 

Strengths: Ms. Lopez is a therapist who based these characters on girls she has worked with at The Brave House, so the details about struggles with immigration issues and the resultant mental health challenges that Elisa faces are very engaging. The friendship between the three very different girls is interesting, and they help each other out quite a bit. All of the parents play a larger role in the lives of the girls than I have seen in other middle grade novels, which seems rather realistic; I know that books sometimes kill off or incapacitate the parents in order to give the younger characters more freedom, but I think that in real life, children's lives are more greatly affected by family dynamics than is usually portrayed. Readers who like to see stories from a variety of perspectives will enjoy this.
Weaknesses: The cover of this made me think it would be set in the 1980s, but this was clearly a modern day novel. The characters all seemed younger than 11, and since they faced problems like possible sexual abuse, infidelity, and cancer, this might make it hard for the book to find the right audience, at least at my school. My 6th graders don't like problem novels as much, and my 7th graders want to read about characters who are their own age or older. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who found Glaser's A Duet For Home or Ehren's Matasha interesting. 

I liked the cover on the bottom better, but the one on the top is the one currently appearing on Amazon.
 

Carter, Caela. The World Divided by Piper

March 19, 2024 by Quill Tree Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Piper's life has had some turmoil recently; her mother had a baby about a year ago, her half sister Eloise has a boyfriend and a job and isn't home as much, and her endocrinologist is recommending that she stop taking the puberty blockers that she has been on since her diagnosis of early onset puberty was she was six. Piper is very intelligent, and heavily involved with an Academic Decathalon team with her friend Tallulah. Piper's mother is a professor of math, and teaches things like Advanced Theoretical Calculus, but still is ignored by doctors and called MRS. Frankin instead of Dr. or Ms., which Piper finds infuriating. Piper is determined to stay on the puberty blockers because she does not want to grow up and look like her mother, but she's having a hard time making her mother believe her reasons. Piper has been attending meetings of Healthy Happy Humans, a group for children experiencing problems with puberty, and her best friend, Ivan, is taking similar blockers because he is a trans boy. If they are safe for him, Piper reasons that she can stay on them as well. She hasn't told Tallulah these things, and Tallulah has her own challenges, since she is hyperintelligent but also struggles with ADHD, and is also Black. Since there have been few participants in Academic Decathalon who are Black, Tallulah feels a lot of stress and pressure with the competition, and she and Piper are having trouble deciding how they should divide the specialities. Despite Piper's repeated objections, her mother has her stop taking the puberty blockers. Since this occurs right around the time of the Decathalon competition, Piper is very upset. She eventually talks to people who help her put words to her feelings, and she is able to make her mother and Eloise understand that she doesn't mean to be hurtful when she says she doesn't want to look like them; this is just how she is reacting to the systemic oppression of women. Will Piper and her family be able to come to an agreement about her treatment? 

Strengths: There are not very many books about children involved in able and talented programs or academic competitions, and since a lot of my friends took part in things like Quiz Bowl, this was good to see. I also can't think of any middle grade books that address early onset puberty, or any endocrine problems, with the possible exception of Sloan's Short. Since I have known several people who have had to be on growth hormones, hormonal complications seem like underrepresented medical conditions in middle grade literature.  
Weaknesses: This is very contemplative and philosophical, as well as very intense. I'm not sure how many eleven year olds have the background knowledge to fully understand the idea of systemic oppression, but perhaps this book will help with that. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Salazar's The Moon Within or 

 Evans's Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins.

Happy Birthday, Fannie Farmer and I Feel Awful, Thanks

Smith, Emma Bland and Reagan, Susan (illus.)

The Fabulous Fannie Farmer: Kitchen Scientist and America’s Cook

January 30, 2024 by Calkins Creek
Copy provided by the publisher

Born in 1857, young Fannie Farmer probably followed the path of many young girls, helping her mother in the kitchen, but there is little about her early life. We do know that after a bout of what was most likely polio, her plans for attending college were scuttled, and she was not able to go to college to become a teacher. It wasn't until she was 31 years old that friends convinced her to attend the famous Boston Cooking School. She did so well there that she eventually taught at the school and became the head of it in 1894, around the time that my grandmother was born! She not only enjoyed cooking, but had a scientific bend, and when she wrote a bookbook for the school, she made sure to include complete measurements as well as detailed instructions rather than relying on the tradional, less formal recipes that included "pinches" of spices and "sugar to taste". She had to pay for the book's publication, but was savvy enough to get most of the profit. When the book did well, it changed the way that recipes were passed along, and helped reframe home economics with a more scientific focus. 

I am absolutely fascinated by the women who took traditionally feminine pursuits like cooking and managaed to elevate them in a way that helped give them more importance in a male dominated world. This picture book addresses the fact that cooking was considered something where "feminine intuition" played a large role, and something that women were supposed to know how to do naturally. We all know that this is not the case, so having recipes that give precises measurements and actual instructions for what to do with them is very helpful! The look at the Boston Cooking School was quite interesting. I know that when my grandmother attended teacher's college in 1912, she had to take cooking courses, and her notebooks included measurements, showing how fast the influence of Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book spread. 

Reagan's illustrations are captivating and do a good job at capturing the feel of the mid 1800s and showing how different clothing, kitchens, and food was during that time. There are even two recipes, one for popovers (which are great fun to make when they are successful!) as well as for angelfood cake. 

If you want a deep dive into home economics, take a look at Dreilinger's fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live, but for younger readers, add this book to a shelf in the kitchen that includes Hopkinson and Carpenter's 2001 Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story From Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements, Stanley's Alice Waters Cooks Up a Food Revolution, Rockliff's Try It!: How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat, Ford's How the Cookie Crumbled: The True (and Not-So-True) Stories of the Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie and Hartland's Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child.  

Pickle, Lara. I Feel Awful, Thanks

March 5, 2024 by Oni Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Joana lives in Spain, but manages to get a job as a potions master in London. It's hard to move to a new country and start a new job, but she's so glad to have her dream job that she manages to find a room to rent and get to know people at work. She is working on a project to help people talk to animals, but has a disagreement about the process with the project manager, Tom. She wants to follow company policy and not use any animal products in the creation of the potion, but Tom wants the team to use animal fur because it will be the quickest way to get the project completed and earning money. When Joana makes progress under her own terms, Tom is unkind and makes her life difficult. The woman from whom she rents the room is overly controlling, and makes home a stressful place for Joana. Even her supportive boyfriend is a cause for anxiety. When she has a bit of a meltdown at work, some of her friends suggest that she start seeing a therapist; the first one doesn't work well, but when Joana starts seeing a "dragon tamer" she is able to work through her insecurities, confront her awful boss, work through her budding romance, and find ways to deal with her life. 

