Icon: Diverse Characters

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor #1

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

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

 Drugs and Alcohol

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

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

Blended

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

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

 Drugs and Alcohol

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

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

As Brave as You

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

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

Violence

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

 Drugs and Alcohol

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

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

 by Alli Kestler

Goldie Blox (Ruins) Rules the School

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

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

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

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

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

 Sexual Conte

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Sunny

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

  • None

 Violence

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

Drugs and Alcohol

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

Language

  • Words like stupid and weird are used frequently.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Alli Kestler

Backfield Boys: A Football Mystery in Black and White

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

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

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

by Jill Johnson

Digging Deep

Asiyah Najjar isn’t sure she wants to play on a travel team. But her best friend Lucy talks her into going to volleyball tryouts. When both Asiyah and Lucy are chosen to be part of the team, Asiyah is excited. But the practices are longer, harder, and more frequent than her old squad’s. Soon, Asiyah isn’t sure that she made the right decision in joining the travel team.

Asiyah is well-known for goofing around and making her friends laugh. While at practice, she keeps up her silly antics but instead of laughing, Asiyah’s new teammates are upset that she’s distracting them. Instead of having fun, Asiyah keeps making mistakes. Instead of upper her game, Asiyah is having difficulty concentration. When she overhears Lucy and her other teammates talking poorly about her, Asiyah wants to quite the team. Will travel volleyball come between Asiyah’s and Lucy’s friendship? Can Asiyah dig deep and jump to the next level of play?

Before quitting, Asiyah asks her brother for advice and with his encouragement, Asiyah begins to ask herself, “Is now the right time for fun?” As Asiyah gets more serious and focused on the game, she realizes that working hard improves her skills. Soon, both her coach and teammates notice Asiyah’s efforts. When Asiyah makes a key play that leads to winning a game, Asiyah knows her hard work has paid off. Asiyah realizes that she doesn’t need to change, she just needed to figure out when to be serious and when to be silly.

Readers will relate to Asiyah, who loves to make people laugh. Her silly faces, dance moves, and jokes are fun, but they also lead to trouble. Like many, Asiyah’s feelings are hurt when her best friend doesn’t stand up for her. Asiyah begins avoiding Lucy, which just makes the problem worse. When Asiyah talks to her brother, he gives her advice—about both volleyball and friendship. Her brother tells her, “Well, you need to decide if you want to put in the effort to get better…If you don’t, then maybe the travel team isn’t right for you. And that’s okay.”

Asiyah is Muslim and wears a hijab. When she tries out for the travel team, she is nervous about having to explain why she wears a hijab. This brief scene is the only time Asiyah’s religion is mentioned. While the story has diverse characters, the characters are one-dimensional and generic.

While the story has some play-by-play sports action, readers of all types will relate to Asiyah’s insecurities, realistic conflicts, and silly antics. Told from Asiyah’s point of view, Digging Deep allows the reader to understand Asiyah’s conflict. Digging Deep has ten short chapters, easy vocabulary, and a simple plot. The cute black and white illustrations that appear every 4 to 7 pages help keep readers engaged. For those who would like to use Digging Deep as a learning opportunity, the end of the book has a word glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary of volleyball terms. Digging Deep will entertain readers and teach them the value of hard work.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Since the ritual that brought magic back to Orïsha, rebel maji have been concentrating their forces in preparation to take down the corrupt monarchy that has oppressed them for so long. Not only have the white-haired maji regained their magic, but nobles inside the monarchy have also begun to gain magical powers, heightening the stakes of the upcoming war.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance picks up shortly after the conclusion of Children of Blood and Bone.  The second installment in the Legacy of Orïsha series showcases the political struggles of the Orïsha’s rebel army. The story is told from the rotating perspectives of Inan, Zélie, and Amari. Inan, the crown prince of Orïsha, returns to his mother’s inner circle and struggles to understand which side he should take in the war. Amari, once the princess of Orïsha, has joined the rebellion and is hoping to lead the people to victory and take her place as their new queen. Zélie has become one of the most powerful maji in the rebellion. While she hones her new powers, she also must grapple with processing the traumas she underwent in the first part of her adventure, which was detailed in Children of Blood and Bone.

Amidst endless political turmoil and battles, the reader will likely find the most compelling part of the story to be the relationships between the characters. Amari and Zélie had a strong friendship in the first installment, but political stressors test their bond. Meanwhile, Zélie’s feelings for Inan, which were romantic in the first book, solidify into hatred. Consequently, Zélie begins a new romance with pirate mercenary Roen, while her brother Tzain continues seeing Amari.

Audiences may find the plot unsatisfying, as its pacing does little to hold the reader’s attention. The prolonged battles are difficult to follow and visualize. Characters talk abstractly about the deaths of soldiers and rebels while discussing war strategy, but this limits the battle’s emotional effect. The most compelling parts of this book are the emotional struggles that the characters experience. Zélie, Inan, and Amari all struggle with anxiety, grief, and the long-lasting effects of trauma. They make messy decisions, and their relationships break apart due to stress. Readers who rooted for the friendships forged in the first book may find themselves disappointed when these friendships fall apart.

The politics are hard to follow, and the constant switch of perspectives makes the battle scenes difficult to understand. Despite this, fans of the first book will be happy to have a continuation of the story. However, they won’t find the same adventure and excitement that made the first book so memorable.

Sexual Content

  • Tzain and Amari share an intimate moment. Amari burrows “back into Tzain’s neck, running my fingers across the new stubble along his chin… He runs his thumb along my jaw, igniting a surge almost as powerful as my magic.”
  • When Roen takes his shirt off, Zélie’s “face warms at the sight of his sculpted muscles.”
  • Zélie sees Inan and remembers his “lips that promised me the world. Hands that caressed my skin.”
  • Inan’s cousin jokingly tells him, “I’ve heard the legends of what greatness lies beneath your robes, but I fear I’m far too pure to see it for myself.”
  • Roen touches Zélie’s face, and she thinks, “Though I don’t want to feel anything, his touch makes an ember flicker in my stomach.”
  • During a romantic moment with Tzain, Amari notices “his sandalwood scent, I realize how much I want him. How much I want more… I imagine what a few hours with him might entail. How his kiss might feel.” When they kiss, their “lips meet, and the rush is so strong it spreads through my entire body. A flutter erupts between my legs as I shift, pressing into him.” They are interrupted and don’t go any further.
  • At a celebration, Amari slow dances with Tzain. “Tzain dips his chin and kisses the top of my head. He places his hands along my waist, making my skin tingle when his thumbs brush a sliver of bare skin.” Later, they leave the party and kiss more. Amari’s “fingers curl the moment his lips meet mine. I sink into him, tasting the sweet remnants of palm wine… I think of how many times I’ve imagined this moment. Imagined being here with him. My pulse races as I slip my fingers under the hem of his tunic.”
  • As they’re about to move further, Tzain makes her stop because he’s afraid she’s only consenting to intimacy because she’s afraid she’ll die soon. Amari says, “I don’t want to be with you because I’m afraid of dying. I want to be with you because I love you.” They take off their clothes and lay on a bed together, but the narrative skips over the actual act.
  • During an outing with Roen, Zélie asks him, “Is this a ploy to get me naked?” Roen says, “You know I don’t need ploys for that.”
  • Zélie sees something and says, “That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!” Roen tells her, “That’s usually what my lovers say about me.”
  • Zélie and Roen have an intimate moment. Zélie surrenders “to his touch. To the feel of his lips against my ear. He makes me lose myself in his arms, stealing the air from my lungs with every caress. ‘Is this okay?’ he whispers. My breath hitches as he squeezes my waist, hands lingering at the hem of my tunic.” They stop soon afterwards.

Violence

  • A lot of the battle scenes are magic-centered. For example, when Amari launches an attack on the enemy in battle, she magically “strikes them in an endless blue wave.”
  • Later in the battle, someone uses magic to turn the army’s mounts rabid. “Soldiers scream as they’re flung form their panthenaires’ backs. The riders foam at the mouth… A rabid panthenaire sinks its fangs into its soldier’s throat.”
  • While discussing military strategy, someone floats the possibility of the queen using innocent villagers “as shields.”
  • Zélie recalls how the mercenary Roen “once told me that his torturers carved a new line [in his arms] every time they killed a member of his crew before his eyes; twenty-three tally marks for twenty-three lives.”
  • As Amari begins to practice magic, she finds it painful. “Midnight-blue tendrils shoot from my fingertips like sparks from a flint. My palms sting as my skin splits. My scars rip open at the seams… I stumble into the mirror. Crimson smears across my reflection. Blood trickles down my chest as I fall to my knees.”
  • During a battle, the royal army releases majacite gas into the air, which is toxic to maji. Maji “scream like their nails are being ripped off.” A maji’s skin “sizzles and burns. He struggles to scream as he chokes on the black smoke.”
  • Zélie is hit by the toxic gas and describes how “smoke burns my skin like a branding iron… The poison sears the skin of my calf. Another cloud hits the scars on my back.”
  • The rebellion uses a large stone dome as their base of operations. Amari watches the queen use magic to collapse it. The queen “punches her fists into the ground. The earth splits open at her touch… Screams fill the dome as Nehanda’s fracture cuts across the sand… Then I hear the crack. The crack cuts through the dome’s wall… The dome crumbles.”
  • While recklessly riding her lionaire, Zélie crashes and nearly falls off a cliff. “I claw at the sky as I fly toward the forest. My body smashes through wiry branches before slamming into a tree. I wheeze as my chest collides with hard bark. My ribs fracture with a loud crack. Blood flies from my lips as my vision blacks out and I tumble to the ground.”
  • In their dreamscape, Zélie sees Inan “hold the scarred flesh of his abdomen as if it still leaks blood. I can almost see his memories coming back to him. The pain of his father’s sword driving into his gut.” He is physically unharmed. The wound he is remembering was detailed in the first book.
  • During a magical dreamscape, Zélie gets mad at Inan and makes “black vines tighten around his throat, cutting off his words as he chokes. Blood drips down his back, oozing as the jagged bark scrapes into his skin.”
  • While escaping the palace, Inan punches guards in the throat. The guards “wheeze… their grips loosen and I break free, ignoring the way they scream.”
  • Inan watches from a distance as Lagos comes under attack. “Countless balls of fire arc through the air. They explode when they hit the ground… Screams ring through the night as the firebombs ravage Lagos all at once.”
  • When Inan uses magic, he raises his hand “and my magic explodes with such force I hear the bones shatter in my arm.”
  • Inan sees someone from the royal military kill a maji by injecting them with majacite. The torturer says, “Do you know what it feels like to have majacite in your veins? First it blocks the illness you call a gift. Then it burns you from within.” Inan watches as the torturer “yanks the girl’s head to the side, exposing her neck… The girl cries out when the needle pierces her skin. She tumbles like a brick, body seizing in the dirt as the majacite kills her from within.”
  • During a fight, a fellow rebel maji attacks Amari with magic. “A cobalt cloud roars from [the maji’s] hand, searing into me. The cloud engulfs my mind like a match ignited in my skull… Her magic feels like thousands of nails drilling through my bones.” The fight is described over three pages.
  • The maji tells Amari during the fight, “Kill your vile family. Kill yourself.”
  • Amari fights the maji, and she screams “as I dig my hand into [her] hair and pull, driving my elbow into her temple… I straddle her body as a cobalt blaze ignites in my hands.”
  • When Zélie encounters Inan, she attacks him. Zélie shifts her “weight, twisting Inan’s sword from his hands. Before he can react, I extend my blades. My spear slices through his side… I drive my knee into his gut.”
  • Inan gets into a fight with a trusted friend. Inan pulls “a dagger from my belt, throwing it at his thigh.” The friend stops the dagger with magic, avoiding injury.
  • Zélie is caught in a massive chain of explosions and falls into water. “My ears ring from the string of explosions. I can’t see anything. Falling rocks slice through my skin… The collision knocks precious seconds of air from my lungs.”
  • A character loses a limb in the explosions, and “his severed arm lies underneath the boulder.”
  • A character dies when a column of earth is magically thrusted through his stomach. His “eyes bulge as it punctures his stomach… he slumps forward as blood leaks from his gut, pooling onto the silver floor.”
  • A maji summons a magical gas during battle. “The gas unleashes its attack, launching the wall of death… The cloud moves like a wave, crashing over everything in its path. Birds squawk as they try to escape… One’s wings fold as it’s flung into the cloud. The second it’s hit by the gas, its body shrivels. It plummets to the ground.”
  • Zélie watches the gas hit a young mother. “Blood shoots from her mouth on impact. Her skin shrivels as it turns black. I see the moment she realizes that she won’t make it. The baby falls from her hands.” The mother dies, but the baby is safe.
  • A maji attacks Amari. The maji “opens her hands and dark shadows of death shoot forth. Pain rips through me as they wrap around my body and my throat.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Roen has “a cigarette tucked between his teeth.”
  • The rebel maji drink palm wine during a celebration. Amari takes a cup and joins in a toast.
  • During the celebration, “music and laughter bounce against the sanctuary walls. Palm wine runs free.”
  • A couple makes a scene during the celebration. As a man tells a woman, “I love you!” the woman says, “You’re drunk!”
  • Amari doesn’t drink palm wine because “Father wouldn’t drink before battle. Neither can I.”
  • Inan drugs the queen by putting her own sedatives in a flute of wine.

Language

  • A piece of fabric is “not fit to wipe a leopanaire’s ass.”
  • “Gods” and “my gods” are used as invectives infrequently.
  • “Skies” is used frequently as an invective. For example, “What in the skies?”
  • Maggots is a slur that refers to the white-haired maji. People in the royal family often use the slur as a hateful pejorative.
  • Twice, specific gods are invoked by name: “For Yemoja’s sake” and “By the grace of Oya.”
  • Dammit is used four times.

Supernatural

  • Several chapters concern the effects of a ritual wherein Zélie binds her lifeforce to that of another maji. Zélie “used the moonstone to connect our lifeforces. But without a blood sacrifice to bind our connection, neither of us can survive.” While they are connected, if one sustains an injury, both of them will suffer.
  • An elder volunteers herself in a blood sacrifice. “Blood magic spreads inside her, glowing through every vein… With the final chant, the shine around her becomes too bright. She lights up the night like a comet flying through the sky.” Instead of physically dying, the elder magically disappears. This ritual marks a turning point in a battle and gives the rebel maji enormous advantage over their enemy.
  • Zélie and Inan meet in a dreamscape, a magical landscape that exists only in their dreams.

Spiritual Content

  • Much of the spiritual content concerns the magic system, and there is little separation between the spiritual and the supernatural. Maji get their powers from the same gods that they pray to.
  • In a moment of hopelessness, Zélie thinks that her dead mother “was wrong to keep me on the earth.” The spiritual beliefs are as real as the magic system, and Zélie previously met her dead mother during a magical ritual. The existence of an afterlife is treated not as speculation, but as fact.
  • Zélie says, “From the gods comes the gift of life… to the gods, that gift must be returned.”
  • Zélie says, “This is destiny. The gods don’t make mistakes.” She’s referring to her new role as a maji with the rebellion.

by Caroline Galdi

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Vol 3

Link continues on his quest to save the children from his village and dispel the dark clouds that are threatening to take over the land. Link returns to the Twilight Realm in the form of a wolf and quickly discovers that the children are stuck in the Twilight Realm as lost souls! With the help of an unlikely wolf ally, Link must learn to become a much stronger warrior if he wants a chance to save those he loves.

Much like the previous two installments, this graphic novel closely follows the plot of the video game with a few diversions and added elements. For intense Zelda fans, another taste of Twilight Princess will make this graphic novel enjoyable. However, casual gamers will likely be bored due to the repetitive plot, and those who are not familiar with the Twilight Princess game may be confused in a few places. All in all, this graphic novel is best for readers who are already a part of the Link fandom.

