Topic: Friendship

An Abundance of Katherines

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

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

 

Violence

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

Drugs and Alcohol

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

Language

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

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

by Paige Smith

 

 

 

 

Dog-Gone Danger

Kelsey and her friends, Becca and Leo, discover a purebred pug puppy in a run-down barn. Did he run away from home, or did someone intentionally abandon him? It’s another case for the Curious Cat Spy Club.

But before they can figure out the pug’s origins, a bigger mystery appears. Kelsey’s mom has disappeared! Kelsey is worried that it has something to do with her mom’s job as an animal control officer. Her dad and siblings think her mom is just taking a break from the family—after all, she has done this before. But Kelsey’s not convinced that her parents’ marital problems are the cause of her mom’s disappearance. With her two friends by her side, Kelsey vows to discover the truth.

Kelsey and her two friends, Leo and Becca, are all likable characters who want to protect animals. The three friends all have different talents, which add interest to the story. For instance, Leo loves to build gadgets, such as a smell-sniffing robot, while Becca is outgoing and can talk to anyone. Major, a retired search and rescue dog, also joins the Curious Cat Spy Club during their mission. Readers will enjoy looking at the clues to solve the mystery as well as the interplay between the characters.

In addition to the mother mystery, Dog-Gone Danger has some parental drama. Kelsey learns that her parents almost got a divorce. Meanwhile, Becca is frustrated because her mom is dating the sheriff. However, Becca uses this relationship to her advantage by using his personal phone number to call him.

One negative aspect of the story is when Kelsey and her friends sneak into several different buildings, trying to investigate her mom’s disappearance. They meet several potential suspects and learn new clues; however, the story downplays the danger of their actions.

Readers will enjoy the mystery, the dog action, and the friendship between the Curious Cat Spy Club. Dog-Gone Danger will appeal to both mystery fans and animal lovers. The best part of the book is the three friends, who help and support each other. In addition, the plot is easy to follow but has enough complexity to appeal to middle school readers.

Sexual Content

  • Kelsey has a crush on Leo. When Leo asks her to a school dance, Kelsey asks him, “When the dance is over, will you want to kiss me good night?” The embarrassed boy says, “Of course not!”

Violence

  • Kelsey’s mother goes to investigate a report of a biting dog. When the four-year-old girl who owns the dog sees Kelsey’s mom, the girl shoots her with a paintball gun.
  • While Kelsey’s mom is investigating a report, the villain grabs her. Kelsey’s mom says, “. . . I heard barking from the garage. When I went to check it out, someone came up behind me and threw a bag over my head. I was lifted up and shoved down into a dark prison.” She is locked in a bomb shelter, which has food and water.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Darn and drat are both used several times.
  • OMG is used as an exclamation six times.
  • The villain calls her sons imbeciles and idiots.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

More Happy Than Not

Aaron struggles with his father’s seemingly meaningless suicide and his own attempted suicide. Through the process of coming to terms with his losses, Aaron leans on the support of his mother, brother, girlfriend, and friends. He has been with his girlfriend, Genevieve, since before his father’s suicide and she supported him after his own suicide attempt, solidifying her role as a central part of Aaron’s support system. Then, Aaron meets a boy from a nearby neighborhood, Thomas, who changes his entire life as he begins to fall in love with him.

Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is.

More Happy Than Not follows Aaron’s journey of meeting a boy who changes his life in a way he has never experienced before. The story is told from Aaron’s perspective which allows the reader to understand Aaron’s internal struggles as he grapples with his sexuality. The reader follows Aaron’s feelings for his perfect girlfriend, which become complicated with his potential feelings for a new boy, Thomas. Aaron struggles with this internal battle of sexuality, his love and care for others, and internalized homophobia.

Following his regained memories, Aaron is upset that the Leteo procedure did not “fix” his sexuality. He confides in Genevieve, who reveals she was aware of his previous relationship a boy, and had helped him through the Leteo procedure in the hopes that it would help him love her the way she loved him. With the return of painful memories and a rejection by Thomas, the novel ends with Aaron considering whether or not he should undergo an additional Leteo procedure to take the pain away.

This raw novel highlights struggles of sexual identity, mental illness, suicide, grief, homophobia, and hate crimes. Aaron is a likable character with challenges that may be relatable to LGBTQ+ readers. More Happy Than Not is an engaging, suspenseful story that is difficult to put down. Yet Aaron’s experiences may be painful for some readers, especially those who have not yet come out. However, it is important that this story be told for LGBTQ+ youth who have faced discrimination as Aaron’s experiences explore how to move forward after painful experiences.

This sensitive and gruesomely realistic novel takes the reader on a journey of understanding Aaron’s inner conflicts. In the end, Aaron learns an important lesson and he decides, “I will do my best to always find the sun in the darkness because my life isn’t one sad ending – it’s a series of endless happy beginnings.”

Sexual Content

  • Aaron’s girlfriend, Genevieve, insinuates she wants to have sex with Aaron, to which he thinks, “A sexy lightbulb flashes on. . . I remember something very crucial: Fuck, I have no idea how to have sex.”
  • When preparing to have sex with Genevieve, Aaron thinks, “I am so screwed later on. Okay, poor choice of words . . . I was hoping I could watch an unhealthy amount of porn to memorize techniques. . . I’ve considered maybe watching porn in the morning while he’s [his older brother] knocked out, but even naked bodies can’t wake me up.”
  • When preparing to have sex, Aaron consults his friends. A friend states, “Fuck all that. I boned a bunch of girls just so I could get off and get better.”
  • When Aaron has sex with Genevieve, in-depth details aren’t given, but kissing and undressing are discussed. Aaron broke “free from her not-so-tight grip, slide up on her, and kiss her lips and neck…She pulls my shirt off and it sails over my shoulder. . . I take off her shirt and leave her in a bra. She unzips my jeans and I kick them off with much awkward difficulty.”
  • Aaron discusses having sex with Genevieve. “Skinny-Dave wanted to know how many times we did it (twice!) and how long I lasted (not long but I lied).”
  • Aaron thinks back to when his best friend said, “Yo! I just got my first blow job!”
  • In his recovered memories, Aaron recalls a previous romance with his classmate, Collin. As they grew closer Aaron wanted to move forward in their relationship physically. “Collin has already lost both of his virginities. He got it on with this girl Suria when he was fourteen, after she gave him a hand job under the bleachers in the gym. Then he let this guy plow him last year when he was vacationing in the Poconos. I still have both of my virginities to lose. . . I want to take it to the next level with Collin.”
  • Once Aaron recovers his memories, he remembers he had sex with Collin multiple times. Aaron thinks back to when he tackled Collin “against the wall, unbuttoning his shirt, and it’s all condoms and awkward first memories from there.”

Violence

  • The book opens with Aaron thinking of his father’s suicide and his own suicide attempt. “I trace the smiling scar, left to right and right to left, happy to have a reminder to not be such a dumbass again.”
  • Aaron shares a long hug with Thomas. When Aaron’s friends see him, they jump him. During the fight, Aaron thought, “I don’t know where we’re going until we crash through the glass door of my building and I am sprawled across the lobby floor. There’s an explosion in the back of my head, a delayed reaction. Blood fills my mouth. This is what death feels like, I think. I scream like someone is turning a hundred knives inside of me, spitting up blood as I do.”
  • When Aaron recovers his memories, he angrily remembers how his friend’s brother died. “Kenneth was fucking gunned down yesterday and it’s all Kyle’s fucking fault. Kyle couldn’t fucking help himself and just had to fucking fuck Jordan’s fucking sister, even though we all fucking knew Jordan is the kind of fucking guy who would fucking kill someone if you fucking crossed him. Those bullets were fucking meant for fucking Kyle but no, they fucking found their way into fucking Kenneth when he was fucking innocently coming home from his fucking clarinet lessons at school.”
  • When Aaron remembers coming out to his father, he recalls his father’s violence. Aaron’s father said, “ ‘I’ll fucking throw him out myself.’ My mom guards me. Dad wraps his big hands around her throat, shaking her. . . I run over, grab his TV remote, and hit him so hard in the back of his head with it that the batteries pop out. . . My dad – the man who fucking played catch with me – punches me in the back of my head. . .””
  • Aaron was sitting close to Collin in a park and two guys yell, “Yo. You two homos faggots?” Then the two guys jump Aaron and Collin. “One slams my head into the railing, and the other hammers Collin with punches. I try punching the first guy in his nose. . . I have no idea how many times he punches me or at what point I end up on the sticky floor with Collin trying to shield me before he’s kicked to the side. . . His kind brown eyes roll back when he’s kicked in the head.”
  • When Aaron gets home after being jumped, he enters his bathroom to find his dead father. “When I see who’s sitting in the bathtub, I drop the shirt and blood just spills down my face and chest. Holy shit. Dad. His eyes are open but he’s not looking at me. He didn’t take his clothes off before getting into the tub. The water is a deep red, stained by the blood spilling from his slit wrists. He came home to kill himself. He came home to kill himself before I could bring a boy here. He came home to kill himself because of me. All this blood. All this red makes me black out.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Aaron and his friends frequently drink together. For example, Aaron and his friends are in high school and sneak onto the roof top of Thomas’s apartment complex to drink and party together. During one of these parties, Genevieve goes to find Thomas and Aaron, who are talking in Thomas’s room, and she shouts, “Is party central happening down here now? Let’s go up and drink! Wooooo!”
  • In addition, Aaron and his friends drink in excess. However, when they drink in excess they make a point to not drive. Aaron noticed Genevieve had been drinking heavily and says, “Genevieve is pretty damn drunk and needs to get home.” Then Aaron calls a taxi to drive her home.

Language

  • Dumbass is used frequently by Aaron and his friends. For example, Aaron uses the word “dumbass” to refer to himself after attempting suicide.
  • When jokingly trying to get his girlfriend to break up with him, Aaron calls her a “bitch.”
  • Profanity is used excessively. Profanity includes ass, fuck, dick, holy shit, and shit. For example, when asking his friends how to properly have sex with his girlfriend, he responds to their remarks by saying, “Thanks, asshole. Help me not fuck this up.”
  • Aaron says, “It feels like a dick move to take a girl’s virginity without some kind of present.”
  • The term “faggot” is routinely used in a derogatory manner. For example, Aaron’s friends call him a “faggot” and Aaron’s dad yells, “I’ll be damned if I’m alive the day you bring a boy home you fucking faggot.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Paige Smith

See You in the Cosmos

Alex is a brilliant eleven-year-old, fascinated by space and astronomy. He has been working on building a rocket to launch his “Golden iPod” into space. After working at a local gas station sorting magazines in Rockview, Colorado, he saves enough money to attend SHARF, a rocket festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On the way to SHARF, Alex meets Zeb who is an author that frequently meditates and has taken a vow of silence. By using a chalkboard to communicate, Zeb becomes friends with Alex and accompanies him to the rocket festival. On the day of the rocket launches, Alex’s rocket does not end up in space but crashes into the ground. While crying in disappointment, Alex is comforted by a fellow attendee who encourages Alex by telling him how his team went through many failures before finally succeeding. Alex learns, “Right now is the most important moment – how they react to failure. They could either let it stop them or they could redouble their efforts, figure out what went wrong, and fix their mistakes so they can make the next try a success.”

From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he’ll uncover—from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly absent brother, he has way more family than he ever knew.

See You in the Cosmos is a heartbreaking and touching story of a child following his dreams and his unconditional love for his family. The story is told as a transcript of the recordings Alex makes on his “Golden iPod,” which he is determined to launch into space someday so extraterrestrials will know what life on Earth is like. The reader is given an opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of an eleven-year-old, which provides a new perspective on life’s challenging issues.

