Icon: AR Test

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.

Symptoms of a Heartbreak

At age 16, Saira Seghal is the youngest doctor in America. After graduating from prestigious pre-med and medical schools, she has accepted an internship at Princeton Presbyterian, the hospital where her mother works. In addition to being the basis of her mother’s pediatrics practice, Princeton Presbyterian is also where Saira used to accompany her childhood best friend, Harper, to cancer treatments, until Harper’s eventual death from leukemia.

Despite still hurting from her friend’s death eight years ago, Saira is determined to help more people like Harper and has returned to the pediatric oncology department to try to save lives. She is smart and determined, but the internship proves to have unexpected challenges. She gets off to a rocky start with her fellow doctors and has trouble winning the trust of patients’ families, who don’t trust a teenager to treat their sick children.

Things only get more complicated when Saira meets a boy her age in the oncology ward and immediately falls in love. Link Rad—short for Lincoln Radcliffe—is an aspiring musician whose career has been put on hold because of his leukemia remission. When Saira is assigned to his case, her emotions get in the way, and things get awkward. The book follows Saira as she tries to get Link a bone marrow match, prove her competence and maturity to the other doctors, and grapple with the fact that as a doctor, she won’t ever be able to be a normal teenager.

Despite being a prodigy, Saira is a relatable character—sometimes, she’s a little too relatable. Readers might find themselves cringing with second-hand embarrassment when she arrives late to the first day of her internship, breaks hospital rules, and talks back to doctors twice her age. Saira’s family plays a big role in the story; they are both supportive and embarrassing. Readers may enjoy the honest and heartfelt portrayal of a big Indian family and the detailed descriptions of traditional Indian food.

At the heart of the story is Saira’s relationship with Link. They start out awkwardly. Link feels betrayed when he finds out that Saira is a doctor and not a fellow cancer patient. The fact that Saira and Link’s relationship is a forbidden romance makes the relationship awkward instead of heightening the chemistry. However, Link’s character is endearing and charming.

This story is sweet and often sad, but some of the points at the emotional center—Saira’s unusual coming of age, and her grief over her dead childhood friend—aren’t given the space they need to be really effective.  The narrative moves quickly and is jam-packed with subplots, including Saira’s tense relationship with her school friends, four patients’ battles with cancer, and her cousin’s brain tumor. With all this going on in such a short book, it often feels like the story doesn’t leave the reader time to settle into the setting and watch Saira do her everyday work in the hospital. Despite this, fans of hospital dramas may still enjoy this book for its familiar elements and relatable main character. However, if you’re looking for an excellent romance, leave Symptoms of a Heartbreak on the shelf and instead grab I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo or Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno.

Sexual Content

  • Saira’s family believes she is dating Vish. In reality, Vish is gay, and the two are close friends. However, Vish’s family is religious and homophobic, so they keep up the appearance of a relationship. Their families both believe they’re “totally PG,” and while the ‘couple’ “kissed a few times” when they were younger, they never went any further.
  • When Saira and Link kiss, “his mouth is salty and sweet, a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar. His arms curl around me, his embrace stronger than I expected. My arms wrap around his neck, and I lean back into the couch, taking him with me.” The scene ends there and skips to later, but Saira’s narration informs the reader that she spent more time “making out” with Link.
  • When Saira and Link have an intimate moment in a car, Saira describes “his mouth smashing mine, teeth clashing, tongue pushing into my mouth… Our kisses skip tentative altogether this time, instead lingering long and slow but somehow super urgent, mouths soft and open, tongues salty and slippery, his hands wandering up my shirt and over my breasts and roaming the waist of my jeans, a question.” Saira is hesitant to have sex because of Link’s fragile condition, but Link tells her that “sexual activity can be beneficial to patients undergoing chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.” They end up not having sex for other reasons. The scene lasts for approximately five pages.
  • Saira’s sister offers her relationship advice for her “relationship” with Vish. Her sister says, “At some point, you know, things might get a little more intense. And if you need to talk about birth control…” Saira declines her offer and says that she and Vish “are not having sex any time soon.”
  • Saira’s mother “reads everything, from medical journals to pulp novels in Hindi to bodice rippers.”
  • In the communal staff bathroom, Saira catches two of her adult coworkers together in a shower when she hears “a decidedly male groan” from behind the curtain. She doesn’t see or hear anything more explicit than this. Her coworkers are embarrassed and apologize.
  • Saira’s sister tells her she’s going to be in a production of the musical Hair, “where they’re all naked onstage.” She says, “it’s about art and expression.”
  • Vish told Saira about discovering he was gay. Saira remembers him telling her about “Luke, this boy he met at lacrosse camp. They kept it a secret the whole time there – hard to do when you’re stealing kisses in the boathouse.”  

