Review of Ash’s Cabin, by Jen Wang

Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Ash’s Cabin

by Jen Wang

First Second, 2024. 320 pages.
Review written October 8, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a gorgeous and thoughtful graphic novel about a nonbinary teen named Ash who doesn’t feel like their family gets them. They often use Ash’s former name (shown with a black bar over it in the speech bubble) and use the pronoun “her” to talk about them. Ash thinks about the environment and climate change more than the people around them. They still miss their Grandpa Edwin, who died a couple of years ago. Fortunately, Ash still has Chase, the dog Grandpa Edwin gave them.

Chase is my familiar. We don’t go anywhere without each other. He knows me better than anyone else in the universe.

Ash’s family used to go to Grandpa Edwin’s ranch every summer – now owned by Ash’s uncle and aunt. Grandpa Edwin had a hidden cabin somewhere in the nearby wilderness area where he’d go when he needed to get away from people. But he never told anyone where it is.

When Ash hears their parents planning to go to Disneyworld next summer instead of the ranch, they make it very clear they want no part of that. After some negotiation, the family makes plans to take Ash to the ranch, staying with their older cousin there, to say good-by before it gets sold.

What Ash’s parents don’t know is that Ash is planning to sneak away, find Grandpa Edwin’s cabin, and stay there, with only Chase for company.

And Ash’s plan works surprisingly well. They have a few months to go through Grandpa Edwin’s journals to pinpoint the location of the cabin, and look at wilderness survival sites to figure out what supplies they’ll need and what skills they need to learn. When they get to the ranch, Ash’s cousin actually has a secret trip first – asking Ash not to tell that she’s going to spend the weekend away with friends. Ash schedules emails to their parents, and sets off into the wilderness with Chase to find the cabin.

And yes! They find the cabin and live in the wilderness for weeks. The book shows realistic setbacks as well as unexpected help. And we can see Ash learning and growing during the experience.

I squelched all my feelings about how badly I’d freak out if my kid did this and was actually impressed with all the skills Ash had learned – of course with some things they hadn’t planned for, too.

This graphic novel is a treasure, telling about a teen who discovers how strong they truly are.

jenwang.net
firstsecondbooks.com

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In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review, Suspense 0

In a Dark, Dark Wood

by Ruth Ware
read by Imogen Church

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2015. 9 hours, 35 minutes.
Review written July 27, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Okay, you can see I’m catching up on Ruth Ware thrillers. I discovered them during my year of reading for the Newbery committee — as we weren’t listening to audiobooks of eligible titles, and they are quite the opposite of children’s books. They’re also along the same lines as the romantic suspense books or Agatha Christie books I loved in high school – only in these, the girl doesn’t get saved by the romantic hero.

In this book the death doesn’t happen until halfway through the book, but here’s the set up: Our viewpoint character is Leonora Shaw, a young writer who lives alone and enjoys her solitude. Like most Ruth Ware main characters, Imogen Church makes her sound just a tiny bit neurotic, or at least afraid she’s neurotic. Leonora has been invited to a Hen Party for her best friend when she was at school, Claire, whom she hasn’t seen in ten years. (This seems to be the British name for a Bachelorette Party.)

Nora doesn’t know why Claire invited her to the Hen Party, but not to the wedding. But she makes a pact with another school friend, Nina, to go to the weekend together.

The weekend’s happening in a house with lots of huge windows down a long, rutted driveway in the middle of the dark, dark woods in winter. Nora, out for a run, sees Claire arriving and has a little time with her privately in the car – and learns that Claire is marrying James, Nora’s high school sweetheart, and the reason she hasn’t talked with Claire – or James – for ten years. Claire says she wanted to tell Nora face to face. Nora pretends to be nonchalant and happy for Claire, but she knows full well she hasn’t gotten over James – or the thing that happened to make her leave.

The other people at the party are the oddly intense Flo, Claire’s current best friend, Melanie, who’s left her six-month-old behind and is feeling anxious, especially when the phone goes dead in the snow, and Tom, a gay actor who’s friends with Claire because of her connections to theater.

Mind you, all of this set-up is interspersed with scenes of Nora in the hospital, with police by her door, trying to remember what happened and when things began to go so very wrong.

I was proud that I did figure out whodunit and why almost right away – I think I’m getting used to Ruth Ware’s style. But that didn’t spoil the fun as I knew Nora was going to get into a dangerous situation before she figured it out.

