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The Lost Kitten

Katie Fry may be little, but she’s got a big brain, and she uses it to solve mysteries. So when she finds a very cute, VERY lost kitten named Sherlock, she decides to take his case. Can Katie track down the clues to find Sherlock’s home? Beginning readers will love hunting for clues in the art right along with Katie and Sherlock! 

Katie Fry is a curious protagonist that readers will love. She uses her powers of observation to help the cat, Sherlock, find his home. For example, when Katie first finds Sherlock, she notices that Sherlock has “trimmed nails, coat is brushed and cared for,” and the “fur around his neck is pushed down.” From this Katie deduces that “you once had a home and a collar.” When Katie runs out of clues, a yellow bird suddenly appears and reveals what he knows about Sherlock’s past. In the end, Katie finds Sherlock’s home, but that’s not the end of their friendship. The last page shows Katie and Sherlock, ready to solve another mystery. 

The Lost Kitten is part of Scholastic’s Level 2 Reader, which is perfect for developing readers, who are ready to learn new vocabulary words. Each page has one to three sentences. While most of the vocabulary is basic, readers may need help with more advanced words such as adventures, Sherlock, and evidence. Much like a picture book, every page has a brightly colored, large illustration. The illustrations will help readers understand the plot as well as give readers a chance to look for clues. 

The Katie Fry, Private Eye Series will appeal to a wide range of readers including those who love animals, mysteries, and a compassionate protagonist. The simple plot engages readers who will try to solve the mystery alongside Katie. For more reading fun, check out the following books: Shampoodle by Joan Holub, Otters Love to Play by Jonathan London, and The Firefly with No Glow by Rebecca Smallberg.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Pigskins to Paintbrushes: The Story of Football-Playing Artist Ernie Barnes

Ernest Barnes was never great at sports. Despite his parents’ encouragement to play football, Ernest loved art. He loved drawing pictures and painting “bright, vivid colors” with “bold, expressive brushstrokes.” However, when his school’s strength coach, Mr. Tucker, helps Ernest succeed in the weight room, Ernest finds his career shifting toward football and away from art. How will Ernest juggle his growing athletic career and his childhood love for art? Can these two elements coexist in his life? 

Ernest, also known as Ernie, is the inspiring protagonist of the story. Told from Ernest’s perspective, the story follows his life from childhood to adulthood, detailing his accomplishments, struggles, and life experiences. Ernest is a charming, lovable character whose determination to pursue his artistic dreams makes him an admirable character. His struggle to balance two prominent aspects of his life–football and art—will be relatable for readers who feel torn between multiple interests. 

Pigskins to Paintbrushes presents a heartwarming tale of the real life of Ernest Barnes, an artist and professional football player for the American Football League. Despite the contrary opinions of others, Ernest discovers that football and art aren’t separate. For him, they were “one and the same” because they reflect who he is as a person. This theme of pursuing one’s dreams and loving oneself permeates throughout the story and culminates with Ernest believing that he “could be anything he wanted to be!” The story ultimately inspires the readers to reflect on their own talents and dreams.  

Despite the encouraging message, Pigskins to Paintbrushes explores some heavier topics, like the effects of segregation and its impact on Ernest’s career. Colorful, full-page illustrations enhance the plot by providing lovely, painted pictures to accompany the story. Overall, Pigskins to Paintbrushes is a beautiful true story about Ernest Barnes discovering who he wanted to be. Although the story can be simple for experienced readers with each page having only two small paragraphs, Pigskins to Paintbrushes will appeal to artists and sports enthusiasts alike because of its use of vivid illustrations and positive themes. 

Sexual Content 

  • None 

Violence 

  • Kids bully Ernest at school. The kids “circled him. They shoved Ernest. They snatched away his trombone. Ernest fell and skinned his knee.” 
  • Kids taunt Ernest in junior high, and “one day, someone walloped him over the head with a book!”

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • None

Language 

  • When Ernest tries out for the football team and doesn’t do great, the coach yells, “You never will be nothing!” and “You too pretty to play this game!” 

Supernatural 

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • When Ernest’s mom tries to decide if her son should play football, she decides “over a prayer and a plate of fried chicken.” 
  • When Ernest was worried about his art exhibit, his mother called him and “offered a prayer.” 

Yes No Maybe So

Jamie’s summer is not turning out like he hoped it would. After his fear of public speaking cost him a spot in a highly coveted internship, he settles for volunteering on a campaign for a Georgia State Senate candidate. It’s certainly not the glamorous summer he envisioned, but he’s wanted to be involved in politics and effect change for as long as he could remember, so he’ll take what he can get. Plus, it gives him breaks from bat mitzvah planning with his younger sister, Sophie. 

Maya’s summer doesn’t look promising, either. Between her parents potentially divorcing and her best friend, Sara, focused on work and getting ready to move away to college, it feels like her life is completely falling apart. Nothing feels right anymore, and she wonders if it ever will again. 

But when Jamie and Maya’s moms reconnect, they suggest that Jamie and Maya go door to door trying to get votes for the campaign Jamie is volunteering for. At first, neither is thrilled about the idea– Jamie is a nervous wreck around strangers, and Maya has enough on her plate already. But the more time they spend knocking on doors and promoting their candidate, the more they realize just how much is at stake in this election. And the more time they spend together, the more they realize that they don’t completely hate each other’s company. Are they growing closer as friends, or something more? 

Yes No Maybe So is a fast-paced rom-com that readers will tear through. Because the chapters alternate between Jamie’s and Maya’s perspectives, both characters are well-developed. Seeing the story unfold through both of their eyes adds lots of layers and nuance. Both characters have regrets and make mistakes, but learn from them and apologize; their ability to communicate and willingness to share their feelings is refreshing. The buildup to their eventual romance is satisfying too. Since they start out as friends, their relationship is clearly based on mutual respect and genuine regard for one another.  

This book also deals with complex issues such as antisemitism and Islamophobia, and how those manifests in politics. While these issues are not sugarcoated and are given the gravity that they deserve, there is still a healthy balance between the political and the romantic subplots. The two subplots complement each other well because neither one dominates the other. Yes No Maybe So’s main message is one of love and acceptance. Although we all have differences, it is important to respect people’s choices for how they want to live their lives, provided they are not hurting those around them. 

Overall, Yes No Maybe So is a fun and engaging read, perfect for teenagers who are looking for an optimistic (but not cheesy) view on the world we live in. It is a heartwarming romance full of twists and turns, while still sending a vital message about the importance of speaking out against injustice. Readers will fall in love with Jamie and Maya, and root for them as they try to navigate their friendship, as well as the ever-changing world around them. 

Sexual Content  

  • When thinking about how he often fumbles when giving a speech in public, Jamie nervously envisions himself giving a campaign speech and makes a sexual joke. He says, “Seriously, I wouldn’t just lose my election. I would call it an erection. And then I’d lose.” 
  • Jamie’s eighth-grade sister, Sophie, discusses games that she and her friends are planning to play at a no-adults birthday party. “We’re doing Spin the Bottle, we’re doing Seven Minutes in Heaven, we’re doing Suck and Blow. . . With a playing card.” 
  • Maya’s favorite season of The Office is “season two. All that Jim and Pam sexual tension.” 
  • Maya goes to Jamie’s house. His friends leave, joking that Jamie and Maya probably want “alone time.” Jamie and Maya laugh it off, but Jamie thinks, “Alone time. With Maya. In my house, which contains my room, which contains my–okay, I’m not going to think about beds. That would be absurd. No point in thinking about beds or alone or Maya or alone with Maya in beds or–” 
  • Jamie and Maya watch an episode of The Office together. During a particularly romantic scene, Maya puts her head on Jamie’s shoulder, and Jamie gets an erection. “Her head’s still on my shoulder, even though I’m the king of awkward, with my arm just hanging down stiffly. God. Speaking of stiff– I adjust the blankets, blushing furiously. Think of Asa Newton. Think of Ian Holden, Jennifer Dickers. Fifi. Fifi’s humanoid hands—Crisis averted.” 
  • Jamie and Maya kiss for the first time in Target. Then they move into a dressing room for privacy. Maya “sinks onto the bench, and I follow—kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. But then she hugs me, shifting backward, until I’m almost on top of her. I rest my hand behind her head before it hits the bench. Our legs tangle together, sneakered feet dangling off the edge. This time, when we kiss, it’s more urgent. Her hands fall to the back of my neck, gently threading my hair. My fingers trail down her bare arms, and she smiles against my lips.” 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • “Fuck” and “fucking” are sometimes used as an intensifier. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Jamie is Jewish and Maya is Muslim. They bring up their faiths, and how it affects their lives, many times throughout the story. For example, this story takes place during Ramadan, so the fact that Maya is fasting often comes up. She says, “‘I don’t do coffee on Ramadan. . .  I don’t even do water. I eat suhoor way before the sun is up and then I eat after the sun sets. That’s it.” 

Stand Up, Yumi Chung!

On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her “Yu-MEAT” because she smells like her family’s Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside, Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she’s reworked into comedy gold. All she needs is a stage and some courage.

But instead of spending the summer studying her favorite YouTube comedians, Yumi is enrolled in test-prep tutoring to qualify for a private school scholarship, which will help in a time of hardship at the restaurant. Then one day after class, Yumi stumbles on an opportunity that will change her life: a comedy camp for kids taught by one of her favorite YouTube stars, Jasmine Jasper. The only problem is that the instructor and all the students think she’s a girl named Kay Nakamura — and Yumi doesn’t correct them.  

As this case of mistaken identity unravels, Yumi must decide to stand up and reveal the truth or risk losing her dreams and disappointing everyone she cares about. 

Middle-grade readers will instantly connect to Yumi, who struggles with typical conflicts such as self-doubt, feeling inadequate, making friends, and trying to make her parents happy. Yumi’s humor and honesty make her instantly likable. Many readers will relate to Yumi’s desire to reinvent herself into a more confident and popular person. With the help of new friends and the comedian Jasmine Jasper, Yumi is encouraged to challenge herself and to do things that make her uncomfortable. Along her journey, Yumi learns the importance of being her true self instead of trying to change herself to meet others’ expectations. 

One of Yumi’s main conflicts is that her parents do not understand her desire to be a comedian. Instead, they focus on the importance of earning good grades in school. This problem is compounded by Yumi’s sister, who graduated high school two years early and is currently in medical school. This conflict is further exasperated when Yumi begins lying to her parents. At one point, Yumi wonders, “What does it mean to follow my heart, anyway? What if pleasing my parents and comedy are both pieces of my heart?” 

Yumi reveals her secret to a friend, who says, “You have to speak if you want people to hear you.” When Yumi’s secret is finally revealed, she is forced to have an honest discussion with her family. This discussion allows Yumi and her family to understand and support each other even if they don’t necessarily agree on everything. Yumi’s experiences highlight the importance of being honest as well as the importance of forgiveness. 

Stand Up, Yumi Chung! will resonate with readers because of the likable protagonist and the relatable conflicts. While there are many humorous moments, the story also teaches important life lessons about self-acceptance and open communication. In the end, the story reminds readers that making mistakes is an unavoidable part of life and that “there is no such thing as failure. Just a chance to pivot and try something different.”  

Sexual Content  

  • None

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • After her family has the grand reopening of their restaurant, Yumi finds her father in the alley smoking a cigarette. “He only smokes when he’s really stressed out.” 

Language  

  • The kids in school call Yumi “Yu-meat, Wet Poodle, and Top Ramen.” 
  • Heck and dang are used occasionally.  
  • Fricking is used twice.  
  • OMG is used once. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Will It Blow?: Become a Volcano Detective at Mount St. Helens

Will Mount St. Helens erupt again? Will it spit lava or unleash a deadly mudflow? Learn how to be a volcano detective, sifting through the evidence, searching for clues, and solving real-life cases. This classroom favorite has won numerous awards, including being named a Washington Reads pick, a Natural History Magazine Best Book for Young Readers, and an Oregon Book Award finalist. 

Will It Blow? is a highly entertaining book that uses a unique premise to educate readers about volcanoes. Treating the volcanoes like a criminal who needs to be “caught red-handed,” allows readers to interact with the text by learning how to “decipher” volcanic clues, “crack cases,” and “predict volcanic eruptions.” Along the way, readers will explore Mount St. Helens’ real volcanic activity and try to determine if the volcano is about to blow. 

The book includes volcano vocabulary, five short chapters that discuss different types of volcanic activity, and a list of additional sources. To make the facts easy to understand, the book uses short paragraphs, lists, infographics, photographs, and illustrations. Each page has illustrations to help readers understand volcanic activity. For example, one page shows the different seismograms of Mount Saint Helens, while another page shows what the volcano looks like deep underground. Another feature that will delight readers is the “Detective in Training” pages, which encourage readers to make a human seismograph, a soda bottle volcano, and other scientific experiments. 

Even though Will It Blow? has a fun format, younger readers will need assistance with the advanced vocabulary and sentence structure. For example, when discussing glass shards, “The detectives wondered: Would the eruptions continue? Did the glassy fragments mean a new batch of deep, possibly gas-rich magma was surging up? Would this eruption turn explosive? What do you think?” While some of the terminology may be difficult for readers, many of the concepts are explained in a kid-friendly manner that is easy to understand. For instance, the earth is compared to a peanut M&M, and not because “it’s crunchy and chocolatey when you bite into it. . . Because it has three layers, just like a peanut M&M.” 

Will It Blow? will appeal to readers who want to learn more about volcanoes, and the book’s fun format and interesting facts will keep most readers interested in the entire book. The book’s educational value and readability make it a perfect book for the classroom as well as at home. Curious readers who love Ada Twist, Scientist, and The Magnificent Makers by Theanne Griffith will find Will It Blow? a perfect addition to their reading library. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Flirting with Fate

Ava Granados’s family has a magical secret. Ava explains, “All the women in the Granados family had this keen, odd, otherworldly ability to pass along blessings to their female descendants. But here was the catch: they could only do so from their death beds.” When her grandmother is dying, Ava and all her sisters rush to their grandmother’s bedside. Unfortunately, due to a flash flood, Ava gets into a car accident and is too late to receive her Nana’s blessing. While her sisters receive their blessings, including an extremely detailed memory and the ability to persuade others, Ava is devastated to not have received her grandmother’s parting gift.  

