Review of Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate

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

crenshaw_largeCrenshaw

by Katherine Applegate

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2015. 245 pages.
Starred Review
2015 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Children’s Fiction

A kid starting fifth grade is not supposed to have an imaginary friend. When Jackson’s years-ago imaginary friend Crenshaw the giant cat shows up riding a surfboard and carrying an umbrella, Jackson’s afraid he’s going crazy.

Crenshaw first appeared in his life right after first grade when his family was homeless and lived in their minivan for fourteen weeks.

When they finally put together enough money, my parents moved us to Swanlake Village. It was about forty miles from our old house, which meant I had to start at a new school. I didn’t care at all. At least I was going back to school. A place where facts mattered and things made sense.

Instead of a house, we moved into a small, tired-looking apartment. It seemed like a palace to us. A place where you could be warm and dry and safe.

I started school late, but eventually I made new friends. I never told them about the time we were homeless. Not even Marisol. I just couldn’t.

If I never talked about it, I felt like it couldn’t ever happen again.

But now Jackson’s parents are selling almost everything they own in a garage sale. They’re talking quietly together about paying the rent. They try to joke about it and say everything will be okay. His little sister is scared, too. Then Crenshaw shows up, just like he did before, only bigger. He says he won’t leave until Jackson doesn’t need him.

But what kind of fifth grader needs an imaginary friend?
And does this mean they’re going to be homeless again?

This book by Newbery-winning author Katherine Applegate packs a punch. It shows the human side of homelessness. The family were told about shelters, but none of the homeless shelters in their town would allow husbands and wives to stay together.

Sometimes I just wanted to be treated like a grown-up. I wanted to hear the truth, even if it wasn’t a happy truth. I understood things. I knew way more than they thought I did.

But my parents were optimists. They looked at half a glass of water and figured it was half full, not half empty.

Not me. Scientists can’t afford to be optimists or pessimists. They just observe the world and see what it is. They look at a glass of water and measure 3.75 ounces or whatever, and that’s the end of the discussion.

This is a children’s book. It does have a relatively happy ending, without being too simplistic. Jackson does learn something from Crenshaw about being a friend, imaginary or not. I would have liked a little more, a little longer book – but I think this is all the better for child readers. Here’s a relatable character in a recognizable situation – but one we don’t usually talk about.

And on top of his family’s poverty, Jackson is dealing with a giant, flamboyant, imaginary cat.

mackids.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, by Kelly Jones

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

unusual_chickens_largeUnusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

by Kelly Jones

illustrations by Katie Kath

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2015. 216 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful light middle grade fantasy novel that’s quirky and inventive. It’s almost not a fantasy novel at all, dealing with a mixed-race kid in a new neighborhood who’s missing her dead grandma and trying to learn how to fit in — while learning to raise chickens with superpowers.

That’s right. Chickens with superpowers, and quirky superpowers at that.

Sophie and her parents have moved to her great-uncle Jim’s farm, which her dad inherited. Her Mom’s a writer, and her dad’s trying to find work, but they’re hoping to make something of the farm as well. Uncle Jim had some unusual chickens, but they have scattered after he died. She finds them one at a time and discovers their surprising abilities — along with someone who wants to have them for her own.

Sophie does find a flyer from Redwood Farm Supply among Uncle Jim’s junk advertising “Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer.” She writes to the farm for advice and gets very sporadic poorly typed answers back, but accompanied by lessons for being a poultry farmer.

This is a fun and imaginative story. The story is told in the letters Sophie writes to her dead Abuelita, Uncle Jim, and Redwood Farm Supply, as well as frequent illustrations. Sophie has quite a job ahead of her establishing herself as a farmer of Unusual Chickens and thwarting those who would try to stop her. On top of that, she’s got a whole summer to figure out how she’s going to manage to fit in with the other kids in the neighborhood.

curiosityjones.net
ktkath.com
randomhousekids.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Madame Martine Breaks the Rules, by Sarah S. Brannen

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

madame_martine_breaks_the_rules_largeMadame Martine Breaks the Rules

by Sarah S. Brannen

Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, Illinois, 2015. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Madame Martine Breaks the Rules features the same lady who lives in Paris with her dog, Max, whom we met in Madame Martine. As at the end of Madame Martine, she wears a bright red coat and every Saturday tries new things.

Her friend, Louis, often meets her at the café where she always has breakfast. He is a guard at the Louvre Museum and invites her to visit.