Strengths: This is on trend with the current feelings toward anxiety and therapy, so there will be a lot of fans of this story. The London setting is appealing, and most readers are going to think that Joana's job making magical potions is a fantastic one. Of course, adulthood often seems appealing on the surface, but has problems that need to be worked through. The evil boss is dealt with in a manner that also shows current thoughts; he's dismissed and Joana gets to head the team. The illustrations are appealing, and I can see this being a very popular choice with readers who internalized Harry Potter and really think that somewhere, someday, they will find some magic for their own lives. 
Weaknesses: This is very tame for YA, but there is some drinking and several times that Joana and her boyfriend are shown cuddling in bed. Also, I somehow didn't understand that the illustrations were dragons; it looked like shattered glass to me. 
What I really think: Amazon lists this as "16 years and up", which would make sense. I think some of my readers might enjoy this, but it definitely felt more YA, so I will probably pass on purchase.

Listen to This

Blecher, Jennifer. Listen to This
March 26, 2024 by Greenwillow Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Lily and Will like each other, but this is never an easy thing to navigate in middle school! Lily, Maddie, and Sasha have been friends for a long time, and are there to support each other, but as seventh grade progresses, things start to change. There is a dance coming up that they all expect to go to together, but since Maddie and Sasha are on a premier soccer team that Lily didn't make, they will have to miss the dance. Not only that, but Maddie has told Lily a big secret that she isn't telling Sasha, and Sasha has secrets of her own. Will has his own struggles; his mother died when he was in third grade, and his father started a podcast called Dr. Dad that starts with Will's mother singing You Are My Sunshine. Will's friend Gavin listens to the podcast and often gives Will a hard time about it; he's Will's only friend, but is the kind of friend that makes one wonder why there is a friendship at all. To complicate matters, Will's mother Stephanie was best friends with the mother of Sienna, the seventh grade mean girl. Will and Sienna were close years ago, but lately Sienna has been unpleasant. It doesn't help that her mother seems to prefer Will, and is always fighting with Sienna. There's some fighting in Lily's world as well, since her older sister Reese is interested in fashion, and their mother doesn't think that social media is important. When Sienna, who is trying to match everyone up for the school dance, invites Lily to a sleepover, Lily is thrilled to be included at first, but when Lily refuses to call Will up and ask him to the dance, Sienna abruptly calls off the sleepover. Not only that, but when it turns out Lily has accidentally worn Sienna's even eye necklace home, Sienna starts a rumor that Lily has stolen it. Lily and Will start a very supportive relationship, but it is sabotaged when Will's father posts a picture of Will buying a similar necklace. Lily assumes that it is for Sienna, so stops talking to Will, and Will asks Stephanie for help after he fights with his father about the podcast. Emotions are running high, but will the two be able to untangle all of the complicated relationships of middle school to make their new one work? 
Strengths: This captured the beginning of a middle school romance brilliantly and awkwardly; I love how Will and Lily both struggle to connect to each other, and also have to deal with the perceptions of others, like Sienna, who feel compelled to insert themselves into their new relationship. That is middle school exactly. While Will's mother is dead, and there is some talk of the father struggling, the two seem to have found a way forward, even thought for the father this is revealing all of Will's life on his podcast! Sienna's mean girl is also intriguing, as she is portrayed as having struggles of her own. This moved forward quickly, and is just the sort of story I would have loved in middle school. 
Weaknesses: I wish we had seen more of Gavin, and learned how Will navigated this annoying friend. I'm so intrigued by friendships that don't make sense, like in Walker's Let's Pretend We Never Met. I think a lot of people have friends in middle and high school that they don't really LIKE all that much, but are still friends with for any number of complicated reasons. I'd love to see this explored in more middle grade novels. 
What I really think: I somehow didn't recognize this author, who also did Camp Famous and Stick With Me, both of which I liked and bought. This was great fun, and I am looking forward to handing it to both male and female readers, since it told from dual perspectives. There are not enough books with boys as the main characters that deal with romance, and this is perfect for fans of Richardson's Stu Truly and Costner's My Life as a Potato, which are both HUGELY popular in my library. 

Bird Girl and One Big Open Sky

Esbaum, Jill and Gibbon, Rebecca (illus.)

Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World

March 12, 2024 by Calkins Creek

Copy provided by the publisher

While I have yet to read Stratton-Porter's 1909 Girl of the Limberlost, I have several older friends for whom this book was a favorite, and after reading Bird Girl, I might have to read this classic, along with her 1904 Freckles. Considering how much building is going on in Ohio due to the Intel factory, the message about saving natural environments is more timely than ever!

Born in 1864, young Geneva loved being outdoors, and had a special love for birds. When her family had to move to the city, she brought along several as pets, but missed being able to go into the wilderness. As an adult, she was able to return to living in the country, and wrote stories for magazines about her adventures, but was appalled that they would be illustrated with pictures of stuffed birds. Once she got a camera, she went to great lengths to capture birds in their native element, no matter how muddy she got, and earned great acclaim for her photography as well as her writing. 

An afterword tells more about Stratton-Porter's life, as well as the fate of the Limberlost, which was damaged by development, but in recent years has seen successful reclamation efforts. This was new information to me, since I had only been familiar with her novels that were roughly contemporary to Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. 

Gibbons, who also illustrated  Marjory Saves the Everglades: The Story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas by Sandra Neil Wallace, soe a great job at capturing the flora and fauna of Stratton-Porter's world and making it a setting into which the reader would love to travel, with it's colorful plant life and vibrant birds. 

While it would be great to include this book in a display for Women's History Month, I'd also love to see it showcased for Earth Day in April along with The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest by Lang and Christy, Rachel Carson and Her Book that Changed the World by Lawlor, Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World by Johnson and Sadler, and Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park by Alexander and Ely.