The novel follows Alex as he learns to cope with difficult family situations as a young child with a limited view of the world. Upon returning from his adventure, his mother gets diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Child Protective Services gets involved to determine Alex’s future. The reader forms an emotional connection to Alex, feeling empathy for the experiences Alex is facing while providing the reader a deeper understanding of how children interpret life’s events.

See You in the Cosmos provides an innovative story that will pull at the hearts of readers of all ages. Younger readers may miss the deeper meanings behind Alex’s journey. However, since this book is told from the perspective of an eleven-year-old boy, this novel could serve as a new way for children to learn to cope with difficult situations in life or help children understand situations that others, such as classmates, might be going through. This book will teach readers how to be themselves, what it means to be brave, and how to follow your big dreams.

 Sexual Content

  • Alex records the story of how his parents met saying, “They went to the top of Mount Sam on the tramway and when they got up there they looked out over all of Rockview and up at the stars and that’s when they have their first kiss.”
  • Alex’s half-sister, Terra, tells him about a guy she is seeing. Alex asks her if she French-kissed him, and she responds, “Yes. We French-kissed.”
  • Terra and Zed’s roommate, Nathaniel, were alone in Nathaniel’s bedroom and Alex sneaks in with his iPod saying, “I thought maybe they were French-kissing and I thought you guys might want to know what that sounds like.”
  • Alex asks Terra what being in love means asking, “Is it wanting to French-kiss somebody?”

Violence

  • Steve has a crush on Terra, and when he sees Terra and Nathaniel alone together, he punches Nathaniel. Terra says, “Oh god, he’s bleed–.”
  • While climbing up a roof, Alex falls off the ladder and is impaled on a fence. Terra records on the iPod saying, “Just hearing his voice– I kept seeing him hanging over that fence.”
  • Ronnie tells Alex the truth about their father. “Deep down he was selfish and abusive.” Alex responds, “Did he hit Mom with a hockey stick like Benji’s dad hit his mom?”
  • Later in the conversation, Ronnie says, “Dad never hit Mom, at least that I know of. He never hit me either but he came really close once. . . He started yelling and undoing his belt and Mom was trying to shield me. . . Just ‘cause he never hit us doesn’t mean he wasn’t abusive in other ways.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Terra explains why she did not attend college. She says, “Why go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when you’re competing against other people on an artificial standard or even worse, drinking and partying away four years of your life only to come out with a piece of paper that isn’t worth sh–.”
  • Terra, Zed, and Zed’s two roommates all drink beer and vodka. Alex says, “I don’t know how you guys can drink that stuff because I tried a sip of one of Benji’s dad’s beers once and it was so gross.”
  • Alex reflects on a party. Alex stayed in his room all night but he had to use the restroom, and he ran into a girl drinking from a red cup. He asked her what she was drinking and she responded, “Coke and vodka.”

Language

  • Alex occasionally says “bleep” where individuals would normally curse in a sentence. For example, when he is at SHARF and sees the Southwest High-Altitude Rock Festival Banner and registration desk, he says, “HOLY bleep!”
  • Terra and Alex discuss swear words, and Alex says, “One time in school, Justin Peterson who’s on the basketball team and his locker’s next to mine asked me, Do you even know any swear words? And I said, Of course, I do, DUH! and then I told him all the swear words and I said sometimes Benji and I even combine them into sentences like, Bleep the bleep bleep who bleeped on my bleep bleep bleeping bleeper.”
  • Alex speaks into his recording saying, “Venice Beach was so huge, guys. I could see it even as we were driving up, and I said, Son of a beach! B-E-A-C-H.”
  • Steve gets into an argument with Terra and yells, “You think I’m an idiot, don’t you? Well maybe I AM. Maybe it takes an IDIOT like me to tell Alex here how things work in the real world. An IDIOT who’s not just going to feed him a bunch of false hopes!”
  • After the argument, Terra tells Alex, “Steve’s a jerk.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Paige Smith

 

 

 

 

Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 2

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. Luckily, she meets Tadano, a timid wallflower who decides to step out of his comfort zone in order to help her achieve her goal of making 100 friends.

It’s time for the national health exam at Itan High, and the excitement of eye exams and height measurements has fanned the flames of competition in the heart of Makeru Yadano. She’s determined to beat the class idol, Komi, in the health test. Komi’s total obliviousness to their impassioned duel just feeds Makeru’s determination. As the epic battle heats up, how will Komi handle her first rival when she’s barely made her first friends?

Much of the time Komi seems to be in her own world and doesn’t notice those around her. For example, at the beginning of the story, one classmate wants to compete with Komi on the physical fitness test. However, Komi doesn’t even realize the classmate is trying to beat her during the races and other activities. Even though Komi has social anxieties and doesn’t talk to anyone, many of Komi’s classmates idolize her and consider her a “goddess.”

Several of the characters are odd. For example, one classmate, Agari, acts as if she is Komi’s dog. Another classmate, Yamai, desperately wants to meet Komi, so she threatens Komi’s friend, Osana. After Osana agrees to introduce Komi to Yamai, the situation becomes even stranger. Yamai kidnaps Tadano, binds him to a chair, and puts tape over his mouth. Later that day, Osana and Komi go to Yamai’s house where they discover Tadano trapped in a closet. Despite this, Komi still wants to be friends with Yamai.

Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 2 shows Komi’s growth from a girl with no friends, to one who is beginning to communicate and has two friends. Even though Komi communicates by writing on a piece of paper, she does stand up for Tadano. Tadano is a bright spot in the story because he truly wants Komi to form friendships, and he pushes her to try new things. However, one drawback of Komi’s friends is that they all focus on her beauty.

The black and white illustrations are adorable and portray the socially awkward girl and her interactions with others with humor. Each page has 1 to 11 simple sentences which appear in quote boxes. Square boxes are also used to show characters and general information. The illustrations help show Komi’s nervousness by showing her tremble.

Even though Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 2 has some strange events, the story will resonate with high school students who are insecure. As Komi begins to communicate, she also begins to act like a normal teenager by going to the mall and eating at a restaurant with her friends. Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 2 will entertain readers, even though it lacks the depth of Volume One. Readers will be curious to find out what happens with Komi’s new friend Yamai in Volume Three.

 Sexual Content

  • Yamai has a crush on Komi and is obsessed with Komi’s smell.

Violence

  • Yamai kidnaps Tadano, threatens him with a knife, and binds him to a chair. Yamai thinks, “It’s utterly bizarre for a loser like him to hang around a divinity like you, Komi.” Yamai justifies her actions by saying Komi is “glorious, so it’s psycho for a bottle-feeder like Tadano to hang around you!”
  • Komi doesn’t talk to Yamai, so Yamai threatens to kill herself with a knife. She says, “I have no reason to keep living!”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • One of the students says, “F*** you!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

A Short History of the Girl Next Door

Matt and Tabby have been best friends almost since birth. When Matt and Tabby enter high school, Tabby starts dating a senior basketball player and makes other friends. Because of Tabby’s other friends, Matt struggles to understand his place in his best friend’s life. He also tries to make sense of his feelings for her, all while trying to be the best basketball player on the junior varsity team. Then tragedy strikes. Matt’s world is turned upside-down, and he has to piece himself back together.

A Short History of the Girl Next Door surrounds Matt and Tabby’s friendship, basketball, and the tragedy that strikes their community. Matt loves Tabby, and losing her to senior basketball star and school golden boy, Liam Branson, is unbearable. Much of Matt’s life and his memories include Tabby, so when she and her father suddenly died in a car accident, Matt has to figure out how to deal with all his feelings. Although Matt, who narrates the story, sometimes can come off as petulant, his personal growth at the end of the story is commendable.

With the help of his family and basketball, Matt makes peace with Tabby’s death and apologizes to the people he’s hurt. The book deals with themes of friendship, death, and forgiveness. The most bittersweet and touching moments come when Matt learns to cherish his memories and opens up to those who are also grief-stricken. Family and community rally around their collective sadness, and they help Matt through his personal grief. Matt is only able to get better by relating his experiences and his pain to others.

Although most of the book is about Matt and Tabby’s friendship, basketball is also important to Matt. Basketball is Matt’s outlet, and the only activity he has that is separate from Tabby. However, when Tabby is dating fellow basketball player Liam, Matt’s two worlds become intertwined. And when Tabby dies, Liam becomes a reminder of what Matt has lost. Basketball itself isn’t as important to the story as the relationships between Liam, Matt, and Tabby, and the sport serves as a vessel for their personal issues.

A Short History of the Girl Next Door will appeal to those who enjoy slower-paced, slice-of-life stories. Those looking for a basketball-heavy book won’t find it here, as basketball is not the primary focus. The sexual content and language are geared towards an older audience and may not be appropriate for middle schoolers. Nevertheless, Matt’s growth throughout the novel is commendable, and Matt’s reaction to Tabby’s death will no doubt resonate with readers. A Short History of the Girl Next Door is a quiet book that looks closely at the ending of a friendship, and how someone learns to pick themselves back up.

Sexual Content

  • Matt admits that he started making “a mental list of the top-five hottest girls by grade level. Lily Branson landed the #1 ranking on [his] list.”
  • Tabby says about Lily, “People say she’s all stuck-up, but she’s actually really nice. I think people just say stuff because she’s pretty, you know?” To this comment, Matt says that he feels “like a complete ass. [He’d] made that comment—and worse—more than once, about Lily Branson, and any number of other attractive girls. Probably every girl on [his] top-five list. Because, you know, if a hot girl doesn’t want to mate with you, she’s obviously stuck-up.”
  • Matt is attracted to Tabby, his longtime best friend. He thinks, “Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh, but goofy grin number 1,001 nearly stops your heart?”
  • Matt says upon describing the height difference between his grandparents, “The Wainwright men’s infatuation with pocket-size women is apparently genetic,” a nod towards Tabby’s small stature.
  • Matt describes the book An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie as “an amazing book about basketball, and masturbation, and feeling shitty and alone, and how Indians are perpetually screwed.”
  • One of Matt’s neighbors, Corey, is very straightforward with girls at school and “openly tries to get [girls who like Corey] to touch his dick at his locker.”
  • Tabby tells Corey to go away, and Corey responds with, “You know, if you grow some tits, I’ll let you suck my dick.” Matt tries standing up for Tabby by saying, “Hey, that’s what I said to your mom last night, bro.”
  • One of the basketball players says to Liam, “What’s the deal with the freshman, B? She sucking your dick yet?” It is clear that he is talking about Tabby. He then says, “She’s a cockmonster, isn’t she?”
  • Matt jokes that his mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing is so good that he and his dad get “stuffing boners.”
  • Matt has a physical copy of his “Do List: Girls [he] would do if there were no consequences—social, emotional, or physical: freshman class.” Tabby finds the list and is very upset. She tells him, “Let me know when you’ve done the first hundred on the list, Matt. So I can spread my legs and wait my turn.”
  • Matt and his friend Trip have to write gift poems for poetry class. Matt jokes that he’s writing his for Trip, and that Matt “couldn’t think of a word that rhymes with bulge.” Trip responds, “Indulge,” with a wink, messing with him.
  • Matt writes a persona poem for his poetry class from the point of view of Mr. Mint, who has “wildly inappropriate opinions on King Kandy, the princess, and most of all, Plumpy, whom Mr. Mint tells to choke on it.”
  • Matt’s mom wants him to wear a bald eagle costume for Halloween. He would have to wear skinny yellow pants with the costume, and he says, “Where am I supposed to keep my nuts in these things?”