If you’re in the mood for a thriller, you can’t go wrong with these books. They generally involve a young woman getting into an incredibly intense situation and coming out the other side discovering she has more strength than she ever gave herself credit for.

ruthware.com

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Review of I’m Sorry You Got Mad, written by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Julie Kwon

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

I’m Sorry You Got Mad

written by Kyle Lukoff
illustrated by Julie Kwon

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024. 32 pages.
Review written October 2, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Want to teach young children about apologies? This is the book for you!

But at the same time, the brilliance of this picture book is that it’s not a how-to book; it’s an engaging story that will make you laugh and make you care about the kids involved.

And it’s a scenario that kids will feel deeply. Read this book to kids before they need to apologize, and it will be much, much easier for them to understand when it’s needed.

The book begins with an obviously furious Jack writing notes to Zoe and throwing them in the trash. We get to read the notes as they progress. One of the first ones says this:

DEAR ZOE,
I’M SORRY YOU GOT SO MAD!!!
JACK

Dear Jack,
Please try again.
Love,
Ms. Rice

The next one adds “But it wasn’t my fault!!!” and a note from Ms. Rice to check in with her.

Later letters build the situation: Zoe built a castle and it got knocked over by accident. And then we learn that Jack thought it was really cool, but Ben and Jeremy said castles were for girls so he couldn’t play with them. And he got mad and knocked it over. (It takes many letters for us to get that story.)

Somewhere in the middle, Ms. Rice tells Jack that an apology needs three things:

1) What I did
2) That I’m sorry
3) And I’ll help you fix it.

It takes Jack many tries, and you can see his heart getting softer. Finally, we see him giving a note to Zoe:

Dear Zoe,
I’m very sorry I knocked down your castle. I know I hurt your feelings. I want to help you build a new one, if that’s okay. But you don’t have to let me.
Your Friend,
Jack

The book isn’t finished until we see Zoe’s note in reply, acknowledging that she was mad but she feels better now. And the book wraps up with a picture of them building a castle together.

Mind you, along this whole book, the pictures tell stories, too. First of Jack furiously angry. Then watching other kids having fun. Slowly softening (with setbacks). And there are two other kids who are pictured at the end angry and writing letters – so you go back and see what happened with them.

It’s all brilliant on many levels, including the simple one of modeling a sincere apology and how difficult it is to get to that place, but also telling us a story and making us care about Jack and Zoe and the restoration of their friendship.

Come to think of it, I can think of many adults who could learn from reading this to their child. And I take it as a good reminder myself.

kylelukoff.com
juliekwonart.com

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Review of This Golden State, by Marit Weisenberg

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

This Golden State

by Marit Weisenberg

Flatiron Books, 2022. 384 pages.
Review written September 17, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The prologue of this book shows Poppy, almost eighteen years old, putting a DNA test in the mail. Then Chapter One begins one month earlier and as the book unfolds, we find out why she’d want to find out about her own ancestry.

Because one month earlier, Poppy was called Katie. Her friends were urging her to complete her application for the science fair with the project they’d worked on together. But instead, after school, her family picked her up in a minivan and they destroyed her SIM card and drove away without saying goodbye.

They drive to California, as the title suggests. And things are different from all the other safe houses where they’ve lived during Poppy’s life. Poppy realizes her mother has lived in this neighborhood before. Her father is uptight. And her little sister is pouting about not getting to have real friends.

Poppy doesn’t know what her parents are running from, but she knows that they are hiding from someone. All her life, her priority has been her family, but will things change now that she’s coming up on her eighteenth birthday?

Because they want Poppy to have a normal life, her parents sign her up for a summer class in advanced math, taught by a Stanford professor. She sits near a guy who’s obviously a big deal, and later she sees him at the country club pool where she gets an under-the-table babysitting job. But doing well in the class puts some interest on her. Seeing more of this guy means she starts keeping secrets from her parents. And then she gets tired of all the secrets they’re keeping from her. So she submits that DNA test. And she’s not quite ready for what she finds out when she does.

This book had me reading avidly, wanting to find out what the big secret was, as well as what would happen next. I went out on my balcony to read it for a half-hour, and instead decided to spend my afternoon that way. A thoroughly enjoyable book!

maritweisenberg.com

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Review of Brown Girls Do Ballet, by TaKiyah Wallace-McMillian, words by JaNay Brown-Wood

Contemporary, Photography, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Brown Girls Do Ballet

Celebrating Diverse Girls Taking Center Stage

by TaKiyah Wallace-McMillan
words by JaNay Brown-Wood

Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written September 26, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review

This picture book is about the photographs, and that is reflected in the cover, where the photographer is listed first and as the main creator.

And the photographs are pictures of brown girls doing ballet, exactly as the title says. And they are stunning! We’ve got big girls and small girls, lighter-skinned and darker-skinned girls, beginners and proficient ballerinas, even a disabled girl in and out of her wheelchair. Some of the girls are actively dancing, others are hanging out with friends in their dance gear.