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Cline-Ransom, Lesa. One Big Open Sky

March 5, 2024 by Holiday House

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this novel in verse, Lettie thinks that her family is doing fairly well in 1879 Mississippi, even though her father struggles a bit with the land that they farm. Her father, however, struggles with the fact that his family were sold away from him when they were enslaved, and isn't happy to have to work land that doesn't belong to him. When he decides to head west to Nebraska to stake his claim there, Lettie, her brothers Elijah and Silas, and her mother, Sylvia are uprooted. The family prepares a wagon with all of their supplies, and makes arrangements to get out west. Sylvia is dismayed to leave her family, especially since she is pregnant. The journey doesn't go well, starting with the fact that the ship on which they are supposed to sail up the Mississippi river won't let their family on because they are Black. They also underestimate the supplies that they will need, and end up having to restock in Independence, Missouri where things are very expensive. They are lucky to have a teacher, Philomena, agree to pay them in exchange for riding in their wagon with them. She is leaving a difficult home life for a teaching job and ends up being a very helpful member of the group, helping out with cooking and various tasks. Lettie adopts the dog of one settler who perishes, and Sutter never leaves her side. The trail west was fraught with all sorts of dangers, and Lettie's family experiences many of them, including a tragedy that puts the family's future in jeopardy. I would love to see a second book that details Lettie's new life in Nebraska. 

Strengths: It is always interesting to see different perspective for historical events, like Schwabach's Starting from Seneca Falls, and Cline-Ransom does a great job of weaving in details about the prejudice and racism Black people faced in the post Civil War South with an exploration of the difficulties of traveling west. The vast amount of walking, the limited food supplies, the dangerous river crossings, and the various other threats to survival are all fascinating; I loved this type a book when I was in elementary school because I liked to think how I would fare under similar circumstances. Lettie is keeping notes about the journey and logging costs, and I love how interested she is in the one newspaper that her father buys for her. Philomena is a fantastic character who is taking control of her own life, and even finding romance with another traveler who accepts her as an equal. The challenges of the journey are not sugar coated at all, and young readers who perhaps have never played the Oregon Trail computer game will be shocked at the lack of amenities. Survival stories are always popular with middle grade readers, and I think that Lettie's experiences will appeal to many of them. 
Weaknesses: While there was some mention of the Native American population with modern sensitivities in mind, I was expecting a lot more. The verse format doesn't allow as much background history to be included, and I wonder if younger readers who aren't as familiar with westward migration will need some nonfiction support for this title. 
What I really think: Carr's 1934 Children of the Covered Wagon was one of my favorite books in the 4th grade, so this was quite a treat for me. Hand this to readers who enjoyed Park's Prairie Lotus , Philbrick's Stay Alive, or Nolen's Hope's Path to Glory: The Story of a Family's Journey on the Overland Trail.

Annie Turnbo Malone and Come Home Safe

Tyner, Dr. Artika R. The Untold Story of Annie Turnbo Malone: Hair Care Millionaire (First But Forgotten)

January 1, 2023 by Capstone Press
Public library copy

This was a brillianly formatted book with lots of great information about a forgotten entrepreneur. It's short (32 pages), but  reads more quickly while still packing in a lot of information.

The photoillustrations are particularly great. Even thought there is not a lot of information available about Malone, the author does a great job at setting the scene and covering events in the world and in similar businesses. There is a photo of a mural of the town of Metropolis, Illinois, a picture of hair care products, peanut farmers working in the late 1890s, etc. to help show young readers what Malone's world looked like. I liked that there is a final chapter about Malone's legacy, along with a glossary. A timeline wouldn't have been a bad addition, but isn't strictly necessary.

I'm definitely looking into purchasing this entire set for my library, since there are titles like Bridget Mason: A Freedwoman Becomes an Entrepreneur, Mary Golda Ross Pioneering Space Engineer, and Larry Itliong: Labor Rights Hero. The most well known of the group, to me, was Michael Collins.

Thanks to Maerin Coughlan (@CapstoneMaerin) for bringing this series to my attention on Twitter!

 

Buckmire, Brian C. Come Home Safe
February 7, 2023 by Blink

Public library copy

Reed is in 9th grade, and hoping to be the first freshman to make the varsity soccer squad. He always has a soccer ball with him, and take every opportunity to practice-- even if he's wearing his usual button-down, blazer, and nice jeans. His younger sister, Olivia, is in 7th grade, and is very interested in the debate team for which she has just started to practice. Because their father, who is Black, is a public defender, he has instilled in the two very strict forms of behavior, and has drilled them in what to do in case they are ever stopped by the police. Reed travels from his school every day to pick up Olivia and get the subway home, and the two take the responsibility of traveling on their own very seriously. When Reed is approached by several acquaintances before getting on his train, and they ask if he would like to smoke some marijuana, Olivia tells them in no uncertain terms that this is illegal and they do NOT wish to be involved. The siblings board the train and are minding their own business when the police ask Reed for his identification. He would prefer not to give it, and alerts Olivia to start recording the transaction, which is legal. The police think that Reed matches the description of young Black men who have run from the police after having been suspected of having marijuana. Reed does everything his father has told him to do, including giving the police a hand written card requesting that the police call his father and that he be allowed to have his lawyer present before being questioned, but they find this annoying and continue putting pressure on him for his identification. When Reed's soccer ball gets away from him, he reflexively runs to get it, and the police accuse him of trying to flee. They injure him, and the situation escalates. Afterwards, Reed is angry. His father keeps Olivia's recording, and takes Reed to the hospital to document his injuries. There is talk of filing a complaint against the police, but nothing really comes of this. Months later, Reed is still angry. While out in the park with their white mother, Reed and Olivia decide to go to a local coffee shop. Olivia enters, gets her drink and asks for the shop WiFi. Before too long, a white woman comes in screaming that she has lost her phone, and that Olivia has taken it. The shop manager asks Olivia if he can see her phone, but she refuses. She knows her rights, and maintains that she has done nothing wrong. The woman becomes combative, and when Reed gets involved, the woman becomes violent and scratches him. Olivia calls 911 to report that her brother has been attacked, mainly so that there is a record of her side of the story. After much yelling and confrontation, a taxi driver enters and tells the woman that she left her phone in the car. The police are also there, and while the woman wants to just leave, Olivia and Reed, whose mother has finally come to the shop, tell the police what the woman has done, and she ends up being taken away in handcuffs. Olivia is disappointed that even her mother doesn't understand why she wouldn't just hand over her phone. Their father appreciates that his children have listened to his teachings, and shares their grief over the current situation of racial issues in the US. 

