Icon: Diverse Characters

The Secret Explorers and the Lost Whales

Meet the Secret Explorers! This group of brilliant kids comes together from all four corners of the globe to fix problems, solve mysteries, and gather knowledge from all over the planet – and beyond. Whenever their help is needed, a special sign will appear on a door. They step through to the Exploration Station and receive their mission…

In The Lost Whales, marine life expert Connor needs to use his underwater expertise to save a pod of humpback whales who have lost their way. Along with space expert Roshni, Connor sets out in a submarine to search for a way to steer the whales back on track. However, they encounter unexpected problems along the way, including lost baby whales and a fleet of boats. Will the Secret Explorers manage to succeed in their mission?

Even though The Secret Explorers are a large, diverse group of children, The Lost Whales focuses on Connor and Roshni. Even though the children are smart, they are not perfect, which makes them more relatable. Some humorous scenes are mixed in with the facts. For example, in order to get a pod of whales to swim in another direction, Connor raps. Roshni teases him by saying, “That has to be the worse rapping that I’ve heard in my life. I think I cringed my way into a parallel universe.”

The book is jam-packed with whale facts. While a lot of the information is integrated into the story’s plot, at times the lessons seem forced. For example, Connor and Roshni find red sea algae, which is bad for ocean animals. Connor thinks, “There’s no sense in blaming the algae though. They fed on farm fertilizer that had been washed out to sea and grew so fast because climate change had warmed the oceans.” Despite this, readers will enjoy learning about whales and other ocean creatures.

During the adventure, Connor and Roshni put on scuba gear and swim toward a boat. When Connor and Roshni approach the boat, they ask permission to board, and a young boy gives them permission even though he is on the boat deck alone. While this part of the plot is essential to solving a problem, parents may want to discuss why that could have been a dangerous situation.

The Lost Whales has large black and white illustrations that will help break up the text and help readers understand the plot. Characters’ thoughts are easy to distinguish because they are in bold text. While younger readers may struggle with some of the difficult vocabulary and the length of the book, the book’s educational value makes it worth parents’ time to read the book aloud to their children. The book ends with 6 pages of additional facts, a glossary, and a quiz.

The Lost Whales has a blend of action, problem-solving, and ocean life facts that will make parents and young readers happy. The books do not need to be read in order because each book describes a new adventure. Readers will be excited to read the rest of the books in the series because they cover a wide variety of topics, including archaeology, dinosaurs, space, and other high-interest topics.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • When there is a Secret Explorers mission, a “glowing shape” appears on the pantry door. When Connor goes into the pantry, “the shelves of food were gone, and instead there was a dazzling white light. Connor’s heart thudded. Wind whipped against his face, as if he were traveling really fast.” Connor is transported to the Exploration Station.
  • The Beagle can change into different types of transportation and magically takes its occupants to where they need to go.
  • The Beagle can also change shape. “The Beagle began to transform. The wheels slide away. A joystick replaced the steering wheel. Glass rose around them.” When the transformation is complete, the Beagle turns into a submarine.
  • When Connor gets back from his adventure, he discovers that no time has passed so no one has missed him.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog

Ahoy! When this shipyard pup gets lost at sea, he’s rescued by a crew of stinky pirates led by Captain Fishbeard. Spike must prove to the captain he can be a real pirate. Luckily, Stinky Spike has the best nose on the seven seas, and he uses it to sniff out all kinds of treasure. But what happens when Spike’s sense of smell leads him to some very strange loot?

Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog is a silly story with alliteration, onomonopia, and dialogue that makes the story fun to read out loud. The story focuses on how Spike became the Pirate Dog and the humorous, unexpected characters he meets along the way. For example, when Spike was lost at sea, he meets two sharks that don’t want to eat him. The sharks just want Spike to go away because “you stink so bad that you’ll scare away our dinner.” Even though much of the humor comes from all the terrible things Spike smells, readers will also enjoy all of the animals and people Spike meets.

The entertaining story has wonderful, brightly colored illustrations that will tickle readers’ silly bones. Even though the story focuses on animals, Spike also meets a small but diverse group of pirates. The large illustrations add comedy to the story by adding little surprises, like the pirate captain with a peg leg, a parrot on his hat, and fish sticking out of his beard. Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog is told in three chapters; each two-page spread has 4 to 7 sentences.

Fans of the Pirate Puppies Series by Erin Soderberg will quickly fall in love with Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog. While the story lacks pirate language, its humor and unexpected surprises will entertain readers. Plus, the story could lead to a fun discussion on what people and pirates consider to be treasure. If you’re looking for a fun story that your little reader will love, Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog has plenty of treasure inside its pages including interesting characters, humor, and detailed illustrations. Readers who want to read more imaginative pirate stories should also read All Paws on Deck by Jessica Young.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While protecting a ship’s cargo, “a group of angry gulls began squawking and swooping and pecking at Spike.”
  • As the seagulls chased Spike, he fell into the ocean. “Spike doggy-paddled toward shore, but the strong current pulled him out to sea.”
  • While lost at sea, “hungry sharks swam slow circles around him.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

 

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto

George Johnson grew up as a queer Black man. In his memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue, Johnson reflects on the ways that the intersection of these two identities influenced his childhood, adolescence, and college experiences. Johnson discusses being jumped as a small child, ridiculed at school for being too feminine, being sexually assaulted, and finally accepting his intersecting identities. He also describes the support his family provided for him through these difficult times. Johnson does not brush over any details in this raw memoir.

All Boys Aren’t Blue is presented as a series of essays about various experiences Johnson faced throughout his life. In the first section of the book, Johnson considers his childhood and how being different made growing up difficult. Johnson writes, “When you are a child that is different, there always seems to be ‘something.’ You can’t switch, you can’t say that, you can’t act this way, there is always something that must be erased – and with it, a piece of you. The fear of being that vulnerable again outweighs the happiness that comes with being who you are, and so you agree to erase that something.”

Next, Johnson describes the important familial relationships that helped him grow into himself. He emphasizes his relationship with his grandmother, who made sure he felt safe being fully himself. Johnson’s collection of essays on his teenage years are painful because he is assaulted. Finally, Johnson concludes with his time in college. Even as he begins to fully embrace his identity as a gay black man, he still faced challenges, such as a friend’s suicide.

Johnson wrote his story as a memoir for young adults because he hoped his story would help others. Johnson stated, “This meant going to places and discussing some subjects that are often kept away from teens for fear of them being ‘too heavy.’ But the truth of the matter is, these things happened to me when I was a child, teenager, and young adult. So, as heavy as these subjects may be, it is necessary that they are not only told but also read by teens who may have to navigate many of these same experiences in their own lives.”

This memoir is powerful and heartbreaking. Johnson not only tells painful stories but also reflects on how the experiences still affect him. This book encourages young readers who face similar situations and lets them know they are not alone. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a must-read for any young adult who has gone through painful experiences. Johnson discusses sexual assault, queerness, existing as a black man, and losing his virginity as a gay man. He shares his coming-out story and the support his family provided. While All Boys Aren’t Blue is difficult to read because of the heavy topics, the book gives a voice to anyone who has been victimized by others and stigmatized by society.

Sexual Content

  • Johnson started talking to guys his age in middle school, saying, “It was interesting to finally feel like I was one of the boys. Hearing the conversations they had about girls, the cursing, the tough-guy act. They talked about sex, although none had actually had it.”
  • Johnson describes his family’s fears about his transgender cousin, Hope, going out to the bars. Johnson says, “I remember my mom used to worry because some of the stories covered a little bit of sex and some of the issues you ran into with men. There was always some story about how men wanted to mess with y’all, but only in secret.”
  • When he was a child, Johnson’s older cousin sexually assaulted him. Johnson describes, “You were fully erect at this point . . . You stood fully erect in front of me and said, ‘Taste it’ . . . and You ejaculated in the toilet in front of me.” The scene is described over several pages.
  • Johnson details when he was sexually assaulted in the school bathroom. While he was using the urinal, “I felt someone come up behind me. At first, I froze because I didn’t know what was happening. He put both his hands around me and moved down to touch my genitals.” To end the assault, Johnson proceeded to shove the person.
  • Johnson said now that he is older, he can empathize with his cousin. Johnson said he wishes he could ask him, “Did anyone ever hurt you? Did anyone explore things with you sexually before you were ready? Who taught you about sex in a way that you weren’t ready to understand – in a way that made you think I needed to get it firsthand from you, so I would know who not to trust?”
  • Johnson spends a chapter of the novel discussing losing his virginity “twice.” He discusses in detail his first time penetrating another male. Johnson “eased in, slowly, until I heard him moan.” He also discusses his first time being penetrated by a male saying, “He got on top and slowly inserted himself into me. It was the worst pain I think I have ever felt in my life.”

Violence

  • When he was five years old, Johnson was jumped. He describes the scene: “The third kid swung his leg and kicked me in the face. Then he pulled his leg back again and kicked even harder. My teeth shattered like glass hitting the concrete.”
  • Johnson discusses understanding the world he lives in as a black man. He states, “It wasn’t lost on me how racist the Rodney King beating was.”
  • Johnson discusses the violence of hazing for a few pages. He says, “A person trying to join Alpha Phi Alpha (the same frat I was interested in) was killed in a hazing incident gone wrong.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Johnson describes his Aunt Cynthia and his uncle arguing over drugs. He says, “Aunt Cynthia and ‘Uncle’ got into an argument over laundry that I learned much later was really over drugs.”
  • When his extended family came to town, Johnson said, “The Jersey City Crew arrived later that afternoon like they usually did: with a case of beer, money to play cards, and a readiness to shit-talk.”
  • Johnson’s cousins often caused trouble. “We would sneak and drink liquor from the liquor cart and refill the bottles with water.”
  • In college, Johnson frequently drank liquor. For example, when Johnson goes to college, he describes his friends. “They became my crew. We would all get together every night and eat, drink, and do homework. I had a car, so I became the ride for all of us when we needed to get groceries, cigarettes, soda, or something for the munchies.”
  • In college, Johnson relied on smoking weed. He states, “I was smoking up to three blunts a day, working, partying, drinking, and not going to class.”

Language

  • Johnson is very intentional with his choice of language. He uses the term “nigga” as he grew up “with it used as a term of endearment in his household.” However, he makes a point to state, “never with the ‘-er’ at the end.” Whenever he encounters someone who uses the “-er” he types it as “n*****.”
  • Later, Johnson does use the term “nigger.” For example, “I was never called a nigger, but I did deal with weird, racially charged questions.”
  • The word “shit” is used occasionally. For example, Johnson discusses healing from trauma. “It’s necessary that we do the work to unpack our shit.”
  • The word “ass” is occasionally used. Johnson described the look his grandmother gave his cousin in one scene as, “I’m gonna beat your ass when everyone goes home.”
  • “Damn” is used often. Whenever the phone would ring, his grandmother would yell to Johnson and his cousins, “Get the damn phone.”
  • The word fuck is never spelled out in the book, rather it is typed as “f***”. For example, when Johnson was called George in his roll call in high school, he said the students all said, “Who the f**** is George?”
  • Johnson uses the word “faggot” and “fag” often. He said, “A sissy is what the kids used to call me back then, but before they got older and escalated to the word faggot.”

Supernatural

  • Johnson discusses ghosts being in his grandmother’s house. He says, “The house had ghosts, and Grandma liked to bring it up from time to time that she could see them.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Paige Smith

A Pho Love Story

If Bao Nguyen had to describe himself, he’d say he was a rock. Steady and strong, but not particularly interesting. His grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ pho restaurant, and even there he is his parents’ fifth favorite employee. Not ideal.

If Linh Mai had to describe herself, she’d say she was a firecracker. Stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and fire. She loves art and dreams of pursuing a career in it. The only problem? Her parents rely on her in ways they’re not willing to admit, including working practically full-time at her family’s pho restaurant.

For years, the Mais and the Nguyens have been at odds, owners of competing, neighboring pho restaurants. Bao and Linh, who’ve avoided each other for most of their lives, both suspect that the feud stems from feelings much deeper than friendly competition.

But then a chance encounter brings Linh and Bao in the same vicinity and, despite their best efforts, sparks fly, leading them to wonder what took so long for them to connect. Can Linh and Bao find love in the midst of feuding families and complicated histories?

A Pho Love Story starts slowly as it introduces Linh and Bao. Each chapter is told in alternating first-person which helps the reader understand Linh’s and Bao’s conflicting emotions. While the story is similar to Romeo and Juliet because of the family conflict, the conclusion isn’t tragic. Most of the story revolves around Linh and Bao’s budding relationship. The story also delves into the struggles that immigrants face and touches on racism.

Many of the characters add Vietnamese words into their conversations and some readers may struggle with the dialect. Like the cover suggests, A Pho Love Story also revolves around Linh’s and Bao’s competing restaurants and there are a lot of references to food. While this adds depth, some readers will become bored by this aspect of the story.

A Pho Love Story is a cute romance that illustrates the importance of honesty and not hiding the truth behind silence. The predictable story will appeal to readers who want to add an easy-to-read romance to their reading list. If you’re looking for a grittier, action-packed Romeo and Juliet story, Crossing the Line by Simone Elkeles may be more to your liking. Also, similar to A Pho Love Story, Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen adds romance to parental pressure.

Sexual Content

  • Bao and Linh are sitting together. Bao’s “stomach gets jittery the moment we sit down together. . . Our ankles touch, and all of my body—I mean, all of it—wakes up.”
  • Linh decides that she wants to date Bao. “A hand that circled my [Linh’s] waist slides up my arm. The other gently, so gently, remains on my hip. A fine shiver passes through me and I hold my breath, but my heart hiccups. He cups my cheek with a hand and his face inches forward. . . I press my lips against his more insistently. . . It’s surreal, us kissing here.”
  • After they become boyfriend and girlfriend, Bao and Linh occasionally kiss, but the kisses are not described.

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • After hours, Linh’s father and friends “brought out Heineken.”
  • Alcohol is served at a wedding.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes bullshit, damn, fuck, hell, pisses, and shit.
  • The characters think about other people and silently call them names such as asshole and shithead.
  • Jesus, God, and “oh my God” are occasionally used as an exclamation.
  • An angry customer yells at Bao’s mother. “This place is shit. Shitty food. Shitty owners who can’t even speak fucking English.”
  • Someone calls a person a douche.

Supernatural

  • Linh’s mother thinks that a married couple will not last because, “They’d picked the wrong dates, didn’t consult the right calendar, or something like that.”

Spiritual Content

  • Occasionally the characters thank God for something.

