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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Review of One of Us Is Lying, by Karen M. McManus

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

One of Us Is Lying

by Karen M. McManus
read by Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus, and Robbie Daymond

Listening Library, 2017. 10 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written June 9, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

So — I finally got this wildly popular teen thriller read after hearing an interview with the author about her 2024 book, Such Charming Liars. I enjoyed this one tremendously.

The set-up is that five high school students get detention with the notoriously technophobic teacher at the school because someone planted a phone in their backpack – all five of them.

And then one of the students has a fatal allergic reaction after drinking water. They try to save him, but his epi-pen is missing, and all the epi-pens have been removed from the nurse’s office. It turns out there was peanut oil in the cup.

All four of the remaining students are suspects. It turns out that they, along with many other students at the high school, had strong motives for killing Simon. He ran a gossip website that was always accurate — and all four of them had secrets queued up on his admin site, ready to post.

There are four narrators to this audiobook because all four of the teens get to give their perspective. Their secrets have repercussions, and the pressures of the school finding out those secrets affect their lives beyond the murder investigation. And of course, there’s a murder investigation going on, too. The four kids include the girl who gets good grades and has her plans for Yale under control, the jock who’s getting recruited to play baseball, the rich girl who runs in the popular crowd, and the social outcast who’s already on probation for drug dealing. Because they’re all viewpoint characters, they all get our sympathy, and we become invested in the question of which one is the murderer.

This is an excellent thriller about interesting characters, and I’m happy to see it ended up being the start of a series, so I’ve got more books on my list immediately.

karenmcmanus.com

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Review of Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan, read by Hillary Huber

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Romance, Starred Review 0

Nora Goes Off Script

by Annabel Monaghan
read by Hillary Huber

Penguin Audio, 2022. 6 hours, 57 minutes.
Review written July 29, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First, thanks to my friend, the librarian Amanda Sealey, for mentioning this author in a post. Yes, it’s an unashamed romance novel, and this book left me feeling happy – and also happy about my own life and my choices. So that’s a win!

Nora, our heroine in this story writes movie scripts for the Romance Channel. They always follow a formula and always turn out happy. The formula involves a big-city person meeting a person from the country and at first they butt heads, but they fall in love. Big City Person gets involved with the small community and helps with planning an important community event. But then BCP leaves, the one left behind is heartbroken – but something gives BCP an epiphany and they show up at the community event and they kiss and live happily ever after.

Well, this book didn’t *exactly* follow that pattern. But it was pretty darn close. All the same, there was enough introspection and thoughtfulness that it got me thinking about my own life and what love means and standing on your own and learning to let go and all sorts of other good things. And that made it rise above the formula for a win.

As the book opens, a movie company is taking over Nora’s yard and tea house to make a movie. But this time, it’s not for the Romance Channel. After Nora’s husband left her two years ago, she wrote a script about it, not following the formula, not bringing the guy back. And a big Hollywood producer picked it up. So two of the biggest stars in Hollywood are portraying Nora and her husband.

And then the big star sticks around. At first they butt heads, but soon fall in love. He starts helping with a community event – Nora’s fifth grade son’s play. Things are going according to the script, until they don’t.

A lot of the power in this book comes when Nora feels like she’s the kind of person people leave, and she figures out how to cope, with help from her friends. It hadn’t been as bad when her husband left, because things had died between them long before. Nora’s coping doesn’t come easily or flippantly, and I appreciated that.

I think it speaks well of the book that it got me thinking of my own life. My own divorce was much much harder, because I was very much still in love with my husband. For me, it’s now almost 20 years later, and it was nice to think about all the freedom I have as a woman on my own with a career I love – and I enjoyed that this book ticked off those reflections. I’m glad the romance part turned out happier for Nora, though!

annabelmonaghan.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 Beto’s Berry Treasure, by Jenny Lacika, illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Contemporary, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Beto’s Berry Treasure

by Jenny Lacika
illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Storytelling Math (Charlesbridge), October 8, 2024. 32 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from my own copy given to me at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series. In fact, I went up to their booth and gushed about them on the last day of this year’s ALA Annual Conference – and they gave me one of their copies of this newest entry in the series!

All the books have a cultural element, in this case two Mexican American kids who speak some Spanish. They also present in very simple terms an early math concept, with tips for parents to extend the ideas at the back. And it’s always found in a picture book story that will engage kids even if it weren’t teaching math concepts.

Beto’s Berry Treasure is about spatial relationships and making and following maps.

Beto wants his big sister Cora to play tea party with him, but she only wants to play pirate. So Beto decides to make a pirate map of hidden treasure – the treasure being berries for the tea party.

But Beto’s first tries don’t lead Cora to the treasure! How can he fix it?

And will there be any berries left by the time Cora finds the treasure?

This simple story is a fantastic conversation – and play – starter. And believe it or not, spatial relationships and being able to give step-by-step instructions (or a map) are early math concepts.

Another brilliant entry in the series.

jennylacika.com
astound.us/addy-rivera-sonda
charlesbridge.com/storytellingmath

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