Strengths: It was great that Reed was interested in soccer, and I wish there had been more information about his soccer playing and position on the team. The amount of legal information is amazing, and I learned a lot about interactions with the police. Olive is great, and uses her debating skills to deal with difficult situations, although sometimes she is too frightened to utter her very well thought out responses. The inclusion of a white mother who has not had the same lived experiences as her children adds another intriguing layer to this story. The best thing about this book is that it addresses Young Adult issues in a way that is still accessible to middle school readers. There should be a lot more stories with ninth grade protagonists. 
Weaknesses: The narrative flow of Olive and Reed's experiences suffers when there is so much legal information presented. This might have been a more successful book if written as a nonfiction book in the manner of Acho's Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy. The two instances are very separate, and I wish there had been more to Olive and Reed's story than just the horrific racial violence. They are intiguing characters who deserved more than one side of their lives. In Draper's Blended, the racial problems are driven home more powerfully because we have gotten to know Isabella so well. 
What I really think: While this has a lot of really good information, I wish that it had been written in conjuction with a Black Young Adult author so that the story would have been better presented. I will still purchase this for fans of Arnold's I Rise or Nic Stone and Renee Watson for its important and timely sociopolitical message. 

STEM Tuesday: Cactus Queen

Alexander, Lori and Ely, Jenn.(Illustrator)

Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park
March 5, 2024 by Calkins Creek
Copy provided by the publisher

Minerva Hamilton was born in Mississippi, but moved to Pasadena, California in 1897 after her marriage to Dr. Albert Hoyt. She often traveled into the Mojave Desert and enjoyed looking at the unusual scenery, including the Joshua trees, which didn't grow anywhere else. When the rapid expansion of Los Angeles threatened this unique environment, cutting down the trees for use in Hollywood pictures, Hoyt was sad, and decided to act. She took displays about the desert to the 1928 International Flower Show, winning a gold medal, and continued to tour with the show to raise awareness. She eventually spoke to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibility of making the area a national park in order to protect it, but the advisor sent to examine the area arrived there on a dismal, rainy day, and decided that the area did not meet the criteria for inclusion. Hoyt started a letter writing campaign urging the government to reconsider, and in 1936, the Joshua Tree National Monument, preserving at least some of the million acres Hoyt had hoped to save. 

The most amusing fact in this was that the Joshua tree may have inspired Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, with its endangered Truffula trees! Early twentieth century development was so rapid, and little thought was given to the native plants and animals or their environments. It's lucky that there were people like Hoyt who saw the importance of these natural spaces and fought for their protection. 

Ely's illustrations are vibrant, and well formatted against the text, with plenty of spacing and colorful backgrounds. The facial expressions are great, even if Hoyt's eyebrows follow the Cap'n Crunch model and are placed on top of her hair. There was clearly a lot of research to replicate the clothing of the era as well as the natural environment of the Joshua tree area. 

I'd love to do a unit on development with elementary students. Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House would be a heart tugging way to start, and could be followed by books like this, along with Esbaum and Gibbons' Bird Girl, Tucker and Persico's Greta and the Giants, and Winter's The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps or Hopkins and McElmurry's The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed A City Forever.

The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic

Benko, Camilla. The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic
February 27, 2024 by Bloomsbury Children's Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Olivia Hayes lives in the magical realm of Arden, to which Claire and Sophie traveled in The Unicorn Quest books. She lives with her Nan, who is a Tiller and runs a magical apothecary. Olivia tries to help, but since she has no magic and is often distracted, she sometimes makes rather large mistakes, like accidentally turning the mayor into a giant mushroom! She's surprised to find that she's been invited to a new magical academy in the city of Lumin, but she only has three days to get there. She hopes that this would give her the opportunity to finally find some shred of magic, but despairs of getting Nan's permission, or a way of traveling to the city. When her sister Laurel returns from her training with the news that she has been hired to be a healer in Lumin and has asked to bring Olivia as her assistant, Oliva sees a way to attend the school. Unfortunately, the Dandiloon (hot air balloon contraption) that the girls use for the voyage runs into bad weather when Olivia is reading rather than paying attention, and crashes. The Ambrosia potion that Laurel is taking to the school gets lost, and Olivia sets out to find it while Laurel repairs their vessel. Surprisingly, Olivia comes across a unicorn! She hopes to take it back to Laurel's school, but when she tries to capture it by holding on to its horn, she falls into a sinkhole. Luckily, Laurel hears her and rescues her, and Olivia barely makes it to her school in time. She ends up being given Spinner training, which is odd given her Tiller family connections, but that is where her talents seem to lie. She makes some good friends, like Tourmaline, who is learning about Gemming and is useful to consult about history, as well as different kinds of magic. There is someone who is trapping unicorns, and the school is impacted by the problems that this causes. At some point, Olivia strongly suspects that Laurel is the culprit, and she is even arrested. Things are more complicated than that, and Olivia finds herself playing a larger role than she ever imagined in the problems with the unicorns. One of the students has come from another world, and when things become especially dire, Olivia finds herself embarking on a new adventure that will certainly take at least one more book to complete. 

Strengths: Olivia is an appealing character because she, like my middle grade readers, doesn't have any magic. This gets her into all kinds of trouble, but her persistence in getting to Lumin City and attending the school despite her Nan's objections will definitely be of interest to middle grade readers who secretly believe that they, too, have hidden magic. It's a very exclusive school, operating for a very short time, and intricately involved in the larger political schemes being affected by the unicorns, putting Olivia and her friends in a good position to save their universe from destruction. Having Laurel supposedly involved in illicit activity is intriguing, and the twist that this takes is quite good. Fans of  The Unicorn Quest will be eager to get their hands on this book!
Weaknesses: I expected that one of the characters, who is revealed at the end as coming from New York City, would have been from The Unicorn Quest series, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I'm a little unsure if this book takes place after that series or before it. Unicorns seem to be as rare in Olivia's world, so maybe it takes place around the same time? I also didn't follow the thread of the war between the guilds and how this impacted the unicorns, although it did seem to be something I remembered from the other books. 
What I really think: This had a lot of delightful magic, and some very solid academy details about classes, different kinds of magic, and even some potions, so this will be very popular with young readers who harbor a secret desire to have their own unicorn. I just sort of wished that the story had been happier, and not the unicorn fantasy/dystopia it ended up being, because I read it on a very gray, cold day. Have even our fantasy adventure books become this dire? 
 