 

 

 

Peak

Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello has climbing in his blood. Both of his parents have climbed some of the largest mountains in the world, and his biological father, Josh, is still a renowned mountaineer. When Peak is arrested for scaling a skyscraper in New York City, he’s sent to live with Josh in Thailand rather than face time serving in a juvenile detention center.

But Josh has other plans—namely, that he’s going to get Peak to summit Everest, making Peak the youngest person ever to do so. Despite Josh’s sketchy, press-oriented motivations, Peak gives Everest a chance. But Everest is unforgiving even for experienced climbers. Any mistake could mean death.

Peak is an exciting mountaineering book that discusses climbing terms in ways that are easy to digest for readers unfamiliar with high-altitude climbing. For instance, Peak describes high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) to illustrate the sorts of dangers that climbing at high altitudes can have on the human body. Although nothing is particularly graphic in this book, it does describe seeing corpses and people suffering from HAPE.

Peak’s personal journey throughout the book is commendable. Peak’s main emphasis is on his family, who he loves dearly. His mother raised him, and his excellent relationship with his younger half-sisters (“the Peas”) highlights his fundamentally kind and caring personality. While climbing Everest, Peak’s friendship with another fourteen-year-old Tibetan boy named Sun-jo shows how much they depend on each other to make it to the summit. Their friendship is a focal point of the book because Peak grapples with his competitive nature while knowing that Sun-jo should have the honor of being the youngest person to summit. This conflict comes to a satisfying resolution, and Peak and Sun-jo’s friendship remains strong.

Peak also struggles with his feelings about his biological father, Josh. Peak is wary of Josh’s motivations. Their relationship, although fractured at the beginning of the story, begins to mend as Josh and Peak learn more about each other. Although their relationship is unlike Peak’s closer relationship with his mother, Josh starts to have a place in Peak’s life.

Peak is the first book in this series, and the next books also detail Peak’s climbing adventures. Peak is a good introduction to the series because it explains climbing facts while also creating a fun and interesting story about Peak’s climbing adventures. Climbing and being on top of the world are important for Peak, but love for family and friends top any mountain that he could scale. While reaching the top of Everest is temporary, family lasts a lifetime.

Sexual Content

  • Peak briefly recounts his parent’s relationship. He says, “I was conceived in a two-man tent under the shadow of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. At least that’s when my mom thinks it happened.”
  • Peak overhears a climber talking about Josh. The climber says, “Josh is so cute! What do you think he’d do if I snuck into his tent one night?” The person’s friend responds with, “I don’t think that’s included in the permit fee.”

Violence

  • Peak gets arrested for illegally scaling and tagging a building. A detective tells Peak, “I just talked with your mother. She said that I had her permission to beat you to death.”
  • Peak scales skyscrapers for fun, and he often ends up in newspapers as a mystery climber. A boy tries emulating him and he “fell from the Flatiron Building. He’s dead . . . The boy had all [of Peak’s] news articles pinned up in his bedroom . . . the fall was enough to kill him.”
  • Peak describes high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). He says, “Here’s how HAPE works: Your lungs fill with fluid, you can’t breathe, you go into a coma, then you die.”
  • Sun-jo gives Peak a rundown on the history between Tibet and China. Sun-jo explains, “The people’s Republic of China invaded Tibet fifty years ago. Since that time over six thousand Buddhist monasteries and shrines have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed or jailed.”
  • Peak, Zopa, and Sun-jo arrive at Base Camp “just in time to see Josh get into a fistfight with someone. At 18,044 feet, though, it wasn’t much of a fight. An older, red-faced man took a swing, which Josh easily ducked and countered by pushing him in the chest. The man landed on his butt in the snow. After this it was pretty much over except for the shouting.” Josh had told the man (as had the man’s doctor), that the man was in no shape to go further up the mountain.
  • Peak hears about someone dying on Everest. One climber says that the man who died “stepped out of his tent in the middle of the night to pee. Idiot was wearing slippers. He slid two hundred yards down a slope into a crevasse so deep the Sherpas say he’s probably still falling.”
  • A porter, or a Sherpa, tells a story about a yak that he purchased. An avalanche had almost buried them, and the yak ended up with two broken legs. The porter tells Peak, “There was only one thing to do. I unsheathed my knife and cut his throat.” The porter ended up sleeping in the carcass for warmth.
  • Several climbers die on Everest from HAPE. Peak and Zopa hear that “[the other two climbers] had died at Camp Six two hours after Zopa talked to the distraught German climber the previous day.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Some climbers smoke cigarettes. Zopa “bought up several cartons of cigarettes to sell to them.”

Language

  • Light profanity is used somewhat often. Words include: moron, idiotic, dang, shut up, lame, lousy, and pooped.
  • At Base Camp, a man denies that he has a heart condition. He yells at the doctor, “That witch doctor of [Josh’s] doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” It is meant to be derogatory.
  • Josh jokingly tells Peak that Josh is “in debt up to [his] crevasse,” which makes Peak laugh.
  • Peak meets Holly, a reporter who he refers to as “a pain in the crevasse.”
  • Josh tells Peak that getting a fourteen-year-old to climb Everest has “more sex appeal” for attracting people to his climbing company.
  • There is a German doctor at Base Camp, and some of the climbers don’t like her. As a result, they say malicious and untrue things. Peak overhears one of them say, “Straight from Nazi Germany, if you ask me. I think she’s here to perform experiments on us, not treat us.” Another climber mutters, “Heil Hitler” when the doctor’s name is mentioned.
  • Josh tells Peak that he won’t be allowed to summit because the other climbers don’t want him to. Josh explains, “I’m sorry, Peak. I’ve been a jackass about this. They’re right. This is their climb. They’re paying the tab.”
  • As Peak is leaving camp, Josh waves. Peak “returned the wave with a gesture of [his] own,” insinuating that Peak held up his middle finger at Josh or something to that effect. Josh responds with “his trademark grin.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Peak and Josh stop by Mount Everest before going to Chiang Mai. Peak is surprised and says, “For a climber, saying that you are stopping by Everest is like saying you’re going to stop by and see God.”
  • Josh’s friend Zopa used to be a sirdar, or Head Sherpa. According to Josh, Zopa is “a Buddhist monk now. Lives at the Indrayani temple. The Lama there has given him permission to forgo his vows for a few weeks to take [Peak] up to Base Camp.”
  • Before going up Everest, all of the climbers go through a puja, which is “a Buddhist blessing ritual.”
  • For the puja ceremony, Peak and Sun-jo build a cairn and raise flags. Peak explains that “as the flags flutter in the wind they release the prayers written on them and pacify the gods.”
  • Peak makes “a special prayer flag” before he attempts the summit.
  • Peak tells his sisters about the prayer flags. Peak says, “There’s a prayer written on the flag. When it blows in the wind the prayers go up to God. If you put the flag really high on a mountain the prayer gets to God faster.”

by Alli Kestler

The Gold Medal Mess

Five friends are ready for their school’s Olympics field day. There will be relay races, archery contests, and more! But not everyone wants to play fair—in fact, someone is trying to ruin the events! Can the kids in the Most Valuable Player club solve the mystery, save the Olympics, and take home the gold?

The Gold Medal Mess introduces five diverse friends—Max, Alice, Luke, Kat, and Nico. The kids work well together in order to find the culprit. None of the kids are well developed, but there is room for each character to grow in later books in the series. However, Luke is portrayed as silly and lazy. For example, when his friends ask Luke if he wants to practice archery, Luke says, “The only way I’m going to win is if they give out medals for not doing homework!”

The story’s plot is easy to understand and readers will enjoy following the clues to see if they can solve the mystery before the culprit is revealed. Large black and white illustrations break up the text and help readers understand the plot. The story’s dialogue and quick pace are engaging. However, struggling readers may have a difficult time with some of the vocabulary.

The Gold Medal Mess has a good blend of mystery and competition which makes the book appealing to a wide range of readers. The simple plot will entertain beginning readers but may be too simple for more advanced readers. Ellie Steps Up to the Plate by Callie Barkley and the Little Rhino Series by Ryan Howard & Krystle Howard will also appeal to sports fans.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While running a race, the contestants fall down. “And like the first kid, their feet flew out from under them and they rolled onto the ground too! Before long, the runners from all six teams had slid out on the grass.” The kids slipped because someone put oil on the grass.
  • During the tug-of-war competition, “the tug-of-war rope broke in half” and the “teams tumbled backward!” Someone intentionally cut the rope.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

Seventh-grader Tristan Strong lost his best friend, Eddie, in a bus accident, and Tristan is dealing with grief as well as guilt because he thinks he could have saved Eddie. Now, all Tristan has left from Eddie is a journal where Eddie was recording a bunch of stories. With the journal and his grief in hand, Tristan’s parents send him to live with his grandparents in Alabama to recover.

Then a creature shows up one night and steals Eddie’s journal. Tristan is sent on a chase to the Bottle Tree where he ends up punching a hole in the MidPass, a magical world filled with black American folk heroes. The only way Tristan can get back home is to help the gods find Anansi to seal the hole and end the war in the Alke and MidPass. Easy enough, right?

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky introduces black American folklore like John Henry, High John, and Brer Rabbit, plus older tales such as the story-weaving spider Anansi. In this book, they are gods living in their own world adjacent to Tristan’s world. The mythology includes strong ties to the slave trade and slavery. For instance, the main antagonists, Uncle Cotton and the Maafa, embody greed and enslavement, and monstrous bone ships carry the terrible and haunting memories of enslaved Africans who suffered and died in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The importance of memory and storytelling are key themes that come to life through the folklore and history of this story. Tristan discovers that he is an Anansesem, which means his ability to weave stories is imbued with magical qualities that bring the stories to life. His abilities keep history and mythology alive. History and mythology are intertwined, and readers will see how they influence each other.

Tristan also deals with his own grief over the death of his friend Eddie. Tristan’s memories and Eddie’s journal keep those memories alive. Through Tristan’s memories and Eddie’s ghost, Tristan learns how to cope with his grief. He will always be sad that his best friend is gone, but using the journal and his storytelling abilities, Tristan can continue to live his own life while honoring Eddie’s memory.

Storytelling is one of the most important themes in Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, and it serves as a constant reminder that stories keep histories and memories alive. Oral storytelling is one of the oldest practices, and Mbalia taps into that intensely human need to share experiences in a beautiful and creative way. Tristan’s story encapsulates the fun, adventurous elements of traveling to a new world where gods come to life and mythology runs rampant. The heart of this book, however, is in the memories and experiences that have survived and are now shared through Tristan’s eyes.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Tristan comes from a long legacy of boxers. Boxing-related violence, like punching, happens. For example, Tristan notes that in his first fight, he “got knocked flat on [his] butt. Twice.”
  • Tristan has gotten into several fights at school. Tristan notes, “At least I’d held my own in those school fights.”
  • A legend named Gum Baby threatens Tristan for following her. She says, “If Gum Baby had more time, she’d wear out that hide of [Tristan’s], up one end and down the other.”
  • Gum Baby tries to beat up Tristan. Tristan narrates, “it took everything I had to shield myself as her tiny fists and feet pummeled me.”
  • Tristan tells Gum Baby that if she loses Eddie’s book, he’ll “turn [Gum Baby] into an incense holder.”
  • Tristan accidentally nearly knocks Gum Baby over. In response, she grabs the hood of his sweatshirt and yells, “BUMBLETONGUE, GUM BABY GONNA WHOOP YOU LIKE YOUR BUTT’S ON FIRE!”
  • Tristan uses his boxing abilities to protect himself against magical monsters. Tristan describes that during a fight with the fetterlings or magical shackle-snakes, “I ducked its attack and slammed home an uppercut. Another slithered up and I snapped two quick jabs and a hook.”
  • Other characters use weapons against magical monsters, including staffs and swords. Tristan uses magical boxing gloves gifted to him by John Henry. In one battle, Tristan punches a fetterling, and “it exploded, showering [Tristan] with broken bits of chain and fluff.” These fight sequences often last a few pages.
  • Tristan’s best friend, Eddie, died in a bus crash, and Tristan couldn’t save him. Tristan tells his friend, Ayanna, about the crash. Tristan narrates, “We drove over a bridge and hit a patch of ice . . . We slid into the other lane, right into the path of a truck . . . I saw that the bus was hanging over the edge of the bridge . . . Eddie was in the back corner, trapped between two seats, struggling and failing to free himself. He asked me to save him . . . I still see his hand reaching for me. I didn’t move I was so scared. I was scared of falling, of drowning in the water below. I didn’t wanna die.” Tristan spends several pages telling the full story.
  • Much of the mythology in the book is influenced by the effects of slavery. For instance, Tristan meets two immortal women with wings. He describes, “Nana used to tell me stories about how over in Africa, before the horrors of slavery, people used to fly all the time . . . Then came the chains and ships, and pain and whips, and the people’s wings fell or were torn off.”
  • There is a magical war being waged in Alke, and there are many casualties. Ayanna tells Tristan that she “had to go talk to some of the Midfolk… . . . had to tell some families that we weren’t able to find their loved ones.”
  • Tristan activates a magical statue while being chased. To do this, Tristan picked up Gum Baby and “threw the best spiral [he’d] ever tossed in [his] life. Like, fifty yards, easy. I should’ve played football.”
  • Tristan and his friends go into the mountains looking for the Story Box, but the mountains have several layers of protection against intruders, including laser-shooting rocks. As they fly in on their magical raft, Tristan describes, “Silver and black lightning bolts were being hurled at us by giant black stone towers with jewels at the tops.”
  • The horrors of slavery are baked into the folklore throughout the book. Sometimes, Tristan gets a glimpse at different scenes hinting at this. One of the obvious moments is when the god, High John, shows him, “Old trees and Mississippi suns. Auction houses and Congo landings.” At these images, Tristan says, “I didn’t recognize any of the images and yet I knew them all.”
  • Gum Baby slaps Tristan across the face because, as Gum Baby says, “Ain’t no time for sleep . . . Gum Baby got missions and stuff.”
  • Giant poisonous brand flies swarm the Ridgefolk in the mountain. Tristan describes the scene, saying, “Everywhere a brand fly landed, skin sizzled and welted. Victims tried to peel the flies off, but whatever type of poison those flying iron monsters carried, it was potent. After a few feeble attempts to free themselves, the Ridgefolk crumpled to the floor paralyzed. Fetterlings snapped cuffs around their wrists and ankles and tugged them out the door.” The attack from all the monsters in this scene lasts for a chapter.
  • High John cuts up a massive monster with his magical ax. Tristan describes, “It wasn’t pretty. You ever see a twig get caught beneath a lawnmower? Or tree branches fed into a wood-chipper? Yeah.”
  • The poison from the brand flies infects Tristan’s friend, Ayanna. When they find her again, “she’s not breathing.” They bring Ayanna with them when they flee the mountain. Chestnutt, another companion, is also in a magical coma due to the poison.
  • Tristan and the surviving gods fight the Maafa, a magical entity built upon pain that consumes all that it can. Tristan sees the others fighting and describes, “But the refugees from Midfolk fought, too, for their very right to live, though they were far from home. John Henry, the raft line wrapped around his waist so he could use both hands, swung his hammer like he was back drilling through a mountain. Left and right, up and down, the hammer fell on the fetterlings with the rash of metal on metal. No flourishes, just a steady rhythm.” The battle lasts for several chapters.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Light profanity is used throughout. Profanity includes chumps, sucks, dumb, stupid, idiotic, nimrod, and loudmouth.
  • Tristan calls Gum Baby a “doll baby,” and she attacks him. She calls him a “giant turtle-faced thistle-head.”
  • Tristan’s go-to exclamation is “sweet peaches.”
  • Tristan sees a place called the Golden Crescent from the air. Tristan says, “Holy—” but is cut off by some of his companions.

