Aaron Blabey Graphic Novels

Blabey, Aaron. The Serpent and the Beast(Bad Guys #19)
June 1, 2024 by Scholastic Paperbacks

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central 

It is of note that even the publisher's official listings do not give a synopsis of this story. Since my reviewing of the series has been spotty (1-7 and 10), I found myself at a little bit of a loss as to who some characters were and what was going on. Perhaps I should watch the Major Motion Picture in order to catch up. 

Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake are bound and determined to break records and become hugely famous by robbing twenty one banks in twenty one days, but when they enter the bank, they are confronted with a giant needletoothed serpent who speaks in all capital demonic font and threatens to make them suffer. He and his multiple minions, however, are thwarted when new and improved versions of the original Bad Guys show up. They have all communed with The One, who has bestowed awesome powers on them, so they are now champions of time and space and have no limits. Legs now has a bit of  Fidel Castro look and is known as The General. Mr. Snake's father Papa Alpha is a head in a jar. Joy is pure positive energy... but with laser eyes. The Hands of Magnificence are even larger sentient... butt cheeks? And Delores Gristlewurst, aka The Tiffinator, has Buck in a necklace as well as a fake eye patch. What was a short time for Mr. Wolf was eons for this group, who have arrived back just in the nick of time to help. There is an epic battle, and Papa Alpha turns their nemesis into a spoon. The Tiffinator uses her powers to reduce some of the other combatants to their essential selves, who are sweet and offer the Bad Guys cookies. There are a lot of battles, and each one is perhaps the last one... until it's not. In the tradition of Batman, there are zaps and arrs and urgghhhs galore, and eventually someone gets hurt. Mr. Wolf is on the ropes, refusing to join forces with evil, when the appearance of Milt saves him. Milt woobs up a storm until he calls (or becomes?) The One. Who now has a mullet. The One stops the fighting and tells Ellen that she is her hero. The minions all turn back into their true selves, which all seem to be younger, cuter versions of the Bad Guys. Everyone is ready to go home, but a last minute attack from the serpent leaves things in question, and makes book twenty a necessity. 

The appeal of this series is, of course, the nonstop goofiness, and this book has that in spades. Readers who have devoured each book in the series multiple times (and I know many of these personally) will be able to identify the characters much better than I can, and will fully understand their plot and developmental arcs in a way that I don't. It was good to see that no matter what their incarnation, Wolf and Snake (Cedric) remain friends. 

Like Barnett and Harris' The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza or Angleberger's Two-Headed Chicken, the Bad Guys series was not written for old ladies like myself who were raised on Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. It was written for elementary school students who watch Tik Tok videos of exploding Mentos in cans of pop and learned to read from Krosoczka Lunch Lady books or Geronimo Stilton titles. As such, it is the perfect giggle producing book to read under the covers (by the light of a cell phone?) or to snigger over with friends. It's even better because the grown ups don't understand it! 

Blabey, Aaron. Cat on the Run in Cucumber Madness
August 6, 2024 by Scholastic Paperbacks
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

After Princess Beautiful's adventures in Cat of Death, she was left in a perilous position. Worldwide news media is in a frenzy, predicting that she wants to end the world. She does, after all, have a head full of nuclear codes. Her boyfriend, Catrick Cash, maintains that she is innocent, but Marshall Cheeseman is ready to hunt her down. Princess Beautiful has been kidnapped, and when she comes out of the tranquilizer gun medicine, she finds that her captor is Marv, who knows what it is like to be a scapegoat. Yes, he is actually a goat, but he really wants to help the cat on the run out. He has taken her to Bratislava, and sets her off on a self-guided training course for which she is using videos on the Pizza Guy's phone. This, unbeknownst to her, alerts Marshall Cheeseman to her whereabouts. Marv had seen the scorpion on Princess Beautiful's computer screen when she was ostensibly downloading nuclear codes, and lured her into his van by painting a scorpion on it, but has pinpointed the real source to a scorpion shaped set of islands. He borrows a boat from a friend, and soon the two are off to uncover whatever secretes can be found there. Princess Beautiful shares with Marv her tragic origin story; she was going to a good college, planning to have a useful and successful career, when her friend scared her with a cucumber, and the video went viral. She made several other videos so she didn't look foolish, and a social media star was born. Once on the island, they see some actual scorpions, which don't bother our intrepid heroine, but also a giant cucumber patch, which throws her into a temporary tizzy. This is, of course, what Marshall Cheeseman captures on video when he arrives, and the media again posit this as proof she is a danger to the world. Catrick shows up with his father. Marv wants to speak to her right away, and she has to choose whom to trust. She chooses to talk to Marv, and he helps her to understand what is going on with the Cashes. It's truly frightening, and certainly sets the stage for book number three. 

I'm not quite sure how much younger readers will understand about the media frenzy and Tiffany Fluffit's scare tactics, but this is goofy enough that it doesn't matter. This concentrates more on Princess Beautiful's survival rather than her social media presence, but also addresses some of the pitfalls that exist when one's life is lived in public. Many of my students list as their career aspirations "YouTuber", so Princess Beautiful's notoriety will be taken seriously by the tween set. 

There are lots of inside jokes that will make this appeal to older readers as well; some of the training scenes are reminscent of The Karate Kid, and Marv's explanation of what a scapegoat is was excellent. There are other Easter eggs, I'm sure; I didn't know that cats being scared by cucumbers was a thing on the internet, but it apparently is. My students will know this, and understand the title right away. 

Blabey's illustrations are always exuberant, and filled with silly characters and improbably situations. I imagine that breakfast in his house is amusing. "What's a sillier sounding place for Princess Beautiful to be... Bratislava or... Schenectady? You're right. If she's in Eastern Europe, there can be a joke about too much sedative." I do enjoy the tiny bits of red accents in the drawings, which are expecially delightful when they show up in hair bows or cell phone alerts. 

Blabey's Bad Guys series is something of a comfort read for middle schoolers, and I'm sure that they will enjoy the zany, pandemonium filled Nutty Bar that is Cat on the Run. Hand this to fans of Angleberger's The Two-Headed Chicken, Rex's Fangbone, Brockington's Castronauts, or the Geronimo Stilton books.