Violence

  • Saira gets into a playful fight with Vish. “Fake punching him… and he ducks and kicks back, nearly catching me on the shin for real. Then he headlocks me from the back, wrapping one arm around my neck and the other around my waist.” The playfight is resolved peacefully.
  • While it isn’t violent in nature, readers may find the following content upsetting. Saira’s young cousin has a seizure, and “vomit spills from her little lips, and they’re turning from pale pink to blue. Her eyes roll back in her head… her body flops and goes stiff, then starts flopping again… Fluid spills out of her mouth and onto the floor.” The cousin receives medical attention and ends up okay. No descriptions of medical procedures/events in the book come anywhere close to this one in detail.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Saira’s family brings alcohol to a family dinner. Saira’s father spikes a soda “with some vodka from his water bottle, pretending no one notices, even though the waiters know exactly what’s up.”
  • A friend calls Saira from a party and says, “Vish’s wasted. Like, trashed. For real… And, okay, I’m trashed, too.” The friend asks Saira to come pick them up.
  • Saira goes to the party and discovers everyone has been drinking sangria because the host’s parents “don’t consider it to be real alcohol.”
  • Saira drinks “one cup, maybe two” of sangria. “It goes down okay.” She feels hungry later, and wonders if she has “the munchies? Or wait, is that pot? Yes. But I’m still snacky.”
  • Saira and her two friends take a car service home. Vish passes out; Saira takes him back to her house, where she hides him in the basement. She doesn’t want to risk him getting in trouble with his strict parents.
  • The next morning, Saira wakes up with a hangover. “I put my hand to my throbbing head. Two cups of sangria? That’s all? Never. Again.” Vish tells her, “That sangria was spiked with tequila and rum.”
  • At a later get-together with friends, Saira is offered a drink from “a little cart that’s piled down with vodka and all the fixings – I know because I recognize them from my dad’s bar. A variety of juices, some wine coolers, cherries and stuff.” She declines to drink even though her “dad will sometimes offer me a glass of champagne or whatever when we’re celebrating.”
  • At this get-together, Saira’s friends pressure her to drink. One of her friends says, “It’s sweet, Saira. You’ll like it.” The friend becomes agitated when she won’t drink.
  • When his cancer treatments are causing him pain, Link asks one of his doctors, “Can I get another dose of morphine? I need it.”

Language

  • Profanity is used infrequently. Profanity includes: Shit, damn, crap, ass, and piss.
  • Saira occasionally uses “Gods” or “oh my god” as an exclamation.
  • “Fuck” is used three times, but never in a sexual context. Also, a character says “AF” once, which is an abbreviation for “as fuck.” For example, jealous AF translates to jealous as fuck.

Supernatural

  • Saira’s friend reads tarot, and her sister likes astrology. Saira dismisses these as “delusions. Pseudoscience.” Neither tarot nor astrology are mentioned later in the story.
  • A young patient tells Saira he’s watching “this anime about this kid, Nate, who can see these troublesome spirits that are up to no good.”

Spiritual Content

  • Saira’s father “thinks Vish’s parents are too religious.” Saira notes that this is because her own family is “hardly religious at all. Too many doctors in the family.”
  • A doctor talking about treating cancer says, “We’re playing God here.”
  • A patient’s family member says that she “spent a lot of time praying” about the patient’s cancer.
  • When she’s exhausted, Saira describes wanting “to slip out of this body entirely, the way Dadi always says old souls can.”
  • Link has “a small brown mole sitting right below his left ear,” which reminds Saira of “a kala tilak to ward off the evil eye.”
  • Someone says a deceased patient “is in a better place now.” Saira says, “We don’t know that.”

by Caroline Galdi

The Good for Nothing Button!

Yellow Bird is excited to show his friends a red button that is good for nothing. When Blue Bird presses the button, he is surprised. When Red Bird presses the button, the button makes him sad. While Blue Bird and Red Bird talk about the button making them feel something, Yellow Bird gets upset. Yellow Bird yells, “The button cannot make you sad. The button does nothing.” In the end, the birds all agree that the button can make them funny.

The Good for Nothing Button is a humorous story that teaches colors and emotions. Readers will giggle as they read the silly antics of the three friends. Readers will love the little worm that appears at the beginning and end of the story. The fast-paced plot will keep readers flipping the pages as they wonder if the good for nothing button actually does something.