Supernatural

  • This is a book about mythology, specifically West African mythologies that include “Nyame or Anansi.” There are also many African American folk legends, including “High John, John Henry, and Brer Rabbit.” These legends are gods. Tristan interacts with these immortal beings frequently, and they all do a variety of magic. They also live in magical realms that Tristan visits.
  • Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series and head of Riordan Reads, has a preface in this book. Riordan pokes fun at Greek mythology, saying that “you can’t swing a gorgon’s head in any bookstore without hitting at least a dozen Greek-myth-inspired books.”
  • Tristan’s best friend, Eddie, dies before the start of the book, and Eddie leaves Tristan his journal. Eddie’s journal emits an “emerald-green glow” that Tristan realizes only he can see.
  • The first page of the journal is blank when Tristan received it, but Tristan soon notices that “a weird symbol appeared to be stitched” into Eddie’s journal. It is assumed that it appeared out of nowhere.
  • Nana tells many stories about mythology to Tristan. When they arrive on the farm, Nana tells Tristan about haints. She says that they’re “evil spirits . . . Lord knows, plenty of those ramblin’ about.” Haints show up throughout the book.
  • There is a baby doll in Tristan’s room at his grandparents’ house. One night, Tristan hears weird noises, and he turns his flashlight on. When the light hit the baby, it “rotated its head.” The baby doll is a legend called Gum Baby, and she talks to Tristan. In Anansi’s stories, Gum Baby “was a doll Anansi used to trap an African fairy while he was on a quest.”
  • Tristan punches the Bottle Tree, ripping a hole in the sky. “The punch smashed into the large blue bottle near the top, shattering the glass…Out of the corner of [Tristan’s] eye, [Tristan] saw a shadowy shape ooze from what was left of the broken bottle on the ground and creep along the grass…a chasm ripped open at the foot of the tree. A giant sucking sound filled the clearing like air rushing toward a hole.” Tristan and Gum Baby fall through the hole as they try to save Eddie’s journal.
  • Ayanna describes Tristan’s world and her world, Alke, by saying, “Alke is the dream to your world’s reality. The tales, the fables, the things you think are made up, they exist here. We aren’t just stories—we’re real, with hopes and dreams and fears just like you.”
  • Eddie’s spirit comes back through his journal several times throughout the book. Tristan describes, “The journal pages spun and coiled in the air until they formed a humanoid figure.” Eddie saves Tristan from the fetterlings, which are metals snakes with shackles for heads. He also speaks to Tristan occasionally.
  • Tristan is an Anansesem, or a magical storyteller. John Henry explains that when Tristan tells stories, “something special happens.” Tristan is able to bring the stories to life or summon them with his words, and this happens several times throughout the book. For instance, when Tristan tells a story about him and Eddie, the clouds around him “swirled and stretched into a diorama. Two cloud boys—one slightly larger than the other—crept into a large nimbus of a building.”
  • The god High John pulls Tristan’s soul out of his body and brings him into a spirit realm where they can talk privately. They fly on the back of High John’s giant crow, “Old Familiar.”
  • In the popular stories about High John, he would take “slaves’ spirits on trips of happiness and joy and wonder, all while their bodies remained on the plantation and continued to work.”
  • There are forest fairies, the Mmoatia, who know plants and healing remedies. They “have taken a shine to [Tristan].”

Spiritual Content

  • Before a battle, John Henry says, “Give me strength.” Tristan “was confused until [he] realized it was like a prayer before battle, and [Tristan] gulped. When gods prayed, things were about to get real.”
  • Inside the mountain, the council within calls upon their ancestors for guidance. Tristan notes, “I could see through them. ‘They’re spirits,’ I mumbled.”
  • The diviner in the mountain tells the ancestors that Tristan “has the blessing of gods and the spirit of the imbongi . . . I can feel it.”
  • Tristan is afraid of heights, and while flying around on a magical flying saucer he “mumbled prayers in seven different languages.”
  • There’s a legend about High John in which he “fell in love with the devil’s daughter. In order to win her hand, the devil told him he had to clear an enormous field, plant corn, then harvest it, all in one day.”

by Alli Kestler

The Ghost

From the day Emily rescued her dog, Zack, they have always shared a special connection—they can read each other’s minds. And since Zack can sense when someone is in danger, they’ve been using their special powers to help save people.

But now Emily and Zack have discovered something new. They can see ghosts! And one ghost, in particular, needs their help. Shocked by her new discovery, Emily is determined to find out who this ghost is and why he is haunting her town. But if Emily and Zack are the only ones who can see the ghost, how can they get anyone to believe them? Will they be able to help in time, or will the ghost be doomed to haunt the earth forever?

The third installment of the Dog Whisperer Series has a unique premise but unfortunately lacks development and action. Emily and Zack save a woman from a fire, but the incident is so out of place that it lacks emotional impact. Likewise, many of the story’s scenes are not developed enough to make the reader care about the outcome. For example, when Emily meets a ghost, their interactions are not exciting. Instead, when Emily talks to the ghost, the ghost gives vague answers that are confusing. Even though Emily helps the ghost, the ending is predictable and lacks action.

Emily, who is biracial and adopted, asks her parents about her birth mother. Emily is upset that her birth mother doesn’t want to meet Emily. Throughout the story, Emily is trying to work through her feelings about her birth mother. To complicate matters, Emily is upset that her birth mother has other children who she did keep. While Emily’s feelings are understandable, nothing is resolved.

Even though Emily is a likable character, readers will find the lack of action and plot development frustrating. The one bright spot is Emily’s interaction with Mrs. Griswold, an elderly neighbor who is a recluse. Mrs. Griswold’s backstory is slowly revealed and the conclusion hints that Mrs. Griswold will begin reaching out to other people. Through multiple characters, a theme is revealed—people are often doing the best that they can in difficult situations, and only by looking deeper can you understand a person’s character.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Emily’s neighbor was in a car accident. “The worst part was that Mrs. Griswold had tested positive for alcohol that night. . . her blood alcohol level was way below the legal limit, and that she had probably had a glass of wine or eggnog at the party.”

Language

  • The store owner, Cyril, calls a boy “a shifty-eyed, squinty little punk” and a “snaggle-toothed punk.”

Supernatural

  • Emily can read her dog’s mind. Emily “didn’t understand it, but ever since the night she had found him, the two of them had been connected, somehow. When he was hungry, she felt hungry.”
  • Zack is a conduit for the ghost. When Emily sees a ghost, “the man suddenly seemed to be surrounded by a small cloud of gray mist—and then he disappeared.” Emily can read the ghost’s mind.
  • Emily can read her cat Josephine’s mind. “Reading Josephine’s mind was always a little bit unsettling.”

Spiritual Content

  • A ghost tells Emily that his dog, “Moved on, at once. Animals have very beautiful souls.”

I Got the School Spirit

Summer is over, and this little girl has got the school spirit! She hears the school spirit in the bus driving up the street—VROOM, VROOM!—and in the bell sounding in the halls—RING-A-DING! She sings the school spirit in class with her friends—ABC, 123!

The school spirit helps us all strive and grow. What will you learn today?

In this picture book, an African American girl celebrates going to school. The vibrant oil-painted illustrations focus on one girl. When she gets to school, her classmates are a diverse group of children. Several pictures show students who are worried about going to school, which causes tears. However, in the end, all of the students are happy to be in school. From storytime to the bus ride home, the school day isn’t complete until the girl gets a big hug from her mother.

Each two-page spread has one illustration that takes up both pages. Each page has one short sentence that ends with a few words that are in big, bold text. Many of these words are onomatopoeias such as “crunch, munch, sip.” Whether your child is getting ready for their first day of preschool or their first day of kindergarten, I Got the School Spirit will help younger readers feel more confident about going to school.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Black Brother, Black Brother

Donte is black, and the white kids at Middlefield Prep won’t let him forget it. They especially won’t let him forget that they like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey, more than Donte. To make matters worse, the administration turns a blind eye when the students harass Donte. When Donte gets bullied and arrested for something he didn’t do, he feels immensely frustrated and helpless.

Then Donte meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. Jones begins to train Donte to take on his main bully: the Middlefield Prep fencing captain, Alan. With support from his friends, family, and the folks at the youth center, Donte begins to unpack the systemic racism that has sought to hold him down all his life.

Through Donte and his family’s eyes, Black Brother, Black Brother tackles systemic racism head-on. Jewell Parker Rhodes shows a range of characters including those who willingly ignore the racism, those who show microaggressions, and finally those who are outright racist like Alan. This book is unflinchingly honest in how it deals with how others treat Donte differently than his brother Trey, who has lighter skin. Even the police treat their father, a white man, differently than their mother, a black woman. These experiences are presented openly and honestly, and in a way, that younger readers will be able to understand.

Donte and the other characters are fully fleshed-out people. Donte and Trey’s relationship shows their solidarity and brotherly love as well as the moments where Donte feels insecure around his older, more popular brother. Their relationship with their parents is also lovely, as they are protective of their sons.

The local Boys and Girls Club has a wide range of characters who bring life to the story. The most prominent of these characters is Donte’s coach, former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. Arden helps Donte grapple with the patience and fortitude required in fencing and in life. Arden’s personal experiences and frustrations show Donte how to conduct himself, and by the end, Donte is an excellent fencer who isn’t afraid to stand up for himself.

Black Brother, Black Brother is an important book that illustrates how racism operates on many levels, and how deeply it affects people of all ages. While this book will appeal to people who like fencing, it is a must-read for all people of any age. Through Donte’s experiences, readers will learn about people from various walks of life and the importance of individual courage. Donte may not be real, but he is certainly not the first nor the last student to be judged on the basis of race when he and every other student should be judged based on the content of their character.

Sexual Content

  • Donte meets twins Zarra and Zion. Donte says, “Zarra’s beautiful. First time I ever thought that about a girl. Deep brown eyes. A wide smile. Glowing black skin. I can’t think of anything to say. Not even my name.”
  • A few girls at school wave at Donte. Trey jokingly says, “Got game, little brother. Girls are going to be calling you.” Donte thinks, “Problem is I won’t know if they like me for me. Or because they like Trey. (Zarra would like me for me.)”
  • When Trey meets Zarra, Donte says, “My brother smiles goofily. I groan. He thinks Zarra’s beautiful, too. If he becomes a competition, I’ll lose.”
  • Donte says that one of the girls from school, “has a crush on Trey. (She knows I know.) Trey hasn’t figured it out yet.”

Violence

  • Another student threw a pencil in class and “it hits Samantha. Donte didn’t throw it, but Ms. Wilson turns from the whiteboard and looks at [Donte] anyway.”
  • At his very white private school, Donte is subjected to plenty of racist words and actions. For instance, Donte’s brother Trey is white-passing, so other students mock Donte by calling him “Black brother.”
  • Donte experiences microaggressions from his peers and adults in his life. Donte describes, “Of all the kids in the school, the police found it easy to arrest me. Why was Mrs. Kay scared? Why did Mr. Waters seem to enjoy my troubles? Worse, why did Headmaster call the police on me? Since I’ve been at Middlefield, the police never came for anyone else. Is something wrong with me?”
  • Donte’s mom notes some real-life stories of police brutality against black people. She says, “Tamir Rice playing with a toy gun, killed. Twelve and he’s dead.”
  • Donte describes a video he sees, saying, “there was a video loop of a school officer pulling a girl from her desk, slamming, dragging her across the floor.”
  • Donte and Trey play-wrestle in the kitchen. Donte describes, “I shove Trey. Rebalancing, his hand swipes and the milk falls to the floor. Trey shoves back. I clutch his waist. He pushes back, clasps me around my back. We wrestle. Our shoes slip. Trey’s long leg sweeps behind my knee. I fall. My shirt soaks up milk.” This lasts for about a page.
  • The boys’ fencing team knocks Donte down. Donte describes, “I fall flat on my face. Each teammate gets a dig, a stomp, a step on me. Trey is flailing, trying to shove them away.”
  • In the seventies, another fencer on Coach’s Olympic team, Jonathan Michael, harassed Coach for being black. Coach describes, “Michael bullied me. Called me terrible names. Threatened me. He’d convince Coach I’d broken curfew even when I hadn’t. Convince teammates everything went wrong because of me.”
  • Alan trips Donte. Donte says, “My mask rolls forward. I drop my foil trying to break my fall. A painful shock sears my wrist.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • After being tripped and hurting his wrist, Donte asks for Advil.

Language

  • The captain of the fencing team, Alan, “says ‘black’ like a slur. Says it real nasty. Like a worse word. A word he thinks but doesn’t dare say.”
  • Donte’s mom tells Donte, “Take off your hoodie. People might think you’re a thug.”
  • Inappropriate language is occasionally used. Words include: nuts and stupid.
  • During a fencing match, Alan yells, “Hey, black girl!” at Zarra.
  • Another fencer, Jonathan Michael, says some very rude things to Coach while Donte and another young fencer watch. Michael’s young fencer tries to shake hands with Coach, but Michael bats the kid’s hand away. Michael then says, “You don’t shake hands with someone dishonorable.”
  • Someone leaves a note for Trey. Donte sees the first part that says, “Why play with…” but he doesn’t look at the rest because, as he says, “I don’t want to see a hateful word.”

Supernatural

  • Donte is black and experiences discrimination at his private school where most of the other students are white. Because of this, Donte wishes that he “were invisible. Wearing Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak or Frodo Baggins’s Elvish ring.”