Under the Surface

Urban, Diana. Under the Surface

August 13, 2024 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
 

Ruby is thrilled to be in Paris after months of getting ready for a school trip. She's hoping to find some undiscovered places to film for her YouTube channel, Ruby's Hidden Gems, but it's hard to sneak away from the school group and Mr. LeBreque. She and Sean (on whom she has a crush) and Val (whose parents have their own media empire and travel a lot) ask to go off when the rest of the group is looking at the Eiffel Tower, but don't find anything interesting. After a day of sight seeing, Ruby is angry to realize that both her new camera and wallet have been stolen. She's trying to figure out what to do when Val tells her that she is going off to meet a cute guy she met, who is going to take her to a party in the Catacombs. Ruby thinks this is a bad idea, but follows her, and enticed by the idea of getting footage for her channel, goes along. There's also Selena, Ruby's former best friend and now nemesis, as well as Olivia, the class valedictorian, who have decided to come along. Ruby is leery of Julien, the French guy who invited Val, and Julien isn't thrilled to have so many people along. Things go badly from the start, with all of the things that can go wrong in an unlit, underground, largely abandoned venue. Not only is it creepy, dank, and smelly, but there are thrones made of bones and people in creepy masks who occasionally come after the girls. There are injuries, but also a lot of unpacking of old emotional baggage in between. We also see Sean and the teachers contacting the French police and trying to locate the group, so have some idea of what is going on outside of the catacombs. After a tragedy occurs, there seems to be little hope that the group will escape, and the group makes videos of themselves for their families should they perish. There are a few more surprises, and the clock is ticking. Will Ruby and her friends make it back to the City of Light, or remain underground as a sacrifice to the malingering dead?

This had some similarities to R.L. Stine's Fear Street books, where teens hang out in ill-advised places and people end up getting hurt after lots of injuries and scares, so it will be automatically popular with readers. It definitely doesn't hurt that it is set in Paris; it reminded me a tiny bit of Plum's 2011 Die for Me, and Schwab's Tunnel of Bones. You would think that more novels would be set in the catacombs, since they are so creepy! 

There's also plenty of teenaged angst as well, from Ruby's relationship with her troubled father who never got over the fact that Ruby's birth killed her mother, to Ruby and Selena's friend drama, and there is even a little romance, with Ruby and Sean being interested in each other, and Selena having a girlfriend, Aliyah, who is also on the trip. 

The real surprise is the reason that Julien lured them into the catacombs for a Cataphiles party, so I don't want to give away any of that! For sensitive readers, know that there are several on page deaths. 

If you're a fan of Barnes' The Lovely and the Lost or Carter's Not if I Save You First, and you're looking for a book that involves sight seeing, adventure, drama, and tremendously creepy vibes, make sure to investigate  Under the Surface. 

Onyx and Beyond

McBride, Amber. Onyx and Beyond

October 1, 2024 by Feiwel & Friends

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Onyx and his mother live in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia in 1968 with his Gran. He loves to collect rocks, and his Gran comments that he is her "griffin" and will come into his wings and fly. Onyx and his mother go to Washington, D.C., on April 5, and witness the protests by the Black Student Movement after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Two years later, Gran has died, and Onyx's mother is struggling with early onset dementia. His father, who works in a bookstore has never lived with the family, is nearby, as is his Grandma Emma and several cousins. He attends a Catholic school, and is spending an increasing amount of time doing laundry, getting groceries, and caring for his mother. When he finds out that Social Services wants to do a wellness check on his, he starts to panic, and begins to collect materials to make himself wings so that he can fly. He manages to earn a little money sweeping for the local barber shop, but the church ladies notice that he is always alone. His grandfather had also suffered from early onset dementia, so Gran had wanted to keep Onyx's mother at home. As his mother's condition worsens, Onyx believes that if could steal a sliver of a rock from the museum, it might cure her, but when he attempts a heist with several friends, his father catches him. He and his mother move in with Grandma Ellen, and Onyx finally realizes the importance of reaching out to friends and family when he needs help. This is based on the author's father's story of growing up during this time. 
Strengths: How gorgeous is that cover? It just begs to be put on display. We're starting to see a few more books about the 1970s, like Parson's Clouds Over California or Amos' Cookies and Milk, and since there are relatively few books with Black characters from that time period, I would love to see a lot more of these. My students don't always understand exactly how racism was shown at the time, and these texts are a good supplement to the history of the time period. Onyx's struggles to take care of his mother are heartbreaking, and the portrayal of a strong community was good to see. I'm always interested in books that are set in a very particular place, and I now sort of want to teach in George Washington Middle School; what a gorgeous piece of Art Deco architecture! 
Weaknesses: Onyx's belief that he can fly, and that he would be able to break in and steal a bit of stone from a museum, makes him seem much younger than 12. I would love to see more straight forward, realistic fiction books that deal with racism in a historical context. McBride's writing is beautiful and poetic, but the complexity of text might make understanding the unfamiliar historical aspects more difficult for struggling readers. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Zoboi's My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich or this author's Gone Wolf. 

Mythological and Historical Stories

Holland, Tom and Riddell, Chris. King Alfred and the Ice Coffin
November 12, 2024 by Candlewick Studio
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In the 9th century, an explorer named Wolfstan comes to the court of King Alfred. Alfred is very interested in stories, and has spent a lot of time learning Latin so that he can translate some of the texts into a language that his people can understand. He's intrigued by Wolfstan's stories, especially one about a Viking King who died. His village put him in an ice coffin and then split his wealth into several parcels, hid them, and then had a race to retrieve the money. Wolfstan married the woman who won the largest amount, and she accompanies him on his travels.

This is a fairly short book, but formatted like a long picture book, along the lines of Sutcliffe and Lee's Black Ships Before Troy. Riddell's illustrations are gorgeous, and I learned a bit about some history that I'd never  investigated before. 

I had this author's The Seeing Stone series for years, but eventually my students stopped being interested in books set during this era. I probably won't purchase, but it was an interesting read. 

I had this author's The Seeing Stone series for years, but eventually my students stopped being interested in books set during this era. I probably won't purchase, but it was an interesting read. 

Holland, Tom and Cockcroft, Jason (illus.)

The Wolf-Girl, the Greeks, and the Gods: A Tale of the Persian Wars 

November 5, 2024 by Candlewick Studio

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

This is a beautifully illustrated book telling the story of the Persian Wars. The source material seems to be Herodotus. As a former Latin teacher, I loved it, and the artwork and words are formatted on the pages in such interesting ways. I would love to buy it for my library, but fear it would see about as much circulation as Lively and Andrew's In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid (once in 20 years), or McCaughrean's The Epic of Gilgamesh (twice in 20 years). Shorter than Hardy's Argos. I would definitely purchase this for a public library, or anywhere that readers crave classical tales. 

From the publisher:

The magic of mythology meets the grit of history in a blazing blockbuster retelling of the Persian Wars from award-winning author Tom Holland, lavishly illustrated by Jason Cockcroft.