Link is a lovable character that will capture readers’ interests. While one of the children becomes slightly more developed in this installment, Link is mostly surrounded by two-dimensional characters. There is more action in this book than in the first book, but aside from the last battle, most of the battle images are not graphic. In Twilight Princess Vol 3, Link continues to explore what true strength really is, and he finally realizes that strength lies in protecting the innocent.

Twilight Princess Vol 3 has intense fighting and a dark tone. Even though the manga artwork is incredible, the fight scenes are a bit confusing because there is so much going on. Unlike the previous books, this volume shows different characters’ points of view, which helps develop the characters and gives the story an interesting twist. Twilight Princess Vol 3 continues to develop Link and his world. Although Twilight Princess Vol 3 contains action and adventure, the slow pace of world-building may make it difficult for some readers to get through the story.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While in his wolf form, Link kills two monsters by ripping them apart with his teeth.
  • Link fights a skeleton warrior as part of a training session. At the end of their fight, Link cuts off the skeleton warrior’s head. The skeleton warrior then stands up, picks up his head, and congratulates Link.
  • A captured village girl considers committing suicide. The girl wonders, “Rather than living alone with monsters…” and almost cuts her wrist with the pottery shard, but is interrupted by a kitten that needs her help.
  • Link battles a monster and his minions during a 32-page battle. In the end, Link slashes the monster across the chest with his sword, and the reader sees the monster bleeding profusely before he falls into a gorge.
  • A monster clubs a village boy in the head, and then is attacked by a mob of village children.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Link lives in a world with magic, shadow beasts, and demons. When people from the land of light are engulfed by the Twilight Realm, they turn into lost souls. This is what happens to the children from Link’s village. When he finds them, he cannot interact with them, as they are merely lost souls.
  • When Link travels to the Twilight Realm, he is transformed into a giant wolf. While in his wolf form, Link can communicate with animals.
  • Link learns that “humans aren’t the only race living in Hyrule” when he meets a Goron. Gorons are giant rock-like creatures that “live in Death Mountain and eat rocks.”
  • Link meets a magical wolf that transports Link to his realm in the clouds. Once there, the wolf shows himself as a skeleton warrior and trains Link to be a better swordsman.

Spiritual Content

  • There is a legend that when evil people tried to use magic to take over the land, “the goddesses grew angry at this affront and sent four spirits of light to seal the upstarts’ magical power away in the shadow crystal. Furthermore, the mirror of shadow prevented these wizards from entering the world of light. They were exiled to the twilight realm.”
  • Renado, a shaman and physician, takes the children to his village to protect them.
  • The children hide from the monsters in a house. There is a statue of a spirit in the house. The shaman says, “perhaps the power of the spirit Eldin does not allow the monsters to enter.” Link later meets the Eldin, “one of the spirits of light who gather in Hyrule and protect this land.”
  • Renado says, “thank the gods,” when his daughter is saved by monsters.

by Morgan Lynn

Race to the Sun

Lately, seventh-grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like the man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he’s Mr. Charles, her dad’s new boss at the oil and gas company. He’s alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their Navajo heritage, and the legend of the Hero Twins. Nizhoni knows he’s a threat, but her father won’t believe her.

When Nizhoni’s dad disappears the next day, he left behind a message that said “Run!” The siblings and Nizhoni’s best friend, Davery, are then thrust into a rescue mission that can only be accomplished with the help of Diné Holy People, who are all disguised as quirky characters. However, their aid will come at a price. The kids must pass a series of trials that seem as if nature itself is out to kill them. If Nizhoni, Mac, and Davery can reach the house of the Sun, they will be outfitted with what they need to defeat the ancient monsters Mr. Charles has unleashed. It will take more than weapons “for Nizhoni to become the hero she was destined to be.”

Middle-grade readers will relate to Nizhoni, who wants to be good at something but just isn’t. When her emotionally distant father is kidnapped, Nizhoni embarks on a quest to save her father. However, she isn’t alone; Nizhoni’s book-loving best friend and annoying brother join her adventure through the Southwest. On the quest, Nizhoni and her friends meet the “Holy People” as well as some scary monsters.

The fast-paced story combines Navajo mythology with moments of humor, unexpected twists, and timeless lessons about friendship, family, and failure. The importance of hard work and helping others is weaved into the story. Spider Woman says, “All good things come through hard work. If something is too easy to get, it isn’t worth much, is it?”

At first, Nizhoni doesn’t feel like she has the qualities to become a hero. However, Nizhoni learns that she doesn’t need to change. One of the story’s recurring themes is: “Don’t worry about what you’re supposed to be. Just be who you are.” While Nizhoni shows bravery, she is able to defeat the monsters only with the help of others.

Race to the Sun will take readers on an action-packed quest and introduce them to Navajo mythology. Nizhoni is an interesting but imperfect narrator. Readers will relate to Nizhoni’s insecurities and her moments of courage. The conclusion is rushed, and there are several holes in the plot, but this doesn’t take away from the book’s enjoyment. For readers looking for more marvelous mythology books, the following books will delight you: the Storm Runner series by J.C. Cervantes and the Pandava series by Roshani Chokshi.

Sexual Content

  • When Nizhoni’s parents are reunited, they kiss.

Violence

  • Charles tells Nizhoni that he wants her dead. Without thinking, Nizhoni runs “full tilt at Mr. Charles. His startled eyes are the last thing I see before I kick that knife right out of his hand… I’m not done. I head-butt Mr. Charles in the stomach… And for good measure, I execute a perfect elbow strike to the cheek, just like I learned in self-defense class Coach taught in PE last year.” Nizhoni’s dad comes in and stops her.
  • In the past, Nizhoni had to attend anger management classes for “punching Elora Huffstatter in the nose.”
  • Adrien, a bully, and his friends corner Mac. “Mac screams, an animal-like bloodcurdling cry of rage. He slams his hands onto the ground, palms flat… A low rumble rolls across the baseball field, like an army of badgers tunneling through the earth, and then, suddenly, all the sprinklers turn on…” Mac makes the sprinklers shoot at the bullies. “The jets are all pointed at them, zipping back and forth in sharp slashing cuts, or pulsing bursts aimed at their eyes.” The bullies eventually run away.
  • To save Black Jet Girl, Nizhoni needs to get by two buzzards. She throws a feather into a fire and “it explodes into a million tiny salt crystals that pop and sizzle. Hot granules fly everywhere… The salt strikes their protruding eyes and they stumble around, screeching in pain.”
  • Some people believe that Spider Woman eats children. However, Spider Woman helps Nizhoni and her friends.
  • Nizhoni and her friends are following the Rainbow Road. They enter a corridor surrounded by rocks. When Mac disappears, Nizhoni runs after him. When she finds him, “he’s staring right at me. With big red eyes… He bares his sharp teeth and hisses… Monster Mac takes a swipe at me, and I see that besides having long, pointy teeth, he has long, pointy claws, too.”
  • When Nizhoni sees monster Mac, she turns to “launch a swinging kick right at the monster’s stomach. It lands with an Oomph! I elbow him in the chest and he doubles over. One more kick—this time to his ribs—and he’s down. He’s on all fours, panting.” Monster Mac “becomes a cockroach. It scuttles off…” The fight is described over one page.
  • In a multi-chapter battle, Nizhoni and her friends fight to keep the monsters from returning to earth. “Nizhoni lifts her bow and…release. The arrow flies true, a streak of white lightning that hits the banáá yee aghání in its veiny red eyeball. The monster screeches and veers away…”
  • A banáá yee aghání goes after Nizhoni’s mother. “Mom waits until the buzzard is practically on top of her, and then she swings the sword. Lightning crackles from its tip, slashing the monster’s face. Ligai drops, almost too quickly, streaking under the buzzard and dragging its beak across the monster’s underside, tearing it open.”
  • During the fight, Mac falls off a flying bird. “A shimmery substance unfurls in the air underneath him like a silver net. He falls into the glimmering stuff, and it completely envelops his body, rolling him into what looks like a giant burrito.” Later, Mac finds out that Spider Woman put him in a spider web to keep him safe.
  • When Mr. Rock points a gun, Nizhoni’s mom “launches herself into the air, her sword slashing downward, and Mr. Rock’s gun goes flying—while still attached to his hand.”
  • Mr. Charles shoots an arrow at Nizhoni. “It’s a direct hit right over my heart. I scream as fire radiates through my body… I struggle to breathe, my pulse beating too loud in my ears… I fall to the canyon below.” Nizhoni discovers that she cannot be killed by her own arrow.
  • Nizhoni uses lightning “that’s been building up in my blood. And I blow Mr. Charles to smithereens… And then a sound like a bubble popping. And then more pops as all the banáá yee aghání in the sky above me burst into a blaze of white lightning and turn into ash that rains down on me.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • A girl tells Nizhoni that her mom “left us because I was a dirty Indian. Then she made war-whopping noises like something out of a bad Western.”
  • Adrien, a bully, and his friends bother Mac. The bully says, “Marcus Be-gay! Oh, please be gay!” The rest of the boys chant, “Gay! Gay! Gay!”
  • Adrien calls Nizhoni a loser.
  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation one time.
  • Heck is used three times. For example, when Mr. Charles meets Nizhoni and her brother, who are a mess, Mr. Charles asks, “But holy heck, what happened to you all?”
  • Nizhoni calls her brother a dork.
  • A buzzard tells his brother, “Don’t be an idiot.”
  • Nizhoni says her mom is “badass.”

Supernatural

  • Nizhoni can tell if a person is a monster in disguise. When she sees Adrien, a bully, “his eyes meet mine and that horrible sensation—my monster detecting—springs to life. The hair on the back of my neck rises, and a chill like the trail of an ice cube scuttles down my spine.”
  • Nizhoni knows the “language of animals” and can see in the dark.
  • Marcus can control water. He tells Nizhoni, “I’ve made water move before. Like in the bathtub.”
  • Nizhoni’s stuffed horned animal comes to life. Nizhoni had “been raised to take seemingly supernatural things in stride. Up to now, talking animals hadn’t been a part of my everyday life, but my shimásání taught me there’s more to the world than we humans can see…”
  • Mr. Charles is a shape-shifter who can look human. He is related “to a nasty kind of monster called a banáá yee aghání. These are vicious bird creatures.”
  • Nizhoni meets a crystal boy, who is made of white crystal rock, and a girl, who is made out of black rock.
  • Nizhoni and her best friend Davery go into a school that is having a prom. They are tempted to stay, but when they leave, “in an instant, the whole gym shimmers and disappears.”
  • Nizhoni looks into a mirror. She “leans forward to press my hands against the mirror, and suddenly the surface is not there anymore… I go plummeting into the glass.” Nizhoni is transported to a glade, “where she can see people, but they can’t see her.”
  • Nizhoni meets the sun, who is “wearing blinding bright armor and carrying a golden shield. And step-by-step on an invisible set of stairs, he appears to be climbing into the sky.”
  • Nizhoni finds her mom, her friends, and others encased in amber. When the amber cases shatter, Nizhoni looks up, and “Mac is standing on a platform, yawning and stretching his arms over his head.” All the people in the amber come back to life.
  • Nizhoni and her friends must fight a group of buzzards, but “only a monster slayer can look into their eyes.”

Spiritual Content

  • Along the journey, Nizhoni meets the Holy People. Someone tells her, “The tricky part is that the Holy People don’t always answer, or at least not in ways that you might recognize. But they are always there.”
  • After Nizhoni’s father is kidnapped, she prays “with all my might that he’s out of that trunk and getting food and water.”

Longboard Let Down

Valeria loves longboarding and going to competitions. She’s always been one of the best downhill longboarders around. But when Valeria injures her arm, she isn’t sure she wants to jump back on a longboard. Valeria is no longer fearless; instead, she’s overwhelmed by doubts and insecurities. When her best friend, Mateo, tries to get Valeria to ride again, she keeps making up excuses.

When Valeria meets Chloe, a new girl at school, Mateo tells Chloe that Valeria can teach her to longboard. Valeria reluctantly agrees, but when Valeria gets back on the board, she crashes. Valeria wonders if she should quit longboarding. The Pro Longboard event is right around the corner, and Valeria has always dominated the local kids’ division. Will Valeria get over her fear in time to participate in the competition?

Valeria is like many of the “Mexican people in Harlow Springs. Some only spoke Spanish. Valeria, like many of her friends, had been born in Colorado. Her parents had come from Mexico.” Valeria and several of the other characters use Spanish words when speaking. While having diverse characters is a positive attribute, Valeria is stereotypically portrayed. Valeria’s family is poor and when injured she goes to the free medical clinic. Valeria lives in a trailer park and “sometimes people looked at her differently after they found out where she lived.”

Unlike Valeria, Chloe is a spoiled, rich white girl, who is a bit outrageous. She never looks down on Valeria, but she obviously doesn’t have to worry about money. Chloe’s outrageous behavior adds humor to the story. For example, during the competition, Chloe wears a gorilla suit in protest against her mother. Chloe says, “That way when people ask, ‘Which one is your daughter’ she’ll have to tell them, ‘The one in the gorilla suit.’”

Valeria is a relatable character who has to overcome her fears. Valeria meets a competitive longboarder champion, Ana, which helps Valeria realize that everyone has moments when they want to quit. However, with Ana’s encouragement, Valeria is able to get back on the board. Even though she doesn’t win the competition, Valeria thinks, “In a way, getting second place today feels more important than all my first place wins. I never would have expected that.”

Longboard Letdown will introduce readers to a sport that is often overlooked. Readers will enjoy the cute black and white illustrations that appear every 4 to 7 pages. The story has a simple plot, easy vocabulary, and realistic conflicts. The ten short chapters and full-page illustrations make Longboard Letdown an easy read. For those who would like to use Longboard Letdown as a learning opportunity, the end of the book has a Spanish word guide, word glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary of rodeo events. Longboard Letdown explores Valeria’s fear and teaches the importance of perseverance.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Some Places More Than Others

For her birthday, Amara wants to visit New York City and visit her father’s side of the family. She wants to meet her grandpa Earl and cousins in person. When her father has a business trip in New York, Amara is determined to get permission to go.

When Amara’s teacher gives the class “The Suitcase Project,” which requires Amara to look into her family’s past, Amara thinks this is the perfect way to convince her parents to allow her to go to New York. As Amara looks for family keepsakes, she looks at the family Bible and learns that her grandma Grace died on her birthday. After Amara overhears a conversation, she learns that her father hasn’t talked to his dad for twelve years. Amara isn’t sure how the two events are connected, but she’s determined to find out.

When Amara finally gets to New York City, it isn’t what she imagined. As she explores the city and asks questions, Amara learns more about this place, her father, and their history. Her experience helps her see how everything in her family connects and helped make Amara the person she is.

Some Places More Than Others explores family relationships and the shared events that combine to knit a family together. As Amara explores Harlem with her family, she begins to understand the importance of honoring those who came before her—Adam Clayton Powell, Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes, etc. While the story doesn’t go into depth explaining the historical people’s contribution to society, readers will feel Amara’s awe and pride as she begins to understand how these people made her life possible.

Like all families, Amara’s family dynamics are complicated. Though she doesn’t always get along with her relatives, she knows that love binds them together. While in New York, Amara tries to help her father and grandfather put the past behind them and begin talking. The past has caused lingering pain and resentment in Amara’s father. However, by the end of the book, the two men are able to forge a new relationship. By watching her family, Amara learns that “The sign of true maturity is when you’re able to end the argument first, to forgive a person even if they haven’t asked for it.”