When Ava attends the celebration of Nana’s life, she looks up and suddenly sees her recently deceased grandmother looking at her. Ava describes, “A figure emerged from the orchard a mere thirty feet away. Wide-eyed, dimple-cheeked, perfect auburn coif. Nana?” When Nana lay dying, she accidentally gave Ava’s blessing to someone else, but because she is now a ghost, she has no memory of what happened. Nana asks Ava to help her restore the blessing to its proper recipient or Nana “will remain a ghost . . . until this is made right.”  

Ava realizes that Nana’s blessing must have accidentally landed on the boy whose car she crashed into. For guarded Ava, befriending some random boy is the last thing she wants to do. Desperate to help Nana reach peace, Ava must find a way to connect with this mysterious boy, Rion, in order to be able to recapture her Nana’s blessing. Nana encourages Ava to open up to Rion and to look within herself. Nana says, “You can always recognize the love when it belongs to you.” Over the course of the novel, Ava learns to trust in herself and her feelings for Rion.  

Many readers will be able to relate to Ava because she is afraid of being hurt or rejected. Ava begins to spend more time with Rion, all the while trying to figure out how best to get her Nana’s blessing back. Nana encourages Ava to look within herself. Nana says, “You can always recognize the love when it belongs to you.”  

Ava and Rion end up connecting over the loss of a parent. Rion’s parents died in a car accident while Ava’s mom left. However, they both blame themselves for their parents’ absence.  Because Rion is able to share his emotions, Ava is able to truly open up about her feelings. Ava explains, “I used to blame myself for my mom leaving too. She left when I was seven, and I used to think if I had been better, nicer, more, then she would have stayed.” Ava is able to comfort Rion by sharing what she has learned. She tells Rion, “We can’t blame ourselves for things we had no control over.” Ava and Rion’s relationship is extremely impactful as it allows them both to share feelings about things that they previously kept inside.  

Overall, Ava’s journey to opening up her heart and embracing things she never thought possible is extremely compelling. Similar to Cervantes’ other work, Enchanted Hacienda, Cervantes continues exploring the theme of magic being inherited through female descendants. Though there is a romantic relationship brewing between Ava and Rion, there is also a major focus on the importance of family, as Ava’s relationship with her Nana is central. Nana encourages Ava to open her heart, saying, “I gave you the gift of an open heart . . . you keep people at arm’s length; you don’t trust. I don’t want you to go through life closed off from love.” This wonderful novel leaves readers with an important message: trust yourself and open your heart to possibilities.  

Sexual Content  

  • Ava’s sister, Carmen, sees a cute guy at a party. Carmen tells Ava, “Look, there are a lot of boys to kiss in this world.”  
  • Ava explains her negative history with relationships. “Relationships always ended badly, with a goodbye and a broken, unmendable heart . . . at least for someone. But last year [Ava] did kiss Bryce Wellington on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland just to get it over with . . . Sadly, it felt unimpressive.” 
  • Ava’s sisters are watching The Notebook in the living room, and Ava remarks, “Clothes were flying off [the characters] and the last thing Ava wanted to do was stand there with her grandmother’s ghost and a fifteenth-century saint while a monster sex scene played out ten feet away.” 
  • Ava believes she and Rion are having a romantic moment, when suddenly, she realizes she is actually kissing his twin brother, Achilles. Ava says, “His lips brushed against hers. She felt a jolt, an alarm that screamed wrong, wrong, wrong.” After realizing she is actually kissing Rion’s brother, Ava “jerked free, horrified, as she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.” 
  • After pushing Rion out of the way of a falling tree, they kiss. “She felt her body yielding, falling deeper into Rion. And then their mouths met. And Ava was no longer falling. She was dissolving. The forest and the sky fell silent. The world evaporated. There was only this moment.” 
  • Ava kisses Rion at a party. Ava “reached up, bringing his lips to hers. Allowing herself to be swept away in his trust, his warmth, his love.” 

Violence  

  • When Achilles tricks Ava into kissing him, Rion finds out and tackles Achilles. “The brothers rolled across the dirt, all grunts and curses and years of unspent anger.” They finally stop when Ava yells at them. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Characters occasionally use moderate language like shit, damn, and ass.  
  • When Nana suddenly appears as a ghost, Ava exclaims, “Jesus Christ!” 
  • Nana, in her ghost form, splashes water at Ava’s sisters who exclaims, “Holy Mary, Mother of God!” 

Supernatural 

  • Ava explains an example of a blessing in her family. “Ava’s great-grandmother had graced Nana with an angel’s voice. Before that, Nana couldn’t even sing off-key . . . After the death-bed blessing? It was like listening to a Mexican Pavarotti [Opera star] when [Nana] opened her mouth to sing.” 
  • Ava’s sister, Viv, is given the blessing of persuasion by her grandmother. Viv explains, “It’s not like I can go around making people do anything I want them to. Nana said I would just be able to help others see my side of things.”  
  • Ava’s other sister, Carmen, received the blessing of memory from Nana. Carmen says, “I got the blessing of memory, which I guess means that I can recall details, read or hear or see something once and remember it verbatim . . . it’s weird—like having a camera in my head.” 
  • Ava’s Nana appears to her one last time at the end of the book. Ava explains, “And then, as if by magic, the mist parted, just enough for Ava to see Nana . . . [Nana] was young, beautiful, beaming with joy.”  

Spiritual Content  

  • As Ava drives to get to her grandmother’s bedside, Ava prays that she will make it there in time to say goodbye. Ava says, “Listen, God . . . If you get me home with enough time, I’ll go to confession for. . . I’ll go for a whole week.” 
  • Nana is guided in her ghost form by Saint Medardus. Medardus introduces himself as, “I am the patron saint of weather, vineyards, brewers, captives, prisoners, and teeth . . . I hail from the fifteenth century and am [Nana’s] guide, here to help her.” 
  • Ava attends confession, as she promised to do on the night of her Nana’s passing. Ava is nervous about it and says, “What if I see someone I know? What if the priest laughs at me? What if I get it all wrong?” But she ultimately speaks to the priest and after she confesses, the priest says, “Your penance is to say six Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.” 

Midnight Magic

Princess Teresina of the kingdom of Pergamontio is being haunted by a ghost, and the former magician Mangus is called upon to help solve the mystery. But not all is what it seems in a kingdom that outlaws magic and once convicted Mangus for magic. Now, Mangus’s assistant, Fabrizio, joins his master at the castle to discover what secrets lie within the secret passageways. 

Avi’s Midnight Magic is the second book in the series, though the books do not need to be read in order to be understood. The book’s protagonist and narrator, Fabrizio, sets up the story and explains the context well for those who are unfamiliar with the previous installment. Fabrizio is aiding his master, Mangus the Magician, as the magician tries to solve the mystery of the ghost in the castle. Fabrizio is a likable but naïve boy, who wants to impress his master. Mangus is older and more jaded, and he occasionally mocks his young assistant; however, Mangus does like Fabrizio and praises him when he does well. 

The Kingdom of Pergamontio outlaws magic, and it becomes clear early on that Mangus the Magician is more Sherlock Holmes-clever rather than magical. He doesn’t believe that the princess is being haunted, despite Fabrizio’s clear belief in this supernatural specter. Instead, Mangus uses the power of reasoning to uncover the secrets of the castle. Although magic isn’t used, Fabrizio uses tarot cards throughout the book, something for which Mangus mocks him. Much of the book discusses the way faith and reason interact, leaning heavily on reason and logic being the wisest ways to learn about the world. Fabrizio, despite being overly trusting in others, does note that stories and context link together otherwise meaningless facts. To solve the mystery of the princess’s ghost, faith and reason must work together.  

As he spends time wandering the castle, Fabrizio learns about the royal family and accidentally befriends the princess. He also does his best to avoid the king’s terrifying advisor, Scarazoni, who wants Mangus killed, and who is rumored to have killed the missing prince. Each character’s personality, even the classic stereotypes like the evil advisor and brash, manipulative princess, brings further intrigue into an otherwise twisting mystery. The intrigue is fun and fast-paced, and readers will find themselves unable to put the book down. 

For younger readers, Midnight Magic is a great introduction to both the medieval fantasy and mystery genres because it discusses the real and unreal, and the characters are able to uncover the mystery thanks to their ability to come together and use both logic and faith. The tone of the story is mostly serious, though the inclusion of magic adds a hint of whimsy and wonder that helps bring the story to life. Fabrizio notes that stories, though sometimes fictitious, can speak the truth in spirit and emotion rather than content. To help solve the mystery, Fabrizio is able to seek out context to paint a larger picture; this highlights that there are many pieces to a good story, and sometimes they come from the most unlikely places. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • Fabrizio notes that there’s a stick near the doorway. He describes it as “a cudgel with which he was supposed to beat away anyone who tried to enter the house.” 
  • Mangus becomes upset with the impossible task of dealing with a ghost, and he “in a pique of frustration, pushes [Fabrizio] away.” He apologizes after. 
  • Princess Teresina explains that she believes the ghost is her brother. She says, “A few months ago he was sent as an emissary to the pope, in Rome. He never reached the holy city. I believe he was murdered and the ghost we saw is . . . his.” There are no further details about his alleged murder. 
  • Fabrizio overhears the royal advisor, Scarazoni, conspiring with the princess’s tutor. Scarazoni confirms that “the prince was killed. There is no more to say.” 
  • The queen and Fabrizio come across the dead body of the princess’s tutor. No further descriptions of the dead body are given, but it is established that he was murdered. 
  • After Mangus, Princess Teresina, and Fabrizio see the supposed apparition, Mangus alerts the king and Scarazoni of the situation. Scarazoni becomes enraged, wanting to prove the princess wrong. Scarazoni “grabs hold of Mangus’s robe at the throat and shoves the old man hard against the wall.” Scarazoni proceeds to yell at Mangus for answers, and Mangus has difficulty speaking as he’s being held at the throat. This scene lasts for about a page. 
  • Scarazoni raises his hand to hit Mangus, and Fabrizio throws himself between them. Fabrizio describes, “When [his hand] came, [it] struck him down.” 
  • Fabrizio finds the kitchen boy, Rinaldo, in the chapel. “The boy’s clothing was torn in many places and streaked with blood. His face was marked with what also looked like blood. All around him were bits of broken candles. A sword was at his side. What’s more, he was writhing about, clutching his left leg tightly.” It is revealed that Rinaldo is the supposedly murdered prince, alive and well, living in the castle. 
  • Scarazoni’s plot is revealed, and he is sentenced “to be executed.” The reader does not see this execution scene. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None

Language  

  • Fabrizio encounters a soldier who wants to speak with the magician Mangus. Fabrizio has some practiced replies that he uses to deter people, but the soldier responds in a mocking tone, “Well spoken, cur.” 
  • Mangus refers to the princess’s tutor as “a dolt.” 
  • Fabrizio announces that he believes in ghosts, and Mangus, unimpressed, says, “You are the living proof that even someone who reads can be a fool.” 
  • Light language such as stupid and fool is used often. 

Supernatural 

  • In the Kingdom of Pergamontio, there is magic as well as magicians. However, magicians are forbidden in the kingdom. Mangus was, “arrested and brought to trial in that same castello, had, under threat of torture, confessed and repented of being a magician.” The book occasionally uses Italian terms like castello, which in this case means castle. 
  • Fabrizio uses tarot cards to help divine events come. He notes, “These cards, he believed, could fashion the future. Since he could envision no life for himself other than as a servant, it was his master’s fate he wished to shape.” Mangus dislikes tarot cards and says “tarot cards are nothing but ignorant superstition.” 
  • The king’s daughter, Teresina, is being haunted by “a terrifying ghost.” Teresina recounts, “What I saw could not, would not, be felt. My hand passed right through it.” 
  • While wandering through the castle, Fabrizio sees the ghost. “It stood – or rather floated – four feet above the ground, with a fluttering radiance that kept within a specific niche. The more Fabrizio stared at it, the more convinced he grew that the illumination contained the shape of a person.” This is the central mystery of the book, and it is later revealed to be a trick of reflections. 

Spiritual Content  

  • Mangus, when summoned by the king, makes “the sign of the cross over his own heart” and says, “The Lord knows I’ll need all the help I can get.”  
  • When Mangus’s wife, Sophia, hears the ominous news that her husband has been summoned by the king, she exclaims, “God have mercy!” These expressions are used occasionally. 
  • The punishment for witchcraft and wizardry is to be burned at the stake, but Mangus escaped this fate. One government figure named Scarazoni states, “If you dance with the Devil, your feet will feel the heat.” These beliefs are strongly rooted in Christianity, which Mangus notes when he proclaims that “I am not now – nor have I ever been – a dabbler in ways of evil. I seek to be a good Christian.” 
  • After seeing the ghost for the first time, Teresina says that she “hastened to say a prayer.” 
  • After speaking to the princess about the ghost, the princess’s lady-in-waiting “joined a nunnery and [had] taken a sacred vow of silence.”
  • Many characters say prayers, but the prayers themselves are not written out. The text usually states, for instance, “Mangus said a prayer.” Further detail is not given. 
  • In the castle, there is a statue of the Mother Mary. It becomes a focal point as it is where the princess sees the ghost several times. 
  • Mangus prays in front of a “portrait of the Blessed Martyr, Saint Stephano, so pierced with arrows.” 

Sprite’s Secret

Eight-year-old Violet didn’t expect to find a portal to the fairy world in her backyard. And she certainly didn’t think she would have to defend the human world from trickster pixies! With the help of her new fairy friend Sprite, Violet sets out to catch Pix, a lively fairy who just wants everybody to have fun – all the time. When Pix’s playfulness starts to cause serious trouble, it’s up to Violet and Sprite to put an end to his fun and send him back to the fairy world! 

When Violet meets Sprite, her whole world changes. Instead of being a normal eight-year-old, Violet has to help Sprite trick the escaped fairies and send them back to the Otherworld. Violet is a likable character who worries about breaking rules. However, once she sees the dangers the fairies will cause, she jumps in to help Sprite. This gets her into some silly situations. For example, Sprite accidentally transports Violet to the mall, “right in the middle of the wishing fountain! She was standing knee-deep in water. A big statue of a fish squirted water on top of her head.” 

