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A Loud Winter’s Nap

Tortoise is set in his ways. He doesn’t like winter. He’s been planning his long winter nap, and now he’s ready to find a peaceful place to snuggle up. Tortoise has his pillow, his teddy bear, and his ear plugs. But what will tortoise do when the robins create a ruckus with their winter singing class?

Readers will giggle as Tortoise tries successfully to find a peaceful sleeping spot. But every time he snuggles down to sleep, a different forest animal wakes him up – from the playful squirrel who invites him to a snowball fight to the beaver who chops down the tree he’s sleeping in. Tortoise just doesn’t understand winter fun. All he knows is that “tortoises just don’t like winter!”

A Loud Winter’s Nap is a beautifully illustrated picture book that explores the joy of winter. Rabbit noisily creates an ice sculpture. Squirrel starts a snowball fight with the sleeping tortoise. Colorful illustrations add little details that will delight readers. Each animal is adorably cute and has expressive facial expressions. Readers will enjoy finding Tortoise’s teddy bear in each picture.

The text includes onomatopoeia words and repetition that will capture young readers’ attention. With four or fewer sentences per page, A Loud Winter’s Nap would be a fun story to read aloud. Readers will want to grab a blanket, a teddy bear, and curl up with this fun book. A Loud Winter’s Nap will become many children’s favorite winter book.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Kitten Nobody Wanted

When Mia loses her beloved cat, Sandy, she can’t ever imagine having a cat again. Sandy was the best cat in the world, and Mia never wants to forget him.

Mia’s best friend, Emily, is thrilled when her cat, Snowball, has kittens. Emily desperately wants Mia to see the kittens, but for a long time Mia can’t bring herself to. Mia finally visits and falls in love with a small, shy kitten that she names Whiskers. Everyone can see that Mia and Whiskers are perfect for each other, but is Mia ready to give him a home?

In The Kitten Nobody Wanted, Mia struggles with the loss of her cat. She doesn’t want to ever forget him. When Emily’s cat has kittens, Mia’s refusal to see the kittens upsets Emily. The two friends talk about the problem and try to understand each other’s point of view. The girls’ friendship is sweet and the girls clearly care about each other. Mia’s parents, grandmother, and Emily’s mother all try to help Mia feel better about losing her cat.

While most of the story is told from Mia’s point of view, the ending of the story incorporates Whiskers’ point of view, which allows the reader to understand that Mia and Whiskers belong to each other. While the story revolves around Mia’s grief, each person in Mia’s life is portrayed in a positive manner.

The Kitten Nobody Wanted is a sweet story that will appeal to any animal lover. Black and white illustrations appear every one to four pages, which helps break up the text. Even though the story is appropriate for young readers, the vocabulary and sentence structure is more advanced. However, the story would be a good choice for parents to read aloud to their children. The Kitten Nobody Wanted is realistic fiction that is entertaining and shows positive relationships, while teaching the importance of giving pets a good home.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Splat the Cat and the Duck with No Quack

While riding his bike to school, Splat runs into a duck that doesn’t quack. Splat is determined to help the duck get his quack back. Duck seeks the advice of his friends, who all theorize why Duck doesn’t quack. Splat’s friends are eager to help him, and they come up with realistic reasons and some silly reasons that Duck doesn’t quack. One of Splat’s friends suggests, “Duck needs a bow with a little pink dress to match. That will bring his quack back.” Finally, Splat goes to get advice from his teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple. Through trial and error, Mrs. Wimpydimple discovers what was needed to bring back Duck’s quack.

The bright, full-page illustrations show Splat’s and his friends’ wide range of emotions. Little readers will love the humorous pictures and the surprising little details such as a rabbit hiding behind a sign and then on the next page, the rabbit is peaking out of the bushes. Splat the Cat and the Duck with No Quack is perfect for beginning readers. Most pages have four simple sentences; some sentences use rhyming and others have onomatopoeias, which makes the story fun to read out loud. The story is designed for readers who can read on their own, but who may still need a little help.

Splat the Cat and the Duck with No Quack will put smiles on reader’s faces. Not only are the illustrations adorably cute, but the fun plot will have readers guessing why Duck doesn’t quack. Splat and his friends eagerly brainstorm ways to help Duck. In the end, Splat and his friends get help from a trusted adult.

The simple plot, the humorous conflict, and the relatable characters all combine to make Splat the Cat and the Duck with No Quack perfect for beginning readers. The Splat the Cat Series will have younger readers giggling as they learn to read on their own.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Piper

Maggie lives in a small village in the middle of a dark forest. Because she is deaf, the people in her small village have shunned her. An elderly woman, Agathe, is the only person who has shown Maggie kindness. In the evening, Maggie uses her imagination to weave stories that Agathe writes down. Despite Agathe’s company, Maggie dreams of finding her fairytale love.

The village is plagued by rats, who are devouring the food and biting the people. A mysterious Piper comes to town, promising to rid the village of rats. Maggie is captivated by the Piper and thinks she has finally met her true love. However, Maggie soon discovers that the Piper has a dark side. The boy of Maggie’s dreams might just turn out to be her worst nightmare…

The graphic novel’s artwork is amazing and beautiful. Jeff Stokely uses a variety of colors that help enhance the scene’s mood. Each illustration highlights the character’s emotions, and the village is painted in vivid detail. Piper’s artwork is by far the best part of the graphic novel; each picture tells so much of the story in detail.

While the artwork is fantastic, both the characters and the plot are underdeveloped. Maggie’s backstory is confusing, and the reason the village shunned her is unclear. Maggie is deaf but has taught herself how to read lips. However, in most of the panels she isn’t looking at the person who is talking, yet can somehow understand their words. Even though the readers should empathize with Maggie, she is so underdeveloped and predictable that her story doesn’t evoke an emotional reaction.

The plot jumps around from Maggie, to the village, and then flashbacks of the past. In addition, Maggie makes up stories about the town folk. The story’s transitions are often awkward and confusing. So little information is given about the Piper that he is difficult to understand. The conclusion is quick and leaves the reader with too many questions.

As a retelling of the Pied Piper, Piper is a dark story that lacks depth. While readers will enjoy the artwork, the actual story and characters are not memorable. However, the story does touch on the theme of greed. When the villagers refuse to pay the Piper for his services, one person says, “So much evil is traced back to greed. And greed makes us choose what we believe.”

Readers who want to add a little fright to their life may want to leave Piper on the shelf. If you’re looking for a spectacularly spooky story, Nightbooks by J.A. White and City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwa would make an excellent addition to your reading list.

Sexual Content

  • Someone asks the rat catcher, “Do you think the rats stop fornicating when you get distracted?”
  • Maggie kisses the Piper.

Violence

  • Rats infest a village. They destroy food and crops. They also bite a baby; the illustration shows the crying child with a bloody bite on the arm.
  • Maggie tells a story about boys that lost a coin. They couldn’t find the coin “so they put their heads in the holes! Their heads become stuck in the holes. The rabbit mistook their ugly faces for cabbage. And it was very hungry.” The last illustration shows the rabbit’s huge teeth.
  • Any angry woman flicks a seed and hits Maggie in the head. Maggie runs away crying.
  • When Maggie and her brother were children, a group of boys shoved them into a barrel, shut the lid, and threw it into a river. A man jumped in to save the children, but Maggie’s brother died.
  • A drunk man yells at Maggie. The man grabs her, pinches her face, and puts his finger in her ear. Maggie falls to the ground and begins crying.
  • After the man yells at Maggie, the Piper uses a dart to put the drunk man to sleep. The Piper throws the man into the river by the water wheel. The next day, someone says, “I warned him, if he was going to stumble about drunk at night, stay away from the river. I was not even thinking of the water wheel.” Another man says, “I never imagined it could take a man’s head off his shoulders.” The illustration shows the man being thrown into the water.
  • A boy gets his shirt caught in a grinding stone. The Piper hears the boy’s yells. The Piper holds a knife against the boy’s throat and says, “It’s not what you did to me that makes me want to kill you.” Even though the Piper is upset that the boy was mean to Maggie, he cuts the boy free.
  • Angry that the village leaders refuse to pay him, the Piper uses his flute to lead the children out of the village. Maggie finds the children and takes them home.
  • The villagers burn the church with the Piper and “many many others” inside of it.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • A man tries to poison the rats, but “it killed all the cats!”
  • When a strange man comes into the village, he says he can get rid of the rats for a price. When he tells his price, a man says, “You must have chugged your drink too quickly.”
  • Maggie tells a story about a blacksmith. His wife “shut him out of their home one winter evening after he’d been out drinking too many nights. In the morning she found him passed out on a stump.” The blacksmith was frozen.

Language

  • Maggie tells the story about a blacksmith. “The drunken fool pissed himself frozen to the stump.”
  • When the village children disappear, one of the women says, “Oh God!”

Supernatural

  • The Piper plays a “cursed flute. Its magic will make anything obey.”
  • The Piper plays his flute and leads the village rats into the river where they die. Four panels show the rats’ death.

Spiritual Content

  • After a wedding, the guests dance near the church’s graveyard. The priest says, “I would think those who have passed would be pleased by the joy of the living… The Lord knows they deserve one evening of merriment.”
  • Maggie’s caretaker says, “We should pray for the well-being of everyone, but it is great fun to imagine how they may seal their own fate.”
  • A man who is cleaning the church window says, “I pray my soul is always like this window, pure and clean.”
  • When a man expresses his fear of the Piper, the priest says, “Ephesians calls us to be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might…not our own strength, or that of a magical flute.”
  • Maggie tells the Piper, “I will pray that they give you what was promised.”

Secret Snowflake

Riley has been looking forward to the English class’ Secret Snowflake project all year. As part of the assignment, the students are having an anonymous gift exchange. Riley is even more excited when she gets to be the Secret Snowflake for her crush, Marcus Anderson. Based on a smile, Riley is convinced that Marcus might be her Secret Snowflake too!

Riley wants to make the gifts extra special. She uses her crafty nature to make homemade gifts. Riley’s best friend thinks Marcus might think homemade gifts are lame. Trying to find the perfect gift, Riley begins paying extra attention to Marcus. Soon, she wonders if her secret crush is really as wonderful as she imagined.

When Riley starts receiving gifts, she knows that her Secret Snowflake has paid extra attention to her. All of Riley’s gifts are sparkly and perfect. Is Marcus really Riley’s Secret Snowflake. . . or will Riley be crushed when her Secret Snowflake’s identity is revealed?

Riley’s excitement and enthusiasm for Christmas make Secret Snowflake a sparkly read. Middle school readers will empathize with Riley, who is experiencing her first crush. However, Riley’s crush doesn’t take over the story. Instead, Secret Snowflake is a story of friendship, family, and bringing Christmas cheer to others. Riley is a relatable character with positive qualities. She is kind to her brother, is part of a choir that sings in a nursing home, and helps her best friend reach out to a new girl.

In the end, Riley learns that her secret crush “focused an awful lot on things that Riley didn’t really care about. . . Sure she could be interested in someone who loved sports—but not someone who measured worth in dollars and cents. And definitely not someone who would throw a handmade gift in the trash like it was garbage.” When Riley’s crush says mean things about his Secret Snowflake’s gifts, Riley is hurt and cries in the school bathroom. However, she doesn’t mope for long. Instead, she joins the festivities and realizes that a boy is worthy when he is kind, caring, and thinks of others.