I come to tell you a story. A story unlike any that has been told before.

The Trojan War is ancient history. The gods of Olympus are silent and have not appeared to mortals for generations. In the city-state of Sparta, young Gorgo’s mother gives a warning with her dying breath: the Persians are coming. The princess Gorgo, weaned on her nurse’s stories of gods and shapeshifters, never forgets her mother’s last words. When at last the drums of war begin to sound, she is swept up in a dangerous game of politics, treachery, and vengeance. With the blood of Herakles and Zeus himself running through her veins and the awakening of a dormant supernatural power, Gorgo, now queen of Sparta, must help lead her city-state against a mighty empire. Unraveling like prophecy and featuring stunning art from acclaimed illustrator Jason Cockcroft, Tom Holland’s dramatic reimagining of one of history’s most formidable wars will echo through the mind of the reader long after they have reached the final page.

MMGM- How To Fool Your Parents and Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Kwong, David and Korfhage, Michael (illus.) 

How to Fool Your Parents: 25 Brain-Breaking Magic Tricks

October 8, 2024 by HarperCollins

Copy provided by the publisher 

Magic tricks come and go in popularity, and I update my school collection from time to time, especially when the fantastic Carroll Baker performs at my school. How to Fool Your Parents, despite its nefarious title, is a good overview to get aspiring magicians up to speed on their magic skills. 

This starts with a glossary, which is a little unusual, but makes perfect sense; we need to know the terms when they are used in the directions. There are also tips about performance and putting on a show. There are three main types of tricks that are explained. Slight of Hand tricks involving a bit of subterfuge to hide and then reveal objects, like the playing card that needs to be baked into a cookie in advance of the trick. (I love that readers are instructed to ask for help from a parent for this one!) Technological trickery involves either cell phones or computers, and has an elaborate ruse for inventing an artificial intelligence mind reader call Hey Minerva. Mentalism involves fortune telling and mind reading, is the third, and there are a variety of tricks, some of which are simple enough to only involve a pen and piece of printer paper. The final section on covert communications has a good cross section of codes, ciphers, and signaling, as well as a recipe for invisible ink. 

The inclusion of short biographies of various magicians through history was fascinating; I didn't know that Doug Henning passed away years ago. There are some clever things, like including two pages of math doodles to use to throw parents off the scent and convince them that the reader is doing homework. Tips on how to modify or improve tricks are sprinkled throughout, and there's s running theme of making sure that parents don't get ahold of this book. 

I have to admit that I personally have no interest in magic tricks, so didn't try out any of these myself. There's clearly a need for more books on the topic, however; the Capstone Amazing Magic Tricks series that I "just bought" is fifteen years old. Nothing else has come across my desk recently, making this an excellent book to check out. Kwong's writing is engaging, and the assortment of tricks is great. His best trick might just be turning a degree in the history of the golden age of magic into a sustainable career. 

Larsen, Mylisa. Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better

September 17, 2024 by Clarion Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Quagmire (born Quentin; we do get an explanation!) should be glad that 8th grade  is out for the summer, but when his mother wakes him up early in the morning with a breakfast sandwich, his suspicions are confirmed; she is "spinning out" and entering an unpredictable manic mental state. It's bad enough that he has a "dumpster cam" on the pizza place near their apartment so he can get some dinner, but he's just had some positive interactions with his 8th grade crush, Cassie, and the idea of spending the summer seeing her at a YMCA theater camp, doing her sound effects for her radio style show sounds perfect. He tries to ignore the wanring signs, like finding the kitchen filled up with flowers from every yard in the neighborhood. He gets along well with the others in Cassie's group, Rhia, Jax, and Mikey, although he ends up being rather jealous of Mikey and putting in humorous sound effects to a serious play. Of course, Mikey, who tends to be very enthusiastic about everything, thinks that Quag's way is better, and asks him to do more. Just as things are going well with Cassie and the play, Quag's mother wants him to go with her on a road trip to get a hotdog. On the road, she spirals out very quickly, and things go from bad to worse. On the morning he is supposed to pick up doughnuts for the crew, he finds himself in Ohio with an increasingly erratic mother. After his mother falls into the water and hits her head, she drives off and leaves him. Luckily, Quag has grabbed her purse, and finds an uncle, Jay, listed in the contacts on her phone. Having no other options, he calls Jay, claiming that his mother wanted him to be picked up. He doesn't tell his uncle what is really going on. Jay quickly puts his nephew to work on the farm, along with Maggie, a slightly older girl who teaches him how to do farm work and to drive a truck. Quag appreciates that he doesn't have to deal with his mother, but is worried about her, and also misses Cassie and is sad that he left without saying goodbye. Quag gets to help a mare foal, rides in Maggie's gyroplane, and starts to feel that he really has to tell his uncle about his mother. They call the police, and when his mother shows up at the door, Jay helps file the paperwork to get his sister admitted to the hospital. When Jay mentions that Quag could start the school year in Nebraska, he hesitates a bit. When his mother calls and wants to check out and have Quag pick her up, he sets off to free his mother, but thinks better of this. Once he has his phone back, he has doughnuts Door Dashed to Cassie at camp, then calls and tells her what is going on. She and her aunt come to visit, giving Quagmire some closure as he embarks on a very different life. 

Strengths: Life isn't always great. There are a LOT of middle grade novels that center on the process of grieving various aspects of life, but that process can be a bit dull to read about. Surviving bad circumstances, however, is endlessly intriguing, which is why Warner's The Boxcar Children still has appeal 80 years after it was written, and why murder mysteries are so popular with adults. Quagmire has to step into the role of an adult to keep both himself and his mother functioning, but when his mother spirals out for the final time, he is unable to save her. Having a trusted adult finally give him some support comes as a relief both for him and for the reader. Changing circumstances entirely was a bit jarring, but was exactly what he needed. The fact that Quagmire is a rising ninth grader, and the fact that he gets to hang out with his crush, Cassie, makes this even more appealing. The humorous cover is a bonus as well. 

Weaknesses: It seemed a bit odd that Jay wouldn't ask more questions about his nephew being dropped off in the middle of nowhere. This had an interestingly disconnected feel to the narrative, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it, and it seemed very appropriate. 
What I really think: I enjoyed this one a lot. Middle grade readers do like a certain level of sadness in stories, if it is the sort that makes their own lives seem better by comparison. Like Choldenko's The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman, this showcases a resilient character who eventually gets the help he needs, which makes this an interesting read, with some touches of humor that reminded me of Petruck's Steering Toward Normal or Bullard's Turn Left at the Cow. This also addresses the effects that parental mental illness can have on children's lives that we've seen in Carr's Lost Kites or McDunn's These Unlucky Stars, Keller's The Science of Breakable Things, Pla's The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn, Vaught's Footer Davis is Probably Crazy, or Melleby's Hurricane Season. 