Middle-grade readers will relate to Amara, who is often confused and searching to find herself. She feels unloved because her mother wants her to be more girly and wear dresses. When Amara meets her cousins, their view helps Amara see how lucky she is to have a stable, two-parent household. However, Amara also struggles with her mother’s pregnancy. Because her mother has had a string of miscarriages, Amara is afraid to get excited about a new baby. Through Amara’s story, the reader will learn important lessons about family, forgiveness, and the people who shaped her. Even though Some Places More Than Others imparts important lessons, the lessons are integrated into the story and never feel like a lecture. While the characters are not well-developed, Some Places More Than Others would be a perfect way to introduce historical figures and the idea of exploring your family’s past. Readers who enjoy realistic fiction should add Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn and Listen, Slowly by Thanhhá Lai to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • When in New York, Amara sees “two men are walking and holding hands.”

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • While waiting for a subway, Amara sees a “man leaning against the green pillar in the middle of the platform holding a sign that says, ‘I Ain’t Gonna Lie, I Just Want a Beer.’”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Amara’s family attends a church service and they pray.
  • Before dinner, Amara’s family prays. For example, Amara’s father prays, “We thank you, God, not only for this food, but for this family. Bless us, and keep us, and please—” Amara interrupts and prays, “Let me go to New York with Dad to meet Dad’s side of the family.”
  • Several times Amara prays to her dead grandmother. For example, “I whisper a prayer to Grandma Grace, ask her to help me.”
  • While walking in New York, Amara sees “a man not too far away speaking into a megaphone about Jesus being the white man’s god.”
  • When Amara wakes up, she says a prayer. “God, please let my baby sister be okay.”
  • While traveling home, Amara whispers “a prayer for Mom, for my baby sister, for all of us.”

Swing

Despite their love for baseball, Noah and Walt are terrible players. Walt, who now requests to be called Swing (a request that Noah ignores), is undeterred. As with everything else in his life—jazz, love, and becoming cool—Swing is always willing to take a chance and wants to convince Noah to take swings in his life too.

Noah has been pining after his childhood best friend, Sam, since third grade. When Noah uncovers a set of love letters, he uses his art skills to adapt the letters to help him articulate his feelings for Sam. When Walt anonymously sends one of Noah’s letters to Sam, Noah must decide whether to put himself out there, even if it means rejection.

While Noah grapples with his emotions, many American flags are being left around town. Some think it’s a prank, but others seem to think that something more sinister is going on. The rising tensions and prejudices of their town come to light as Noah struggles to find confidence.

Despite being the main character, Noah is a shadowy figure compared to Swing. Swing’s vibrant sense of humor and optimistic outlook never waiver, and he has endless methods for trying to get Noah to see that life can be sunnier with a little effort. Noah, who can be petulant, drags his feet at most of Swing’s suggestions and comments. Many of Noah’s problems could be fixed if he earnestly took Swing’s advice. However, as the story progresses, Noah learns to take life in stride.

Most of the novel focuses on Noah’s conflicts with his unrequited love for Sam. Noah thinks he’s superior to Sam’s current boyfriend, Cruz, who is a varsity baseball player. Much of Swing’s advice for Noah surrounds this topic, as it consumes Noah’s every waking moment. There are moments where Noah’s passion for art comes up, but often it is to impress Sam in some way. Occasionally, Noah’s pining and self-pitying nature can be overbearing. However, he eventually finds the courage to tell Sam how he feels.

Although Swing, Noah, and Cruz all enjoy baseball, the main focus of Swing is not baseball. Instead, baseball is used to highlight Swing’s willingness to go after what he wants. Unlike Swing, Noah’s reserved nature holds him back from going after what he wants, and Noah himself gives up baseball early in the book.

 Swing tackles a lot of themes, including love, friendship, and prejudice. Not all the topics are fully expounded upon, and because of the twist ending some narratives are shortened. Swing is also told in free verse, and various art pieces appear as part of the story. These creative elements enhance Noah’s emotions and the reading experience. Overall, Swing shows that life is what people make of it. The most important lesson Swing offers is that people should find the courage within themselves to swing for worthy goals.

Sexual Content

  • According to Noah, his crush and best friend Sam, “was busy being cool, and fine.” He thinks he’s in love with her, and he claims that she is his inspiration when he draws.
  • Swing says to Noah, “Seven years is a long freakin’ time/ not to hook up with your/ self-proclaimed soulmate.”
  • Swing claims that his cousin, Floyd, is his romance guru because Floyd “used to date a reality TV/ star, and he knows a thing/ or two about love. Girls are always/ fighting over him.”
  • Sam indirectly tells Noah that her boyfriend, Cruz, is trying to pressure her into sexual activities which makes her uncomfortable. She says, “Cruz is kinda putting pressure on/ me…How do I tell him to slow down?”
  • Swing tells his cousin Floyd that he’s “saving [his] paper for some nice frames the chicks will love.” Floyd reprimands Swing for being sexist and calling women chicks.
  • Floyd says to Swing, “Your future stepdad is a lucky man/ Aunt Reina was/ always fine as full-bodied wine.” To this comment there is silence and then Floyd adds, “What? It’s not like Floyd’s trying to Oedipus your mom. . .”
  • Noah wants to write Sam “maybe a love song/ or a sonnet.” Unsure of how to convey his feelings, he listens to Swing’s recommended podcast, The Woohoo Woman, which dispenses love and life advice.
  • In a thrift store, Sam and her boyfriend Cruz kiss twice much to Noah’s chagrin. Noah describes, “they kiss like nobody/ and everybody’s watching.” The second time, Noah’s details about the kiss increase. He thinks, “I try not/ to pay attention to how long it lasts/ –eleven seconds—or how his hands move up and down/ her back (slowly), or/ how her eyes are closed and his are/ looking at—” Cruz then says to Noah, “Hey you, stop staring at my girl’s/ haunches.”
  • The employee in the thrift shop, Divya, shows Swing and Noah a purse. After she explains what it is, Swing says, “Striking. Exquisite…/looking not at the bag, but/ at her.” He makes several more passes at Divya. Swing even “grabs her hand/ with a confidence/ [Noah’s] never seen/ in mixed company/ and kisses it.” From this scene on, Swing is infatuated with Divya and expresses his feelings to Noah frequently.
  • Noah shares his first attempt at writing a song for Sam. The song is crude, and Swing points this out. Some of the lines include, “Your moist lips/ the oboe/ my tender mouth/ sings through.”
  • Noah finds a stack of love letters from the 1960s. In these letters, the writer, Corinthian, sometimes talks about how he wants to kiss Annemarie, his love.
  • Swing asks Noah to think about what he feels while listening to jazz. During a jazz song, Noah imagines “ending the day with a mad kiss/ under the jungle gym.”
  • Noah sees Sam and Cruz kissing at school. Noah notices that “She kisses him/ loudly.”
  • Noah asks who Sam thinks is sending her love letters/art pieces. Sam says, “whoever/ is doing this is/ smart and sexy.” In a separate thought, she muses, “Maybe it’s a girl.”
  • Cruz asks Swing and Noah how to “close the deal with Sam.” In this case, it is implied that Cruz wants to have sex with Sam.
  • Sam tells Noah why her parents got divorced. She says, “five years ago, our German/ shepherd Lucy ate some/ woman’s lingerie. When they/ recovered the skimpy outfit/ from Lucy’s gut, things got a little/ awkward when Mom/ realized the vet tech wasn’t holding/ up her lingerie.”
  • Sam, Noah, and Swing look at a Dali painting with a girl in it. When asked about what he sees, Swing says, “A girl with a big rump-shaker staring out/ the window.”
  • Sam gives Noah a parting kiss, “centimeters from/ [his] lips.”
  • Sam stays over at Noah’s house and they lay in bed. They talk all night and into the morning.
  • Sam says to Noah, “let’s go back to your/ place, and I can show/ you how a sophisticated lady acts.” This is seemingly sexual, but it is not explained further.
  • Sam kisses Noah on the cheek.
  • Noah describes one of his kisses with Sam. He says, “Our noses touch./ Our breath quickens./ We’ve kissed/ at least a dozen times,/ but this feels/ like the first,/ the only.”
  • Swing is miserable because Divya kissed him “on [his] neck.” For Swing, this means that she doesn’t want “to engage in witty/ conversation/ and occasional verbal sparring,” but rather she wants to do potentially more sexually explicit activities.
  • Noah describes his classmates and friends at prom. He notes, “Everyone’s either/ smiling or smirking,/ twirling or twerking,/ posing or posturing,/ kissing or wanting.”
  • Swing tells Noah that Divya kissed him. Swing describes, “Divya kissed me, really kissed me,/ and it was an out-of-body/ experience. It was heaven, Noah,/ and she was an angel.”

Violence

  • While in the third grade, a bully named Zach punched Noah. Sam, in retaliation, “pushed Zach Labrowski/ out of the seat, then/ squeezed in next to me/ and offered a tissue.”
  • Noah thinks that Swing snuck the love letter/art piece that Noah made into Sam’s bag. Noah is furious and thinks, “Never/ been/ a/ violent/ person/ but/ right/ now/ I/ feel/ like/ going/ to/ batting/ practice/ on/ Walt’s/ head.”
  • Noah compares his confrontation with Cruz and Sam to an old cowboy movie. He describes, “and the drunk fool will answer,/ I reckon this is none of your business,/ stranger,/ and clumsily pull out his six-shooter,/ at which point/ he will get shot dead/ between the ears/ by the handsome stranger,/ who will then/ ride off/ into the sunset/ with the lady/ on his arm.”
  • At a party, one of the seniors, who is very drunk, jumps from the upstairs railing to the couch. He’s in a lot of pain, and the students decide to call an ambulance. Much later, it is explained that he “sprained/ his pinky toe/ trying to be Superman.”
  • Swing’s brother, Moses, fought in Afghanistan and seems to suffer from PTSD. Sometimes he makes references to what he saw in combat, though it is never graphic or explained. For example, he yells “BAM!” quite a bit, in reference to the explosions that he heard.
  • Noah has Sam listen to some jazz, and she doesn’t enjoy it. Noah says, “It’s not depressing, it’s yearning.” To this, Sam says, “Yearning for what, a bullet to the/ head?”
  • It is insinuated throughout the book that the police are harassing minorities about the flag vandalism occurring around town. One night, Swing and Noah realize that Swing’s brother Moses is behind the incidents. When Swing and Noah find Moses, Swing takes the baseball bat that Moses is holding because he’s worried that Moses might be unstable due to Moses’ personal history. The police arrive, and they shoot and kill Swing on sight. It is later stated that the officers perceived Swing as a threat because he was holding a baseball bat. It becomes clear that the officer’s prejudices influenced their decision, as Swing was black. Noah describes, “One/ shoots/ two/ shoot/ three/ shots/ slice/ through/ rain/ drops/ Walt/ drops/ blood/ drops/ I run/ I run/ to Walt.” Noah runs to Swing’s aid, but the cops tackle him to the ground. Noah later recalls, “The bat falling/ from Walt’s hands,/ suspended/ for too long./ The sound/ of gunshot/ piercing air/ and flesh.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Swing describes to Noah how they’re going to be cool one day. Swing says, “when people google/ cool a picture of me and you/ spitting seeds and tobacco/ with our hats to the back will pop/ up.” It is expressed later that they themselves do not chew tobacco.
  • Noah’s parents go to Barcelona for the International Hotel Association conference. According to Noah, this trip is where “hotel managers/ talk about hotels/ from sunup/ to sundown,/ then get drunk/ and post videos/ of horrible, late-night/ karaoke sessions.”
  • Before Noah’s parents go to Barcelona, they sit Noah down to talk about the house rules. Noah dryly jokes to his parents, “I think I’m clear on all the rules . . . no beer on an empty/ stomach, right?”
  • One of the love letters that Noah finds states that the writer, Corinthian, and the intended recipient, Annemarie, drank wine.
  • Noah and Swing listen to a podcast called Straight, No Chaser. The podcast’s content is never discussed.
  • Noah looks for the Corinthian, who wrote the love letters. All he can find is a Corinthian who wants to “turn up and sig a little/ drink.”
  • Swing suggests that he and Noah should “get pizza and beer.” Noah replies, “We don’t drink beer.”
  • Sam spreads the word that Noah’s having a party. Sam tells Noah, “I can ask/Cruz to get his older/ brother to bring some beer.” The beer is expressly for the partygoers rather than Swing, Sam, or Noah, who stated several times that they do not like beer.
  • At Noah’s party, there is “some sort of punch/ that some guy,/ who [Noah’s] never seen before,/ starts immediately spiking/ with a bottle/ from his backpack.” Many of the teenagers at the party drink out of it and from the beers they’ve brought.
  • Sam speculates that Moses may have been “on drugs” when he showed up at Noah’s party.
  • Sam admits that she’s tried weed, “just once.”

Language

  • Words like weird, idiot, dang, friggin’, shut up, suck, pissed, and dayum appear infrequently.
  • Sam and Noah have creative insults for each other, though these jabs are light-hearted. For example, they call each other, “Sucknerd,” “Toadlip,” “Horsehead,” and “Big butt.”
  • On The Woohoo Woman Podcast, Marj says, “We’re back for the last half/ hour of Woohoo Woman,/ hopefully with a little less profanity/ in this segment.” Jackie later almost says various swear words, but she catches herself or is cut off by Marj each time. For instance, Jackie says “DAYU-“ instead of damn.
  • Noah’s Granny calls some of her card-playing buddies “SHYSTY FELLAS.”

Supernatural

  • Swing is very superstitious. Noah says that Swing “can’t walk/ up or down/ the same side of the street/ on the same day,/ or in and out/ of the same door/ when he’s coming/ or going somewhere.”
  • Noah describes art to Swing. Noah says, “Art is…finding yourself/ under the spell of/ Gustav Klimt’s/ The Kiss.”

Spiritual Content

  • Many years ago, Noah and Sam went to the same “Jesus camp.”
  • In the third letter, Corinthian makes many religious references. Corinthian tells Annemarie, “i went to church with nothing but a penny for an offering. inside i prayed a thousand prayers sacredly and secretly holding the memory of your hand in mine. . . all the mysterious and magnificent things that make music will be ours under notes of heaven above and earth below. our love provides god’s angels with trumpet and song. . . [you] gave me everything, like the goddess of muses. heaven may be a place where artists go when they die, eternally playing songs, painting scenes, writing plays, or else napping, but i regret to inform the big man that i’m not leaving for eternity until u and i can be seen as an ‘us’ on this same earth.”
  • Swing paraphrases the Bible’s book of Matthew. Swing tells Noah, “If your brother pisses you off, tell him about it. If he listens to you, he is your brother for life.” Noah replies, “I doubt the Bible says pissed off.”
  • Noah and Swing listen to a jazz album. Noah describes the experience by saying, “We listen/ like we’re in church, on/bended knee, and our god/ is Dexter Gordon.”
  • Noah describes art to Swing. Noah says, “Art is…Monet’s/ Impression. Sunrise/ carrying you away on a harbor of dreams/ that only God/ knows about.”
  • After an officer interrogates Noah about Swing, Noah thinks about the officer, “You are not/ God. Here. You are/ not God. You/ are no God. You/ are no good.”

by Alli Kestler

Goldie Blox and the Three Dares

While in the attic, Goldie Blox finds her grandmother’s book of dares. With the help of her friends, she is determined to finish the last three remaining challenges. However, one of the challenges may be impossible. Despite this, Goldie Blox is determined to succeed and make her grandmother proud.

Goldie and her friends complete a series of dares ranging from eating a hot pepper, smelling a rotting fish flower, stealing the original Bloxtown blueprints, and having a picnic on the moon. While completing the challenges, Goldie and her friends each use talent and engineering. For example, when Goldie and her friends need to cross a swollen river, Goldie makes a zip line. For another task, Ruby uses her minicomputer to deactivate the museum’s alarm system.