MMGM- Unstuck and The Enigma Girls

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Dee, Barbara. Unstuck

February 27, 2024 by Aladdin

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lyla is struggling in 7th grade; her best friend from elementary school, Rania, attends Dickinson Middle School, while Lyla attends Whitman. Lyla still hasn't found a new friend, but does eat lunch every day with Journey, a quirky girl who is very interested in animals and a bit less interested in Lyla's concerns. Lyla's older sister, Dahlia, is a senior in high school, and struggling with writing her college application essays, which causes a lot of friction between her sister and her parents. This also causes Lyla to feel that her parents don't really care about her. For her language arts class, her favorite teacher, Ms. Bowman, is having the students do whatever creative writing makes them happy, and this is a bright spot in Lyla's world because she has a fascinating and complicated fantasy novel she is working on. She has the most amazing first sentence, character studies, names, and even maps... but she can't get beyond that first sentence. She envies others in her class, like Stella, who seems to churn out writing effortlessly. She becomes very stressed with the whole process, especially since she wants to enter-- and win!-- a local writing contest that Dahlia had done well in when she was in middle school. Not only that, but she feels disconnected from Raina. When the two finally plan a sleepoever, Lyla is disappointed that some of Raina's new friends from the track team at her school are also there. Lyla really wants to discuss her story with Raina to help figure out the direction she should take, but when she talks about it briefly, she comes across as bragging, since Raina's new friends make her feel less accomplished. The tensions at home increase, and Dahlia confides in her that she doesn't want to go to college right away, but is afraid to tell her parents. Not only that, but she is failing some of her courses! She begs Lyla not to tell, which puts her in a difficult position. When Lyla finds out that Raina's new friends bullied Journey so much that her parents pulled her out of school and homeschooled her, Lyla wants to confront her old friend, but isn't sure quite how to approach the topic, especially since the two rarely talk. As her stress levels rise, Ms. Bowman tries to help, having the whole class do free writing, letting Lyla go to the library for a change of scenery, and letting her know that all writers occasionally struggle and that Lyla should be kind to herself and "write her feelings". This helps, and Lyla begins to work on her story, using it as a way to process her emotions about what is going on in her life. Dee includes 25 tips for writers at the end of the book.  

Strengths: Dee is always on trend with issue of friendship, mental health, and family dynamics; in fact, she may set the trends. Dahlia's college application process is no doubt exactly what many post-pandemic high schoolers are going through right now. Who knew that gap years were even an option? The fact that the parents are supportive but also really irritated with her is perfect. Ms. Bowman is a great teacher (and also plays bass in a rock band!), and will be a big draw for adult readers who love her approach to the writing process. The friend drama is definitely on point for today's tweens as well; everyone loses at least one friend during middle school, and when you only HAVE one friend, it is especially devastating. There is a nice balance of the different plot threads. 
Weaknesses: This was a hard read for me personally, and we're supposed to share these emotions with people or they get angry because we're holding back, right? I was Lyla in middle school. I wrote the world's worst novel in 7th and 8th grade, and was probably just as irritating to my friends about my process. Does Dee capture middle grade sensibilities and emotions? Absolutely. This just hit a little close to home for me, but was certainly very well written and insightful. I certainly did not become a writer. 

What I really think: Dee's novels are very popular in my library, and I will definitely purchase this one. It's a good choice for readers who are working on their own fantasy novel, or who enjoyed Baptist's Isaiah Dunn Saves the Day or Mills' Write This Down. 

Fleming, Candace. The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II

March 5, 2024 by Scholastic Focus
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Fleming's Scholastic Focus titles like The Curse of the Mummy (2021) and Crash From Outer Space: Unraveling the Mystery of Flying Saucers, Alien Beings, and Roswell (2022) are popular in my library, but since this involved World War II, it will be even MORE popular! 

Focusing on just ten of the young women who worked at Bletchley Park in a variety of roles, this book gives a great overview of the different types of jobs held by women from different social classes who had a range of abilities. There were debutantes who had been to school abroad, and so spoke language, girls who signed up for the WRENs, and even tall girls who were assigned to the bombe machines because of their height! Given that, according to the book, there were four hundred men and a thousand women working at the facility, this is just a fraction of the stories that could be told. 

While all of the women signed the official secrets act, and in general, held their tongue and work their work was (two women who got in a fight in the canteen and mentioned some of the secrets out loud were summariliy dismissed!), there is a lot of information about the types of work they did, and even pictures of some of the Enigman machines, German cipher books, and notecards. While there were a number of steps that the higher ups knew in their entirety, the workers at each step were unaware of what the other divisions were doing, to the point where messages were pushed through openings so that the workers couldn't communicate with each other. Some of the more significant accomplishments of the code breaking at Bletchley included taking down the Italian navy and sinking the German Bismarck. The depiction of how the women would feel when codes didn't get broken, knowing that it meant that the British army didn't have information about what attacks might happen, was heartbreaking. 

There was a good mix of information about the code breaking that went on and how daily life unfolded. I loved that one of the more well-to-do women found a family friend with an estate eight  miles away who was able to billet a number of the women. The feeling that everyone had to do their part makes the story intriguing, and there is even some romance. It is amazing how young some of the women were. The research to uncover information about them had to have been daunting, but Fleming is a master at this. 

It's hard to even get my mind around all of the information in the book, but it is presented in a very engaging way. Young readers won't have seen the television program, The Bletchley Circle, about women who had been working in decoding and didn't tell anyone about their wartime activities even when they came back to haunt them in various ways in the 1950s, but will still be interested in the sort of work that was done. Not as many of my female readers are interested in WWII, but that makes this book even more valuable. Keep this one available for readers who enjoyed Farrell's Standing Up Against Hate: How Black Women in the Army Helped Change the Course of WWII (2019), Wein's A Thousand Sisters:The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II (2019), and Pearson's Fly Girls: The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped Win WWII (2018).

A Stinky History of Toilets and Gut Reaction

I would feel somewhat bad about listing these two books together, since the history of toilets might seem to be less serious than the medical issues addressed in Gut Reaction, but a parent recently thanked me for pairing fiction and nonfiction titles for her son, who had previously refused to read fiction books. 

Meikle, Olivia, Nelson, Katie, and Kasperowicz, Ella (illus.) 

A Stinky History of Toilets 

March 5, 2024 by Neon Squid

Copy provided by the Publisher

Sarah Albee's fantastic 2011 Poop Happened: A History of the World from the Bottom Up includes just about everything this new title does, but with more detail. For readers who are more inclined toward shorter snippets of information as well as colorful, infographic style illustrations, this is just as informative, and a tiny bit sillier. 