Out of the Valley of Horses

Orr, Wendy. Out of the Valley of Horses
April 23, 2024 by Pajama Press

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

After the death of her grandfather, Honey's grandmother is distraught, and wants to take off in their ice cream truck on a big adventure. Because things are not good in the world, the rest of the family packs up and goes along for the adventure. The mother is an editor, so brings a manuscript along with her, and the father is a mechanic. The trip goes well until the group goes over a bridge into a land of magical horses and find themselves unable to get back. They are not too alarmed, since Nanna's grandfather had also purportedly spend seven years in this land, and they settle down to grow food and make an idyllic life for themselves. They grow food, harvest mangoes and macadamia nuts, and have a few comforts like cell phone flashlights, thanks to the solar panels on the ice cream truck. They haven't been able to get any texts, most likely because of the mountains. The best thing for Honey and her younger brother Rumi are the wild horses. They've named them, and have a special relationship with Moongold, whom Honey rides bareback. The family believes that perhaps everyone in the world is gone except for them. Sometimes this is problematic; when Honey's sleeping bag rips when being washed and they have used up the last of the thread, she starts to see that this life might not be able to continue forever. When the father becomes ill and they suspect apendicitis, Honey decides that she will ride Moongold and try to find the bridge to cross to get help. She manages to do this, but the first people that she meets want to capture Moongold and sell him, and the two barely escape with three other horses the outlaws have captured. Honey and the horses end up meeting Abbie and her father, who own the stolen horses, and are able to use the grandmother's cell phone that Honey has taken to contact Honey's aunt. She's an ambulance driver located very close, and comes to Abbie's farm to meet Honey. She takes off with Moongold, leading the rescue team, and manages to cause the bridge to appear when she flies over the river with Moongold. Her father gets the medical attention he needs, and the family realizes that things are okay in the world, and plan their next steps. 

This is a pandemic tale, and it's fairly clear that the family's experiences of traveling away from humanity were motivated by trying to escape the COVID virus. The author has a note about her own experiences. There are so many variations of what people did during that time. Why not have a fantasy story about escaping to a magical valley where mangoes grow wild? 

There are not a lot of middle grade books that merge horses with fantasy elements. Lasky's Horses of the Dawn and George's The Rose Legacy series, as well as DasGupta's The Chaos Monster (Secrets of the Sky) do. This is a great portal fantasy for readers who want to travel into a magical world where the biggest concern is horses, and not the fact that everyone has worn out their shoes! 

 

This was slightly odd, and I wasn't surprised to find that the author lives in Australia. My readers who enjoy horse books seem to want more realistic tales, but I'll see what they think about this title. 

Diet Soda Club

Hayden, Chaz. Diet Soda Club
October 8, 2024 by Candlewick Press
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

Fifteen years old Reed is in high school, and is a good student, but is involved in no sports or clubs because he spends all of his spare time hanging out with his sister Beatrice. She's been in and out of hospitals for all of her ten years because of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a condition that has left her unable to walk, and which results in frequent lung infections due to the curvature of her spine. Their father was killed in a car accident on his way to visit Beatrice in the hospital years ago, and their mother has not been a terribly effective parent since. She often works double shifts at the bar, and tries to keep up with all of Beatrice's needs, but it is Reed who makes sure that she is alone as little as possible. When the doctor tells the family that Beatrice needs surgery to correct her worsening scoliosis, but that it has to wait until she is over the latest infection, the mother can't handle it. She's started seeing Seth, whom she met at the bar, and is frequently hanging out at his apartment, while Reed has been sleeping at the hospital. Reed is struggling to keep up with his schoolwork (Beatrice sometimes helps, as she is precociously smart), and when he forgets his school I.D., he has to get a new one in the art room, where his former friend Helena seems to preside over the creation of this critical item. When Beatrice is to be released, Reed gets a call at school because the hospital can't find his mother. He skips school and takes a bus to get his sister, who can't be released until an adult signs for her. Luckily, his mother shows up. Beatrice is glad to be home, and for a while their mother makes an effort. One night, after the first home cooked meal in ages, she drops a bombshell: she's going away for the weekend with Seth. Reed will have to administer medication and breathing treatments, and take care of the two of them until Sunday night. Flabbergasted, Reed does what he has to, but his mother has left them with no food or money. When Sunday night rolls around, she is still not home, and tells Reed that there's money in her dresser, and that everything will be fine. Beatrice insists that she can be home alone, even though she can't even use the bathroom by herself. Reed reluctantly agrees, but e mails her multiple times during the day (he has a phone, but his sister is using his laptop). When their mother still doesn't come back, Reed gets desperate. After a chance encounter at their local convenience store, Reed decides to use the art printer to create fake I.D.s and sell them for $100 to classmates. At first, he manages to hide this from Helen, but as his mother doesn't return, the rent is due, and his concerns for his sister mount, he brings her in to his scheme, especially when it spills over into selling papers and test answers. Reed is able to cover necessities, as well as a hospital prepayment, and even drives the car illegally in order to meet Beatrice's needs. How long can he continue this lifestyle before someone needs to be told that his mother is not around?

I'm a big fan of children who show resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and Reed's complete and utter devotion to his sister is definitely a change from the slew of anxious characters that have shown up in teen and tween literature lately. While he's sometimes misguided, he manages to keep things together even better than his mother does. This definitely takes an emotional toll on him, so it was good to see him reconnect with childhood friend Helena, and to watch her support him. 

For teens, the big draw will be Reed's illegal activity, which will resonate with readers who like the unlikely exploits in books like Quigley's Bank or Zimmerman's Just Do This One Thing For Me. While I had a little problem believing that Reed could make a convincing I.D., I did like that he felt bad about creating and selling them, but felt he had no other choice. He also feels that they are being used for buying cigarettes and maybe a few beers; I was a little surprised that no one tried to get into venues that required identification. There are some realistic limits; since Reed is using school pictures, he has to deny clients who look very young and wouldn't be convincing. 

Beatrice's condition is serious, but she is also upbeat, although she does have her breaking point. Her hacking activity is interesting, and I wondered how she got her computer skills, since Reed has been the one who is essentially home schooling her. Her SMA is certainly what drives a lot of the plot, but is just one facet of the person she is.

