Review of Class Act, by Jerry Craft

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Class Act

by Jerry Craft

Quill Tree Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 250 pages.
Review written March 20, 2021, from a library book

Class Act calls itself a “Companion to the Newbery Medal Winner New Kid,” so I won’t call it a sequel, but it does tell about Jordan Banks’ second year at a private school outside his neighborhood, where he’s one of a few African American kids. The publisher is right, though, that you won’t feel lost if you didn’t read the first graphic novel, or if it’s been a while. The author is good at catching the reader up.

And this time, besides following Jordan’s story, we also follow two of his friends – Drew, whose skin is darker than Jordan’s and faces more discrimination, and Liam, who is white and rich, but whose parents are never around.

This year Jordan’s bothered that he doesn’t seem to be growing and developing like his friends are doing, and he doesn’t want to stay a little kid forever. He also is afraid that drawing his comics is babyish and wonders if he should go to art school next year.

For all of them, there’s still discrimination to navigate, and friendships, and girls, and what kids in the neighborhood think of them going to a private school. I liked the part where a mean kid accidentally got his skin dyed green with unwashable dye for Halloween – and thus became a person of color temporarily. The teachers are trying to figure out how to be sensitive to diversity – with mixed results.

The chapter break pages refer to other published books. It starts out with mostly children’s graphic novel references but includes some adult novels as well. I didn’t quite understand the point of doing this, though it was fun for me to recognize the books.

The story is good, and it’s great to have another graphic novel with Black kids as the protagonists. There’s no doubt in my mind that kids will happily scoop this up and be glad they did.

jerrycraft.com
harperalley.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books!

Review of What Happened to You? by James Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

What Happened to You?

by James Catchpole
illustrated by Karen George

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written January 30, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2024 Schneider Family Award Honor Book, Young Children

This sweet and simple picture book shows a kid named Joe with one leg happily playing pirates on a playground.

When a bunch of kids he doesn’t know come over, they ask Joe what happened to him. He’s tired of answering that question, so he asks, “What do you think?”

The kids offer several responses, always wrong, and some far-fetched. I like the page where a kid asks, “But where’s your leg?” and Joe says, “Here,” pointing to his leg.

“But where’s your other leg?”
“What other leg?”

After some time and particularly ridiculous questions, even the kids and definitely the reader can sense Joe’s frustration. But then the first kid breaks the tension by joining in Joe’s pirate game, spotting a crocodile.

All the kids play happily together, and by the end, the kids no longer need to know what happened.

There are notes to the adult at the back with tips for explaining disability to your kids. This book is a fantastic start! Lots of room for discussion about how it would feel to be asked the same question all the time and what’s important in friendship.

Yes, this is a book with a message, but it’s a truly delightful story at the same time. And features a sweet kid you can’t help but like.

thecatchpoles.net
karengeorge.net
LBYR.com

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Review of Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes, by Marissa Moss

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes

by Marissa Moss

Walker Books, 2023. 232 pages.
Review written January 15, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2024 Mathical Book Prize Winner, Grades 6 to 8

Oh, this book made my math-loving heart happy! Though I do believe you don’t have to love math to enjoy this book. It’s a middle school story, illustrated in the manner of the Wimpy Kid books, but in color. It’s one of those books I have to look at in my job and decide if we should shelve it with the graphic novels or with the regular text books, and this leans into illustrated novel rather than graphic novel, because the majority of the story is told with paragraphs rather than panels. But I do believe there are pictures on every single spread, so it’s all the more inviting for kids. (A little less inviting for me, not being a graphic novel fan, but that’s another story. Once I picked this up, I loved it.)

Talia is starting middle school and is sad that her best friend, a boy named Dash, doesn’t want to be seen with her at school, because some boys have been teasing him. This gets Talia thinking about the rules of middle school and how you’re supposed to figure out what you should wear, what you should say, and what’s cool. Can she figure out the code?

But Talia’s happy that Dash will be on the Mathlete team with her. Trouble is, it turns out that she’s the only girl. When the boys on the team don’t seem to take her seriously, ignore her idea of using codes to build their math skills, and say that she’s the one who should be friendlier, Talia decides to start a Mathlete team for girls only. Both teams are at their first competition, and can the Math Mermaids decisively show that girls can do math, too?