Secret Snowflake will get readers into the gift-giving holiday spirit. The engaging story shows how simple things like baking cookies and making ornaments are what the season is all about. There’s a lot to like about Secret Snowflake. Riley is a good friend, her family is portrayed in a positive light, and the story shows the importance of thinking about others. Young girls will fall in love with Riley and be motivated to create their own crafty gifts. Anyone looking for a fun, positive holiday story should put Secret Snowflake at the top of their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When Riley thinks her Secret Snowflake might think her homemade Christmas ornament is “dumb or babyish,” her brother says, “Then he sounds like a jerk!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Erak’s Ransom

What does it mean to earn the Silver Oakleaf? So few men have done so. For Will, a mere boy and apprentice to the most difficult Ranger to please, that symbol of honor has long seemed out of reach. If he is to ever earn it, he must prove himself in ways he never imagined.

Now, in the wake of Araluens’ uneasy truce with the raiding Skandians, there comes word that the Skandian leader, Erak, has been captured by a desert tribe. The Rangers, along with a small party of warriors, are sent to free him, but the desert is like nothing these warriors have seen before. Strangers in a strange land, they are brutalized by sandstorms, tricked by one tribe that plays by its own rules, and surprisingly befriended by another. Like a mirage, nothing is as it seems. Yet one thing is constant: the bravery of the Rangers.

Erak’s Ransom goes back in time, before the fifth and sixth installments of the series. When Erak is taken captive, the Skandians ask for the Araluens’ help. For the first time ever, Halt, Horace, Will, and Evelyn travel together. The interplay between the characters is interesting. Readers will appreciate seeing how people from different cultures can respectfully work together without having to hide their beliefs.

Like the previous books in the series, the story ends with an epic battle. However, one of the best aspects of Erak’s Ransom is the political negotiating, the clashing of beliefs, and the honor of desert tribes. Even though the story’s plot is complicated and there is a huge cast of characters, readers familiar with the characters will not have difficulty understanding the plot. The Araluens, Skandians, and two desert tribes come together to defeat an evil raiding party. Each group has a different strength, and all contribute to freeing Erak and defeating evil.

Erak’s Ransom is another fast-paced story that readers will not want to put down. Although male friendship is highlighted, Evelyn’s strong personality also comes to the forefront and shows how women can be capable leaders. Erak’s Ransom will leave readers wishing they could sit around the campfire and have a conversation with the Araluens and the Skandians because at this point in the series, they seem like trusted friends.

Sexual Content

  • At Halt’s wedding, “there had been the inevitable tearful flouncing and shrill recriminations when the girlfriend of one of the younger warriors from Sir Rodney’s Battleschool had caught her boyfriend kissing another girl in a dark corridor.”

Violence

  • A group of men finds a caravan that was slaughtered. “Horses, mules, camels and men were scattered about the desert, lifeless shapes surrounded by darkening patches of dried blood that had soaked into the sand… The men and animals had been killed, and then hacked in a senseless frenzy. There was barely a body with just a single killing wound.”
  • Will shoots an arrow near Umar’s grandson. Angry, Umar’s “fist struck Will backhanded across the jaw. He staggered and fell, the bow dropping from his hands… Will, stunned by the blow, tried to regain his feet but a savage kick from Umar winded him and sent him sprawling again.” Umar stops when his wife yells at him.
  • While the Araluens, Skandians, and Arridis are traveling together, they are attacked. The group makes a shield wall. Gilan and Halt use their bows. “Already, half a dozen riderless horses were running wildly with the group charging from the front, their riders lying in crumpled heaps in the sand behind them… The battle became a heaving, shoving, hand-to-hand melee, with curved swords rising and falling, hacking and stabbing along the line. Men cried out in pain on both sides as they went down, then cried out again as comrades and foes trod them down in their efforts to reach the enemy.” Both sides lose men. The attack is described over four pages.
  • The Araluens, Skandians, and Arridis surrender. The leader of the other army imprisons those who will be valuable to sell as slaves. Everyone else is left without shoes and water. The leader says, “You’re brave enough now, boy, but wait ‘til your tongue is dry and swollen so large that it fills our throat so that you can hardly breathe. Wait ‘til your feet are torn and blistered by the heat and the rocks. Your eyes will be blinded by the glare of the sun and you’ll wish your leader had allowed me to kill you here, and now.”
  • The captives are bound, and “The guards mounted and herded their captives on foot toward the camp… Urged on by spear butts and curses, they stumbled on the uneven ground.” When the captives arrive at the camp, they see Erak. “…He was seated on the ground, chained between two noisy, complaining camels. His face was bruised and his hair matted with dried blood. One eye was almost closed and there were whip scores on his arms and back.”
  • Tualaghi forces the captives to walk for three days. “If anyone falls—and inevitably they did, since they were kept off balance by having their hands tied together in front of them—he was immediately surrounded by riders jabbing with lance points or striking down at them with the butts of their spears.” The men are bruised and sore by the time they arrive at their destination.
  • Halt upsets the Tualaghi leader. Two men grab Halt, “forcing him forward and down until he was on his knees in front of Yusal. The Tualaghi Aseish then rained closed-fist blows on Halt’s face, left and right, striking again and again until the Ranger’s face was cut and bleeding and his head lolled to one side… he crumbled to the sand, facedown, and semiconscious.”
  • When a woman looks at Yusal, he “had her savagely whipped.”
  • When the prisoners are taken to be executed, “there were those who chose to jeer at the prisoners and throw stones, clumps of earth or garbage at them.”
  • Will and Aloom try to find a vantage point so they can see the captives. Three of the enemies appear and “crowded upon him (Aloom), swords flashing, rising and falling as they attacked.” In order to help, Will jumps and “landed feet first on the shoulders of the Tualaghi leader. The man gave a cry of shock and pain and crumpled beneath the force of Will’s body. Will heard the snap of bones breaking somewhere, then a sickening thud as the bandit’s head slammed into the hard, rocky ground.”
  • During the fight with Will and Aloom, Will uses his saxe knife, and “the Tualaghi gave a short cry, half surprise, half pain, and sank back against the wall, his sword dropping from his hand…” The three Tualaghi are killed, and Aloom is severely injured and eventually dies from his wounds.
  • Will watches as Aloom “coughed and scarlet blood stained the front of his robe.” Will must leave Aloom in order to help the captives.
  • Will shoots the executioner. “Only then did those on the platform see what had been visible to the crowd in the square: the gray shafted arrow buried deep in the executioner’s chest.”
  • Will shoots an arrow at Yusal. The arrow “took him in the muscle of his upper left arm… He screamed in pain and fury…” Yusal flees, but “there were still armed Tualaghi all over the platform, threatening his friends.” Will shot arrows until “the guards began dropping with shrieks of agony and terror.”
  • A Tualaghi strikes his sword at Horace, and “a thin red line formed immediately, then blurred as blood began to well out of the cut… Horace simply brought the massive brass-pommeled hilt back in a short, savage stroke, thudding it into the man’s head.”
  • Evelyn uses her sling to fling a stone at Yusal. “A solid smacking sound could be heard clearly around the square. Then Yusal’s hands dropped and revealed a mask of blood covering his eyes and upper face, flowing down to soak into his blue veil… He fell full length to the hard ground below.” Evelyn uses her sling to drop another man. The man “doubled over, clutching his face and moaning in pain.”
  • Toshak, a Skandian traitor, tries to run from the fight. Erak “launched himself at Toshak, the sword swinging down in a blow that would have split the traitor down to the waist. There was a massive ringing clang as Toshak caught the blow on top of his double-bladed ax head… With a mighty roar, Erak used his left arm to thrust himself up from the cobbles while he drove the sword deep into Toshak’s unprotected body.” Toshak dies. The battle is described over three chapters.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Wine and barrels of ale are served at Halt’s wedding.
  • When a couple of Skandians meet a desert people, one of them replies, “Don’t know how you all keep going without a good drink of ale… Settles the mind in the evenings, ale does.”
  • A dying man is given “a few drops of clear liquid” to relieve his pain.
  • At a celebration, the Skandians are given “brandy made from fermented dates and peaches.”

Language

  • The exclamation “Gorlog’s beard” is used occasionally. “Gorlog was a lesser Scandian deity who had a long beard, curved horns and fanglike teeth.”
  • “God’s above,” “good God,” and “my God” are used as exclamations a few times.
  • Several times someone is called an idiot. For example, Halt wonders why he needs to invite “the Iberian ambassador and his two idiot daughters to my wedding.”
  • Evelyn “frightened the devil out of” a guard.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A diplomat thanks the lord for Evelyn’s character and courage.
  • A group of raiders are referred to as “the Forgotten of God.”
  • When Will begins a journey, he says, “I’ll see you in a few days.” The person replies, “I hope the god of journeys wills it so.”
  • When Will appeared, Halt “whispered a prayer of thanks.” Later, Halt puts his bound arm on the execution block and “prayed that his friend had got the message.”
  • The desert people “believed that djinns and devils and spirits all lived in these ancient mountains.”
  • The Skandians believe “that if they were to die in battle without a weapon in their hand, their soul would wander for all eternity.”
  • After Evelyn negotiates successfully, Halt says, “Lord forgive me, I’ve created a monster.”

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor #1

For as long as April could remember, the key has hung around her neck. As an orphan, she has no one to ask what the key belongs to, but she knows it can help her find her mother. While at a museum, April sees the Winterborne family crest and is surprised that it is the same crest that is on her key. Later that night, she sneaks into the museum and accidently starts a fire. When she awakes, she’s in the hospital and a strange woman is sitting by her bed.

The woman takes April to live in a big, creepy mansion with other orphans. April is convinced that she isn’t like the other orphans because her mother will come back for her. But now, April is convinced that the clues to finding her mother are inside the mansion. As she looks for clues, April realizes that the Winterborne House is hiding more than one secret. April and her friends are going to have to work together to unravel the riddle of a missing heir, a creepy legend, and a mysterious key before the only home they’ve ever known is lost to them forever.

Even though danger lurks behind every corner, April is determined to figure out why Gabriel Winterborne (the missing heir) has suddenly returned to the mansion, and why he is hiding from everyone he knows. April’s determination and grit are admirable, but she has a tendency to get into trouble. April doesn’t know who she can trust, which adds to the story’s suspense. Even though the other orphans eventually help April, they are not well-developed. However, each member of the group is interesting and unique.

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor will appeal to both mystery and action fans. The fast pace, constant danger, and interesting characters will have readers trying to fit all of the pieces into the puzzle. The plot isn’t unique—the creepy mansion, the bitter uncle, and April’s key are all predictable.  In addition, the conclusion leaves a list of unanswered questions. Although the story sets the scene for a sequel, the conclusion is frustrating because none of the main plot points are solved.