“Oh no,” said Madame Martine. “It’s so crowded, and they don’t allow dogs.”

“For you and Max, we might break the rules,” said Louis.

Madame Martine was shocked. “We would never ask you to do that!” she said.

But no one told Max. Later, when Madame Martine is talking with Louis near the Louvre, Max dashes in through the employee entrance. They end up getting a tour after all. It turns out that rules can be bent for friends of Louis.

This book isn’t as inspirational as Madame Martine, since the message of trying something new is much more uplifting than a message that rules can be bent. However, like Madame Martine, lovers of Paris will love this book. The art takes us on our own small tour of the Louvre.

This is a quiet book about our friend Madame Martine, and her little dog Max who again knows how to find wonderful things in the beautiful city of Paris.

sarahbrannen.com
albertwhitman.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 The Mathematician’s Shiva, by Stuart Rojstaczer

Contemporary, Fiction Review 0

mathematicians_shiva_largeThe Mathematician’s Shiva

by Stuart Rojstaczer

Penguin Books, 2014. 366 pages.

Sasha Karnokovitch, a lowly professor of atmospheric sciences, is the son of one of the greatest female mathematicians of all time. The book opens when his mother is dying. His family shows up at her bedside, but he knows that many more people will arrive when she dies.

When my father warned of the horde of mathematicians that would descend upon our house after my mother’s death, I knew what to expect. They would be grieving, but not like my family. They would be mourning not my mother but the loss of ideas, the loss of intellect. They would no longer be able to sit in a room with her and feel the magical presence of someone with the talent to find the hidden gem in what is thought to be all dross.

The Hasidic Jews have a word, dveykus, for men who always possess the spirit of God inside them. My mother, unlike my grandfather, did not believe in such things literally, but when it came to understanding mathematics, she knew that she possessed the equivalent of dveykus. Like a rebbe with acolytes who feel blessed just to be around someone whose goodness and spirituality are always present, my mother had her followers. I had been with them all of my childhood. They sought me out for my secondhand dveykus even as an adult. Now they would come and I would have to be their gracious host for seven days, the days of shiva that are a traditional part of Jewish mourning. My uncle called them the szale?cy, the crazy people. Yet he would supply the vodka, and soothe them in his own way.

This book is about that shiva. Indeed, the mathematicians descend, especially those, like Sasha’s mother Rachela, from Poland and Russia. They are convinced she proved the Navier-Stokes Theorem before she died. But where would she have hidden her work? They will search the house; they will interrogate her parrot; they will even work together to try to prove it themselves.

This is a rambling novel, with quirky characters, mostly academicians. There are stories of Rachela’s childhood during World War II and stories of how it was for Sasha growing up as the child of a genius. There are family stories and mathematician stories.

Having been in a math graduate program myself, even though this novel wasn’t a page-turner, I kept coming back to it and couldn’t resist reading about the world created here – about genius and math and family and fate and love and faith and recognition and whether cold weather helps you think clearly.

stuartr.com
penguin.com

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Source: This review is based on a signed copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Edgar’s Second Word, by Audrey Vernick and Priscilla Burris

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

edgars_second_word_largeEdgar’s Second Word

by Audrey Vernick
illustrated by Priscilla Burris

Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Boston, 2014. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This book is simply too sweet not to review it.

Big sister Hazel has long been dreaming of reading to her new baby brother. She reads to her stuffed bunny, Rodrigo, but it wasn’t the same. When Edgar finally comes along, she’s excited.

But Edgar wasn’t much different from Rodrigo.
Or a pillow.
Or a watermelon.

Then Hazel thinks Edgar’s first word will make the difference. Now he mostly points and grunts, “like a pointing, grunting watermelon.”

But when Edgar speaks his first word, let’s just say it’s the most common first word of any baby.

And he practices it often.

My favorite picture in the book is from when Hazel’s mom takes them for a change of scene to the library, and Hazel asks Edgar to choose some books.

Edgar’s “NO!” was so loud that people stared. Some covered their ears. A librarian fainted.

But the book finishes up with such a lovely cozy scene, the pastel pictures matching the warm cozy tone of the words:

The day’s no’s added up.
Everyone was tired.
Finally, it was bedtime.

Hazel reached for her no-saying grump of a brother.
Edgar got as far as “Nnn” before a tired-baby gravity settled him on her lap.

