Review of Wide Awake, by David Levithan

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Wide Awake

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 221 pages.
Review written May 9, 2024, from a library book.

Notice the copyright date on this book of 2006. I checked out this book because I got to hear an author talk by David Levithan with him talking about his new book, Wide Awake Now. He described it as an update of this one — which he’d written in 2004, when George W. Bush defeated John Kerry for a second term.

This book features Duncan, a gay high school student who’s not old enough to vote, but involved in volunteering for a presidential candidate in a near future election. As the book opens, this candidate has just been elected as the first gay Jewish president of the United States. But there’s a problem. Though he won the popular vote, he only won the electoral college vote by one state, and the governor of Kansas has announced that he’s doing a recount. As the recount happens, he’s finding reasons to throw out votes. President-Elect Stein calls on his followers to come to Kansas in protest, and this book is about that road trip. Duncan’s boyfriend is on the trip, as are other campaign volunteers they’re already friends with, and more people they meet along the way. We get lots of Stein speeches about building community and caring for others and more great things.

Something I loved about the book was that a big part of Stein’s support came from people who were part of “the Jesus Revolution” – a group all about really living Jesus’s teachings of love and caring for the poor. How I wish he’d gotten that part of the future right! The opposition party call themselves the “Decents” and are against gay marriage and saying many of the same things Christians are known for saying today (sadly), but I was pleased to see at least one large group of Christians in this imagined future were firmly about actually following Jesus’s teachings.

Some omissions were interesting. Although he said these teens had been born “decades” after 9/11, there had never been a Black president, and gay marriage was not legal. That this wasn’t even imagined happening in 2006 was interesting to me.

I was actually a little disturbed by a presidential candidate on the “good” side calling for his followers to protest about election results. To be fair, he won the popular vote and had already been declared the winner of the election. They were protesting the recount that the Kansas governor was trying to manipulate. Protesting that the results must stand. There was also no violence, and they didn’t break into any government building or threaten any government officials. So it wasn’t really obstruction of an official proceeding.

But speaking after January 6th, which forever changed my perspective, I don’t like the idea at all of determining official election results because of a protest. Because as we all know, no matter what the outcome — even losing by six states instead of one — any candidate can work their followers into a frenzy demanding that results be changed. And that’s just not how I want these things to be determined. By all means, put scrutiny on anything the governor in question may have done to change the results, but ultimately, I really do think we need to be able to trust the courts to determine legality and illegality.

All that said, it was a fascinating look at someone twenty years ago projecting what politics might be like around this time. Of course, someone like Trump wasn’t imagined at all. It’s also a good story – with interactions between Duncan and his boyfriend and parents and friends and teachers. And does paint a picture of a bright future. I’m definitely going to read the more recently written follow-up and hope the author has not gotten more cynical.

davidlevithan.com
randomhouse.com/teens

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Review of Indivisible, by Daniel Aleman

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Indivisible

by Daniel Aleman
narrated by Adan Rocha

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2021. 8 hours, 35 minutes.
Review written November 2, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

This audiobook tells the story of Mateo Garcia, who’s a junior in high school in Brooklyn and wants to get involved in theater like his friend Adam. His parents came to America from Mexico before he was born. Then his whole life gets turned upside down when his parents get detained by ICE. Suddenly the things he used to be concerned about fade into insignificance.

Mateo doesn’t want to tell his friends at first, but big secrets like that take a toll. And meanwhile, he needs to take care of his 7-year-old sister Sophie and help at the store his parents spent years establishing. Mateo and Sophie hope against hope that things will work out, but have to figure out several new setbacks. They just want their family to be together again.

This novel has lots of heart, mixing regular high school concerns like romance and friends with fundamental concerns about housing and family.

Listening to the audiobook did pull me into this story, rooting for Mateo and his family, and frustrated about the situation so many have been thrust into, when they just want to make a home for their family.

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Review of The Fox and the Forest Fire, by Danny Popovici

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Fox and the Forest Fire

by Danny Popovici

Chronicle Books, 2021. 40 pages.
Review written October 2, 2021, from a book sent to me by the publisher
Starred Review

This is a quiet book about a kid who moves to a house deep in the forest with his mother. He’s not happy about it at first, but he learns to love the forest.