That’s a big thread in the book, but there’s a lot more going on about friendship, family, fitting in, and codes — with plenty of interesting example codes and some problems to puzzle out and codes to break.

Now I, of course, resonated with only one girl on the math team. My approach to that situation was to try to beat them all, but I like the way in this book there was a more nuanced message, but we did firmly get the message that math is for everyone, and math is fun. And I liked the wider application of the principle of coded messages, for example the code behind people’s facial expressions or how to be cool.

marissamoss.com

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Review of How Can I Help You? by Laura Sims

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Suspense 0

How Can I Help You?

by Laura Sims
read by Carlotta Brentan and Maggi-Meg Reed

Books on Tape, 2023. 7 hours, 38 minutes.
Review written January 26, 2024, from a library eaudiobook

I was completely delighted with the premise of this book — a psychopath gets a job as a circulation aide in a small-town public library. Margo used to be a nurse, but after a few too many unexpected deaths, she fled her most recent hospital and got a job at the nice, peaceful library.

And it’s all going well until their new reference librarian, Patricia, shows up. Patricia didn’t want to be a librarian — she wanted to be a writer. But her book wasn’t finding an agent and she packed it up and vowed to give up writing.

Those two lives begin to get entangled when a patron dies in the ladies’ restroom. Was she dead before Margo got there? Nobody questions that. But Patricia walked in on Margo doing something odd. And later she learns that Margo was once a nurse — and finds a story that gets her writing again. She swears she’s just making up her story….

Now, did I get some satisfaction about some annoying library patrons getting a comeuppance? I plead the fifth. The author did portray some common behaviors in library patrons that might well drive a psychopath to murder.

Some details about working in a library didn’t quite ring true for me, the most notable being that I don’t think the only reference librarian in a library, no matter how small, could get away with intense writing time with notebook and pen. It’s up there with folks who believe librarians get to read all day. (Wouldn’t it be nice if we could write a novel!) There also was no staff entrance and no desks in a staff room (Where did they keep their purses?) except the library branch manager who for some odd reason never worked on the public desk — not even before they hired the reference librarian. And there were more little things — but as for annoying patrons, they nailed it! And that is probably what was most important in this story.

Now, the plot did kind of go over the edge. But hey, she was a psychopathic killer, so the author wasn’t going for ordinary. And I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

This book isn’t so much a mystery as a thriller, set in a small-town library. I hope you won’t worry about me when I say listening to it was a lot of fun.

laurasims.net

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Review of Eclipse, by Andy Rash

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Eclipse

by Andy Rash

Scholastic Press, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written January 30, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review

There’s still time! If you can get hold of this picture book before the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, do it! But be warned: Your child may want to go on a trip to see it.

If you are already planning a trip to see the total solar eclipse, or if you are lucky enough to live in the zone of totality, this book is the perfect way to introduce the ideas to your child and explain what it’s all about. Even if you’ll only see a partial eclipse, this story will help make things clear.

This picture book is a fictional story about a boy and his dad going to see the total solar eclipse of 2017, based on the author’s own trip with his son. In the book, the boy does the planning — figuring out where to go camping to see the eclipse, getting eclipse glasses, and the wonder and joy of experiencing the eclipse. It talks about the crickets chirping and the crescent-shaped shadows before and after totality. It even mentions the traffic on the way home.

There are maps on the endpapers. The one in front shows the path of totality for the 2017 eclipse, and then the back shows paths for many upcoming eclipses. But it looks like if you miss the 2024 eclipse, the next ones in the continental U.S. are in the 2040s. Still, the book talks about how they made memories with this trip, so it still works as a book about a special father-son outing.

For a child-friendly explanation of what an eclipse is all about, heavy on the experience, light on the science, this book is perfect.

scholastic.com

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Review of The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers

Animal Characters, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Eyes and the Impossible

by Dave Eggers
illustrations of Johannes by Shawn Harris

Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. 256 pages.
Review written 2/4/24 from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 John Newbery Medal Winner

This book is told by a dog who lives in a park. He introduces himself:

I am a dog called Johannes and I have seen you. I have seen you in this park, my home. If you have come to this park, my vast green and windblown park by the sea, I have seen you. I have seen everyone who has been here, the walkers and runners and bikers and horse-riders and the Bison-seekers and the picnickers and the archers in their cloaks. When you have come here you have come to my home, where I am the Eyes.