While it also seemed odd that children's services never got involved, especially after Reed's arrest at the end of the book, young readers won't know all of the technicalities, and will just be glad to see that things seem to be on an upwards trend for Reed and his family at the end of the book. This is a great addition to tales of children surviving against the odds, along with Walter's The King of Jam Sandwich's Rudd's How to Stay Invisible, and Florence, and Scrimger's The Other Side of Perfect. It reminded me a bit of an updated, older version of Williams' The True Colors of Caitlyn Jackson (1997).

Content wise, this would be fine for middle school as well, but the print in the ARC is VERY tiny, and at 300 pages, it's not a short book. Debating, because I did really enjoy it. 

Ice Cream Boy

Littleston, Lindsay. Ice Cream Boy
November 19, 2024 by Kelpies
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I rarely review books that are not available through Follett's Titlewave, since this blog is aimed at school librarians and teachers, but this cover... I just had to read it. That's the problem with the internet. It often taunts us by showing us fantastic books that are just hard to get on this side of the pond. 


Luca lives in Glasgow, Scotland with his mother, who is very busy selling surgical products, and grandmother, Nonna. His father has left the family and returned to the town in Italy that his own grandfather came from, Barga, and is running a bed and breakfast there. The grandfather had come to Glasgow because the ship to the US made him and his wife too seasick, and the pair had started Verani's cafe. This is still run by Luca's aunt Julia and her husband, who isn't the best businessman. Luca, who does not like school and is rather a cut up, dreams that one day he will run the cafe. Why does he need school? He would rather play video games instead of doing homework, and hang out with his friends Kamal and Sitara. Nonna is supposed to look after him, but when she starts behaving erratically, he is worried, but doesn't want to tell his mother. When he finds out that the cafe is not doing well, and that his aunt might close it down and move to Barga to help his father, he knows he must come up with a plan. There is a Glasgow Recipes from Around the World Contest, Luca is sure that he can win it with his great grandfather's original ice cream recipe, and use the fame to save the cafe. Nonna is lucid enough to give him some direction, and using vanilla pods and more expensive cream than the cafe is currently using, he manages to recreate the brilliant ice cream that made the cafe popular in the past. He also has to deal with schoolmates and town residents who are racist, and Kamal and Sitara both have incidents that disturb them. He gets letters from his father, and talks to Nonna, and finds out that it wasn't easy for Italian immigrants like his great grandfather back in the 1940s, so is even more concerned with helping his friends deal with the "racist numpties". Even though the contest is promising, and he is set to spend a few days visiting his father in Barga and his aunt and uncle, Nonna's situation is not improving. She wanders off, and has several accidents that endanger her. While Luca isn't wild about her going into a care facility, his aunt and mother seem to think it is for the best. As Luca gets ready to enter high school, how will he deal with all of the changes in his life?
Strengths: This had several things that my students and I love. Luca has an interesting passion for growing up to run Verani's cafe, and isn't fond of school. Over the course of the book, however, he does learn and grow, and begins to realize that there are other things he could do with his life, but he will have to apply himself. The parallels between the treatment of Italian immigrants in the past and modern day ones are brilliant, and I'd love to see a book set in the US, perhaps in Boston, that shows how the way the Irish immigrants used to be treated has parallels with other recent populations. Many tweens and teens are dealing with grandparents who are failing, and I did like the fact that while Luca was leery of the nursing home, his aunt and mother see the necessity, and even Nonna softens towards it. Traveling to Italy was an added bonus, and many of my students have a parent that they might not see as often as they would like. All in all, a very interesting and engaging story! 
Weaknesses: For US audiences, the grandmother's dialogue might be hard to follow, but I adored her use of "cheeky bampot" and "hen", and feel like the two of us would get along well, since she's not that much older than I am. (An old lady, but not ancient, as Luca describes her.)
What I really think: I would love to have a copy of this in my library, but think it is fairly unlikely. It would be a big hit with fans of Leali's The Truth About Triangles (which also has an Italian restaurant!), or Chari's Karthik Delivers. 

Oh, let's just spend winter break in London, shall we? It will be too chilly for a 99 Flake, but that's okay. We can look at the fiberglass ones. 

Dead Below Deck

Gangsei, Jan. Dead Below Deck
November 19, 2024 by HarperCollins

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Everyone has secrets, and privileged girls from wealthy families seem to have more than most. When Giselle, the daughter of a senator and stepdaughter of a celebrity influencer, decides to take the family yacht from Key West to the Grand Cayman islands with her best friends from school, several of these secrets come to light with tragic results. Along for the trip is Maggie, whose sudden appearance at the girls' prep school leads to questions about her background, Viv, who is an Instagram influencer in her own right, and Emi, who is Giselle's long time best friend. The story starts on the last day of the trip, when Maggie wakes up in a hungover fog. No one has seen Giselle; she's not joined Emi and Viv for their sunrise yoga. When she isn't in her room and the crew hasn't seen her, the girls check the boat's surveillance camera... and see that she's fallen overboard. Or, more accurately, Maggie has pushed her. The police are called, and Maggie, who has no memory of the event, tries to marshall her resources to try to piece together what has happened. Through police interviews, Giselle's diary entries, and flashbacks, we get a better picture of what has occurred both on the trip and before it. Maggie was really kicked out of a Swiss boarding school, and her father isn't a spy; he's been overseas, but as a soldier, and has returned home with PTSD that has endangered the family's survival. Not only that, but she uncovered a scandal at her school and managed to turn that into scholarship money for the prep school. Giselle, whose therapist suggested she keep a journal, misses her deceased mother and has a complicated and thorny relationship with her father and stepmother. Even Viv and Emi aren't all they seem to be. As we see the trip unfolding backwards in a drunken haze of expensive champagne and ill-advised partying, we learn about secrets that could tear apart both the prep school and the girls' carefully constructed personal lives. Will Maggie be able to figure out what happened to Giselle before the police do, and will her part in the senator's daughter's disappearance ever make sense?

This had so many twists and turns that I don't want to ruin key points in the story. Let's just say that I was very surprised at the end, and I am rarely surprised! I've read a couple of other books that embrace this backwards mystery format, like Fields' 2008 Holdup or Cadnum's 2010 Flash, but it's clearly not an overdone way to present the mystery! 

I was familiar with Gangsei's fantastic middle grade titles like Project Me 2.0 and The Wild Bunch (of which I have TWO copies in my middle school library!), but had forgotten about her 2016 young adult Zero Day. She does an equally good job at both levels of interest, and has quite the eye for depicting well-to-do teens.

While the friend's secrets that are revealed aren't too devastating, they are hard for the girls to deal with. It's the interplay that goes on while people aren't sure what others know, and the tension involved with trying to keep these secrets to oneself, that keep this book taut and engaging. 

