Review of Billy Miller Makes a Wish, by Kevin Henkes

Billy Miller Makes a Wish

by Kevin Henkes

Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2021. 179 pages.
Review written April 29, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

I like it when beginning chapter books feature characters and situations that match the age of the child who will be reading them. Billy Miller Makes a Wish captures second-grade situations and concerns beautifully.

The book opens with the wish from the title:

When Billy Miller blew out the eight candles on his birthday cake, he made a wish. He wished that something exciting would happen.

Not more than ten minutes later – even before the present opening had begun – a police car and an ambulance flew past Billy’s house and raced down the block. The wail of sirens stopped nearby.

When Billy’s old neighbor ends up dying, he feels awfully guilty about his wish. Even when assured that Mr. Tooley was old and sick and was going to die soon anyway and it had nothing to do with Billy’s wish, more exciting-but-bad things start to happen.

Billy’s best friend is on a trip for the summer and so he’s got a lot of time with his family – including his four-year-old sister, Sal. I love the way Sal is portrayed, so lovable but so annoying. She decides to make “Symphony Cards” to give the family of their neighbor who died – using Billy’s new birthday markers. And then she doesn’t actually want to let the family have them. And that’s only the beginning.

This book is a quick read, but it will keep you smiling. I like how creatively Kevin Henkes came up with exciting things to happen to Billy, in answer to his wish.

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harpercollinschildrens.com

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Review of Class Act, by Jerry Craft

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.

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Review of The Night War, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The Night War

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Dial Books for Young Readers, on shelves April 2024. 288 pages.
Review written 2/4/24 from an Advance Readers’ Copy.
Starred Review

A new book from Kimberly Brubaker Bradley! This was one of the first books I read after I finished my Mathical Book Prize committee reading.

This book is set in France during World War II. The Nazis are in Paris, and Miri’s family and entire neighborhood are being rounded up. But her neighbor, Madame Rosenbaum, entrusts Miri with her baby, little Nora, and helps Miri escape. Couriers get her to a convent school in Chenonceaux, by the river that bordered the section of France not occupied by the Nazis.

The castle in town has stories of Catherine de Medici and Diane Poitiers, the women who established the gardens. The castle itself has a ballroom that is a bridge over the river with no other way to free France for miles around. After one of the nuns gets injured, Miri, who now goes by Marie, goes at night to the castle and helps people cross the river. She wants to go herself but she won’t leave without Nora, who has been given to a childless Christian family.

And while this is going on, Marie interacts with the other girls at the school, and she gets to explore the castle. A strange and imperious lady from the castle takes an interest in her and wants her to do the work of the old gardener, who died. As payment, she can bring food from the kitchen garden to the school.

I have always wanted to see the castles of the Loire Valley, so I especially enjoyed this book’s setting. (And a note at the end tells us which parts are true and which parts invented.) Miri is forced to have courage in a terrible situation, and she comes through with flying colors.

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

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.

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Review of Elf Dog and Owl Head, by M. T. Anderson

Elf Dog & Owl Head

by M. T. Anderson
illustrated by Junyi Wu

Candlewick Press, 2023. 232 pages.
Review written February 21, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 Newbery Honor Book

Oh, I loved this book so much! It reminded me of the Edward Eager magic-filled books I read and loved as a kid.

But this is a modern take on magic. Clay is stuck doing school at home because of a global pandemic. Everyone in his family is getting on each other’s nerves. But his house is next to the woods. He goes out walking in the woods, thinking how stupid it is to carry a Frisbee by himself, when he sees a white dog with strange red ears. The reader knows she is a dog from the hunting pack of the Kingdom Under the Mountain, who didn’t go back to her den under the mountain quickly enough. But Clay only knows that she enjoys catching the Frisbee.

Clay notices right away that something’s off about the dog. When she fetches, she seems to use some kind of teleporting magic. When she follows him home, the family puts out notices, but no one seems to be missing a white dog with red ears. She settles in and finds that she likes playing with the boy instead of working all the time, and she likes sleeping on his bed instead of in a den.

And so Clay’s magical adventures begin. It turns out that his elf dog can easily take paths between worlds and take Clay to magical places he’s never seen before — with some interesting magical consequences. He even makes a new friend from a village in a parallel world — a boy with an owl head.

Clay has two sisters — one older teen sister and one younger tag-along sister. Even his sisters get some adventures. In fact, I especially like the older sister DiRossi’s encounters with magic. When she meets a depressed giant, the author makes gentle fun of her teenage angst in a way I thought was hilarious while also being spot-on. But a scene later in the book gives even DiRossi a nice dose of magical wonder and joy.

So this is a book about magical adventures, playful and joyful. Sometimes things go wrong, and they have to fix them. And there’s quite a bit of danger at the end.

It’s also a book about family and friendship and the magical bond between a boy and his dog.

I love that the Newbery committee this year chose some books that are fully children’s books, not even “middle grade” books — though middle graders will enjoy it, too. But Clay’s concerns are a kid’s concerns, with none of that burgeoning middle grade awareness of the opposite sex. And it’s refreshing that these younger kids get such distinguished books, too.

I said that I hope the Newbery winner, The Eyes and the Impossible, will get read in classrooms across America. I wish that for this book, too. But what this book really made me think of was back in the day when my husband and I read books at bedtime to our two kids, who were six and a half years apart. We looked for books with a wide age range to appeal to them both — and this book makes me wish for those days again, because this kind of family story with magic would have exactly filled the bill.

Oh, and spoiler alert: It’s an award-winning book with a dog on the cover — Yet no animals die!

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Review of The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers

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.