If you're familiar with the classic Taro Gomi Everyone Poops from 1981, you will not be surprised that there are lots of pictures of poop, done in a somewhat similar style. That will be a big draw for younger readers, who find much humor in this, but the real value is in the complete history of the development of toilets and attendant sanitary facilities. This goes around the world and talks about the differences in practices, and how sometimes people are at odds over these. 

Everything from the well known practices of the Romans, to the Viking midden at Jorvik, to a brief description of John Snow's work with cholera is presented with statistics, maps, and lots of facts. Sure, there are lots of pictures of people sitting on toilets with their pants around their ankles, but if King Louis of France could entertain people in his throne room like this, there's no reason these circumspect illustrations can't point out how things have changed in the world of lavatories. 

Middle school and elementary school libraries need this as a nonfiction accompaniment to all of Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants books, along with Yomtov's The Gross, Grimy History of the Toilet, Perdew's How the Toilet Changed History, and Marsico's Stinky Sanitation Inventions, and Gregory's 2006 collection of photographs of Toilets of the World. 

Larson, Kirby and Wyatt, Quinn. Gut Reaction
March 5, 2024 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Tess and her younger sister Gracie have moved to a new place after her mother gets engaged to Scott. Scott is fine, but Tess is still dealing with her father's sudden death from a heart attack three years ago. He was a baker, and Tess has followed in his footsteps, although since he died when she was in the middle of a children's baking competition, it's sometimes hard. Her stomach has been bothering her, sometimes a lot, and she suspects that all of the stressors are piling up. She tries to watch what she eats and avoid things that trigger her, but doesn't tell her mother about her problems. Things get off to a rocky start at her new school, but she eventually makes friends with Elly, who is into older music by artists like Nina Simone and Jimi Hendrix, and her friend Rajit, by bringing baked goods to school. There's also Emmett, who also lost his father, and Brooklyn, who is trying very hard to get their language arts teacher to update the books that the students have to read. When Tess gets an invitation to another competition, she really wants to go, but knows that her mother is struggling with money, and also that this reminder of her father might be difficult. There's also her worsening health condition. Her mother eventually catches on and notices that Tess has lost weight, but it takes a medical emergency to really finally get answers. Still on the mend, Tess has to practice for the baking competition with the help of her new friends. This is tiring, but she manages to come up with some good ideas. The competition is tough, and it doesn't help that Flora, a winner of a previous competition, is a nasty participant. Still, things go well until the final round. 

Strengths: I am all about weaponizing baked goods, even if I will never have enough patience to measure flour by ounces instead of cups! It was good to see that Tess managed to integrate into her new school, and eventually found some friends, and also to see that her stepfather to be was a good guy who was supportive. These are both important messages for young readers; there are too many books where these occurrences are portrayed in very dire ways. Tess' health problems unfold in a realistic way, with enough drama to appeal to young readers. Author Wyatt's own struggles add a nice level of depth to the experience. It's been almost ten years since the We Need Diverse Books movement; now that we have more variety in the ethnic and cultural connections, the new frontier seems to be health issues and LGBTQIA+ characters. It's nice to see a growing number of books with these concerns, and there's certainly room for more of them. 
Weaknesses: I wish there had been more about Tess and Emmett's interest in each other, especially since Elly also had a crush on him, but we don't hear much about that after the competition begins. While I loved that Tess was involved in the competition, I could have used more information about Crohn's disease and fewer details about the baking competition. 

What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who found Arlow's The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet or Eliopolis' Will on the Inside informative, but has more in common with books involving cooking competitions, like Harper's Lights, Cameras, Cook!, Delaney's Alice Fleck's Recipe for Disaster, LaMotte's Measuring Up, Schroeder's It's Raining Cupcakes, or Negron's The Last Super Chef. 

Amy's Big Brother and The Lucky Poor

Jeong, BonHyung. Amy's Big Brother   

December 12, 2023 by JY

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this companion to Kyle's Little Sister, we meet Andrew, who is a friend of Kyle's. He struggles a bit with issues at home, since he was adopted as an infant, but his parents then had a biological child, his younger sister Amy, who is not well behaved. He feels that his parents baby her, and always take her side whenever there is an altercation. Often, Amy makes a small issue into an altercation to get attention, which is endlessly frustrating to Andrew. He just wants to play basketball with his friends, but he is also interested in a girl in his class, Hannah. After an awkward start, they start "going together", but even this is not easy. Hannah has less time to spend with her friends, and Andrew wishes he had more time to spend playing basketball. He wants to be a "good boyfriend", however, and pays lots of attention to Hannah, waiting for her after class and texting her frequently, but this starts to feel oppressive to Hannah. They eventually break up because of this lack of communication, but the two do talk things over (with a little help from Amy) and come to an understanding. 
Strengths: This has a fairly pleasing illustrative style that is reminiscent of Speed Racer and manga, so there is a built in audience for it right away. This does a good job at capturing how all consuming romantic relationships can be in middle school, and how fraught with anxiety tweens can get in such situations. The push and pull between competing desires is not terribly well represented in middle grade literature; too many books concentrate on the emotion of grief, when really, the desire to be liked and wanted is probably much more prevalent in this demographic, and is no less powerful because adults might think it's silly. Adults view loss as death; tweens view it slightly differently, and this book shows some very realistic feelings about being in a budding relationship. 
Weaknesses: I personally found the yelling and over the top emotions to be wearying, but then, even in middle school I had no patience for dramatic hystrionics. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want graphic novels with lots of tween angst and emotion, like Misako's Bounce Back or Chmakova's Berrybrook Middle School series. 