Younger readers will appreciate the simple text and silly dialogue. The Illustrations use primary colors to create simple pictures that show the emotions of the birds. Each character’s speech appears in a different colored text box, which makes it easy for readers to know who is speaking. Each page has a full-page illustration and 1-3 simple sentences. Many sentences are just one word. Readers who love silly stories will enjoy the three birds as they discover that the good for nothing button actually does something.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Parker Inheritance

When Candice finds a letter, she isn’t sure she should read it. It’s addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. The letter describes a young African American woman named Siobhan Washington, an injustice that happened decades ago, a mystery involving the letter writer, and the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle.

With the help of Brandon Jones, the quiet boy across the street, she begins to decipher the clues in the letter. The challenge will lead them deep into Lambert’s history—full of ugly deeds, forgotten heroes, and one great love—and deeper into their own family’s unspoken secrets. Can they find the fortune and fulfill the letter’s promise before the answers slip into the past yet again?

The Parker Inheritance is an ambitious story that tackles too many themes, including racism, oppression, love, friendship, bullying, sexual orientation, as well as family dynamics. The story uses flashbacks to delve into racism during the 1950s. Instead of being just a bunch of facts, the flashbacks will have an emotional impact on the reader. While most of the content is appropriate for middle-grade readers, the story does show some brutality as a group of white men attack a black boy.

While The Parker Inheritance is interesting, the complicated plot and the large cast of characters may be overwhelming for some readers. The story flips between the current day and the past as told by many characters. In the present day, Candice and Brandon research as they try to solve the clues. While the story has some mystery, most of the clues are revealed through flashbacks. However, the riddles are interesting, and following Candice’s and Brandon’s thought process is enjoyable.

One of the best aspects of The Parker Inheritance is the message that people can change, and “a mistake isn’t a failure. It’s just an opportunity to try again.” The characters’ personalities are multifaceted, which highlights the complicated nature of humans who often make choices that lead to both positive and negative consequences. For example, Candice’s grandmother was fired from her job, and some of the townspeople thought she was crazy. While this caused Candice’s grandmother to leave town, it also allowed Candice to become close to her grandmother.

In the story, a white boy’s father tells him, “You’ll never understand what it means to be a Negro. You’ll never face the discrimination they see every day. You’ll never struggle the way they do.” However, The Parker Inheritance allows readers to see the effects of racism both in the past and in the present. After reading the story, readers will hopefully reevaluate their own actions and be more accepting of people’s differences.

Sexual Content

  • Candice thinks that a group of boys is bullying Brandon because he “liked boys instead of girls.” Candice thinks, “It wasn’t a big deal—a few of the kids in her neighborhood had gay parents and there were two gay teachers at her school. But she didn’t know anyone who was gay.”
  • Candice overhears a conversation between her divorced parents. Candice wonders, “Had her dad asked if her mom was dating because he was seeing someone as well? And since when did he think it was okay to live with someone before getting married?” Later, Candice finds out that her father is dating another man.
  • Brandon’s grandfather kissed his girlfriend. While Brandon is uncomfortable, his grandfather “kissed Ms. Kathy again, this time longer.”
  • Siobhan and her boyfriend kiss at the park. After talking, “he kissed her again, and they both forgot about tennis and soda pop and everything else in the world.”
  • Brandon asked a boy who was bullying him, “Speaking of girlfriends, is Deacon Hawke still seeing your mom? Does your dad still go to therapy because of it?”
  • Brandon’s friend Quincey is gay.