The text that goes along with the photographs is affirming, and specifically addressed to Brown Girls.

Here’s a sample:

Brown Girl, b e n d —
your knees, elbows, neck – and send
awe through each of them so blessed
to witness you in motion,

the vibrance of your beauty
as it glows and grows and flows

from the top of your poised crown to
the tip of pointed toe.

Do you even know the power
that you hold?

So I enjoy this book because of looking at the pictures of beautiful girls, joyful and dancing. I’ve read more than one testimony of a brown ballerina that they began dreaming of dance when they saw a dancer who looked like them. This book brings that experience to many more girls and strongly affirms that they belong. And it’s beautiful to see.

browngirlsdoballet.com
blackdogandleventhal.com

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Review of Skater Boy, by Anthony Nerada

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Skater Boy

by Anthony Nerada
narrated by Michael Crouch

Recorded Books, 2024. 8 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written September 17, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Skater Boy is a surprisingly sweet YA novel about self-described “punk” Wes “Big Mac” Mackenzie, who’s a senior in high school and not even sure he’s going to graduate, let alone go to college. He’s got anger under the surface always threatening to come out, and everybody at his high school, students and teachers both, think the worst of him. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s pushed his classmates around all the years he’s known them.

All except his two best friends, who have a tough reputation like his. They egg each other on with pranks, ditching school, and extorting lunch money from other kids.

But then Wes’s mom drags him to a performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. And the boy dancing as the Nutcracker stuns Wes with his beauty and power. Wes’s feelings develop into a full-blown crush. But how can a punk get together with a rich kid who dances ballet? Wes has never dared tell anyone in his life that he’s gay. But how can he be with someone if he can’t even tell anyone about him?

Without giving away the plot, let’s just say that things get much, much worse for Wes before they get better. But we do get a happy ending, and I couldn’t be happier for Wes. Okay, it did feel a little pat – things had gotten so bad, it was a little hard to believe it could all work out. But on the other hand, that’s what the reader wants for Wes, so we do end up cheering.

This is a debut novel, which makes it all the more of an achievement. Since I was never a girl who liked bad boys, the fact that the author completely won me over to Wes shows skill in portraying relatable characters. The book makes you want to look beyond tough exteriors and give everyone a chance.

anthonynerada.com

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Review of How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? by Anna Montague

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?

by Anna Montague

Ecco (HarperCollins), October 22, 2024. 244 pages.
Review written September 17, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy signed to me at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

No surprise – when I saw this title, I was delighted. And when I attended the Author Gala Tea at ALA Annual Conference and this author was signing Advance Reader Copies, the author was delighted when I showed her my name tag.

I had meant to read this book first thing when I got home from ALA, and I’m not sure what distracted me, but it got buried in a To Be Read pile. Then last week, my coworkers noticed the book because its publication date is approaching and pointed it out to me. I decided I needed to get it read before my Autumn Award Committee Reading (for CYBILS and Mathical Awards) got underway in earnest. Naturally, I was inclined to love the book, but I’m quite sure I would have anyway.

This author is a debut author and looked quite young to me, but despite that, she did a great job getting into the head of Magda Eklund, a psychiatrist who lives alone and is turning 70 soon. The birthday accentuates the absence of her lifelong best friend Sara, who unexpectedly passed away a year ago, and was planning to take Magda on a birthday trip.

When Sara’s husband shows up with a much younger woman, he tells Magda that this woman doesn’t want to see Sara’s ashes in his home, so he asks Magda to watch over them. And something in Magda snaps, so she sets out on that road trip with Sara after all. Never mind that Sara’s in the form of ashes in an urn.

So it ends up being a Road Trip Novel, with all the good things that entails – plenty of memories and introspection, but quirky characters and humorous situations along the way. Magda must confront that her love for Sara all along was more romantic than they ever admitted, but also what that means about living her life going forward.

This is a truly beautiful novel about coming to terms with the past and embracing the future.

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Review of How to Two, by David Soman

Contemporary, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

How to Two

by David Soman

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2019. 36 pages.
Review written October 4, 2022, from a library book.
Starred Review

Counting books are a staple for parents to share with young children, and this is a beautiful one. You’re counting children playing!

First, we see one child launching off a playground slide, and the words read:

How to one.

That’s pretty much how the text goes. “How to two” shows two kids on a seesaw.

At six, there’s a rainstorm, and the six kids play duck, duck goose under a shelter. The kids go further afield as the numbers get bigger, with “How to eight” involving Hide-and-Seek, and “How to ten” being a grand game of tag.