Readers who love the Gallagher Girl Series may be disappointed by Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor because it lacks a unique plot and humor. Despite this, Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor’s mystery and suspense will appeal to a wide range of readers. The easy-to-read story has plenty of intense action, questionable characters, and spooky scenes that will have readers reading late into the night.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • April was spying when she sees two men. “She turned and started to run, but unfortunately for April, she ran right into a very hard, very broad, very smelly chest.” The man pushes her toward a boat “and April wanted to run, but when she looked back, she saw the gun.”
  • When the men caught April, “Gabriel dropped onto the big man with the gun. . . he yelled as he dodged and kicked, swerved and stabbed. . . One by one, the men fell or stumbled or ran back to the boat.”
  • When the men in the boat try to leave, Gabriel “went for the man behind the controls first, and the boat slowed when Gabriel threw him across the deck, sending him crashing into the crates that went tumbling like a house of cards.” One of the men is able to get Gabriel’s sword and stabs Gabriel, who “stumbled and looked down, almost insulted to see his own sword sticking out of his body. . .” The scene with the men is described over four pages.
  • Tim shows April a series of scars, and implies that his father abused him.
  • When Gabriel was a kid, the boat that his family was on blew up “because bombs and boats don’t mix.” When Gabriel survives the explosion, his uncle tries to kill him repeatedly.
  • On his twenty-first birthday, Gabriel’s uncle hired someone to kill him. The hired killer “hit me on the back of the head and knocked me to the ground. . .” The man shot Gabriel, who fells into the water. “When I came up for air, I heard shouting and sirens, and I knew he was probably gone.” After he is shot, Gabriel disappears and some believe he is dead.
  • April sneaks into a house and is caught. “So April kicked. And lunged. And pushed. And ran. . . She tried to scramble back, but Evert was already grabbing her by the arms and jerking her to her feet. . .” April’s friends help her. “What followed was a whirl of thunder and punches and kicks. And some hair pulling. And a little tripping.”
  • As April and her friends run, Evert is able to grab April. “She threw her head back, jamming the back of her skull into his nose. She heard him scream and felt his blood run down the back of her neck, warmer than the rain.” The chase scene is described over eight pages.
  • When Evert sneaks into the Winterborne Home, the kids attack him. Evert “tried to duck, but he was too late. He tried to run, but he was too slow. A half dozen copper pots were already zooming straight for his head. He stumbled. . . Ropes wrapped around his ankles. A net fell over his head.” Evert is able to use a knife to cut himself down.
  • Evert knocks April to the ground. “April’s head banged off of the hard stone. Her vision blurred. . . Then Evert pulled her to her feet, her back to his chest, a knife at her throat.” April is able to break free.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Gabriel is injured, April gets him back to the house. When Sadie sees him, she asks, “Is he drunk?”
  • In the middle of the night, April “didn’t care about the noise” because she assumed everyone was in bed, except the butler “who was probably in the library with his nightly glass of port.”
  • When Gabriel is injured, one of the kids pretends to be an adult and asks a doctor to prescribe an antibiotic.

Language

  • A man calls someone scum.
  • Darn is used three times.
  • April thinks that Tim is a jerk.
  • Evert calls someone a coward.
  • April calls Evert a “greedy moron.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Gabriel falls into the ocean, April begins praying. April and her friends are able to get Gabriel back to the house, and get him into bed. “All April did was hold Mr. Winterborne’s hand and pray. . . No matter how many times April prayed for him to wake up and yell at her . . . his eyes stayed closed.”

Blended

Eleven-year-old Isabella feels like she’s being pulled in two. Her divorced parents fight over everything! Her whole life is divided. Her time is divided between her parents—every other week, she has to change houses, change rules, change names, and even change identities.

Isabella’s father is black, and her mother is white. She isn’t sure where she fits. After all, if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?

Each chapter of Blended jumps between Mom’s week, Dad’s week, and exchange day. This allows the reader to understand how her parents’ divorce affects Isabella’s daily life. While Isabella is trying to navigate between her two parents, she also has to deal with her parents’ live-in partners. The story portrays the headaches caused by squabbling parents and having two homes. In addition, having a white mom and a black father causes confusion. For example, Isabella isn’t sure how to fill out school forms. She tells her mom, “Well, I don’t answer ‘other,’ because that’s like being nothing, like maybe I could be Martian or something. I’m not nothing. I am something. I am somebody.”

Blended also explores racism—both intentional and unintentional. Several times throughout the story, someone says a hurtful comment about Isabella’s race; however, the speaker intended the statement to be a compliment. Equally important is the time Isabella spends in English; the class discusses recent school protests. Some students are hoping that “walking out of school can help change gun laws and stuff.” As part of an assignment, Isabella takes a poem written by an African American author and writes her own version of the poem. This allows the reader to further understand Isabella’s feelings.

The story hits on difficult topics of racism and identity confusion by focusing on Isabella, which allows the reader to understand her feelings. Middle-grade readers will relate to Isabella, who is trying to understand herself and the world around her. Blended deals with relevant conflicts in today’s world. One instance is when Isabella is shot by a police officer; the scene will evoke a strong emotional response because readers will understand Isabella’s fear, confusion, and pain. While the story shows an example of police brutality, it avoids excessive criticism of the police.

While Blended teaches essential life lessons, the plot jumps from topic to topic and the parent drama becomes tedious. Despite this, the story is fast-paced and shows many perspectives. In the end, Isabella begins to understand the importance of speaking up. The story doesn’t end with a cheerful, happy event. Instead, it acknowledges Isabella’s pain and her hope for a better future. Readers who would like to read more about racial inequality and the Black Lives Matter movement should also read A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In English, the class talked about what “lynched” means. One boy says, “They show that [a lynch] in cowboy movies all the time. No big deal.” Later someone puts a noose in Imani’s locker. “Inside her locker, dangling from the coat hook, is a thick rope, the kind we use in the gym. It’s knotted and tied round and round at the top. The bottom of it is looped.”
  • Isabella’s mother’s boyfriend says his dad would “beat the crap outta me.”
  • Darren gives Isabella a ride to her piano recital. On the way, he gets pulled over by the police. Darren is confused when the police officer “gives the window another wallop.” When Darren opens the door, “he’s yanked right off his seat. He nearly falls, but a cop grabs his arm. Darren thrusts his other arm up in the air… The back door is flung open and someone grabs me [Isabella], roughly, and pulls me out—literally pulls me out of the car.”
  • When Darren and Isabella are pulled out of the car, the police put Darren on the ground and restrain him. Isabella tries to see Darren. “I look around for him and see instead a female officer approaching me with her gun out. It is aimed at me. A gun is aimed at my head! …Why is she pointing that gun and I want her to put it down and Darren is standing again he’s bleeding… Darren is bleeding, and his arms are pulled behind his back because he actually is in handcuffs.”
  • At one point, Isabella thinks that her parents are going to be worried that she’s late for her recital. She reaches into her pocket for a cell phone. “The lady officer yells, ‘Gun! Gun!’ Every point of light I’ve ever known explodes at the moment… I collapse to the ground. The last thing I remember hearing are Darren’s hoarse screams and a male voice shouting, ‘Shots fired! Shots fired! Send emergency medical crews ASAP.’” The scene is described over eight pages.
  • After Isabella is shot, she hits the ground. “I think my head bounces. The back of it hurts so bad… Confused voices surround me… Why is my arm on fire? And my head! Oh, my head! It hurts so bad.” This part of the scene is described over three pages.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Isabella’s mother’s boyfriend says that his father “loved him some liquor, and he’d have his friends over every Saturday for whiskey and whatever. After they’d had two or three drinks…or more, they’d really relax and start talking smack.”
  • While in the hospital a nurse gives Isabella ibuprofen.

Language

  • Isabella says that the piano at her father’s house is “freakin’ fierce.”
  • During a class discussion about lynches, one girl gets “pissed off.”
  • Someone calls a classmate an idiot twice.
  • “OMG” is used as an exclamation three times.
  • Isabella freaks out and runs from her parents. Later, she tells her friend, “I probably scared the poop out of them.”
  • Heck is used twice. When a man bumps into Darren, Darren says, “What the heck?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Isabella is in the hospital, a nurse sees her family “holding hands. And praying at one point.”
  • A classmate texts Isabella, “I prayed for you and your fam.”

Give Thanks to the Lord

This joyous celebration of Thanksgiving references Psalm 92. Told from the point of view of one young member of an extended family, Give Thanks to the Lord celebrates joy of all kind – from the arrival of distant relatives to a cozy house already filled with merriment, to apple cider and the delicious smells of roasting turkey and baking pies. And just when your mouth is watering, sit down and join a thankful child in prayer, praising God for, “Food and fun and family, all the wonderful things I see.”

Fall comes alive in the full-page illustrations that use fall colors. Each picture focuses on a little boy who is surrounded by a large family. Most pictures also include the boy’s dog, who is also enjoying Thanksgiving day. Give Thanks to the Lord shows the joys of simple things—a cup of hot chocolate, playing in the fallen leaves, and having enough olives for each one of your fingers.

Each page has four to five rhyming sentences that focus on the joys of Thanksgiving. The story repeats the phrase, “It’s good to give thanks to the Lord!” Even though Give Thanks to the Lord is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child, rather than for a child to read it for the first time independently. The story focuses on one family’s traditional Thanksgiving day and reminds the reader to give thanks to the Lord for the food, family, and fun that Thanksgiving day brings.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Splat the Cat: The Rain Is a Pain

Splat can’t wait to try out his brand-new roller skates! When it starts to rain, Splat’s sure that his day will be ruined. He’s determined to have some skating fun, but everyone keeps scolding him. Isn’t there anything fun to do inside?

Younger readers will giggle at Splat’s newest adventure. Splat just wants to have some fun, but he keeps making a muddy mess. His mom, dad, and sister keep telling him, “Out, Splat, out!” The repetition is funny and leads to a surprise ending.

Every child will relate to Splat, who doesn’t mean to cause problems or make his family mad. Readers will love the bright-colored illustrations that show the muddy mess that Splat leaves behind. Splat’s facial expressions show Splat’s changing emotions and are at times humorous. Readers will have fun looking for the mouse that appears on almost every page.

Rain Is a Pain is intended for readers who are beginning to sound out words and sentences. Each page has 1-5 simple sentences and large illustrations. The Splat the Cat series uses realistic conflicts, fun illustrations, and a playful cat to engage readers. With nine books in the series, readers will have endless fun following Spat’s adventures.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

As Brave as You

Genie has a lot of questions. So many questions, in fact, he keeps them all written in his notebook so he can look them up later. When their parents take Genie and his big brother, Ernie, to their grandparents’ house in rural Virginia, Genie has questions that even Google can’t answer. Like how did Grandpop lose his eyesight? Will Ma and Dad stay together? Why doesn’t Ernie want to learn how to shoot a gun?

As Brave as You tackles topics like masculinity, fear, and courage through the eyes of ten-year-old Genie. Although he is younger than Reynolds’s characters from other novels, Genie’s curiosity and kindness make him endearing rather than annoying. Genie’s narration style is filled with his quirks, including his endless questions and his often-humorous thoughts.

Readers will find that Genie is a good role model because he tries to do the right thing. When he makes mistakes, he feels guilty and eventually realizes that he must have the courage to try to make it right. For instance, Genie accidentally breaks an old toy firetruck that belonged to his late uncle. Genie recognizes that his Grandma is upset, and throughout the novel, he searches for parts to fix the firetruck. Through this and other trials, Genie learns that mistakes happen and that becoming a man means that he has to own up to those mistakes.

Genie’s grandparents, parents, and Ernie aid Genie on this journey, as many of them are also learning lessons about what it means to have courage. Grandpop and Genie’s father do not get along most of the novel, and they both are often too stubborn to talk about their past grievances with each other. At the end, they begin to fix their personal issues together. Readers can see that they must be courageous to look past their pride and hurt feelings.