Violence

  • Brandon is being bullied by a group of boys, and the ringleader is Milo. When Brandon shows up at Candice’s house, his “shirt was covered with leaves and grass, and two red scratches lined his face.” Brandon says the boys are “kids from school. They started picking on me a month ago.”
  • A group of men wielding baseball bats attacked Dub. After the attack, Dub “was slumped over in the recliner, his left arm in a sling. A white towel, wet with blood, had been wrapped around his head. Dub’s jaw was swollen, his nose was clearly broken, and his face was covered with scrapes and cuts… his front two teeth were missing.”
  • A group of men leaves a threatening message for Siobhan’s father. “The baby doll’s white skin had been painted the color of midnight, with thick cherry-red lipstick smeared over its small mouth. The doll was naked, with horrible words scratched into its plastic skin. A noose hung around the doll’s neck.”
  • Reggie runs from a group of men who are carrying baseball bats. A man with a knife grabbed Reggie. “He swiped at Reggie, tearing a gash in Reggie’s side… Reggie pinned the man’s hand to his side while stabbing at the man’s face with a mop handle. The stick, with its jagged, sharp end, sank into his attacker’s face. Into his eye socket. The man screamed.” Reggie fell, and two men “began to strike him with their bats.” Someone breaks up the fight, and Reggie is forced to leave town. The fight is described over two pages.
  • A tennis coach says his uncle “liked to knock me around when he was drunk, which was all the time.”
  • After Brandon says mean things about Milo’s mother, Milo “cocked back his arm like it was in slow motion. Brandon easily leaned away from the wild swing. And, then Milo was off balance, Brandon crushed his fist into Milo’s stomach… Milo’s fist exploded against Brandon’s face. He fell, his arms billowing out. His back and head bounced against the sidewalk with a loud crack.” Brandon is knocked unconscious and is taken to the hospital. The fight is described over two pages.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Candice’s mom takes a bottle of wine to the neighbor.
  • One of the adults “finished off his scotch. It tingled as it slid down his throat.”
  • Candice’s mom uses “cooking wine. It wasn’t very strong at all, not like real wine, but Candice still felt a little sophisticated whenever her mother used it.”
  • After Dub is attacked, he is given morphine.
  • When Dub’s daughter, Siobhan, helps him return to his seat, “she could smell the alcohol on his breath.” Dub thinks that “it was easy for him to be bold when he was propped up by liquor and bravado.”

Language

  • Lord is used as an exclamation four times. God is used as an exclamation twice. “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation three times.
  • Candice thinks the app Mental Twister is “crappy.”
  • When Brandon sees the bullies, he says, “crap.”
  • Damn is used three times. When Dub doesn’t answer his friend’s question, the friend says, “Dammit, Dub!”
  • Hell is used once.
  • Someone calls a boy a “half-bred mutt.”
  • Dub tells a boy who likes his daughter, “A poor, high-yellow, country-dumb Negro like you will never be good enough for Lil’ Dub.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When a landowner shows up at Enoch’s house, his mother “mouthed a prayer to herself.”
  • Candice goes to church, and “the pastor talked about hope. About faith. About staying on the right path, even when you can’t see the Promised Land.”
  • During a tennis game, Siobhan “closed her eyes and offered up a prayer.”

Sink or Swim

Abby and Jonah discovered a magic mirror that takes them into fairy tales. The first two times they traveled to a fairy tale and changed the story by accident. This time, Abby and Jonah promise not to change the fairy tale, but when the magic mirror pulls them into the Little Mermaid’s story, they are determined to help the Little Mermaid because the original story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Instead of being a fun retelling of The Little Mermaid, Sink or Swim has several flaws. In the first few chapters, Abby gives a summary of the first two books in the series. Unfortunately, the summary is uninteresting and jumps from topic to topic. Unlike the previous book, Jonah rarely appears. When he does, he spends all of his time arguing with his sister. Plus, the story contains some inconsistencies that stronger readers will notice. For example, Abby is afraid of the water and has difficulty swimming. Yet, she is able to swim underwater for several hours in order to find the sea witch.

Once Abby and Jonah get to the Little Mermaid’s world, the siblings struggle to find the mermaid. When they do find her, they learn that her name is Lana and that she is determined to be with the prince. When Lana meets the prince he quickly proposes, but then he backs out when he learns that Lana is a mermaid. Despite this, Lana still gives up everything in order be with the prince. Once Lana appears on land with legs, the prince says that he will honor his proposal. Instead of being a cute romance, Lana soon discovers that the prince is shallow. The prince says Lana “just needs to smile, dance, and be beautiful.” When Lana runs from the altar, the prince chooses a girl from the audience and marries her on the spot.

Even though Abby meets all the characters from the original fairy tale, the fairy tale characters are flat. Lana is convinced that she’s in love with the prince and refuses to listen to anyone’s advice. Abby warns Lana, “You’re going to lose everything! Your tongue! Your life! You can’t make a deal with the sea witch! You can’t give up everything that makes you who you are. It’s just not right.” Despite this, Lana still makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch that could end in death.

In Sink or Swim, Lana is neither likable nor relatable. The new ending leaves a lot to be desired. However, Lana is not the only negative character. Instead of being evil, the sea witch is portrayed as a misunderstood mermaid who reverses the spell in exchange for a date with Lana’s father. As Abby tries to negotiate a deal with the sea witch and save Lana’s life, Lana’s father flirts with the sea witch.