Violence

  • Tabby playfully “punches [Matt] in the shoulder, hard” when Matt asks if she likes Liam Branson.
  • Corey grabs the front of Matt’s shirt, looking to start a fight. Tabby, holding a corked baseball bat, “swung. Hard. The bat slammed into Corey’s right arm, the dented plastic barrel and duct-taped head finally giving way.”
  • After Tabby hits Corey with the bat, “he shoved Tabby to the ground. Tabby flew backward, landing hard on her elbows to keep her head from smacking the pavement.”
  • After hearing other basketball players make sexual comments about Tabby, Matt envisions different scenarios in his head, usually violent. He imagines “Branson going stone-faced in the locker room, grabbing Lighty by the neck and slamming him back into a locker . . . Or me, walking up behind Lighty as he’s singing his song, palming the back of his stubby, lumpy head and slamming his face into his locker, smashing his nose and knocking him unconscious.”
  • Matt tells Trip that he looks like a “squirrely-ass twelve-year-old.” Trip responds by picking up “a spent pizza crust from the box and backhands [him] with it on [his] arm.”
  • Trip and Matt play a video game where their characters spar against each other. Trip beats him one round, saying “I just made you my bitch.” Matt describes, “On the screen, his demon-girl flips into the air over another empty swing from my dude’s battle-ax and lands on his shoulders. In one quick motion, she scissor-cuts my poor bastard’s head off, reaches down into his gaping neck-stump, pulls out his still-beating heart, and eats it.”
  • Tabby “passed away in an automobile accident” while visiting her grandparents. Matt and the other students hear about it at school. It is later stated that, “an SUV lost control on a patch of ice coming off a turn, hit Tabby’s dad’s pickup head-on. Died instantly. Felt no pain. Probably never saw it coming.”
  • The team rallies around Liam because he dated Tabby and took her death hard. Matt is frustrated that no one has acknowledged that Tabby was Matt’s best friend, so when another player brings out armbands for the team to wear in solidarity with Liam, “a laugh escapes [Matt’s] mouth before [he] can stop it.” Liam “stands and drills [Matt] in the face.”
  • Grampa talks about when they used to paddle kids in school, as a teacher. After his first wife and daughter died in an accident, “by Christmas, a kid was getting it about every day. Usually the same ones.” On one kid who was being particularly nasty, he “broke the paddle.” Grampa never hit a kid after that.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Of Liam Branson, Matt thinks, “This time next year, Branson will be gone—hopefully putting on forty pounds of beer fat in a dorm at some state college.”
  • Trip’s dad explained how to cork a bat to Trip while “a beer [rested] on [Trip’s dad’s] stomach.”
  • One of Matt and Tabby’s neighbors, Corey, takes “weed from his parents’ stash.”
  • Tabby’s mom was a “drug-addict” who left when Tabby was a few months old.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes: ass, bullshit, fuck, douche, badass, damn, shit, bastard, dick, slut, and cock.
  • Tabby calls her friend’s boyfriend a “complete perv-ball.”
  • Matt sketches a carny ride operator that wears a “a trucker hat that reads ‘I <3 Little Boys.’”
  • Matt writes a poem that’s an “ode to Internet pornography.” The reader never sees the poem.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Matt’s grandpa takes one look at Matt in the bald eagle costume and says, “Sweet Jesus.”
  • At Tabby and her father’s funeral, Matt listens to “a few more numbing hymns” and the priest “speaks in infuriatingly generic terms about ‘the mystery of God’s love’ and [Matt] thinks, Yeah, this is a pretty big fucking mystery.”
  • Grampa has a heart-to-heart with Matt after Tabby’s death. Matt’s struggling to reason out what happened to Tabby and if life has meaning. Grampa says, “If there’s a God—and I’m pretty skeptical, myself—I figure he can fill me in when my time comes.”

by Alli Kestler

 

Ways to Make Sunshine

Ryan’s name means “king,” and she is determined to grow into the name her parents gave her. She is all about trying to see the best in people, to be a good daughter, sister, and friend. But Ryan has a lot on her mind.

For instance, Dad finally has a new job, though money is still tight. That means moving into a new house, and Dad working the night shift. Also, with the fourth-grade talent show coming up, Ryan wonders what talent she can perform on stage in front of everyone without freezing. As more changes and challenges come her way, Ryan always finds a way forward and shows that she is a girl who knows how to glow.

Ryan deals with real issues, including arguing with her brother and having stage fright. The story hits on several difficult topics such as family financial difficulties and having a best friend move away. Despite this, none of the topics are well developed. However, Ryan does tackle each obstacle and tries to see the bright side of things.

Most of the conflict comes from Ryan arguing with her brother as well as some friendship issues. While the conflicts are realistic, none of them are very exciting. The story portrays Ryan’s family in a positive manner and her parents always encourage her to do her best. Despite this, Ryan still has stage fright and is unable to say a poem during church. Ryan’s mother doesn’t reprimand her but instead encourages Ryan to try again. In the end, Ryan is able to gain confidence and overcome her stage fright.

Ways To Make Sunshine shows how Ryan uses the power of positive thinking to overcome many obstacles. Another positive lesson the book teaches, is that beauty doesn’t come from looks. Ryan’s grandmother says, “Your kindness makes you beautiful and the way you’re always willing to offer help makes you beautiful.” Another positive aspect of the story is the cute, black-and-white illustrations that appear every 4 to 11 pages.

Ryan is a relatable African-American character. However, the story is realistic fiction and does not have much action or adventure. If you like cooking disasters, sibling squabbles, and friendship drama, then Ways To Make Sunshine will entertain you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a book with similar themes but more action, take a look at The Friendship War by Andrew Clements or Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Ryan and her brother, Ray, find a container with keepsakes inside. Ray thinks it belongs to a dead person. “Maybe the spirit of whoever lived here before is angry because we went through her things. Maybe she’ll haunt me every night till I put them back where she left them.”

Spiritual Content

  • At church, Ryan and the other children say a speech every Easter and Christmas. None of the speeches are shown in the book.
  • When Ryan is unable to say her speech, she runs off the stage and wonders “why Jesus’ love for us has to be celebrated by torturing children to memorize poems.”
  • At dinner, Ryan’s father prays. “God, we thank you for this food. Please bless it and bless the hands that prepared it.”
  • When Ryan’s father prays, Ryan wonders “if God will bless me even though I’ve made Ray’s food extra, extra, extra hot.”
  • When Ryan and Ray’s parents announce that they are having another baby girl, Ray asks why the baby isn’t a boy. Their dad says, “Because God blessed us with another girl.”

Class Act

Eighth-grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying, “You have to work twice as hard to be just as good.” His grandmother has told him that his entire life. But, lately, he’s been wondering: even if he works ten times as hard, will he ever have the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the prestigious Riverdal Academy Day School take for granted?

To make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids. He wants to pretend like everything is fine, but it’s hard not to withdraw, and even their mutual friend, Jordan, doesn’t know how to keep the group together.

As the pressures mount, and he starts to feel more isolated than ever, will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his friends can truly see and accept each other? And most important, will he finally be able to accept himself.

While the first installment focused on Jordan, Class Act focuses on Drew. Middle school readers will relate to Drew as he tries to navigate junior high and all of the pressure that comes with growing older. Going to Riverdal Academy is difficult because most of the students are white and the teachers have a difficult time discussing race. To make matters worse, the neighborhood kids tease Drew for acting as if he is better than them. In addition, Drew isn’t sure where he fits in. When discussing his confusion with a classmate, Drew’s friend asks him, “What good is having people like you if you don’t like you?”

In addition to regular middle school drama, Class Act gives many examples of classism. After Drew sees his friend Liam’s huge mansion, Drew is angry and begins avoiding Liam. Drew says, “People like him are never friends with people like us. We won’t live in the same neighborhood. We won’t eat the same food. Our kids won’t go to the same schools. So what’s the point?” In the end, Drew shows Liam his neighborhood, which helps the two understand and accept each other.

Class Act is an entertaining graphic novel that has brightly colored illustrations that are at times heartwarming and hilarious. Craft does an excellent job making the characters’ feelings clear by focusing on the character’s facial expressions. Even though the story focuses on Drew, Jordan’s artwork is still included as black and white illustrations. In the end, Class Act will entertain the reader as it touches on the difficult topics of classism and race. Readers who would like to read more about racial inequality and the Black Lives Matter movement should also read Blended by Sharon M. Draper.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Some of the neighborhood kids tease Drew. When Drew gets upset, Wendell says, “You better take your bougie butt home to your grandma.” Wendell tries to fight Drew, but the other boys hold him back. Wendell leaves and Drew starts a snowball fight. After the fight, the guys talk about their issues.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Drew worried about the first day of school, his grandma says, “I’ll say a prayer for you.”

 

11 before 12

Kaylan and her BFF, Arianna, have a foolproof plan for surviving middle school: 1. Make a list of eleven things they need to do to become amazing before they turn twelve and 2. Show off their brand-new selves with the best joint birthday party in the history of West Brookside Middle School.

But between cafeteria drama, crushes gone wrong, and some major misunderstandings, Kaylan and Ari lose sight of the one thing they forgot to put on their list: “Keep our friendship strong.” As their party grows nearer, they’re both left listing the ways their friendship is falling apart.

Told from Kaylan’s point of view, 11 before 12 is a one-sided story told by a self-centered, manipulative preteen. Unfortunately, Kaylan is hard to sympathize with for a variety of reasons. She is only nice to her mother when she wants something. Both Kaylan and her brother yell at each other and their mother. Kaylan wants to be treated like a mature grownup, but she acts like a brat and doesn’t take anyone else’s feelings into consideration—not even her best friend’s.

For the majority of the book, Kaylan and her BFF, Arianna, aren’t talking to each other because of a fight. However, they are both “loyal to the list” and continue working on checking everything off the list, including a first kiss. The story has plenty of awkward boy moments and silly conversations that will appeal to preteens. One positive aspect of the story is that Kaylan learns that “there’s really no purpose in dwelling on the past or mistakes or regrets. The only thing we can do is try and learn something and then move on.”

In the end, Kaylan and Arianna repair their relationship. However, the happy ending feels unrealistic and, unfortunately, the reader may wonder why Arianna would want to be friends with Kaylan. While the topics of first kisses and new friends will appeal to tweens, Kaylan’s selfish behavior dominates the story. Pugs and Kisses by J.J. Howard has similar tween-friendly themes with a more relatable main character.

Sexual Content

  • Ari’s mom says, “I think my first kiss was when I was eleven. I was at camp.
  • At lunch, a girl tells her friends about her first kiss. She mets a boy at camp and, “We kissed on the last night.”
  • At a party, Kaylan thinks Tyler “want to kiss me. I really do. Too bad for him I don’t kiss doofus boys like him, especially doofus boys who taunt my brother.”
  • Kaylan’s friend Saara, had a “first kiss miss.” Saara was at a party playing mancala when, “out of nowhere, he leaned in and kissed me.” Saara said she “backed away” because “it was too weird! I didn’t even know him!”
  • Instead of going to class, Jason and Kaylan go outside. Jason asks her a strange question. Then when Kaylan is distracted, he “kisses me. . . Well, it’s kind of a kiss. Our teeth crash. Part of his lip ends up on my nose. . . His lips are on my lips, kind of. My lips are on his lips, kind of.” Kaylan gets upset because she thinks the kiss was a “pity kiss.”
  • Arianna meets a boy at Hebrew school. Arianna says, “So anyway, we went to get some of the gummy snacks out of the vending machine, and we were standing side-by-side, and he just kissed me! Right there!”
  • At a party, Kaylan takes Jason into the laundry room so they can have a “redo” kiss. “We both lean in a little, and then Jason’s lips are on my lips. This is the redo. And it’s going really well. We’re kissing. We really are.” They both decide that the redo went “really well” and then return to the party.