As Brave as You shows that being a man is about having honesty, integrity, and courage rather than about being tough. As part of Ernie’s growth into manhood, Grandpop shows Ernie how to shoot a gun. Ernie shows disinterest, and Genie is unable to comprehend why. However, after an accident with the gun, Genie understands that sharing his fears and emotions is often more courageous than pretending to be tough or prideful. Although these lessons are featured throughout the book, they never come off as preachy.

Reynolds’s characters are relatable for people of all ages. Genie and the older characters learn many of the same lessons despite being at vastly different points in their lives. The story is not particularly fast-paced, but the relationships between the characters make up for the slower moments. As Brave as You is a great story about what it really means to grow up, face our worst fears, and learn from mistakes.

Sexual Content

  • Genie makes a distinction between him and his brother, Ernie. Genie “loved to watch Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Ernie, on the other hand, liked to watch girls.”
  • Genie has a girlfriend named Shelley and a friend named Aaron. He wonders if in his absence, “[Shelley would] fold to [Aaron’s] flippin’ charm and kiss him. Of course, if she did, it would be a loaner kiss, Genie decided. A kiss to make up for the fact that he wasn’t there.”
  • After Grandma sets breakfast down in front of Grandpop, she “dodged him as he swatted at her butt on her way back to the counter for another plate.”
  • Genie observes his parents’ awkward interactions early in the book, and he knows that their marriage won’t last. In one of these interactions, his dad “leaned in and just grazed Ma’s cheek with his lips, awkwardly. It was friendly, but not…loving.”
  • Ernie “had broken up with his girlfriend, Keisha, a few weeks before” going to his grandparents’ house. Genie explains, “Well, really, she broke up with him. Dumped him for a dude from Flatbush named Dante, but everybody called him Two Train. That was his rap name. And when Keisha told Ernie that Two Train wrote raps about her, Ernie started sending her a text message every day, crappy love poems, ridiculous attempts at rhyming that would put his whole ‘cool’ thing at risk if anybody besides her, Genie, or his parents ever found out about them.”
  • Genie is disinterested in his brother’s attraction to various girls. Later, Ernie chatters on endlessly about how he hung out with Tess and how much he likes her. Ernie thinks, “And each time Ernie fell for a new girl, Genie’s cool, confident brother would become a goofy, googly-eyed fool.”
  • Ernie made a joke, and “Tess stared him down and sized him up in that way that meant she either wanted to punch him or kiss him.”

Violence

  • The day that Ernie and Genie’s parents had a huge fight, their neighbor Down the Street Donnie “had covered a quarter in snow and zinged it at Genie. Zapped him straight in the eye.” Ernie, seeing what happened, “commenced to karatisizing Down the Street Donnie, all the way… down the street.”
  • The first morning they are at their grandparents’ house, Ernie tries “to shove [Genie] off the bed with his knee.” Ma verbally reprimands Ernie, saying, “Ernie, cut it out.”
  • During a conversation, Dad playfully “threw a balled-up pair of socks at [Ernie]. Ernie chopped them away.”
  • Grandpop carries a pistol around in the back of his pants.
  • When Ernie and Genie’s father was young, the neighborhood bully was about to take whatever money he had. Their father’s older brother, Wood, then “came out of nowhere and whopped Cake [the neighborhood bully] in the back of the head with a book as hard as he could.” Cake was huge, and all this did was make him mad. Wood “came home with the blackest eye [Grandpop had] ever seen. And a busted lip. And he was limpin’.”
  • As an adult, Wood “beat [Cake] down” when he came home from basic training because “Wood could never let things go.”
  • Crab, Tess’s dad, goes hunting with his rifle on Genie’s grandparents’ land. Genie often hears gunshots when Crab is around.
  • Genie insinuates that if he ruined Ernie’s chances with Tess, Ernie would use Genie for karate practice. “Lots and lots of karate chops.”
  • Grandpop’s father committed suicide years back. He “had jumped in the James River.”
  • Grandpop teaches boys turning 14 years old how to shoot a gun ever since “a fourteen-year-old black boy named Emmett Till was killed for whistling at a white woman when Grandpop was younger. It scared him so badly.”
  • Genie talks about mousetraps, including “the part that breaks the mouse’s neck. Yikes.”
  • Crab holds up the squirrels he shot. Genie describes, “Dead squirrels, part gray, part bloody, part…missing.”
  • Crab and Grandpop teach Ernie how to shoot a gun. The scene lasts the duration of a chapter. The force of the shot causes the gun to kickback and hit Ernie in the face. Genie says, “Ernie’s knees buckled as if someone had sucker punched him.” Ernie ends up losing three front teeth. Crab “grabbed a beer bottle from the bag he brought and put the teeth in it.”
  • Great Grandpop and his friend stole a puppy from their abusive employer. The employer found out and told Great Grandpop “that either he tell him the truth, or he would have [the] whole family killed.”
  • Genie’s dad “slammed the wall” in anger.
  • In the story, Grandpop says that an employer “set [Great Grandpop’s friend’s] house on fire… [the friend] burned to death.” No other details are given.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Genie asks Tess where she got all the bottle caps for her project. Tess jokingly tells him and Ernie that she “drank all those beers.” She then takes the brothers to Marlon’s, the small town’s bar, for some ginger beers. Ernie and Genie don’t know that she and Jimmy, the bartender, mean ginger beer. Genie hoped that “he wouldn’t get drunk on his first sip,” thinking that Tess and Jimmy meant to give Genie and Ernie alcohol.
  • Other adult patrons at the bar drink alcoholic beer while the kids are present.
  • Grandpop gets a mysterious liquid out of a closet and promptly locks the door. Genie recognizes the smell, thinking, “the same smell Genie had just gotten more than a whiff of in Marlon’s—reminded him of Ms. Swanson, the drunk lady who hung out at the Laundromat back home.” Grandpop drinks liquor throughout the book.
  • Grandpop can’t sleep when it rains because it reminds him of the day that Wood died during Operation Desert Storm. When it rains, Grandpop sits in the kitchen and drinks while he disassembles his revolver, lost in thought.
  • Crab smokes a cigar.
  • Genie and Ernie find “a couple dozen beer cans and stubby, burned-down cigars” laying in a pile.
  • Ernie has “a double-dose of pain reliever” after the doctor fixes two of his teeth.
  • Genie calls Tess’s mom a hypochondriac. Tess misunderstands and calls her a “hyper-cognac” instead.
  • Grandpop drinks more heavily as the book progresses, and Genie finds his drunk rambling disturbing. For instance, Grandpop slurs, “life ain’t nice to nobody. Nobody. Not me, not Mary, not Ernie, not your daddy, not Uncle Wood. Nobody.”

Language

  • Genie’s mother tells Genie, “Boy, if you don’t go to sleep, I’m a honey your badger,” making it clear to Genie that she really wants him to be quiet.
  • Various insults are used frequently. Insults include: Stupid, jerk, crazy, wild, heckuva, crappy, insane, fool, chump, psycho, shut up, knuckleheads, friggin’, and daggone.
  • Grandma and Grandpop use the phrase “what in Sam Hill” frequently.
  • Genie’s curiosity causes humorous situations because sometimes his questions and thoughts would be insensitive coming from anyone else. For instance, he thinks, “Old people got to pretty much call you whatever they wanted. It was the only awesome part about being old.”
  • Genie asks Grandpop a series of questions about being blind. At one point, Genie asks, “How do you know where your room is, though? Or what if you gotta go to the bathroom?” To which Grandpop replies, “I’m only blind, son. My junk still works.”
  • Kids at school sometimes mock Genie for his name, saying, “Genie, the girl with a weenie.”
  • Crab tells Ernie, “I think [Tess] likes you…But don’t try nothin’ mannish or I’ll flatten your cap, just like she do them beer tops.”
  • Grandma asks Genie and Ernie, “Which one of you peanut-heads tried to flush all that damn toilet paper?”
  • Ernie overacts around his grandparents at one point. Genie says that Ernie is “butt-kissing.”
  • Grandpop holds rolls of money. Genie thinks, “[Grandpop] tapped a roll like a mob boss assigning a hit.”
  • Mr. Binks is a dentist who sells teeth at the flea market. Ernie calls Mr. Binks “a tooth jacker.”
  • Grandma yells, “Damnit!” when Ernie scares her.
  • Grandpa says “guaran-damn-tee” instead of guarantee.
  • Crab says that he feels “so dern bad” about Ernie’s injury.
  • Grandpop calls an old neighbor “a mean son of a gun. I mean, just a real nasty you-know-what.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • “Jesus” and “Lord” are sometimes used as exclamations.
  • Grandma has a few rules, one of them being, “We go to church on Sunday.” Genie doesn’t mind this, thinking that he could “use a miracle” anyway. His family normally goes to church “on Christmas and Easter for the long services with their grandparents in the Bronx. But that was about it.”
  • Genie’s mom “used to call [the moon] God’s night-light when he was little.”
  • Grandma often turns on the church music station in the car, especially when going to the flea market. She says, “Gotta play it loud enough for God to hear it, so he can send people to come buy up these peas.”
  • Genie thinks, “Maybe the real reason Adam and Eve weren’t supposed to bite the apple is because then all the birds would’ve had access to the seeds, and the Garden of Eden would’ve become the Garden of dead…doves? Doves were the only birds back then I think.”
  • On a hot day, Genie thinks, “God had put the heat on high, as Ma always said.”
  • Tess tells Genie that she’s “prayin’ to Big Bird for a miracle.”

 by Alli Kestler

Breakaway

Twelve-year-old Lily knows her place in the world is on the soccer field. When she’s out there scoring goals, everything’s right. Lately, though, her competitive spirit has been getting the best of her, and she begins to alienate all of her friends. Tabitha, a popular girl who spends most of her time on the bench, would give anything for Lily’s confidence and ability on the soccer field. Meanwhile, Lily secretly admires Tabitha’s world of money and friends. When it’s Lily on the bench instead of Tabitha, she figures out a few things she never expected and realizes that sometimes it takes more skill to make others look good instead of yourself.

Lily clearly loves soccer, but she is often overconfident and has a difficult time controlling her anger. Lily tells her own story in Breakaway, which allows the reader to follow Lily’s thought process and understand her emotions. When Lily isn’t picked up for a select team, she gets angry at her best friend, Vee, who makes the team. Lily is overcome with jealousy and also “was developing a long laundry list of people to blame.” Lily believes that she is the best player on the team, and others should recognize her skill. When Lily is suspended from the team, she has a hard time taking responsibility for her actions. It isn’t until the end that she realizes, “I can tell you all the talent in the world is wasted if you think you can do it all alone. No one can. The world doesn’t work like that. Families don’t work like that, friendships don’t work like that and I’m pretty sure soccer teams don’t work like that either.”

Even though Lily’s family life is interspersed in the story, the long descriptions of soccer make the story best for soccer fans. The fast-paced story teaches many lessons about sportsmanship as well as the importance of taking responsibility for your actions. Lily’s parents are another positive aspect of the story. They are interesting, unique, and demonstrate healthy family relationships. Her parents don’t expect her to be perfect. Instead, Lily’s father tells her, “You can’t erase your mistakes, LJ. You can make up for them and you can make sure not to repeat them, but you can’t just will them to disappear.”