Fans of Disney’s The Little Mermaid will wish they left Sink or Swim on the library shelf. Sink or Swim doesn’t have any of the charms of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and all of the characters are lacking depth. The only redeeming value of the story is that it highlights the importance of being satisfied with your life and shows that love at first sight isn’t true love. If you’re looking for more fairy tale stories, Fairy Tale Reform School by Jen Calonita would be a better choice.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In order to undo the spell, the sea witch tells Abby and Jonah to kill the prince. The sea witch says, “I’ll give you a knife. You’ll use the knife to stab the prince in the heart. Then I’ll undo all the spells. Lana can go back to her life as a mermaid.” Abby and Jonah refuse to kill the prince.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • One of the castle workers makes a potion that allows people to breathe underwater. The potion contains “Mermaid’s spit, a tablespoon of water, a teaspoon of club soda, and a pinch of algae.” Abby and Jonah take the potion and swim to Lana’s world.

Language

  • Abby thinks, “the prince is a bit of a jerk, but that doesn’t mean I want him dead.”
  • Abby calls the sea witch a coward.
  • The sea witch tells Abby that Lana is a “jerk! Just like her father!”

Supernatural

  • Abby and her brother Jonah travel through a magic mirror. When Jonah knocks on the mirror three times, “there’s a hissing sound. The mirror starts swirling and casts a purple light over the room. A second later, it’s pulling us towards it like it’s a vacuum cleaner.” When they step through the mirror, they land in the Little Mermaid’s world.
  • The original story of The Little Mermaid is repeated several times and explains that the mermaid exchanges her tongue for legs. In Sink or Swim, Abby is upset when Lana appears on land with legs. Abby gasps “in horror. Since she has legs and went to the sea witch… the sea witch has her…has her…has her tongue.”
  • In order to return home, Abby and Jonah swim into the sea witch’s cauldron. When Abby enters the cauldron, “it squeezes but doesn’t hurt.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Dress Coded

Molly wasn’t planning on starting a rebellion. But when she sees a teacher yelling at Olivia for wearing a tank top, Molly takes action. She wants others to know that the middle school dress code unfairly targets girls who have mature bodies. In order to tell their stories, Molly starts a podcast.

The podcast explains how Liza got dress coded and Molly didn’t, even though they were wearing the exact same outfit. Other girls were dress coded because their shorts were too short, their shirts showed a sliver of their stomach or their clothing didn’t cover their shoulders. It isn’t fair.

Middle school is hard enough without having teachers trolling the halls looking for dress code violations. Soon, Molly’s podcast creates a small rebellion that swells into a revolution. The girls are standing up for what is right, but will teachers and parents listen?

Dress Coded’s topic and teen-friendly format will appeal to a wide audience. The short chapters are broken into letters, lists, Molly’s dress code podcast, and definitions. The story doesn’t shy away from the humiliation and bullying that can happen because of a dress code. Molly tackles the dress code by going through the proper steps: getting students to sign a petition, sending the petition to the superintendent, and trying to get the petition placed put on the school board’s agenda. It is only after all of these attempts fail that Molly pleads for other students to camp outside of the school in protest.

While Molly is fighting to change the dress code, she is also dealing with a family in crisis. Her brother is addicted to vaping, which has her parents concerned. Although the story describes some of the harmful effects of vaping, too much emphasis is put on how many teens vape and where they get the vaping pods. Instead of feeling like a natural part of the story, the descriptions of vaping middle schoolers become tiresome.

Dress Coded does an excellent job of explaining the harmful effects of vaping. However, the story doesn’t address the topic of bullying, even though one of the recurring characters has a mean name for everyone. The story also throws in a trans student getting into trouble for wearing lipstick, a short conversation about the possibility of Molly being bisexual, and a girl who is crushing on another girl. These scenes do nothing to advance the plot and were not used as a teaching moment for respecting others.

While Dresses Coded isn’t amazing literature, the story has a high-interest topic and a story that middle school readers will enjoy. Molly is a likable character who shows the importance of perseverance. The story’s message is clear: girls’ bodies are not something to be ashamed of and they are not a distraction to boys. Parents and teachers could use Dresses Coded as a conversation starter about many topics, including bullying, vaping, protesting, and respecting others.

Sexual Content

  • When talking about going to the prom, Molly tells her mother, “It’s not like when you went to the prom. Nobody cares. I may go with a boy, or a girl, or a group.” Molly’s mom asks her, “Are you bisexual, Molly? Because that’s totally and completely fine.”
  • One of Molly’s friends has a crush on another girl.
  • During a sleepover, Molly’s friend “said she could see herself dating a girl, but nobody specifically.”