Goldie Blox and the Three Dares introduces readers to STEM and features a group of interracial friends. The friends are illustrated with different skin tones; however, the characters’ races are never discussed nor does it affect any of the characters’ behaviors. The story focuses on each character’s unique talent and personality. Despite the friends’ differences, each person helps Goldie complete the challenges.

The story shows the power of imagination, problem-solving, and extreme risk-taking. Goldie is up for any challenge and has more freedom than the average seven-year-old. For example, Goldie and her friends are dropped off at a trailhead and embark on an overnight camping trip. While some of the events are presented in a cartoony way, some of the dares could lead to injury. Also, while completing the challenges, Goldie’s parents know that Goldie and her friends are planning on breaking into a museum and they allow the children to proceed with the theft as long as they return the stolen item afterward.

Goldie Blox and the Three Dares will appeal to younger readers. The story uses easy vocabulary, short paragraphs, and cartoonish black and white illustrations that appear every three to five pages. Goldie and her friends are smart and creative; however, the story never explains how any of their inventions are created. Also, some of the antics are too outrageous to be believable. For example, while breaking into the museum, the guard has an alligator on a leash. In order to distract the alligator, Goldie’s dog, Nacho, “dropped a potato chip. Then another and another. He made a trail of snacks leading away from the Gearheads.”

The Goldie Blox Series will entertain readers and spark their interest in engineering. The Goldie Blox toy line will also give readers a chance to create some gadgets of their own. Younger readers interested in engineering will also enjoy Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty. Strong readers who want books that combine engineering and positive friendships should put the Ellie Engineer Series by Jackson Pearce at the top of their reading list.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Goldie modifies her walking stick to sing a different version of 99 bottles of beer on the wall. Instead of using beer, the stick sings, “One hundred bottles of superglue in the shop. . . Take one down, use it all up.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Running with Lions

Sebastian Hughes is excited to start his senior high school soccer season. He’s the starting goalkeeper on his soccer team. His best friends, Mason and Willie, are also on the team. The three friends go to summer training camp where Coach Patrick welcomes everybody, regardless of sexual orientation.

Everything would be great, except Sebastian’s estranged childhood friend, Emir Shah, shows up at camp. Emir’s prickly personality makes team cohesiveness difficult. Sebastian realizes the team’s success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. For the team’s sake, Sebastian reaches out to Emir. When Sebastian finally breaks through the initial barrier, he discovers that he and Emir’s friendship might evolve into something much more romantic.

Running with Lions has diverse characters, and the book tackles ideas about teamwork, friendship, and sexuality. For instance, Sebastian is bisexual and Emir is gay. Emir is also British Pakistani and sometimes talks about his experiences being Muslim. Many of the other characters have equally diverse backstories, but their stories aren’t fully fleshed out. Despite their differences, Sebastian’s teammates have a strong sense of camaraderie and loyalty, especially in the face of adversity from outside forces.

Despite the diverse characters, the plot is somewhat flat. The story primarily focuses on Sebastian and Emir’s budding relationship, and sometimes their relationship takes the focus off of soccer. Although the plot builds up to the first big soccer game after camp, it’s a slow climb to reach that point. The story and dialogue sometimes come off as choppy, cheesy, cliché, and occasionally confusing.

For soccer players, Running with Lions may be difficult to read because the soccer terminology is incorrect. For instance, Sebastian was “head-butting the ball to Zach,” when it should be “heading.” In addition, the Coach yells for “plays” to be run during a game when scripted plays don’t happen in soccer. These details make the action and the soccer camp setting unrealistic.

Although Running with Lions tackles important ideas about sexuality and friendship, soccer fans will find the incorrect soccer facts, the slow plot, and occasionally clichéd writing frustrating. Despite the diverse cast, Running with Lions may be one book readers leave on the library shelf. If you’re looking for a sports book with a diverse cast, look to Jason Reynolds’ Defenders Track Team series instead.

Sexual Content

  • Sebastian’s mom helps him pack for soccer camp. When checking his items, she says, “And you’re at that age where if you need condoms…”
  • When his mom mentions condoms, Sebastian is embarrassed and thinks, “It’s as bad as that time she caught [Sebastian] kissing Julie Hammonds in eighth grade.”
  • When Sebastian’s mom brings up another girl that Sebastian was seeing, Sebastian doesn’t want to tell his parents he’s bisexual.
  • Mason, Sebastian’s teammate and friend, pulls up to Sebastian’s house to pick him up for camp. Mason tells Sebastian’s mom, “You’re looking lovely this morning.” It is later explained that Mason flirts with anything that has a heartbeat.
  • In the car, Mason, Sebastian, and another teammate, Willie, talk about their plans for after high school. They mention seeing a professional soccer team overseas. Willie says he’d also “Hook up with a few babes over in Barcelona.”
  • Mason, Sebastian, and Willie also talk about Mason’s sexual exploits. For instance, Sebastian explains, “Mason flirted and got one guy on the swim team’s number.” Mason also “hooked up with [Miguel, Willie’s friend] at Carl’s last party.”
  • Willie says to Mason, “I suck face better than I cook.”
  • According to Sebastian, “Rumor was, Coach’s nephew Xander went to one of those blazer-and-tie Catholic schools and got kicked off the baseball team when he came out. Coach decided to change the system: sexuality in sports became a non-factor. Whom you were attracted to off the field didn’t matter.”
  • Sebastian also explains that, “No one cared when Willie came out, because he was the best defensive player they had. Mason’s make-out session with Miguel was forgotten the following Monday.”
  • Masturbation jokes occur often, especially with Willie. For example, when Willie and Sebastian get to their cabin, they realize that they have some free time before the first practice. Willie is then “making a suggestive motion with his hand. ‘Do you need a little alone time?’”
  • Sebastian thinks, “For a gay guy, Willie’s maintained a ridiculous crush on Mason’s ex-girlfriend.” Phrases like this and “the gays approve” sometimes occur.
  • During punishment laps at the first training, Coach Patrick yells, “How does one pack of lions suck this bad? What did you all do during the off-season?” Mason replies, “Well, I didn’t suck anyone.” Sexual jokes continue frequently throughout the book.
  • When the boys see Emir, a new kid who has never played, they talk about him. One player says that he won’t help Emir since Emir isn’t nice at school. Hunter, another player, responds with, “Have you tried talking to him? Or is that something you’re just sorry at, like picking up women?”
  • There is a page-long dinner scene where the players discuss their romantic relationships. One player asks Mason, “So you and Val aren’t hooking up this year?” Another replies jokingly, “He’s saving himself for Coach’s daughter, remember?”
  • Coach’s stepdaughter, Grey, is introduced as the person with “a pretty gnarly crush” on Mason. Throughout the book, she openly flirts with Mason.
  • Sebastian talks to Grey about her crush, and Sebastian thinks of his own past crushes. He thinks, “He hasn’t crushed on anyone since he was like, eleven? He met Sam at a party, they exchanged numbers and made out at a movie, and that was it.”
  • At breakfast, Mason calls Sebastian “a boring virgin.” Sebastian replies, “I’m not a virgin, dickhead.” Mason responds, “Oh, that’s right. Just with guys, correct?”
  • Coach Rivera yells at one of the players. Coach says, “Where’s your form?” The player replies, “At your wife’s house.” Coach Rivera responds, “My husband would appreciate it if you picked your crap up one of these days.”
  • Sebastian is attracted to Emir. Often, he fantasizes about what romantic/sexual things he and Emir could be doing. These daydreams range in graphic nature. For instance, he finds himself staring at “Emir’s pink, very kissable lips.” At another point, Sebastian has the urge to “toss Emir on the bed for a wrestling match. But that could lead to—no, would lead to—something involving a lot less clothing.”
  • During Sebastian and Emir’s training sessions, Sebastian breaks personal space. When trying to teach Emir form, Sebastian “fits his arms around Emir’s lean frame; his hands smooth Emir’s waist.” These moments lead to Emir commenting, “I can’t relax with your junk against my bum, mate” and “I usually don’t mix stupid sports and sex.” Sebastian often makes references to others’ genitalia.
  • Two boys are fast asleep in bed, and it is insinuated later that they might be having a fling. Sebastian sees them and describes, “Willie’s face is mashed in Hunter’s neck. Hunter’s fingers are twisted in Willie’s hair; their lower halves are tangled.”
  • Sebastian says that Zach didn’t get a girl’s number because she heard that Zach was “a virgin.” Zach declares, “I get plenty of tail.” This conversation continues for a couple of pages.
  • When training by themselves, “Sebastian kisses [Emir]. It’s so quick, their mouths just smack.” Sebastian thinks, “…this isn’t a real kiss, where you’re lightheaded afterward or shoving your tongue down a hot guy’s mouth to taste the flavor of his gum.”
  • Emir and Sebastian kiss, and the description lasts for a couple of pages. Sebastian describes, “Emir pushes as much as Sebastian pulls. It’s needy. Wet mouths move as if there’s not a second to lose. They’ll never be able to dance around this kiss… He grabs Emir’s hoodie and drags him closer. His thigh fits between them, and Emir uses it like a cat rubbing against a post to scratch an itch.”
  • Emir and Sebastian become sexually intimate, and Sebastian narrates, “He doesn’t know if that’s how fooling around with another guy is supposed to be, but it’s a good start.” The description goes on for four pages. Sebastian “drops kisses under Emir’s jaw. Sebastian waits. Emir chokes back a gasp, and then Sebastian’s fingers dig roughly into Emir’s hips, lifting him up in one quick motion. He pushes Emir against the closest wall… Sebastian’s hips meet Emir’s. He worries Emir might not want that, but the soft hitch in Emir’s voice counters those concerns.”
  • Mason accidentally reveals that Willie has had a crush on Sebastian for a long time. Mason jokes about how he doesn’t understand why Willie would like Sebastian, and “with his head bent uncomfortably close to Sebastian’s crotch, he says, ‘Are you hiding something amazing in your jockstrap, Hughes?’” Mason then proceeds to say, “I’ve seen it, bro. In the shower. You’ve got Thor’s hammer down there.”
  • Sebastian and Emir go skinny dipping. When Emir blushes, Sebastian says, “It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”
  • Emir and Sebastian kiss while skinny-dipping in the lake. Sebastian describes, “The kiss isn’t frantic, but it’s feverish. Emir’s hands are on his shoulders. Sebastian’s mouth parts, gasping, teased by Emir’s tongue. It’s thrilling and purposeful, and Sebastian’s heart is erratic.” The description lasts for a page.
  • After skinny-dipping, Emir and Sebastian shower together. They kiss. Sebastian “goes for broke, curls a finger under Emir’s chin, and angles his face so he can plant a soft peck on Emir’s mouth. Emir kisses back.”
  • Sebastian briefly mentions that one morning, he “let Emir drag him to bed for morning kisses. Sebastian’s fumbling hands highlighted his lack of sexual experience with boys, but Emir didn’t seem to mind at all.”
  • When the band The 1975 comes on in Mason’s car, Sebastian explains to Emir that, “Mace would totally suck face with Matt Healy if he could.”
  • Sebastian explains that there’s an old drive-in movie place in Oakville, and that “during the week, no one shows up except the slackers, elderly folks, and horny parents searching for somewhere to, well.”
  • At the drive-in, “a man older than Sebastian’s dad emerges from a rusty Cadillac. He grins smugly with a hand firmly pressed to his wife’s ass. Sebastian hopes that’s his wife.”
  • Sebastian and Emir get intimate at the drive-in, though Sebastian explains that, “All their fooling around has never quite gone there.” Sebastian also narrates, “Emir crawls—climbs into Sebastian’s lap… Emir is balanced on knees that pin Sebastian’s hips. His left hand cradles the back of Sebastian’s head. A soft sigh breaks his lips, inches from Sebastian’s as he lowers his hips.”
  • Sebastian asks Emir if he’s ever had sex with a guy, and Emir says, “Yes.”
  • Willie says that Mason got playing time years ago because “we had three players out with mono thanks to the lovely Cara Beckman,” who is a cheerleader with “a thing for athletes.”
  • Sebastian thinks about his relationship with Sam. He thinks, “Sam made the first move on him. Sam told him she was his girlfriend. Sam said, ‘I love you’ first, words she didn’t mean. Sam broke up with him. First by text and then in person.”
  • Emir breaks into Sebastian’s room. Sebastian realizes that Emir is wearing Sebastian’s jersey and that Emir doesn’t care what their teammates think. Sebastian thinks, “that threatens to make Sebastian get on one knee for more than one reason.” The innuendo is not explained further.
  • Emir and Sebastian have sex. The buildup is described, but the sex is not. Sebastian narrates, “They kiss. It takes them a moment to find a rhythm between mouths and bodies. Emir’s hand is flat against Sebastian’s chest. Sebastian has fingers in Emir’s hair… [Sebastian] tenses trying to figure out the condom.” This buildup lasts for five pages.
  • Willie passes out water in the locker room, and Sebastian takes one. Willie says to Sebastian, “Don’t choke,” when Sebastian cracks the top and guzzles as if he’s been in the desert. He adds a rude gesture that Sebastian supposes is a reference to oral sex.
  • Carl badmouths Emir in the locker room. When Sebastian won’t agree with Carl, Carl says, “Sounds like [Emir’s] got a stick up you.”
  • Grey challenges Mason to a one-on-one scrimmage, and the first to score gets to pick their prize. Grey says, “If I win, we go on a date.”
  • Mason and Willie juggle soccer balls and mock each other. Mason says to him, “I thought you played with balls in your spare time? You suck!” Willie replies, “I get no complaints about the way I handle balls, thank you.”
  • Mason tells Willie and Sebastian, “I want to ask [Grey] out.”
  • At the hospital, Sebastian discovers that “Hunter and Willie are boyfriends now.”
  • Sebastian “kisses Emir” on the soccer field.