As the sun sets and parents take all the kids home again, the numbers go back down more quickly. And I almost missed it — but the endpapers at the back show animals to go back and count for each number.

The art is beautiful, the kids are exuberant, and the book does the job of teaching counting from 1 to 10.

davidsoman.com
penguin.com/kids

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Review of Bright Red Fruit, by Safia Elhillo, read by the Author

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bright Red Fruit

by Safia Elhillo
read by the Author

Listening Library, 2024. 7 hours, 55 minutes.
Review written September 16, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book reminds me of The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo. In both books, we’ve got a young poet author writing about a teen poet growing as a poet and learning to perform her poetry – but also in conflict with her mother about a relationship.

In this book, our teen poet is Samira, whose family moved to DC from Somalia. Through no fault of her own, Samira has a reputation with the aunties as a Bad Girl, and she’s tired of her mother not sticking up for her. But when a poet in his twenties shows an interest in Samira and in her work, she feels like here’s finally someone she can talk with about things that matter.

As Samira gets close to Horus online, her girlfriends don’t understand how much he’s come to mean to her. Meanwhile, her aunt encourages Samira’s interest in poetry, but doesn’t know that Samira is using an open mic to meet Horus in person.

There are lots of red flags in the relationship, but we understand why Samira has pulled away from the people who would have helped her see that. I do like the way the book navigates the situation when trouble comes.

All along in the book, there’s a metaphor about Persephone. Persephone doesn’t have a whole lot of agency in the myth and is fooled into eating the bright red fruit of the underworld that dooms her. But the story is told as a struggle between Persephone’s mother and Hades. I like the way this book – and this poet – explores more deeply what it might have been like from Persephone’s perspective.

If I haven’t made it clear, even though I listened to the audiobook version, I could tell that the book is beautifully written in verse. This is one it would probably be worth reading in print form as well as the audiobook to better appreciate the art of the poetry.

safia-mafia.com

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Review of The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman, by Gennifer Choldenko

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman

by Gennifer Choldenko

Alfred A. Knopf, 2024. 309 pages.
Review written August 13, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Okay, disclaimer first. My timing with this book was most unfortunate. I read this one immediately after finishing And Then… Boom! by Lisa Fipps. The books set up a plot that is way too similar – both involving a mother who abandons her kids and a grandma who dies. Okay, in this one, Grandma died (recently) before the start of the book, but together with Louder than Hunger, by John Schu, which I read earlier this year, I’ve had quite enough of Grandmas dying, thank you very much! Can we put a pause on that?

This book and And Then… Boom! are both excellent middle grade novels, dealing with a super hard topic that honestly should be dealt with, and both do it well. But I do *not* recommend reading the books back-to-back. Both end happily, as they absolutely need to do for a middle grade audience, but both main characters go through a kid’s worst nightmare – the abandonment by their own mother, and having to face that their own mother is not responsible enough to take care of them.

The books are different. I prefer prose to novels in verse, because you get more detail, so I liked this one a little bit better, but I would not want to be on the Newbery committee this year, because I suspect there will be arguments about which one is more distinguished, and have a feeling some will gravitate to one and some to the other. (I could be totally wrong about this.)

Anyway, this book I read has a big bright spot in the character of Boo, Hank Hooperman’s three-year-old sister. It’s because of Boo, well, that and an eviction notice, that twelve-year-old Hank can’t keep trying to go it alone after his mother leaves and doesn’t come back.

So after some effort to figure out what in the world to do, Hank looks up the name Mom put on his field trip permission slip as an Emergency Contact, and it’s Lou Ann, a lady who was friends with his Grandma.

Lou Ann is happy to take care of Boo – she even does day care for preschoolers out of her home – but she isn’t so happy about taking care of Hank. She contacts Child Protective Services and gets Hank and Boo caseworkers. Meanwhile, while they’re trying to find Hank’s Mom and wondering how long Lou Ann will put them up, Hank attends a new school in the district where Lou Ann lives. He makes new friends and gets recruited for the basketball team, but he doesn’t want to tell anyone why he’s not sure how long he’ll stay.

Once again, let me assure you that it does end happy — because it would all be way too much to take if it didn’t. In many ways, it’s a tough read, and Hank is a kid you just want to make things better for. I kind of hate that Hank is hyperaware of the mistakes he makes because, doggone it, a kid shouldn’t have to have so much responsibility, and his mother doesn’t seem to be aware of her own mistakes at all.

So, yes, this is a powerful book, with characters you’ll care about, and believe it or not, plenty of humor and kindness to get you through the hard things. But be ready for some gut wrenching along the way.

gennifercholdenko.com

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