Spiritual Content

  • Zarra brings in books about women in fencing. She mentions that in the 2016 Olympics, a woman named Ibtihaj Muhammad won team bronze, and that “she’s a Muslim American and fences in a hijab.”

by Alli Kestler

 

Camille’s Mermaid Tale

Camille loves the ocean—the warm sand, the pretty shells, and the sparkling waves that tickle her toes. Sometimes she even imagines that she’s a mermaid with whales and dolphins for friends. When the other WellieWishers see how much Camille misses her summers by the sea, they want to help. . . but how can four girls turn a garden into an ocean?

Camille’s friends plan the perfect surprise for Camille. Even though the readers know what Camille’s friends are hiding, they will still understand Camille’s feelings. “Camille was pretty sure the other WellieWishers were hiding something from her, which made her feel left out and lonely and sad.” Even though Camille is upset, she doesn’t get angry at her friends; instead, she spends her time writing mermaid stories.

Young readers will enjoy the story’s rhyming words and ocean-themed puns, such as when Aunt Miranda says, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret. It’ll be easy: I’ll just clam up.” Another fun story element is when the girls sing songs. For example, Camille sings a song to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.” She sings, “Acrobats and rainy picnics, Boats with lots of doodles, Starry skies, and fireflies: We really used our noodles!”

The WellieWishers are introduced through pictures that appear on the first page. The diverse group of girls wears adorably bright clothes and wellie boots. All of the girls’ different personalities blend to make a wonderful friend group. Almost every page has a brightly colored illustration that helps the readers understand the plot. The girls’ facial expressions will also help the readers understand the girls’ emotions.

Young readers will want to grab Camille’s Mermaid Tale because of the adorably cute pictures and the high-interest topic; however, they will also be entertained by the story and learn important lessons about friendship. The book ends with a section “For Parents” that gives ideas of crafts that correspond with the book. Camille’s Mermaid Tale will encourage readers to use their imagination as it reinforces the idea that “you are never too big to imagine you’re a mermaid.” The Purrmaids Series by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen will also delight readers who love mermaids.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Rocket Says Clean Up!

When Rocket goes on vacation to see her grandparents, they spend the day at the beach. Rocket discovers that plastic is taking over the ocean. When Rocket finds a baby turtle wrapped up in plastic, she’s determined to do something. Rocket wants everyone to take action! Rocket’s passion to make the beach a safer place for wildlife inspires the people around her. Together, can they entice the sea creatures to return?

Rocket’s desire to clean up the beach is inspiring and highlights the need for a community to come together to pick up the trash. The illustrations show an explosion of plastic all over the sand, in the water, and wrapped around a tiny turtle. Even though some of the illustrations are humorous, the story still focuses on how trash can be dangerous to sea life. The story even shows how trash can be repurposed to make art. The conclusion has a happy ending which shows the sea turtle being released back into the ocean.

Rocket is a relatable character who isn’t afraid to speak up about the dangers of trash. With the help of her grandparents, Rocket brings a community together and makes the beach trash-free. In Rocket Says Look Up, the story and lesson were completely integrated. However, in Rocket Says Clean Up, the message takes center stage at the expense of a well-developed plot. Despite this, readers will enjoy the story, which ends with a list of ways that readers can reduce waste.

Rocket Says Clean Up is an engaging picture book with bright illustrations that are full of fun details. For example, Rocket buries her brother in the sand and then builds a sandcastle on top of him. The people at the beach are a diverse group that includes people from different races as well as different body types. The large cast of people in the illustrations helps reinforce the concept that it takes a community to clean up a beach.

Even though Rocket Says Clean Up is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child, rather than for a child to read it for the first time independently. Most pages contain 1-4 sentences, but some of the sentences are complex. Rocket gives a few interesting facts about where trash comes from, and how it hurts animals. These interesting facts appear in quote boxes and begin with, “Did you know. . .”

Rocket, who is African American, looks up to Imani Wilmot, who created the first female surf competition in Jamaica. Rocket’s experiences will encourage readers to learn more about protecting the ocean. The bright, fun illustrations will capture readers’ attention, and Rocket’s enthusiasm will keep readers interested until the last page. Readers who would like to learn more about the ocean should add Shark Lady by Jess Keating and Shawn Loves Sharks by Curtis Manley to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Breath Like Water

Susannah Ramos became a world champion swimmer at 14. But two years have passed, and she has yet to reclaim her former glory after an injury. Susannah is fighting through the lapse, but she feels like she’s floundering at the one thing she loves most in the world – swimming. When a new coach with a new training strategy and a charming new teammate named Harry Matthews enters her life, Susannah begins a painful fight back to the top of the ranks.

During her dramatic comeback, romance blossoms between Susannah and Harry. But Harry has secrets of his own, and the pressure of competitive swimming and other outside forces work to pull the pair asunder. Susannah must work to balance her own needs and the needs of her loved ones. She must also figure out which wonderful things in life, like friends and swimming, are worth the struggle.

One of the most prominent storylines of Breath Like Water deals with Susannah’s journey as a competitive high school student-athlete. Jarzab intelligently writes about Susannah’s experience with constant pressure from intense coaches and her teammates. The coaches in particular stand out because of their interactions with Susannah and her teammates. They give an intensive look at what it means not only to work hard but to work with intelligence. The swim competitions are well-paced and show Susannah’s thought process as she’s competing.

Told from Susannah’s point of view, this story shows her as a likable but tough kid. Breath Like Water spends a good amount of time detailing Susannah’s recovery from a shoulder injury. The story also shows Susannah’s mental and physical struggle that comes from being a competitive athlete. These parts of Susannah’s journey show her frustration and determination to be better. Susannah faces adversity at every turn, and she takes the emotional and physical pain with as much grace and dignity as could be asked of a sixteen-year-old.

Another prominent storyline deals with the relationship between Susannah and Harry. They quickly go from friends to dating. Susannah learns that Harry has dealt with bipolar disorder for much of his life. This book tackles the difficult parts of Harry’s life, including his past drinking problems and self-harm, and he does relapse during the novel. Susannah and Harry learn how to cope with their insecurities and neither character is villainized for who they are. Things are not perfect for the pair, but they care about each other and work to make their lives better.

Breath Like Water is a refreshing story that intertwines competitive swimming with Susannah’s growth into young adulthood. The heart of the novel is in the love Susannah has for swimming, for Harry, and for her family. Susannah wants to make it to the Olympics, but she learns that win or lose, she has to love herself and love what she does. This book is excellent for those who want an exciting, and often times harsh, look at the reality of competitive swimming. Breath Like Water reads like a love letter—to family, to friendship, and to the water that keeps us all afloat.

Sexual Content

  • One of Susannah’s former swim teammates is pregnant, much to everyone’s surprise as she was slated for the Olympics. When Susannah asks how, her friend replies, “Don’t make me explain where babies come from. My version does not involve storks.”
  • Harry shows up at Susannah’s house early in the morning. She sees Harry and thinks, “The sight of him does funny things to my nether regions.”
  • Susannah likes Harry, and Harry likes Susannah. Susannah thinks about her feelings and says, “I’ve had crushes—I’ve even been kissed a few times, by a boy at swim camp a few summers ago—but nothing close to Harry.”
  • After beating her time at Nationals, Susannah kisses Harry. She narrates, “Before he can say anything else, I bracket his face with my hands and press my lips to his lips in a long, hard kiss that leaves my head spinning…Harry lifts my chin with his fingers and takes my lips with his, easing them apart. His palm comes to rest on my jaw and his other hand drifts to my hip, drawing me in by the waist.” They continue to kiss periodically throughout the book.
  • Harry keeps touching Susannah’s leg with his foot, and Susannah thinks, “He’s got sneakers on, and I’m wearing jeans, and we’re in public, but the image of his barefoot gently touching my bare leg as we lay wrapped around each other in bed keep flashing through my mind.”
  • Susannah is worried about having sex. When she asks Harry if he’s a virgin, he “shakes his head slowly.”
  • Susannah walks in on her sister Nina and another girl “making out on Nina’s bed.” They tell Susannah that they’re dating. Nina later comes out to her parents as pansexual.
  • Susannah and Harry have sex. Susannah narrates, “I love the weight of him, the soft hair on his legs tickling my bare ones, the sharpness of his hip bones digging into mine . . . I sigh as he kisses my throat, my collarbone, the space between my breasts, letting myself drown happily in the sensation of knowing someone loves the body that I never could.” The scene is described over a couple of pages.

Violence

  • Harry has bipolar disorder. When he was young, he “did stupid stuff. Defaced a public building, got into fights with other kids. I was drinking and taking pills, and I . . . I cut myself, sometimes . . . Where no one else can see.”
  • While in a depressed state, Harry “cuts himself too deep” and then calls Susannah for help. Susannah calls 911. When she arrives at his house, she sees “travel-size bottles of alcohol scattered underneath Harry’s desk.” Harry’s parents decide to take him to the youth ward of the psychiatric hospital – one that he’s been to before.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Susannah and her friends go to a house party with other high schoolers. Susannah notes that most of the students “have red Solo cups in their hands, which I’m sure do not contain soda.”
  • Susannah’s mom sends Susannah’s dad out on an errand run before the tamalada, a tamale-making party, to pick up “last-minute groceries, liquor, and other supplies.”
  • Nina, Susannah’s older sister, “has appointed herself bartender” for the tamalada. The adult relatives get a little tipsy during the tamalada.
  • When he was eleven, Harry found out he has bipolar disorder. According to Harry, he “didn’t know how to control [his] emotions or understand what was going on with [him], so [he] started stealing vodka from Bruce’s liquor cabinet and getting drunk in [his] room whenever [his] parents fought.”
  • For his bipolar disorder, Harry is on a list of meds. He lists them saying, “I’m on a mood stabilizer, and Prozac . . . I also take Xanax for anxiety, and Ambien to help me sleep when I need it.”
  • Susannah tears the labrum in her shoulder, and the doctors, “gave [her] some good drugs” to fight off the pain.
  • Susannah’s mom takes Susannah to get prescribed birth control from the gynecologist.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently throughout. Profanity includes ass, fucking, shit, and damn. People flip each other off on a few occasions as well, though in jest.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Harry and Susannah use the Jewish community center’s pool to practice, and Harry mentions that his stepdad is Jewish.
  • Every Christmas, Susannah’s family hosts a tamalada, where family, friends, and neighbors are invited for a massive “tamale-making party.”
  • Susannah mentions that her parents were raised Catholic but that they don’t go to church.
  • Father Bob, Harry’s friend, and mentor, visits him in the hospital and runs into Susannah. Susannah thinks about her relationship with God. She thinks, “I’m not sure I believe in God, or the wisdom of priests for that matter. The closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience is a really great race.” Susannah and Bob speak for several pages about the Bible and Carl Sagan, both of which Bob is fond of.
  • When Susannah’s mom found out that she was pregnant, she said, “I’m not a religious person, but I prayed to a god I’m not even sure I believe in that I would be the sort of mother a little girl could look up to.”
  • Susannah compares her position in the Olympic trials to the other competitors. She says, “I’m like a mortal who somehow wandered up a cliffside to Mount Olympus and is looking for a place to sit among the gods.”

by Alli Kestler

The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling 

Anna Chiu strives to be a perfect Chinese daughter. However, Ma has been stuck in bed for longer than usual and her mental health is worsening. Anna’s Baba, who is supposed to be the parent, is spending more time at his restaurant. While the family struggles to keep Ma’s sickness a secret, Anna feels it is her responsibility to take care of her younger siblings, Michael and Lily, but she soon falls behind in her schoolwork. Will Anna realize she is taking on more than she can handle and accept that she and Ma need help?

To escape the pressures of home, Anna volunteers to help at Baba’s Chinese restaurant. There, she meets Rory, the delivery boy with a history of depression. With Rory’s help, Anna learns that treatment for her mom’s mental health is available and can help bring peace to the Chiu family. After a traumatic episode involving Ma mutilating a live fish, Ma is sent to a hospital for psychiatric care where doctors can evaluate her condition and prescribe medication. While her mother is under the doctor’s care, Anna can focus on her own mental health and she finds new ways to open up.

By the end of the novel, the family learns how to better support one another, and Anna eventually accepts that not every day can be perfect. Even Rory, who has received help for his depression and anxiety, has difficult days. The book delivers a message to those struggling with mental health issues that no one is alone and there is always someone willing to listen.

The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling is told through Anna’s perspective and provides a realistic picture of mental health issues. Anna is a relatable character who struggles to fit in and at first, is awkward in her relationship with Rory. However, after witnessing Rory’s honest personality, Anna learns to discuss issues that are bothering her. Anna and Rory support and care for one another in a happy and healthy way. Anna is an admirable protagonist who loves her Ma and is passionate about working hard to save Baba’s restaurant. Plus, Anna shows love and encouragement to her younger siblings.

The novel demonstrates how race and struggles with identity can influence one’s mental health. As s Chinese-Australian, Anna experiences microaggressions from her peers and cultural pressures from her family. For example, the kids at Anna’s school call her “banana,” meaning she is “yellow on the outside, white on the inside. . . It’s like saying [Anna’s] a bad Chinese.” Anna soon recognizes how these pressures contribute to her anxiety. Despite this, these comments make Anna question whether she is good enough for her family.

In the end, Anna learns to take each day one at a time. She no longer bears the full responsibility of her family but recognizes the journey of her mother’s mental health recovery. Despite the stigmas against mental health issues that Anna witnesses, she accepts that her life is already normal—“It’s heartbreaking. And it’s true.” Anna no longer needs perfection as long as she is with the people she loves. The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling explores mental health issues in addition to having a cute romance. Readers who would like to explore mental illness through another book should also read Paper Girl by Cindy R. Wilson.

 Sexual Content

  • Anna talks about how she has little experience with boys. “It’s like when it comes to matters of sex, I don’t even count as an observer.”
  • One of Rory’s bullies makes a racist and sexist comment to Anna asking, “Aren’t the Asian ones supposed to be submissive?”
  • Rory and Anna share a passionate kiss. “We press our mouths harder against each other. Kissing still feels a bit strange and weird but exhilarating at the same time.”
  • Rory and Anna share a kiss in his car and things escalate. “Somehow we’re in the back seat. I feel his tongue on my skin, his breath against my neck, a hot and wet sliding.” However, they are quickly interrupted by Anna’s ringing phone.
  • Anna and Rory are kissing once again. Anna drags “him closer, feel[s] the tiny hairs on the back of his neck, the base of his throat, taste[s] the inside of his mouth. My legs and hips move, and I’m climbing out of my seat and into his lap.” Rory rubs his hands down Anna’s back, but then the scene ends.
  • Anna briefly describes her sexual experience with Rory. “When Rory hovers over me and I can feel his skin pressing up against the bits of my skin that have never felt someone else before, it’s I feel sated, protected, and exhilarated all at the same time.” Anna’s first time having sex with Rory is not described in great detail, but the action is clear.