Lovie, Mazie. The Lucky Poor

March 12, 2024 by Iron Circus Comic

ARC provided by the Publisher

In this graphic style memoir, we follow the various housing and life experiences of young Mazie. While her family managed to stay housed, the quality of the dwellings was often sub-par; there was the "bug house", apartments with the mother's boyfriends, and apartments with mice in sketchy neighborhoods. The author still considers her family "lucky poor" because of the support of grandparents, who not only had a farm but also access to a summer cabin, and were supportive of Maizie and her autistic younger brother Jake. Maizie even had the opportunity to go to a summer program for siblings of children with autism, that provided her with a break from having to be patient with her brother. Maizie's grades were decent, and she had some friends, including ones who accept that she may be a lesbian or bisexual. After several years with an unkind boyfriend, her mother applies for a Habitat for Humanity Home, and the family spends a lot of time working on the house. Maizie is glad to have a larger, safer place to be, and wonders why this opportunity isn't extended to everyone, and not just people who know to apply to the program.
Strengths: The topic of housing challenges doesn't come up in middle grade literature as often as it could, and this is a good representation of different situations that young people might find themselves in. The information about the Habitat for Humanity process of applying and providing "sweat equity" was interesting. Jake's behaviors are challenging, but the family does a good job at helping him process situations, and I was glad to see that Mazie was able to understand his needs and be helpful to him even when he was somewhat burdensome to her. The depiction of a supportive extended family was good to see.
Weaknesses: The illustration style is certainly different from recent graphic novels; the pictures are clear, and in bold colors, but somehow simpler than many I've seen.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy books like Lesage's AWOL or Knisley's Stepping Stones that deal with a sometimes difficult living arrangements for tweens.

Guy Friday- Walkin' the Dog

Lynch, Chris. Walkin' the Dog
March 12, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

During the summer before high school, things are not going exactly the way Louis would like. His father is a fisherman, and needs Louis to walk Old Man Dan's dog so that Dan can go out and work on the boat. Both Dan and his dog, Amos, are both rather odiferous, for various reasons, but the dog is commonly called "Anus" because of his smell. While Louis isn't thrilled with getting up early and walking the dog, it's a pleasant enough way to spend time, and it might get him out of visiting his mother. His mother worked at a women's shelter, and after an injury sustained at work, became addicted to pain killers. She's been recuperating at the Knoll, but isn't ready to come home yet. Louis' slightly older sister, Faye, is determined that they will visit their mother, especially since another brother, Ike (who is training to be a policeman), doesn't get along with her quite as well. While out walking Amos, he meets Agatha, who forcibly becomes his friend. She even tags along to a new dog walking client that Dan has arranged for Louis, in exchange for a discount, of course! The friendship with Agatha is amusing, and a good thing for Louis, because he has been homeschooled and struggles a bit with making friends. Faye especially is amused by Agatha, and encourages the two to spend time together. There are plenty of dogs to walk, and Louis even finds a couple of unusual dogs at the edge of town. One of these seemingly belongs to Agatha, but she's not always telling the entire truth, especially about where she lives. Louis misses his mother, and desperately wants her to come home. He meets up with Cy, who is a few years older, and who had been tutored by his mother for some tests a few years back. Cy lives in the same apartment building as Agatha, although Agatha has claimed to live in a mansion. It's not always easy to deal with the dogs, his mother, his older brother, or the thought of going to public school for high school. Will Louis find the support he needs to continue to make progress in his life? 

Lynch, who has written a wide variety of young adult novels, including the I Pledge Allegiance series and the fantastic 1995 Slot Machine, gives us an interesting look at a very mundane yet impactful summer in  one young man's life. It's good to see Louis put his freedome to good use, walking dogs, visiting his mother, and hanging out with Agatha and Cy. The problems he has to face are interspersed with amusing activities and dogs, and his relationship with Agatha is peppered with witty repartee and an eventual light romance. 

Louis is such a great character, and shows a lot of reluctant resilience. He doesn't want to get up early and walk the dog, but his mother has inculcated in him that he should help others, so he does it with good grace. He doesn't like Ike or the way his brother treats him, and copes with this by avoiding his brother, which is sometimes the only thing to be done. He and Faye get along well, and seeing the juxtaposition of the sibling relationships adds another layer of interest to the book. 

There are some sad things; not one but two dogs die, Louis' mother struggles all summer with dealing with her addiction, and Ike is not at all pleasant to his brother for most of the book. The publisher lists this as being for readers ages 8-12, in grades 3-7, but I think that the book will resonate most with slightly older readers who will appreciate the introspection and the descriptive quality of Lynch's fantastic writing. There is one f-word, and lots of description of dog effluvia, so is perhaps not the best choice for tender readers. 

Older readers who enjoy combining human social drama with dog shenanigan's will love this one; I need to let one of my readers who would ONLY read dog books know about this one, now that he has moved on to the high school. He read everything I could find, like Cameron's Zeus: Water Rescue (Dogs With A Purpose #1), Northrop's Rotten, and Jennifer Li Shotz's various dog books like Scout. I liked that Walkin' the Dog focused a little more on Louis' journey with the dogs as sidekicks, instead of focusing on what the dogs were thinking and feeling! 

Goblin Monday and Evil Spy School: The Graphic Novel

Stine, R.L. Goblin Monday (Goosebumps House of Shivers #2)
March 5, 2024 by Scholastic Paperback
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Mario Galagos has moved to Philadelphia from Florida, where he has never seen snow. His new neighbors are Todd and Jewel Simms, and he's super excited to be traveling to Vermont over winter break to visit his new friends' grandparents. He even brings a snow blower so he can do snow sculpting. Tweety and MomMom are a little quirky, but it's nice to be away from the city, so Mario can put up with MomMom's constant barrage of stew and grandpa Tweety's strange stories. The cat, Firefly, is often on edge, and Tweety claims is is because of the goblins in the garden. Todd and Jewell brush this off, but after he is attacked by one in the garden, Mario takes the warnings seriously. Tweety has given each of the kids an amulet filled with nutmeg that he warns them to wear, since goblins are put to sleep by the aroma of the spice. As the days pass, Mario see Tweety eating birds in the garden, and is creeped out by the fact that when birds in his glass aviary die, he saves their feet. Mario also finds a lot of small green outfits knit by MomMom that seem to fit the goblins! When things goes badly wrong, Mario learns new things about the Simms... or did he know these things already? 

Strengths: Are goblins scary? To me, these books are just sort of goofy, but to third graders, this might be scary. My own personal children were really frightened by Debbie Dadey's Bailey School Kids books. There is an undeniable appeal to these quick reads, and it is sort of nice that the series can be read out of order. Mario's experience is rather odd, but his character seems very grounded, because he is so enthralled with the concept of snow in Vermont. This somehow made the odd behavior of the grandparents seem all the creepier. There's a fun twist at the end. 
Weaknesses: I'm not sure how this relates to the first book with Betty and Billy in the woods. Doesn't particularly matter, but it would be nice to be able to tell how the books in the series relate to one another. Also, the ending was a bit strange since the book is written in the first person. This is one of those instances where one just has to suspend disbelief to make the story work. 
What I really think: These are not quite my favorite, but I'll definitely be buying most of this series. Stine's writing is always fast paced and easy to read, and I think that James Patterson has copied his cliff hanger chapter endings. Do think that the covers are not attractive, but they do embrace the style of the original 1990s titles. 