Sprite is new at his job as a Royal Pixie Tricker, which adds suspense since readers never know what Sprite will accidentally do. Even though Sprite hasn’t learned all of the ways to stop fairy magic, Violet is patient with him and she never gets angry. Instead, she does everything in her power to help Sprite. For example, to keep Sprite safe, she hides him in her pocket.  

Newly independent readers who love fairies and magic will enjoy Sprite’s Secret. The story uses easy-to-read text and a fast-paced plot with lots of fairy mischief. Black and white illustrations appear on every page, which will help readers visualize the characters and understand the plot. To help readers know when characters are under Pix’s spell, the characters’ eyes turn into swirls and they have silly facial expressions. 

Sprite’s Secret is a fun story that will keep readers interested until the end. Readers will enjoy learning about the fairies’ magic and the different ways to break the fairies’ spells. Both Sprite and Violet are interesting characters who learn to work together to send the trouble-making fairies back to the Otherworld. While the story isn’t unique, readers will cheer when Sprite and Violet trick Pix and send him back to his world. Readers who love fairies and want to add a little magic to their lives will enjoy the Pixie Tricks Series.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • Pix throws balls at Sprite. “Sprite flew all around the yard, trying to dodge the balls. He looked exhausted.”  
  • Pix goes to the city park and taps kids on the head, putting the kids under his spell. “Pix jumped up to pat Violet on the head. She swatted him away. When his feet touched the ground, he pushed Violet. She magically flew through the air and across the playground. She landed on the seesaw.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None

Language  

  • None

Supernatural 

  • Fairies find their way into Violet’s world. One fairy, named Pix, loves to play. Pix traps Violet in a fairy ring when “he threw the dust into the air. The dust whirled around. It formed a big circle and then surrounded Violet.”  
  • To break the fairy ring magic, Violet “quickly took off her hoodie and turned it inside out. Then she put it back on.” 
  • Pix uses fairy dust to make a jump rope magically appear. “The rope was turning by itself!” When Sprite refuses to play, “Pix made the jump rope twirl like a lasso. . . Then Pix pulled Sprite to the ground.” 
  • If Pix “taps you on the head. Then you’re under his spell. You’ll want to play with him all the time.” Even when it’s no longer fun, you cannot stop playing. 
  • To get somewhere fast, Sprite blew pixie dust over himself and Violet. “Then she felt her body tingle like a million tiny feathers were tickling her skin. Then the lights faded and the tingling stopped.” Violent ends up in a water fountain at the mall. 
  • A fairy named Hinky Pink can control the weather. He makes fog to keep Sprite and Violet from finding Pix. In order to break Hinky Pink’s spell, Violet and Sprite have to say his name backward. They say, “Kniop Yknih. Knip Yknih. Ynip Yknih.” Then “a strong wind came. It blew the fog away.” 
  • To send Pix back to the fairy world, Sprite, and Violet trick him into doing work. “Suddenly, a cold wind kicked up. The wind blew all over the playground. . . The wind formed a tunnel in the air. Right behind Pix. The tunnel closed up. Then it disappeared. Pix was gone!’ 
  • Hinky Pink makes a cloud over Violet’s head. “Cold raindrops fell from the cloud.”  

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Velociraptor

What would happen if a Tyrannosaurus rex and a velociraptor met each other? What if they had a fight? Who do you think would win? 

Even though Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Velociraptor ends with a battle scene between the two dinosaurs, the book also has several pages discussing fossils as well as the reasons dinosaurs may have become extinct. Throughout the book, interesting facts are included such as “a newborn T. rex skeleton has never been discovered. Maybe you will be the person who unearths it.” Each page has large pictures as well as fun facts including dino trivia, gross facts, and definitions. For example, one gross fact is “A raptor’s arms and hands seem perfect for a dinosaur that is an aggressive hunter—quick, long, and strong. A raptor could easily rip apart its prey.”   

The nonfiction reader is packed full of interesting information about the two bear species. The book also has two pages devoted to funny bear stories. Similar to a picture book, each page has a full-page illustration. With 6 to 11 simple sentences per page, Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Velociraptor is accessible to most readers. However, younger readers may need help with some of the vocabulary such as excavation, articulated, paleontologist, and proportionally.  

Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Velociraptor fun format will appeal to most readers. Each two-page spread has large illustrations and explains the characteristics of each bear. Readers may be surprised by the ending battle the T. Rex dies. However, the text also explains why the outcome could have been different.  

The box is jam-packed with interesting facts, photos, and illustrations. The nonfiction text will spark reader’s attention as it teaches readers about dinosaurs. To learn more about dinosaurs, read about famous fossil hunters in Barnum Brown Dinosaur Hunter by David Sheldon and The Dog that Dug for Dinosaurs by Shirley Raye Redmond. Dinosaur-loving readers would also enjoy these fictional books: the Dino Files Series by Stacy McAnulty and Don’t Disturb the Dinosaurs by Ada Hopper.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • One illustration shows a T. Rex eating a smaller dinosaur. The illustration shows some blood.   
  • The end battle between the T. rex and the raptor is illustrated and includes some blood. While fighting, “the raptor slices the T. rex with its sickles. The angry R. rex bucks, and the raptor gets flung into the air. . .” The raptor calls to its pack and the pack appears. “The raptor pack slashes and cuts the T. rex. It’s over The T. rex crashes to the ground. . .” The fight is illustrated over six pages. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

These Violent Delights

The year is 1926. Shanghai is a city torn apart by violence and bloodshed. Two rival gangs–the Chinese Scarlet Gang and the Russian White Flowers–have long been engaged in a blood feud that leads to perpetual chaos in the streets. Nobody knows exactly how this feud started, but neither side shows signs of stopping, preferring instead to fan the flames by continuing to match action for action. 

Not only that, but new, much more obscure powers are also slowly seeping in, threatening to divide Shanghai even further. Growing numbers of Europeans are arriving, attempting to reform the ways of the city in the name of “progress.” There’s also a monster that now lives in the Huangpu River, identified only by its massive form and glittering eyes. In addition, a madness is sweeping through the city like a contagion, possessing ordinary civilians and causing them to suddenly rip their own throats out. 

Caught in all this chaos are Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov. Juliette has just returned from her four years abroad in America. Now, she must assume her rightful place as the heir to the Scarlet Gang. Roma, on the other hand, has been performing his duties as heir to the White Flowers. Despite the feud between their families, and their own complicated history, Roma and Juliette come to realize that everything plaguing Shanghai is interconnected. They must combine powers–secretly, of course–to save their city. After all, they had been lovers once, before betrayal on both sides sent Juliette away. But is their former relationship enough of a buffer between their families’ complicated history to allow them to work together? As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule. 

These Violent Delights is a stunning fantasy retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This novel takes a familiar story in wildly unfamiliar directions, transposing it onto a landscape that is closer to our modern world while retaining a historical element. This is not the Shakespeare you read in English class – the fantastical elements and action-packed scenes are sure to hook readers from the start. The characters themselves are also compelling because the point of view shifts between characters, allowing readers to get to know both Roma and Juliette and sympathize with them despite their cutthroat actions.  

Because this story has many moving parts to it, with several subplots and historical commentary woven throughout, the pacing of the plot feels off at times – too slow in some parts and not nearly slow enough in others. The prose, too, often oscillates between lush and imaginative, and clunky and awkward. However, the wide array of characters in this book greatly redeems its lacking qualities, and readers will root for Roma and Juliette in their quest to fix both the problems in their city and in their relationship. 

Overall, These Violent Delights is a fantastic debut novel, perfect for teenagers who want a fresh spin on a classic tale. It ends in a dramatic cliffhanger, setting the scene perfectly for its sequel, Our Violent Ends. 

Sexual Content  

  • Several passing references to brothels are made. For example, Juliette comments that, “In Shanghai, it was easier to count the establishments that didn’t double as brothels than the ones that did.”  
  • Roma and Juliette accidentally walk in on a couple who are implied to be having sex. “Juliette opened the first door she came upon. Two distinct yelps of surprise sounded as light seeped into the tiny room. Juliette squinted and saw a man with his pants down. ‘Get out,’ she demanded. ‘This is my room,’ the woman on the bed protested.”  
  • Roma and Juliette kiss in a private room. “Juliette hooked her legs around his and twisted her hips until Roma was the one flat on his back and she loomed over him, kneeling on the sheets . . . his hand was moving higher and higher, brushing her calf, her knee, her thigh. Juliette’s palm sank lower, until it was gripping the space underneath the smooth collar of his white shirt . . . They both gave in at once. Roma’s kiss was just as she remembered. It filled her with so much adrenaline and exuberance that she could burst. It made her feel too ethereal for her own body, as if she could tear out of her own skin.”  

Violence  

  • A group of Scarlets and White Flowers get ready to fight. “In a blink: guns upon guns. Each arm raised and steady and trigger-happy, ready to pull.” The police stop them before any further violence ensues. 
  • Juliette watches a man possessed by the madness kill himself. Juliette “saw the man thrashing on the ground, his own fingers clawing at his thick neck. . . most of his nails were already buried deep into muscle. The man was digging with an animal-like intensity–as if there was something there, something no one else could see crawling under his skin. Deeper, deeper, deeper, until his fingers were wholly buried and he was pulling free tendons and veins and arteries. In the next second, the club had fallen silent completely. Nothing was audible save the labored breathing of the short and stout man who had collapsed on the floor, his throat torn into pieces and his hands dripping with blood.” Many similar scenes occur throughout the novel. 
  • Juliette verbally provokes her cousin, Tyler, who physically attacks her. “Quick as a flash, Tyler slammed her into the wall. He kept one hand scrunched against her left sleeve and the rest of his arm splayed against her clavicle, pushing just enough to make a threat.” Juliette retaliates in self-defense. “Her right hand jerked up–fist clenched, wrist hard, knuckles braced – and made centered, perfect contact with her cousin’s cheek . . . Then Tyler stumbled, letting go of Juliette and whipping his head to look at her, hatred stamped into the hollows of his eyes. A red slash buried the line of his cheekbone, the result of Juliette’s glittering ring scraping through skin.”  
  • Juliette remembers an explosion caused by the White Flowers that killed many of her family members. “Her ears were screeching – first with the remnants of that awful, loud sound, then with the shouting, the panic, the cries wafting over from the back, where the servants’ house was. When she hurried over, she saw rubble. She saw a leg. A pool of blood. Someone had been standing right at the threshold of the front door when the ceiling caved in.” 
  • Juliette has a cutthroat reputation. “[The Scarlets] were killers and extortionists and raging forces of violence, but as the rumors went, Juliette Cai was the girl who had strangled and killed her American lover with a string of pearls. Juliette Cai was the heiress who, on her second day back in Shanghai, had stepped into a brawl between four White Flowers and two Scarlets and killed all four White Flowers with only three bullets. Only one of those rumors was true.”  
  • Roma tries to accost Juliette with a gun to her forehead, and Juliette defends herself. “Before Roma could so much as blink, her right hand came down hard on his right wrist, twisting his gun-wielding hand outward until his fingers were unnaturally bent. She slapped down at the gun with her left hand. The weapon skittered to the ground. Her jaw gritted to brace for impact, Juliette twisted her foot out from behind Roma’s and jerked it against his ankles–until he was falling backward and she followed, one hand locked on his neck and the other reaching into her dress pocket to retrieve a needle-thin knife.” Roma surrenders, stopping the fight. 
  • To get information, Juliette physically attacks someone with a garrote. “Madame squawked when Juliette pulled the garrote wire tight, her fingers flying up to scrabble at the pressure digging into her skin. By then the wire was already wrapped around her neck, the micro-blades piercing in.” Madame survives this, left with a bleeding cut on her throat. 
  • Roma participates in a sparring match that starts out as a game, but takes a turn when he realizes that his opponent, Dimitri, has a blade. “Dimitri kicked out and Roma took the hit. A fist flashed in his periphery, and in his haste to get away, Roma dodged too hard, overjudging his balance and stumbling. Dimitri struck again. A flash of the blade: a slit opened on Roma’s jaw.” The match ends when Roma is declared the winner after he “[reaches] out and [grabs] a fistful of Dimitri’s shoulder length black hair…[slams] a knee right into his nose, [takes] his arm and twists backwards until Roma [has] a grip on his neck and a foot stomping down on the back of his knees.”  
  • A British soldier draws his gun on Roma and Juliette, and Roma shoots him in self-defense. “A bang sounded from the space between them. Juliette immediately whirled around to catch the British tail collapsing where he stood, a bright-red spot blooming on his chest.”  
  • Marshall, Roma’s friend, hits Juliette, and she attacks him back. “From his seat, Roma bolted up and shouted, ‘Mars!’ but Juliette was already pushing Marshall back, her throbbing jaw giving way to anger and her anger intensifying the pulsating pain making its way to her lip.” The match ends abruptly when Marshall starts laughing, and Juliette helps him to his feet; this altercation ends as quickly as it began, and Marshall and Juliette work together for the remainder of this scene. Neither is seriously injured.  
  • Juliette shoots the man she and Roma believe to be the cause of the madness, Zhang Gutai. “Juliette fired. Zhang Gutai looked down, looked at the blotch of red blooming on his white shirt.” Zhang Gutai dies as a result of this wound. 
  • Juliette attempts to shoot the monster in the Huangpu River. “Juliette aimed her gun and fired – again and again and again in hopes that it could kill the monster, or, at the very least, slow it down – but the bullets bounced off its back like she had shot at steel.” 
  • Paul, a British man, tries to drown Juliette when she discovers a secret. Paul “grabbed a fistful of her hair and stuck her head in the water . . . Juliette bucked and kicked, harder and harder with no avail.” She gets away by stabbing a needle into his wrist.  
  • Juliette kills the river monster’s human host, Qi Ren. “Juliette raised the pistol. Her hands were shaking. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. Once again, she pulled the trigger. The bullet struck his heart. The bullet was as loud as the bang at the end of the world. But Qi Ren’s sigh was soft. His hand came up to his chest gingerly, as if the bullet were nothing but a heartfelt compliment. Rivulets of red ran down his fingers and onto the wharf, tinting his surroundings a deep color.” 
  • Juliette shoots Marshall and his “head lolled back. He was motionless. Motionless.” It is later revealed that Juliette and Marshall staged this “murder” and Marshall is alive.   