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party, a group of boys try to get Kaylan’s brother, Ryan, to drink out of a baby bottle. Kaylan wonders, “what if it’s laced with something? Some kind of poison?” When Ryan refuses, “people start saying, ‘What are you, chicken?’ and ‘He really is a baby!’ and ‘Scaredy-cat.’”

Language

  • Some of the teens occasionally call each other names such as jerk, doofus, dimwit, losers, imbecile, and flea brain. For example, when Tyler asks Kaylan if she likes him, she replies, “how can I like you if you’re that big of a jerk to my brother?. . . Do you even know what it means to be a good person and not a complete turd?”
  • God, “Oh my God” and OMG are used as exclamations frequently.
  • Freakin’ and darn are both used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Occasionally Kaylan says a silent prayer. For example, Kaylan’s brother, Ryan, grabs a list out of her hands. Kaylan thinks, “Thank god he didn’t see the sabotage Ryan part.”
  • Kaylan’s mom starts crying and Kaylan “prays that my mom stops crying.”

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest, to keep the witch from terrorizing their town. But the witch, Xan, is really kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children left in the woods and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest.

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby with moonlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, who she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge with unpredictable consequences, just as it’s time for Xan to go collect another child. Meanwhile, a young man is determined to free his people by killing the witch. And a volcano, dormant for centuries, rumbles within the earth. . .

The Girl Who Drank the Moon has many elements of a classical fairytale. A witch who lives in the woods, a swamp monster who recites poetry, a tiny dragon, and a curious girl filled with magic. Like a classical fairytale, the story is often dark, scary, and teaches a lesson. Despite this, readers may get bogged down in the long, repetitive descriptive passages that often use difficult vocabulary words. Between some of the chapters, there is a one-sided conversation between an anonymous speaker and another person. Because the speaker is unknown, these pages are more confusing than interesting.

The complex story uses an omniscient point of view so the reader can understand all of the characters’ thoughts. However, the story jumps to many characters—Xan, Glerk, Fyrian, Luna, the Madwoman, Sister Ignatia, Antain, Grand Elder Gherland, and Ethyne. While all the stories merge at the end, the large cast of characters and the winding plot make The Girl Who Drank the Moon best for strong readers.

Xan, a beautifully complex witch, shows love through every action. When she collects the abandoned babies and finds them new homes, she truly believes that she is doing what is right. Later she realizes that “I was wrong not to be curious. I was so wrong not to wonder.” Xan’s compassion allows her to understand others’ pain, and her love gives her the strength to fight for others.

The story deals with the difficult topics of death, grief, and political corruption. But beauty is woven into each page as the characters realize that family is not always determined by one’s birth, but by love. Luna’s family—Xan, the swamp monster, and the tiny dragon—is formed by love, loyalty, and the willingness to sacrifice for each other.

Even though The Girl Who Drank the Moon won the Newbery Award, the story may hold more appeal to adults than to middle-grade and teen readers. While the story has some interesting elements, the length of the story, the long descriptive passages, and the slow world-building make the story difficult to complete. Readers looking for a story about a witch that steals children may want to skip The Girl Who Drank the Moon and read Nightbooks by J.A. White instead.

Sexual Content

  • An anonymous speaker dreams about her son. She says, “Last night I dreamed that he waited next to a tree for a girl to walk by. And he called her name, and held her hand, and his heart pounded when he kissed her.”

Violence

  • Every year, the youngest child in the village is sacrificed to a witch. The town Elders take the baby into a clearing in the woods and leave the child there.
  • Paper birds come alive and attack a boy called Antain. “A paper raven swooped across the room, slicing its wing across Antain’s cheek, cutting it open, letting him bleed. . .” The birds permanently disfigure the boy’s face.
  • A man tries to take a sacrificed baby, but Xan stops him. “She could feel her magic rush from the center of the earth. . . like massive waves pushing and pulling the shore. She reached out and grabbed the man with both hands. He cried out as a surge hit him square in the solar plexus, knocking his breath clear away.” Xan turned into a bird and “lifted the baby into the sky.” Both the man and Xan were trying to keep the baby safe, but they did not realize it.
  • Xan turns into a sparrow. She flies over a frightened man. She tries to comfort him. “She fluttered out of her hiding place and circled over the figure. A young man. He screamed, loosed the stone in his hand, and hit Xan on the left wing. She fell to the ground without so much as a peep.” The sparrow’s wing is broken so the man binds the wing and carries the bird with him.
  • The Sorrow Eater feeds off of grief. In order to feed, she finds a starling nest. “She reached in and grabbed a tiny, wriggling nestling. She crushed it in one fist as the horrified mother looked on. The mother sparrow’s sorrow was thin. But it was enough. Sister Ignatia licked her lips and crushed another nestling.”
  • Sister Ignatia threatens Luna. In order to protect the girl, paper birds attack Sister Ignatia. “The birds cut her hands. They cut her forehead. They attacked without mercy.”
  • Sister Ignatia tries to take magical boots off of a woman. Sister Ignatia “balled her hands into two tight fists and raised them over her head. When she swept them back down, uncurling her fingers, they had four sharp knives. Without hesitating she reared back and snapped her hands forward, shooting the knife blades directly for the madwoman’s heart.” The madwoman moves just in time and is not injured.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • The town Elders “grew big and strong on beef and butter and beer.
  • Luna gave “ale to the geese to see if it made them walk funny (it did).”
  • A woman goes mad after her baby is sacrificed. She is given “special potions to keep her calm.”
  • The Elders drink wine with lunch.

Language

  • A monster says, “As the Poet famously said, dear lady: ‘I don’t give a rat’s—‘” The monster stops talking when he is interrupted.
  • “My god” is used as an exclamation once.
  • When Antain asks to see the Elders, which is unusual, his uncle says, “Tradition be damned. The council will be ever so pleased to see you.”

Supernatural

  • Sister Ignatia is a Sorrow Eater, who “spreads misery and devours sorrow.” When someone feels grief, Sister Ignatia’s “tongue quickly darted out and disappeared back into her mouth. She closed her eyes as her cheeks flushed. As though she had just tasted the most delicious flavor in the world.”
  • Xan is a witch and can change forms. She picks up the sacrificed infants and feeds them starlight. “Once it was dark enough to see the stars, she reached up one hand and gathered starlight in her fingers. . . and fed it to the child.”
  • In order to hide from the Elder, Xan “transformed herself into a tree—a craggy thing of leaf and lichen and deep-grooved bark, similar in shape and texture to the other ancient sycamores standing guard over the small grove.”
  • When Luna was an infant, she drank moonlight, which “enmagicked” her.
  • Xan believes that “magic should never be used to influence the will of another person.” Despite this, she uses magic to make Luna sleep. When Luna begins transforming things, such as turning bread dough into a hat, Xan uses a spell to keep Luna from using magic. Xan is afraid Luna will hurt herself or someone else.
  • Xan uses her magic to cure a young woman of headaches.
  • Xan has a memory of protecting people “who lived in a castle. . . She remembered how she put protective spells on each of them—well, each of them but one—and prayed to the stars that each spell would hold as they ran.”
  • A girl is told a story about a witch who had boots that “could travel seven leagues in a single step.” The witch ate “sorrow, or souls, or volcanoes, or babies, or brave little wizards.” Soon, the girl discovers that the witch and the magical shoes are not just a story, but are real.
  • A woman learns how to transform herself into small things such as a cricket, a spider, or a waterbug.
  • Luna discovers a library, where the books are eager to have their voices heard. “Each book and each paper, as it turned out, had quite a bit to say. They murmured and rambled; they talked over one another; they stepped on each other’s voices.”
  • A flock of paper birds helps a “madwoman” escape from prison. The paper birds appear several times in the story.

Spiritual Content

  • A creation story explains how everything came from a bog. “In the beginning there was the Bog. And the Bog covered the world and the Bog was the world and the world was the Bog. . . But the Bog was lonely.” So the Bog created life on earth.
  • Xan remembers another time in her life when “she could remember climbing into her bed and clutching her hands to her heart, praying to the stars that she might have a night free from bad dreams. She never did.”

Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 1

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. With the whole student body keeping their distance and Komi unable to utter a single word, friendship might be forever beyond her reach.

Timid Tadano is a total wallflower, and that’s just the way he likes it. But all of that changes when he finds himself alone in a classroom on the first day of high school with the legendary Komi. He quickly realizes she isn’t aloof — she’s just super awkward. Now he’s made it his mission to help her on her quest to make 100 friends!

Anyone who’s ever been afraid to speak up will relate to Komi, who freezes every time someone talks to her. The socially awkward girl has a conversation with Tadano by writing back and forth on a whiteboard. This conversation helps the reader understand Komi’s inability to talk to others. While Tadano’s desire to help Komi become friends with others is endearing, part of the reason he wants to help Komi is because he finds her beautiful. Despite this, Tadano shows how two people’s friendship can bloom into something beautiful.

The black and white illustrations are adorable and portray the socially awkward girl and her interactions with others with humor. Each page has 1 to 11 simple sentences which appear in quote boxes. Square boxes are also used to show characters and general information. The illustrations help show Komi’s nervousness by showing her tremble.

While Komi Can’t Communicate focuses on Komi, the story also shows other awkward situations that arise because of miscommunication. Through Komi’s experiences, the reader will see the pitfalls of making assumptions about others. The story highlights this lesson by comparing the difference between what Komi is thinking and what others are thinking. With Tadano’s help, Komi begins to communicate with some of her classmates, which allows them to understand her difficulty talking.

Anyone who has ever had difficultly speaking up will relate to Komi. The anime art, the relatable conflict, and the easy-to-read vocabulary make Komi Can’t Communicate accessible to all readers. Readers will enjoy both the artwork and the plot. Readers who have social anxieties like Komi’s will want to put Guts by Raina Telgemeier and After Zero by Christina Collins on their must-read list.

Sexual Content

  • There are a few lewd jokes. For example, Osana asks Tadano, “Shall I sate your lust with my body?”
  • Osana’s sexual identity is unclear. Tadano is confused when he sees Osana in a dress. He says, “In junior high, you were a boy, weren’t you? In a boy’s uniform.”

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When a girl sees Tadano talking to Komi, she says he shouldn’t talk to Komi because he is a “scumbag” and “less than horse poop.”
  • When Komi and Tadano are talking, a girl thinks, “I can’t bash him in front of her highness Komi, but I wish that scumbag would get lost.”
  • While playing a game, Tadano thinks he is “watching idiots.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A girl hides from Komi in a bathroom stall. The girl prays to God, Buddha, and Komi. She says, “Please! I’ll do anything you want! Just go easy on me!” When Komi leaves the bathroom, the girl says, “The divinities answered my prayers.”
  • The students think being the student body president isn’t “grand enough” for Komi so they decide that “Komi’s position is God.”

Golden Threads

When a storm sweeps Emi’s beloved stuffed fox away from their mountain home, he ends up tattered and alone on a distant shore. A kind old man finds the fox and gives it to his granddaughter, Kiko. As she recovers from an injury of her own, Kiko mends the fox lovingly with golden thread.

As the seasons pass, Kiko cares for the fox as her own. While the fox is with his new friend, Kiko sews him with golden thread. After discovering his origins, she sets out with her grandfather’s help to bring the fox back to its original home. Once together, Emi and Kiko piece together the fox’s journey and find delight in their newly forged connections.