Edgar felt as weighty as two Edgars.
He leaned back, a heavy-headed, warmly cuddled, not-no-saying lamb of a ram.
Hazel began to read.

(Can’t you just feel warm baby in your lap?)

When Hazel finishes reading, they think Edgar’s gone to sleep. But instead, he says his second and third words. And let’s just say that they’re a lot more positive.

This book brings something interesting to the party of new-baby books for the bigger sibling. There’s plenty of talk about the frustrations, but the cozy ending does point out that it’s all worth it.

And if nothing else, parents will be charmed.

audreyvernick.com
priscillaburris.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Goodbye Stranger, by Rebecca Stead

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

goodbye_stranger_largeGoodbye Stranger

by Rebecca Stead

Random House Children’s Books, August 2015. 286 pages.
Starred Review

I got an Advance Reader Copy of this book at ALA Midwinter Meeting, and got it read on the flight to ALA Annual Conference.

I love Rebecca Stead’s books. Hers are about character — and always feature a character who feels like a normal kid — but with quirks.

Bridge Barsamian was in a terrible accident when she was 6 years old and almost died. As she left the hospital, a nurse told her, “You must have been put on this earth for a reason, little girl, to have survived.” She’s always wondered what that reason might be.

Now Bridge and her two best friends, Emily and Tabitha, are in seventh grade. And things are changing. Emily has suddenly grown curves and has become hugely popular. A boy is sending her pictures… and wants a response.

Bridge started wearing the cat ears in September, on the third Monday of seventh grade.

The cat ears were black, on a black headband. Not exactly the color of her hair, but close. Checking her reflection in the back of her cereal spoon, she thought they looked surprisingly natural.

And once she gets started wearing the cat ears, it’s hard to stop.

This book follows three different voices. One is Bridge, dealing with seventh grade, and how things are changing between her friends. Another is Sherm. He’s writing letters to his grandfather, who recently left their family. He doesn’t send them. Along the way, he writes about this girl who wears cat ears.

Another voice is someone using second person who has decided to take a mental health day on Valentine’s Day. She tries to keep her parents from worrying, but isn’t successful. But she still doesn’t go home. She’s thinking about all that led up to this day.

All the plot threads of the book lead up to Valentine’s Day. There’s no big reveal or plot twist. (There is a little reveal of who is skipping school.) But all the threads wind up, in a nice satisfying story. You can’t help but like these kids, living their lives and figuring out why they were put on this earth — in lovely, quiet, quirky ways.

This is very much a novel about friendship — and friends who let their friends down. But don’t we all let our friends down, in some way or other? This book is about the hard decision of when to give our friends another chance.

rebeccasteadbooks.com
randomhousekids.com

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 One Word from Sophia, by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

one_word_from_sophia_largeOne Word from Sophia

by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2015. 36 pages.
Starred Review

This book is tremendously fun. The beginning concisely sums up the situation:

Sophia’s birthday was coming up, and she had five things on her mind –
One True Desire and four problems.

Her One True Desire was to get a pet giraffe for her birthday.

The four problems were . . .
Mother, who was a judge,
Father, who was a businessman,
Uncle Conrad, who was a politician,
and Grand-mamá, who was very strict.

Sophia presents her case eloquently to each of these adults, with her arguments perfectly and amusingly tailored to her audiences.

Her mother says she’s too verbose, her father that she’s too effusive, her uncle that she’s too loquacious, and Grand-mamá that she needs to get to the point.

So Sophia thinks hard and gets her case down to one word, “accompanied by a particularly compelling pair of eyes.”

Now, I expected this book to be an example of how, sometimes, you simply can’t get the things you want. Umm, this is not that book.

Also, kids won’t necessarily get the court references when Sophia makes her case to her mother the judge or the business proposal references in her presentation to her father the businessman or the polling references in the results shown to her uncle the politician. However, those are what makes the book tremendous fun for an adult reading it. And I think kids will enjoy the sounds of the words, even if they don’t grasp all the humorous implications.

And I’m not completely confident that we really should give little negotiators any ideas for how to work. They’re awfully good at what they do already. And if Sophia can con her family into getting her a giraffe? Well, clearly your own little negotiator is much more reasonable. Should we give that ground to them?

But this book is simply way too much fun not to recommend it, so I will be content with warning potential adult readers. In general, I suspect that the enjoyment you get from reading this book will outweigh any drawbacks from ideas your children pick up. (As if they actually need any.) And, best of all, they may remember to say Please!