Violence

  • Some schoolgirls discuss their assignments and joke about suicide. A girl says, “I’m going to kill myself.”
  • Anna discusses how “Ma used to beat us with the end of a feather duster when we did something naughty . . . I went to school with long sleeves covering the blue-and-green streaks.”
  • Anna claims she wants to “smack the eyeliner off” of a mean girl’s face.
  • Anna makes a vague comment that she wants to “tie weights to [her] ankles and be done with it now.”
  • Rory tells Anna how he once tried to kill himself by jumping in front of a moving train, but the train did not come that day.
  • While Lily is sleeping, Ma tries to hit her. “There are a few muffled thuds and a sharp cry, so I know Ma’s blows have landed but probably across the blanket.”
  • During one of her episodes, Ma mutilates a fish at the restaurant. Ma “holds up a slippery orange fish, no bigger than a mackerel, and before I can do anything, she pops its eyes between her fingers.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Anna is surprised to see her father home “standing by the sink, holding a small tumbler of beer.”
  • Rory takes Anna to his sister’s roller derby game where there is drinking. Rory offers Anna a beer and she accepts.
  • Ah-Jeff, who works at Baba’s restaurant, slips Anna some Hennessy and Coke while celebrating the new restaurant.

Language

  • Anna acknowledges that her “Cantonese might be crap.”
  • Baba calls a work colleague who quit a “bastard.”
  • After Anna finds her sister has pierced her ears, Anna exclaims, “What the hell, Lily?”
  • Anna makes an awkward squeaking sound and questions, “What the hell is wrong with me?”
  • Rory wants Anna to form a thesis declaring Rory, “The most badass English professor I’ve ever had,” to which Anna responds calling Rory, “Mr. Badass.”
  • Rory describes his time in the hospital. “It was shit and it made me feel worse.” He proceeds to use “shit” multiple times in his description.
  • Anna snaps at her brother Michael who can’t find his sock. She yells, “It’s a goddamn sock. Deal with it!”
  • Anna states Michael’s “cute pout isn’t going to save my ass.”
  • Anna calls Rory’s old friends “real assholes.” In a text conversation, she refers to the same group as “dickheads.”
  • Lily texts Anna that she is still “pissed” at her.
  • Rory feels as though he is a “shit son.”
  • A patient at the hospital calls someone a “bitch.”
  • Shit is used four times in one paragraph. For example, Rory states that “Hospitals are shit.”
  • Anna’s face turns red from drinking alcohol she can’t tell if she should “feel embarrassed or damn happy to be called out this way.”

 Supernatural

  • None

 Spiritual Content

  • Anna runs into some girls from school at the market and says a silent prayer “to whatever gods there are that the girls won’t see me.”

by Elena Brown

One on One

Chloe Gordon is super excited to attend summer soccer camp with her soccer sisters and fellow Breakers team members, Makena Walsh and Val Flores—even though she’s not quite as skilled as the other girls and her parents would rather her be spending her time practicing ballet.

When Chloe arrives, she discovers that the Breakers’ arch rival, Skylar Wilson, is rooming down the hall. Chloe worries that her camp experience will be more stressful than fun. Will the soccer sisters be able to band together and ignore Skylar’s bullying? Can Chloe overcome her fear of not being good enough in time for the big inter-camp match?

Former soccer player, coach, and motivational speaker Andrea Montalbano creates a fast-paced soccer story that teaches the value of determination. Readers will relate to Chloe, who is being targeted by Skylar, who has learned how to hide her bullying behavior. Besides the bullying, Chloe also struggles with self-confidence. After all, her mother doesn’t think Chloe should be on the team because “If you can’t be the best, why bother doing it at all?”

Even though One on One has a stereotypical plot, readers will enjoy its fast pace as it combines soccer and bullying into an engaging story. Told from Chloe’s point of view, One on One doesn’t just focus on the game; the story also gives a glimpse of Chloe’s home life, which adds humor and depth to the story. Chloe is a likeable character who has relatable conflicts both at home and at soccer camp.

One on One teaches about Brazil’s culture. Flavia, a camp counselor from Brazil, agrees to help Chloe with her soccer skills. When Chloe doesn’t make the team, Flavia is upset because Chloe doesn’t understand that winning isn’t always the most important thing. Flavia is also frustrated that the campers do not realize how privileged they are. Instead, “all you girls complain if the water is too warm or if you can’t win or if the field is not perfect. You have everything right in front of you, but yet you cannot see it.” Flavia shares her story, which gives Flavia’s cultural perspective as well as highlights the discrimination that girls in Brazil face. For example, in Brazil girls are expected to play with dolls, not soccer balls.

One on One’s high interest topic, advanced vocabulary, and short chapters make the story accessible to proficient readers. While One on One is the third installment of the Soccer Sisters series, each book can be read as a stand-alone book. While the story focuses on sports, the snippets of family life and drama off the field make One on One a book that all readers will enjoy. The book ends with questions, information on soccer in Brazil, a glossary of soccer terms, and a short biography on Olympian Brandi Chastain. Through Chloe’s experiences readers will learn lessons in sportsmanship as well as the importance of practice, determination, and keeping your word.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Skyler attempts to take down another player, Val. “At the last possible second, just as Skyler launched herself into the air, Val pulled the ball back. Skyler’s legs reached out for Val, but Val was too quick. Skyler flew through the air and landed with a thud.”
  • Chloe attempts to hit the ball into the goal, “but at the last second, another player got in front of her, knocking her to the side and clipping her above the eye with an elbow.” After the jab, Chloe has a black eye.
  • A food fight erupts in the cafeteria. “Chicken cutlets started flying. Pizza missiles landed on the wall… Edible pandemonium reigned. It was like a scene from an old movie Chloe’s father would have liked.”

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “OMG” is used six times. When the girls get to camp, someone says, “OMG, this place looks like Hogwarts!”
  • Heck is used five times. For example, someone asks Chloe, “What the heck is going on here? Are we going to play some soccer or what?”
  • Skyler calls three girls losers several times. She also makes snide remarks at Chloe, such as calling her a princess.
  • Someone calls Skyler an idiot.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When someone calls three girls losers, Chloe “prayed Makena wouldn’t take the bait.”

Lovely War

In a hotel room in Manhattan in the midst of World War II, the Greek gods Aphrodite and Ares are caught in an affair by Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaestus. Hoping to understand Love’s attraction to War, Hephaestus puts Aphrodite on trial. Her defense is to tell the tale of one of her greatest successes, the intersecting love stories of Hazel Windicott and James Alderidge, and of Aubrey Edwards and Colette Fournier. Aphrodite’s witnesses are Ares (god of war), Apollo (god of music), and Hades (god of death). Each contributes their own different, but overlapping, perspectives to the proceedings.

The story begins as piano player Hazel and soldier James meet at a parish dance and fall into instant, dizzying love, only to be separated three days later when James is sent to the front. Desperate to distract herself from anxiety about her soldier’s well-being, Hazel joins the YMCA where she meets Colette, a singer who lost her whole family in an attack on her home in Belgium. There, they happen upon ragtime musician Aubrey, a Black soldier who desires to make a name for himself on stage and on the battlefield. Aubrey and Colette bond over their music and realize their affections go beyond an appreciation for each other’s talents.

While the story addresses dark and violent subject matter due to its historical period, the frame narrative allows for light moments as well. The banter among the gods, and their respective belief that their part of the story is the most memorable, allows the mood to lift as needed. The darker moments hold meaning within the larger narrative and the smallest joys are heralded as gifts from the gods.

The human characters hold their own amongst their immortal narrators. Each character is likable and humorous in his/her own way. Over the course of the war, Hazel emerges from her meek demeanor, learning to stand for what she sees is right, while not losing her innocence and goodness of heart. James is goofy and sincere, making his experience in combat all the more tragic, as he must reconcile that what he does on the battlefield does not have to mean a loss of himself. Colette is strong-willed and a fierce defender of her friends, though internally she fears that anyone she loves is destined to die. She opens up, however, to the charming dreamer Aubrey. Aubrey’s experiences with racial violence show that the enemy to their happiness is not only the German soldiers they encounter on the battlefield but also those who perpetrate violence and discrimination against black Americans within their own neighborhoods and war camps.

Teenage readers who enjoy romance, Greek mythology, and historical fiction may enjoy this book. It is recommended that readers proceed carefully, as the book does address racism and racial violence as well as the terrors and destruction of war. Despite the hate and violence which surround them, the couples find their way back to love amidst it all. Their fragility as mortals in wartime allows for precious love to shine, as even the impermeable gods come to admire. After Aphrodite reminds Hephaestus that the mortals die, he responds, “They do. But the lucky ones live first. . . The luckiest ones spend time with you.”

Sexual Content

  • Two characters are briefly described as having an affair. “In an instant they are in each other’s arms. Shoes are kicked off, hats tossed aside. Jacket buttons are shown no mercy.” Their kisses are “like a clash of battle and a delicious melding of flesh, rolled together and set on fire.”
  • Athena and Artemis are called, “Those prissy little virgins.”
  • Some of the gods make brief jokes about paying attention to women’s bodies.
  • Hazel’s attraction to James sparks “a series of little explosions” which “began firing throughout her brain and spread quickly elsewhere.”
  • Stéphane admires Colette’s spine and thinks that “he could run his fingers along her back.” He does not act on his thought.
  • Colette is attracted to Aubrey’s musical talent, saying, “It was sexy. And so was its athletic high priest at the piano bench.”
  • During an attack on Aubrey, a racist soldier implies that Aubrey is after white women. Aubrey retorts asking if the man has “ever been with a black girl.” When the soldier laughs, Aubrey “had no illusions about her being a willing participant.”
  • Joey assumes an encounter between Aubrey and Colette was sexual in nature. He asks Aubrey, “Did you . . .?” Aubrey informs him, “It’s not like that,” and then scolds him for presuming that Colette is a “hooker.”
  • Aubrey hides so as not to be seen by a supervisor and realizes “he was free to ogle Colette from the shoulders down just at that moment, and he took advantage of it.”
  • Colette tries to understand Hazel’s fear about meeting up with James. Colette assumes that Hazel’s fear might be due to the possibility of one of them “taking advantage” of the other. Hazel admits that “if anyone found out, there’d be such a scandal.” She explains, “When I’m around James, I do the most outrageous things.”
  • Colette recognizes that being “alone in the dark” could lead to “dozens of ways a young man could try to take advantage of this situation,” although nothing comes of it.
  • A couple says goodbye, and “the brief kiss she gave him at the door was filled with neither passion nor desire, but sweetness, affection, gratitude.”
  • Hazel removes her stockings at the beach, and it is said, “The sight of her bare feet was just about enough to give poor James a stroke there on the spot.”
  • Hazel is pushed into James’ arms and, “The feel of her body pressed against his went through him like an electric shock.” They hold each other for a moment, spinning in circles.

Violence

  • There are multiple instances of racial violence perpetrated against Aubrey and his bandmates. There are also third-party historical sources referenced. Words such as “darkie,” “coon,” “negroes,” and “colored” are frequently used by other characters to address these men. At one point a southern soldier states, “An ape’s an ape.” Other racist comments permeate the experience of the black soldiers at home and abroad.
  • The black soldiers face fears of waking to a “lynch mob.”
  • The narrator describes an instance of police brutality. “A white police officer had entered a black woman’s home without a warrant, searching for a suspect. When she protested, he beat and arrested her, dragging her from her home though she wasn’t fully dressed. When a black soldier saw this and tried to intervene to defend the woman, the white policeman pistol-whipped the black soldier, seriously injuring him.” She then briefly mentions the “shooting that followed” which killed many people.
  • When addressing the possibility of looking at white women, Aubrey states, “No pretty face is worth swinging from a tree.”
  • The “Rape of Belgium” is described in detail over five pages. The narrator notes that German soldiers “pulled men from workplaces and homes and hiding places and executed them in the streets. Women, children, and babies were executed too. As old as eighty-eight. As young as three weeks.” Later, Aphrodite goes on to reference “the stories of women raped, children crucified, nailed to doors, of old men executed. . .”
  • The story frequently finds itself in the midst of trench combat. There are descriptions of the training process, of learning how to kill another man with minimal remorse, and of soldiers often encountering death and the bodies of those lost in battle. The men learn about the effects of gas attacks and how “those poor buggers in the first gas attacks drowned in their own blood.” At one point the trenches are described as “slick with blood.”
  • James imagines his own brother ending up the way his fellow soldiers have. “He saw Bobby’s burnt and blood-soaked body lying in the mud at the bottom of a trench.”
  • The soldiers travel “past live horses and dead horses and trucks and motorcycles.”
  • Multiple racially motivated murders take place in the camps. Two men are “strangled” and the discovery of one body is described over 6 pages. Aubrey and Lieutenant Europe come to the realization that “that was blood on the snow. His head. His face. His bloated, blackened face.” They assume the killers “beat his face in with their rifles.” They note, “You almost wouldn’t know it’s him” and they “gently [close] his gaping lower lip to hide the horribly broken jaw.”
  • Aubrey is held at gunpoint by a racist soldier who says, “We ain’t gonna let you Negroes get a taste for white women.” Aubrey took the man’s gun and “pressed the cold muzzle of the revolver against his victim’s temple.” Then, Aubrey warns his attacker not to mess with the Black soldiers again.
  • The narrator cynically describes how little detail is provided in the notifications of soldiers’ deaths, explaining, “They never said, ‘hung for hours on a barbed wire fence with his bowels hanging out, pleading for rescue, but nobody dared go for fear of hostile fire.’”
  • James partakes in trench warfare. He is a sniper and frequently must shoot German soldiers. After he shoots a man, “a red throat pours blood down a gray uniform.” James actively tries to not think about what he is doing in order to protect his friends.
  • A flamethrower is used in combat. The soldiers try to distinguish the fire, and the narrator notes that “the smell of flesh on fire reminds James of food, of cooking meat.” Ares goes on to narrate that “Chad Browning has stopped his screaming. His clothing is half melted away, half fused to his skin.”
  • Hazel is sexually assaulted by a prisoner of war. The attack is thwarted quickly but not before, “He licked her lips and teeth with his foul tongue, then forced it inside her mouth.”
  • Multiple explosions occur throughout the text. For example, after one explosion “the smoke lifted, and James scrubbed the grit from his eyes, Frank Mason wasn’t there anymore. Just a fire, a helmet, a torn pair of boots, and a little charred prayer book.” It is later implied that there would not be a body to bury.
  • Later, another explosion occurs. “The engine and the first two cars were annihilated. The cars beyond buckled and crashed into one another. Soldiers and war workers were thrown all about the cars. Shards of glass from shattered windows flew like shrapnel. Colette emerged unscathed, for Hazel had thrown her body over her friend’s.” James must treat Hazel’s injuries. Hades goes through the necessary course of action to “apply pressure to the bleeding and summon a medic. Clear airflow, release tight clothing.”
  • Hazel receives a blood transfusion. She notes the “tubes of red blood dangled from jars mounted to a metal frame and ran, Hazel realized, into a needle injected into her arm.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A character jokes about how the soldiers of the 369th “were knocked on their backs by the routine daily allotment of wine for French soldiers.”
  • While under treatment for shell shock, James is given sedatives.

