Category: Children’s Fiction Review

Here in the Real World

by Sara Pennypacker

Balzer + Bray, 2020. 308 pages.
Starred Review
Review written February 19, 2020, from a library book

I love Sara Pennypacker’s books. Her kid characters have agency. They don’t always ask permission, but they make their own choices – some choices better than others – and live with the results.

In this book, eleven-year-old Ware is planning to spend his summer at his grandmother’s house, when she has a fall and goes to the hospital with rehab to follow. But his parents are working extra that summer, so they need Ware to be in a safe place. They sign him up for all summer at the Rec Center, despite his objections.

Ware has spent lots of time at the Rec Center. He knows the drill. And he is not happy about being there again. When the leader has them march around the Rec Center, faster and faster each time, Ware realizes he won’t be noticed if he climbs the tree overlooking the parking lot. He can watch them go around several times and join them at the end.

But instead, once up in the tree, Ware notices that the church next door to the Rec Center has been demolished. In his new rebellious state, he gets down on the church side of the fence to look more closely.

But in the lot with the demolished church, there’s a girl named Jolene. She says the wrecked parking area is now her garden. She’s planting things in cans full of dirt. Ware says the lot can be her garden if the church can be his castle.

And that’s how Ware’s summer gets off to a much more interesting start than what his parents planned for him.

But how long can Ware and Jolene stay on the lot with the ruined church, planting things and turning the ruins into a castle? What will happen when Ware’s parents find out he’s not going to the Rec Center? Surely they’ll find out? And can Ware change himself into a Normal Kid – the kind of kid his parents want?

The title comes because when Ware says something isn’t fair, Jolene accuses him of living in Magic Fairness Land. But “here in the real world,” bad things happen. Can Ware, perhaps, even in the real world, find ways to fight injustice and unfairness?

sarapennypacker.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Flight of the Puffin

by Ann Braden

Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin Random House), 2021. 229 pages.
Review written July 8, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Flight of the Puffin follows four different kids, each of them a bit of a misfit. We’re only given the locations of two of the four, and they’re on opposite sides of the country, so we’re interested in finding out how the stories will connect.

I love the beginning. Libby is painting the best sunrise ever. And as she works on it, making it colorful and beautiful, the principal steps around the corner, and we discover she’s painting on a wall of the school.

Then there’s Jack, who goes to a small two-room school in Vermont. He’s good with the younger kids, and misses his brother, who was six when he died. Next we meet T. T has a shorter chapter, sleeping on a sidewalk with their dog. The fourth person we meet is Vincent, who’s decided he wants to be like a puffin. Instead of the t-shirts his mother buys for him, he finds an old button-down white shirt with a small puffin, and that represents him. But it doesn’t make him fit in at school.

The kids are all seventh graders. They’re on opposite ends of the country. Libby’s up against her parents not appreciating her need to make art and spread joy with it. Jack is up against the school board that wants to close their school. Vincent is up against bullies. And T is up against survival.

And Flora’s art – and puffins – end up connecting them. It’s a lovely book with some threads about trans kids without that taking up the whole book. Mostly, these four kids are deeply nuanced characters it’s a delight to spend time with.

annbradenbooks.com
penguin.com/kids

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/flight_of_the_puffin.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Starfish

by Lisa Fipps

Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin Random House), 2021. 244 pages.
Review written May 15, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Starfish is a novel in verse about a middle school girl named Ellie who’s fat.

She’s mercilessly bullied – by people at school, but more heartbreakingly, by her own mother and brother. Her mother first put her on a diet when she was four years old, and people at school have called her a whale or “Splash” ever since her fifth birthday party when she did a grand cannonball in the pool.

Now Ellie only swims by herself or with her best friend Viv. Except just before school starts, Viv moves to a different part of the country. But a new girl, Catalina, has moved in next door, and even though she’s thin, she knows how to be a friend.

But Catalina’s going to a different school from Ellie, so Ellie still has to face the same bullies on her own. They duck when she goes by in the hall as if there’s no room for her to pass, and do things much worse when no teacher is looking. At home, Ellie’s Mom even goes through her trash to make sure she’s not eating snacks. She won’t buy Ellie new clothes for school, because she wants Ellie to be motivated to lose weight. Mom even arranges an appointment with a doctor who wants her to consider surgery.

And Ellie hates it that she is a source of conflict between her parents. Dad has promised her that he will never allow surgery, so Mom made that appointment behind his back. When both parents arrange for Ellie to see a therapist, she feels betrayed.

But the therapist turns out to help Ellie think of ways to cope, to be able to speak up for herself, take up space, and stop hiding her feelings.

At home, in the pool, still early in the book, I like the place where Ellie decides to be a starfish:

As I float,
I spread out my arms
and my legs.
I’m a starfish,
taking up all the room I want.

This is a beautiful book. Ellie deals with some horrific bullying, and it’s not handled in simplistic ways, but she does get better at handling it. And she does learn to stop apologizing for taking up space, that she is beautiful and loved as she is.

Sadly, the Author’s Note at the back begins like this:

Starfish is a work of fiction, and a lot of people will read this and think, “It’s definitely fiction because people would never say or do such cruel things.” But a variation of every single mean thing people said or did to Ellie happened to me when I was a child. Fat Girl Rules exist.

I hope that this lovely book will help kids see the value in every person – whether they personally are fat or thin.

penguin.com/kids

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/starfish.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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