I should add that the pictures are delightful – portraying a mixed-race family with lovely vibrant colors. And just the right amount of words.

May we all know our One True Desire as clearly as Sophia.

jimaverbeck.com
YasmeenIsmail.co.uk
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Nightbird, by Alice Hoffman

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

nightbird_largeNightbird

by Alice Hoffman

Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2015. 197 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve read at least three different books about a teen who sprouts wings, and how they deal with that. This book is different — It’s about the sister of a boy with wings. In fact, the wings are part of a family curse on all the men of the family.

Twig Fowler lives in the small town of Sidwell, Massachusetts, with her mother and a brother that no one knows about. The town has plenty of tradition – including Twig’s mother’s Pink Apple Pie. But one of the traditions — the Sidwell Monster — is not so benign.

James is tired of living in hiding. And Twig is tired of not having friends. When a family moves into the home of the witch who cursed the Fowler family, and they are descended from that witch — Twig and her new friend Julia decide it may be time to break the spell. But how? And James is getting more and more reckless — and falling in love with Julia’s sister Agate.

This is a feel-good story, and if things worked out awfully nicely, I don’t begrudge any of them a happy ending. We’ve got a kid just wanting friends, a small town infused with magic, and Alice Hoffman’s brilliant writing.

alicehoffman.com

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Lost in NYC, by Nadja Spiegelman & Sergio Garcia Sanchez

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

lost_in_nyc_largeLost in NYC

A Subway Adventure

by Nadja Spiegelman & Sergio Garcia Sanchez

Toon Graphics, 2015. 49 pages.

Here’s a story that makes the most of the graphic novel format and throws in plenty of facts – even historic photographs – about New York City and the subway system.

Pablo’s first day of school in New York City happens to be the same day his class is going on a field trip, riding the subways, to the Empire State Building. Alicia helpfully offers to be his partner, but he is wary of making friends, since his family moves so often.

With Pablo’s inexperience, Alicia and he get separated from the class, and then Pablo gets separated from Alicia. However, Pablo knows where they’re going and asks for directions. Alicia uses her knowledge of the city to walk to the Empire State Building, and the class rides the subway. The graphic novel is perfect for showing how the three different groups take three different routes.

Along the way and in the back of the book, we get the history of the subway and facts about New York City.

And we’re told about another nice touch at the back. When the illustrator, Sergio Garcia Sanchez, was researching in preparation for drawing pictures of the subway stations, he took lots of pictures, and then noticed a policeman keeping a wary eye on him. So on almost every spread of the book, he included himself taking pictures and being followed by a cop. And of course once the reader finds that out, you go back to spot Sergio and the Cop in every crowded subway spread.

Even though this is a story about getting lost, I think the happy ending will help kids approach something potentially daunting – like riding a subway – without fear and with confidence.

toon-books.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Read Bottom Up, by Neel Shah & Skye Chatham

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Romance 0

read_bottom_up_largeRead Bottom Up

by Neel Shah and Skye Chatham

Dey St. (William Morrow), 2015. 239 pages.

I’m reading like crazy for the 48-Hour Book Challenge, and this book is a fluffy romance that was a fun diversion. Okay, it’s not exactly a romance, since the Authors’ Note at the front pretty clearly indicated that the relationship is doomed.

This book is the story of a modern relationship — told through emails and texts, not only between the principals themselves, but also with their best friends.

And yes, that rings true! In a relationship don’t we go over everything with our friends? Okay, this book was nice to assure me it’s not just me who does that. I loved the way Madeline analyzes everything including the speed or lack of speed with which Elliot answers her emails.

Another fun thing about the book is that the co-authors only shared with each other what the characters shared with each other — the discussion of the relationship with the respective best friends was totally written separately.

Here’s how they put it in the Authors’ Note:

Somewhere deep in your Sent Items graveyard are the emails you wrote to your former flame along with the emails you wrote about those emails to your best friend. It’s all right there — a partial record of your relationship. But what if you could see the whole picture? Not just your side of it. After all, somewhere in the pixelated part of the world is your ex’s inbox. Therein lies all sorts of analysis to which you were never privy. What if you could read the whole funny, tragic, wincing train wreck of it all, if you could finally open up your relationship like a dollhouse (or, say, a cadaver) and know the truth of what happened?

This book is fun and a quick read. And as someone theoretically facing the whole dating world, it made me feel not alone.

hc.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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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