Told from the stuffed fox’s point of view, readers will relate to the fox who is lost and misses his friend, Emi. The fox worries that because of his “tattered paws and matted fur” that Emi will no longer want him. The illustrations depict Kiki’s injury and imply that both Kiki and the fox will be better than before after they heal. The story shows how the fox brings Emi and Kiki together and helps them form a friendship.

Golden Threads is inspired by the Japanese art form of kintsugi, or golden joinery, where broken pottery is repaired with resin painted gold. Kintsugi values repairing, rather than replacing, believing that the cracks give the broken item its story. This book is also a warm celebration of wabi-sabi, the Japanese idea that there is beauty in things that may be incomplete or imperfect.

Any child who has a favorite stuffed animal will love Golden Threads and understand the themes of getting lost, healing, and coming home. The sweet story has beautiful paper-cut illustrations with depth and warmth. Even though Golden Threads is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child, rather than for the child to read it for the first time independently. The alliterations and descriptions make the story fun to read aloud. However, younger readers may have difficulty with the complex sentence structure and the vocabulary. Each page has 1-4 sentences, which makes Golden Threads perfect to read aloud. Golden Threads beautifully conveys the message that people and stuffed animals do not need to be perfect in order to be loved.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Stargazing

Moon is everything Christine isn’t. She’s confident, impulsive, artistic . . . and though they both grew up in the same Chinese-American suburb, Moon is somehow unlike anyone Christine has ever known.

But after Moon moves in next door, these unlikely friends are soon best friends, sharing their favorite music videos and painting their toenails when Christine’s strict parents aren’t around. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she has visions, sometimes, of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. They reassure her that Earth isn’t where she really belongs.

Moon’s visions have an all-too-earthly root, however, and soon Christine’s best friend is in the hospital, fighting for her life. Can Christine be the friend Moon needs, now, when the sky is falling?

Readers will relate to Christine, who is at first reluctant to be Moon’s friend. As she becomes friends with Moon, Christine learns to step out of her comfort zone and try new things, including wearing nail polish. When Christine’s father sees the nail polish, he tells her, “things like clothes, makeup, and nail polish are just things to keep smart girls like you from succeeding.” While Christine’s father encourages her to be friends with Moon, he reminds her, “just because Moon does something doesn’t mean it’s right for you, too, okay. You’re different girls with different paths. Remember who you are.”

In order to make her parents happy, Christine tries to be perfect, but she secretly wishes she could be more outgoing like Moon. At one point, Christine worries that Moon will make new friends and no longer like her. Christine intentionally embarrasses Moon, and when Moon gets sick, Christine avoids her. Despite this, Christine and Moon eventually talk about their conflict and are able to repair their friendship.

The graphic novel’s panels use pastel colors and expressive faces to bring the girls’ world to life. Throughout the novel, the pictures in Moon’s sketchbook are featured, which allow the reader a peek into Moon’s imagination. Wang’s illustrations expertly convey the characters’ emotions through facial expressions as well as actions. Much of the story is told through illustrations without words. Despite this, the reader can easily understand the story’s plot. While some pages do not have words, other pages have up to eight simple sentences that use easy vocabulary and is perfect for even the most reluctant reader.

Anyone who feels ordinary will understand both Moon’s and Christine’s struggles with loneliness and the need to feel special. The two girls’ friendship is imperfect, yet endearing. In the afterword, Wang explains that one reason she wrote Stargazing was to show “the diversity of experiences even within a very specific community. As our society continues to diversify (as I would hope), I imagine there will be many more Moons and Christines out there wondering which parts of them are ‘not Asian,’ and which parts are just uniquely and wonderfully them.”

Sexual Content

  • Moon draws a picture of her teacher, Mr. Pennypacker, in a boat. Moon is next to her teacher and has hearts drawn around her head. When Christine sees the picture she says, “OH MY GOD, MOON! Ewww Eww Eww!!” Moon blushes.

Violence

  • A boy is mean to Christine’s little sister. Moon finds the boy and tackles him. The fight is illustrated over two pages. Two teachers break up the fight. As Moon is walked to the office, she hands Christine’s little sister the boy’s tooth.
  • Christine purposely puts the drawing of Moon and Mr. Pennypacker where other kids can see it. When a girl says, “Here you go, Mrs. Pennypacker,” Moon smacks her across the face and then punches her. A parent breaks up the fight.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Moon tells her friend, “It’s okay if you eat meat, though. Some animals are probably jerks. I won’t tell.”
  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation four times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Moon doesn’t eat meat because she’s Buddhist. Moon says, “We don’t eat animals because we believe in respecting life.”
  • When a professional athlete is interviewed, he says, “I’d just like to thank my parents, and God, for being there and helping me follow my true path in life.”
  • Doctors discover that Moon has a tumor. Christine’s father tells her, “Let’s keep her [Moon] in our prayers. That’s all we can do for now.”

The Lions of Little Rock

Twelve-year-old Marlee, who is shy and quiet, feels like her whole world is falling apart. And she’s sure that starting middle school is only going to make things worse until she meets Liz, the new girl. It may look as if they have nothing in common—Liz always knows the right thing to say, and Marlee can barely stand to speak up in class—but they become fast friends. Then, Liz is caught “passing” for white and leaves school without even a goodbye. Marlee decides she wants her friend back. But to stay friends, Marlee and Liz must be willing to take on segregation—and the dangers their friendship could bring to both families.

The Lions of Little Rock is historical fiction at its best. Not only is the story engaging, but it also sheds light on the struggle to desegregate schools in Little Rock Arkansas during the 1950s. The story focuses on Marlee and Liz, who refuse to give up their friendship just because they are of different races. Both girls help each other face their fears, and they encourage each other during difficult times. Through their interaction, Marlee comes to realize that, “A friend is someone who helps you change for the better. And whether you see them once a day or once a year, if it’s a true friend, it doesn’t matter.”

When someone finds out that Liz is passing as white, Marlee tries to understand her friend’s actions. Marlee’s family maid explains why passing as white is so dangerous. “If you’re really lucky, you lose your job or you’re kicked out of school. If you’re a little less lucky, you get beat up, but after a few weeks your injuries heal and you’re left alone. If you’re not lucky, a lynch mob comes and firebombs your house killing you and everyone you love.” Through Marlee and Liz as well as historical examples, the reader will come to understand racism.

Marlee changes from a timid girl who barely talks into a confident person who is willing to fight for what is right. Much of Marlee’s inspiration comes from the Little Rock Nine because they “believed they had a responsibility to make things better. Believed they could make things better, even though they were still just kids.” Marlee isn’t content to just watch the adults try to make a difference. Instead, despite her mother’s objections, Marlee joins the Woman’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools. As part of the organization, she helps fold pamphlets, talks to voters, and performs other small jobs that make a huge impact. In the end, Marlee learns the importance of standing up for herself and others.

The Lions of Little Rock won the New York Historical Society Children’s Book Prize. The entertaining story teaches important life lessons about friendship, facing fears, and finding your voice. The story is historically accurate; the author’s note at the end of the book explains which parts of the story were fictional and which events were factual. The book also includes three pages of discussion questions. Everyone should read The Lions of Little Rock because it will help readers understand racial tensions in the late 1950s as well as show the importance of making a difference in your world.

Sexual Content

  • Marlee has a crush on JT. When Marlee drops her pencils and begins gathering them, “JT handed me one of the pencils and our fingers touched and I could almost hear the wedding bells. . . By lunchtime I’d planned our honeymoon in Italy and was trying to decide if we should name our first son Orbit or Cosine. . .”

Violence

  • Marlee’s father invited a “colored minister” to speak at church. “The next day there was a note tucked in with our paper. It said, ‘You let your youngest walk to school tomorrow, she won’t make it.’ And it was signed, KKK.”
  • On Halloween, JT and his brother egg a house. JT’s brother tries to force Marlee to throw an egg at the house. Later a “colored boy” is arrested for the crime.
  • Marlee’s father tells her about Emmett Till. “He was a young Negro boy who went down to visit some relatives in Mississippi. One day someone saw him talking, some say flirting, with a white woman. . .He was murdered. . . He was only fourteen years old.”
  • The story implies that JT’s mother, Mrs. Dalton, is abused by her husband. Marlee “remembered her because she had a scar over her left eyebrow. . . JT had said once she’d got the scar when she tripped on the stairs.”
  • The story implies that JT’s father hits him. JT shows up at school with a black eye.
  • Someone tells Marlee about John Carter, “a colored man.” He was “taken by a mob of people. No one did anything. . . They hung him and shot him and dragged his body down the street and then burned him.”
  • Marlee was at the “colored pastor’s” house when she saw JT’s brother drive by several times. Everyone goes outside and then, “we suddenly heard a car pull up in front of the house. . . There was a crash and the sound of breaking glass. A screech of wheels, driving off. And then, an explosion.” No one is injured.
  • When the schools are integrated, protestors show up. In order to break up the protestors, “the firemen turned the hoses on. In an instant, the segregationists were soaked.” Several people are arrested, but no one is injured.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Marlee compares people to drinks. When she meets Liz, she wonders if Liz is “like a shot of whiskey given to you by your older cousin.”
  • At a football game, Marlee sits by JT and one of his friends. The friend, “smelled funny, like a warm beer.”
  • Marlee and her sister used to go to a pond to have picnic lunches. “At night, sometimes teenagers would park there on dates or sneak off to drink beer.”
  • Marlee sees JT’s brother and his friend at the zoo. On the bench they are sitting at are “some beers.”

Language

  • Marlee thinks that someone is a jerk. Later, she tells her friend that, “JT is a jerk.”
  • Nigger(s) is used 4 times. Someone discovers that Liz was passing as white. JT’s brother tells Marlee, “We’ll find your little friend and show her whole family what we think of niggers who try to pass.”
  • Someone calls Marlee an idiot.
  • Several people call Marlee a “square” because she likes math.
  • Someone calls Marlee a coward.
  • Darn is used several times.
  • “Oh Lord” is used as an exclamation once.
  • After someone throws an explosive into a house, the person’s father asks, “What the hell were you thinking?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Marlee has a hard time talking to her family’s maid, Betty Jean. Marlee “just stood there, helpless, praying Betty Jean would understand.”
  • At church, Marlee hears the Bible verse, “But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” Often, when Marlee has to make a decision, she reminds herself of this verse.
  • Marlee goes to meet Liz at the colored movie theatre. When a woman questions Liz, Marlee “prayed for the lights to go down and the newsreel to start.”
  • When a “colored boy” is arrested for throwing eggs at a house, Marlee’s father bails the boy out of jail. When the boy’s mother sees him, she says, “Oh, thank God.”
  • Marlee’s church makes a float for the Christmas parade. The theme was from Matthew 19:14. “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
  • Marlee’s family goes on a plane. Her mother and sister are nervous. Marlee “thanked God that neither one of them had actually thrown up.”
  • Marlee’s mom is a substitute at Marlee’s school. Marlee “prayed no one would see us together.”
  • JT and his brother see Marlee in the woods. Marlee tries to distract them so they do not see Liz. She “started walking, praying they would follow me.”

Splat the Cat: The Rain Is a Pain

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Dang is said once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

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

 

 

Pumpkin Heads

Every autumn all through high school, Josiah and Deja have worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say goodbye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September first.

But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years…

What if their last shift was an adventure?