Breakaway combines soccer and family into a fast-paced story that teaches positive lessons. The story’s advanced vocabulary and the large cast of characters makes Breakaway best for proficient readers. Soccer fans may also want to read the other books in Montalbano’s series, Soccer Sisters. As a former soccer player, coach, and motivational speaker, Montalbano creates an entertaining story about soccer, friendship and family.

  Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During the soccer games, there are some players that use illegal moves. For example, during a game, “Lily trapped the ball with her thigh and turned to shoot, but something caught her foot, and instead of making contact she fell straight to the ground, getting a mouth full of dirt… She had been tripped.”
  • During a game, “a Rockets defender shoved Vee from behind, knocking her flat and stealing the ball.”
  • When some boys are being mean to Lily and Vee, Lily gets angry. “Before Griffin could say another word, Lily tossed her ball up and volleyed it directly at his head. It flew like a rocket, and he ducked just a millisecond before the ball would have hit him like a missile, stumbling to the ground and smacking his hands hard on the pavement.”
  • To stop Vee, a player “brought her down from behind. Could have broken her ankle or wrecked her knee.”
  • During a game, the other team began “taking cheap shots… Reese was knocked down at midfield.” Later, “The sweeper grabbed at Tabitha’s arm. She grabbed her uniform. Tabitha tried to get the shot off, but it was too late: the defender grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the ground.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • At dinner, Lily’s father “took an unusually large gulp of wine.” Later, her father “took another large sip of wine.”

Language

  • Darn is used twice. When Lily’s aunt was late, she said, “the darn car wouldn’t start.”
  • Jerks is used three times. Some of the characters refer to others as jerks or call them jerks.
  • Vee is upset that Lily went to Tabitha’s house. Vee says, “Oh, like the queen of Brookville would ever have a Lakewood loser like me over to her house.”
  • Crap is used once.

Supernatural

  • Lily’s grandfather calls her “brutta,” which means ugly in Italian. “It was an old Sicilian fear that if you talked too much about the beauty of a child, particularly a girl child, then the gods would come and take her away.”

Spiritual Content

  • When Lily throws a ball at a boy, it “slammed into the big glass yellow H hanging in front of the Heritage sports bar… Oh please, don’t let it fall, Lily prayed to herself.”
  • Lily goes to a friend’s house, and a group of boys are playing video games. Lily “prayed they would stay interested in the game.”
  • When Lily has to clean her father’s restaurant’s windows, she “lifted the squeegee and got to work, praying no one she knew would walk by.”

Hatchet

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is struggling after his parents’ divorce. Brian has been keeping a dreadful secret from his father. Brian is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. When the plane sinks, Brian is left with nothing but a tattered windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present.

Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair—it will take all his know-how and determination to survive. He will need to build a shelter, find food, and battle the elements. Will Brian have enough courage to survive?

Fans of survival stories will find Hatchet an interesting story of man vs. nature. While most of the story focuses on Brian’s struggle to survive, he is also struggling with keeping a secret. Most of the story’s conflict is internal. However, there are also several intense scenes when Brian must battle nature—both a tornado and an angry moose.

Brian’s experiences change him and when he is rescued, Brian realizes that he will never be the same. The new Brian is confident in his ability. He observes his surroundings and thinks before speaking. But the most important change is that Brian knows the importance of taking action instead of sulking in self-pity.

Hatchet is a Newberry Honor Book that shows the importance of “willpower, patience, hope, courage, and trusting your instincts.” Because much of the action is internal, readers may struggle with the slower scenes. At the end of the story, readers will find four pages of discussion topics. Readers who are reluctant to tackle Hatchet, but enjoy survival stories should add The Raft by S.A. Bodeen to their must-read list.

Sexual Content

  • While on a bike ride, Brian sees his mom in “a station wagon with the man. And she had leaned across and kissed him, kissed the man with the short blond hair, and it was not a friendly peck, but a kiss.” The kiss is described over a paragraph and is referred to several times in the story.

Violence

  • Brian must hunt to survive. He hunts birds with a spear. “The bird had sat and he had lunged and the two points took the bird back down into the ground and killed it almost instantly—it had fluttered a bit—and Brian had grabbed it and held it in both hands until he was sure it was dead.” After Brian kills the bird, he “just pulled the skin off the bird. Like peeling an orange, he thought, sort of. . . He quickly cut off the neck with his hatchet, cut the feet off the same way, and in his hand he held something like a small chicken with a dark, fat, thick breast and small legs.” The scene is described over two pages.
  • A moose attacks Brian. The moose “took him in the left side of the back with her forehead, took him and threw him out into the water and then came after him to finish the job. . . As soon as he moved, the hair on her back went up and she charged him again, using her head and front hooves this time, slamming him back and down into the water, on his back this time, and he screamed the air out of his lungs and hammered on her head with his fist and filled his throat with water and she left again.” Brian is injured and his ribs are “hurt bad.” The attack is described over two pages.
  • A tornado destroys Brian’s shelter. “He was taken in the back by some mad force and driven into the shelter on his face, slammed down into the pine branches of his bed. At the same time the wind tore at the fire and sprayed red coals and sparks in a cloud around him. . . He was whipped against the front wall of the shelter like a rag, felt a ripping pain in his ribs again, then was hammered back down into the sand once more while the wind took the whole, wall. . .”
  • The plane that Brian was a passenger in crashes, and the pilot dies. The plane is submerged until a storm brings it up. Brian sees the pilot. “He saw the pilot’s head only it wasn’t the pilot’s head any longer. The fish. . . They had been at the pilot all this time, almost two months, nibbling and chewing and all that remained was the not quite cleaned skull. . .”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • God is used as an exclamation three times. For example, Brian thinks about his parents’ divorce, “God, he thought, how he hated lawyers who sat with their comfortable smiles and tried to explain to him in legal terms how all that he lived in was coming apart.”
  • When a man finds Brian, the man says, “Damn. You’re him, aren’t you? You’re that kid?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Hoppy Hanukkah!

Violet and Simon, two small bunnies, are excited about Hanukkah. Simon is ready to light all the candles and then blow them right out! But Mama and Papa explain how to celebrate Hanukkah by lighting one candle each night at sunset and placing the menorah in the window for all to see. Grandma and Grandpa come over too, and there are latkes, presents, and a dreidel game.

Violet and Simon’s excitement is perfectly portrayed. The two bunnies are introduced to the traditions of Hanukkah as the family talk about what makes it feel like Hanukkah. Even though the story shows Hanukkah traditions, the book does not explain their significance. The cute conclusion has the mother bunny tucking the kids into bed as she says, “My little bunnies! You know what really makes it feel like Hanukkah? You!”

Hoppy Hanukkah illustrates the cute rabbit family in brightly colored pictures. Several of the pictures use thought bubbles so readers can see what the little rabbits are thinking. The illustrations show the importance of family and the Hanukkah traditions. The story has 1-5 sentences on each page, which makes Hoppy Hanukkah a good story to read aloud. Hoppy Hanukkah would be an excellent book to introduce Jewish customs without going into the history of the traditions.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Goldie Blox (Ruins) Rules the School

After accidentally sending the second story of the Blox School to Mars, Goldie Blox is sent to Higgs Bozon Prep. On her first day of school, Goldie causes chaos. Three of Goldie’s classmates decide Goldie should go back to her old school, and they’re willing to do anything to make that happen.

Goldie makes a plan to rebuild the Blox School, but she’s going to need all the help she can get. With the help of her classmates, she plans the repairs for the Blox School. All Goldie needs to do is form a team, bend some rules, and deal with one very grumpy mayor. But at least she’ll make some friends along the way!

Goldie Blox loves to create gizmos and gadgets. Engineering is easy for her, and her inventions work despite the fact that she never has a plan. While repairing the Blox School, her team “did very little measuring,” but they were still able to create five amazing classrooms, a cafeteria, bathrooms, and an epic climbing tower in just one day. Although the process of building the school is entertaining, the story leaves out the hard work and planning that goes into any engineering feat.

Goldie Blox (Ruins) Rules the School uses humor and silly antics to introduce the idea of engineering. Most of the humor comes from the chaos that Goldie’s inventions cause. However, Goldie’s dog Nacho adds some bathroom humor, including him “licking his butt.” The humorous tone and the fast pace of the story will entertain readers as it teaches that it’s more important to make a difference than to fit in.

Goldie Blox (Ruins) Rules the School also shows how trash can be repurposed. Goldie uses “creative recycling” to build the Blox School. Although the results are completely outrageous and unbelievable, younger readers will enjoy Goldie’s crazy antics. Goldie is smart, creative, and willing to tackle any engineering project. The story is accessible to younger readers because it uses easy vocabulary, short paragraphs, and cartoonish black and white illustrations that appear every three to five pages. The Goldie Blox Series combines humor, friendship, and engineering into an entertaining story that readers will enjoy.

 Sexual Conte

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The mayor tells Goldie, “You’re a rotten apple, and I will not let you ruin the bushel.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Friends Rock

Unicorn and Yeti love being friends, even though they are very different from each other. When Unicorn and Yeti go to the park, they have fun playing on the swings. But they have even more fun when they find something that they can do together.

Unicorn and Yeti see a sparkly rock at the same time. Both of them want to keep the rock. If Unicorn put the rock in her cloud, it would make her home fancy, but then Yeti wouldn’t be able to see it. If Yeti put the rock in his cave, it would make his home fancy, but then Unicorn wouldn’t be able to see it. Where can the two friends put the rock so they can both enjoy its sparkles?

Unicorn thinks that peaches taste like sunshine. Yeti thinks that ice cream tastes like snow. Unicorn and Yeti don’t understand why they like different foods, but when they share, they realize that both peaches and ice cream taste wonderful.

Friends Rock is broken into three short chapters and each chapter tells a new story. The two friends are completely different, but that doesn’t stop them from finding fun things to do together. Instead, the two use effective communication skills that allow them to compromise and try new things. The unusual friends both love sparkly things and spending time together.

Anyone who has had a conflict with a friend will relate to Unicorn and Yeti. Cute, colorful, full-page illustrations appear in panels. The simple plot is engaging and teaches about friendship. Even though Unicorn and Yeti do not always agree, they always find a way to solve their conflicts.

Designed for children who are learning to read, Friends Rock contains easy-to-read text. Each page has 1 to 4 simple sentences. Some sentences are only one word. When each character talks, their words appear in different colored quote boxes. The short sentences and repetition of words will help readers build confidence, fluency, and a love of reading. The books in the Unicorn and Yeti Series do not need to be read in order. The Unicorn and Yeti Series engages readers while teaching important lessons about friendship and communication.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History

Today, Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering. They are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight. But their road to success was far from smooth. The Wright brothers encounter plenty of bumps, bruises, and mechanical failures along their way!

The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History takes the reader through the history of flight, beginning with Icarus. While many people made important discoveries about flight, the Wright brothers were the first to learn how to control a flyer and get it off the ground. While most people have heard about the Wright Brothers, the magnitude of their accomplishment cannot be fully appreciated until you have read The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History.

The Wright brothers were dedicated and they knew the importance of study and observation. In order to learn about flight, Wilbur reached out to the Smithsonian Institute and was given “any and all research available on aviation and human flight.” While the brothers studied and experimented, Wilbur and Orville also ran a successful business. The two brothers also had some epic failures, including injuries, embarrassments, and accidentally killing someone. Despite this, they persevered and never gave up on their dream. Their success was not based on luck. “It was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith.”

