Molly and the Machine

Slangerup, Erik Jon. Molly and the Machine

June 7th 2022 by Aladdin/Simon and Schuster

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Molly lives with her younger brother Wally and father in Hocking Hills, Ohio in the 1980s. Her father has been depressed ever since her mother left them for another man, and while he barely manages to keep a job, he doesn't pay much attention to what Molly does with her time. In true 1980s fashion, he encourages her to find her own fun and not bother him while he watches television, and she is often put in charge of Wally. She does have Darryl, her dog, Crank the cat, Don Carlos the chameleon, and her great uncle Clovis' armadillo Mondo to keep her company, as well as schoolmate Arvin. Clovis has recently given her a new bike, which she has named Pink Lightning, which allows her to travel around her community. Just as she is getting herself organized for the summer, things take anunexpected turn. While she is reluctantly watching Wally, he is spirited away by a giantic robot! Convinced that the Soviets have abducted him (after all, President Reagan thinks they are a menace), Molly sets out to get him back. She eventually runs into Arvin, who was also taken by the robot, but has managed to escape. This takes them on a wild adventure through the nearby woods that involves surprising twists that involve ice cream sundaes, lots of mud, Uncle Clovis' inventions, and an "incredible journey" inside of a massive robot. Are the Soviets really snatching American children? Are armadillos useful in battling giant robots? And what role does the company whose name is on a discarded bolt, Vandervorkel Robotics, play in all of this?

Strengths: Molly's story had a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming and don't want to ruin. The robot's creator is rather inspired, and the reasons that it is gobbling up children (and providing them with junk food and decade appropriate games!) is one that will resonate with young readers. It's hard to write good chase scenes, and Slangerup does an excellent job at not only describing Hocking Hills, but using its features well in the romp across its landscape. There is some back story to drive character development, and I was glad to see that Molly's father eventually broke out of his depression to support his children. Since there was a lot of running about, I was glad that the cast of characters was smaller, and Arvin was a good foil for Molly. Wally wasn't as annoying as younger brothers can be. Either that, or Molly is a nicer sister than I was. I might have been invlined just to let the robot take my brother! This is a solid debut by a Columbus author. 
Weaknesses: I had trouble believing that Molly would have been able to bring all of the animals along on the adventure. A dog, sure, but it seemed unlikely that a cat, chameleon, and armadillo would have been able to keep up. Young readers will just be glad that animals are involved. (I am still a little traumatized, after nine years, by Apollo the poodle's adventures in Spradlin's Menace from the Deep. Kids, leave your pets at home!)
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who want quirky, humorous adventure like Vlock's Sven Carter & the Trashmouth Effect,  Venditti and Higgins' Attack of the Alien Hordes, Bart King's The Drake Equation, and maybe even Condie's The Darkdeep, which shares a similar rural, wooded setting. 

Molly and the Mutants (Far Flung Falls #2)

Slangerup, Eric Jon. Molly and the Mutants (Far Flung Falls #2)

August 22, 2023 by Aladdin/Simon and Schuster

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Things have changed in Molly's world since Molly and the Machine. Her father is less depressed, and is now doing Jazzercize at home with Vilomena. Gruncle is gone, and the family is still dealing with his estate and many ex-wives. Arvin and Margo seem to like-like each other, and Margo is intent on finding Molly a boy to kiss. Ew! Molly would much rather ride around on Pink Lightning 2, her blinged out, equipment rich bicycle, especially when weird things start to happen again. There are giant frogs in the woods, and her cat Crank goes missing. The robot's head in the backyard lets her know that Crank wandered off, but with many other cases of missing pets, she's worried. It doesn't help when the group comes across the skeleton of the pig, Houdini, who was also reported missing. Even the school gets involved, reminding the students about their SAFER initiative... Stay Away From Everything Risky! Of course, none of the kids do this. Intent on confronting the three eyed, monster frogs, they take to the woods with a variety of homemade weaponry and vehicles (as well as the robot!) to try deal with the mutants and figure out their connection to the missing pets. There is some help that arrives from a surprising source with ties to Molly's family history, but will it be enough to retrieve Crank?

Strengths: Slangerup's 1980s representation is strong; there's Rhonda playing Cindy Lauper music on the bus, Officer Wasserbaum warning the children about the evils of Ozzy Osbourne and Kiss, and school classes that take place in "portables" that seem to be permanent fixtures at the school. (Is this just an Ohio thing, or do portables exist elsewhere?) There's also a ton of action and adventure, with the children riding around town and the woods fighting all manner of interesting monsters with a lot of ingenuity and enthusiasm. Molly is an engaging character who works well with her friends, and tries to navigate her father's new relationship, fifth grade projects, and friend dynamics while having to hurtle about the woods fighting mutants. Quite an interesting and unique book. 
Weaknesses: I'm not a huge fan of the "all the pets are going missing" trope, but this at least gives a different spin on it, since it's not the standard pet napping ring. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like the grody to the max 1980s monster vibe of Stranger Things (which I still haven't seen!) that surfaces in books like Berk and Mitchell's Camp Murderface or Condie's The Darkdeep. 