Gibbs, Stuart and Sarkar, Anjan. Evil Spy School: The Graphic Novel
March 5, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Reader
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

Ben Ripley is doing his best at beginning of the year exercises at spy school when he is blamed for blowing up the principal's office. It's really a plan by Erica and her family to get him to infiltrate SPYDER's spy school, and Ben suspects as much. First, though, he has a disastrous day back at his old middle school before SPYDER does approach him and whisks him away to their ultra secret and very posh training center in New Jersey. There, Ben is in a house with Nefarious, who is always playing video games, and Ashley, the 6th best gymnast in the US who has turned to a life of crime after her failure to make the Olympic gymnastics team. He learns some of SPYDER's ways, takes a bit of a liking to Ashley, and finally is contacted by Erica, who tells him that SPYDER is up to something, and it's his job to find out what. The what ends up involving a lot of bombs, counter spying, and some unpleasant reminders of Ben's past. Which side is offering Ben a better deal?

The graphic novel adaptations of this popular spy mystery series are very dense, both visually and textually, so they are all extremely close to the storyline. Often, adaptations gloss over a lot of the emotional journeys of the characters or background information, but that is not the case here. The illustration style is well suited to the tone of the text; it's not as peppy and cartoonish as many titles, but not as serious as others, which is a good balance considering that as hard as Ben tries, he often has some humorous fails.

While 2023 brought a lot more diversity in genres of graphic novels, there is still a marked lack of spy and mystery titles. Johnston's adaptations of Horowitz's Stormbreaker series, Riordan's first 39 Clues by Ethan Young, and Blasco and Springer's Enola Holmes reboot are some similar titles. Spy novels have been popular with middle grade readers for over twenty years, which isn't surprising given the number of similar adult books. Fans of Gibbs' novels will like these as a quick refresher, and I hope that new readers will be enticed to pick up the longer versions after reading the graphic novels.

One of a Kind and Uprising

Michelson, Richard and Green, Sarah (illus.)

One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor

February 13, 2024 by Calkins Creek

Copy provided by the publisher

Sydney Taylor is, of course, a well-known name in children's literature circles, because of her classic All-of-a-Kind Family books as well as the literary award named after her. What might not be as well known is the fact that she was a dancer and social activist. Her stories were started as a way to tell her daughter about her past, as well as to give her characters that were Jewish rather than Christian. It wasn't until 1950 that her husband sent in a long-shelved manuscript to a contest, winning a $3,000 prize and giving the world the wonderful stories of Taylor's childhood, growing up in an immigrant neighborhood in New York. 

I loved that there were some quotations from Taylor's diaries, and that the author was inspired to write the book after winning the Sydney Taylor award twice and meeting the author's daughter. It was also good to see that he grew up in a similar neighborhood and wanted to capture that. This is a good overview of life in the early twentieth century; Taylor was born in 1897, just a few years after my grandmother! 

Green, who also illustrated Hannigan's Josephine And Her Dishwashing Machine  and Barton's Bernice Sandler and Title IX, does an excellent job of capturing the wide range of historical settings in Taylor's life, from the New York neighborhood with her sisters in their pinafores, to the 1920s college scene, as well as Taylor's later life. While I wouldn't have minded  a nod to the Helen John illustrations in the originals (as Zelinsky did a bit in Jenkins' 2018 picture book, All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah), Green's illustrations are colorful and engaging. 

What better way to direct children to women authors during March than to put up a display of picture book literary biographies? Include this title with Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat by Manuel and Wilson, The Story of Maya Angelou by Obeng, Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by McDaniel and Harrison, and Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird by Hegedus and McGuire.

Nielsen, Jennifer A. Uprising

March 5, 2024 by Scholastic Press 

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In 1939 Warsaw, Lidia Durr has to deal with the new reality that the German Nazis are in control of her country. Her father, a veteran of WWI, has gone off to fight, Leaving Lidia, her mother, and her older brother Ryszard behind in a damaged house. The three take in an old family friend, Doda, and her mother, even though the women are Jewish. Right behind their house is the area the Nazis have set aside for the Jewish Ghetto, and Lidia is able to see how bad things are. While Lidia at first thought that things would improve fairly quickly, it's clear that this is not going to happen. She does continue to take piano lessons for a while; she is a keen player, and the family moved to Warsaw so that she could study at the same university where Chopin studied. As the situation in Warsaw worsens, and Doda and her mother are taken away, Lidia takes an interest in being part of the Resistance. Along with a neighbor, Maryna, she starts to deliver packages of wheat to the Ghetto, but eventually becomes a messenger for the Resistance. Things become more and more grim, and the chances of survival seem so slim that Lidia just hopes that she can make the Nazis regret having taken over Poland. Once she has packed her mother off to Sweden, and her older brother is killed, little stops Lidia from doing whatever it takes to help the Poles fend off the Nazis. Many of her friends die, but a cease fire finally occurs in October of 1944. After all the years of surviving, Lidia makes her way to Sweden, and eventually manages to locate her mother in the US. End notes describe the lives of the real Lidia Durr and her family. 

Strengths: Like this author's Resistance and Rescue, this is a well researched look at a slightly different facet of WWII. There are lots of books from the point of view of Jewish citizens in Poland who ended up in the Ghetto, but certainly there were many people who had to survive while still living in Warsaw. Lidia is a strong character who rises to the occasion and is willing to help in any way she can. Nielsen always provides really good details about not only the military actions, but about the conditions of daily life. 

Weaknesses: This was not a great choice for a gray, rainy day, and it just made me wonder why there are still wars. Didn't WWII teach us that was is bad? This was heart breaking to read, which is, after all, the point. 

What I really think: This was an excellent look at World War II, but there are so many books about that conflict that I wish we would see more on different historical events, especially since WWII is no longer in the 8th grade curriculum. I understand why writing about WWII is so popular; it's easier to know who is "good" and who is "bad", and my students still read the books eagerly. Still, there's very little on the military conflict in Vietnam and Korean, and given the current problems in Gaza, it would be helpful for my students to know some of the history of those areas of the world.