Three Bison live in an enclosure in the park. They rule over the park, but can’t leave their enclosure, so they appointed Johannes to be their Eyes. He has Assistants who help, and together the Bison keep the Equilibrium.

But as the Equilibrium gets upset, the animals devise a plan to do the Impossible.

Meanwhile, Johannes is delightful company.

I have seen all of you here. The big and small and tall and odorous. The travelers and tourists and locals and roller-skating humans and those who play their brass under the mossy bridge and the jitterbug people who dance over that other bridge, and bearded humans who try to send flying discs into cages but usually fail. I see all in this park because I am the Eyes and have been entrusted with seeing and reporting all. Ask the turtles about me. Ask the squirrels. Don’t ask the ducks. The ducks know nothing.

I run like a rocket. I run like a laser. You have never seen speed like mine. When I run I pull at the earth and make it turn. Have you seen me? You have not seen me. Not possible. You are mistaken. No one has seen me running because when I run human eyes are blind to me. I run like light. Have you seen the movement of light? Have you?

But some new things come into the park that Johannes has not seen before. Mysterious rectangles with things inside that are Impossible. And new animals that eat even the prickly grass that took over the tulip field. And thus new adventures and plans begin.

I like it that the Newbery this year went to a book that is truly for children — not even a middle-grades book. Now, like most great books, everyone in a wide age range will enjoy it, including this old person, but this would make a fabulous read-aloud even for young elementary school children. In fact, I hope that winning this award will make The Eyes and the Impossible the read-aloud choice for classrooms across the country.

daveeggers.net
rhcbooks.com

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Review of The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Girl with the Louding Voice

by Abi Daré
read by Adjoa Andoh

Penguin Audio, 2020. 12 hours, 7 minutes.
Review written January 10, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Oh my goodness, this book was a treat to listen to. In this case, I highly recommend reading the book with the audiobook version, because the story is told by Adunni, a Nigerian girl with a thick accent and some quirky ways of using English. I think it might have been a little hard to follow in print, but Adjoa Andoh read it for me delightfully. She was easy to understand via listening, and I quickly got used to those quirks. For example, a “louding” voice is a voice getting louder and more influential so that other people can hear her.

Adunni has always wanted to be a teacher. She wants to help girls and women find their voices and get a louding voice herself.

But life is not kind to Adunni. As the book opens, at fourteen years old she has had to stop going to school, because her family can’t afford it after the death of her mother. And then her father finds a way to pay the rent — by selling Adunni to be the third wife of a rich old man.

Adunni had heard her father promise her mother that Adunni could stay in school, but he’s breaking that promise. And that’s only the beginning of the troubles Adunni goes through. Something terrible happens in her new household, and she knows she will be blamed, so she has to flee her village. And that doesn’t end her troubles, either.

There were times when the book was almost too sad, but the resilient character of Adunni kept me going, as she kept going. I think it’s fair to tell you as readers not to give up, that it does have a happy ending. (And it would just be unbearable if it didn’t. As it is: Hooray for Adunni!)

Some of the parts I love are when Adunni discovers a dictionary and starts reading the “Collins.” Also, after she finds a book of facts about Nigeria, each chapter opens with one of those facts. It’s that way that Adunni learns about human trafficking and that much of what has been done to her is against the law.

I haven’t been reading many adult books lately because I was on the Morris committee last year, and I’m not sure where I got the recommendation to read this one, but what a delight it is!

abidareauthor.com

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Review of The Next New Syrian Girl, by Ream Shukairy

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Next New Syrian Girl

by Ream Shukairy

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 409 pages.
Review written March 27, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 More Teen Fiction

The Next New Syrian Girl beautiful interlaces the story of Khadija, a Syrian American girl about to graduate from high school, with Leene, a Syrian refugee girl the same age who has come to Detroit with her mother.

Khadija chafes under the control of her mother and finds relief at a local gym, where she learns to box, wearing her hijab. But when Khadija’s mother opens their home to Leene and her mother – and then holds Leene up as what a Syrian daughter should be like – Khadija isn’t pleased.