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Several references to opium are made: for example, the narrator describes fighting between the Scarlet Gang and the White flowers as “more commonplace in heady Shanghai than the smoke of opium wafting from a thick pipe.”  
  • One key plot point is that the British supply lernicrom, a fictional opiate, to various groups. 
  • Benedikt, Roma’s cousin, drinks vodka at a bar. “Roma lifted the cup in front of Benedikt and took a cautionary sniff. His cousin snatched it from his hands. ‘Don’t drink that,’ Benedikt warned.” 
  • Roma and Juliette play a drinking game with someone they want to get information from: one shot in exchange for one question. Roma gets drunk enough to fall down; Juliette gets “woozy enough to see in doubles but not enough to lose balance.” 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

The Science of Being Angry

Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All of the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half-brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life seems good but sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend and crush, Layla, a little bit too roughly.

After Joey has a meltdown at her apartment building, the family is evicted and Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose? 

The Science of Being Angry follows Joey, who is struggling to understand her place in her family. Joey feels different from her brothers because she’s a fraternal triplet and her brothers are identical twins, but they’re only genetically related to one of their moms. When Joey’s class begins a genetics unit, Joey begins to question how her DNA is affected by her mothers’ sperm donor. In addition, Joey wonders if the sperm donor’s DNA is the link to her uncontrollable anger.  

Joey and her friend Layla decide to send Joey’s brother’s DNA to 23 and Me. For some reason, Joey thinks that sending her brother’s DNA will lead to better results Unfortunately, when Joey’s moms discover the 23 and Me account, they have it deactivated before Joey learns anything. This abruptly ends the story thread without answering any of Joey’s questions about the donor.   

In addition to exploring family bonds, The Science of Being Angry also focuses on Joey’s inability to control her anger. Joey’s confusion about her biological father and her insecurities about her moms’ love causes Joey to lash out at others. Joey may have sensory sensitivities that cause her to become irritable, but this thread is left unexplored. To make matters worse, her moms don’t always agree about the best way to help Joey. In the end, Joey and her moms seek help from a therapist, which ends the story on a hopeful note. However, some readers may be disappointed that the story doesn’t include any anger management strategies.  

The Science of Being Angry uses sensitivity as it explores complicated family dynamics. Joey’s feelings are described in detail in kid-friendly language. However, much of the story focuses on Joey’s emotions and inner turmoil so there is little action. In addition, readers will have to pay close attention to the text because Joey’s moms are referred to as Mama and Mom, which may make it difficult for some readers to keep track of who is talking. Readers who have nontraditional families will relate to Joey and can benefit from reading The Science of Being Angry. However, the story will mostly appeal to readers who are interested in exploring Joey’s vast emotions and the genetics that make her unique. Middle-grade readers who want to explore difficult family dynamics may also want to read We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen. 

Sexual Content  

  • Joey’s moms occasionally kiss. For example, when Mom “kiss[ed] Mama on the cheek. . . Mom pressed her face against Mama’s cheek to kiss it again and wrapped her arms around Mama, holding tightly.” 
  • Mom explains meeting Mama. “She was such a kind, sweet little dweeb. How could I not fall for her?” Then Mom explains how she knew she liked girls. “I didn’t want to think about it, because I was confused for a long time. I married Luka, because I thought that’s what I wanted. . . But something was missing with Luka. With me. When I met your mama, I found that something.” 
  • Joey is confused about her feelings for her friend, Layla. While at her house, she “suddenly wondered what it would be like to kiss her.” Joey wonders if she is gay. Thinking about her feelings makes Joey angry so she “shoved Layla as hard as she could onto the floor. Layla hit her elbow on the coffee table in front of them. She was okay; she got a small bruise and cried, but she didn’t bleed or anything.”  
  • At a party, Layla sits next to Joey. Layla’s “voice was too soft, her leg felt too good against Joey’s. . . Joey, without thinking, kissed her.” Afterwards, Joey runs out of the house. 
  • Joey is thinking about her moms watching a movie. “She couldn’t see them. . . but she knew what they’d look like, anyway. Mom was probably draped along the couch, Mama lying on top of her between her legs. They were much like that. . .”

Violence  

  • Joey and her brothers sneak out of their apartment and go to the swimming pool. Before they can jump in, a security guard appears, and “Joey responded the way she always did, the way that her moms both begged and yelled at her not to. With her fist. . . Joey turned and punched the security guard square in the belly. He fell directly into the pool. . .”  
  • At hockey practice, Eli calls Joey a bad name, “so Joey used the hook of her stick to pull at Eli’s leg, knocking him off balance and sending him spiraling on the ice. . .” 
  • While watching TV, Joey’s brother Thomas sits on the couch. Joey gets upset that Thomas keeps touching her so she “kicked her leg into Thomas as hard as she could.” 
  • Joey and her brothers go to a Halloween party at their friend Eli’s house. “The second they walked through Eli’s door, Joey found herself getting slammed against the wall, hard, with a loud oof! . . . She shoved Eli, and then backhanded him against his helmet.” 
  • At the Halloween party, Eli’s bullying of Joey continues. He “slapped her across the face with the slice of pizza in his hand.” 
  • While at school, Joey bruised her classmate Danny’s collarbone. “Joey didn’t think she meant to hurt him, but she definitely meant to throw the ball as hard as she could at him.” 
  • During science, Joey gets upset and yells “I don’t care about the stupid project!” Then she threw her “heavy science textbook at the classroom window” breaking it. She is suspended from school. 
  • While playing football, Joey tackles Mama. “Just as the ball flew over Mama’s head, Joey threw her entire weight at Mama’s middle. . . tackling her hard to the grass. Mama’s head hit the ground first. . .” Mom jumps in and “reached behind Mama to find her head and pulled away with some blood on her hand. . . Mama’s eyes opened but they didn’t look right. . .” Mom turns on Joey and yells, “What is wrong with you? What the hell is wrong with you!” Mama goes to the hospital but is released the same day. 
  • At hockey practice, Joey skates past Eli “when suddenly she felt something jerk her back. Eli had his hand gripped tightly into the collar of her shirt and he yanked it.” Joey starts to fall, but “Eli pushed her into the wall of the rink, hard, took the puck back, and scored.” Joey’s mom had talked to the coach about Eli’s bullying. The coach sees Eli’s behavior and sits him on the bench.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Joey’s brother takes ADHD medication. 
  • After dinner, Mama “picked up the bottle of wine and refilled her and Luka’s glass.” 

Language  

  • Several times Joey calls a classmate a rat. 
  • Jesus Christ is used as an exclamation twice. 
  • Oh God and Oh my God are occasionally used as an exclamation.  
  • Heck is used twice. 
  • There is some name-calling including jerk and loser. For example, Joey’s brother says the landlord was a “jerk” for kicking them out.  
  • While playing hockey, Joey tells Eli that he’s being a ball hog. When Eli replied, “he used the B word that had been banned from Joey’s household.” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Lupe Wong Won’t Dance

Lupe Wong wants to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues.   

She’s also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy . . . like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so much . . . like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons.

Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who’s Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously, she’s not gonna let that slide.  

Lupe Wong Won’t Dance examines middle school drama by focusing on Lupe’s struggles. Middle-grade readers will empathize with Lupe as she tries to navigate the complexities of a middle school’s social hierarchy. Even though Lupe doesn’t mean to make enemies, she often does because she doesn’t always think about the consequences of her actions. For instance, Lupe gets upset and makes hurtful comments to her best friend, Andy. In response, Andy begins hanging out with the popular soccer girls and stops talking to Lupe. The two eventually work out their differences, and Lupe learns that she needs to “try to listen to people more instead of worrying about myself and my own goals.” 

Lupe’s family life is an integral part of the story. Lupe misses her father, who died in an accident. She also questions her father’s decision to quit playing baseball to care for his family. Lupe is desperate to meet Fu Li Hernandez because he reminds Lupe of her father, and many of Lupe’s actions are based on her need to earn straight A’s in order to meet Fu Li Hernandez. However, Lupe Wong Won’t Dance doesn’t include any baseball action other than one short practice and when Lupe finally meets Fu Li Hernandez. Still, meeting Fu Li Hernandez makes Lupe realize, “My dad was no quitter. Fu Li’s smile was like Dad’s the first time I whistled. The same smile when I finger-painted my entire face and body. . . And it’s the same smile he had when I hit my first baseball.”  

Lupe Wong Won’t Dance uses humor and middle school drama to highlight the importance of being inclusive. While the story explores the discrimination of the past, it does so in a nonjudgmental way that reminds readers that it’s important to take this advice: “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” Another important lesson the story imparts is the importance of self-acceptance. As Lupe’s friend says, “I shouldn’t change just so people will like me.” 

Lupe’s story is perfect for middle schoolers, especially those who often feel out of place. Lupe Wong Won’t Dance acknowledges that others can be cruel while challenging readers to overcome their difficulties. In the end, the story encourages readers to be kind and inclusive to others, even those who are different than you. For more middle school reads featuring a protagonist who feels out of place, read Out of Place by Jennifer Blecher, Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros, and A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi. 

Sexual Content  

  • In order to get out of square dancing, Lupe researches the song “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and discovers the song’s origins. A YouTube video explains that the song refers “to a man making his rounds with the ladies. . . Why are his eyes white as cotton?. . . if one listens carefully to the words, poor ol’ Cotton-Eyed Joe’s eyes were whited out by chlamydia or syphilis—”  
  • After watching the YouTube video, Lupe looks up chlamydia and discovers it’s “a widespread, often asymptomatic sexually transmitted disease caused by chlamydia trachomatis” and syphilis is “a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete bacterium treponema pallidum.” 
  • Lupe’s mom asks her if she’s gay. Lupe replies, “I don’t know. I’m only twelve. I thought I’d figure it out in a few years.” 
  • On an online forum discussing students being forced to learn how to square dance, someone writes, “Outrageous! Should we bring back petticoats and chastity belts?”  

Violence  

  • When Lupe was in second grade, she saw her classmate Zola picking her nose. Lupe began calling Zola “the Green Goblin” and the name stuck. “She eventually found out I was the one who started the Green Goblin nickname and hasn’t spoken a word to me since.” 
  • While practicing her pitching, Lupe’s brother Paolo “takes me out at the knees. The wind is knocked out of me a little. He hoisted me back up by the waist of my jeans, giving me a wedgie.”  
  • When Paolo learned how to square dance, he was partnered with a popular girl. And at the time, his mom was making the kids take “Crock-Pot leftovers for lunch” which caused Paolo to fart a lot. “It’s hard to hide a fart when you do-si-do and spin around. . . between hand sweats and farting. . . she told everyone. . . It’s taken two years for everyone to stop calling me Flutterbutt.” 
  • In the PE locker room, Lupe finds her locker decorated in shaving cream that reads Guadapoopy. When Coach Solden sees it, she goes to wipe it off the locker. “Coach spins back around and one foot slips on remnant shaving cream. Her foot flies up in the air, and she tries to catch herself with one arm. She falls to the floor with a thump and a small crack. Lips pursed together, noises burble from her mouth that sound like cusswords in an alien language.” The coach broke her arm in the fall. 
  • Lupe’s mom tells her about Coach Becky Solden’s square dancing experience. “One by one, as a joke, the boys approached her and then passed her by for other girls. She was the only girl left. . . Just like the rest, [Bruce] walked up to her, but he stopped and bowed. . . Just before Becky touched his hand, Bruce jumped back and ran towards the boys’ locker room screaming. . . For the entire two weeks, we danced, every time a boy danced with Becky, he made monkey noises under his breath. . . Even some of the girls made monkey noises and pretended to scratch their armpits.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • When researching the song Cotton-Eyed Joe, one article says “he could have gotten his cloudy eyes from alcohol poisoning.”  

Language  

  • Variations of crap are used frequently. 
  • Heck is used occasionally.  
  • There is frequent name-calling such as jerk, dorks, doofus, idiot, nimrod, whiner, klutz, and others. 
  • When Lupe shows the school principal pictures of a “cropped, magged-up version” of an eye, the principal says, “Oh, gawd.” 
  • Samantha, a mean girl, calls Lupe “Guadaloopy.” Samantha also calls Lupe’s friend Andy, “Anda-loser.” In return, Lupe calls Samantha “Sam-o-nella.” 
  • During PE, Samantha whispers loudly, “Word is [Lupe’s] parents found her at the dump. That’s why she smells like a blowout diaper.” 
  • Lupe comments on “Skanky Potato Head.” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Before dinner, Lupe’s family prays. Her brother says, “Thank you God, for all that we have. Bless this interesting food to our bodies. And please help Lupe with her cleanliness so she can be next to you . . .” 
  • Before dinner, Paolo prays, “God, thank you for our grandparents who can cook. . . And thank you for giving Mr. Montgomery pinkeye so my algebra test is postponed. And help Lupe through puberty and bless this food.”  
  • Lupe thinks about her father. During Qingming, “the Chinese version of Dia de los Muertos . . . Grandma Wong takes us to the cemetery to burn paper things that represent what she thinks Dad needs in the afterlife. This year she burned a paper house and fake money. [Lupe] snuck in a paper baseball and bat.” 

The Floating Field: How a Group of Thai Boys Built Their Own Soccer Field

Prasit Hemmin and his friends love soccer. However, because of the limited space in their fishing village of Koh Panyee, Thailand, the boys are forced to play on a temporary sandbar when the tide recedes. Yet, when the opportunity for an upcoming tournament reaches Prasit and his friends, they realize that a real soccer team needs an actual field. Determined to participate and succeed in the soccer tournament, the boys embark on a riveting adventure to build a floating field and win a championship for Koh Panyee. 

Set in Thailand in 1986, the book follows the perspective of Prasit Hemmin, a young boy who dreams of playing professional soccer. Despite the difficult circumstances of his seaside home, Prasit exudes a strong determination to accomplish what he loves. Prasit’s passion for the game influences his friends to tackle the tough task of building a field. Prasit’s joyful energy permeates throughout the book, and his fortitude in adversity makes him an admirable character. 

The story presents the heartwarming tale of the real-life floating field of Koh Panyee, where Prasit and his friends’ hard work earns them a spot in the mainland soccer tournament. From the start, the plot flourishes with positivity on every page, and the story that unravels will leave the readers empowered to tackle their next big challenge. Although the book may idealize Prasit and his friends’ journey and neglect the challenges that occurred, the story’s core rests in its lessons of hard work and determination. Because of Prasit’s persistence in accomplishing his dream, he and his friends “had their own floating field where they could play the game they loved, whenever they wanted.” This lesson can ultimately inspire readers to chase after their own dreams and work together to overcome their obstacles. 