Violence

  • When a boy was about to pull a chair out from under Molly, Olivia “punched him.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Molly’s brother, Danny, is addicted to vaping. Molly’s parents were “searching Danny’s room and backpack, hiding their cash so Danny can’t take it to buy pods, and calling doctors to ask how long it will be before Danny gets popcorn lung and dies.”
  • Danny sells vaping pods to middle schoolers.
  • Danny “was suspended for the third time. His teacher caught him vaping during history.” After that, Molly lets her brother hide his vaping supplies in her closet.
  • Some of the girls on Molly’s lacrosse team vape. Other kids vape in the school bathroom.
  • When Molly’s parents take away all of Danny’s vaping supplies, he searches for any that his parents missed. Molly witnessed “my brother crawl out of the closet with a vape pod, puncture it with a nail file, and start sucking on it. This is what he’s become, now that Mom has all of his devices.”
  • Some of the middle schoolers “are plotting how to smuggle their vape pods. They ask if any of the girls would like to hide pods in their bras.”
  • Molly often refers to her classmates hiding so they can vape. For example, at a party, “a bunch of people were vaping in the lawn-mower shed.”
  • Molly thinks about her grandpa who “died from drinking too much.”

Language

  • Danny calls Molly, “Frog.” He calls Molly’s friend, “Toad.”
  • Molly’s classmate, Nick, calls the girls in his class names based on their looks and race. For example, “Nick called Bea ‘Pencil Legs.’” Other names include, “Rice and Beans,” “Jew Fro,” and “a hairy beast man.”
  • When Olivia gets her period, blood seeps through her pants. After this, Nick calls her “Tampon Fail.” Later, he admits that he doesn’t know what “Tampon Fail” even means.
  • During class, a teacher “mentioned this mountain in Switzerland called Mount Titlis.” After that, Nick begins calling Molly, “Swiss Alps.”
  • Molly thinks about fourth grade, when “everybody called me Snot Drop.”
  • After Danny’s parents find his vaping supplies, he calls Molly a “gross, ugly narc.”
  • A boy in Molly’s class “spit on Julissa and called her the n-word.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When the parents have a meeting to discuss a camping trip, Molly prays “that my parents don’t get roped into” being chaperones.

 

Wonderfall

This informative picture book follows a single tree through the fall season, from the end of summer to winter’s first snowfall. Each page has blended words created to celebrate the wonder of fall. This book lets the reader see a neighborhood from the tree’s point of view.

Each page has fall-colored pictures that look like they are made out of construction paper. Readers will follow the tree and see the changing of leaves, the animals, and the events of the season. Each page starts with a blended word, such as plentifall, and then has a short poem. Each short poem uses sound words such as tat, boom, and boo to show excitement.

Even though Wonderfall Moms is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child rather than for the child to read it for the first time independently. The poetry, onomatopoeias, and descriptions make the story fun to read aloud. Since there is little text on each page, the story is a quick read, making it an excellent bedtime story.

Younger readers will enjoy the cute pictures and the simple poems. The ending of the book has information about trees and animals that appear in the book. Wonderfall uses short, simple poems that will get people in the mood for the joys of fall—Halloween, throwing leaves, and watching animals.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Soccer Stand-Off

Ethan is pumped for soccer this year. Since he is an eighth-grader, he’ll definitely be placed on the starting lineup. However, a startling discovery is waiting for Ethan on the soccer field. On the first day of tryouts, he learns that his soccer coach is his least favorite teacher, Ms. Brezinka. She taught him science last year–a subject he almost failed. Suddenly, Ethan’s take on the new season has gone from excitement to dread. What does a woman know about coaching a boys’ soccer team?

Although a few boys decided to quit the team, Ethan and his friend, Malik, stay. Ethan slacks off during tryouts though, landing him a spot on defense. Despite Malik’s constant defense of Ms. B and Ethan’s mom’s lectures about how “women often have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously as men,” Ethan can’t seem to fix his attitude. Finally, after he and Malik get into a fight that lands Ethan a detention and an indefinite grounding, Ethan realizes he is acting selfishly. He confesses to Ms. B that he was embarrassed about doing so poorly in her science class, so he convinced himself into believing she was the problem with the soccer team instead of himself. Ms. B gives him a clean slate, and Ethan starts to play as a member of the team. Although it takes his teammates a while to accept him back, the team eventually turns into a well-oiled machine that wins their first game.