It shouldn't be surprising that suspense thrillers and murder mysteries appeal to teens, since there are so many published for adults. Dead Below Deck will appeal to readers who liked titles like Barnes' The Lovely and the Lost, Corrigan's I Will Follow, Otis' At the Speed of Lies, or Johnson's new Death at Morning House. 

Clutch Time (Shot Clock #2)

Butler, Caron and Reynolds, Justin A. Clutch Time (Shot Clock #2)

September 10, 2024 by Katherine Tegen Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this return to Oasis Springs, we meet new characters. Kofi Douglass is the number one ranked basketball player in the state, playing on the Scorpions team under Coach James. His nemesis is Ripp Ransom, whose father is a professional player, which allows Ransom to travel widely and have a large Instagram following for his travels. Kofi's father has been in jail for half his life. He used to visit with his mother, but when his father was moved from a nearby Wisconsin prison to one in Ohio, it because impossible to continue. When he was seven, he was out with his father with the Ransoms, playing basketball, but his father was arrested and sent to jail, and the situation was never fully explained. Kofi wants to play in a local tournament honoring Dante Jones, who was killed at 17 in the neighborhood, but his mother doesn't really want him to. Kofi's best friend is Mecca, who is interested in filmmaking, but their relationship is somewhat one sided, with Mecca supporting Kofi, but Kofi failing to show up for important moments in her life. When Kofi's father, Gem, is let out of prison several years early, and it is a difficult adjustment to have his father around again. He eventually hears the story of what happened to his father, and the Scorpions do well in the tournament. 

Strengths: Any book with a basketball player on the cover is going to do well, and Butler is still working as a basketball coach, so students might still know who he is. The inner city setting is well described, and I was glad to see Coach James back. There are not a lot of books where children have parents in prison, and I can only imagine how difficult it is to have a parent return after having been gone for seven years. This is a nice length, and since Shot Clock has been very popular in my library, I am sure there will be a demand for the sequel.  
Weaknesses: While this is a sequel, I feel like I missed something with Kofi and Ripp's story. The style also seemed different; there was more texting on the page, and more slang. Maybe it has yet to have a final round of edits. 

What I really think: Buy this one for fans of Shot Clock, or Maldonado's Secret Saturdays. 

The Lonely Below

davis, g. heron. The Lonely Below
August 6, 2024 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Eva Mauberry live in Tennessee, but her parents have to go to Mississippi to deal with her grandmother's estate. Her older sister Egypt is in college, but her parents want her to spend a semester in Blythe Academy, a private school that her father attended, so that they can focus on wrapping up the grandmother's concerns. Eva's Aunt Nooncie has just taken a job teaching at the school, so will be there to help as well. Eva does make friends quickly, including her roommate Vee, who is Dominican, and Ami, who is Black and Thai as well as nonbinary. She also talks to a girl named Mac, who seems to disappear quickly on some occasions. The school has a long history of being haunted, mainly because it was built on land that was taken from a Black community by the Friends of Lafayette Falls Lake group, who then built the school. Eva has a meltdown in the office after a ghostly woman grabs her wrist; her father has to be called to calm her down. He believes her a bit about the ghost, but not that it hurt her. Eva is autistic, but was hoping to keep this a secret longer, although her new friends are understanding. As Eva tries to figure out why the school is haunted, she finds other information about a classroom that collapsed fifty years ago, killing a teacher. Vee and Ami believe her, and try to help her with her research. There is one student, Theo, who is occasionally mean to Eva, but also gives her ear buds that her autistic brother finds useful. There is a Centennial Celebration being planned for the school, and since the previous catastrophe happened during the last big celebration, the students want to figure things out quickly. Mac seems helpful, but when a group of girls try a Bloody Mary type chant in the bathroom, things get strange. What part did Mac have in the history of the school, and can Eva and her friends figure out why the school is haunted? 

Strengths: This would have been referred to as a book written by an #OwnVoices author; davis is autistic. It's good to see this represenation. The history of the school is filled with lots of problems, and these are described well but don't slow the ghost portion of the stort down. It's good to see that Eva has people who support her. The teachers are a little suspicious, which is always fun, but are of course working for the good of the school. There is a seance with a ouija board, which young readers always enjoy. 

Weaknesses: Eva finds a lot of comfort in the Karen Cooper musical group; this seems to be an actual musical group. Not really a weakness; I just wasn't sure. 

What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like their scary ghost stories set in placed that were sites of historic cultural oppression, like the Colored Orphangage Asylum in Cummings' Trace or the lake in India Hill Brown's The Girl in the Lake. 

MMGM- Lonely Planet Kids: The Rocks Book and Deadly Animal Atlas

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Lonely Planet Kids The Rocks Book
November 5, 2024 by Lonely Planet
Copy provided by the Publisher

Are you always taking small stones out of your dryer's lint trap because you have a rock obsessed kid? This is the book you need! In Lonely Planet's typical beautiful style, THE ROCKS BOOK provides all of the information your budding geologist might need to start on a fascinating hobby that might even turn into a career.

This starts with basic information about what exactly rocks are. Going all the way back to the formation of planets, there's also a good explanation about the Earth's layers, shifting plates, and different kinds of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic). The all important rock cycle is explained with fantastic diagrams. The most interesting thing to me (with my liberal arts mind) was the inclusion of thumbnail biographies about people through history who have studied geology, going all the way back to Theophrastus in 372 BCE!

Crystals, gemstones, and rock formation also get entries, as do minerals and fossils. I enjoyed the chapter on how we use rocks; building and jewelry were readily apparent, but many young readers might not know that rocks liked talc, gypsum, and salt are used as ingredients.

It wouldn't be a Lonely Planet book without a little trip around the world, discussing the rocks of different countries. The part that may appeal most to children, once they are armed with all of the previous information, is the chapter "How to be a Rock Hound". Collecting is always a fascinating pastime, and rocks seem like something that would be inexpensive to amass, and easy enough to disperse when the collection no longer holds appeal. This chapter starts with responsible collecting, which I appreciated, but also has some good tips on washing, sorting, and storing ones "quarry".

The best part of the book, however, is the "Directory of Rocks and Minerals". This is an extensive catalog, complete with pictures, of examples of different kinds of rocks, broken down into categories. While it might be hard to find snowflake obsidian in one's backyard (depending on location), the pictures are fun to look at. Since the book also has a good glossary as well as a robust index, young readers will be able to find the information they need to identify their finds.