Violence

  • Players sometimes get injured in soccer. For instance, one player runs Emir over during a game, and “Emir’s folded up on the grass.”
  • Emir is rude to Sebastian. Sebastian thinks about how he wants “to shout, ‘What the hell?’ or punch Emir or walk away.”
  • Sebastian asks Grey if she’s wearing eyeliner at dinner one night. Grey “kicks his shin under the table.”
  • Sebastian thinks about how in freshman gym, he “nailed Carl during a friendly baseball game. Carl rolled around the field for half an hour, claiming a dislocated shoulder.”
  • Sebastian “imagines his knuckles bloody and Carl laid out on the cement” when Carl harasses Sebastian and Emir.
  • After an argument with Carl, Sebastian “turns, rolls his shoulders, and then slams his fist into a locker door.”
  • When Grey challenges Mason to a match, Gio says, “Twenty [bucks] says coach murders [Mason] and dumps the body in the lake.” Sebastian “bets [Grey’ll] kick Mason in the junk.”
  • Coach makes Sebastian captain. When Mason and Willie find out, they dogpile Sebastian in celebration. “Mason’s elbow jams his ribs. Willie knees him in the thigh.”
  • Sebastian tells Willie and Mason that he messed up his chance with Emir. Mason responds with, “Do you want me to rough him up?”
  • Hunter gives Sebastian love advice and then ends it with, “And if you ever tell Will about this, I’m gonna use your testicles for keepie-uppies practice.”
  • The other team makes homophobic remarks. Zach says, “They’re family, and I’ll whale on any of you prep pussies that messes with ’em, okay?” He turns to Emir and Hunter and says, “I’ve been wanting to deck one of those shitheads since I was a frosh.”
  • Zach, Emir, and Hunter playfight in the locker room. “Zach drags Emir into a headlock. Emir playfully fights back though Zach’s size overpowers him. Hunter joins them, jumping on Zach’s back. They all stumble into the locker room with a thud.”
  • Two players “are engaged in a furious game of bloody knuckles.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mason smokes a cigarette on the drive to camp.
  • Sebastian describes one spot at camp where “Guys use the picnic area to sneak cigarettes at night.”
  • Emir has “a half-burnt cigarette” one night.
  • On the weekends, “the seniors usually sneak in cheap beer or rum” to camp. The boys do drink and get drunk during the book. Sebastian carries one of the players, Zach, back to his cabin because Zach is drunk. Zach declares, “I’m not wasted.”
  • Zach “grins, arms stuffed with cheap beer. ‘Brews and tunes, dudes.’”
  • Sebastian says he saved Mason from getting “locked up two years ago for possession of greenery,” or marijuana.
  • Sebastian “was so done with Sam’s shit, he had a healthy hit off Mason’s joint, coughing violently before mellowing out with vodka.”
  • Zach has “a chain-smoking father.”
  • The guy working at the drive-in concession stand says, “I’ve got half a joint out back that I’m dying to finish. Can you guys order already?”
  • Willie tells a story about “that time [Sebastian] drank too many wine coolers and took a dare to do keepie-uppies naked.”
  • Once, Sebastian and Mason were “playing drunk Scrabble in a cemetery.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes asshole, hell, hellions, shit, ass, douchebag, dickhead, dick, whore, and bastard.
  • Mason flips off Sebastian as he runs past. The middle finger is used occasionally.
  • One player swears at his teammates in Italian. For example, he says, “Vete al infierno” which means “go to hell.” He also says, “Que mierda,” but no English translation is given.
  • Sebastian “nods like a happy stoner” at Emir’s comment. Variations of this expression are used throughout.
  • During an argument, Sebastian says, “Fuck you.” Carl replies, “Yeah, fuck you too, Hughes.”
  • The opposing team makes homophobic remarks towards Sebastian’s team, including, “Did you know you play for a team of homos?” and “You pack of faggots.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Mason keeps joking about camp being hell. Willie says, “This place is a sanctuary. A no-man’s-land, dude. Sacred.”
  • Sebastian mentions that Coach Rivera is “a devout Catholic and often calls on his religion.” Coach Rivera will sometimes say, “Que Dios nos ayude,” or “God help us.”
  • Sometimes characters will say things like, “Well, thank baby Jesus” or “Christ.”
  • Emir is Muslim and tells Sebastian that he prays “Fajr, the dawn prayer.”
  • One player calls Hunter a “Jesus freak,” and Hunter replies, “Let’s hope God blesses me not to humiliate your sorry ass all over the field today. Amen.”
  • Emir talks about how one of the freshmen dropped when he had to room with Emir because “Rooming with a Muslim offended his family.” Emir expresses that he’s dealt with discrimination his entire life.
  • Emir explains to Sebastian that he was praying “Isha’a…the last of the salats, daily prayers.” Sebastian remembers “the adults in Emir’s family fasting during Ramadan and a small backyard gathering to celebrate a feast day Sebastian can’t remember the name of, but he recalls the beautiful clothing, the music, and Emir’s parents passing out gifts to the children.”
  • Sebastian thinks about how he’s “heard of the coaches who refuse to look Coach Patrick in the eye and the parents and faculty who call Coach ‘a supporter of sinners who’ll burn in hell.’”

by Alli Kestler

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

In 1907, the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania became one of the most innovative football teams in the United States. Lead by Ivy League graduate Pop Warner and star player Jim Thorpe, this team would go on to challenge the most prominent football teams of the day, including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

This narrative nonfiction story highlights the history of football and of the United States’ direct involvement in the mistreatment of Native Americans. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first government-run boarding school meant to assimilate Native Americans into white society. The school opened after the Black Hills war and centuries of violent conflict. Native American children were taken from their homes to live in military-style schools, where they were not allowed to dress in traditional Native American clothing nor speak their native languages. This practice became standard in the U.S., effectively cutting children off from their parents and their cultures. This is the context that surrounded Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School football team. It is a history unknown by most and not widely discussed.

Undefeated weaves the history of football and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team into the United States’ treatment of indigenous people. Sheinkin masterfully presents history without holding back on the grim reality of boarding schools or the overwhelming obstacles Native American students faced both on and off the football field. Sheinkin effectively balances a creative narrative nonfiction style with more strait-laced historical aspects. These two facets create an engaging view of a lesser-known aspect of one of the United States’ favorite sports without sacrificing accuracy or becoming boring.

The football-heavy parts of this story delve into the danger the players faced before football was modernized. Sheinkin makes the game descriptions digestible even to those who don’t know football or the sport’s history well. Undefeated takes readers through the highs and lows of practices and games, giving readers the feeling of being there in real-time. Ultimately, Undefeated shows a love for football that is untarnished by time.

Undefeated is not a typical football story about the underdog team fighting for first place. The story is far more complicated and interesting, and it breathes life into its historical cast of characters. History rarely comes with clean-cut lessons, but Undefeated presents the need for perseverance when the going gets tough. The world that Jim Thorpe and his classmates from the Carlisle Indian School lived in was unfair to them, and their stories deserve recognition in American history. Their legacy lives on in one of America’s favorite pastimes and their influence upon football will carry forward for generations to come.

Sexual Content

  • Jim Thorpe liked classmate Iva Miller and told her upon meeting her that, “‘You’re a cute little thing.’ Iva was not impressed.”

Violence

  • Jim Thorpe attempts to try out for the football team, but Pop Warner sends him out to get tackled by the current varsity players. No one can touch Jim, though, because he’s incredibly agile and fast. Warner yells, “Hit him down so hard he doesn’t get up!”
  • Football-related violence occurs throughout the book. One memorable line comes from the first official American football game in 1869. During the game, “One of the Rutgers men, George Large, took a blow to the head and came up woozy. He stayed in the game. For the rest of his life, Large would boast that he was the first man ever injured playing American football.”
  • The football-related violence is heightened because early football had few real rules. In one description, “[The play] wasn’t over until the man with the ball quit moving. So while he squirmed and wriggled forward, more defenders piled on, and plays ended in massive, writhing mounds, inside of which guys would throw elbows and knees, scratch and bite, spit and choke, until the refs could untangle the heap.”
  • When Jim was young, his father Hiram “strode into the river in his boots, grabbed [Jim], hauled him out to deep water, and dropped him in the current. Hiram then waded back to the bank and watched.” This was Hiram’s way of teaching Jim how to “man up.”
  • Hiram carried “bullets in his belt.”
  • The story discusses the historical treatment of Native Americans by the United States government, including the Indian Removal Act of 1830. For instance, “President Andrew Jackson explained the objective in bluntly racist language. Native Americans were surrounded by what Jackson called ‘a superior race.’” Describing the Trail of Tears, Sheinkin writes “an estimated four thousand people died of disease, cold, and starvation before the nightmare journey ended.”
  • Of a town near Jim’s birthplace, one stagecoach driver said you could, “stay for half an hour and see a man killed.”
  • Losing one of Jim Thorpe’s childhood games came with a price. Anyone who fell behind or lost had to endure the slapping machine. He describes it as, “This consisted of scampering on hands and knees between the legs of others in the game, assisted by a brisk paddling.”
  • Jim hiked 23 miles home from school and Hiram “gave Jim a whipping” and took him straight back to school. This happens several times, as Jim tended to skip school and return home.
  • A player from Georgia died during a football game. The player “hit the ground headfirst . . . The blood drained from his face. His eyes were open, his lips quivering. A doctor ran onto the field and diagnosed a fractured skull . . .  he died the next morning.” Similar injuries and deaths are described in similar detail.
  • Thorpe and two of his teammates were going to the baseball field when a large white man stepped in their path. The white man said, “When a white man approaches, you get off the sidewalk and get into the street.” In response, Thorpe punched the man in the face, and the trio “walked around [the white man’s] fallen body to the baseball field.” They then “spent that night in jail.”
  • The Carlisle Indian School staff mistreated students, and the 1914 Congress investigated the claims. Students “came forward to testify about skimpy meals for non-athletes and cruel treatment, including beatings, by teachers.”
  • Coach Pop Warner reported that “If a player was too good-natured or easygoing . . . the coach would tell one of his own mates to sock him in the jaw when he wasn’t looking and then blame it on the other team so as to make him mad.”
  • As a child, Pop Warner stood up to his bullies. “One of the class bullies grabbed Pop’s hat, tossed it into a slushy puddle, and stomped on it . . . In a burst of rage, [Warner] pounced on the bully, knocked him down, and started pummeling him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jim grew up near Keokuk Falls. The story was that “it was a place where even the pigs got drunk—a whiskey distillery near town dumped used corn mash behind the building, and hogs gorged on it and staggered down the dirt streets.”
  • After a game in Chicago, “the [Carlisle] players collapsed onto couches at their hotel and lit up cigars.”
  • Pop Warner smokes during practices with the Carlisle players.
  • The Carlisle football players were allowed to drink at the local bars, which “weren’t supposed to serve Carlisle students, but exceptions were made for football players.”
  • Jim Thorpe occasionally smokes cigars.
  • After a game, “Thorpe and Welch sat together with glasses of beer.”
  • Thorpe and his daughter Charlotte told stories one night “over drinks.”

Language

  • Profanity is limited. Derogatory terms include “sissy” and “crippled.”
  • Many derogatory names are referenced in quotes toward Native Americans. For instance, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School fought in land disputes against Native Americans on behalf of the U.S. He said, “I had concluded . . . that as an army officer I was there to deal with atrocious aborigines.” In another example, newspapers referred to the Carlisle football team wins as “scalpings” and “massacres.” This occurs somewhat often throughout the book.
  • Pop Warner’s childhood nickname was Butter— “It was not a compliment . . .  [His classmates] pelted his broad backside with beans shot through straws, and pebbles launched from slingshots.”
  • When the first group of Native American students was brought to the Carlisle Indian School, “the townspeople waved their arms and made grunting sounds—mimicking their idea of Indian behavior.”
  • Pop Warner had a colorful vocabulary and used it during some practices with the Carlisle players, who did not appreciate his rudeness. The book quotes Pop as saying such things as, “Play @#$& football!” and “What in the %&*# you think you’re doin’?” It does not use the actual swear words.
  • At one point, Thorpe says to Pop “Aw, hell . . . what’s the use of going through ‘em when I can run around ‘em?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Alli Kestler

The Crossover (Graphic Novel)

Twelve-year-old Josh and his twin JB Bell are the kings of the basketball court. Untouchable and unstoppable—the sons of former professional basketball player Chuck “Da Man” Bell couldn’t be anything less than excellent. But when Alexis walks into the twins’ lives and steals JB’s heart, Josh is left without his best friend by his side. Meanwhile, the boys’ father’s health is on the decline, despite Chuck’s utter denial. Josh and JB must deal with the consequences of everyone’s actions—including their own.

The illustrations in the graphic novel, The Crossover, bring the story to life. Illustrator Dawud Anyabwile’s comic book style illustrations match the high-pace action of the novel, especially during the basketball scenes. Most of the illustrations are in black and white with detailed shading, but Anyabwile frequently utilizes orange to help features pop off the page. The text changes in size and shape which helps to capture the rhythm of the poem. Even though this is a graphic novel, the poetic language makes The Crossover a good choice to read aloud.

The pages vary in the amount of text and pictures. Some pages have full-bodied scenes with a few sentences, while others have smaller pictures with mostly narration or dialogue. Alexander’s free-verse poetry moves very well and, thus, lends itself to these variations in page styles. The text placement only serves to emphasize parts of the story. Even though the graphic novel has some difficult vocabulary, the words are often defined and the repetition of the words allows the reader to understand the term. Readers will learn new vocabulary, but the more advanced vocabulary is balanced with realistic dialogue and trash talk during the basketball scenes.

The words themselves rarely vary from the original book, though the verse orientation on the page serves to emphasize different phrases. Those who have read the original text will still find that the graphic novel conveys characters’ moods and personalities in different ways due to the addition of illustrations. Josh, JB, and their friends and family are all vibrant characters and the pictures give them new life and add to the reading experience.

The Crossover was already a moving story, but the story benefits greatly from the addition of illustrations. The illustrations enhance the characters’ emotions and the story’s stakes feel heightened. The story speaks truths about grief, love, and basketball, and the pictures serve to bring those wonderful themes to another dimension. Newcomers and fans of the original story will find this edition to be a worthy addition to their shelves.

Sexual Content

  • Josh and JB’s dad, Chuck “Da Man” Bell, tells his sons about how back in the day, he “kissed/ so many pretty ladies.”
  • Josh says that the only reason why JB has been “acting all religious” is because classmate “Kim Bazemore kissed him in Sunday/ school.”
  • Josh does his homework while “Vondie and JB/ debate whether the new girl/ is a knockout or just beautiful,/ a hottie or a cutie,/ a lay-up or a dunk.”
  • Josh teases JB and asks if “Miss Sweet Tea” (Alexis) is his girlfriend. JB dodges the question. However, it is clear that he likes her a lot because “his eyes get all spacey/ whenever she’s around,/ and sometimes when she’s not.”
  • Chuck faints, and his wife, Crystal, demands that he see a doctor. Chuck refuses, and they argue. In an attempt to diffuse the tension between them, he says, “Come kiss me.”
  • After Crystal and Chuck stop arguing about Chuck’s health in the bedroom, Josh narrates, “And then there is silence, so I put the/ pillow over my head/ because when they stop talking,/ I know what that means./ Uggghh!” This happens a couple times throughout the book, though it is never illustrated.
  • Alexis wants to know “am I [JB’s] girlfriend or not?”
  • Josh likes Alexis romantically as well, but JB doesn’t know that.
  • JB and Alexis walk into the cafeteria, and she’s “holding his/ precious hand.”
  • JB and Alexis kiss in the library, and Josh sees them. The kiss is illustrated.
  • JB tells Alexis “how much she’s/ the apple of/ his eye/ and that he wants/ to peel her/ and get under her skin.”

Violence

  • JB plays with Josh’s locks of hair. Josh “slap[s] him/ across his bald head/ with [Josh’s] jockstrap.”
  • JB accidentally cuts off five of Josh’s locks of hair. Josh gives JB several noogies over the course of a few interactions.
  • Josh nearly breaks JB’s nose with a hard pass during a basketball game. He does it on purpose because he’s upset with JB, and Josh is suspended from the team. The description is only a couple of words long.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Crystal’s younger brother “smokes cigars.”

Language

  • There are a few rude terms used occasionally by the younger characters. Some terms include crunking, stupid, and jerk.
  • When Josh narrates his plays in games, he talks big about his game and this leads to him occasionally threatening physical contact during the game. For instance, Josh says in part of his beginning speech, “Man, take this THUMPING.”
  • Josh’s nickname is “Filthy McNasty.”
  • JB suggests a bet against Josh. Josh responds with, “You can cut my locks off,/ but if I win the bet,/ you have to walk around/ with no pants on/ and no underwear/ at school tomorrow.”
  • JB responds with, “if you win,/ I will moon/ that nerdy group/ of sixth-graders/ that sit/ near our table/ at lunch?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • JB only went to one basketball summer camp because “he didn’t want to miss Bible/ school.”
  • The Bells go to church on Sundays before basketball. Josh says, “When the prayers end/ and the doors open/ the Bells hit center stage,” meaning the basketball court. Josh sometimes mentions team prayers or praying to win games.

by Alli Kestler

 

 

Patina

Ever since Patina and Maddy’s mom got diabetes and lost her legs, their lives have changed dramatically. Now they go to the fancy Chester Academy and live with Aunt Emily and Uncle Tony. Patina has fears other than trying to fit in at her school, though. She’s afraid “The Sugar” will take her mom from her too. Patina is finding that no matter how fast she runs, she can’t outrun her fears.