The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History teaches history in an engaging way. Both historical pictures and cartoonish, black and white illustrations appear on most pages. Many of the illustrations are comical, such as when the brothers were “greeted by swarming mosquitoes.” The short chapters, large text, and illustrations that appear on almost every page make the book accessible to readers. Some of the vocabulary is explained; however, readers may still struggle with the difficult vocabulary. The book ends with a timeline of important events in flight history.

The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History uses a conversational tone that makes learning about history fun. The Wright brothers and other historical figures prove that failure is part of the process of achieving one’s dreams. Instead of looking at failure in a negative light, The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History shows that every failure can be a learning experience. The book highlights the importance of perseverance, dedication, and education. The Wright brothers “never let their failures get the better of them, never let anyone tell them something couldn’t be done, and never gave up on their dreams.”

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In 1808, two men went up in hot air balloons and “started shooting at each other’s balloons with their muskets.” The loser “tumbled hundreds of feet to his death.” Of course, the argument was about a lady.
  • In 1861, Union soldier Thaddeus Lowe used a hot air balloon in battle. “While he was taking notes on troop positions the balloon broke away from the rope holding it to the ground. . .” The Confederates captured him.
  • While playing ice hockey, Wilbur “took a hockey stick to his face, smashing out most of his teeth, laying him out, and injuring him so badly he had to drop out of school to recover.”
  • Otto Lilienthal created a glider, but he “lost control of his glider, fell fifty feet, and broke his back on impact with the ground. He died the next day.”
  • During a flying demonstration, Orville and Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge went up in the air. The flyer “plummeted several hundred feet, then smashed hard into the dirt, crumpling into wreckage and sending bits of plane scattering in every direction. [Selfridge] became the first person in history to die in a plane crash.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Charles Manley attempted flight, he landed in icy water. After he got out, he “slammed down a shot of whiskey.”

Language

  • Heck is used twice. For example, when humans first learned to fly in hot air balloons, they had to figure out, “How the heck do we land this thing?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Glass Sword

Mare, Cal, and the members of the Scarlet Guard are ready to regroup and find a way to fight back against the newly crowned King Maven. No matter how strong Mare and Cal may be, they cannot fight against a legion of Silver warriors alone. They need stronger allies to help the Scarlet Guard’s rebellion.

Mare’s only option is to find the newbloods, a group of Reds with powerful abilities like their Silver rulers. They are scattered throughout the Kingdom of Norta. They are the key to creating an army that can stand against Maven’s legions and level out the playing field.

Yet, Maven won’t just let Mare do as she pleases. For every newblood she saves, Maven imprisons or kills two more. With Maven breathing down her neck, Mare begins to feel the pressure of transitioning into a leader for the Scarlet Guard. Her relationships become strained. Her decisions are questioned at every turn. Worst of all, Maven haunts her every step. Will Mare be able to overcome Maven’s manipulations and create an army of newbloods? Or will the pressure shatter her?

Glass Sword is an underwhelming sequel to the first book in Aveyard’s Red Queen series. Whereas the first book had political intrigue between the Silvers in the royal court and a daring espionage mission by Captain Farley of the Scarlet Guard, the second book doesn’t have any of that. Instead, the book focuses on exploring how Mare comes to terms with her actions from both the past and present. While there are plenty of missions into different parts of Norta to find newbloods, very few of these missions feel truly dangerous to Mare and her friends.

The story is weighed down mainly by Mare’s growing unlikable characteristics. Away from the immediate danger of Maven and his Silver underlings, Mare is forced to find a new role for herself as a leader of the Scarlet Guard. However, this only makes Mare more selfish. She prioritizes her own life over others, and she is willing to sacrifice anyone but herself. In the end, Mare gets a wake-up call from Cal, the former crown prince, and Kilorn, her best friend. This forces her to examine herself; ultimately, she sacrifices herself for them when Maven captures them.

Betrayal is once again a main theme as Mare finds herself betrayed many times over the course of the story. Another major theme is about turning into a monster; Mare changes from a girl trying to save lives into someone willing to murder and throw lives away whenever she sees fit. The action scenes, in which Mare and her friends infiltrate cities and towns, are fun, interesting, and help to move the story along. The introduction of the newbloods is also a plus since their new, unique abilities and the growing cast of characters add more layers. Overall, Glass Sword is a sequel that introduces fun, new elements to the already interesting world of Norta. Yet the story is bogged down by the unlikable main character and the many predictable moments where she falls into obvious traps. Nonetheless, Glass Sword sets up the backdrop for the next book in the series, King’s Cage.

Sexual Content

  • Mare changes her clothes in front of Kilorn, her childhood friend. Mare thinks, “He shouldn’t blush, having seen me in various stages of undress for many summers, but his cheeks redden anyway.”
  • On Tuck, the Scarlet Guard’s island, Mare finds out Kilorn has been flirting with another girl. “To think, he’s been spending his time flirting while I’ve been unconscious and Shade lies wounded and bleeding.”
  • Mare has an ongoing romance with Cal. When she brushes his arm, “Cal smells like blood, his skin is ice, and I tell myself I don’t want to taste him ever again.” Mare tries to convince herself not to love Cal. Mare thinks, “I must freeze my heart to the one person who insists on setting it ablaze.” Later, she kisses him “because I am weak, I press my lips to his, searching for something to make me stop running, to make me forget.”
  • At one point, Mare and Cal start sleeping in the same bed together. “From that day on, his bedchamber becomes ours. It is a wordless agreement, giving both of us something to hold on to.”
  • Gisa, Mare’s younger sister, has a crush on Kilorn. Mare watches as “He listens intently, and she bites her lip, pleased by his attention. I guess her little crush hasn’t gone away just yet.”
  • Kilorn quotes Maven’s public speech when he confronts Mare about her relationship with Cal. He says, “‘Mare Barrow seduced the prince into killing the king.’ It’s shocking to know he’s half right.”
  • When Kilorn and Mare have an emotional discussion, Mare thinks, “A friendly marriage to the fish boy with green eyes, children we could love, a poor stilt home. It seemed like a dream back then, an impossibility. And it still is. It always will be. I do not love Kilorn, not the way he wants me to.”

Violence

  • While discussing his younger brother, King Maven, Cal says, “Maven will still kill you. In a cell or on the battlefield, he won’t let any of us live.”
  • Mare and her brother, Shade, are running for their lives from an army when Mare realizes “a bullet meant for me catches him in the meat of his upper arm, while another strafes his leg.”
  • After seeing three bodies crushed by debris, Mare thinks, “It isn’t hard to let people die when their deaths give life to someone else.”
  • Before she’s put in a cell, Farley, a member of the Scarlet Guard, fights back. Farley “slams the [guard] into the passage wall, crushing his neck between her elbow and the window of another cell.”
  • Mare remembers when she killed a Silver. “Ryker Rhambos, electrocuted on the sand of the arena, reduced to nothing more than his blackened flesh.”
  • Mare remembers the Scarlet Guard attacking the royal ball. Mare says, “The Scarlet Guard kills children. The Scarlet Guard must be destroyed.”
  • While looking for more newbloods, Mare discovers a dead baby in a tavern. “In the basket is a baby, no more than a few days old. Dead. And not from abandonment or neglect. The rag is dyed in its blood.”
  • Mare punches a younger girl who talks back to her. “When my fist collides with her jaw, I expect to see sparks spread over her skin. There’s nothing but my bruised knuckles.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Someone calls Nix, a newblood, “that Silver bastard.”
  • Cal calls the Colonel, a leader of the Scarlet Guard, a “sack of scum.”
  • Mare tells Kilorn, “I’m sorry you can’t stop being an ass for two minutes so you can see exactly what’s going on here.” Right after that she says, “You heard what the Colonel called me. A thing. A freak.”
  • Gareth, a newblood, calls someone “the Silk Bitch.”

Supernatural

  • Silvers are people with silver blood and supernatural abilities. There are many abilities, including controlling fire, manipulating metal, mind control, etc.
  • Newbloods are Reds with supernatural abilities. Mare explains, “Newbloods are born with the mutation that enables our own…abilities.”
  • When Mare meets Nix, a newblood, she thinks, “Stoneskin echoes in my head, but this man is no such thing. His skin is ruddy and smooth, not gray or stony. It is simply impenetrable.”
  • Stoneskins, a type of Silver, have super strength and skin that resembles stone.
  • Magnetrons are a type of Silver that can manipulate metal. For example, before a building collapses on Mare and Cal, “Gravity and fire made the structure fall, but the might of magnetrons stop it from shielding us.”
  • Mare’s brother, Shade, a fellow newblood, can teleport. Nix says, “Two days ago, around midnight, Shade popped up on the porch. I mean actually popped.”
  • Mare can manipulate and create lightning and electricity. Mare’s lightning “is more powerful than any magnetron, any green warden, any gun. It is everywhere.”
  • One young boy, Luther, is a newblood with the ability to steal life. For example, “he takes the fern by the stem, holding it in his small fist. And slowly, the fern curls beneath his touch, turning black, folding into itself—dying.”
  • Another newblood can shapeshift. For example, “an old woman who has everyone call her Nanny, seems to be able to change her physical appearance. She gave us all quite the fright when she decided to waltz through the camp disguised as Queen Elara.”
  • Harrick, another newblood, can create images out of thin air. “He can create illusions, mirages, make people see what isn’t there. And he has hidden us all in plain sight, making us invisible in our empty cart.”
  • One newblood can manipulate gravity. Mare thinks, “Gareth manipulated the forces of gravity holding me to the earth. If we had been standing in the open, I probably would have ended up in the clouds.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Jonathan Planman

Sunny

Sunny is a murderer. At least that’s what he thinks. Sunny’s mother died giving birth to him. To make matters worse, Darryl (his dad, who makes Sunny call him by his first name) acts like everything Sunny does is wrong. The only time Sunny feels like he is doing something right is when he wins races. Sunny is the number one mile-running champ at every track meet, but he doesn’t care about that. Actually, he hates running…but Sunny runs because it seems like the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad’s eyes is to win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. When Sunny stops running mid-race one day, he puts forth his first step into reclaiming his own life and making amends with the tragedy of his mother’s death.

With the growing conflict with his father, Sunny needs his friends on the track team more than ever.  Sunny discovers a track event that encompasses the hard beats of hip-hop, the precision of ballet, and the showmanship of dance as a whole: the discus throw. But as he practices for this new event, can he let go of everything that’s been eating him up inside?

Told through Sunny’s diary entries, the third installment in Defenders Track Team series explores Sunny’s transition from long-distance runner to discus-thrower. When he begins letting his mother’s running dreams go, Sunny finally starts on his journey towards finding his own rhythm. Sunny is a story about grief, forgiveness, honesty, and letting go of the screams within. Discus allows Sunny to let go of his mother’s running dreams so he can become his own person.

Sunny’s diary entries reveal his pain and emphasize that he feels very much alone in the world. Despite his generally “sunny” outlook, Sunny and his father’s emotional relationship is most poignant in the story. Their shared moments of grief humanize them, and the end of the book shows the beginning of their healing process in their relationship and in their shared trauma over Sunny’s mother’s death. In the end, the world isn’t perfect for Sunny, but he finds a certain peace within himself as he is able to release the emotions he’s been bottling up.