But as the girls get to know each other, they find each has something to learn from the other. Both girls are mourning the Syria they knew before war struck, but each had very different experiences.

I like the way Khadija wears a hijab but is not at all stereotypical. The characters read like distinctive individuals, so you feel like you’re getting to know real people when you read this book. A lot of the plot hinges on an enormous coincidence, but that coincidence means both girls are highly motivated to go to great lengths to make things right, so it did further the plot.

This debut stirred my heart and opened my eyes.

Reamshukairy.com
Lbyr.com
Thenovl.com

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Review of All the Fighting Parts, by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Award Winners, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All the Fighting Parts

by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Amulet Books, 2023. 387 pages.
Review written October 2, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 William C. Morris Award Finalist
2024 Waler Award Honors
2023 Cybils Novels in Verse Finalist
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 More Teen Fiction

[Note: This review was written after my first reading. I read it again, and saw even more on rereading. A marvelous novel and one of our Morris Finalists!]

All the Fighting Parts is a novel in verse about a teen dealing with the aftermath of sexual assault.

Amina’s mother died when she was five years old, and she’s been told that her mother was an activist and a fighter, and that Mina inherited all the fighting parts from her. Her father doesn’t really know how to relate to her, and has taken refuge in the church. When Mina’s teacher calls after she fought back in class, his suggestion is to do some volunteer work at the church as a penalty.

The book interweaves what led up to the assault with the police report about the assault and dealing with it afterward. At first, Mina pushes her friends away and won’t talk to anyone. That felt authentic and realistic. But I also like the way Mina is portrayed grappling with healing. Her boyfriend is almost too good to be true in his understanding – but as a reader, I definitely wanted that for her.

There’s another person abused by the same perpetrator, a respected member of the community, and she has a different way of dealing with it. But this is a sensitive and powerful portrayal of a teen trying to do what’s right and getting her trust betrayed. Then having to figure out it wasn’t her fault what happened.

hannahsawyerr.com
abramsbooks.com

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Review of Saints of the Household, by Ari Tison

Award Winners, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Saints of the Household

by Ari Tison

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2023. 312 pages.
Review written May 14, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 Walter Dean Myers Award Young Adult Winner
2024 Pura Belpré Award Young Adult Author Winner
2024 William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 More Teen Fiction

[Note: This review was written after I read the book the first time, before I discussed it with the Morris committee and before two more readings. I was blown away by this book from the first time I read it.]

Saints of the Household opens when two brothers, Jay and Max, are going to back to school after being suspended for beating up the school soccer star. They’re both seniors in high school, eleven months apart, and have to meet with a counselor, who is also requiring them to meet with their victim for reconciliation.

Jay is trying to figure out how things went so far, but we gradually learn that they saw the soccer star being rough with his girlfriend Nicole, Jay and Max’s cousin. Jay, Max, and Nicole are the only indigenous people at their Minnesota rural high school. Jay’s worried she won’t speak to them again, but also worries that the boy isn’t treating Nicole the way she deserves to be treated. And we find out that the boys’ dad isn’t treating their mother the way she deserves to be treated, either. In fact, Jay and Max have plenty of personal experience with abuse.

The story is told in short vignettes from Jay and poetry from Max, who is an artist. Jay worries that if Max doesn’t take the reconciliation process seriously, he won’t get into art school. But he has to learn that they each have their own burdens to carry.

As the book goes on, we grow to understand how each boy is coping. The book deals with abuse, trauma, depression, and protecting others – but also art, healing, strength and survival. The beautiful writing draws you in and makes you care about these boys.

Here’s one of Jay’s vignettes toward the end (not giving anything away), when he’s helping his grandpa get his home ready after an absence in the Minnesota winter:

First, we warm the house, and then we pull off the panels nailed to the windows that protected them in the cold. We have hammers, and we tug to undress this house.

I feel like this house.

Boxed up for a season of survival. I have survived well like this house. My muscles are as strong as ever as I tear off each panel. It’s a good strength, one I don’t need to use to hurt. A useful strength, and it has me crying. I start tearing off the wood faster and faster because I can’t help but think of each of these boards as a thick skin I had put up. I don’t even know what’s inside there.

The writing is stunningly beautiful, and I was amazed this is a debut author.

aritison.com
fiercereads.com

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