Review of This Is a Story, words by John Schu, illustrations by Lauren Castillo

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

This Is a Story

words by John Schu
illustrations by Lauren Castillo

Candlewick Press, 2023. 40 pages.
Review written March 20, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Yes, I was predisposed to like this book. John Schu is a librarian I met online before meeting him at library conferences and even being on an ALSC committee with him briefly. But I’m confident I’d love this book whether I knew the author or not.

The story of this picture book is a celebration of reading. It goes well with Mr. Schu’s earlier book, This Is a School.

This Is a Story begins with a word, then a word on a page, a page in a book, and a book on a shelf. But then it shows us the library where the book is waiting on a shelf.

Next we zoom out to a world full of humans. We see a little girl and her family go into the library.

Sometimes humans need help . . .

Then we see a librarian who looks an awful lot like Mr. Schu showing the girl a book that matches the sea horse kite she’s holding. The text simply says, “connecting.”

Then we get:

This is a book.
This is a reader.

And we zoom out to more readers looking at books for answers to questions, ideas to explore, and for sparking hope. All taking place in a busy, happy library setting.

I do love that among her adorable pictures, the illustrator used covers of actual books for the illustrations. My second time through, I looked for ones I could recognize. (There are lots!)

This is a joyful and simple celebration of stories, books, reading, children, and libraries. If I were still working in a branch, I’d immediately set it aside for preschool library tours. The words are short and sweet, so it will work well even for very young kids. But there’s a whole lot for kids to notice in the illustrations.

This lovely book warmed my heart.

This is a story.
And it helps us understand . . .

everything!

JohnSchu.com
laurencastillo.com
candlewick.com

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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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Review of Too Small Tola and the Three Fine Girls, by Atinuke, illustrated by Onyinye Iwu

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Too Small Tola and the Three Fine Girls

by Atinuke
illustrated by Onyinye Iwu

Candlewick Press, 2022. 96 pages.
Review written March 10, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

You can’t help but love Too Small Tola. This is the second early chapter book about her, and the author quickly brings you up to speed:

Tola lives in a run-down block of apartments in the megacity of Lagos, in the country of Nigeria. Tola’s sister, Moji, is much cleverer than Tola. Tola’s brother, Dapo, is much faster than Tola. And even short-short Grandmommy is taller than Tola. Which makes Tola feel so small-o!

There are three stories in this book. I loved the first one. On a Saturday, when Grandmommy is out selling groundnuts by the road, the kids are supposed to clean stones out of the rice, but Tola’s stuck doing it herself. I love the way she tricks her siblings into doing all the work instead. It’s essentially their own fault, too.

The second story made me sad. Grandmommy is very sick with malaria. The kids have to get into her secret stash of cash for medicine, and then they have to go sell groundnuts at Grandmommy’s station for two weeks while she’s still sick, instead of going to school. The punchline to all that is that Dapo gets a good job as an auto mechanic, but it was hard for me to be happy for him, since he’s now a kid working and providing for his family instead of going to school. It’s not presented as a sad story, and it opens American kids’ eyes to another world, but it made me sad.

The final story has Tola envying three fine girls — and by the end those same three girls are envying her. It definitely ends the story on a happy note and reminds the reader that you can have a happy life even if you’re poor.

The chapters are short, with plenty of illustrations. The stories reflect kid concerns — but this kid lives in Nigeria, which immediately makes the stories all the more interesting.

atinuke.co.uk
candlewick.com

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Review of Chef’s Kiss, written by Jarrett Melendez, illustrated by Danica Brine

Award Winners, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Chef’s Kiss

written by Jarrett Melendez
illustrated by Danica Brine
colored by Hank Jones
lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Oni Press, 2022. 160 pages.
Review written February 26, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Alex Award Winner

The Alex Award is given each year to ten books published for adults that will be of interest to teens. The committee picked a fun one with this rom-com graphic novel.