The supporting cast is a small, but powerful force in Sunny’s life. Sunny’s homeschool teacher, Aurelia, has a lighter, sillier personality that contrasts with Darryl’s relatively stony demeanor. Both are important parental figures for Sunny. Coach Brody and Sunny’s teammates, Lu, Ghost, and Patty provide their friend with unconditional support. They even encourage Sunny when he chooses to take up discus rather than run. Sunny’s diary entries show that he cares deeply about those in his life as well. These characters help bring out Sunny’s uncompetitive and kind nature, and these traits make it easy to root for his success.

Sunny is thought-provoking, and the novel’s strength lies in Reynolds’s ability to develop interesting characters. The descriptions of Sunny learning how to dance and throw the discus are fun, and they blend well with his unique narration style. Sunny is a compelling read because it builds on the already diverse, emotionally intelligent world that Reynolds created in the previous two books. Sunny reinforces that the support of friends and family make all the difference in someone’s journey, but that there’s only one person who can take that first step to make the change.

Sexual Content

  • None

 Violence

  • When one of the other runners, Aaron, makes a snide comment towards Sunny, Sunny’s friend Lu “put his fists up and said he had those two things to throw right at Aaron’s face.” Coach Brody breaks up the group before any fighting can occur.
  • Aaron and Lu frequently argue because Aaron feels that he is in competition with Lu, and he is often unkind. During a track meet, Sunny sees “Aaron push Lu after the stretches.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While in college, Aurelia was a drug addict and went to rehab.
  • Mr. Nico, Sunny’s neighbor and owner of a puzzle company, comes over and “smokes cigars with Darryl [Sunny’s father] whenever he’s here.”

Language

  • Words like stupid and weird are used frequently.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Alli Kestler

Expedition on the Tundra

When a group of researchers plans to enter the forest in order to tag wolves, Stacy and her pack know they must flee. Even though the journey is unexpected, Stacy is excited to learn about a new biome. Stacy and the wolves go over the mountains and into the harsh arctic region.

Stacy has always known that her wolves were different than other animals. After all, other wolf packs do not rescue animals and care for an orphan girl, but Stacy’s wolves are beginning to reveal supernatural abilities. While on their journey, Addison finds some hieroglyphics in the snow. Following Addison, the pack goes deeper into the harsh tundra biome. Can they survive long enough to discover where the pack’s supernatural abilities came from?

Stacy’s expedition on the Tundra takes the reader into the artic and introduces them to artic wildlife. While traveling, Stacy and her pack find a narwhal, who is unable to come to the surface to breathe. The pack uses its supernatural abilities to save the narwhal. Even though the animal encounters are interesting, most of the story revolves around Addison finding hieroglyphics. During their travels, the pack begins to display more supernatural abilities. However, the story never explains why the wolves have the abilities, which makes the events unrealistic.

Unlike the previous books in the series, Expedition on the Tundra has some plot elements that are not believable. In just a week, Stacy and her pack are able to travel to the artic, save several animals, study hieroglyphics, and return home. In the conclusion, Stacy and the pack meet an ancient wolf, who dies after a short period of time. Through telepathy, the wolf shows Stacy the humans that left the hieroglyphics. Unfortunately, the conclusion is anticlimactic and leaves the readers with too many questions.

Each chapter begins with an illustration of Stacy’s animal friends. Other black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story. The illustrations will help readers visualize the story’s events and the hieroglyphics. Some readers may have difficulty with some of the advanced vocabulary, such as annals, emanate, and swath. The end of the book has a word glossary as well as information about a bear biologist.

While the first two books in the Wild Rescuers series have plenty of action and suspense, Expedition on the Tundra’s slow pace may frustrate readers. Along the journey, Stacy and the pack help several animals; however, the rescues lack any element of danger and suspense. In the end, Stacy is able to translate the hieroglyphics, but the writings do not explain why the wolves have powers. Expedition on the Tundra’s focus on the mystery of the wolves’ power lacks excitement and suspense. However, readers who have read the first two books of the series will enjoy Stacy’s evolving relationship with the wolf pack.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Some of the wolves have supernatural abilities. After Basil was struck by lightning, he was able “to run at speeds so fast she could leave a cheetah in her dust. She was also able to summon fire.”
  • Noah can breathe underwater.
  • Addison can read.
  • Everest is “a supernatural wolf, with the ability to hear [Stacy’s] thoughts as plainly as if she was speaking them.” Everest can also make himself “blend in with the tundra.” The first time he does this, “Stacy could still make out the outline of the large wolf. And his piercing silver eyes were still visible. But the rest of him was perfectly camouflaged with the snow.” He can also camouflage the other wolves.
  • Wink is “indestructible.”
  • When Stacy finds a baby badger, she puts him by Tucker. “Heat began to emanate from Tucker’s body, melting the snow around him and blanketing Stacy and the pack. Stacy couldn’t believe what she was feeling. It was almost as if she was standing in front of the cave’s fireplace.”
  • An ancient wolf communicates with Stacy through telepathy. “The elder wolf stirred, lifting his head and pressing his nose to Stacy’s. What happened next, Stacy could only describe as having some type of dream…or vision.”

Spiritual Content

  • When a wolf dies, Stacy looks at the Northern Lights and thinks, “I bet that’s the spirit of the elder wolf up there in the sky now watching us.”
  • Stacy reads the hieroglyphics, which talk about the wolves’ supernatural powers. The explorers wondered if the wolves’ powers came from “the heavens. Maybe even the aurora itself.”

Backfield Boys: A Football Mystery in Black and White

Jason and Tom are two best friends from New York who love to play football. They are stoked when they are accepted to Thomas Gatch Prep (TGP), a private boarding school in Virginia created specifically for athletes. After their first week of practice, Jason, who is white, expects to be placed as a wide receiver because of his speed. Tom, who is black, expects to be placed as a quarterback because of his strong arm and accuracy. But when Jason is assigned as a quarterback and Tom is assigned as a wide receiver, the boys start to suspect racial bias. As the year progresses, Tom and Jason, along with their roommates Billy Bob and Anthony, start to notice deep-seated racism in the school.

Tom and Jason discover that there have been zero African Americans that have played as quarterbacks at TGP. Determined to expose the racism at the school, Tom and Jason enlist the help of two reporters: Teel and Robinson. These two reporters have already heard about the underlying racism at TGP, but they’ve never had enough evidence to prove it. As the football season gets underway, Tom and Jason gather more evidence of racism. Tom is never put in any of the games. All of the students were assigned roommates, and there are no interracial rooms. One of the biggest stories they find is that Mr. Gatch, founder of TGP, invited a former KKK grand wizard to speak at a school he worked at thirty years ago. The boys are stunned that the founder of their school has ties to the KKK, but it’s still not enough of a story for Teel and Robinson to publish.

In addition to attempting to expose the racism in the school, Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob deal with the everyday pressures of high school, including deciding on who to take to the school dance. Fortunately, Billy Bob uses his southern charm to win over a group of senior girls, providing himself and his friends dates. Their big news break occurs at the school dance. The dance is going well until Mr. Gatch yells at Tom and Anthony for dancing with their dates, who are white. His explosion lands him and his school in the public eye.

A couple of weeks later, the head football coach, Coach Johnson, calls a meeting, but only the white coaches are invited. Coach Johnson announces he is leaving and the new head coach is a black man, which causes uproar. Coach Johnson says, “We all have to make sacrifices in today’s world. Bad enough we had to put up with a black president in this country.” The meeting is further evidence of racism and when the media hears a recording of the meeting, the story explodes in the media. The school is split into those who support Coach Johnson and those who don’t.

There are underlying real-world, political elements in Backfield Boys. Trump is referenced a few times. For example, Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob sit with their friend Juan del Potro and other Hispanic students at lunch. Tom comments, “Donald Trump would not like our table.” Juan adds, “He’d want a wall down the middle of it.” After the story of the coaches’ meeting is published, “Fox News was having what felt like a field day with the story, the issue to them being that the United States was being destroyed by ‘chronic political correctness.’” The main characters are obviously not supporters of Trump and have no reserves about expressing their political and religious opinions.

Backfield Boys describes, in detail, many football games, which will satisfy football fans. Tom and Jason always know which plays will work best, which is unrealistic since this is their first year playing football. Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob don’t have any flaws and are always presented in a positive light, which makes them unrealistic characters. They are extremely mature and witty for their age, providing the book with good humor. They are admirable in that they could have chosen to just leave TGP, but they decided to stay and work towards exposing the racism in the school. The story drags at times, and the climax comes at the very end. Backfield Boys is about football, but it is also about underlying racism that still exists in sports today.