While I have some nonfiction books in my school library on rocks, they are usually from publishers who sell mainly to the academic market. National Geographic has a serviceable identification guide and an Ultimate Rock-opedia, and Dorling Kindersley has an Illustrated Guide to Rocks and Minerals, but the combination of history, global coverage, and identification guide makes The Rocks Book a great one stop source of information. Combine this with a small box for keeping specimens, and you'll be able to keep your rock hound digging for hours!

My only concern about this is that the binding might not hold up terribly well to library use; the corners of the new copy I have are already showing wear from traveling in the mail and to school in my back pack. I don't have a full report yet. This is just a suspicion.

Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet Kids Deadly Animal Atlas
November 19, 2024 by Lonely Planet
Copy provided by the Publisher

Lonely Planet takes us around the world again... but this time, we might not come back! Starting with a map of the world showing the location of all manner of deadly animals, reptiles, and insects, this shows all of the possible ways we can perish in our travels, from vampire bats in South America to the Sydney Funnel-Web Spider in Australia. Since this deadly animals are hugely interesting to young readers, this book will be a hit, even though I personally am identifying with the cute little penguins that are an arm's length away from being gobbled down by a leopard seal!

In a unique landscape format that employs fold out pages, young readers will find out about different sorts of deadly weapons employed by animals, and there are even lift a flap sections (that I highly recommend opening BEFORE giving to anyone under the age of 16!). Starting in North America, we get a description of habitats, and then some of the animals in those areas described in the pages underneath. This repeats through all of the continents, giving animal and after animals. I liked the inset maps showing exactly where the creatures are supposed to be found, just in case I ever find myself in the Carpathian Mountains, trying to avoid a Fire Salamander.

Because of the nature of the sturdy, fold out pages, some with double layered flaps, there is no table of contents, index, or supplementary material at the end of the book. While this makes it somewhat less useful for research, this is more of a coffee table or back seat of the car book, perfectly for dipping through on rainy days or on long trips. This is also has a mixture of illustrations and photographs, which might make it more appealing to slightly younger readers.

Lonely Planet has really been stepping up their game, making them a great addition to similar titles about nature and the world like Dorling Kindersley's Nature's Deadliest Creatures Visual Encyclopedia or National Geographic Kids Deadly Animals Collection. For younger readers, combining this book with a collection of small plastic animals will make a great gift, but be prepared for the sounds of roaring and screaming as the Australian Silent Snapper or the Green Jararaca viper has a Fisher-Price farm cow for dinner. Also, this book has reaffirmed by belief that were I to travel to Australia, I would die a horrible death!

MMGM- On Track and All Shook Up

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Adams, Tom and Jay, Tom. On Track:On Track: The remarkable story of how trains have changed our world
October 1, 2024 by Wide Eyed Editions
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I'm endlessly fascinated by innovations that have changed the way that people go about their daily lives, and yet there are fewer books about these sorts of innovations than about, say, World War II. Even though trains aren't the first form of transportation that comes to mind right now, there's no denying that their introduction changed the way that people got from one place to another.

This is a fascinating book that covers just about every facet of trains that one could imagine. The origins of trains are well laid out, there are several mini biographies of people involved in train innovations, and there's exquisite detail about things like running a railroad, and how the various types of trains (steam, diesel, electric) run. Famous trains and train lines are discussed, and there are fun facts like the introduction of time zones... I had no idea Eastern Standard Time came into existence because of train schedules. The chapters about Train at War will be very helpful for students researching different conflicts for National History Day, and I was captivated (and somewhat horrified) by the British use of railroads to control the native population of India. There are fun sections on some railway oddities, and a brief look at the future of trains. A timeline, index, and glossary complete this helpful and fascinating look at trains. 

I especially appreciated that an effort was made to be inclusion of innovators from marginalized backgrounds, including the Black mechanical and electrical engineer Granville T. Woods, woman inventor Mary Elizabeth Walton, and Hideo Shima, who designed the Japan's bullet trains. 

The one down side of this book is that there is so much information crammed onto the pages that the print was rather small. The trim size on the book is only 10"x 12". Also, the price of this is about $30, which shouldn't be surprising, but is a little alarming. 

Do you remember The Way Things Work (1988), by David McCauley? This book is rather like that; a really good overview of everything you would ever need to know about trains, extremely well illustrated, but, sadly, without wool mammoths. There aren't a lot of students who are interested in trains at my middle school, but the ones who are tend to be obsessive. This is the one book about  trains that will answer all of their questions. I've been looking for something like this for twenty years!

Langbert, Enid. All Shook Up

September 10, 2024 by SparkPress

ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

Paula Levy is being raised in 1956 in a middle class family in Queens. Her mother was fourteen during the Great Depression, and her father had to flee Nazi Germany, so they are not very sympathetic to what utter DRAGS they are. They made her wear pleated skirts and sweater sets, and care about her academic work. They even make comments about the rock music that has recently enthralled her like "Music she calls it. I thought the furnace had exploded!" This is why it is so important that she has made a "cool" friend at school, Barbara. Barbara has blonde streaks in her hair, wears makeup, and wears tight skirts and sweaters. While the two bond over a love of rock music and Catcher in the Rye, Barnara can't possibly been seen in public with such a drip. Paula is a little concerned; her neighbor Margaret, whose parents knew her father in Germany, is a goodie two shoes who never hesitates to tattle on her. When rumors swirl that Elvis will be on the Milton Berle show, Barbara makes plans to go to the studio and meet him, but Paula learns when she watches the show that it was filmed in California. She eventually visits Barbara's apartment, which is disheveled, and learns that Barbara's mother is remarried. After Margaret shows Paula a picture of her father with another woman and baby girl, she has Barbara help her look through family pictures to find out more information, after a perusal of the phone book in the local drugstore doesn't turn up any information. Mrs. Levy is appalled to find Barbara in the home, and the parents sit down and tell her that yes, the father had another family, but they were swept up in the Holocaust, and no, she can never see that tramp again! After Barbara is caught kissing 19-year-old Billy in her living room, she is hauled to the doctor to make sure she is not pregnant, and threatened with an all girls' Catholic school. Since the girls are so fed up with their lives, they decide to run away. At first, Memphis sounds like a good idea, but Paula has questions. She suggests going to Cleveland to live with her Aunt, but Barbara thinks that sounds like Nowheresville. Instead, they settle on going to Hoboken and staying with Barbara's estranged father. After withdrawing $285 from Paula's savings, the two take off, and find the father's run down aparment easily enough. It turns out he is a jaxzz musician, but Barbara doesn't really want to stay with him. The girls return to the city but make the mistake of talking to some sailors on leave. The sailors make advances, and the police accuse the girls of "playing their trade" and get set to arrest them. Luckily, Barbara's father has alerted her mother, who shows up at the bus station. There's quite an altercation, and even the parents start to throw insults at each other. In the end, things are worked out, and because Paula has stood up to her parents, they start to get along a little better. 