The short story features colorful, full-page illustrations that enhance the plot and keep readers invested with a simple yet detailed art style. However, the advanced vocabulary and longer sentences may be challenging for younger readers to comprehend. At the end of the book, an “Author’s Note” also provides an in-depth look at the real-life story of Prasit Hemmin, and the inclusion of pictures helps make the story feel authentic. Overall, The Floating Field is an exciting story for all soccer fans, and its encouraging message will leave its readers reaching for the stars. For more soccer action, The Floating Field can be paired with the fiction book, The Academy by T.Z. Layton.  

Sexual Content 

  • None 

Violence 

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • None 

Language 

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • None 

Hot Rod Hamster and the Wacky Whatever Race!

Hot Rod Hamster LOVES to drive superfast. And today he’s building a box car from scratch to race downhill in the Wacky Whatever Race. He needs to pick out a box, wheels, and a paint color for his car. Can you help him? 

With the same bouncing rhythms, fun choice rhymes, and daredevil antics that made the picture book so popular, this original Level 2 reader will be a sturdy stepping-stone for Hot Rod Hamster fans as well as series newcomers as they move on to independent reading. The years Cynthia Lord spent as a first-grade teacher have given her the perfect sense of what language and storylines work best for emerging readers. This new adventure skillfully emphasizes word families and rhyming structures with pedal-to-the-metal flare!  

Join Hot Rod Hamster as he builds his race car with help from his friends, Dog, and three mice. To keep readers engaged, they are asked to help Hot Rod Hamster decide what items he should use to build his race car. For example, which type of box should be used—a big box, a long box, a tall box, or a small box? Which would you choose?  

On the day of the exciting race, Hot Rod Hamster’s car starts to slow down. Young readers will love how the creative hamster finds a way to stay in the race. 

To make the story accessible to young readers, the story uses simple sentences and illustrations on every page. Each page has a large illustration that uses primary colors. Humor is added through the characters’ facial expressions. Hot Rod Hamster’s three mice friends also appear on every page. Even though they’re small, they help build the car and cheer for Hot Rod Hamster as he runs the race. 

Hot Rod Hamster will win the hearts of young readers as he races to the finish line. The fast-paced story teaches readers about shapes, sizes, and colors in a way that makes learning fun. Young readers will be eager to read all of the books in the Hot Rod Hamster Series. For more hamster fun, check out Pets on the Loose! by Victoria Jamieson and Max & Mo Make a Snowman by Patricia Lakin. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

That Weekend

Three best friends. A lake house. And a secret trip—what could possibly go wrong?  

It was supposed to be the perfect prom weekend getaway. But it’s clear that something terrible has happened when Claire wakes up alone and covered with blood on a hiking trail with no memory of the past forty-eight hours. Now everyone wants answers—most of all, Claire. She remembers Friday night, but after that . . . nothing. And now Kat and Jesse—her best friends—are missing.

What happened on that mountain? And where are Kat and Jesse? Claire knows the answers are buried somewhere in her memory. But as she’s quickly finding out, everyone has secrets—even her best friends. And she’s pretty sure she’s not going to like what she finds out. 

That Weekend begins by following Claire, who wakes up in the middle of the woods and cannot remember anything. Right from the start, suspense is created due to Claire’s missing friends.  

Although readers may sympathize with Claire’s situation, Claire is so wrapped up in herself and her romantic feelings for Jesse that it is often difficult to feel sorry for her. This makes her an unreliable narrator, leaving readers wondering if she is telling the whole truth. All of this creates a character that readers may struggle to like. 

The book’s timeline isn’t consistent, which causes confusion. For example, the first chapter begins in the present, but then jumps to a flashback from three days earlier, then two days earlier, and then one day earlier. Later, the second half of the book jumps from the present to flashbacks, while also changing to another character’s perspective. Keeping track of the narrator and various flashbacks means the reader has to pay close attention to the titles at the beginning of each chapter in order to understand what is happening.  

Another flaw is that the conclusion of the story isn’t very convincing. For instance, the FBI is unable to find Kat and Jesse, however Claire is able to locate her missing friends without difficulty. To make matters worse, the reader discovers that Kat and Jesse planned their own kidnapping because Kat’s father was abusive and Kat’s grandmother demanded that Kat break up with Jesse. However, in the end, Kat and Jesse part ways and Kat returns to her controlling family. Plus, it can be hard to sympathize with Kat because her actions are responsible for three deaths.  

Because of the forgettable characters, the complicated timeline, and the strange plot twists, That Weekend is a confusing story that readers may want to leave on the shelf. If you’re looking for a suspenseful book that is more entertaining, read Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards or We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 

Sexual Content  

  • There is a rumor that Jesse “had hooked up with some girl from Westhampton beach after Battle of the Bands.” 
  • After breaking up with Ben, Claire tells Jesse that sex “doesn’t have to be a big deal. Ben turned out to be an asshole, but I don’t regret that he was my first.” Jesse is surprised that Ben was Claire’s first.  
  • At school, Jesse gets into a fight with “some asshole sophomore who’d been teasing him. Jesse was white in the face when a teacher pulled the other kid off him. When Jesse looked down at his hands, drenched in the blood spurting from his nose, he’d started to tremble . . .” 
  • When Claire was fifteen, she went to a party and met up with Amos, who “at seventeen, was practically a man to me.” Amos “runs his hands down my sides, tugs the waist of my jeans. I’m in my brand-new red bra. . . Amos flipped me onto his bed. The Captain Morgan shots roiled in my gut; his sheets, too cool . . .” When Amos tries to undo the zipper of Claire’s jeans, she stops him and says she wants to go home. 
  • On New Year’s Eve, Claire goes home with her ex-boyfriend, Ben. They’re sitting on the couch when Claire notices Ben watching her. “I feel my lips part as he reaches. . . I climb onto Ben so I’m facing him. He pulls my face to his and kisses me. . . he flips me over, pushing my shirt up to kiss my belly button. He moves lower, and I close my eyes. . .” It is implied that they have sex. The scene is described over one and a half pages.  
  • Ben drives Claire home. Before she leaves, Claire is “brushing my lips over his. . . but the urgency in Ben’s body as he kisses me back makes it clear. This time, things will be on my own terms.” 
  • After Claire and Kat have a fight, Amos tells Claire, “[The fight] almost made me pop a boner.” 
  • Kat babysits for a woman who “disappears so fast there’s no doubt she’s off to get laid.”  

Violence  

  • At a party, Claire sees her boyfriend walking up the stairs with another girl. Claire assumes he is cheating on her. When he chases after her, she “slap[s] him across the face.” Claire then leaves the party. 
  • A television personality, Brenda Dean, has a show about real crime. “Twenty years ago, Brenda Dean’s younger sister was abducted off her bike and murdered, the killer never caught. Brenda dedicated her life to justice—first as a lawyer, then with her own cable show.” 
  • Brenda interviewed a woman whose toddler disappeared. Brenda “accused the mom of knowing more than she was saying about what happened to the baby; the woman left the set a sobbing mess, and went home to slit her wrists in the bathtub.” 
  • While at a ransom drop, Kat’s father tries to stop the getaway car and he is dragged behind it. He has surgery but never awakens from his coma. He dies several months afterward. 
  • An FBI agent interviews Claire. During the interview, the agent says, “You ever hear of the plane crash in Queens after September eleventh? . . . My mother and aunt were on that flight.”  
  • Kat comes home late and her dad grabs her. Kat yells, “Get the fuck off me!” Then Kat’s father grabs her and “the world went black when my head smacked against the wall. For a moment I thought I might not come back, that I was dying— when I woke to him shaking me, fear replacing the rage on his face, my mother in the doorway whimpering. . .”  
  • Kat, Jesse, Amos, and another accomplice, Mike, plan a fake kidnapping. However, many things go wrong. Claire, who didn’t know about the plan, gets angry and leaves. She runs into Mike, who panics and attacks Claire, who stabs him with a knife. Afterward, “Mike winced as he lifted the sleeve of his T-shirt . . . Blood poured from an angry slash on his shoulder.” He cleans the wound with Vodka.  
  • Claire is canvassing a house where she thinks Amos is hiding out. “I’m changing gears when my car lurks forward. My forehead knocks into the steering wheel . . . A scream catches in my throat as Amos Fornier pulls me from the car and throws me to the ground, my spine numbing as it hits snow and ice. I see the shovel in his hands at the same moment he brings it down on my head.” Amos takes Claire hostage. 
  • Claire tries to leave, but Kat “blocks my escape through the doorway. When she grabs my arm, something snaps in me. . . I grab a handful of her hair and pull until she’s struggling beneath me like a cat. . . She’s clawing at me; I yank her hair until she’s falls to her knees, smashing her face into the edge of the dresser.” Amos holds a gun to Claire’s head and she stops fighting. 
  • Amos tells Claire about an incident with Kat’s father. Kat’s father found Amos playing with a cigar torch. He “picked me and Kat up by the backs of our shirts. Dragged us outside and held me over the deck railing. He stuck the flame right in my face. He kept saying, ‘You want to see what fire does to a body?’” 
  • Amos, who is drinking heavily, tries to convince Kat to allow him to kill Claire. His plan was to, “Get some booze in her, slip [a fentanyl patch] on while she’s passed out, and bam, overdose.” Kat refuses to let Amos kill Claire, but later Claire puts the fentanyl patch on Amos and he dies. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Both the adults and the teens in the story drink alcohol, so not all instances of alcohol consumption are listed below.  
  • Claire goes to a party and sees her boyfriend in a hot tub sitting on a girl’s lap. In response, she goes inside. Claire’s friend pours her a “few inches of rum into a cup and tops it off with a splash of Coke.” Claire gets drunk. Other teens at the party are also drinking alcohol.  
  • When lost, Claire goes into a bar where a man “raises his beer bottle to his lips, his eyes raking over me.”  
  • When Claire and Kat are alone in the lake house, Kat breaks out a bottle of wine and the two share it and get “giggly-tipsy.” 
  • While in the hospital for a head injury, Claire is given morphine, ibuprofen, and Ambien to help her sleep. Claire is also given a prescription for Ativan, which is supposed to help her with anxiety; however, she is soon taking Ativan in larger doses than recommended.  
  • Claire’s cousin, Amos, smokes weed and eventually becomes a drunk.  
  • Claire finds out that Amos was kicked out of school for selling drugs on campus but he continues to sell drugs afterward.  
  • Someone posts a picture of Claire at a party. “Jamie Liu and I knocking back shots. My eyes are glazed, my head tilted back. Jamie is laughing at me . . . I barely recognize the girl in the picture. She looks like the sloppy chick at the party you never talk to, who hangs on your neck like a spider monkey, crooning into your ear that she’s so wasted.” 
  • A few days after Clarie gets home from the hospital, she sees her mom, “cradling a glass of seltzer that I’d wager has vodka in it.” 
  • Claire is working at a restaurant on New Year’s Eve. One of the customers is her ex-boyfriend’s mother, who is drinking champagne.

Language  

  • Profanity is used often and includes ass, crap, damn, goddamn, fuck, hell, piss, and shit. 
  • OMG, Oh God, and Jesus are used several times. 
  • There is some name-calling such as asshole, bitch, bastard, and douchebag.

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Occasionally, Claire quickly prays. For example, after leaving a party, Claire is “praying I won’t cry in front of Jesse . . . I am not religious, but I say a silent prayer to whoever. . . [that] I had the presence of mind to keep my goddamn mouth shut. . .” 
  • When her friends disappear, Claire thinks, “I wasn’t raised with religion, but I don’t know if I accept that it’s all random, that we’re not accountable to anyone. I make a silent bargain with whoever is listening: . . . I’ll be a better friend, if only they come home and be okay.” 
  • Claire is home alone when the doorbell rings. She says “a silent prayer that whoever is at my front door is selling something . . .” and is not someone she knows.

Final Season

Sixth-grader Ben Redd is the star quarterback for his middle school football team in Skaneateles, New York. Coached by his father and his two older brothers, Rich and Raymond, Ben wants to lead his team to a championship over their rival school in Penn Yan. 

However, Ben’s life is completely changed when his father is diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerves and spinal cord. After his dad’s diagnosis, which connected to all those hard hits and tackles he took on the field, Ben’s mom becomes more determined than ever to get Ben to quit football. As his father’s condition worsens, Ben is struck with fear, anger, and despair at his circumstances. Will Ben learn to accept these changes with the championship on the line? Or will this be his final season in the sport? 

Ben is the exciting young protagonist of the story. His kind personality, love for others, and determination to succeed in the face of adversity make him an admirable character. Ben also displays a mature attitude toward his reality, acknowledging that bad things, like ALS, can and will happen in life. His wrestling with these unfortunate truths will feel relatable and authentic to readers, especially those who have gone through tough times in their own lives. 

Final Season’s main theme—the importance of love and family—explores Ben’s love for his father and how his family handles his father’s deteriorating condition. Although Ben and his family love football, they recognize that their love for each other is far more important than fame and glory. Even with the championship game on the line, Ben tells his father, “I love you too, Dad,” before heading into the big game. Other themes include leading others with love and treating them with respect. 

Throughout the book, Ben develops from someone who sees football as the greatest goal in life to someone who values the importance of love and family. Many supporting characters, such as his brothers and the lone girl on the football team, Thea, encourage this outlook on life. Of course, there’s also plenty of football action throughout the book. The story features multiple, in-depth action scenes of football games. For example, “[Ben] took the snap, rolled high, and hit Damon on a corner route.” Although some details can be too technical for non-football enthusiasts, the fast-paced action will keep readers engaged nonetheless. 

Overall, Final Season tells the powerful story of Ben’s life as a rising leader of his football team and as a loving son to his sickly father. Although the book explores the topic of ALS, which might be difficult for some readers, it offers a reassuring message that love will overcome these struggles. And while the explosive football scenes are enjoyable, the heart of the story lies in Ben’s interactions with his family—and more importantly—with his dad. Final Season is more than a story about football; it’s about love, family, and cherishing one’s time in life. 