Sexual Content

  • Billy Bob stands up to Mr. Gatch after being yelled at for dancing with a black girl. Grateful, Zoey “walked a few steps over to Billy Bob, leaned down, and gave him a long kiss on the lips.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jason and Thomas want to tell the coaches they are in the wrong positions, but they don’t think it will go over well. Jason says, “I was only with Coach Reilly a couple of minutes, but my sense is that he’s a serious jerk.”
  • While he is checking for students who want to go to church, Coach Ingelsby insults Jason’s Judaism. After Coach Ingelsby leaves Jason’s room, Jason says, “Go with God, you jerk.”
  • A football player who was yelled at and blamed for hurting his teammate dropped out of TGP. Anthony says he doesn’t blame him because “Bobo did everything but call him the n-word.”
  • Robinson knows it will not be easy to prove Coach Bobo is racist. He says, “[Coach Bobo] may be a racist, but he’s no dummy.”
  • After Billy Bob performs a play Coach Johnson didn’t call, Coach Johnson tells him to “sit your butt down the rest of the night.”
  • Gatch, the owner of TGP, is furious that Tom is dancing with Toni, a white girl. He shouts, “Good God, do you expect me to just stand here and watch while you paw this beautiful young girl?”
  • Tom tells Teel and Robinson about Mr. Gatch’s response to him dancing with a white girl, and how that proves Mr. Gatch is a racist. “We got [Mr. Gatch]. He did everything but call Anthony and me the n-word.”
  • After making a good play during a football game, Billy Bob tells Coach Johnson “You’re welcome for saving your butt – again – tonight.”
  • When the coaches discover that the new head coach is a black man, Coach Ingelsby says, “Well, I sure as hell am not working for a goddamn. . . ” The book goes on to say, “And then he said it, the n-word.”
  • “What the hell?” and hell are used several times.
  • “My God” and “Oh, my God” are used several times as an exclamation.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During football practice, Jason runs the fastest out of everyone. Tom jokes, “Wait until they find out you’re Jewish. They’ll want to drug test you.”
  • Billy Bob tells Jason he is the first big city kid he has ever met. Jason replies, “Maybe I’m the first Jewish kid you’ve met, too.” Billy Bob asks Jason if it was scary living in the West Side of Manhattan, and Jason answers, “Probably no scarier than it would be to be Jewish in Gadsden.”
  • Jason and Thomas joke with each other during a blessing. An upperclassman whispers, “Hey, freshmen, you need to shut up and show some respect during the blessing.”
  • After a prayer is finished, an upperclassman asked them, “What’s the matter, you big-city boys don’t believe in God?” Another student chimes in, “Are you Muslim or something? You pray to Allah?”
  • When the two upperclassmen question Tom, he replies, “You pray to whomever you want, and I’ll pray to whomever I want, and we’ll leave it at that.” Billy Bob jumps to Tom and Jason’s defense by saying, “I go to church every Sunday and pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, just like you do. But at this school we’ve got folks from all over, and we all better learn that not everyone’s the same as us.”
  • The chaplain at TGP prays, “Dear Lord, we thank thee for our food today. May we be faithful stewards of thy bounty. Grant us the grace to walk where your son Jesus’s feet have gone.”
  • During a school prayer, “Jason wouldn’t bow his head for a prayer mentioning Jesus as the son of God.”
  • “Tom didn’t bow his head because he believed that all prayer should be silent and private.”
  • At the end of practice on a Saturday, Coach Johnson tells the football team to, “Pay your respects to the Lord in the morning.”
  • Jason stays at the school while Billy Bob and Anthony take a bus to go to St. Michael’s Catholic church. Jason recalls the school forms saying, “If the Protestant services offered on campus on Sunday were not deemed appropriate, transportation to churches of their denominations in the area would be supplied.”
  • Coach Ingelsby asked Jason if he was going to church, and Jason responds, “I’m Jewish.” Coach Ingelsby retorts, “So Jewish people don’t go to church?” Jason tells him, “Coach, if you’re Jewish you go to temple, not church. And, generally speaking, you go on Friday night or Saturday morning.” Coach Ingelsby asks, “Jewish people don’t believe in Jesus Christ, do they?” Jason answers, “Most Jews believe he existed. They just don’t believe he was the son of God.” Coach Ingelsby tells Jason he feels sorry for him because he is “missing out on salvation.”
  • On Sunday mornings, the school library is closed. There is a sign that says, “God first, studies second.”
  • Tom tells Jason that Coach Ingelsby asked him about Jason’s Tom jokes, “Well, at least Billy Bob and Anthony are in church. Maybe God will tell them how we can deal with this place.” Jason responds, “Not sure even he has the answer to that.”
  • After he and Tom talk to the reporters about a possible news story for TGP, Jason jokes, “Let’s go see if our good Christian roommates are back from church yet.”
  • While interviewing Tom and Jason, a reporter tells them the coaches reference God a lot in their media interviews. “There’s a lot of giving all the glory to God. You’ll find that’s big at TGP.”
  • While being interviewed in the locker room, the players hide when Coach Johnson walks in. The reporter whispers he hopes Johnson went back into his office. Billy Bob says, “Hope might not be enough. We might need to say a prayer.” Tom whispers back, “All glory to God.”
  • Tom runs into Coach Ingelsby, who is making his weekly church rounds. Coach Ingelsby asks Tom, “No worship again today for you?” Tom replies, “No offense Coach, but how or when I practice my religion, whatever it may be, is really my business alone.”
  • After a football game, Coach Johnson “drops to one knee” and says, “Now let’s give thanks.” Since everyone else knelt, Jason knelt too. He “felt awkward at these team-prayer moments but knew he would feel more awkward if he remained standing. He bowed his head.”
  • At the end of a football game, Coach Johnson prays, “We thank you, Lord, for the great execution of our defense and the wonderful pad level from our O-line.” Jason wants to crack up “at the notion that God paid any attention to TGP’s defensive execution or pad level.”
  • When Coach Johnson’s prayer is finished, Coach Ingelsby tells Tom and Jason, “Nice of you two to kneel along with your teammates.” Jason responds, “I believe in showing respect for all religions, Coach. Mine and others.”
  • After a game, Coach Johnson tells the players to take a knee and prays, “Lord, let these young men learn from the mistakes they made tonight.”
  • During the school dance, the football coaches try to separate Tom and his dance partner, Toni, because they are an interracial couple. Tom’s friends are also part of interracial dance partners. As Toni stands up for herself, Tom “was hoping and praying the other girls were giving similar responses to being ordered to change partners.”
  • Tom describes the plan for him and his friends to meet reporters. “All four of us will be going to church tomorrow – even Jason, the godless Jew.”
  • A football player notices Jason heading to church. He asks, “Hey, what’s a Hebrew doing going to church?” Jason, as a cover up, replies, “I’m thinking about converting.” To get the football player off their backs, Billy Bob jokes, “It’s the Lord’s day. How about giving it a rest?” When the football player doesn’t respond, Jason thinks, “Invoking the Almighty seemed to do the trick.”
  • “Amen to that” is used several times as an agreement to a statement someone says.
  • “Thank God,” is used several times.

by Jill Johnson

Too Many Carrots

Rabbit loves carrots more than anything. He has collected so many carrots that he can’t fit them in his cozy burrow anymore. Even though Rabbit has so many carrots that he has nowhere to sleep, he also can’t make himself get rid of any of his carrots. When his friends offer to help, Rabbit happily accepts. The first tortoise offers to share his shell, but Rabbit and his carrots just don’t fit. As Rabbit and his friends look for a new place to sleep, Rabbit eventually realizes that he has too many carrots.

Helpful forest animals show their hospitality as they welcome Rabbit, his friends, and his carrots. But each time, the new and bigger home creaks, cracks, and crashes. Large sound words and five or less sentences per page would make Too Many Carrots a great read-aloud book. The adorable, colorful, and detailed pictures are fun to look at. Little readers will love the detailed pictures that include band-aids on the tortoise’s nose, a little blue bird who almost gets swept away in a storm, and of course, carrots.

Too Many Carrots isn’t just a fun story; in this story, the animals show what friendship looks like and teach the importance of sharing. In the end, Rabbit learns “carrots weren’t for collecting—they were for sharing!” The animals are illustrated wearing birthday hats and eating carrots, carrot cakes, and carrot juice. Any child who has ever wanted to collect rocks, toys, or any other item will relate to Rabbit. Little readers will definitely want to add Too Many Carrots to their collection of books because unlike carrots, you can never collect too many books!

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Bird & Squirrel On Fire

It’s been a long, crazy trip around the world. Now the duo is back in their beloved forest, and Bird wants to throw a party! But Squirrel isn’t in the mood to celebrate. His house needs a good cleaning, the river has been dammed up by a pesky beaver, and the forest animals are jittery about a growing menace. Will the dam dry out the forest? Will the mysterious new danger ruin the party? Will Bird finally convince Squirrel to let go and just have a good time? Find out in their hilarious new adventure!

Unfortunately, the third installment of Bird & Squirrel isn’t as funny as the previous books. The story’s plot is not well-developed; in most scenes, Bird and Squirrel are being chased by rats or arguing. The story follows the same format as Bird & Squirrel on the Edge, except this time Bird and Squirrel are running from rats instead of wolves. The story never explains why the rats have suddenly begun trapping forest animals, which may leave some readers scratching their heads in confusion.

The story adds a few new characters, but the characters don’t add much interest. Bird and Squirrel meet a grumpy beaver that has a log as a friend. However, the beaver is strange instead of funny. In addition to the beaver, Bird and Squirrel also meet a lady squirrel named Red. Squirrel soon develops a crush and has difficulty talking around Red, which adds a little romance to the story.

Bird & Squirrel on Fire isn’t as funny as the previous books, but Squirrel shows significant growth. When Squirrel’s belongings burn in a forest fire, Squirrel learns that people are more important than possessions. Bird’s disappearance causes Squirrel to reevaluate his life. At the end of the story, Squirrel teaches his daughter to be brave but cautious. Fans of the previous books will still enjoy the interplay between Bird and Squirrel, and they will wonder if Squirrel’s new brave attitude will continue in Bird & Squirrel All Tangled Up.

 Sexual Content

  • Several months pass after the dam disaster, Squirrel and Red are seen at home with their daughter.

Violence

  • Bird and Squirrel fall into a trap. They fall into a dark hole, are tied together, and hang from the ceiling. Bones are scattered on the floor. Oversized rats show up to eat them, but Bird and Squirrel are able to escape. The scene is illustrated over six pages.
  • As Bird and Squirrel run from the rats, they find Mouse hanging from the ceiling with a boiling cauldron underneath him. Bird and Squirrel help mouse down, but then the rats corner the three friends. Squirrel shoves a rock into a rat’s mouth, and then rocks begin falling from the ceiling. The three friends are able to escape the cave. The scene is illustrated over nine pages.
  • All of the forest creatures gather for a party. The rats show up and chase the animals. In the confusion, a fire starts. The rat chase scene is illustrated over six pages.
  • As Bird and Squirrel are trying to break a dam, the rats appear, but before they can eat the two friends, the dam breaks, and the rats are taken downstream.
  • A burning tree falls on Red, landing on her tail. A rat threatens to eat her but is taken out when the dam breaks. Bird, Squirrel, Red, and the rats are swilling in the water. The rats and Bird disappear, but the Squirrel and Red are safe. Months later, Bird shows up.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Out of My Shell

Usually Olivia is excited about her family’s annual summer vacation to Florida, but she’s not this year. This year, everything is different. Her parents have recently separated, and her father isn’t joining the family trip. Every summer, Olivia and her father have been a pair. Olivia has never felt close to her mother or younger sister, Lanie. This year, Olivia isn’t sure what she will do without her father.

Olivia tries to stay out of everyone’s way by hiding in her bedroom. She doesn’t know how to deal with the hurt that constantly gnaws at her heart. At night, Olivia goes to a special place on the beach. By chance, she sees a confused sea turtle come onto the beach. Olivia learns that the sea turtle population is in serious risk of dying, and the lights on the neighbor’s poorly designed inn are making it difficult for sea turtles to lay their eggs. Olivia knows she has to do something to help; she just doesn’t know what.

With all of the changes in her life, she feels helpless, hopeless, and angry. She can’t handle any more heartbreak. Will Olivia learn to find the courage to save the turtles? Will she stop hiding in her room and allow others to see her pain?

Like many middle school readers, Olivia is overcome with all of the changes in her life. Between her parents’ divorce, the changes in her summer friends, and the crowd of relatives she has to deal with, Olivia just wants to stay in a hard, protective shell. To make matters worse, her little sister Lanie won’t leave her alone. Olivia is a relatable and likable narrator, whose actions often do not turn out the way she intended. Readers will understand Olivia’s conflicting emotions as well as her desire to help the turtles.

Each chapter begins with an interesting turtle fact. However, the majority of the story follows Olivia’s emotional journey. At one point, Olivia envies her sister’s ability to dream. “I remember what it was like to believe in magic and fairy tales and happily-ever-afters. Maybe it was worth believing in monsters under the bed and the bogeyman if you could still have unicorns, friendly dragons, charms, and enchantments.”

As the story progresses, Olivia learns the importance of standing up for herself and the turtles. She finally realizes that “I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t powerless either.” Through Olivia’s story, readers will see that anyone—even a twelve-year-old—can make a positive difference in the world. Even though Out of My Shell focuses on Olivia’s emotional turmoil, the story has enough action to keep readers turning the pages until the very end. Goebel knows how to weave a heartfelt, entertaining story that will encourage middle school readers to step out of their shells and share their feelings.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Crud is used once.
  • Olivia calls her aunt a jerk.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Olivia’s sister sees her going outside at night, Olivia “prayed she wouldn’t say anything as I tiptoed toward the door.”
  • Olivia helps release baby turtles into the wild. Olivia “found myself whispering a prayer as the ocean gobbled each one of them whole.”
  • When Olivia’s sister almost drowns, she whispered prayers.
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  10. 52
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  12. ...
  13. 82

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