I have read many, many teen novels that were written at this time period, and Langbert manages to capture the essence of those books while adding a modern twist. Books of that era were all from the point of view of the "good" girls. That was the aspiration. Girls like Paula with tight sweaters? No nice girl would have anything to do with them. To see Paula portrayed as a girl of similar breeding who was intrigued rather than repelled by Barbara's interests and background was quite fun. Young readers won't understand quite how revolutionary this is, but it gave quite a twist to the overarching feelings of the era. 

Paula's not a bad kid. She does well in school. She wears the dweeby clothes her mother buys for her, even though she has (shocked gasp!) quit buttoning the top button of her blouses and has been turning the collar up! She' understandably miffed with Margaret, who is rather self righteous, especially when her mother makes her stay with Margaret's family for ten days while the mother is in Cleveland helping the aunt with a new baby. Paula's father couldn't possibly take care of her. The running away plans are fascinating, and I imagine that there were a lot of kids during the 1950s who did run away. Remember, Paula's mother grew up at a time where, if families couldn't take care of their children, children were often left to fend for themselves. Paula did have a bit of understanding that the plan wasn't the best one, which was good to see. 

There are plenty of cultural touchpoints; there would have been many parents who survived the Holocaust, and they wouldn't necessarily have talked about what they lost. I could have used a few more tiny historical details, but there were enough, and Mrs. Levy's solid middle class presence and values were perfect. 

I'd love to see more books about teens and tweens in the 1950s; I would have expected a lot in the 1970s or 80s as nostalgic pieces, but there never were very many. For more glimpses at this era of bobby socks and Poodle skirts, pick up Frazier's Mighty Inside, Walsh's Red Scare: A Graphic Novel, Crowder's Mazie, or Elliott's Suspect Red. 

If We Were Having Coffee

Saw this at The Story Sanctuary; If We Were Having Coffee was started by The Perpetual Page Turner, and looked like something I would rather be doing than what I should be doing. I would, of course, be drinking tea, but I'd have some apple pie to share. 

If We Were Having Coffee, I would tell you that I've read 1,004 books for the year, and finding it really hard to be motivated to read anything else until January. This week, my goal is just a book a day. I'm currently reading Robert Lipsyte's Rhino's Run, and it's really good. Mr. Lipsyte is 86 years old. He and Avi are still on top of things!

If We Were Having Coffee, I might complain about the six new carts of Chromebooks that were dropped off at my school when I was out for a doctor's appointment, but I would spin it to sound funny rather than super annoying. We're glad to have new devices, but we were e mailed one plan, and another one happened. That involved having students return Chromebooks in the middle of the day. You can just imagine the chaos. 

If We Were Having Coffee, I would show you the 1979 Sunset Designs Jiffy Needlepoint Christmas tree ornament kit that my daughter picked up for me at the thrift store. It was already started, but the stitches were going backwards. Had to continue it that way. We made up a whole sad backstory about Janet, the original crafter, and why she had to abandon the project in 1981 after a bitter divorce from Gary. I have done any wool needlepoint since about the time this vaguely creepy Santa was produced!

If We Were Having Coffee, my dog Leo would probably jump up on my lap and sniff my tea to see if it was something he wanted. He's been with me since June but has recently become all too comfortable. He is not allowed at the kitchen table, and was promptly removed. He has taken to settling himself on pillows on the sofa and barging in to any room I am in even if the door is ajar. I guess he has finally decided that I am his forever human. 

If We Were Having Coffee, I wouldn't talk about my recuperation from my tendon replacement because it's just boring and annoying. The doctor is happy with my progress, and I'm back to walking to work, but it still doesn't feel great. 

The weather is cool but sunny, and Leo and I have been getting in our steps after doing chores, some of which involved a little bit of sewing, so now that's all I want to do! Have a great week!

All My Bests

Meister, Britnee. All My Bests
November 12, 2024 by Aladdin

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Immie and Jack have been friends and neighbors for years, and have a great time hanging out, watching movies the other person hates, and supporting each other at school. As they start high school, however, things start to change. For one thing, Immie finally is insistent that her mother tell her about her father. Immie's always known that she was conceived through IVF, and has never been shy about telling others this. She also hasn't wanted to know about her father, and now she does. Her mother is reluctant to say much, but gives Immie a collection of CDs from 2006 that her father put together. Utilizing technology to try to find her father, Immie puts together a fake social media account to try to figure out who her father was. Jack, who has parents who support his siblings but seem too busy to watch his soccer games, is struggling with several different issues. He isn't the soccer star his brother is, and has been prone to injuries lately. Not only that, but his feelings for Immie have changed. Every time he thinks he can make a move, Immie seems to be interested in someone else. She is; Elijah is very cute, but she also is starting to think about Jack in a new way. As high school begins, the two engage in an intricate dance of emotions where they are constantly treading on each other's toes. Set against the background of Immie's father's songs, and from Immie's viewpoint, then Jack's, and then from them both together, we see how their relationship evolves. 

Strengths: Immie and Jack are starting their freshman year in high school, which is the perfect age to appeal to both middle school and younger high school readers. While there is a high school party, there's not a lot of drinking shown, and no hanky panky, which is increasingly rare in Young Adult books. It's good to see that Immie and Jack are firm friends, and have many shared interests. I also found it interesting that Jack really tried to tell himself that Elijah was a better choice for Immie because she deserved someone better than himself. This is such a great encapsulation of the early teen psyche, and was quite touching. This was a quicker read than I thought it would be, and kept me interested the whole time, even though I am old and roll my eyes at some of the teen thinking. The cover will age very well. 
Weaknesses: There are a lot of details about the songs that may not resonate with middle school readers, but high school students might find looking into the music of the era when they were born interesting. It might have been helpful to have included a playlist of all the songs if readers wanted to listen to them without having to page back through the story. 
What I really think: At 384 pages, this is a little on the long side, but the inclusion of the male perspective in a romance, as well as Jack's anxiety, make this a compelling story. This is perfect for fans of dual point romances like Blecher's Listen to This and Heldring's The Football Girl. 

I would have loved this in high school, but was just sort of annoyed with the characters as an adult. I also found it difficult to believe that in 2006, the mother would have cared at all about telling the daughter who her father was. I think more of my students don't have fathers in the home than do.