The characters in this book are new adults. We meet four of them on the first panel, moving into a new apartment together after college. Two have jobs already, which they’re ready to begin. One is staying in school with a new major (theater), and the other, Ben, has job interviews lined up.

We follow Ben to the interviews, and in each one, the interviewer loses interest when Ben admits he doesn’t have professional experience. He decides to lower his sights, but even the trash collectors want professional experience!

It’s at that point that Ben sees a Help Wanted sign at a restaurant, with “No Experience Necessary” at the bottom. And the cook who talks with him is heart-throbbingly handsome. Ben does have some ideas about cooking and something of a knack for it. But it’s a three-week training process before he can be permanently hired, and he has to please the owner’s pig!

The training is full of ups and downs, as he gets to know his handsome coworker. But then on the last day, his parents learn that he didn’t get the writing job he’d told them about. They pressure him instead to take an internship with a literary magazine, with their support, rather than continuing with “this nonsense” of working in a restaurant.

The whole thing is super fun, with adorable characters trying to set out into adult life. Since it’s a graphic novel, it didn’t take me long to read, and left me smiling.

onipress.com

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Review of Nana, Nenek & Nina, by Liza Ferneyhough

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Nana, Nenek & Nina

by Liza Ferneyhough

Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House), 2022. 32 pages.
Review written January 7, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award Honor Book – Picture Books

For some reason, 2022 saw multiple picture books published about kids visiting grandmas overseas. One of my favorites was I’ll Go and Come Back, by Rajani LaRocca, because it showed parallel things happening when the granddaughter went to visit her grandma and when the grandma came to visit instead. It’s good I read this book after 2023 began, because now I don’t have to compare the two in choosing Sonderbooks Stand-outs!

Nana, Nenek & Nina is also about a child visiting her grandmother in a faraway place, but in this book, the girl (Nina) has two grandmothers who live in faraway places in two directions — Nana lives in England and Nenek lives in Malaysia.

What’s fun about this book is that it shows Nina visiting each grandma on the same spreads, doing parallel activities. For example, here’s the spread about her afternoon activities (accompanied by the wonderful pictures):

Rain drops down as Nina hops from puddle to puddle.
When it gets too wet, Nana calls her inside for a cup of hot chocolate.

They play a game on Daddy’s old noughts-and-crosses board.
Nina lines her crosses up, one, two, three.

Nina uses up all her outside voice in one loud shout.
When it gets too hot, Nenek calls her inside for a glass of iced Milo.

Her cousins get out Mama’s old congkak set.
Nina clacks the marbles, satu, dua, tiga.

It’s all just so beautiful and highlights the similarities and differences between the two places. But in both places, Nina is showered with love. The final page shows both grandmas kissing her goodnight.

stellarbaby.com
penguinrandomhouse.com

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Review of The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor

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

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

by Maya MacGregor

Astra Young Readers, 2022. 350 pages.
Review written December 9, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Sam is an eighteen-year-old nonbinary kid who’s moving with their dad from Minnesota to small-town Oregon after an episode of bullying that almost killed them. They’re comforted that in their new school, they find other queer kids and even start making friends.

But there are bullies everywhere. For years, Sam has been obsessed with the stories of kids who didn’t live to age nineteen. They’ve got a book about those half-lived lives. And as it happens, the house their family bought used to belong to one of those kids, named Billy. And Sam is now sleeping in the bedroom where Billy died thirty years ago.

The adults in town all seem to say the same words about Billy, “It was a tragic accident.” But was it? Sam starts thinking they sense Billy’s presence, and what’s up with that persistent smell of popcorn?

What really happened to Billy? Sam’s new friend Shep thinks they can learn the truth.

But someone doesn’t want them to mess around with the past. Or is it just another case of Sam being bullied for who they are? Sam can’t help but wonder if they will ever reach the age of nineteen or end up as another half-lived life.

This book tells a compelling mystery in a warm and loving story about a queer teen recovering from trauma and finding their people. There is danger as they come close to the solution of the mystery, and the book certainly touches on serious topics, but I was left uplifted and encouraged by a group of people trying their best and landing on the side of caring.