The Girl and the Robot and Ellis Island

Rodriguez, Oz, and Ortega, Claribel A. The Girl and the Robot
March 25, 2025 by Disney Hyperion
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus

Mimi Perez' Papi runs the E-Perez Repair shop, where he fixes small electronics for people in their Brooklyn Neighborhood. Mimi loves helping him, so when he is deported back to the Dominican Republic. She and her mother are forced to take a single room in Paco and Julia's apartment, and are still behind on their rent. In order to raise money for her father's legal fees, Mimi does repairs of her own, but she has distanced herself from her cousin and friends who form the Get Money Marketing Crew. After all, why have friends if they could suddenly be taken away? When Jada and friends Benny and Los realize that there is a robotics contest at school with a prize of $50,000, they approach Mimi to help them enter, and she is intrigued by the idea of that much money. However, strange things happen in their neighborhood. There's a huge flash of light at night, and something crashes through the roof of the E-Perez shop. After investigating, Mimi finds a robot, which she hides in her room, since federal agents, including the evil Agent Gallo, are looking for it. She manages to communicate with Dot-E, as she names the alien creature, and realizes that Dot-E's mother and father have also crashed somewhere in New York City after fleeing war on their planet. Mimi has to balance planning for the robotics competition with helping Dot-E find her parents. She finally has to loop in her friends as she ditches school to travel around to find Aa-Mee and Ee-Pa, all while trying to raise money for parts for the B-Kay Bot that the group is building. This robot will use laser technology and artificial intelligence to help people figure out what is wrong with equipment in order to repair it in a more cost efficient way than big businesses. Agent Gallo gets involved, and threatens to deport Mimi's mother unless she turns over Dot-E. Will Mimi be able to help both her own family and Dot-E's? 
Strengths: It's always good to see kids involved in robotics and STEM type projects. Having a vibrant neighborhood, and promoting this area with their B-Kay Robot, was interesting. I liked that they even though about the impact that the robot might have on a business like Mimi's father. The treatment of the Perez's situation is well done; the father doesn't want the mother to pursue his deportation case because she is lacking documents as well. At the end of the book, it is mentioned that she is working on her status, and will then work on the father's. Dot-E's situation mirrors Mimi's in easy to understand allergory.
Weaknesses: Mimi and her friends engage in some risky behaviors that I didn't like; they skip school without notifying the adults who care about them, and set off a smoke bomb in the school so they can get out unnoticed. This sets off the sprinklers, and one of them laughs. Since the sprinklers would probably have gone off in my library and ruined a lot of books, I didn't find this funny.
What I really think: This read a bit like Cartaya's Each Tiny Spark, but with alien robots, and is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Lerner's Enginerds, Slangerup's Molly and the Machine, or Winnick's HiLo series.

Feggo, Felipe Galindo and Howard, Tait (illustrator).
History Comics: Ellis Island: Immigration and the American Dream 

January 21, 2025 by First Second
E ARC provided by Netgalley

Like the other volumes in this series, Ellis Island incorporates a story to use as a framework for all of the history explanations; a boy and his mother, who works at the Ellis Island Museum, take refuge with upstairs neighbors during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The mother's family had immigrated from Ireland in the 1800s, and the neighbors both have ties to Mexico, so have a more modern view of immigration. There is tons of information about Ellis Island, including a complete history of ownership after the land was taken from the indigenous people, and also has a lot of details about what it was like for many immigrants who arrived by boat, mainly from Europe, from the late 1800s until 1954. At that point, more people were arriving by plane, so the island center wasn't needed, and was turned into a museum. There is a bit of information about the damage that Superstorm Sandy inflicted on the historical site as well. 

This is all engagingly done, and very interesting. I even looked up the passenger lists and found what is very likely my great grandfather, Jacob Yingling, who came to the US from Germany when he was a young man. There were lots of things I didn't know, like the existence of other ports (including Angel Island on the West Coast) all around the US, and details about why some people were sent back. This is a great series, and every book I've read (including The Prohibition Era, World War II, and  Hip-Hop: The Beat of America) has had so much information; the only problem is that my students don't pick these up quite as easily as fiction graphic novels.