Soccer Stand-Off focuses on Ethan’s inner conflict of being embarrassed about almost failing Ms. B’s class and lashing out. The story is told from Ethan’s perspective, so he is the only one that undergoes character development. Ethan usually feels pangs of guilt when he says something hurtful, making him a frustrating but relatable character. The story is realistic in that it takes Ethan a while to realize the mistakes he is making. After realizing he was wrong for believing a woman couldn’t coach a boys’ soccer team, he learns to play as part of the team instead of only serving himself on the field.

In addition to his internal conflict, Soccer Stand-Off also focuses on Ethan’s conflict with his mom, Malik, and Ms. B. He has friends who oppose Ms. B’s coaching of the boys’ soccer team as well as friends who support Ms. B. Malik’s constant defense of Ms. B is what finally gets through to Ethan. He bravely stands up to the boys who quit the team and apologizes to Ms. B, Malik, and the rest of the team for acting selfishly.

Soccer Stand-Off is part of the Jake Maddox JV series, a series of standalone sports books. It has a simple plot and is separated into short, easy-to-read chapters, making it good for reluctant readers. Discussion questions, writing prompts, soccer terms, and a glossary are included in the back of the book. The book describes a few soccer practices and one soccer game in detail, but the book isn’t overloaded with soccer scenes. Instead, it focuses on the morals Ethan learns. Soccer Stand-Off teaches readers this important lesson: when you have a problem, look at the way you’re behaving before blaming someone else.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When he makes the team, Ethan is upset he is in a defensive position instead of a starting position. Jerome, the team captain, tells Ethan he wasn’t even trying at practice. Angry, Ethan “charged up behind Jerome and shoved him, almost knocking him down… [Jerome] shoved Ethan back.”
  • Ethan and Malik get into an argument over how well they think Ms. B can coach the boys’ soccer team. When Malik defends Ms. B, Ethan tells him Ms. B is “the only one who would be dumb enough to start you.” This causes Malik to “charge at Ethan” and “knock him to the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jerk is used frequently. For example, the characters say Ethan is “playing like a jerk” and “acting like a jerk.”
  • When Ethan’s friend, Jacob, doesn’t show up to practice, Ethan texts Jacob, “What the heck is going on?”
  • Upset that last year’s soccer coach is replaced with a female science teacher, Ethan says, “Now we’re stuck with this demon woman.”
  • One of the players on the boys’ soccer team says, “This is bull,” when he finds out the new coach is a woman.
  • Jerome tells Ethan his position is attacking midfielder for their first game. When Ethan thanks him for getting him off defense, Jerome responds, “It’s totally [Ms. B’s] call. I still think you’re an idiot.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Jill Johnson

 

Deep Zone

Ty just made the team that will play the seven-on-seven tournament for middle-school athletes, coached by former NFL star Mark Bavaro. If his brother Thane’s NFL team makes it to the Super Bowl, they would be living their football dream: both brothers playing for a championship game in one weekend. Unfortunately, Thane injures his knee in a game and is out for the season. Still, Thane supports Ty as they travel to Miami with Ty’s team. There, Ty meets Troy, another football player his age who has an uncanny knack for guessing which way Ty will run. Will Ty be able to outsmart Troy in the championship game?

In addition to football, Ty has other worries. Ty is visited by Agent Sutherland, who is assigned to protect him and Thane from the mob. Last season, Ty accidentally gave the mob inside information so they could bet on who would win the Super Bowl. Now, two mobsters are loose and may have Ty marked as a target.

Football fans will appreciate the large amount of football terminology, descriptive game scenes, and discussions of strategies. Ty and Thane have a great relationship, and readers will be impressed by all the things they get to do as a result of Thane being in the NFL, such as riding in limousines and going to exclusive parties. While the lavish lifestyle is realistic, these scenes do not help advance the plot and make it difficult to relate to the characters.

Even though the mobsters add mystery to the plot, they are completely inept and do little to make the main characters shine. Unfortunately, Ty is not very relatable because he is one-dimensional. However, he has a couple of positive personality traits, such as being caring and hardworking. The story can drag at times, and although satisfying, the climax doesn’t come until the very end of the book. Deep Zone is a book for football fans looking for an easy read.