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Review of Attack of the Black Rectangles, by Amy Sarig King

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Attack of the Black Rectangles

by Amy Sarig King

Scholastic Press, September 6, 2022. 258 pages.
Review written August 8, 2022, from an advance review copy picked up at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

Attack of the Black Rectangles is a story of censorship in a sixth-grade classroom — and the kids who decide to protest.

Mac and his friends Marci and Denis are happy to be in the same lit circle in their new classroom, reading The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen. But then they discover two places where words have been blacked out with a sharpie — and it’s the same in all of the books. What are the words someone didn’t want them to read?

Naturally, they go to get an uncensored copy of the book. The first passage is in a scene where girls in a concentration camp are naked in front of the Nazis. The words blacked out are “hands over her breasts.”

The kids feel insulted. As Marci points out, in sixth grade, they’re old enough to have breasts, but they can’t say the word? However, when they talk to the principal, she doesn’t seem concerned.

So they decide to take their message to more people. But at the same time they’re fighting censorship, Mac’s dad is causing their family some problems that have Mac torn up inside. And he wonders about his feelings for Marci. And there’s a kid at school who gives him a hard time.

Something I like about this book is that the author shows that even the teacher who censored the book isn’t all bad. As Mac says at the start, “No one is ever just one thing.” I like how the kids take on the challenge and show that in many ways, censorship is a matter of disrespect.

This book is, of course, very timely. And sadly, it’s based on something that actually happened to the author’s son. When she brought up the issue with the principal, they treated it like a big joke. After all, the books weren’t banned.

I appreciate that this book takes on an issue that adults may want to dismiss and shows kids it’s important. They’ll feel empowered to speak up if censorship ever happens to them.

as-king.com

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Review of Answers in the Pages, by David Levithan

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Answers in the Pages

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 170 pages.
Review written September 15, 2022, from a book received at ALA Annual Conference and signed by the author.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Children’s Fiction

This is a children’s novel about censorship, and it’s very well done. Sadly, the author is among those with the most book challenges in America, so he knows what he’s talking about. This book looks at the issue of censorship from a kid’s viewpoint.

We get three stories in this book. One is a fictional book that a boy named Donovan is reading with his class. The book is called The Adventurers and we only get excerpts, but it’s a wild adventure of two boys named Rick and Oliver working together on a team with a girl named Melody to defeat a criminal mastermind, including escapes from alligators and a trap over a geyser and other frightening situations like those.

The problem comes from the last sentence in the book: “At that moment Rick knew just how deeply he loved Oliver, and Oliver knew just how deeply he loved Rick, and the understanding of this moment would lead them to much of the happiness and adventure that came next.”

When Donovan’s mother sees his book lying around and picks it up and reads that last sentence, she decides it’s a book promoting homosexuality and is not appropriate for fifth-graders. She gets the community involved and it all works toward a book challenge and a showdown at the school board meeting.

The other story being told is about a boy named Gideon in a different class than Donovan, reading the book Harriet the Spy in his class. There’s a new kid named Roberto who sits in front of him, and Gideon is happy as they start getting to know each other better.

I like the way the separate stories come together at the end.

But I also like the way different characters defend the book against the challenge. Here’s what the teacher says to the class when it’s first challenged:

“It doesn’t matter how you identify Rick or Oliver, or what you think their relationship is or ultimately will be. If we’re going to defend this book — and I promise you, I plan on defending this book — the proper line of defense is not ‘But they’re not gay!’ Because that implies that there would be a legitimate problem if they were gay. The proper defense is ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re gay. The characters can be whoever they are.’ And I know some of you might think I’m saying that because I myself am gay. But I am not saying this as a gay man, or as a gay teacher. I’m saying this as a human being who believes that all human beings should be treated with respect.”