Language

  • The narrator quotes real news articles about the 369th infantry; these include racist comments and one censored use of the n-word.
  • Offensive terms for opposing soldiers are often used. These include “Jerry,” “Russkies,” “Fritz,” and “Boche.” They refer at one point to Kaiser Wilhelm as “Wee Willie Winkie.”
  • Audrey calls the racist behavior of another soldier “shit” twice.
  • A trainer tells soldiers that in the event of a gas attack, “‘If you’ve lost your mask, you still stay calm. If all else fails, piss on a hankie and breathe through that.’” He warns that they will “break out in damnable sores everywhere” and that they “hurt like hell.”
  • Joey calls Aubrey a “jackass.”
  • Men are called “bastards” twice.
  • Aubrey calls his own behavior “damnably stupid.”
  • There is one use of the oath “Chrisssake.”
  • Emile regrets not being injured sooner, saying, “But non, you stayed away, leaving me healthy and sound, so the Germans could piss on me with their shells and bullets year after year…”
  • Aphrodite calls her husband a “blooming ass.”

Supernatural

  • Spirits occasionally observe their loved ones from the afterlife. At one point, James feels Frank’s presence and begins speaking to him. James wonders if he is going mad.

Spiritual Content

  • The story is told from the rotating perspectives of four Greek gods. Their influence and powers are often employed as catalysts for plot developments.
  • Hades comes dressed as a Catholic priest, as that is how he presents himself to humans.
  • Many of the human characters are Christian and are described praying, visiting churches, and lighting votive candles. They also reference Christian stories and practices.
  • After losing everyone she loves to the war, Colette struggles with her faith. She believes herself to be a “plaything to a vindictive god.” She calls god “it” and explains that “a loving god would never allow this. And if there was no god at all, surely chance would occasionally favor me, non?”
  • After standing up to an authority figure, the narrator says that Hazel “wasn’t a Catholic, but at the rate she was going, she probably needed a priest to take her confession. Before she was struck by lightning and cast down to hell.”

by Jennaly Nolan

 

14+    480   4.7   4 worms   AR   hs  (World War I)

Diverse Characters, Strong Female Character

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Explorers and the Jurassic Rescue

Traveling back millions of years in the past, The Secret Explorers must rescue a precious dinosaur egg. In their quest, Tamiko and Cheng attempt to fend off angry Allosauruses, but what will they do when the egg starts to hatch?

In The Jurassic Rescue, dinosaur expert Tamiko and geology expert Cheng team up to save a dinosaur egg. The two kids go on a fast-paced adventure where they must avoid becoming a dinosaur’s snack. The two must hide from a group of Allosauruses and at one point they even cover themselves in poop in order to hide their smell! Tamiko and Cheng use a combination of knowledge and teamwork to save an archaeopteryx.

Young readers will enjoy the story that is packed with plenty of dinosaur facts, suspense, and a happy ending that unites a newborn dinosaur with its mother. The story highlights the importance of one Archaeopteryx. Tamiko explains that the Archaeopteryx “can thrive, and have more babies. And those babies will have babies, and THOSE babies will have babies for a thousand generations—and that plays a part in the whole evolution of modern birds!”

The Jurassic Rescue has large black and white illustrations that break up the text and help readers understand the plot. Characters’ thoughts are easy to distinguish because they are in bold text. While younger readers may struggle with some of the difficult vocabulary and the length of the book, the book’s educational value makes it worth parents’ time to read The Jurassic Rescue aloud to their children. The book ends with 11 pages of a dinosaur timeline, glossary, and quiz.

Full of suspense and snapping dinosaurs, The Jurassic Rescue teaches about the Jurassic period in a fun and educational way. The Jurassic Rescue will entertain readers with the storyline and please parents with the educational value. Readers will be eager to read the next book in the series, The Secret Explorers and the Rainforest Rangers. Dinosaur-loving readers can also get more suspense-filled dinosaur action by reading the Dino Rider Series by Will Dare.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Tamiko and Cheng are transported to the Jurassic time period, a “creature bumped into the side of the Beagle, and it rocked again. . . The Plesiosaur lifted its head from the water. Tamiko caught a flash of teeth in a huge, yawning mouth.” The two kids drive away.
  • The two kids watch eight Allosauruses “prowling toward the Stegosaurus herd. . . An Allosaurus darted in and nipped at the mother Stegosaurus. With surprising speed, the Stegosaurus’s spiky tail thrashed down. One of the spikes caught the Allosaurus on the rump. It yelped with pain and quickly backed away.”
  • An Allosaurus “snapped its jaws at the Archaeopteryx. The Archaeopteryx shrieked and took off, gliding away through the trees.” The Archaeopteryx leaves its egg behind.
  • A Pterosaur tries to bite the kids. “The large predator swooped down from the branch and dive-bombed the cave mouth, snapping its long beak. Tamiko felt the brush of a leathery wingtip against her leg as she scrambled back into the cave.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The Secret Explorers can travel through time. Tamiko goes to a fossil shop and “opened the shop door. But instead of the usual glass cases full of crystals and fossils, Tamiko walked into a dazzling white light. A strong wind whipped her short black hair around her head. She felt as if she were flying—and then the light faded.” Tamiko is magically transported to the Exploration Station.
  • The Exploration Station picks two Secret explorers for each mission. When the kids’ badges “lit up” they knew they were chosen to go on the mission.
  • The Beagle can change into different types of transportation and magically takes its occupants to where they need to go.
  • When Tamiko starts the Beagle, “the steering wheel transformed beneath Tamiko’s hands into a sturdy set of handlebars, and the old seats became deep and comfortable.”
  • When the mission is over, all of the kids return to the exact location that they left. “There was a flash of light, and a jolt. Tamiko thrust out her hand to steady herself in the fierce blast of wind.” Tamiko is returned to the fossil shop.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Clap When You Land

Camino and Yahaira’s lives are turned upside down when they hear the news, “There have been no survivors found from flight 1112.”

Sixteen-year-old Yahaira lives in New York with her mother and father. Every year, her father returns to his home country – the Dominican Republic. This summer, he was on flight 1112. After Yahaira is told her father died in a plane crash, she is devastated by the news and weighed down by a secret – her father had a wife and a child in the Dominican Republic.

 Sixteen-year-old Camino lives in the Dominican Republic with her aunt. After Camino’s mother died, her father moved to New York. Camino’s father returns to the Dominican Republic every summer to spend time with her. Camino is crushed by the loss of her father and the discovery that he had another child, Yahaira, in New York.

Camino works with her aunt as a traditional healer and had aspirations of joining her father in New York to study medicine and become a doctor. Her father pays a local sex trafficker to leave Camino alone so she can focus on her schoolwork. Without her father funding this and her private education, she feels as though her dreams are now out of reach.

Clap When You Land follows Camino and Yahaira on their journey to discover how their lives are interconnected and what it means to be family. They both feel betrayed by their father’s secrets and must learn to cope with the aftermath. Camino and Yahaira learn the world is not always black and white, that maybe their father truly loved both of them. Yahaira comes to terms with her father’s deception saying, “I know now, Papi could not move between two families. When he was here – he was mine, when he was there, he was theirs.”

This spellbinding novel follows the two girls on the cusp of adulthood. Both girls must learn to deal with life’s challenges. Yahaira navigates life in New York as a lesbian, while Camino learns how to follow her dreams despite her circumstances. Clap When You Land will help readers understand the grieving process and how to cope with an immense loss.

The narration is provided in prose, switching between Camino and Yahaira’s voices which provides multiple perspectives on how loss can change someone. Camino and Yahaira’s relationship provides a valuable perspective on sexual assault and what it means to be a survivor. Camino and Yahaira find comfort in leaning on each other as they deal with the emotional and physical trauma they have suffered.

In addition, Clap When You Land discusses health disparities that exist both in the Dominican Republic and in the United States, providing important commentary on health inequities throughout the world. High school-aged readers will find Camino’s and Yahaira’s journey entertaining and captivating. The two young women are relatable characters who impart valuable life lessons.

 Sexual Content

  • As Camino walks to school, she sees “the working girls I once went to school with.” She is referring to girls who had to drop out of school to become sex workers.
  • Camino discusses how her father didn’t need to be strict with her because “I don’t mess with dudes from the barrio who love gossip at the domino bars about the girls that they’ve slept with.” Camino only flirted with the American boys from her school, but “not because they’re cute or interesting – they’re often obnoxious and only want a taste of my gutter-slick tongue and brownness; they act as if they could elevate my life with a taste of their powder-milk-tinged pomp.”
  • Camino discusses the neighborhood sex trafficker saying, “El Cero always gets a first taste of the girls who work for him. Before he gussies them up and takes them by the resort beach in cut-off tanks and short shorts so the men from all over the world who come here for sun and sex can give thumbs-up or -down to his wares.”
  • Yahaira reminisces about when she and her girlfriend, Dre, were intimate for the first time. Yahaira thinks, “The first time Dre touched me without our clothes on, she kept running her hand from waist to hip. And I wanted to write Miami a thank-you text, for giving my body a spot that was made to nest Dre’s head in.”
  • Yahaira describes Dre as saying, “If you tell a dirty joke, Dre will talk about plants that pollinate themselves. If you talk about hoeing around, you’d see Dre blink as her mind goes down a long winding path of tilling dirt.”
  • Camino is worried about El Cero, the local sex trafficker. She thinks, “Even the women, girls like me, our mothers and tias, our bodies are branded jungle gyms. Men with accents pick us as if from a brochure to climb and slide and swing.”
  • Yahaira was sexually assaulted on the train. She says, “When I felt a squeeze on my leg I thought it was an accident and when I felt fingers float up my thighs I thought I must be mistaken and when he palmed me under my skirt openhanded I dropped my trophy but did not scream, did not make a scene did not curse him out there was no strategy no alternate plan no way to win, there was just me stuck, and being felt up on a public train.”
  • Camino said her aunt always answered her questions, “whether it was about sex, or boys, healing or the Saints.”

Violence

  • When Camino learns that no one survived the plane crash, she thinks, “A body means there is no miracle to hope for; dead is dead is dead.”
  • Dre plays Nina Simone’s music when she is dealing with difficult events. Yahaira says, “She will play her when we see videos on social media of another black boy shot, another black girl pulled over, another kid in the Bronx stabbed outside the Bodega. Dre plays Nina when two girls holding hands are jumped.”
  • Yahaira’s mother won’t let her see her father’s remains because “the airline representative mails us a catalog of all the bits of cloth, and bone, and hair, and suitcase things that probably belong to my father.”
  • When a man sexually assaults Camino, she desperately thinks, “kick him back scratch at the eyes mouth open cry cry cry for help.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Camino frequently smokes cigars. “I lift my mouth to the cigar. Inhale. Hold the smoke hard in my lungs until the pain squeezes sharp in my chest.”
  • Camino’s aunt “hauls the honeyed rum.”
  • When they are making an offering to Camino’s dead parents, Camino and her aunt have a drink. “We pour a bit of homemade mamjuana into the water, and Tia doesn’t even stop me when I take a sip from the bottle. I am feeling guilty.”

Language

  • Damn is used occasionally. For example, after Yahaira’s coach calls to give her condolences. Yahaira thinks, “Who knew death must be so damn polite?”
  • Fuck is used sparingly. For example, Camino described how her house was blessed by saints, but “a lot of people don’t fuck with that kind of thing here.”
  • When walking down the street, Yahaira avoids “dog shit.”
  • Yahaira is planning on flying to the Dominican Republic to attend her father’s funeral even though “Miami is dead-ass serious that she isn’t going to the DR funeral.”
  • A man calls Camino an “uppity, ugly bitch.”

Supernatural

  • Yahaira asks Camino if she believes in ghosts. Camino answers, “Of courses, I believe in ghosts. There are spirits everywhere.”
  • Yahaira describes the alter in Camino’s home. “Miami and I have been ignoring the alter in the corner. I don’t know much about Saints or ancestors, only the rumors of sacrificing chickens and how it all relates to voodoo.”
  • Camino and her aunt are traditional healers and frequently call upon spirits. The townspeople say Camino’s aunt “has the Saint’s ear.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Paige Smith

Before the Ever After

ZJ’s dad, “Zachariah 44” Johnson, is a football star and ZJ’s entire world. He has always been there for ZJ and his mom. Zachariah 44 is a source of pride for the neighborhood and his fans. But after his most recent football concussion, ZJ’s dad has been different: Wild mood swings, forgetting ZJ’s friends’ names, even forgetting ZJ’s name. ZJ finds himself watching as the father that he loves deteriorates before his eyes. Clinging to his friends and mom, ZJ dreams about what life was like before the ever after.

Told in verse by ZJ, Before the Ever After highlights important moments that ZJ remembers about his father—the good and the bad. This is a story that pertains to head injuries in the NFL in the early 2000s and how they were dealt with. It specifically highlights the impact these injuries had on the families of these players.

In a way, ZJ is narrating a tragedy about his father’s fall from football star to a father that can’t remember his own son’s name. ZJ and his mother deal with the situation as best they can, and ZJ’s stories of the good times with his father carry a strong nostalgic tone. ZJ is elementary to middle school-aged, and the way he understands and relays information is perfect for younger readers. ZJ also plays football, but his relationship with it is complicated as ZJ tries to come to terms with the sport that his father loved so much. Although this story is about ZJ’s father, it is very much ZJ’s story as well.

Although Before the Ever After isn’t very long, Jacqueline Woodson carries us along with simple yet powerful verse that conveys the somber tone of ZJ’s particular voice. Throughout the course of the novel, ZJ learns that the things we love in life become a part of us, whether it’s a hobby or career or a person. Those things that we love unconditionally live in our memories, good and bad. By the end of the book, ZJ’s narration is mostly in the present rather than in the past, showing that he’s starting to accept his new reality. Although what happened to his father will never be okay, ZJ isn’t alone, and that’s the most important lesson of all.