For three years, Josiah has had a crush on Marcy, a girl he only sees when they work at the pumpkin patch. On the last night of work, Deja talks Josiah into skipping their shift so Josiah can find Marcy and finally talk to her. Reluctantly, Josiah goes along with Deja’s plan. Readers will fall in love with the two characters as they explore the pumpkin patch looking for Marcy. Josiah is shy, sweet, and afraid of rejection, while Deja is confident, outgoing, and completely determined to have Josiah meet the girl of his dreams.

Pumpkin Heads brings all the joys of fall to life—the food, the corn maze, the pumpkins, and the friends. Throughout it all, Deja and Josiah discuss the idea of fate versus free will. The two friends reminisce about their years working at the pumpkin patch and worry about what the future will bring. As the two race against time trying to find Marcy, the story includes some wonderful patches of humor. For example, when Josiah worries about leaving the succotash booth, Deja says, “For God’s sake, Josie—true love trumps lima beans!”

Pumpkin Heads will encourage readers to be bold and live without regrets. Although the plot is a bit predictable, the main characters are truly unique. In the end, Josiah realizes that people cannot be judged by their looks. The only way to truly know someone is to talk to them. The graphic novel is illustrated in the orange and brown hues of fall, and each page has 1-8 sentences of text. The story is a quick read that will leave readers with a smile.

 Sexual Content

  • Deja runs into an ex-girlfriend and an ex-boyfriend.
  • Deja and Josiah see a couple kissing in the corn maze.
  • Deja asks Josiah, “Are you about to kiss me?” Josiah freaks out. After a short conversation, they kiss.

Violence

  • A goat runs around smashing pumpkins and trying to ram people.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Oh God” is used as an exclamation once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Josiah and Deja show up at the succotash booth, a worker says, “Thank the Lord!”
  • Deja sees a girl crying, so she gives the girl a snack. Deja asks, “Why doesn’t God want me to have snacks?”

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.”

The Princess and the Fangirl

Everyone knows that Jessica Stone hates everything to do with the beloved sci-fi franchise Starfield. When she signed on to play the beloved Princess Amara, Jess was expecting to use the role as a springboard into bigger and better films. But being an actress in a sci-fi universe comes with an overwhelming amount of criticism. Jess can barely handle the hatred she gets from fans on the internet, and she certainly isn’t looking forward to being surrounded by them at the annual ExcelsiCon.

Starfield fangirl, Imogen Lovelace, practically grew up on the convention floor. Every year her family runs a booth at ExcelsiCon, but this year Imogen has her own mission. She wants to #SaveAmara from being killed off, and she’s got thousands of signatures on an online petition to prove she’s not the only one. When an unfortunate case of mistaken identity leaves Imogen onstage at a panel in Jessica’s place, Imogen takes the opportunity to speak out in favor of saving the Princess.

Jessica is furious, telling Imogen she will ruin her if she even attempts such a thing again. But when an incredibly confidential script to the Starfield sequel leaks online, and Jessica’s script is nowhere to be found, she’s afraid the blame will fall to her. Jess needs to expose the real culprit before the end of the Con or risk losing her career. The solution? Trade places with Imogen so she can scope out the Con herself, a plan that turns out to be much easier said than done.

The Princess and the Fangirl is a modern-day Prince and the Pauper with a fandom twist. Both Jessica and Imogen think they can gain something by stepping into each other’s shoes, but they both end up with an unexpected perspective. Jess is longing for anonymity and an escape from the harsh gaze of the Starfield fandom. She finds herself dropped right into the middle of it all, getting a first-hand look at how the stories she always viewed as inconsequential can bring people together. Meanwhile, Imogen, who is searching for a sense of purpose, is eager to use her newfound influence to right a few wrongs. But her peek behind the scenes reveals a disturbing darker side of Starfield that only Jessica Stone gets to see.

This story is technically a sequel to Geekerella, bringing readers back to ExcelsiCon one year later. There are a few cameos from familiar faces, but Geekerella can still stand on its own. Fans of romance will enjoy the fact that each of the girls has an adorable love interest, while the mystery of the leaked script will keep readers on their toes. Both Jessica and Imogen struggle with self-image issues that teen readers will find very relatable. And, like in Geekerella, Poston’s commentary on fandom is clever and meaningful: behind every Princess, there is a normal girl.

Sexual Content

  • Jess contemplates her role as Princess Amara, thinking about how she’d accepted the role expecting it to launch her career into more meaningful roles that wouldn’t require her to look “hot in a suffocating dress while running in heels.”
  • Imogen makes several sci-fi references, including a mention of “sexy David Tennant,” the actor who played the Tenth Doctor on the television series Doctor Who.
  • While onstage next to Darien, the actor who plays Prince Carmindor in the Starfield movie, Imogen thinks of him as “the love of [her] Tumblr life.”
  • Jess is jealous of how the Starfield fandom has grown to love Darien while they continue to harass her. “Darien sort of got the same blowback when he was announced to play Federation Prince Carmindor—which is how he met his girlfriend, btw—but it died off as the fandom embraced him. Now they write love letters about his inky-black eyelashes and immaculate abs while I get dissertations on how the small mole on the left side of my mouth has ruined the beauty of Princess Amara.”
  • Imogen tosses a #SaveAmara pin to a cosplayer in a “sexy Xenomorph” costume.
  • When one of Imogen’s moms asks the other to put a Captain America figurine on the top shelf of their display, she makes a joke that could be taken sexually. She says, “I could’ve sworn he belonged on the bottom.”
  • Imogen says that her little brother met his boyfriend in the astronomy lab. Although she thinks they probably “spent more time studying each other’s astrological compatibility than learning solar physics.”
  • Imogen doesn’t look like either of her moms. Imogen says, “…although Kathy carried both Milo and me. I look like the sperm donor apparently.”
  • Ethan, Jessica’s best friend, changes his shirt in front of her. Jessica thinks, “Sure he’s pretty cute, but my eyes don’t really linger. He’d be a catch if someone burns all of his nerd shirts and puts him in some jeans that actually show he has a butt.”
  • When Jessica looks through the comments on her social media, they include, “I can tell her where she can put those pretty lips” and “fixed her chest with small kitties lol [censored photo].”
  • Imogen literally runs into Ethan, spilling coffee all over him. Before she recognizes him as Jessica Stone’s rude assistant, she thinks that he’s hot. “He’s very very Hot like I-want-to-be-stuck-in-an-elevator-with-you hot, not we-are-now-mortal-enemies-because-I-just-spilled-my-coffee-on-you-while-not-paying-attention hot.”
  • Before trading places, Jessica makes a list of rules for Imogen to follow. Rule number four is, “Don’t flirt with anyone.”
  • Jessica doesn’t give her number out freely because someone “put it on an unsavory message board.”
  • Imogen thinks that contact lenses feel like “condoms for [her] eyeballs.”
  • Harper, Imogen’s friend, is selling her fan art out of a booth next to someone “hawking sexy pin ups of burly men.”
  • When Jess first sees Harper, her mind blanks because Harper “is very pretty, with delicate features, brown skin, and natural hair pulled into twin puffs on the sides of her head.”
  • Harper’s artwork is displayed on a board in the boot. Jessica describes it as a “copious amount of fan art of Princess Amara in the arms of various characters—men and women.”
  • Actor Vance Reigns is introduced as the villain for the Starfield Imogen finds him very attractive. “He is face meltingly hot. His shoulders and chest are broad, his torso tapers down to thin hips and sturdy legs. I mean, not that his legs wouldn’t be sturdy, but you know the kind of legs where you just know, under the molten-golden trousers, that he can basically smash watermelons between them? Yeah that’s the kind of thighs I’m picturing, and I think my knees have gone numb and dear god he’s too close.”
  • When Jess sees a picture of Princess Amara embracing a female Starfield character, she says, “I can’t help but blush seeing a girl with my likeness kissing the likeness of Fiona Oro who plays Zorine.”
  • Imogen notices that Ethan is wearing Captain America-themed shoes, “And then I’m just thinking of Ethan punching Nazis, and that’s kinda hot, actually.”
  • When Ethan heads off to watch a panel, Imogen says, “Have fun with the tres horny bois.”
  • Imogen thinks she can tell that Ethan likes Jess “by the way I caught him looking at me while I was posing for pictures with a seven-year-old Carmindor, the softness of his gaze, the curl of his lips upward ever so slightly. He must’ve forgotten for a second that I wasn’t the real Jess. Those looks are probably only for her.”
  • At the Stellar party, Jess sees two girls kiss goodbye. She thinks, “I don’t mean to stare but their kiss is so simple and easy, like saying see you later, that I don’t think any thought was put into it, I wish I knew what that was like.”
  • Harper and Jess tell each other about their first kisses. Harper says, “My first kiss was a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing. I was at a birthday party in middle school. It was…terrible.” Jess’s first kiss was on a movie set. Jess says, “He was older and I was, like, fifteen. His stubble was scratchy and it gave me a rash—and he smelled like weed. He’d been smoking all day.”
  • Jess realizes she has feelings for Harper. Jess thinks, “I have a crush on this girl with curly dark hair and ink smudges on her brown fingers and trouble tucked into her maroon-colored lips.”
  • Imogen, overwhelmed by her feelings, jumps on Ethan in the pool. “Turns out he’s a lot heavier than I thought, especially for a beanpole. And his torso is very solid. Are those abs I feel? Oh sweet baby Daleks, please don’t tell me Ethan actually has a nice bod.”
  • While in the pool, Imogen and Ethan are very close. Imogen thinks, “I have to remind myself that I can’t like him, but it’s hard when a droplet of water beads at the end of a lock of raven hair in front of his face, and falls on his cheek, and rolls down his cheek slowly, languidly, like I want to run my finger down his jawline. It’s like there’s no one else but us in the world, and his eyes navigate steadily to my lips.” They almost kiss, but Imogen pulls away at the last second.
  • After having spent the night talking to Harper, Jess thinks, “I am not a serial dater. I simply never cared… I’m not built to take a random person into a bedroom, I’m not wired to want those things, and so it made all those dates and chaste kisses with celebrities so easy.”
  • Jess dislikes the internet because it makes it easy for fans to forget about the people behind the characters. “Your hot take shouldn’t dehumanize me, or tell me that I’m wrong, or that I’m worthless, or a slut who slept on some casting couch for the role.”
  • Imogen’s ex-boyfriend shows up at a meet-and-greet. When they hug, “his hands slip low.”
  • While at dinner with Vance Reign, Imogen (disguised as Jess) discovers Vince has been trying to get the real Jess to go on a publicity date with him for a long time. He tries to kiss her, but she pushes him away.
  • Jess crashes the final Starfield panel. When she starts to leave, the director asks her where she’s going. Jess responds, “The horizon is wide, and I have a girl to kiss.”
  • Jess apologizes to Harper very publicly, and when the two of them are reunited, they kiss. Jessica says, “I give her the Starfield salute—You and I are made of stars—and I hope that’s enough. She smiles and presses her hands to mine in the same pose, and then slowly, finger by finger, they fall together—And she kisses me.” The description of the kiss is about half a page.
  • Imogen kisses Ethan. She takes “his face in my hands and pull him down to kiss me. He tastes like Cheerwine, his hands rising to cup the sides of my face.” The description lasts about half a page.
  • Jess and Harper meet to get coffee and kiss again. Jessica says, “I kiss her in front of the entire world, the first word on the first page of the rest of my life.”