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Review of My Own Lightning, by Lauren Wolk

My Own Lightning

by Lauren Wolk
read by Emily Rankin

Listening Library, 2022. 7 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written January 16, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 More Children’s Fiction

My Own Lightning is a sequel to the amazing and Newbery-Honor-winning Wolf Hollow. It had been a long time since I read Wolf Hollow, but I didn’t feel lost with this book. However, I do think it’s better to read the first book first, since this one does give away some things that happened in the first book.

Set in a farming community during World War II, this book begins with Annabelle being struck by lightning. Someone beats her chest and saves her life, but she doesn’t know who. And after it happens, she now can understand animals, with a connection like nothing she ever experienced before.

So when a new neighbor has a lot of dogs in his barn and their own dog is missing, Annabelle can’t resist investigating. Meanwhile, a kid who did some awful things a year ago is also missing a dog. And Annabelle starts getting some reasons to look at him differently. But what is right?

This is a book about seeing people — and animals — more deeply than what meets the eye. Like Wolf Hollow, it’s a thoughtful and meditative book. Perfect for animal-loving kids.

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listeninglibrary.com

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Review of Once There Was, by Kiyash Monsef

Once There Was

by Kiyash Monsef
read by Nikki Massoud

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 11 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written July 3, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 William C. Morris Award Finalist
2024 Odyssey Award Honor Book
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Children’s Speculative Fiction

Once There Was is a contemporary fantasy tale interwoven with Persian stories that begin, “Once there was, once there wasn’t…”

Marjan is 15 and owns a veterinary clinic after the violent death of her father a few weeks ago. The police don’t have any clue who did it, and Marjan feels detached from it all, trying to keep the clinic running.

Then a mysterious woman sends her plane tickets to London to visit a griffin. When Marjan places her hands on the griffin, she senses everything the griffin is feeling, and he is very sick. And that is how she learns that one of the stories her father told her is true – and she inherited a gift from her father going back to an ancestor who was pierced by a unicorn’s horn. Oh, and besides that – griffins and other magical creatures are real.

But then Marjan gets entangled with more than one powerful group who wants to control who has access to these amazing creatures, and she wants to be on the side of the creatures, but which side is that? In her efforts to help, she has some amazing adventures, while trying to understand her place in all this, keep the clinic afloat, and figure out who killed her father – all while trying to keep her friends from worrying about her.

She gains some allies along the way, including a rich boy from London whose family has hosted the griffin for centuries and a teenage witch whose familiar is ill – and needs a place to stay. It’s good she has help, because it turns out that everything is riding on the fate of these magical creatures, and Marjan and her friends are going to need to save the world.

My one little complaint about the book is that the big climactic world-saving action happens with still more than an hour left in the audiobook. But the things that follow are pretty crucial to Marjan’s story, too, so I don’t think I’d want it changed – or put off and resolved in another volume.

The publisher is marketing this for children (ages 10 to 14), but Marjan is 15, in high school, and dealing with adult things like running a business, and has a friend who drives. So I think teens will enjoy the book, too.

I didn’t begin this eaudiobook until it was almost due to expire, so on the last day, I pulled out a jigsaw puzzle and listened to the last 4 hours (sped up a tiny bit), and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in this book. I love the way the interspersed Persian tales illuminate the story and keep the feeling of magic strong.

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Review of Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, by Isi Hendrix

Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans

by Isi Hendrix

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 338 pages.
Review written October 30, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This debut middle grade fantasy novel is a sweet-hearted story of a girl named Adia who knows she has special powers, but needs to learn that doesn’t mark her as cursed.

The book is set in an alternate version of Africa. Adia is an orphan and lives in the Swamplands with her aunt and uncle, who seem to hate her. White missionaries came to their land years ago and have suppressed the old ways and inflicted their own control. All adults take Drops before church services, and they’re oddly compliant.

But Adia has made plans behind her aunt and uncle’s backs to spend her Year of Practicality working in the kitchen at the Academy of Shamans. She has a narrow escape before she leaves, and is startled when an earthquake happens when she gets angry.

Once at the Academy, she finds white-skinned students pretending to do spiritual work, but even Adia can sense more than they can.

Told with humor and heart, Adia witnesses one of the Alusi come to earth and learns that the demon that destroyed their land many years ago is now inhabiting the body of the child emperor – and coming to the Academy. One thing leads to another, and we’ve got a kid who’s been told she’s an evil influence discovering her power and using it to fight those who are actually evil.

The result is a delightful romp and an impressive debut. Adia’s the kind of person I enjoyed spending time with, and I look forward to reading more of her adventures as she learns more about her power.

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Review of The Kingdom Over the Sea, by Zohra Nabi

The Kingdom Over the Sea

by Zohra Nabi
read by Aysha Kala

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 8 hours, 7 minutes.
Review written October 7, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book begins in England after the death of 12-year-old Yara’s mother. Before she’s due to go with the social worker to a foster home, she reads instructions her mother has left for her. She’s told to go to the sea and follow particular instructions to get safe passage to a place called Zehaira. And once there, she’s given directions to find a certain sorceress who will look after her.

Yara is amazed by the magic that brings her over the sea to Zehaira. But once there, she learns that the sorceresses have been thrown out of the city, persecuted, and killed. Her next quest is to find the person her mother sent her to. Once she does, is there a place for Yara among the sorceresses? And she overhears the alchemists plotting further schemes against them. Can Yara help?

This fantasy tale won my heart. Yara’s bravery, setting off alone to a magical kingdom, had me rooting for her, and the characters she meets and the tales she uncovers made me love her and her new community. I was especially fond of the way activist Yara dealt with a jinn she met, and that jinn’s choice to take the form of a goat.

This book is only the beginning. Although they triumph over one major challenge, there is more to come. I will want to travel further with Yara and her community. This delightful fantasy tale will pull middle grade readers over the sea into the kingdom of Zehaira.

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