Sexual Content

  • ZJ’s mom takes his dad to the doctor, who tells ZJ’s dad that he can’t drive anymore. ZJ narrates, saying “the doctor said to Daddy, / Look on the bright side. You have this / beautiful chauffeur. / Then he winked at Mama. / Look on the bright side, my daddy said / back to the doctor. / You’re a total chauvinist.”

Violence

  • “Zachariah 44” Johnson (also referred to as Dad) is a professional football player, so football-related pains and injuries are abundant. Once, Johnson describes, “His whole body . . . / is 223 pounds of pain / from toes to knees, from knees to ribs, / every single hit he took yesterday / remembered in the morning.”
  • One day, Ollie and ZJ are playing tackle in the yard when “Ollie tackled [ZJ] so hard, [his] head hit / the ground / and [his] nose bled.” Ollie felt terrible about the situation.
  • ZJ notes that “[his] dad probably holds the Football / Hall of Fame record / for the most concussions. Even with a / helmet on.”
  • This book takes place during the late nineties through the early 2000s. The topic of Y2K and what comes with the millennium comes up in conversation. ZJ talks about “this guy on the radio [who] said the world / was going to end / when we got to the new millennium. / That it was gonna explode—a whole / ‘nother big bang / but this time, instead of the earth being / created, / it was just gonna burst into smithereens / and all of us would be gone from here.”
  • ZJ’s dad’s mental state deteriorates throughout the course of the book from years of many concussions. Dad often forgets things and gets irrationally angry, and he sometimes will “slam the door so hard / the whole room shook.”
  • ZJ says that when he was a little kid, his grandma would say, “You’re about to get yourself / in deep water.” ZJ explains, “Deep water was a spanking from her.”
  • Football-related violence is sometimes described. ZJ notes that one time, his dad “got hit so hard, a / vein broke / in his left eye / and it stayed bloodred for days and / days.”
  • ZJ and his friend Ollie have a snowball fight in the park, and ZJ looks for specific gloves. He says, “I don’t know why / but those gloves seem to have a / superpower / when it comes to shaping snowballs and / firing them / at the sucker who didn’t duck fast / enough.”
  • ZJ gets tackled during a touch-football game. ZJ describes, “I’m going down, tasting snow and / dirt and spit / and something else too. / Blood.” ZJ, thinking about his dad’s injuries, quits football then and there.
  • ZJ’s dad punches out a window in the bedroom. ZJ says, “I’m half asleep when I hear the glass, / shattering once, then again as it’s / falling. / I hear my mother screaming and run to / their room, / where my daddy is standing at the / window, his arm through it, / and cold air blowing in.” The scene lasts for a couple of pages, and it’s clear that ZJ’s dad is confused about what’s happening.

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • ZJ says that Ollie’s mom Bernadette comes over and drinks “sometimes, if it’s a Friday night, / one glass of wine.” Bernadette jokes, “Any more than that. . .  / and I forget my own name.”
  • After ZJ’s dad forgets who ZJ’s friends are, they ask “was your dad drunk?” and “maybe it was drugs.”
  • The doctors want to prescribe some “experimental drugs” to help ZJ’s dad cope with his migraines, memory loss, and anger.
  • ZJ describes some of the pills that his dad takes, saying, “there’s the pill that makes his feet / swell. / And the one that blurs his vision. / And the one that makes it hard for food to stay / in his belly. / And when none of those pills work, / there’s another doctor to see.”
  • ZJ remembers his dad’s earlier birthday parties, before people had stopped visiting them: “the ones who used to fill up our house, / their wineglasses clinking, / their laughter echoing through the / rooms.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • ZJ’s best friend Ollie was left on the doorstep of a church as a baby. As a result, “a preacher and his wife found / and kept [Ollie].”
  • ZJ talks about the toll that his dad’s condition is taking on his mom. ZJ says, “Last night I found my mom outside / standing on the deck, looking up at the / sky. / Are you counting stars? I asked. / No, she said. I’m looking for God. / If anyone has any answers, I guess / God would.”
  • ZJ’s mom prays to herself, saying “In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.”

by Alli Kestler

A Thousand Questions

Mimi has a lot of questions, like why is her mother taking her to Pakistan to meet her grandparents? Why did her father leave Mimi and her mom? Where is Mimi’s dad now? Visiting Mimi’s grandparents in Pakistan might not answer all her questions, but she’s determined to figure some of them out.

Sakina wants nothing more than to attend school. Unfortunately, she has to help her father clean Mimi’s grandparents’ lavish house to make ends meet, so going to school for Sakina feels like a pipe dream. Plus she must pass the English language exam to even attend, and Sakina has no one to practice with. That is, until Mimi and her mother arrive from America.

In a meeting of cultures, Mimi and Sakina learn much from each other and eventually become friends. The family and class dynamics surrounding their lives present new ways of looking at the world and their places within it.

Split between Mimi and Sakina’s perspectives, A Thousand Questions tackles topics like class struggles, family relations, and cultural barriers. Mimi is from Houston, and although she and her mother don’t have a lot in the States, Mimi’s grandparents are wealthy in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Sakina is employed, along with her father (Abba), as a servant in Mimi’s grandparents’ household. The friendship between Mimi and Sakina isn’t encouraged at first, and often the differences in class come up when Mimi has more freedom (both financially and socially) than Sakina. Instead of fostering dislike between the two, Sakina is motivated to improve her English and attend school however she can.

Language is a large part of the book. Many of the characters speak Urdu, and Urdu and Arabic words are used throughout. Faruqi does an excellent job of giving contextual clues, so the language-hopping never feels confusing. A glossary is also included at the end of the book to help aid readers. Language is also used as a plot point. Mimi’s Urdu isn’t great, and Sakina’s English is ok, so the two teach each other. In this exchange of languages, there is also an exchange in cultures. The bond that Sakina and Mimi form is heartwarming, even if they don’t always see eye to eye.

Mimi also has a journal where she writes questions to her father. She misses him, and her letters are part of the narrative. Much of the book details her emotional journey as she learns about her parents’ lives and why her father left. At the end of the book, Mimi is able to reach a resolution and seems to make peace with her father’s leaving.

A Thousand Questions tackles important topics regarding culture, friendship, and family, and both Mimi and Sakina grow as people as they learn about each other. This book will appeal to people who are already familiar with Pakistan as well as to people who want to read about a strong friendship and culturally nuanced book. In A Thousand Questions, Mimi and Sakina’s friendship opens their eyes to the world around them, and it will certainly do the same for the reader. This book is a must-read for its diverse content and its ability to tell a moving story about friendship and family.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Mimi was little, she “crashed [her] bike in the street outside [their] Houston apartment . . . and broke her leg in three places.”
  • When Mimi was five, she writes letters to her father who left her and her mother. Mimi never sends them. One day she writes, “Do you ever get angry? Not annoyed or irritated, like most people, but a deep angry that makes you throw something at the wall and watch it crack.” Mimi has not actually done this.
  • Sakina’s Abba has diabetes and collapses in the kitchen one day. Sakina, Mimi, and Nani hear “a loud crash” and they rush to get him to the hospital.
  • Sakina explains that Raheem, her neighborhood “goonda” or “gangster,” is “going around ordering people to vote for his candidate. Screaming, destroying things.”
  • Raheem broke into a neighbor’s house with his stick and broke things inside. Sakina describes, “Broken chairs and tables, a cracked mirror on the wall. Clothes strewn about on the floor.”
  • The goondas in Sakina’s neighborhood rob Sakina’s family. They don’t physically hurt anyone, but Raheem threatens to “tear [the house] down” if they don’t hand the money over.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mimi’s family’s driver smokes. Sakina explains in English that the smoke “makes [her] eyes water.”
  • Mimi’s great-uncle smokes a cigar, and Mimi “wrinkles her nose at the smell.”

Language

  • Words like dumb, stupid, nuts, shut up, and weird are occasionally used.
  • Mimi’s grandmother, Nani, screams at one of the gardeners and accuses him of killing her rose bushes. She calls him a “ulloo-ka-patha.” Mimi doesn’t know what this means, and it isn’t explained further. The glossary in the back explains that it means “son of an owl; used as an insult” in Urdu.
  • Mimi’s mom calls Mimi’s father a “deadbeat.”
  • Mimi’s grandmother calls Sakina a “lazy oaf” and “fool.”
  • Mimi sometimes refers to Nani as “the dragon lady” because of Nani’s fierce temper.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Mimi has a traditional Pakistani dress that she wore twice for “the two Eid celebrations.”
  • Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr are two major Islamic holidays.
  • When things go wrong, Sakina’s father never gets worried. He always says, “It’ll be all right. God will provide.” Sakina doesn’t buy this, saying “God listens to rich people, not to people like Abba [her father] and [her].”
  • Abba frequently thanks God for the good things in their life.
  • The mosque down the street from Mimi’s grandparents’ house uses a loudspeaker to announce prayer times. Mimi describes, “a loudspeaker crackles to life, and a melodious sound fills the air around us. Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar. God is great. God is great.” This happens a few times throughout the book.
  • Mimi thinks to herself, “Maybe if I help Sakina with her admission test, God will reward me by bringing my dad back. And maybe pigs will fly.”
  • Mimi and Sakina talk about why poverty exists. Sakina says, “Abba says it is the will of God.” To this, Mimi replies, “How can God allow some people to have everything and others to have nothing? How can He be the Creator of both Pakistan and America? The two are like day and night. God is supposed to love us equally. Isn’t He?”
  • Malik, the family driver, joins in Mimi and Sakina’s conversation about God. He says, “God gives each of us free will to do whatever we want. Sometimes human beings are bad to each other. They steal and hurt and lie. They don’t take care of the less fortunate.”
  • Malik goes to do the “maghrib prayer” one evening.
  • Sakina and Mimi also attend the maghrib prayer. Mimi describes the scene, saying, “I wrap my scarf around my head and follow [Sakina’s] actions. Standing, sitting, prostrating. It’s familiar and strange at the same time, as if I’ve done this a thousand times in a dream. Oh God, if you’re there, send Dad to me. Please. Just for a few minutes, so I can hug him one time.” Mimi finds that she enjoys prayer time.
  • Sakina admits to Mimi that she hasn’t prayed “in a long time” because she finds “it hard to believe in God these days.”
  • Sakina lies to gain access to Mimi’s father’s workplace. Sakina thinks “the God that Abba believes in—the God I felt around me in that marketplace mosque—will forgive me.”
  • Mimi insists that her mom should be looking for Mimi’s father. Mimi’s mother replies, “He left us . . . Why would I go chasing after him? Why would I ever want to find him for God’s sake?”
  • Various characters make comments using “God” and “Allah” throughout.
  • Sakina’s mother, Amma, sees the money that Mimi and her mother have left for them. Amma says, “Mimi and her mother are angels of God.” Sakina isn’t as certain about this but does see the money as “a miracle.”
  • Before her exam, Sakina says “a quick little prayer under [her] breath.”
  • Occasionally, characters will say, “Alhamdolillah,” which means, “All praise to God” in Arabic. They also sometimes say “Inshallah,” which means, “God willing” in Arabic.

by Alli Kestler

 

The Rainstorm Brainstorm

It’s Aunt Miranda’s birthday! The WellieWishers want to give her something special, but they can’t agree on what it should be. Then, Kendall discovers the Tomorrow Pile. What looks like a bunch of old, dirty, broken-down things to the other girls looks like cool stuff with lots of potential to Kendall! Can the girls use it to make something wonderful?

Kendall’s friends play with her tools, but they forget to put them away. The next day, Kendall is upset because her tools are “muddy, messy, and ruined.” Once her friends see how upset Kendall is, they clean the tools and paint them so they look new. Kendall quickly forgives her friends and encourages them to use her tools to finish making Aunt Miranda’s surprise.

The Rainstorm Brainstorm shows how everyday items can be repurposed. As the girls work, they aren’t afraid to scrub, and clean, and cut vines. When the girls give Aunt Miranda her birthday gift, she says, “Thank you for clearing out that pile of old stuff for me—that’s a great present, too! The pile is gone, the stuff in the pile was reused, and I love the presents that you all worked together to make for me.”

The WellieWishers are introduced through pictures that appear on the first page. This diverse group of girls wears adorably bright clothes and wellie boots. All of the girls’ different personalities blend to make a wonderful friend group. Almost every page has a brightly colored illustration that helps the readers understand the plot. The girls’ facial expressions will also help the readers understand their emotions.

Young readers will want to grab The Rainstorm Brainstorm because of the adorably cute pictures. They will also be entertained by the story and learn important lessons about friendship. Young readers will enjoy the story’s rhyming words and how the girls sing songs. The book ends with a section “For Parents” that provides crafts ideas that correspond with the book. The Rainstorm Brainstorm will encourage readers to find everyday objects to turn into useful items such as a weather-vane, garden statues, or a birdhouse. Through the characters’ interactions, readers will learn the importance of sharing, working together, and forgiveness.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

An Abundance of Katherines

Just hours after graduating from high school, Katherine XIX dumps Colin Singleton. Colin grew up as a child prodigy, who does not get along well with others. And he only falls for women named Katherine. He understands that his role in the universe was to fall in love with Katherines and then to inevitably be dumped by them.

Following the break-up, Colin’s only friend, Hassan, takes Colin on a road trip. They end up in Gunshot, Tennessee where they meet Lindsey. Lindsey’s mother offers Colin and Hassan a summer job collecting an oral history of the small town. The two boys interview people about their experiences in Gunshot. At the same time, Colin works on creating a mathematical theorem to graph, describe, and predict relationships.

An Abundance of Katherines follows Colin as he grapples with finding his purpose in the world. Colin struggles with being an incredibly gifted child prodigy but feeling as though he is failing to live up to his expected potential. Colin states, “Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do.” Colin also struggles with the expectations his parents have for him, as his father always pressures him to not only be a prodigy but also to grow into a genius. This causes Colin to frequently have anxiety when he fails to meet these unrealistic goals. But Colin is still determined to make his mark on the world and be remembered.

Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey are likable characters who provide many perspectives. Although the book is only told from Colin’s perspective, Hassan and Lindsey’s experiences are thoroughly described as they spend every day with Colin. Colin provides meaningful insights into a gifted child struggling with failure and navigating the process of growing up. Readers will be able to relate to Hassan who struggles with discrimination and finding motivation in life’s endeavors. In addition, Lindsey’s perspective helps readers understand the struggle to identify their true self.