Violence

  • When Jess discovers Imogen has taken her place on stage, she has some murderous thoughts. “I am going to kill her. I don’t even know her name but I don’t need her name to put her in an unmarked grave. I am going to chop her up into so many pieces that when alien archeologists find her bones in a thousand years they won’t even realize she was once human.”
  • Imogen’s younger brother calls her an embarrassing nickname. She tells him, “If you weren’t my brother and I didn’t love you, I’d strangle you with your own jockstrap.”
  • In a leaked scene from the Starfield sequel script, “A group of soldiers push CARMINDOR, tied up and beaten, into the middle of the council. CARMINDOR stumbles and collapses onto the dais. Blood drips from his mouth where he has been punched repeatedly.”
  • Imogen tells Ethan a story. “When I had to debate a guy over women’s reproduction he told me that women are too fragile to have control over their own bodies. I got kicked out of the club for kneeing him in the nards.”
  • Imogen’s ex-boyfriend, Jasper, shows up at a Jessica Stone meet and greet, causing trouble. Ethan steps in to get him to leave. “Jasper whirls around, fists clinched, ready to swing. I don’t have time to shout to Ethan that a punch is coming before he raises a hand and deflects the blow with his lower arm, grabbing Jasper by the shirt and pull-throwing him out through the nearest curtain.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Imogen claims to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like “delivering someone’s homework to a frat party when the cops show up.”
  • Harper invites Jess to join her at the Stellar Party, a space-themed party that her friends throw every year, where they “drink a little, sing some karaoke, stuff like that.”
  • In the hotel room where the Stellar Party is held, “on the kitchenette bar is a wall of liquor bottles and sodas.”
  • There is a drink at the Stellar Party called “Oh No.” Harper says, “Oh No is way more vodka than common sense.”
  • Imogen hugs her brother and notices that he smells like Stellar Party, “vape juice and Oh No.”

Language

  • Imogen uses the phrase “Starflame” in place of curse words frequently. “‘Starflame!’ I curse. ‘I’m so sorry.’”
  • When Imogen and Ethan run into each other a third time, she calls him a “nerfherder,” an insult from the Star Wars “‘He is possibly the worst nerfherder in the—’ I say, while at the same time he says, ‘She’s that monster of a girl I was telling you—’ We both stop mid-sentence.”
  • When Imogen puts on a wig in order to pass as Jess, she thinks “the whole bit about long hair being more feminine is Noxballs.”
  • Ethan gets upset at Imogen and calls her a “Rapscallion look-alike.”
  • After the incident with her ex-boyfriend, Imogen appreciates that the remaining fans in line are decent people, but she thinks, “I hate that some of the dickwads in their midst are not.”
  • Natalia Ford, the actress who originally played Amara, rescues Jess from a crowd of angry fans. Jess notices that she’s wearing a shirt “covered in a pattern of tiny, artistically rendered middle-fingers.”
  • Right before the final panel, the director is looking for Darien, who is busy helping enact the girl’s plan to reveal who stole the script. Imogen tells him, “He went to take a piss.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Imogen runs into her ex-boyfriend, she asks herself, “God why do I feel so horrible?”

by Evalyn Harper

 

Ida B: and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World

Ida B doesn’t like change. Every day, she has the same thing for breakfast: oats with raisins. Every day, she has the same thing for lunch: peanut butter on one slice of bread, milk, and an apple. Ida B also wants to spend “every day with her Mama and Daddy, Rufus and Lulu, the trees and the mountains and the snakes and the birds. All day, every day.”

When Ida B goes to kindergarten, she quickly changes from an inquisitive girl to a quiet, sullen one. Her parents decide to homeschool Ida B. Ida B is happy to spend every day with her parents. When the trees tell Ida B that trouble is coming, Ida B doesn’t think anything will really happen. When Mama gets cancer, Ida B is forced to return to school. Ida B feels betrayed and hardens her heart; she doesn’t want to ever be hurt again.

Instead of making friends at school, Ida B keeps her classmates away with glares. She refuses to talk to her parents, and she no longer goes to visit the trees. Ida B is determined to “stand there with my mouth closed tight, my lips zipped, glued, and stapled together to keep the angry words that were banging to get out…” The only bright spot in Ida B’s world is her teacher Mrs. W, who quietly encourages Ida B to share her feelings.

Ida B chronicles one girl’s struggle to deal with the changes that come with her mother’s cancer. Since Ida B is written from Ida B’s point of view, the reader will be able to understand her hurt and confusion. Ida B’s feelings are explained in ways that younger readers will understand. However, some readers may have difficulty understanding Ida B’s ability to talk to nature. Readers may also struggle with the story’s difficult vocabulary, such as forbearance, engulfing, dismemberment, and foe.

At the end of the story, Ida B learns the importance of apologizing and sharing her feelings with others. The story doesn’t end with a cheerful conclusion where every problem is solved. Instead, Ida B eventually shares her feelings, which lightens her burden. Even though Ida B teaches positive lessons, readers who love adventure and fantasy books may quickly become bored with Ida B’s story because it focuses on feelings rather than actions. However, anyone who has been faced with a difficult situation will relate to Ida B. Because much of the book revolves around Ida B thinking about her feelings and talking to nature, young readers may have a difficult time finishing the book. If you’re looking for realistic fiction that teaches life lessons, you may want to try Wish by Barbara O’Connor instead of Ida B.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Ida B angrily kicks a tree. “…I kicked its trunk as hard as I could so my foot ached something fierce, but I didn’t even whimper.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Ida B learns that her father is selling part of the orchard, “the only thing I cared about was putting together a plan to save me and my valley. But for all my wishing and hoping and sending out ten different kinds of prayers for a good one, not a single decent plan came out of me.”

Like a Love Story

Like a Love Story takes place in New York City in the late 1980s. The AIDS crisis is devastating gay communities, and activists are protesting the government’s reluctance to extend research or support to those affected. The narration rotates between three teenagers: Reza, Art, and Judy.

Reza is new in town, having recently immigrated to New York from Iran, where his family escaped a violent revolution. In the closet with a nearly hypochondriac fear of AIDS, Reza starts at a new school and soon meets Judy and Art, who have been best friends since childhood. Both Judy and Art are committed to gay culture and gay activism under the tutelage of Judy’s uncle Stephen, an AIDS patient and well-known member of the gay community. Art is an out-and-proud gay teenager, who is assertive and upfront about his identity. Brash and unafraid, Art is full of anger at the injustice of the AIDS crisis. Judy, a straight girl who shares Art’s love of Madonna and fashion, supports him in everything and shares his love of fashion and film.

A romance develops between Reza and Judy. But Reza, a closeted gay, knows he can only hold out for so long before his secret comes out. The first two acts of the novel largely concern their false relationship, eventual falling-out, and then the ensuing romance between Reza and Art. Each of the three narrators has a fairly equal stake in the plot, and each brings their own narration, perspective, and personality to the story. Like a Love Story is largely a coming-of-age story, but it is really three coming-of-age stories as each character grapples with their sexuality, their future, and their imminent emergence into the adult world.

Like a Love Story is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn about the AIDS crisis or the origins of the modern gay rights movement. Without preaching or lecturing, the narrative paints a rich and engaging portrait of the political climate through its three narrators. Each character in Like a Love Story has a completely unique voice; readers can open the book to any page and immediately know who is speaking.

Regardless of their own identities, readers will see themselves in the characters because of how authentically they are portrayed. Each character has uncertainty about their place in the world, an imperfect relationship with their parents, a faulty understanding of how the world works, and a yearning to belong—and readers get to see them grow as the story progresses.

 Like a Love Story has some of the most compelling adult figures in a genre where adults are often one-dimensional and cast to the side. The relationship that each teen has with their parents is complicated and imperfect, but masterfully written. It is genuinely heart-wrenching to see Art’s interactions with his homophobic parents, and it is genuinely moving to see Judy’s conversations with her mother evolve throughout the story.

Like a Love Story does not shy away from sexual content and depictions of sex acts, but it’s one of the few books that feels justified in its usage. Characters frequently talk of condoms and bodily fluids. The mechanics of AIDS transmission and the effects of the disease are explained as Uncle Stephen succumbs to infections. Readers who pick up this book in 2020 will already know the ending to some extent. Thanks to modern medicine, many people today can live full lives with HIV and new pharmaceuticals can help prevent transmission. However, the characters don’t know this, and they can only grieve the dead and dying members of their community while fighting for rights and recognition. The story highlights the importance of community, activism, and love.

Sexual Content

  • When asked how he knew he was gay, Art says, “I had a wet dream about Morrisey.”
  • During a make-out session, Judy tries to find out if Reza is aroused. “As nonchalant as I can, I move my hand down, feeling his crotch. I feel something hard. Is it him, or is it his zipper? I can’t even tell. I’ve never felt a hard-on before.”
  • Judy thinks, “Art told me once that the subway was the hottest place in the city, as in sexual heat, not physical temperature. He said that all those bodies rubbing against each other basically made it a clothed, co-ed bathhouse.”
  • Reza sees a naked male mannequin in a store window and thinks, “I look at the mannequin’s body and find myself getting a little hard. I cover my crotch with my hands. I imagine that Art is the mannequin, standing in the store window naked. How sick do you have to be to be turned on by a piece of plastic?”
  • After Reza sees a photo of Art, Reza thinks, “I need to stop thinking about him, and I know there’s only one way to do that. I lie back on my bed, close my eyes, and unzip my pants. I see Bartholomew Emerson Grant VI come to life, enter my room, climb into bed with me. He kisses me, undresses me, tells me not to be scared. But then he’s gone, and all I see are images of dying men with lesions.”
  • A big part of the second half of the plot is Reza’s shame and paranoia surrounding his sexual desires. Stephen teaches Art and Reza about safe sex and about how to use condoms safely. Stephen tells them, “If you want a tutorial, we can go home and practice with bananas. . . Lube is lubricant. Men need it, because we don’t naturally get wet down there . . . the jury is out on whether oral sex is safe or not, but my advice is to use a condom for that too.”
  • Stephen says, “The straight world has defined losing your virginity as intercourse. That’s their thing. But we get to define it for ourselves. And you never, ever have to do anything you don’t want to.”
  • Reza thinks, “I hate those words. Oral. Anal. I hate how graphic they are, how hostile they feel.”
  • In a photography darkroom, Art takes off his clothes for Reza. “There’s only one thing to take off. My boxer briefs. I remove them. I stand in front of him, exposed.” They kiss, but don’t do anything else.
  • Judy has an intimate moment with Reza’s brother, Saadi. As Judy makes out him, “It’s furious. Our tongues explore each other. Then his hands are all over me… his breath is heavy, and his hips are thrusting urgently. I feel what I never felt when Reza and I kissed, an erection. Saadi is so hard. He sits up and takes his polo off.” They don’t go all the way. “He wants to have sex, but I tell him I’m not ready.”
  • Art says, “The first time I read porn, I was twelve. I found my dad’s stash of Penthouse and Playboy magazines in the back of his closet. But Penthouse has these sex stories in them, and they were very hot because there were men in them.”
  • The characters all go to a Madonna performance wherein she masturbates onstage. The act is not described in detail.
  • When Art and Reza finally consummate their relationship, they use condoms and lube. Reza wraps “my legs around him, pulling him closer to me, or deeper into me, because he’s in me now. We thrust and grunt and sweat until we almost fall off the bed.” The scene takes up about three pages, but it is mostly dialogue and doesn’t go into more physical detail.