Sexual Content 

  • None 

Violence 

  • Ben and his friends throw rotten eggs at Mrs. Wimple’s house; he is a well-known grouch who hands out detentions at their middle school. The boys explain, “We want to hit the windows if we can, but don’t worry if you miss. Either way, the Wimp and the Weirdo are gonna have a lot of stink on their hands.” 
  • Ben talks about CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and remembers that “a college teammate and friend of their father’s had killed himself because of” CTE. 
  • On a boating trip, Ben’s boat encounters rough waves and Ben’s father “collapsed” and “[hit] his head on the corner of the windshield and [collapsed] on the floor.” When he stood up, “blood gushed from a cut in his scalp” and “[soaked] his gray polo shirt.” Ben’s father is okay and doesn’t need medical attention. 
  • Thea, a girl on Ben’s football team, knocks Damon, another football player, “down like a bowling pin. Damon stayed down, moaning and thrashing and holding his right knee.” He returns to his feet after a few moments. 
  • Ben’s father falls out of his SUV, hits his face, and “blood gushed from his nose, spattering [Ben’s] older brothers’ bare arms with fat red dots.” Ben’s father is helped back to his feet and requires no medical attention. 
  • Ben’s teammate, Woody, and the rest of the football team play a prank on Thea by cutting off one of her braids. Before Ben can  stop Woody, he approaches Woody and sees “scissors used to cut small branches and stems” and “half of one of Thea’s blonde braids” in Woody’s hand. 
  • During the championship game, Ben breaks his pinkie finger when a big brute slams him out of bounds. His finger was “snapped in half, and the top half hung limp at a ninety-degree angle.” Ben receives medication attention and is okay. 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • During a trip to the lake, Ben sees his father holding “one of those unusual-sounding German beers.”  
  • During dinner, Ben’s father has “a glass of wine with his mom.”  
  • Ben’s father took a “sip of red wine” during dinner at home. 
  • Before his big football game, Ben thinks about using “sleeping pills” to fall asleep. 

Language 

  • Ben calls multiple people idiots. 
  • Ben calls his friend Woody a “stinky egg” because of Woody’s rambunctious attitude. 
  • Ben’s mother repeatedly utters “oh my God” during incidents of fear, especially toward her husband’s worsening condition. 
  • There is some name calling including jerk, string bean, and stupid.  
  • When she sees that another teammate has shaved his head, Thea utters “Gosh.”  
  • When Ben breaks his pinkie finger, he says, “It hurts like heck.” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content 

  • One night at dinner, Ben blesses his family’s food by saying, “Dear God, thank you for this food, thank you for this family, and thank you for our . . . our . . . our good health. Amen.” 
  • Ben and his dad attend church and “opened a hymn, held it between them, and pointed to the words as he croaked out the hymn.” 
  • When Ben asks his dad why his brothers don’t go to church, his dad replies, “Jesus said, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’” They then talk about loving God and others because “Jesus only asked us to do two things, love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” 
  • When Ben’s father is interviewed by 60 Minutes, he tells them he’s never been happier because of his “faith and my family around me. I’m blessed.” 
  • When Thea learns that Ben’s father is in the hospital, she tells Ben that “[she’s] praying for him.” 
  • When Raymond, one of Ben’s older brothers, asks his mom what he could do to help his father, his mom replies that they “could maybe pray.” 

Rez Dogs

Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation—she’s there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There’s a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration. 

Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn’t go out to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too. 

Rez Dogs gives an overview of the pandemic through the eyes of a child on a reservation. Both her grandparents and her new dog, Malsum, help her understand indigenous history and her ancestor’s Wabanaki/Penacook stories. Malian also encounters other facets of modern indigenous life, like the issues with Wifi reception on the reservation. In addition, her grandparents receive an unannounced visit from a social services employee who doesn’t have a valid reason to question the family. These pieces help highlight the rampant inequality that still exists today. In the same breath, Malian brings up other examples of community and indigenous life. For example, during the pandemic, Ireland raised money to send to the Navajo and Hopi people in their time of need.  

The story is written in verse, which gives this quiet story a nice, even pacing. Although not high in action and adventure, there is a lot of good historical information in the book. For instance, Malian’s grandparents help Malian with a school assignment about the US government’s treatment of indigenous peoples. One story includes information about how the US government used to sterilize indigenous women. Although the nature of this conversation is difficult, Bruchac explains it in kid-friendly language, without including graphic details.  Historical events come up often, and it provides a great starting point for readers who may not have any prior knowledge of indigenous history. 

Rez Dogs demonstrates the importance of culture, family, and storytelling. Malian’s grandparents tell Malian many stories about the Wabanaki/Penacook people; many of the stories have been passed down through generations. Malian’s experiences make her feel more connected to her grandparents and her heritage.  

The dog, Malsum, is a symbol for indigenous folks generally, as he embodies community and protects Malian. Her grandpa says, “Some of the most loyal folks I’ve ever known have been dogs. They always find some way to come back home.” In the end, Malsum disappears when Malian leaves the reservation. Malian and her grandparents conclude that they’re all rez dogs, coming and going, but always returning home when they need to.  

Rez Dogs is a straightforward story that highlights the importance of storytelling as part of one’s culture. Bruchac uses both past and present stories to present information about indigenous people’s culture. The stories are delivered in a simple, yet powerful manner. While young readers will be unfamiliar with Malian and her family’s experiences, the overarching themes will resonate with all readers and may spark readers’ curiosity so they will want to learn more about indigenous histories and cultures. Other books that feature indigenous characters include The Sea in Winter by Christine Day and The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • There are discussions about the violence that occurred in native boarding schools in North America. For example, Grandpa Roy talks about how one of the nuns at his school left him a “gift.”  He says, “Every knuckle on/ both my hands/ got broken one time/ or another/ from being hit/ with that heavy ruler/ Sister Anna Louise/ always kept in her pocket.” 
  • Malian’s grandma explains how on reservations, doctors hired by the US government used to sterilize indigenous women. Grandma says, “Whenever a woman/ went into a free clinic,/ they’d offer to do/ a full health check-up./ And when she woke,/ they would not tell her/ what they’d done—/ an operation/ to prevent her from/ ever having more kids.” This is a historically accurate statement that leads Malian to research the Eugenics Project, which details many of the same atrocities in similar terms. 
  • Malian has to do a genealogy project, and she considers sharing about how “the colonial government/ offered bounties for Indian scalps.” No more detail is given. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Grandpa Roy expresses that they’re “god darn lucky” that the coronavirus hasn’t reached their home and that Malian and her grandparents haven’t encountered it yet. 
  • Malian explains that her reservation friends call her Macintosh, like the apple, because it’s “a name for someone/ who looks Indian/ but acts more/ like a white person—/ red on the outside/ and white within./ An insult to say/ to somebody Native.” Malian says she doesn’t mind that they say it because they don’t say it in a mean way. 
  • Grandpa Roy laughs about the various misinformed beliefs white people have about indigenous people, including the Wabanakis. He notes that one belief about Wabanakis is that they are “anal-retentive, whatever that means.” This is not explained further. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • The characters in this book are members of one of the Wabanaki nations who reside in modern-day Maine as well as in Canada. As such, there are discussions about stories and beliefs in the Wabanaki nations. For instance, Grandpa Roy tells Malian a story about how his Grandpa Red Hawk once saw the dogs acting like people. Red Hawk says, “They’d put on clothes/ we left behind/ and some of them/ were walking around/ on their hind legs./ Some were sitting/ around the fire/ and drinking soup/ from wooden cups…/ one of them was even/ smoking a pipe.” These stories pop up often throughout the book. 
  • Malian mentions that she had a “Catholic school uniform,” presumably because she went to Catholic school. 
  • Malian and her grandma break off the fry bread and put it under a tree for “Manogies,/ the little people/ who are the guardians/ of the natural world.”  
  • As a child, Malian’s mother was in foster care. She describes foster care to Malian, saying it “was like purgatory,/ someplace with no address/ and stuck/ in between/ heaven and hell.” 
  • Malian notes that her grandparent’s old dog died and “her spirit took the Sky Road.” 

The Magical Reality of Nadia

Nadia loves fun facts. Here are a few facts about her: 

  • She collects bobbleheads — she has 77 so far.
  • She moved from Egypt to America when she was six years old.
  • The hippo amulet she wears is ancient…as in it’s literally from ancient Egypt.
  • She’s going to win the contest to design a new exhibit at the local museum. Because how cool would that be?!

Okay, so that last one isn’t a fact just yet, but Nadia has plans to make it one. But then a new kid shows up and teases Nadia about her Egyptian heritage. It’s totally unexpected and totally throws her off her game. 

Then something else happens that Nadia can’t explain: Her amulet starts glowing! She soon discovers that the hippo is holding a hilarious — and helpful — secret. Can she use it to confront the new kid and win the contest? 

Nadia often acts like a know-it-all who loves telling people interesting facts about random subjects. Despite this, Nadia is a likable protagonist who learns that “being a leader didn’t mean telling people what to do or doing it all yourself. It was about guiding everyone else to come to a solution together.” Nadia’s quirky personality will draw readers into the story, but it is Titi who is the star of the story.  

While living in Ancient Egypt, a magician curses Titi by sending him into a hippo amulet. When Nadia purchases the amulet, she discovers the secret to breaking the curse—Titi can only be set free by helping Nadia six times. Titi is energetic, optimistic, and funny. And as a teacher, he has plenty of wisdom to impart. For instance, Nadia and Titi jump into the parable of “The Eloquent Peasant.” The parable comes to life in comic-style panels that educate about Egyptian history in a unique and entertaining way. While in the comic, Nadia learns a powerful lesson about how to deal with a bully. Even though Titi lived in a different time period, he is still able to help Nadia with her friendship problems.  

One of Nadia’s problems is that the new kid, Jason, is very vocal about his dislike of Nadia’s Egyptian heritage. For example, he makes fun of Nadia’s lunch because “it smells weird.” In addition, he says he only eats “American food. . . not desert people food.” However, Jason’s mean comments are not just confined to school. While at the fall fair, Jason asks the DJ to play the song “Walk Like an Egyptian.” Then, Jason “took a couple of staggering steps forward with his arms in the awkward position. He moved his head forward and back like a pigeon, too, a huge grin on his face.” In this situation, Nadia uses the parable of “The Eloquent Peasant” to find a solution, but not everything goes as she planned. 

At first, Jason’s behavior makes Nadia want to hide her Egyptian heritage, but her parents explain how they handle microaggressions. When a cashier at the local supermarket made rude comments, Nadia’s Mama began talking about things they had in common. Mama said, “It showed her that we aren’t so different after all. . . Getting to know me has allowed her view to shift.”  

The Magical Reality of Nadia uses humor to highlight the importance of finding common ground with others. Nadia points out that, “Unless you are Native American, we all have an immigrant story in our past. Each of us is here today because one of our ancestors came to America and started a life for their family.” While most of the story is in traditional text, the book includes sections of black-and-white comics as well as lively black-and-white illustrations throughout.  

While The Magical Reality of Nadia is humorous and entertaining, the story hits on topics of prejudice, friendship, and courage. Nadia’s story will help readers have empathy for people who are different from them and in the end, the lessons from The Magical Reality of Nadia will stay with readers long after they put the book down.  

Readers looking for another book about immigrating to another country should also read Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga and Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. However, if you’d like to learn more about Ancient Egypt’s culture, check out the Kid Detective Zet Series by Scott Peters and the TombQuest Series by Michael Northrop. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • During summer vacation, one of Nadia’s friends went to London. Afterward, Nadia asks, “Did you know they used to display chopped-off heads on the original London Bridge?”  
  • Jason goes to the museum and destroys Nadia and her friends’ project. 
  • While at an ice cream shop, Jason starts making fun of Nadia’s heritage. Nadia gets upset with “her hands balling into fists. She’d never hit anyone before, but there was a first time for everything. She lunged at Jason . . . and tripped over her backpack. Jason laughed, but as Nadia fell, she knocked into him and he lost his balance falling backwards onto the table.” Jason falls onto an ice cream sundae. One of Jason’s friends says, “It looks like you pooped your pants!”  
  • Nadia’s parents left Egypt during the Arab Spring. Her mom says, “People who opposed the government were still being imprisoned, and tortured, and killed. We realized we did not want to raise you in that kind of environment.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • A teacher teases a magician. Afterwards, the magician calls the teacher a fool. 
  • Titi tells Nadia to “close your mouth. You look like Hatmehit’s hat! Hatmehit was an ancient Egyptian fish goddess.”  
  • Freakin’ and heck are both used once. 
  • After reading a parable, Nadia says one of the characters is a doofus and a fool. 
  • When Nadia tells her friend they “can’t toss a football in a museum,” her friend tells her to “Calm down, Grandma.” 
  • Jason calls one of his friends an idiot. 
  • Jason calls Nadia an “Egyptian Queen.” Then he says, “You don’t even belong here. Why don’t you just go back where you came from?!”  

Supernatural 

  • A teacher is cursed by an angry magician. “The next thing the teacher knew, there was a great wind and a loud sucking noise. Then everything turned black.” The teacher is confined to an Egyptian necklace.  
  • “Ancient Egyptians wore hippo amulets to ward off evil.” 
  • Nadia held her hippo amulet and asked for help. Then, “Nadia went over to the desk . . . There, on the college-ruled pages of what was to be her math notebook, a little animated man was jumping up and down, waving wildly at her.”  
  • At first, Nadia is confused when she discovers “a little animated man [Titi] haunting her math notebook!” But then she realizes that if she shuts the notebook, the man disappears. However, Titi and Nadia soon set boundaries that allow the two to communicate when appropriate.  

Spiritual Content   

  • One of Nadia’s fun facts revolves around the Ancient Egyptian’s beliefs about death. The Book of the Dead says “When a person died and was judged by the ancient gods, they had to swear to two things: that they had not lied, or cheated, or killed, or harmed others; and that they preserved the Nile River and kept it pure. . .” 

Snow Day!

The brother and sister from Pumpkin Day have woken up to a winter wonderland—it’s a snow day! Read along as they engage in their favorite winter activities with their neighborhood friends on their day off from school. The kids go sledding, build a fort, and have a snowball fight. Then best of all, the siblings and their friends cuddle up to sip hot cocoa. The next day, the siblings happily return to school. 