Even worse, Patina’s attitude has slipped, and Coach is making her run in a relay with the people she argues with. Depending on her teammates, especially the ones she doesn’t get along with, seems, well, impossible. When her aunt and Maddy get in a car crash, Patina realizes that depending on others is necessary. When her uncle steps in, it only shows further that she isn’t alone and doesn’t have to be the parent to her younger sister—or herself. She doesn’t have to do everything alone, including the relay. It’s okay to wait for the handoff, both in track and in life.

In the second installment of Reynolds’s Defenders Track Team series, Patina takes over as narrator. Tragedies shape her life: when she was young, one morning her dad never woke up. Her mother then developed Type II diabetes, or what she calls “The Sugar,” and lost her legs. Now, Patina lives with Emily and Tony, and although they’re good people, Patina misses her parents. For someone with her history, it’s no wonder why Patina runs with a chip on her shoulder. Anything less than first place, as far as she’s concerned, is losing. Because she runs for Ma and Maddy, she feels that anything less than first is her failing her family.

Patina is intense and often confrontational, but her fierce loyalty and love for her family make her relatable. With the help of her coaches and teammates, she is able to let go of her independent streak enough to let others in. Patina shows that the world needn’t be entirely on anyone’s shoulders. Not all burdens, especially emotional ones, should be carried alone.

Reynolds has a knack for writing unique characters in specific situations that, despite their specificity, contain universal themes. The power of each book in this series resides within the characters’ capacities to overcome their daunting situations. Patina knows her mom is living on borrowed time and that one day, she will lose her, too. What makes Patina strong is that she’s able to keep running, and she runs for her mom, her sister, her adoptive family, and her teammates. Family, blood-related or otherwise, remains a key component of the Defenders Track Team series, and particularly in Patina’s life.

Patina is a strong sequel to Ghost. The returning cast and newcomers blend together to create a realistic environment for Patina and her cohorts to flourish on and off the track. Track fans and non-sport readers alike will find that this story places importance on friendship and family. Patina’s story emphasizes one of the really beautiful parts of life: no one is ever really alone.

Sexual Content

  • Sunny likes Patina. They stretch together at practice and Sunny stares at her legs. Patina thinks, “Was Sunny checkin’ me out? If he was, now was not the time. Also…no…gross…stop it…right now…seriously.”
  • Cotton, Patina’s friend, likes Lu, who is one of the other runners. Cotton says to Patina, “’You think if I wink at Lu on the track, he’ll wink back?’”

Violence

  • Patina and Krystal, another runner, get into an argument while practicing the relay. Krystal says to Patina, “What makes you better? Your white mother?” To which Patty goes on a page-long rant that ends with her saying, “Better watch who you playin’ with.” Coach Whit “grabbed [Patina] by the arm and dragged [her] off the track to the gate.”
  • Patina has a temper. When she gets mad, she will imagine “breaking invisible teacups.” This is her way of dealing with grief and stress.
  • Patina thinks that she was “about to give Krystal a good old-fashioned Beverly Jones Funky Zone beat-down.” She does not do this.
  • Patina teases Lu, another runner, about Cotton. Then Patina ays to Lu, “Don’t deny my girl, Lu, or I’ll leave you laid out across this track.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Patina’s aunt Emily is on “heavy-duty pain meds” after her surgery and is a little loopy.

Language

  • Stupid, fool, and shut up are all used frequently.
  • Of two girls in Patina’s class (Taylor and Teylor/TeeTee), Patina thinks, “They’re like attached at the ponytail and call themselves T-N-T, which is funny because most of the time I just wished they’d explode.”
  • Patina has names for the different types of kids in her school. She thinks, “The mess of hair-flippers, the wrath-letes (kids feel like it’s a sport to make everyone’s life miserable), the know-it-alls, the know-nothins, the hush-hushes…The YMBCs (You Might Be Cuckoo)- the girls who wear all black and cover their backpacks with buttons and pins- and the girls whose boyfriends, brothers, and fathers all wear khaki pants.”
  • At one point, Patina’s nicknames for Taylor and Teylor are “Bony McPhony and her cousin Lie-Lie.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Patina’s mom (Ma) references God and Jesus frequently. There is a scene in their church where Patina says that Ma yells, “Yes, Lawd! Yessssss!” After, Patina thinks that Ma is in a good mood because “Ma’s all high off Jesus.”
  • Ma prays for people throughout the book. In one instance, she says to Patina, “You know I pray for you. I pray God put something special in your legs, in your muscles so you can run and not grow weary.”
  • Patina thinks church is “a whole lot of talk about grace and faith and mercy and salvation, which, to me, all just equaled shouting, clapping, and singing in a building built to be a sweatbox.”
  • Patina explains Ma’s religiousness. She thinks, “after Dad passed, that’s when Ma got all churchy-churchy. The beginning of catching the spirit and dancing in the aisle and ‘praying of peace in the eye of the storm.’”

by Alli Kestler

Love Like Sky

G-baby and her younger sister, Peaches, are still getting used to their “blended-up” family. They live with Mama and Frank out in the suburbs, and they haven’t seen their real daddy much since he married Millicent. G-baby misses her best friend back in Atlanta and is crushed that her glamorous new stepsister, Tangie, wants nothing to do with her.

G-baby is so preoccupied with earning Tangie’s approval that she isn’t there for her own litter sister when she needs her most. Peaches gets sick—really sick. Suddenly, Mama and Daddy are arguing like they did before the divorce, and even the doctors in the hospital don’t know how to help Peaches get better.

It’s up to G-baby to make things right. She knows Peaches can be strong again if she can only see that their family’s love for her is really like sky.

Youngblood creates a cast of realistic characters and tackles themes that are relevant. The story is told from G-baby’s point of view, and many readers will relate to G-baby’s difficulty figuring out how to navigate life in a blended family. G-baby has an array of feelings that often interfere with her ability to think logically. Instead, she is often overcome by anger and guilt. For instance, G-baby clearly loves her little sister, Peaches; however, when Peaches gets sick, G-baby feels guilty for not treating Peaches better.

Love Like Sky tackles many themes, including death, divorce, stepparents, racial inequality, peaceful protest, police brutality, growing up, and more. The story’s many themes are undeveloped and often do not feel like a natural part of the story. The story gives some examples of police brutality, but all of the events are relayed to G-baby. This allows the content to be appropriate for middle school readers. Love Like Sky’s many themes may spark readers’ interest in learning more about each topic.

The story’s main conflict is G-baby’s changing family. Throughout the story, G-baby discovers that even though her family may argue, they will always support each other to the best of their ability in the end. Despite the positive message, G-baby is not necessarily a likable character because she is sneaky, self-centered, and mean to those around her. When G-baby interacts with her best friend Nikki, the two spend so much time arguing, keeping secrets, and being snarky that it is difficult to understand why they are friends. Another negative aspect of the story is that Nikki, G-baby, and her stepsister all take unnecessary risks, like sneaking out of the house, that could have dire consequences. Instead of having to fess up to their parents, other people cover for their misbehavior.

Love Like Sky’s suspense revolves around G-baby’s conflict with her family and friends. While middle school readers will understand G-baby’s conflict, they may wish for more action. The story’s many topics and characters make Love Like Sky appropriate for strong readers. Readers interested in learning more about racial injustice should add A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée to their must-read list.  Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn is perfect for readers looking for an entertaining story about family relationships.

Sexual Content

  • G-baby doesn’t want to talk to her mom about “how to kiss a boy, or when it’s time to sneak a few cotton balls into my bra.”
  • G-baby’s stepsister has a boyfriend. G-baby thinks, “I know why Frank called the college boy ‘an octopus,’ and it wasn’t good. He might be like that one boy at my old school who got sent to the principal’s office for pinching girls on the behind.”
  • G-baby was spying on her stepsister when she “heard whispering and then…smacking. Loud smacking. Kissing.”
  • When G-baby’s stepfather leaves the house, he “kissed Mama’s lips and both cheeks… Mama walked to the door and kissed him again. A loud smack like Tangie and Marshall.”
  • G-baby’s best friend tells her, “I bet Tangie kisses boys. Just like you and your boyfriend.” G-baby gets upset because she has never kissed a boy and doesn’t have a boyfriend.
  • G-baby’s friend Kevin kisses her. She “felt his lips on my cheek like a buzzing bee had landed on it… I stood there with my hand on my cheek, like the kiss was gonna fly away.”
  • G-baby’s stepsister, Tangie, talks about her first kiss, which happened when she was 13. “One day he walked me to the porch. And I kinda knew it was coming because I closed my eyes… It lasted about five seconds. When it was over, he ran down the stairs… Neither one of use knew what we were doing. It was okay.”

Violence

  • When G-baby’s mother sees news stories on TV about Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer, she says, “Bless his mama, Lord. Bless his mama.”
  • Tangie wants to go to a protest for Roderick Thomas. She says, “A boy at Marshall’s school got beat up pretty bad. Roderick Thomas. Busted lip. Black eye. Police stopped Roderick on his way home from a friend’s house…”
  • When Tangie goes to the protest, “the police told us to leave. Marshall’s roommate started shouting. Others joined in. Next thing I know, Marshall’s roommate was on the ground. When Marshall spoke up, they put him in cuffs, too.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • One of the character’s moms is a drunk. The character is talked about several times but never appears in the story.

Language

  • Darn is used three times.
  • Dang is used four times. For example, G-baby says that her stepmother can’t cook worth a dang.
  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation twice.
  • Lord is used as an exclamation once.
  • Tangie calls G-baby a “snoop tattler.”
  • When G-baby swears to God, she thinks, “Grandma Sugar was about to strike me for using the Lord’s name in vain.”
  • One of G-baby’s friends says, “No shit Sherlock” one time.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When G-baby’s mother sees news stories on TV about Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer, she says, “Bless his mama, Lord. Bless his mama.”
  • Tangie’s little sister was killed in a car accident. G-baby’s mom says, “Some hurt only God Himself can heal.”
  • When Peaches gets sick, G-baby prays, “God, I know I want a big sister, but Peaches is the best little sister in the world. Please, don’t let her die like Tangie’s little sister. I’ll do anything to make Peaches better, anything.”
  • G-baby prays. “Dear God, I’m so sorry for not being a better big sister. Please keep making Peaches better and don’t let her fall out of Your hands…”
  • G-baby’s best friend, Nikki, takes off. When she can’t be found, G-baby prays. “Oh, God. Please, please… don’t let my best friend be an Amber Alert.” When Nikki is found, G-baby thanks God.
  • When Peaches is moved out of ICU, someone says, “Thank the Lord.”
  • When G-baby lies, she “mentally asked God for forgiveness.”

Rebound

Ever since Chuck “Da Man” Bell’s father died, Chuck’s turbulent emotions are holding him back from his relationships. When his mom sends him to his grandparents’ house for the summer, Chuck finds healing through basketball. With the help of his friends and relatives, Chuck also learns about his family’s past.

Chuck is an emotional 12-year-old who disobeys his mother and gets into trouble with his friend, Skinny. However, Chuck’s attitude towards life adjusts as his grandparents and cousin, Roxie, teach him wisdom and basketball. Chuck realizes that his grandparents are suffering after their son’s death as well, and Chuck makes an emotional connection with them. This story presents the multifaceted nature of grief through Chuck and his family. The narrative emphasizes this shared humanity rather than suppressing the trauma that the family has endured. The family helps Chuck come to terms with his emotional turbulence, and the end shows him as a happy adult who learned how to cope.

Chuck’s story pairs well with Alexander’s creative narrative styles. The poetry might be off-putting to some readers, but the flow is similar to reading prose fiction thanks to his free verse. The graphic novel panels help build excitement in the basketball/daydream sequences and give a different look into Chuck’s imagination. This book is a good introduction into poetry for younger readers.

Told in free-verse poetry and graphic novel panels, Rebound shows the turbulent healing process after tragedy strikes. As Chuck learns about basketball and how his family members deal with loss, he begins to understand the world outside his emotions. The book is told from Chuck’s perspective, but his grandparents are a large focus of the story. His grandfather, Percy, uses humor and tough love to help Chuck come to terms with his father’s death. However, Percy is serious and kind when Chuck is struggling the most, but Percy never comes off as preachy.

Alexander’s writing style is unique, and it switches between poetry and graphic novel panels. However, the story flows well and has many fast-paced basketball scenes. Alexander uses different poetic techniques to emphasize sounds, emotions, and dialogue. These portions and the graphic novel panels depicting Chuck’s daydreams help enhance his narrative voice and his dreams of success. Rebound is the prequel to Kwame Alexander’s book Crossover, but Rebound can be read as a stand-alone book.

Rebound tells a story about shared humanity and suffering, and it reinforces the need for family in difficult times. Alexander writes interesting and complex family dynamics, and his integration of basketball and comic books into the text feels natural with these themes. He grounds the abstract nature of grief in a manner that is digestible for younger readers. Rebound is a good read because it presents a character who rises above self-pity and gains perspective in dire times. Anyone who has faced a difficult situation will enjoy Rebound’s blend of poetry and graphic novel elements because they effectively portray themes of grief, love, and the power of family.

Sexual Content

  • Chuck’s friend CJ likes Chuck, a topic that is revisited somewhat often throughout the book.
  • CJ pulls Chuck out on the roller rink and “kisses [him]/on the cheek,/and, just like that,/ lets go/of [his] hand,/ and skates away,/and [his] heart/ almost jumps/ out of [his] chest.”
  • Chuck’s grandparents, Alice and Percy, kiss. Percy says to Alice, “Now give me some sugar.”
  • Chuck’s friend, Skinny, meets Chuck’s cousin, Roxie, and calls her “a pretty young thing,” which does not make Roxie or Chuck very happy.
  • Uncle Richard brings his boyfriend to the Fourth of July party.

Violence

  • Skinny mentions that his cousin “Ivan got into a fight” when his team lost a basketball game, but no other context is given.
  • Chuck says, “I remember/my father spanking me/when I was little,” as his mom tries to hit him for smack talking.
  • Chuck’s mom tries to hit him when he talks back. Chuck says, “Her hand/is like/a razor-sharp claw/about to slice/the air/lightning fast/in the direction/of my face, /but I duck/before the blast/almost rips/my head off.”
  • In her way of showing affection, CJ occasionally gives Chuck “a punch/to [his] stomach/that hurts/in a good/kind of way.”
  • Chuck says to his mom, “Some of my friends’ parents got divorced, /remarried, and the new fathers abused the/ kids, and that’s not cool.”
  • On a walk, Percy tells Chuck, “My/mother wasn’t so easy. Used to make me/get a switch from our peach tree, then we/ got whupped good.”
  • When Roxie sees Chuck sitting in the truck, she “punches [Chuck]/ in the arm.”
  • After Roxie and Chuck lose a game, one of the boys on the other team taunts them. The other boy says, “Maybe you should play on a girls’ team,” and Chuck narrates, “She raises/HER fist, / ready to punch, but I grab it, / and get/in HIS face.” Percy pulls them apart before an altercation can occur.
  • While waiting outside the rink, Skinny’s cousin and his friends run over to “this other/ crew of guys/ like they’re about/ to throw down.” It is implied later that they fight off-screen.
  • Ivan walks into the roller rink “with specks/ of blood/ on his shirt/ and a sneaker/ in his hand.” It is inferred that he was in the fight that occurred off-screen, and that someone was seriously injured. No other details of the fight are given.
  • Chuck says that Ivan is bragging about “the beatdown/ they just dished out.”
  • Someone brings a gun to the rink, and everyone scatters.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Before Chuck’s father died, “he promised/to get me/ some fresh sneakers/and let me/taste beer, /as long as/You don’t tell/your mother, Charlie.”
  • At the end of the book, Chuck narrates, “my mom/ let me taste beer/ and it was disgusting.”
  • Skinny has an uncle that “smokes incessantly.”
  • According to Chuck, “Ivan/used to be/pretty cool/and fun/to be around/till he started/smoking/and hanging out/with a group/of delinquents/he met/in juvie.”
  • It is insinuated that the older guys hanging with Skinny’s cousin are drinking alcohol “hidden in/ brown paper bags.”
  • The police stop Skinny and Chuck outside the rink, and they unknowingly have Ivan’s bag containing “three sandwich bags/ filled with/ cannabis.” They are arrested for possession.