I also like what Donovan says to his Mom:

“I don’t know what world you think we live in, Mom. There are plenty of gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary people on YouTube and TikTok and all the other things we watch. And other books I’ve read have had gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary characters. Kira in our class has two moms, and there are other kids in our school with two moms or two dads or two parents who just want to be called parents. Some kids have nonbinary older siblings. And there’s even a gay kid in my class.”

I won’t say more of how that discussion goes, but I thought it was portrayed well. And ultimately, the book showed that trying to keep kids from knowing about the world around them doesn’t do the job and it harms the kids who are in that group grown-ups are trying to pretend doesn’t exist. Because, as the characters point out, if you can’t know you’re gay in fifth grade, then how can you know you’re straight?

Besides telling about this all-too-relevant issue, the book tells a good story as well, about some kids being kids.

rhcbooks.com

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Review of Gibberish, by Young Vo

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Gibberish

by Young Vo

Levine Querido, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written April 16, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 General Picture Books

Gibberish reminds me of The Arrival, by Shaun Tan — but for young elementary school readers. I may have had to hold back a tear when I read this book at work — it’s heart-melting.

Here’s how the book begins:

First Dat sailed on a boat,
then flew on a plane,
and today Dat will be on a school bus.

“When people speak it will sound like gibberish, Dat.
Just listen, and do the best you can,” Mah said.

Next we see Dat introduce himself to a bus driver. The bus driver answers with symbols that aren’t words and ends with “Dav?”

Dat nodded.
But he didn’t really understand.

Then the teacher talks to the class with Dat at the front — and we see gibberish coming out of her mouth, ending with the word “Dan.”

The illustrator draws everyone Dat doesn’t understand as a black-and-white cartoon space alien. With scribbles of gibberish in the air. Dat doesn’t understand anything.

But at lunchtime, after eating alone, “something unexpected fell from a tree.” It’s a cartoon girl with a lunch box. She takes Dat’s hand and plays with him.

After a tough afternoon back in the classroom, Dat is sitting alone on the bus. And then the girl drops in again! She draws on a pad and talks with Dat. As her words begin to make sense, her picture in the book gains color and becomes less cartoonish. She’s the first person who uses Dat’s actual name, and Dat learns that her name is Julie — just in time to introduce her to his mom when he gets off the bus.

This book is a wonderful way to help kids understand what it would be like to come to a new country where you don’t understand the language. A beautiful story for building empathy as well as encouraging kids in that situation to stick it out.

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Review of The Weight of Blood, by Tiffany D. Jackson

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

The Weight of Blood

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins), 2022. 406 pages.
Review written December 15, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2022 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out, #4 Teen Paranormal Fiction

I’m usually not a fan of horror novels, but I read this one for the Cybils, and had to admit it’s wonderfully executed.

The author warns you right from the start that there’s going to be carnage. Chapter 1 begins with an excerpt from a podcast called “Maddy Did It,” and that begins with sworn testimony from “The Springville Massacre Commission.” That testimony from a mother ends this way:

Only two kids survived Prom Night at that country club. Cole was one of them. They say when you go through something like that, your instincts kick in. So his mind must’ve told him to come on home. He walked over two miles through the mud with one shoe, covered in the blood of other children.

When I asked him what happened . . . he just kept mumbling, “Maddy did it.”

Then we go back in time to May 2014. Maddy Washington is horrified that in gym class she has to run in a sudden rainstorm that has come up, despite her checking the forecast three times, as her Papa demands. Sure enough, when her hair gets wet, her hair expands into an Afro, and the entire school learns that her mother was Black.

It’s a small southern town. They don’t think they’re racist, but they’ve always had two separate proms, one for white kids and one for Black kids. And when Maddy suddenly sprouts an Afro, kids laugh and throw pencils into her hair, marveling that she doesn’t even notice.

Maddy’s always been an outsider. She keeps to herself and doesn’t say much in class. She lives alone with her Papa who makes her pray for hours in a closet with pictures of beautiful white women on the walls that her sin will not come out. She wishes she could be like normal kids.