Snow Day! is intended for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. With large text, easy words, and full-page pictures on every page, Snow Day! is a quick story to read. Each page has two to seven words that are used in easy-to-read sentences. 

Younger readers will enjoy the story and the cute illustrations that fill every page. The unnamed siblings create a fun winter wonderland to explore. The kids find “fluffy bushes [that] look like sheep. They follow “bear tracks” and discover they really belong to a boy. The siblings stay outside and play until their hands are freezing and their noses are cold. After the plows come and push the snow away, the illustration shows smiling children getting on the school bus the next day.  

This story is perfect for preschool and kindergarten readers who are ready to learn to read. Parents will enjoy reading the story aloud, especially because it’s such a quick read. Readers will enjoy looking at the pictures that bring the winter landscape to life. After reading Snow Day!, younger readers may want to snuggle up with cocoa and read another snow-related book such as Max & Mo Make a Snowman by Patricia Lakin and A Loud Winter’s Nap by Katy Hudson. 

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Siege and Storm

After narrowly escaping the Darkling and his army, Alina and Mal are on the run. They try to make a new life for themselves in Novyi Zem, but they have to be careful. Alina, the Sun Summoner, is hardly inconspicuous wearing her amplifier made from Morozova’s stag as a collar, and the Darkling has spies everywhere. 

But she and Mal can’t outrun their enemies. They aren’t in Novyi Zem long before the Darkling finds them. He captures them and brings them on a ship led by Sturmhond, a famous privateer. The Darkling intends to drag Alina and Mal back to Ravka and continue expanding the Fold. But first, he is determined to hunt down the sea whip – the second in the triad of Morozova’s legendary creatures that can be used as powerful amplifiers – and force Alina to kill it and claim its scales as a second amplifier. This would magnify her summoning abilities and give the Darkling access to even more of Alina’s power.  

But Sturmhond and his crew are not what they seem. When they turn on the Darkling, Alina finds herself with powerful allies and renewed hope. Her new alliance with Nikolai Lantsov, the ever-witty and incredibly charming second-born prince of Ravka, throws her into Ravkan political dealings. Ravka’s precarious position in world politics means the country cannot be saved with Grisha power alone. Alina begins accompanying Nikolai to war council meetings as Ravka attempts to broker peace treaties with its neighboring countries, and she quickly realizes that Ravka was in much greater danger than she ever imagined. But will all of Alina’s efforts be enough to stand against the Darkling, who remains Ravka’s greatest domestic threat? And can Alina and Mal’s strained relationship survive Alina’s growing power and importance? 

If writing a good first book in a trilogy is hard, then writing a good sequel is even more strenuous. But Siege and Storm electrically picks up Alina’s story right where it left off and keeps the momentum going all the way to the end. The plot involves many twists and turns and never lets readers be lulled into a false sense of security. From heart-stopping action scenes to breathtaking exchanges between characters, there is never a dull moment. 

In Siege and Storm, Bardugo fleshes out her world even more, expanding on Ravka’s function as a country by placing it into a larger “world” context. Readers learn about this complicated history along with Alina, so the new information is masterfully woven throughout the story. Alina is a fascinating narrator, and readers get to experience her thought process and understand how and why she makes her decisions. Alina is not a perfect heroine by any means, but her flaws are what make her relatable. Even when she makes mistakes, she strives to fix them, and her self-awareness, compassion, and perseverance are traits that make her an admirable protagonist.  

Siege and Storm brings back all of the fan-favorite characters from the first book in the series, Shadow and Bone. Plus, several new characters are introduced that are equally quotable and loveable. Bardugo delves even deeper into her characters, forcing them to confront their darkest demons and complicating their relationships with each other. As tensions rise and power dynamics shift, Alina and her friends and allies must fight to remain united in the face of the real threats instead of turning against each other and letting their jealousies and vulnerabilities win. Siege and Storm ends on a dramatic cliffhanger that will leave readers excited beyond measure to get their hands on the next (and final) book in the series, Ruin and Rising.  

Sexual Content  

  • Mal kisses Alina harder than usual when they are in private. “His tone was light, but when his lips met mine, there was nothing playful in his kiss. He tasted of heat and newly ripe pears from the Duke’s garden. I sensed hunger in the slant of his mouth, an unfamiliar edge to his need that sent restless sparks burning through me. I came up on my toes, circling my arms around his neck, feeling the length of my body melt into his. He had a soldier’s strength, and I felt it in the hard bands of his arms, the pressure of his fingers as his fist bunched in the silk at the small of my back and he drew me against him. There was something fierce and almost desperate in the way he held me, as if he could not have me close enough.” 
  • During a fight, Mal tells Alina that he distances himself from her to protect her position as a leader. “‘Why do you think people asked me on the royal hunt? The first thing? They wanted to know about me and you.’ He turned on me, and when he spoke his voice was cruel, mocking. ‘Is it true that you’re tumbling the Sun Summoner? What’s it like with a Saint? Does she have a taste for trackers, or does she take all of her servants to her bed?’” 

Violence  

  • Alina has nightmares. “Sometimes she dreamed of broken skiffs with black sails and decks slick with blood, of people crying out in the darkness. But worse were the dreams of a pale prince who pressed his lips to her neck, who placed his hands on the collar that circled her throat and called forth her power in a blaze of bright sunlight.” 
  • The Darkling describes how he will punish Alina if Mal refuses to track the sea whip [a dragon]. “Because every day we don’t find the sea whip, I’ll peel away a piece of her skin. Slowly. Then Ivan will heal her, and the next day, we’ll do it all over again.”
  • The Darkling and Sturmhond’s crew capture and kill the sea whip. “Beads of water flew from [the sea whip’s] mane, and its massive jaws opened, revealing a pink tongue and rows of gleaming teeth. It came down on the nearest boat with a loud crash of splintering wood. The slender craft split in two, and men poured into the sea. The dragon’s maw snapped closer over a sailor’s legs and he vanished, screaming, beneath the waves.” This scene is described over three pages. 
  • After Sturmhond’s crew turn on the Darkling and become Alina’s allies, the Darkling and his army attack them. “Pistol shots rang out. The air came alive with Inferni fire. ‘To me, hounds!’ Sturmhond shouted, and plunged into action, a saber in his hands.” This scene occurs over 10 pages. The following two bullet points happen during this scene. 
  • Ivan, the Darkling’s right-hand man, is killed by Tolya, one of Sturmhond’s crew members: “The fingers of Tolya’s outstretched hand curled into a fist. Ivan convulsed. His eyes rolled up in his head. A bubble of blood blossomed and burst on his lips. He collapsed onto the deck.”  
  • The Darkling unleashes his nichevo’ya, or shadow monsters, on Alina and her allies. “The nichevo’ya reached the masts of the schooner, whirling around the sails, plucking sailors from the rigging like fruit. Then they were skittering down onto the deck. Mal fired again and again as the crewmen drew their sabers, but bullets and blades seemed only to slow the monsters. Their shadow bodies wavered and re-formed, and they just kept coming.” Sturmhond’s crew manages to confuse the nichevo’ya long enough to escape. 
  • Sturmhond tells Alina she needs to be more ruthless, and tells her how he earned the respect of his crew. The first time he ever tried to board an enemy ship, the captain laughed at him and mocked him, so Sturmhond “cut off his fingers and fed them to [his] dog while [the captain] watched.” 
  • Mal spars with other Grisha soldiers in practice fighting matches. “Eskil [a minor character who is Grisha] let out a loud oof as Mal clamped his arms around him, keeping the Grisha’s limbs pinned so that he couldn’t summon his power. The big Fjerdan snarled, muscles straining, teeth bared as he tried to break Mal’s hold. . . Mal tightened his grip. He shifted, then drove his forehead into [Eskil’s] nose with a nauseating crunch. Before I could blink, he’d released Eskil and hammered a flurry of punches into [Eskil]’s gut and sides.” This scene occurs over three pages. 
  • Alina wanders outside the city and encounters the Ravkan peasants who congregate outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sankta (or Saint) Alina. They crowd around her, trying to get close to her and touch her. “The bodies pressed tighter, pushing and shoving, shouting at each other, each wanting to be nearer. My feet lost contact with the ground. I cried out as a chunk of my hair was ripped from my scalp. They were going to tear me apart.” Tolya and Tamar, Alina’s bodyguards, rescue her before it’s too late, and Alina is left shaken but uninjured.  
  • The Darkling and his nichevo’ya attack the Grand Palace after Vasily, Ravka’s lazy and arrogant crown prince, double-crosses his brother, Nikolai. Nikolai is Alina’s ally and friend, and he had plans to save both Alina and Ravka. However, many people die in this nichevo’ya attack. Vasily, Alina, and many others are injured. This scene occurs over 13 pages, with several interludes for dialogue.  
  • During the fight, “Vasily lifted his saber high and charged, bellowing with rage. Mal stepped in front of me, raising his sword to block the blow. But before Vasily could bring down his weapon, a nichevo’ya grabbed hold of him and tore his arm from its socket, sword and all. He stood for a moment, swaying, blood pumping from his wound, then dropped to the floor in a lifeless heap.” 
  • Alina attacks the nichevo’ya to save her friends. “Another pack of nichevo’ya descended from the windows, clawing their way toward Nikolai and his mother. I had to take a chance. I brought the light down in two blazing arcs, cutting through one monster after another, barely missing one of the generals who crouched cowering on the floor. People were screaming and weeping as the nichevo’ya fell upon them.” Alina and many of her friends, including Mal, escape, but they don’t know whether or not Nikolai was able to get to safety. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Novyi Zem is the center of the jurda trade. Jurda is a stimulant people use to stay awake. For example, “Zemeni men liked to tuck the dried [jurda] blooms between lip and gum, and even the women carried them in embroidered pouches that dangled from their wrists. Each store window [Alina] passed advertised different brands: Brightleaf, Shade, Dhoka, the Burly.” 
  • When Mal returns from a hunt, he tells Alina about how he and the other Grisha who went on the hunt entertained themselves. “We spent more time every day playing cards and drinking kvas [an alcoholic beverage analogous to beer] than anything else. And some duke got so drunk he passed out in the river. He almost drowned. His servants hauled him out by his boots, but he kept wading back in, slurring something about the best way to catch trout.” 
  • Alina complains about how boring war council meetings are, and Nikolai jokes, “Next time, bring a flask. Every time [Vasily] changes his mind, take a sip.” Alina replies, “I’d be passed out on the floor before the hour was up.” 
  • After missing his guard shift, Mal is found hungover. Alina and Tolya find him the next morning. “[Mal] hadn’t changed his clothes from last night. There was stubble on his chin, and the smell of blood and kvas hung on him like a dirty coat.” 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • Siege and Storm involves a magic system known as the Small Science, which is a way of manipulating matter that appears supernatural or magical. Those who can wield the Small Science are known as Grisha; many of the main characters in this novel are Grisha.  
  • The Grisha are split into three orders: Corporalki (the Order of the Living and the Dead), Etherialki (the Order of Summoners), and Materialki (the Order of Fabrikators).  
  • The Darkling and Baghra, Alina’s tutor, are Shadow Summoners, while Alina is a Sun Summoner. These are unique abilities that no other known Grisha possesses. For example, Alina uses her power when Sturmhond steers his ship through the Fold: “Hurriedly, I braced my feet against the deck and threw up my hands, casting a wide golden swath of sunlight around the [ship].” 

Spiritual Content  

  • When she and Mal reach Novyi Zem, Alina prays, “Let us be safe here. Let us be home.” 
  • Ravkans worship Saints, and some have started to worship Alina as a living Saint, calling her Sankta Alina (Saint Alina) and Sol Koroleva (Sun Queen). 
  • Some Ravkan peasants sell relics of Saints, such as fake bones supposedly once belonging to different Saints. Nikolai tells Alina, “There are rumors that you died on the Fold. People have been selling off parts of you all over Ravka and West Ravka for months. You’re quite the good luck charm.” 

Battle of the Beast

The beast wraps his slimy tongues around Bethany and brings her to his sharp teeth to consume her in one bite. Right before she is devoured, she wakes up in a pool of her own sweat.  She calms herself by remembering the beast is locked away, far away. However, Bethany was not the only one left with scars after the beast’s last attack. After being in the care of D.O.R.R.I.S, Claudette is returned home to the Wintloria Forest. She is too weak to walk, fly, or even sing. The beast took a lot from Claudette and left her with painful memories. Claudette’s dearest friend from the forest, Mortimer, is determined to travel to the beast and avenge her. 

Although Ebeneezer no longer has the beast to worry about, he sure has the green-eyed monster– Jealousy. The whole town is praising all of Bethany’s “good doing.” The town’s people are so grateful for her good work that Miss Muddle, the sweetshop owner Bethany apprentices for, decides to throw her a not-so-surprise surprise party. Everywhere Ebeneezer and Bethany go, someone asks if they can take her pictures and they compliment her. On the other side, Ebenezer is ridiculed for his “Wise Tweezer business’’ that consisted of poor solutions to the neighbor’s problems like smelling rose-scented candles instead of healing the garden. For Bethany, life was better than it ever has been. At least it was until they find out that the beast has escaped. 

Meggitt-Phillips does a great job keeping The Battle of the Beast entertaining by being unpredictable with the beasts’ fate, and it’s true identity. Although it is the third book in the series, the story isn’t repetitive because the reader gets a new perspective on the villain, the beast, and the theme of forgiveness. Bethany has an extremely hard time trusting the beast since she believes there is no way he will ever be good. But she realizes everyone in the neighborhood thought the same thing about her. Battle of the Beast makes the reader choose between Bethany’s belief that the beast will never change or Ebenezer’s belief that the beast has changed. This aspect keeps the reader engaged and connected with the story. 

Battle of the Beast is the most exciting book in the series; the tension between characters makes the reader unsure who is telling the truth, which keeps the reader on edge. There are many black-and-white illustrations in the book that show up every couple of chapters. Some of the illustrations can be as simple as a few feathers at the bottom of the page and others can be so big it covers both pages. And, although the beast is in a dog costume, the reader also gets to see the beast for the first time with these illustrations. On the other hand, the beast uses a lot of “baby talk” which becomes tedious. Despite this, the story highlights the theme of friendship, but the theme of forgiveness and guilt are more prominent. The reader must decide for themselves if the beast is worth an “I forgive you.”  Readers ready for more monster-related humor should check out Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon and Evil Alien Warlord Cat Series by Johnny Marciano & Emily Chenoweth. Meggitt-Phillips teases the reader at the beginning of the fourth book. But the new monsters may be Bethany’s parents. 