This upbeat novel takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery and maturing into adulthood. An Abundance of Katherines will resonate with readers of different ages because of the relatable conflicts. As teenagers transition into adulthood, they might grapple with understanding their place in the world. Colin’s journey provides readers the opportunity to feel less alone in these struggles, while also providing an entertaining, hilarious story. Ultimately, Colin finally has his Eureka moment by discovering, “You matter as much as the things that matter to you do.”

Sexual Content

  • Hassan frequently refers to his penis, which he has named “Thunderstick.”
  • Colin jokes with Hassan. Colin says that if he had religious beliefs, “I’d like to believe that I could fly into outer space on the fluffy backs of giant penguins and screw Katherine XIX in zero gravity.”
  • Sexual intercourse is insinuated a few times. For example, Colin was surprised his parents were allowing him to go on a road trip, but he assumed “maybe they just wanted a few weeks alone to rekindle the romance.”
  • Colin and Hassan see Lindsey’s purple bra. During this interaction, Colin thinks back to Katherine XIV “who wore a black bra and everything else.” He also thinks about other girls’ bras he had seen.
  • Colin recalls his time with Katherine XIX where they “climbed into bed downstairs, she pulled off his shirt and he hers, and they kissed until his lips were numb except for tingling.”
  • While thinking about his failed relationships, Colin has his Eureka moment, describing it as, “feeling like a thousand orgasms all at once, except not as messy.”
  • When Colin meets Lindsey’s friend, he describes her as “tall and thoroughly Abercrombified in her tight tank top. The girl also had – how to put this politely – gigantic gazoombas. She was incredibly hot – in that popular-girl-with-bleached-teeth-and-anorexia kind of way.”
  • Colin attempts to explain how unpopular he is by saying, “The end of that story is that I came relatively close to having a lion bite off my penis. And my point was that shit like that never happens to popular people.”
  • For two pages, Lindsey tries to teach Colin how to make his story about the lion more interesting by emphasizing his “giant winky.”
  • Lindsey describes an attractive guy at her high school. She describes him as a “self-professed proponent of the 4 Fs: find ‘em, feel ‘em, fug ‘em, and forget ‘em.”
  • Hassan plays spin the bottle with Lindsey and her friends. Hassan ends up kissing someone. The next day Hassan tells Colin the story. Hassan says, “She made a beeline for my mouth and, I swear to God, her tongue was licking my teeth.” Hassan proceeds to embellish the story for three pages.
  • When she goes out with Colin, Lindsey jokes to her mom saying, “We might be back late. Hot sex and all!”
  • Hassan begins going out with a girl. He tells Colin that he and the girl got to “second base over the shirt.”
  • Hassan’s girlfriend and Lindsey’s boyfriend are caught having sex: “She was facing away from them, her back arched, her butt bobbing in and out of visibility. Colin had never seen actual people having actual sex before.”
  • Colin finally convinces Hassan to go to college. Hassan says, “I only registered for two classes in the fall, so don’t start creaming yourself.”
  • Colin tells Lindsey about all of the Katherines he has dated. He said Katherine X “was the first girl I ever French-kissed, and I didn’t know what to do so I sort of kept darting my tongue out from behind closed lips like I was a snake.”
  • Colin discusses Katherine XVI. In their brief relationship at an academic decathlon, Colin says, “we had to kick her three roommates out of her hotel room so we could make out properly.”

 

Violence

  • After Colin is dumped by Katherine XIX, his parents are attempting to comfort him. Colin felt “a tremendous need to get them out of his room immediately like if they didn’t leave, he would blow up. Literally. Guts on the walls; his prodigious brain emptied out onto his bedspread.”
  • The violence surrounding Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination is frequently discussed. For example, while Lindsey is providing a tour of his grave, she states, “From everything I’ve read about Franzy, he and Sophie had about the happiest marriage in the whole history of royalty. It’s sort of a cute story, except for how on their fourteenth wedding anniversary – June twenty-eighth, 1914 – they were both shot dead in Sarajevo.”
  • Lindsey also describes how Franz Ferdinand became the successor to Austria’s throne. “His uncle was the emperor Francis Joseph, but being the Austro-Hungarian emperor’s nephew don’t matter much. Unless, say, the emperor’s only son, Rudolph, happens to shoot himself in the head.”
  • The first meal Colin and Hassan have at Lindsey’s house is quail. Colin asks, “The bird was shot?” To which Lindsey states, “Yup.” Colin responds, “And I’m eating the bullets?” Lindsey smiles and states, “Nope. You’re spitting them out.”
  • Lindsey attempts to have Hassan and Colin conduct interviews of the townspeople. Hassan responds, “No fugging way. That’s how horror movies start. We drop you off, walk into some stranger’s house, and five minutes later some psycho’s lobbing off my nuts with a machete while his schizophrenic wife makes Colin do push-ups on a bed of hot coals.”
  • One of the townspeople was arrested for killing a neighbor’s pet snake. When explaining his rationale, he states, “You see a snake, you kill it. That’s just how I was raised up. So I shot it. Split it right in two.”
  • The same townsperson said he did not want to go off to fight in any war, so he “shot off two of his toes because he is a coward.”
  • Colin’s father is nervous that Colin is staying with a stranger in Tennessee. Colin responds, “Dad, I survived seventeen years in Chicago without ever getting mugged or stabbed or kidnapped.”
  • When Lindsey finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her, a fistfight breaks out between her boyfriend and Colin and Hassan. This is described in detail for six pages. At one point, Colin and the boyfriend face-off, “In the moment before the strike, Colin felt it in his loins – the phantom pain – and then Lindsey’s boyfriend’s knee came up into Colin’s groin so hard he briefly left the ground.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a rest stop, Colin finds graffiti on the bathroom stall stating, “CALL DANA FOR BLOW” causing Colin to wonder “whether Dana provided fellatio or cocaine.”
  • Colin’s childhood tutor, Keith, used to drink with Colin’s parents. Colin remembers thinking, “After those dinners, the parents would sit in the living room laughing louder as time passed, Keith shouting that he couldn’t possibly drive home, that he needed a cup of coffee after all that wine – your home is an Alamo for oenophiles, he’d cry.”
  • Lindsey attempts to describe her popularity by stating, “I’m not just some former ugly girl who sold her soul to date hotties and go to the finest keg parties the Greater Gunshot Area has to offer.”
  • One of the townspeople says he was arrested multiple times. He was arrested when he “was drunk in public in 1948.”
  • Colin thought his mother wanted him to behave like a more “normal” kid. He thinks that “she’d be secretly pleased if he came home one night at three in the morning reeking of booze because that would be normal. Normal kids come home late; normal kids drink warm forties of malt liquor in alleys with their friends.”
  • For two pages Hassan tells Colin how he “drank half a beer.” He split it with Lindsey.
  • Colin contemplates what would happen if he became popular. He thinks, “He had seen enough movies to know what happens when dorks go to cool-kid parties: generally, the dorks either get thrown into the pool or they become drunk, vacuous cool kids themselves.”
  • Lindsey and Colin share moonshine together. Lindsey states, “Sweet holy shitstickers, it tastes like you’re washing down a bite of corn with a pint of lighter fluid.”

Language

  • Colin and his best friend Hassan periodically use profanity, which includes ass, hell, damn, dick, pissed, and bastard.
  • When addressing each other, Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey occasionally use the word “retarded” or “tard.”
  • Colin and Hassan use the term “fugger” frequently. The term is used in conversation as “fucker” normally would. For example, when Hassan is confronting Colin for being a poor friend he says, “Have you ever sat with me for hours and listened to me whine about being a fat fugger whose best friend ditches him every time a Katherine comes along?”
  • Lindsey asks, “Why the fuck do you and Hassan say fug all the time?”
  • “Shit” is used frequently. For example, when Colin is describing himself, he states, “I’m washed up, I’m former. Formerly the boyfriend of Katherine XIX. Formerly a prodigy. Formerly full of potential. Currently full of shit.”
  • One time, Colin also uses the word “merde,” which is French for “shit.”
  • Hassan and Colin frequently refer to each other as “Kafir,” which is a derogatory Arabic term meaning “infidel.”
  • At a rest station, Hassan finds a table that has “God Hates Fags” written on it.
  • When Colin continues to drive without deciding on a destination, Hassan complains, “I like this interstate as much as the next guy, but the farther south we go, the hotter it gets, and I’m already sweating like a whore in church.”
  • Hassan says he does not need to go to college or work because his father is, “rich as balls.”
  • “Pussy” is used twice. Lindsey teaches Colin to shoot a gun with a lot of kick, saying, “I don’t want you to look like a pussy.”
  • Colin calls Lindsey’s boyfriend a “paardenlul”, which directly translates to “horse penis,” which is stated in the footnotes.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Colin and Hassan frequently discuss Hassan’s religion. Hassan introduces himself to Lindsey as, “Hassan Harbish. Sunni Muslim. Not a terrorist.”
  • Colin makes fun of Hassan saying, “How very odd, to believe God gave you life, and yet not think that life asks more of you than watching TV.”
  • Hassan frequently prays. On the road trip, they stopped at a rest stop so Colin could use the restroom “while Hassan knelt on the concrete outside, facing Mecca.”
  • Hassan discusses his viewpoints on haram, stating, “The haram shit I do is, like, having a dog. It’s not like smoking crack or talking behind people’s backs or stealing or lying to my mom or fugging girls.”

by Paige Smith

 

 

 

 

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys

Guyku is the right story for little guys on the move!

The collection of poems captures moments of childhood across the four seasons. From fishing to throwing snowballs to playing in leaf piles, Guyku touches on the wide variety of outdoor activities that kids can do. The book is written for boys, like the title suggests, but it is applicable to all children.

Poetry can have a reputation that it is something you give to advanced readers. However, Guyku flips that notion on its head and helps young readers learn through poetry. Because each poem occupies a full page, the poems are not daunting for new readers.

Raczka and Reynolds are an author-illustrator team who are very much on the same page. The pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations capture the simplicity of the poems and the Earth-toned colors take the reader outdoors. These illustrations accompany every poem, and context clues will help struggling readers make sense of the poems. The art is subtle and encourages the reader to explore the meaning of the poem and ask questions. The eye-catching illustrations will make you laugh as you watch boys, and girls explore the outdoors and enjoy childhood. While the book is generally goofy, the illustrations do not shy away from showing an array of emotions from glee to sadness and boredom to enthrallment. Guyku does a good job of normalizing the range of feelings that people encounter, but there is an emphasis on the excitement and wonder of childhood.

Haiku poems are only three lines long; they have five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line. A haiku is an observation of nature, and nature is a playground for children. The poems do not take long to read, but sometimes more can be said in a haiku than a whole novel. One of the primary rules of a haiku is that it is written in the present tense. Whatever is happening in a haiku, is happening right now! For children who are wrapped up in the moment, the format of the poem lends itself to being active. The book can serve as inspiration for the wide variety of games that can be played, activities to do with friends, and ways to interact with the outdoors.

Guyku is for kids and about kids. All of the characters are children who are doing what children do best, playing! While the poetry moves quickly and the illustrations are fun, there is a reflective part to these poems. The book encourages children to place themselves within all of the great things the outdoors has to offer and brings into question how the outdoors makes the reader feel. It is likely that a child will see themselves in the characters of the book. Guyku encourages outdoor activity in a positive way.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Paul Gordon

 

Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion

Iggy Peck is an architect at his very core: when he’s not making houses out of food, his head is up in the clouds, dreaming of design. So he’s totally blown away when Ada Twist’s Aunt Bernice inherits an old house from ice-cream mogul Herbert Sherbert that is filled with countless rooms from all his favorite architectural periods. But something’s not quite right . . .

Everyone says the house is haunted, and it seems that a number of priceless antiques—which were supposed to help Aunt Bernice pay for the house’s upkeep—have gone missing. If they can’t find those antiques, Aunt Bernice might lose the house forever. It will take all of Iggy’s knowledge of architecture and the help of the other Questioneers—Rosie Revere, Ada Twist, and Sofia Valdez—to solve the mystery and find the treasure!

Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion builds suspense because it has just the right amount of spooky, scary, and strange events. All of the events are eventually solved in a logical way. Iggy and his friends do some sleuthing, but they also research the Mysterious Mansion’s history and Iggy uses his knowledge of architecture to help solve the mystery.

The majority of the story focuses on the Mysterious Mansion’s history. Iggy discovers that two people who lived in the mansion died from the Spanish Flu. “People can still die from the flu, but it’s not as common because scientists invented new medicines and vaccines. People used to die of all kinds of diseases like measles and flu. Vaccines changed that.”

In addition, the spooky story also has humor. For instance, when Mrs. Bernice Twist inherits the mansion, the letter reads, “The Law Offices of Yabba, Dabba & Dew are not responsible for the actions of ghosts or anything that causes shivers, nightmares, heebie-jeebies, or worse. Especially worse.”

Most of the pages have large black, white, and green illustrations that will help readers envision the characters as well as understand the story’s plot. Other illustrations show drawings from Iggy’s notebook. However, younger readers may struggle with the story’s advanced vocabulary and the architectural lingo. However, the story’s use of imagery, onomatopoeia, and alliteration make Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion a fun story to read aloud. The story ends with information about art nouveau and art deco, information about “Weird, Wonderful, and Wonderfully Weird Cats,” and a recipe to make ice cream.

Readers familiar with The Questioneers Series will enjoy seeing the same cast of characters. Iggy and his friends are curious, resourceful, and able to think outside the box. Unfortunately, the conclusion has several events that are unbelievable. Despite this, readers will enjoy the mystery, the friendship, and the illustrations.  If you’re looking for another series that has smart, curious characters, check out the Ellie Engineer Series by Jackson Pearce and the Jada Jones Series by Kelly Starling Lyons.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Aunt Bernice, Ada, and Iggy try to open the mansion’s door when “the boards of the porch began to rise and fall like piano keys. A wave rolled from one end of the porch to the other and back again. . . Suddenly, the board beneath Aunt Bernice’s left foot rose up and sent her tumbling.” When they jump off the porch, the motion stops.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The town folks believe that the Sherbert House is haunted by Herbert Sherbert and his wife. When Iggy stumbles upon the mansion, he thinks, “There were darker tales of a woman whose cries could be heard late at night if you dared to get close enough to the house to listen. They said the ghosts were looking for something—or someone!”
  • The Mansion begins to play music and then “the shutters of the Great Hall window slammed shut. Almost as quickly, they flew open again. The shutter opened and shut in rhythm with the music.”

Spiritual Content

  • None
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