Language

  • Words like stupid, sucks, punk, wimp, nerd, loser, and fool are used frequently throughout the book.
  • There are some loud altercations near the beginning of the story when Chuck’s mom yells at Chuck in creative ways. For example, when Chuck defies his mom and slams his door in her face, she yells, “Boy, I am this/ close to wringing your neck.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • After Chuck scores the winning point in a three-on-three basketball game, he thinks, “The gym / roars like / a hyped-up choir / in church /after a sermon.”
  • Of Chuck’s father’s death, Alice says, “There’s a masterplan, and I’m not the / master. We just have to trust in the plan.”

by Alli Kestler

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World switches between the perspectives of Billy and Lydia—two teenagers who live in a poverty-stricken area in the Pacific Northwest called Fog Harbor. After their high schools merge, the two outcasts form a strange friendship. As they learn more about each other, strange things begin to happen around them: they experience unexplainable weather events and earthquakes, and they see apparitions that nobody else sees. The narrative borders on magical realism, as the strange events that plague the narrative seem to be tied to the characters’ personal and emotional journeys.

Lydia, whose mother disappeared when she was a child, is emotionally closed-off and spends all her days in the makeshift dance studio behind her father’s bar. Billy lives in a decrepit house with his emotionally abusive grandmother, where he spends all his time watching therapy talk shows on the 24-hour Alcoholics Anonymous TV channel. The setting of Fog Harbor is set in a larger world that serves as an exaggerated parody of late-2010s America, where the president has been replaced by a king. Savvy readers may recognize the King’s mannerisms and policies, as the figure seems to be a caricature of America’s 45th president, Donald Trump.

Caleb, who is Billy’s uncle, Fog Harbor’s most famous resident, and one of the world’s most notorious musicians, frequently speaks in interviews about his upbringing in poverty-stricken, drug-addicted Fog Harbor. When Caleb—a heroin addict who has been through rehab several times—disappears following a violent breakdown and shows up in Billy’s attic, Billy is tasked with keeping a secret and is forced to reckon with his family’s dysfunctional past. Meanwhile, Lydia begins to take dance lessons for the first time and is followed around by a small apparition that seems determined to make trouble for her.

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World is as wordy as its title, with many wonderful lines and genuinely touching moments in the main characters’ central friendship. It is honest and discomforting in its depictions of a small town ravaged by poverty and drug addiction. Whether or not readers recognize their own hometowns in the foggy surrealist landscape, they will find the characters’ narrative voices compelling and achingly human.

Despite the harsh language and troubling subject matter, this narrative shines, especially in its portrayal of the main characters’ innocence and unwavering hope in the face of despair. Billy’s dogged determination to see the best in everyone is a heartrending and almost blinding contrast to his grandmother’s neglect and his family’s history of addiction. Lydia’s outer sarcastic façade hides her inner sensitivity and unhealed trauma at having lost her mother. Secondary characters like Lydia’s father and Billy’s grandmother create a cast of irresponsible adults who are imperfect and real.

Despite its political undertones, The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World is not quite a call to action or to political revolution. It’s something more subtle—perhaps a call to be kinder to one’s neighbors—but it’s engaging and surprising in the way it delivers this message. This book is the perfect read for a curious older reader who’s looking for a unique, high-quality literary narrative.

Sexual Content

  • Billy sometimes watches a show called Sexy Sober Survivor, where “fashion models go to rehab, except the rehab is on a deserted island…and they’re naked the whole time.” He wonders “whose job it is to put all those black bars on their interesting parts,” and “inevitably started thinking about what’s under those black bars, and then things got awkward again, and I had to excuse myself and go upstairs to my room, and hope… that this won’t be the time the house decides to finally collapse on me.” When the firefighters dig him out, he won’t be trying to “hide my boner when my arms are pinned under this thousand-pound beam.”
  • A therapy-TV personality sometimes tells “the story of how she used to be a prostitute who lived in a van by the river.” The reader never actually learns the story.
  • Lydia remarks that her peers are “just hoping they’re not the one who gets pregnant… as if babies and death are things you catch, as inevitable as a cold.”
  • While walking home, Lydia is harassed. “‘Looking good, baby,’ some douchebag yells out of a truck.” She gets them to go away by shouting, “Hi, I have AIDS and gonorrhea and a very small tail fused to my spine. Want to fuck?’”
  • The book frequently references a fictional YA series called “Unicorns Vs. Dragons,” where the hero “keeps his unicorn love interest chained up in his mountain cave to ‘protect her,’ which strikes Lydia as ‘rape-y.’”
  • The King, America’s dictatorial monarch, “ordered up a girlfriend, kind of like how [Lydia’s dad] ordered up a wife from the Philippines.”
  • Billy’s grandmother used to tell him “how I’m just a late bloomer and that’s good because it’s better that I stay her sweet boy as long as possible instead of turning into a sex-crazed pervert too early like most guys do.”
  • Caleb, Billy’s uncle, supposedly “got a girl pregnant when he was fourteen and Grandma had to pay for the abortion because no one else would.”
  • Billy recalls how, upon being approached by a tour bus for photos, Uncle Caleb’s friend Gordon “whipped out his penis and started peeing in the tour’s direction.”
  • In an interview, Uncle Caleb’s girlfriend recalls how “the sex that night was amazing.”
  • In another interview, the girlfriend “starts kissing [Caleb], and then she straddles him right there on the couch and starts unbuttoning his shirt, and then the interview is over.”
  • Caleb says he once “screwed an old lady for a case of beer.”
  • Lydia recalls how a regular in her father’s bar “has been staring at me since I was thirteen… he feels the need to tell me I’m pretty enough to be a supermodel.” Lydia finds this “gross because it proves that he’s looking at me the way drunk lonely men look at girls that are way too young for them. This is not a healthy environment for a teenager.”
  • A local says, “I heard [Billy’s] mom was still turning tricks long after she was showing.”
  • Lydia tells Caleb, “I guess you think all women should dress like your girlfriend and drip sex diseases everywhere they go.”
  • Lydia, after experiencing an emotional moment with Billy, thinks, “This is probably something close to how people feel after they sleep with someone and regret it.”
  • Billy thinks, “I would probably jump at any opportunity to do anything the least bit sex-related with an even non-beautiful girl who miraculously wanted to with me.”
  • Billy says, “I think giving someone art is just about the most intimate gift a person can give, except for maybe sex toys or something.”
  • A teacher tells Billy about “some kind of magic stone egg she bought from her life coach that she puts in her vagina, which I’m pretty sure is illegal for her to talk to me about.”
  • Lydia kisses Natalie, a girl from her dance studio. “I lean in and feel the world expanding as my lips touch hers. I feel everything pulse open and wash clean.”
  • In the epilogue, Billy lives with his girlfriend. Billy says, “It’s not even like we spend all our time doing hanky-panky (though that is a large percentage of what we do).” The reader is never given a clarification as to what hanky-panky is.

Violence

  • Billy recalls how his grandmother “threatened to smack my chin, even though these days, smacking chins is mostly considered child abuse.”
  • Much of the violence in the story is observed by the main characters when their high schools merge. Billy’s grandmother suggests he bring a steak knife to the first day of school.
  • Students have to use plastic utensils now because “a girl stabbed a guy last week with her fork.”
  • During a fight at school, “one guy pummels another… and then blood starts flying.”
  • Billy recounts how a kid in his class “got so mad when he had to put his phone away that he started punching a teacher in the nose.”
  • Lydia throws a glass at a drunk man at the bar. “The glass barely misses his face as it smashes into the wall behind him.”
  • During his public breakdown, “Caleb’s tiny, sweatpantsed figure is swinging a guitar around, chasing his bandmates, who are fleeing off the stage… Then he throws the guitar into the audience, then the mic stands, then the drums, and the muffled voices turn to screams.”
  • In another public appearance, he “tears the mic off his shirt, jumps out of his seat, and smashes his beer bottle on the camera.”
  • Billy’s grandmother tells a journalist to kill himself.
  • A news report says that the King “accidentally bombed the wrong village somewhere this morning and killed a few thousand innocent people.”
  • Caleb’s girlfriend expresses a desire to “bomb all of Washington State west of Olympia so they can give it back to the trees.”
  • Billy’s neighbor, who is in an extremist religious cult, threatens another resident with “one of those big scary guns people only use in wars and mass shootings and starts chasing the guy down the street.” Billy watches the scene from his porch, and the situation de-escalates over three pages.
  • Caleb recalls how Billy’s grandfather “smashed up the house on a regular basis.”
  • Billy thinks that if he expressed his true environmental opinions, the locals would “probably murder me and tie my dead body to a tree and write on it with blood, ‘Are you happy now, tree hugger?’”
  • A riot breaks out over an announcement regarding logging rights in the forest. “One man pushes another, who falls into another man behind him, who falls into another, who falls into another man behind him, and then all hell breaks loose, the crowd a flurry of pushing, punching, shouting, glass breaking, and random things on fire.” Billy watches it on TV.
  • School is let out early because of a bomb threat.
  • Lydia tells Caleb, “If you try to commit suicide in my house, I will fucking kill you.”
  • In addition to verbal abuse, Billy’s grandmother hits him. This only happens once in the narrative, but it is implied to have happened before. When Billy tries to approach her after she’s heard a distressing news story, “She spins around, whacks my arm, lunges, and even sitting on the couch she’s strong enough to push me to the floor.”
  • The King drops a nuclear bomb in the Pacific, causing a tsunami to destroy most of Fog Harbor. The climax of the book follows the characters as they race to higher ground. Many people survive, but a loss of life is implied.
  • “Cult Girl” points a gun in a reporter’s face to get her to go away.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • An old town rivalry is rumored to have started with “opium-crazed mill workers.”
  • Billy’s town has “the highest per capita heroin deaths in the state.”
  • Billy says he’s never been tempted to do drugs because “I’m not cool enough to be straight-edge, and I’m not smart enough to be a nerd, so mostly I’m just sober out of fear.” His grandmother often tells him “that addiction is in my blood and I’m a junkie waiting to happen, and I figure going through withdrawal once as a baby is more than enough.”
  • Lydia’s father runs a bar, so she spends most of her time there. “Technically, it’s against the law for me to be in here since I’m underage, but no one cares about laws like that here.”
  • Caleb smokes cigarettes and weed. While hiding in the attic, he enlists Billy to buy him weed from his old friend and dealer, Gordon. Billy doesn’t want Caleb to relapse, but Caleb says, “In the great scheme of things I’ve done, weed is barely a drug.”
  • When visiting Gordon to buy weed, Billy watches him take “some kind of contraption with water in it from the table, grips it between his legs while the hand of his good arm holds a lighter to it, inhales, and exhales a giant cloud of sweet, but slightly rancid-smelling smoke.”
  • Billy completes the drug deal and receives “a plastic baggie of dry greenish-brown clumps” (marijuana).
  • During a later drug deal, Gordon hands Billy a beer and offers him “molly” and “nitrous cartridges.” Billy doesn’t drink the beer or take Gordon up on his offer.
  • When Caleb smokes all his weed and falls asleep, Billy wonders, “Can someone die of a marijuana overdose?”
  • Caleb tells Billy to ask his drug dealer “where to get some dope.” Billy tells him, “I’m not going to help you kill yourself. If you want heroin, you can leave this attic and get it yourself.”

Language

  • Fuck, shit, damn, hell, goddamn, and asshole are used frequently. Bitch, bastard, crap, and “screw you” are used infrequently.
  • Lydia works at a fast-food restaurant called “Taco Hell.”
  • A regular at Lydia’s father’s bar calls Billy “retarded.”

Supernatural

  • Some of the events that surround Billy and Lydia seem supernatural. During one of the final scenes, while the town is being threatened by a natural disaster, Lydia and Billy see unicorns and dragons running through the streets. “What looks like a dragon and two unicorns run by, way larger and way faster than anyone in costume could possibly be.” The narrators never get a good look at the creatures.
  • A small girl nobody else can see follows Lydia around, often kicking her or breaking things.
  • A fan asks Billy if he is Caleb’s ghost.

Spiritual Content

  • Billy’s neighbors are in a cult. Billy often sees the neighbors’ child—a girl his age— in the window, and he refers to her as “Cult Girl.”
  • Cult Girl and her family attend “some weird church in a trailer by the freeway that says women are supposed to stay in the home and kids should be kept pure and not have any contact with sinners, aka everyone else.”
  • When Billy gets the chance to talk to Cult Girl, he thinks, “For all I know, the only history she’s ever been taught is stories from the Bible. She might still think the Earth’s flat.”
  • Later, Billy asks Cult Girl what happened after the Biblical great flood. Ruth says, “The waters took a while to recede, but then there was a brave new world to conquer… Then God invented rainbows. But it’s just a story. God also said He’d never make it flood again. But He lied… God made it flood because He realized He made a mistake and humans were evil and needed to be destroyed.”
  • Lydia’s father, who is going through a “Wicca phase,” tells the kids, “Samhain is the ancient pagan holiday marking a time when the boundary between this world and the spirit world thins and can be more easily crossed… I can tell you some incantations you can use to summon the spirits.” The kids don’t take him up on his offer.
  • Billy says, “No one ever taught me how to pray, but I did it anyway. I got on my knees and everything. I asked God or whoever to protect my uncle and keep him safe.”
  • A group of kids at school form a “morning prayer circle table,” where they stand up from their seats and shout, “Who’s in the house? J.C.’s in the house!” Billy thinks, “Who in their right mind would thank God for any of this?”
  • A teacher tells Billy about “chakras and crystals.”
  • Lydia calls Christmas “a marketing conspiracy in the guise of a religious tradition I don’t even believe in.”
  • During an emergency, a girl from Lydia’s dance studio runs away from her parents because they “kept praying. It was driving me crazy.”
  • Caleb goes to a Thai meditation retreat and says he wants to become a monk.
  • Billy says, “Apparently that Buddha guy that Caleb likes came up with the idea [of living in the moment] way before therapists did.”

by Caroline Galdi

 

Serious Moonlight

Birdie has been raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents. With no friends, Birdie spent her time reading mystery books. Birdie’s overactive imagination keeps her entertained. When her grandmother dies, Birdie’s world expands. She takes a job working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel.

Birdie hopes that her new job will give her the opportunity to be brave and solve a mystery. When her cute coworker, Daniel Aoki, has a mystery to solve, he wants Birdie’s help. The two come together to investigate a hotel guest, who they think is a famous reclusive writer. Together they embark on an adventure to uncover the writer’s identity. As the two try to solve the mystery, Birdie must also try to understand her growing feelings for Daniel.

With a wide variety of unique characters, Serious Moonlight delves into the complications that come with relationships. Both Daniel and Birdie are connected by their love of mystery as well as the fact that their fathers are not present in their lives. Birdie struggles with understanding her feelings for Daniel, especially since the first time they met they had sex. Like many teens, Birdie has questions about sex, relationships, and her own motives.