Sexual Content 

  • Geoffrey asks Bethany on a date. Ebenezer makes fun by saying, “OOOOH, Bethany’s got a crush, Bethany’s got a crush. . . . Bethany and Geoffrey sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I–” However, he is interrupted when Bethany says, “Shut up, gitface. If you dare say anything like that again, I’ll unleash a plague of moths into you knit-wear lounge.”’

Violence 

  • Like many of the other parrot’s in the Wintloria forest, Mortimer’s parents were killed by trophy hunters. This is never described, but it is mentioned because Claudette “had acted as a mother to him after his parents had been killed by trophy hunters.”
  • Bethany has nightmares of the beast. One night she has a nightmare that the beast is going to eat her and Ebenezer dies. “Bethany cried, as the beast’s two fat tongues slithered around her neck like a pir of greedy cobras. She was trapped in the glowing red walls of a D.O.R.R.I.S laser cage. Her best friend, the young 512- year-old Ebenezer Tweezer was lying dead on the floor…As Bethany was dragged closer to her death, she realized that this was inevitable. She’d never had a chance of defeating the beast. And then, just as she was about to be chomped to pieces, Bethany woke up.” There is a black and white illustration of Bethany being wrapped in tongues and Ebenezer lying dead with X’s on his eyes. After this, she sees Ebenezer, and says, “I’m really glad you haven’t been horribly murdered.”
  • The nightmare wasn’t Bethany’s first.  Bethany’s other nightmares are described too. For example, “Sometimes her mind had devised elaborate scenarios involving exploding teapots and volcanic beehives; other times it had kept things classic with simple head-chomping.” 
  • When Bethany is at the orphanage, she is told that Timothy, the new orphanage director, forgot to feed the children because he was too busy organizing files. Bethany storms into his office and throws his papers out of the window. “Timothy screamed as if Bethany had just thrown a bunch of babies out of the window.”
  • Bethany and Ebenezer are transported to the D.O.R.R.I.S headquarters to be informed of the beast’s escape. While there, Mr. Nickle tells them there is “extremely good news.” Bethany becomes infuriated by his lack of concern. “Bethany decided she would give Mr. Nickle a kick in his stupid shins. She charged at him, but the old man used his sticks to karate-chop her to the ground.”
  • As the beast is being released from his laser cage, it falls “flat on its face, and a nail from the metallic floors got jammed in one of its eyes . . . The beast pulled the nail out and licked its eye until the cut healed.”
  • After finding out Ebenezer is helping the beast, Bethany attacks him. “She pinned him down and started beating him around the head . . . Ebenezer pulled Bethany’s hair. She kicked him repeatedly where she knew it would hurt most – his beloved waistcoat.”
  • The beast vomits out a machine to help clean for Miss Muddle, but Bethany is skeptical about the beast’s intentions. She tries to warn Miss Muddle. “Bethany tried to say something, but Ebenezer slammed the door and kept his hand over her mouth, until Miss Muddle left. Bethany eventually got some teeth free and used them to bite Ebenezer hands.” The bite makes Ebenezer bleed.
  • Mortimer wants to avenge Claudette, so he plans on killing the beast. He says, “I’m going to kill the beast. I’m going to pluck its eyes out and tear apart its flesh with my talons. I plan on taking my time with it– and I promise I’ll make sure that it receives three dollops of pain for every ounce of suffering it has caused Claudette.’” 
  • Bethany warns Mortimer that she believes the beast is pretending to have lost its mind. She tells him, “it could reveal its true self at any moment.” Mortimer responds, “‘I hope it does,’ said Mortimer. ‘That way I can see the evil in its eyes before I pluck them out.’”
  • Ebenezer reminds Bethany she once shoved worms up Geoffrey’s nose. 
  • Mortimer attacks the beast. “Mortimer dived, still screeching – aiming its kitchen-knife talons at the beast’s middle eye, like a dart about to plunge into the bull’s-eye.” The beast protects himself with its “mouth spread wider than the beast could have ever thought possible. Then just as quickly and instinctively, the mouth snapped shut again – snapping off Mortimer’s lovely, sharp talons . . . As the beast chewed the crunchy spikes, other things started to return to its mind as well.”
  • The neighborhood finds out Bethany was going to help Mortimer kill the beast. As Geoffrey tries to stand up for Bethany, Geoffrey says, “We wouldn’t be friends if I thought she was in any way a killer.” 
  • The “gifts” the beast gave everyone turn rogue. The scarf he gave the zookeeper “wrapped itself tighter and tighter around the lizard lady’s neck, until it made her croak for mercy.”
  • The beast turns frisbees into axes. “The axe-shaped Frisbees started flying around the room– making everyone duck, out of fear of decapitation.” People scream in fear. 
  • The beast tells Ebenezer what he would do to Mortimer if he wanted to. “I’ll drink the insides out of that parrot’s talons like a sippy cup! I’ll wiggle my fingers and chop off the heads of every stupid neighbor here if you want me to.”
  • In order to wake people up, “the beast started waking people up by slapping the Frisbee’s across their faces.”
  • The beast tells Mortimer to “stay absolutely silent or I’ll boil you into a soup.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • Miss Muddle gives Bethany a Super-Duper Deluxe hot chocolate. After this, “Bethany woke up late in the sweetshop with the worst sugar hangover in the world . . . She was surrounded by empty mugs and Super-Duper Deluxe Muddle Hot Chocolates.” 

Language 

  • Mortimer gets angry at a parrot and calls it a “blithering twerp!”
  • Bethany calls Ebenezer “gitface” throughout the book. 
  • Bethany says “flipping” as an expletive. For example, she says, “It’s actually going pretty flipping awesomely” and, “How should I know you flipping idiot?!”
  • Bethany frequently tells people to “bug off.” 
  • When Ebenezer hangs his self-portrait around town, someone writes “useless” and “I am a twerp” on them.  
  • Hell is used several times. For example, Miss Muddle answers the phone and says, “Oh hell?” She says, “Sorry, I mean– hello?”
  • Occasionally characters call each other idiots. 
  • Bethany calls someone a “traitor” and a “dim-witted nincompoop of a buffoon!”
  • When the beast vomits a box, someone asks, “What the bleedin’ hell is that?”
  • The beast calls Bethany a “snot-brain.”

Supernatural

  • The home of Claudette, the Wintloria forest, is described as “magical”. “The trees were said to possess an ancient and beguiling form of magic – leaves that could wipe away scars, fruit nourishing enough to sustain an entire family for a week, bark that could scratch any itch, no matter how irksome or inconveniently located.”
  • The workers at D.O.R.R.I.S travel via “puddle portals.” These portals allow people to transport quickly with minimal dampness.
  • There is an illustration of the D.O.R.R.I.S headquarters. In this illustration, there are aliens with three heads and walking fish with briefcases.   
  • Like the other books in the series, the beast vomits out items. However, his vomit is gifts for the neighborhood like toys for the orphanage and hearing aids for the elders. 

Spiritual Content 

  • When Mortimer is about to kill the beast, the beast asks, “Why?” Mortimer responds saying, “Because you’re a monster. You’re the devil in blob form who deserves a long, slow, punishing death.”

Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred

Fourteen-year-old Jay Cooper is enjoying the view from his Uncle Rex’s Cessna when a low-flying 757 speeds past them. Caught in its wind turbulence, their small plane is shaken violently, knocking Rex unconscious and leaving Jay blind from a head injury.

With fuel running out fast, Jay drifting in and out of consciousness, and the plane heading straight for a mountain range, this high-flying adventure shows the importance of faith as Jay faces numerous unseen dangers.

Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred is an exciting survival story that shows how one teen’s bravery allows him to survive a dangerous situation. The story focuses on Jay, who is blinded when his plane is caught up in wind turbulence. Despite his injury, Jay stays calm. When Jay is instructed to crash land the plane into Puget Sound, he realizes that he is unlikely to survive, and his uncle will surely die. Despite this, Jay believes that God “knows what’s best. We just have to put ourselves in His hands and let Him take it where He wants to take it.” Jay is only able to succeed because his trust in God allows him to focus on the situation at hand, and not be consumed by what-if questions. Jay’s determination to safely land the plane and save his uncle’s life is admirable.

Even though much of the story focuses on Jay’s conflict, there are many people who guide Jay. When another pilot witnesses the accident, the pilot follows Jay’s plane to give Jay directions, so he does not crash. Jay is also in contact with air traffic control, his father, and other members of his family. The media also appears and broadcasts Jay’s dilemma. The varying points of view create suspense as well as highlight the unknown dangers that Jay must face. Readers will get caught up in the story’s drama and will root for Jay to successfully land the plane. 

Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred is a suspenseful story that will capture the reader’s attention from the very start. While the story highlights Jay’s trust in God, the lesson is integrated into the story and never feels preachy. Readers will be biting their nails wondering what new difficulty Jay will have to overcome. Fans of survival stories should put Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred at the top of their reading list. Readers who are eager to read more survival stories should also read the classic book, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and The Raft by S.A. Bodeen.

Sexual Content 

  • None

Violence 

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • None

Language 

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • Several of the characters pray short prayers. For example, when Chuck sees his friend’s plane begin to spiral, he prays, “Dear Lord, please wake him up, nudge him, get him on the controls.”

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen

Eight-year-old Jasmine Toguchi is a flamingo fan, tree climber, and top-notch mess-maker!

She’s also tired of her big sister, Sophie, always getting to do things first. For once, Jasmine wishes SHE could do something before Sophie—something special, something different. The New Year approaches, and as the Toguchi family gathers in Los Angeles to celebrate, Jasmine is jealous that her sister gets to help roll mochi balls by hand with the women. Her mom says that Jasmine is still too young to join in, so Jasmine hatches a plan to help the men pound the mochi rice instead. Surely her sister has never done THAT before.

But pounding mochi is traditionally reserved for boys. And the mochi hammer is heavier than it looks. Can Jasmine build her case and her mochi-making muscles in time for New Year’s Day? 

Jasmine is determined to prove that she is strong enough to pound mochi. In order to get her wish, she comes up with some unique and silly ways to get more muscles. However, Jasmine will also need to convince her family to break tradition — after all, pounding mochi is only for boys who are ten years or older. While Jasmine appeals to her father, he doesn’t give her a quick answer. Instead, before making his decision, he talks to the other family members to get their approval. In the end, Jasmine discovers that pounding mochi takes a lot of strength and hard work. She’s disappointed that she was only able to lift the heavy hammer one time. Despite this, Jasmine’s family showers her with praise because “you’re the first under-ten-year-old and the first girl to pound mochi in our family.”  

The story is accessible to fluent readers who are ready for a book with multiple plots. Black and white illustrations appear every two to three pages and show Jasmine’s daily life. Many of the illustrations show the characters’ facial expressions, which will help readers understand the characters’ emotions. Another positive aspect of the story is that difficult words are explained within the text. For example, Jasmine explains that her mom is an editor. “An editor reads other people’s work and fixes the words.” For more fun, the back of the book has a recipe for microwave mochi. Even though Jasmine Toguchi is a series, the books do not need to be read in order because each book focuses on a new storyline.  

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen is an entertaining chapter book that teaches the importance of controlling one’s emotions. For instance, Jasmine has a cousin named Eddie, who often teases her. To control her anger, Jasmine uses a counting strategy that works…most of the time. Jasmine can do this because her family members have taught her healthy communication skills. 

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen will encourage readers to work towards a goal — even those that seem unlikely to happen. Because the story focuses on Jasmine, young readers will feel as if they have made a new friend. Readers will also adore Jasmine’s spunky attitude and understand her determination to do something before her sister. In the end, Jasmine is an admirable character not because she has muscles, but because, “You’re strong. . . You believe in something and you don’t let anyone change your mind.”  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • When Eddie makes fun of Jasmine, she “forgot to count to ten again. My foot flew out from under me and kicked the ball. Smack! It pounded Eddie in the back.” Afterwards, Eddie leaves the room. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Jasmine’s cousin Eddie is mean to her. He calls her “Jasmine Pee” and says she’s a weakling. 
  • When Jasmine ignores Eddie, he asks, “Are you so dumb you can’t make conversation?” 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None

The Miracle of the First Poinsettia

It is la Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, and soon festivities will be taking place in the mountain village that is Juanita’s home. But as she wanders through the colorful marketplace, Juanita feels lonely and sad. This year, her father is out of work, and their family has no pesos for parties or gifts. How can she enter the church for midnight mass with nothing—not even the tiniest present—to give to the baby Christ Child?

As her family prepares for the holiday, Juanita is embarrassed that she doesn’t have a gift to present to the baby Christ Child. However, when an angel statue speaks to Juanita, the young girl trusts the angel and plucks the weeds from around the statue. At first, Juanita was “frightened and confused. She wondered how she could bring such plain weeds to the Baby Jesus.” However, Juanita follows the angel’s instructions and takes the weeds into the church. As Juanita walks down the aisle, the weeds miraculously turn into poinsettia flowers, which today grow in abundance in Mexico.

The Miracle of the First Poinsettia explains the story behind the first Poinsettia. Each illustration uses the dark red tone of the flower to bring traditional Old-World Mexico to life. Even though the illustrations are enchanting, young readers will have a difficult time sitting still through the entire story. Because of the text-heavy pages, which have up to 15 complex sentences, parents will need to read the book to their children. To highlight Mexican culture, Spanish words are used within the text. Each Spanish word appears in italics and a glossary appears at the back of the book to aid non-Spanish speakers. 

The Miracle of the First Poinsettia is a beautiful story about the wonder of Christmas. At first, Juanita focuses on the gift-giving traditions. Even though Juanita does not have a gift to give, her mother reminds her, “Ah, mi hija, you give gifts all the time. You gave your galletas to your brothers. You sang songs for Papá. You bring such joy. To us, you are a gift!” Through her difficulties, Juanita learns that “a gift from the heart is the best gift of all.”

Sexual Content 

  • None

Violence 

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • None

Language   

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content 

  • The story focuses on the Christmas season and the miracle of the first poinsettia.
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