 Even though the publisher recommends Deep Zone for readers as young as eight years old, there are scary scenes, such as Ty and Troy being kidnapped by mobsters. Deep Zone is the last book in the five-book Football Genius series. The books follow Ty and Troy’s stories separately, and they meet in Deep Zone. Although Tim Green summarizes the story thus far so readers can understand Deep Zone, reading the previous four books would make the plot easier to understand.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During a game, Thane catches a ball and gets tackled. Thane “got hit by all three Ravens players at once. Thane’s body pinwheeled in the air, and he landed somewhere in the pile of arms and legs right at the goal line.” He injures his knee.
  • Ty swings a bat at an intruder in his house. “Ty reared back and swung the bat. It connected with something. The man yelped and fell at Ty’s feet . . . Ty swung the bat again. Klunk. The man collapsed in a pile.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Troy’s dad tells the two mob men to “have a drink” to celebrate winning a lot of money. Ty hears “the clink of glasses as they toasted their success.”

Language

  • A fan for the opposing team shouts, “You stink!” at Ty.
  • Heck is used several times. For example, Thane turns quickly and re-injures his knee. He says, “Man, that hurt like heck.”
  • Ty calls himself a “stupid chicken” because he is easily scared.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Agent Sutherland tells Thane, “Thank God everything worked out.”
  • Thane’s uncle Gus “nodded like a Sunday school teacher.”
  • When Ty is stuck on a swamp tour and it starts to storm, he “closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and said a prayer.”
  • Ty thinks he is about to die, so he “prayed to God there was a heaven and that he really could be with his mom and dad. But he was afraid heaven wasn’t true . . . Afraid God was just words. He didn’t think that, but he couldn’t help being afraid.”

by Jill Johnson

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches

Wendy’s sisters can fly fast, cackle loudly, and cast spells. Wendy can’t do all of those things and when Wendy loses her broomstick, she can’t even fly.

On Halloween, Wendy’s sisters fly into the night, planning on scaring people. They leave Wendy home in a dark house. When a lone tricker treater shows up dressed as a ghost, he asks Wendy to join him. Wendy and her new friend Roger go to his house to get Wendy a new broomstick. With the encouragement of Roger, Wendy is able to fly and cast spells. With Wendy’s newfound confidence, Wendy and Roger fly into the night.

After a fun Halloween, Wendy decides to teach her mean older sisters a lesson. She casts a spell so her two sisters can’t fly, and the sisters have to walk home. Wendy and her sisters learn that Wendy is a very good witch, even if she isn’t exactly like her sisters.

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches is a fun Halloween story that readers will enjoy. Wendy is a friendly, relatable character who lacks self-confidence. With the help of Roger, Wendy learns that she doesn’t have to be like her sisters in order to be a good witch. Wendy changes Roger’s Halloween costume so he looks like a witch and the two friends have a fun Halloween. Wendy’s spells are silly and fun to read aloud.

The book’s illustrations use fall colors with pops of orange and purple. Even though Wendy and her sisters are witches with green skin, they are not frightening to look at. Readers will giggle as both Roger and his mother try to ride Wendy’s broomstick.  Most pages have a large illustration and oversized text. The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches has five short chapters with short paragraphs, which make the story the perfect bridge to chapter books.

The high-interest topic, fun illustrations, and easy-to-read format make The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches a wonderful Halloween story. Many readers will relate to Wendy, who just wants her sisters to be nicer to her. In the end, Wendy learns that she does not need to have a frightening voice or a broom made of sassafras in order to be a good witch. More importantly, Wendy learns to accept her differences and becomes self-confident.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Dang is said once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Wendy says a spell, “Frogs and lizards / Toads and newts / Buttons, raincoats / Hiking boots. Turn this ghost / Into a witch. / Presto, change-o / Make a switch.” The spell changes her friend’s robe from white to black.
  • To make a pointy hat for her friend, Wendy says, “Stew and brew / And cat and bat. / Give this witch / a pointed hat.”
  • To reverse both spells, Wendy says, “Broiled figs / And toasted toast. / Turn this witch / Back to a ghost.”
  • Wendy’s sisters stay out too late, and Wendy wants them to learn a lesson so she makes a spell. “Snakes and cakes / And pumpkin pie. / Oldest sister / You can’t fly. / Salt and pepper, / Bouncing ball. / Middle sister / You will fall.” Later, her sisters come home limping because they had to walk home.
  • Wendy reverses the spell so her sisters can fly again. “Oldest sister / You can fly. / All you have to do / is try. / Middle sister / Flying’s fun. / The spell I made / is now undone.”

 

 

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 55
  6. 56
  7. 57
  8. 58
  9. 59
  10. 60
  11. 61
  12. ...
  13. 90

Latest Reviews