Violence

  • While attending a protest, Art hears bystanders say, “Hose those faggots down. They like that.”
  • During a protest, police officers “yank Art away and handcuff him.” The other police officer “pushes Reza to the ground.”
  • Some bullies begin to taunt Art, and he reacts violently. “My fingers tense into a fist. Before I know it, I leap out of my seat and tackle Darryl to the ground, taking him down like I’m one of the gorgeous ladies of wrestling. ‘Go to hell, you fucking ASSHOLE!’ I scream as he writhes below me, his scared, beefy body stronger than mine but unable to overpower the force of my rage. ‘Get off me, fag!’ he yells. ‘Not until I give you AIDS,’ I say, and I spit on his face.” Art describes later, “I pull Darryl’s foot toward my face. He pushes his leg up, kicking my chin hard in the process. My teeth hit my lips. My head doubles back, hits the wall with a thud… My eyes flicker with the shock of pain. When I open them, I see blood on my hand and on my shirt.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party with some kids from school, Judy gets “drunk on fruit punch.” Her friend tells her, “You don’t want your parents to see you like this.”
  • When Uncle Stephen is on his deathbed, he asks for a glass of wine. Judy’s mom pours wine for him and a small glass for Judy.
  • Uncle Stephen has been taking morphine for his pain; by the time he dies, his bottle of morphine is empty.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes: fuck, shit, hell, ass, and damn.
  • “Oh my God” is often used as an exclamation.
  • Art is determined to reclaim the words “faggot” and “fag,” which is a recurring point throughout the story. Judy’s mom asks Art not to use the word because “I heard that word hissed at my brother like a dagger throughout his childhood, and I don’t want to hear it ever again.” They eventually agree to disagree.
  • After coming out, Reza has “heard every possible word a homosexual could be called . . . Faggot. Pansy. Mary. Butt pirate. Fruit. Turd burglar. Flamer. Nancy. Queen.”

Supernatural

  • Art can see “auras.” Readers might recognize them as a condition called synesthesia, but to Art they take on a spiritual and artistic significance. Art doesn’t “snap a photo unless I see its energy. I know they’re all black-and-white, but they have colors to me. Auras.”

Spiritual Content

  • Art says, “I think that if it weren’t for all the bullshit rules of Catholicism, then there would be no Madonna, because what is she if not a rebellion against all of this?”
  • In a church, Art thinks, “I don’t want to burn this place to the ground. What I want is to make them see that I AM HOLY. These thoughts of me and Reza, they are holy.”
  • A priest’s homily “makes multiple references to protecting ‘the unborn.’” Art thinks, “It’s amazing how gung-ho he is about saving the lives of fetuses, but then he turns a blind eye to all the actual humans DYING right in front of him.”
  • Art lights prayer candles in a church and thinks, “I know that I don’t believe in a God who can grant wishes, but if there’s even a chance that such a God exists, then I have some wishes I’d like granted.” He wishes for AIDS to be cured.

by Caroline Galdi

 

A Boy Called Bat #1

Bixby Alexander Tam (nicknamed Bat) likes routine. When his mom, who is a veterinarian, is late coming home one day, Bat becomes upset. When Bat’s mom arrives, she has a good surprise. She has brought home a stray baby skunk that needs to be taken care of until they can hand him over to a wild animal shelter.

The minute Bat sees the baby skunk, he decides to become an expert skunk caregiver. Bat hopes his mother will change her mind and allow Bat to keep the baby skunk. Bat names the little skunk Thor and takes care of his needs. Bat even contacts a skunk expert in order to get advice about being a good caregiver. But can Bat convince his mom that Thor belongs with him?

Bat’s story doesn’t only focus on Bat’s love of the baby skunk, but it also shows how Bat doesn’t pick up on social cues. Through Bat’s eyes, the reader sees how Bat struggles to make eye contact, to understand others’ actions, and to make friends. Even though Bat is autistic, his difficulties are a natural extension of the story; Bat’s emotions are explained in a way that young readers will understand.

As Bat cares for Thor, he learns interesting information about skunks. Even though Bat is a good caregiver, the story makes it clear that Thor will need to be returned to the wild. Bat’s mother continually reminds Bat that wild animals should not be pets.

A Boy Named Bat is a sweet story that will appeal to animal lovers. Readers will relate to Bat and understand Bat’s desire to keep Thor as a pet. Adorable black and white illustrations appear every 3-7 pages and help readers visualize the characters. As readers learn about skunks, they will also see how Bat’s life is impacted because of his parent’s divorce. Even though the story focuses on Bat’s perspective, younger readers may have a difficult time with the advanced vocabulary. A Boy Named Bat is an entertaining story that would be an excellent choice for parents to read with their child. The story would lead to a discussion on many topics including animal care, family relationships, autism, and friendship.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Wish

Charlie has made a wish every day since fourth grade. Then, social services send Charlie to live in Colby with a family that Charlie has never met. Charlie doesn’t let that stop her from making the same wish, but now Charlie wonders if that wish will ever come true.

Charlie doesn’t get along with the “hillbilly” kids at school; however, her backpack buddy, Howard, just won’t go away. When Charlie sees a skinny stray dog, Howard promises to help her capture the dog. With Howard’s help, Charlie is able to befriend the dog who has captured her heart.

When Charlie’s sister, Jackie, comes to visit, Charlie begins to see things in a new light. Jackie points out all of the good things in Charlie’s new home. When Charlie’s social worker tells Charlie that she will soon go home to live with her mother, Charlie wonders why she isn’t excited by the news. After all, wasn’t Charlie hoping to leave Colby?

Charlie is an endearing character who desperately wants a normal family filled with love. Because of her unhappy family life, Charlie is filled with uncertainty and anger. Like many children, Charlie says things that she doesn’t mean, worries about fitting in, and dreams of a better life. Despite Charlie’s anger, Howard befriends Charlie, and she soon learns the true meaning of friendship.

Wish is a compelling story about Charlie’s struggle to understand her broken family life. Charlie’s strong voice allows the reader to understand both her anger and her confusion. Charlie is surrounded by an interesting cast of supporting characters that help her begin to heal. With the help of her foster parents, Gus and Bertha, Charlie begins to realize that possessions don’t make people blessed—love does.

Even though Wish deals with the difficulty of coming from a broken family, Charlie’s feelings are described in ways that young readers will understand. Even though the story focuses on Charlie’s internal struggle, the story contains enough action to propel the story forward. Wish is beautifully written, and each character jumps off the page.

When Charlie allows her anger to get the better of her, she is often surprised by Bertha’s kind reaction. Bertha tells Charlie, “You can’t judge people for the mistakes they make. You judge them for how they fix those mistakes.” In the end, Charlie realizes that she has a “real family,” even if it is different than a traditional two-parent household. Wish is written with compassion and insight that will help readers understand the importance of friendship and family.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When a girl makes fun of Charlie’s boots, Charlie “kicked her skinny shin. Hard. The next few minutes were a blur of crying and hollering and tattling and then I found myself sitting in front of Mr. Mason, the principal.”
  • Charlie tells her friend about a time when “I got sent home from kindergarten the very first day for poking some boy with a pencil.” She said she used the pointy side of the pencil.
  • Bertha tells Charlie a story about when her mother was in elementary school. When a boy was being mean, Charlie’s mother “stomped over to that boy and bit him on the hand so hard he hollered like she’d cut his hand off with a butcher knife. Then ran home crying while she hollered cuss words at him.”
  • When a girl accuses Charlie of lying, Charlie gets angry and “before I knew it, I was standing over her with my fists balled up and my heart beating like crazy. I felt red-hot anger settle over me like a blanket. I wanted to stomp her perfect sneakers. I wanted to yank those butterfly barrettes out of her hair.” Charlie’s friend comes over and calms her down.
  • When a boy makes fun of Charlie’s friend, Charlie got angry and ran “straight at T.J., full steam ahead. I kept my arms stiff in front of me and bam! I shoved him so hard his head snapped back and he crashed face-first into the dirt. I confess I was more than a little surprised when he got right up and shoved me back, knocking me to the ground.” The vacation Bible school teacher breaks up the fight.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Dang and Darn are used often. For example, after Charlie kicks a girl, her friend asked her, “Dang, Charlie, why you gotta get so mad about that?”
  • Heck is used once. While talking to Bertha, Charlie wonders, “What the heck kind of question was that?”
  • Charlie calls her friend a “squirrel-eating hillbilly.” She also refers to the kids that live in Colby as hillbillies.
  • Charlie’s friend calls her a “quitter and a baby.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Charlie goes to church with Bertha and Gus. Charlie “hadn’t been to church since I was little. Scrappy [her father] never wanted any part of it, calling those people do-gooders and Bible-thumpers, but Mama took me and Jackie for a while.”
  • When a snake gets into the house, Bertha stayed with a friend “for nearly a week until Gus swore on the Bible that it was gone.”
  • Charlie goes to a friend’s house for dinner. “So we sat at the table and before I knew what was happening, Howard grabbed my right hand and Dwight grabbed my left and they all bowed their heads while Burl said the blessing. He thanked the Lord for nearly everything under the sun, inkling the deviled eggs on the plate in front of him.”
  • When Charlie goes to dinner at a friend’s house, “everyone held hands and Dwight said the blessing and thanked the Lord for baked beans and new friends.”
  • Bertha and Gus invite friends over for dinner. Before eating, everyone “held hands while Mr. Odom said the blessing. Gus and Bertha weren’t the blessing type, but I guess they did it to be nice to their company. Mr. Odom sure had a lot of stuff to be thankful for, everything from this beautiful day to those turnip greens.”
  • Charlie attends vacation Bible school and learns songs.
  • Charlie thinks about “those good-hearted Odoms thanking the good Lord for me at their supper table.”

Project Middle School

Eleven-year-old Hope is excited to start JFK Middle School and be in advanced classes. However, Hope is nervous because for the first time, she won’t be in the same class as her best friend, Sam. When Hope heads to her first class, she discovers that middle school may be harder than she thought.

Hope makes her first embarrassing blunder in science. She makes her second embarrassing mistake in Spanish. When she goes to science club, Hope becomes frustrated because the boys don’t listen to any of the girls. That’s all just on the first day.

Hope may know a lot about science and her favorite superhero, Galaxy Girl, but that may not be enough to survive middle school. Can Hope navigate homework problems, changing friendships, and prove girls can do anything?

Hope has relatable problems that every middle school student can understand. She struggles to make friends, has embarrassing moments, and gets frustrated that others do not always listen to her and the other girls in the science club. In order to prove girls can do anything, Hope takes on more work than she can handle, which causes a colossal disaster. In the end, Hope and her peers are able to “acknowledge that failure is a key ingredient in success. Great scientists make mistakes all the time, and that’s how they learn and grow.”

Project Middle School is told from Hope’s point of view and focuses on both her home and school life. Even though the story has relatable conflicts, the story’s flow is choppy. Several of the events felt like they were incorporated to prove a point instead of being a natural extension of the story. For example, Hope asks a Latinx classmate if Spanish is her superpower. Hope then realizes that she shouldn’t make assumptions about other people.

Middle school readers will enjoy Project Middle School, which is told from Hope’s point of view. The story uses easy vocabulary and cartoon-like black and white illustrations. Large illustrations appear on almost every page. JFK Middle School’s students are diverse. The story teaches valuable lessons about not making assumptions and apologizing. The story illustrates that every voice counts. Despite this, Hope doesn’t have a clear voice and her story is bland. Even though Project Middle School isn’t a memorable story, middle school readers will understand Hope’s struggles as well as learn positive life lessons. Readers who enjoy Project Middle School should add You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • During class, Hope accidentally reads the wrong page from the science textbook. She reads to the class, “The mating habits of fruit flies will be the main subject of this selection.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Darn is used once.
  • OMG is used as an exclamation four times. For example, when Hope’s friend sees her in the school hallway, the friend says, “OMG, Hope! I was just thinking about you.”
  • Hope calls her dogs “little fluff butts” twice.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Hope goes up to the whiteboard, she was “praying no sweat marks are visible under my arms.”
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