But when she’s humiliated in class, something strange happens. The chairs float, there’s some kind of earthquake, cellphones quit working, and all the kids get terrible headaches.

Before the cellphones quit working, someone filmed the taunting and posted it on the internet. Now everyone’s talking about the racist small town in Alabama.

Wendy is a senior who feels guilty about it all. She’s not the ringleader of the group bullying Maddy, but her best friend is, and Wendy went along with it. Wendy’s boyfriend is Kenny, the star of the football team. He’s Black, but doesn’t hang out with the other Black kids. Wendy doesn’t like how he’s sticking up for Maddy, and she doesn’t like how she comes out looking like a racist, too.

So Wendy gets the bright idea of combining the white prom and the Black prom. She wasn’t going to go anyway, but she’s organizing the whole thing. And what could be more noble than asking her boyfriend, the town all-star, to take Maddy to the prom?

Of course, we know from the podcast excerpts that open the chapters that this decision will lead to disaster. And meanwhile, Maddy is learning about the power of telekinesis. Could this power have come from her missing Mama?

This book is a hard one to put down. The author shines a light on racism that pretends it’s not racism and gets you firmly on Maddy’s side, despite knowing that something terrible is about to happen. That mild-mannered, socially backward recluse was the wrong person to bully!

A truly masterful story of a downtrodden girl coming into her power.

writeinbk.com
EpicReads.com

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Review of Those Kids from Fawn Creek, by Erin Entrada Kelly, read by Ramon de Ocampo

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Those Kids from Fawn Creek

by Erin Entrada Kelly
read by Ramon de Ocampo

HarperAudio, 2022. 6 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written September 5, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

There were twelve kids in seventh grade in the small town of Fawn Creek, Louisiana. That is, there were twelve until the day that Orchid Mason showed up.

Usually the twelve seventh graders were careful to leave their faces blank and expressionless. No one wanted to be the first to admit they were excited about anything. But this — a real-life new student, a real-life new anything — was far more interesting than any science experiment. People from Somewhere Else just didn’t come to Fawn Creek. Certainly not unannounced. The next closest thing was Mr. Agosto, who was born in Venezuela and was the only non-white face in almost every room. But he had moved to Fawn Creek when he was three years old, because his dad got a job at Gimmerton, and — like Greyson, Dorothy, and virtually everyone else — he had never traveled outside of south Louisiana since then. The farthest he’d gone was Baton Rouge to go to Louisiana State, and that was just two hours away. Small towns are like magnets, Greyson’s mother once said. They pull you in and don’t let go.

Orchid says she was born in New York City and moved to Fawn Creek from Paris. She wears a flower in her hair. Nobody knows what to make of her.

Then the two kids with the lowest social standing, Greyson and Dorothy, invite Orchid to eat with them. Orchid suggests the wildly innovative idea of taking their lunches outside. She tells the other kids stories of her travels and about her boyfriend, Victor, and her adventures with him in Paris.

But at least one kid isn’t happy about Orchid’s inclusion in their class. Janie used to be the most important seventh-grader in Fawn Creek, since her father ran the plant. And Janie’s best friend Renni isn’t happy, even though she moved from Fawn Creek to the much larger Grand Saintlodge. She’s used to knowing everything about everyone and deciding who’s important and who’s not. When Janie tells Renni that the boy she broke up with is going to ask the new girl to the dance, Renni is not happy.

But Orchid’s the most interesting person Greyson and Dorothy have ever known. They’ve known everyone in their class forever, and they have no surprises. But Orchid looks at things differently and helps them see things differently.

But it’s not good to make an enemy of Renni.

When this book started with a story of how mean Greyson’s older brother had been, pinching him and calling him a girl for not wanting to go duck hunting, I wasn’t sure I’d like it. Erin Entrada Kelly is skilled at showing just how cruel families can be to one another. But in this book, although there were some painful episodes, I like the way things worked out and were resolved.

Both I and those kids from Fawn Creek are better off from having known Orchid Mason, a girl who is both imaginative and kind.

erinentradakelly.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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