Told from Birdie’s point of view, readers can understand Birdie’s insecurities, worries, and confusion. Many teens will relate to Birdie because she is a likable character who is just trying to figure out what adulthood looks like. Birdie has a positive relationship with her grandfather and her aunt, who want to help her navigate life’s difficulties. By the end of the story, Birdie learns that “Missing people is hard. Letting new people inside is harder. But the reward for making the effort was greater than I could have imagined… It took me a long time to figure out that not everyone in my life was meant to stay. But using that armor didn’t shield me from future heartache. And even heartache felt is a million times better than running away.”

While Serious Moonlight has some light, humorous moments, it is not a Hallmark romance. The story hits on several difficult topics, including grief, sexual relationships, and having a child out of wedlock. The descriptive sexual content and the profane language may surprise many readers. The ending of the story has a few surprises, but Birdie’s conflicts are neatly wrapped up in a way that is not necessarily realistic.

In the end, Serious Moonlight is an entertaining, suspenseful story best suited for mature readers. Readers who are looking for an entertaining, but tamer teen romance should read Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo or What Light by Jay Asher.

Sexual Content

  • Birdie doesn’t know who her father is because her mother “got knocked up by an unknown boy when she was a rebellious seventeen-year-old.”
  • Birdie loses her virginity to a boy she just met. They have sex in the back of his car. Birdie wasn’t thinking “because once we got back there and clothes started getting unbuttoned and unzipped, it all happened so fast… So when it was over, I bolted.”
  • Birdie reads Seattle’s local alt-weekly city paper. When she reads the ads, “a few were just begging for kinky hookups.”
  • When Birdie tells her aunt about having sex, her aunt says, “Do you know how much weird sex I’ve had in my life… Sometimes it’s good; sometimes it’s awkward. Sometimes it’s just plain bad. It’s never the same.” Their conversation lasts for two pages.
  • Daniel tells Birdie about his father. “My dad didn’t want to have anything to do with me, so he basically gave my mom a big hunk of cash for an abortion, washed his hands, and said adios.”
  • Birdie thinks back to when she had sex. “I was transported back into his car, and my hands were in his hair, and he was kissing me into a wobbly, weak pulp.”
  • While driving a customer, Daniel “heard some Amazon bigwig order two male prostitutes on his phone.”
  • Birdie has a fling with one of her friend’s brothers. After basketball practice, “he kissed me by the fence. Then again, two days later, for much longer. Secret basketball make-out sessions became a regular thing for a few weeks.”
  • Daniel tells Birdie that it was a mistake to have sex because it was “pretty awful.”
  • While at a party, Birdie and Daniel are in character. They pretend to be teachers. When they talk about who their characters are, Daniel says, “We have ten [kids]… You couldn’t stay away from me. I tried to resist, but the smell of chalk dust and blackboards excited you, so we were constantly having sex in the classroom where we taught.”
  • While at the party, Birdie and Daniel are alone when Birdie kisses him. “Oh God, did he kiss me back. His mouth was on mine. Warm. Open. Eager. He kissed me like he meant it…” They were interrupted by other guests.
  • Birdie goes into a store and buys condoms. She’s surprised by the variety: “Fiery ice. Studded. Sensitive. Extra sensitive… Armor of the Gods.”
  • Daniel tells Birdie that he had sex with “someone I had a crush on.”
  • When Daniel tells Birdie that he loves her, they kiss. “We kissed like we were desperate, separated for years and had only minutes to spare until the world ended, rushing, breathless, all roaming hands-teeth-tongue…”
  • Birdie and Daniel kiss. Birdie “Kissed him back without thinking. His lips were soft and warm… Pleasure flooded my limbs. Then he was pulling away…” Daniel gives Birdie oral sex. At first, Birdie “nearly blacked out. First from embarrassment, then from pleasure.” The scene is described over two pages.
  • Daniel’s friend teases him about his good mood. His friend joked “about me having a look on my face as if I’d spent the weekend in Las Vegas with a bunch of male hookers and a bag of cocaine.”
  • While at work, Daniel and Birdie “may have taken advantage of our working situation and made use of an unbooked hotel room on our lunch break.”
  • Birdie’s aunt becomes pregnant after spending time with her ex-boyfriend. She says, “We’d been texting. One thing led to another, and we spent the weekend together in Scottsdale.”
  • Birdie’s mother died because of complications from a pregnancy. Birdie finds out that her mother “didn’t know who the father was, and she wasn’t planning on keeping it.”
  • Birdie and Daniel kiss, and “his mouth came down on mine. He kissed me quickly—small, desperate kisses all over my mouth, until I flung my arms around him and kiss him back.”

Violence

  • In the past, Daniel tried to kill himself. He “tried to overdose and was found in the school library by a janitor.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Birdie’s grandfather was in an accident, which “made him dependent upon mild opiates.”
  • When Birdie falls asleep on the ferry, an employee wakes her up. Birdie was “worried he thought I might be a drunkard or a heroin addict.”
  • During a dinner party, the adults have champagne. One of the guests gets drunk.
  • Birdie goes with her aunt to an art dealer’s house, where he has a “tray of vodka bottles.”
  • Birdie gets high when she accidentally eats gummy worms that are medicated with cannabis.
  • Daniel and Birdie go to an opera where “patrons cluster around a cocktail bar, drinking and chatting.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes asshole, crap, bastard, damn, fuck, hell, jackass, piss, and shit. For example after they have sex, Daniel tells Birdie that, “I feel like an asshole, and I wish I had a time machine so that I could go back and change everything.”
  • Jesus, Christ, God, Oh My God and oh God are used as an exclamation occasionally.
  • When Birdie was ten, her aunt taught her “a dozen words that contained the word ‘cock.’”
  • Birdie’s aunt tells her, “your mother was a goddess. Not a whore. Not a sinner. You know this.”
  • Birdie says “GD” instead of saying “Goddammit.”
  • Daniel tells Birdie a story about a man who was “a real prick.”
  • Daniel calls someone “a total dick.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Birdie’s “grandmother had been religious. However, Grandpa veered toward angel sighting and UFOs and people communicating with their long-lost Aunt Margie from Topeka.”
  • When her aunt embarrasses her, Birdie thinks, “If there were an all-powerful being that ruled the universe, it would have surely heard my desperate prayer to please, oh please, have mercy and strike me down. I needed a natural disaster pronto—earthquake, tornado, tsunami. Anything.”
  • Birdie is confused about Daniel and thinks, “I wished someone could tell me what to do about Daniel. I wished I believed in something, so I could ask for a sign. Fate. God. Myself. Elvis.”

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Vol 2

When Link travels to the Twilight Realm to save Ilia, he is transformed into a wolf and is quickly captured. A Twilight imp named Minda takes a liking to Link and helps him escape. Minda introduces Link to Princess Zelda, who explains how the King of Shadows has cast the kingdom of Hyrule into perpetual twilight. The King of Shadows seeks to rule everything under the light and dark. Princess Zelda is powerless to stop him. She prays every day that the gods will save her people. Is Link the prayed-for hero?

But as a wolf, what can Link do? He can talk to animals in his wolf form, but he cannot communicate with his friends or wield a weapon. As Minda leads Link on a quest, it is unclear to readers and to Link himself whether Minda is helping Link save his people or tricking him for her own gain. While this graphic novel has more action than the first book, video gamers who have played Twilight Princess may become bored, as this graphic novel follows the game so closely that it begins to feel like a recap. For readers unfamiliar with the games, this installment may be more interesting.

Link is a relatable character that readers will root for, but the other characters in the story remain two-dimensional, leaving much to be desired. This story has several battle scenes scattered throughout, but there are only a few violent images where Link is shown slashing monsters with his sword or attacking in his wolf-form. The images are not gory. The theme of Twilight Princess Vol 2 follows Link’s struggle to find his inner strength in order to protect his loved ones.

Twilight Princess Vol 2 is darker than the video game. However, the story will appeal to reluctant readers because the Manga-style illustrations tell the story through pictures and uses a limited amount of words. Each page contains 1-6 simple sentences, which appear in thought bubbles. Similar to the original Batman comics, Twilight Princess’s battle scenes use onomatopoeia words, such as “Bwommm” and “gyaaah.” Overall, Link fans may be better off sticking with the video game and skipping the graphic novels altogether.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A “demon thief” is banished to the Twilight Realm. He is stabbed with a sword, and the flesh melts from his face before he is sucked into the Twilight Realm.
  • When Princess Zelda tells the story of her kingdom being attacked, the illustrations depict an explosion and a monster slowly crushing a guard to death.
  • Link battles a shadow monster and eventually kills it. The fight is illustrated over six pages.
  • A demon monkey lashes out with fire, burning the forest and killing several animals, who are drawn terrified, aflame, and wounded.
  • Link fights the demon monkey. Their first battle takes place over three pages. Their second battle takes place over five pages.
  • Link battles a giant plant monster and slays it. This battle takes place over nine pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Link lives in a world with magic, shadow beasts, and demons. When people from the land of light are engulfed by the Twilight Realm, they turn into lost souls.
  • When Link travels to the Twilight Realm, he is transformed into a giant wolf. While in his wolf form, Link can communicate with animals.
  • Link meets an alpha monkey who “absorbed the power of shadow… He was originally a monkey, but now he’s a demon. He can’t tell friend from foe.”
  • When Link unlocks his instinctive wolf senses, he’s able to see the insects that are “the true form of the shadow demons.” One of the insects is controlling the monkey demon, making him act cruelly.
  • Link finds a boomerang, which speaks to him. It says, “I am the fairy of winds that inhabits the boomerang. You freed me from an evil force, so I can reclaim my true power… Please, use the boomerang in which my power resides.”

Spiritual Content

  • There is a legend that when evil people tried to use magic to take over the land, “the goddesses grew angry at this affront and sent four spirits of light to seal the upstarts’ magical power away in the shadow crystal. Furthermore, the mirror of shadow prevented these wizards from entering the world of light. They were exiled to the twilight realm.”
  • Link meets a light spirit who tells him, “By orders of the gods, I am one of the four spirits of light who protect Hyrule.” The spirit asks Link for his help in saving the land from darkness.

by Morgan Lynn

Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh

Maria is a nine-year-old growing up during WWII in Yuba City, California. Like most of the families in her community, her father is from India and her mother is from Mexico. Maria spends her time going to school, collecting tin cans for ration stamps, watching her younger brother, Emilio, and helping around the farm, but what she really dreams of doing is playing softball. Luckily, her teacher has just started an all-girls softball team. While Maria learns lessons about teamwork and determination, she also faces prejudice and discrimination on and off the field. With a little help from her parents and her strong-willed aunt, Maria realizes people from different backgrounds may not be so different after all.

Step up to the Plate, Maria Singh gives a new perspective of discrimination and prejudice that existed during WWII.  Maria’s parents are not American citizens, so they cannot own land and must rent their farm. This becomes a problem when their landlord decides to move. Maria is subject to racism, and she gets into a fight when a classmate calls Maria’s friend a “dirty half-and-half.” Through Maria’s story, readers will understand how a culture can normalize prejudice. Although the racism and discrimination in the book occurred during WWII, readers will see that many of today’s problems are similar.

Because Maria’s parents are of different religions, the book focuses heavily on religion, which is a fundamental part of Maria’s community. Although her household leans a little more towards the Catholic side, Maria’s father talks about Sikhism and brings his family to a temple. Maria is not partial to either religion and includes both in her prayers. While Maria appreciates her parents’ cultures, she doesn’t feel they are completely her own.

Readers will relate to Maria as she tries to make sense of the world and find her voice. Maria is a relatable character who, like most people, has flaws.  Maria lies to her mother but then feels guilty. While playing softball, she learns the value of being a team player.  When she faces prejudice, she learns what it means to hate and the importance of forgiveness. Through Maria’s eyes, readers will learn the importance of speaking up during difficult times.

Step up to the Plate, Maria Singh is a great way to introduce readers to this little-known part of history. The end of the book has an author’s note that helps readers understand the story’s context. Lovers of softball (or any sport) will identify with Maria’s softball obsession and how she uses it as a means of escape and personal victory. This story also shows the value of sports as a means of bringing a community together.

Step up to the Plate, Maria Singh takes the reader into history and deals with difficult topics of immigration, racism, faith, and family. Despite the heavy topics, Step up to the Plate, Maria Singh tackles them in a way that is accessible to younger readers. History fans who love sports should add The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Maria’s friend’s father, Gian, dies in the war. Maria asks Papi if Gian has ever killed anyone, to which Papi doesn’t respond. Gian’s death prompts Maria and her friends to talk about their fathers getting drafted.
  • While she is supposed to be watching Emilio, Maria wanders off. Maria comes back to find Emilio and his friend play fighting, “slamming into each other with arms and legs and fists.”
  • Elizabeth, a white girl, calls Janie a “dirty half-and-half.” Janie retaliates by “throwing herself upon Elizabeth, grabbing her hair with both fists, pushing her down…scratching and pulling and tugging, and both of them shrieking.”
  • When Maria is up to bat, Elizabeth purposely pitched overhand to try and hurt Maria. Maria realized too late how hard Elizabeth was throwing. She was unable to get out of the way in time, and “the ball cracked her [Maria] in the head.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When Maria tells Emilio that she can play softball, she says he is about to get “pig-headed.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Maria explains the misunderstanding people have about her community. “People called the families Mexican Hindus even though the fathers were mostly either Sikh or Muslim in the God department.”
  • When Maria explains why she was late getting home from school, her mom “looked up at the ceiling as if she was asking God and the archangels for guidance.”
  • After lying to her mother, Maria guiltily looks at an altar in her house, on which stands “the Lady of Guadalupe, blessed Mother of Jesus,” a Sikh prayer book, “a wooden carving of the holy man who had founded Papi’s Sikh religion hundreds of years ago,” and “a rounded symbol…called Ikonkar, which meant ‘There is one God.’”
  • Maria goes to confession, which was “near torture.”
  • While the wives and children go to mass, the husbands stay outside and get a picnic ready. This is because, as Papi explains, “God is everywhere, so I will just pray to him out here, under this beautiful sky!” Their wives “would roll their eyes at their stubborn heathen husbands.”
  • Maria’s family attends Mass for Gian’s funeral. As Gian’s wife and daughters process in, someone whispers, “Was he ever baptized?” Maria thinks the service was so special, and “whether he was baptized seemed not to matter.”
  • During Gian’s funeral, Maria thinks, “grieving together for a good man, in the presence of the Holy Mother Church, did bring you closer to the Lord.”
  • Maria prays to Mary and the Sikh holy teachers, asking them to “make the world a better place.”
  • Papi says the bill that will allow people from India to become American citizens has to go to the Senate, and “God alone knows what will happen there.”
  • “Extra blessings were needed” when Papi announces their landlord is moving. “Papi prayed from his holy book and Mama said an Ave Maria. Sometimes life demanded help from every kind of god.”
  • When Maria is worried about not being able to play softball, Papi sings “an old Punjabi prayer” to comfort her. Then he tells her, “Don’t be afraid. God will provide.”
  • Maria asks Papi if he is sad that he can’t see his temple in India. He answers, “All the God you ever need, you carry in your heart.”
  • Maria suggests her parents buy their farmland in her name since she is an American citizen, and they are not. “Papi was singing ‘Waheguru satnaam.’ Mama crossed herself. There were many ways to praise the Lord for sending a really good idea into a girl’s mind.”
  • A minister prays before a softball game.
  • When Maria plays in her first softball game, “fly balls landed in Maria’s glove as if heaven itself was sending them there.”
  • After her team wins the softball game, Maria expresses her thankfulness in both of her parents’ religions. “Wahgeguru, Maria thought, and crossed herself in gratitude.”

by Jill Johnson

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