Then a fire comes through, and they have to evacuate. When they come back:

Our house is gone,
but we are safe.

While things don’t look like they did before,
the forest knows what to do after a fire.

Most of this story is told in the detailed and beautiful illustrations. First, we see the boy learning to enjoy the forest and feeling at home there. Then the people and animals fleeing the fire, first spotted off in the distance. And finally, the forest coming back to life after the fire.

And how does the fox come into it? On almost every spread set in the forest, you’ll find a bright fox. Usually the fox watches the boy and even enjoys the same pool of water with the boy. After the fire, we know the forest is going to be all right when we see the fox.

A note at the back explains how forests are often strengthened by fire, but how we need to protect them from human-set fires and climate change.

This is a lovely and quiet story about the joy and wonder of a forest.

chroniclekids.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, by Joya Goffney

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

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

by Joya Goffney
read by Jordan Cobb

HarperAudio, 2021. 9 hours, 39 minutes.
Review written October 25, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry is a teen romance with a lot of depth. Quinn is a senior in high school and one of the few Black girls at her private school. She pours out her private thoughts in her list journal. But one day, she accidentally picks up the journal of that cute guy in her study group instead of her own.

She works to fix the switch, but he’s lost her journal. Or so he says. Then someone anonymously starts blackmailing Quinn. If she doesn’t complete the items in her list to do before the end of high school, the blackmailer will start posting embarrassing pages from her journal on the internet – beginning with the revelation that she didn’t actually get into Columbia.

Quinn’s parents met at Columbia, and they’ve been planning on her going there since she was born, so Quinn didn’t manage to tell them she didn’t get accepted. She even forged an acceptance letter – and then they made the news known far and wide. Part of her list was to tell them the truth, but Quinn isn’t sure she can ever do that. Another item is to tell the guy she’s had a crush on for years how she feels – though that may be changing. Yet another is going to visit her grandmother, who’s in a nursing home with dementia. Quinn’s afraid she won’t even recognize her.

So she begins by tackling an easier item – visiting the two colleges where she did get accepted. And Carter, the cute guy who lost her journal, is willing to come along and help. Maybe he isn’t the blackmailer after all – though Quinn still isn’t sure she can trust him.

As Quinn works through all of this, she makes some new friends and gains some new experiences. And she does some things she was afraid of doing.

It all adds up to a fun read about a teen who made some mistakes, but is trying to pull herself out of them.

The only thing I didn’t like is that Quinn’s use of the list journal is seen as a bad habit. She wrote in the journal so she wouldn’t have to open up to actual people. I don’t think that’s the way it works. Journaling is good for you! And I think that opening up to a journal makes it easier to open up to actual people rather than harder. I think you’d be a lot less apt to stuff your emotions. So I hope she won’t give it up forever.

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Review of Borders, by Thomas King and Natasha Donovan

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Borders

story by Thomas King
illustrations by Natasha Donovan

Little, Brown and Company, 2021. 184 pages.
Review written October 22, 2021, from a library book

This short graphic novel is presented as a boy remembering what happened when he was twelve. He and his mother set out from their home in Canada to visit his sister in Salt Lake City, who had moved away some years before.

But when they cross the border and get to the United States entry point, the guard asks their citizenship. His mother answers, “Blackfoot.”

No matter what the guard asks and how they explain, his mother doesn’t claim any nationality except Blackfoot. Finally they’re turned back.

But when they try to get through the guard station to go back to Canada, the same thing happens.

And so they’re stuck in the small area between the borders with the food they brought with them plus what they can find at the duty-free shop.

The story is simple, but thought-provoking. It was adapted from a short story published in 1993, and I think the graphic novel format makes it even more engaging, especially for kids.

lbyr.com

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Review of The Bread Pet, by Kate DePalma, illustrated by Nelleke Verhoeff

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Bread Pet

A Sourdough Story

by Kate DePalma
illustrated by Nelleke Verhoeff

Barefoot Books, 2020. 36 pages.
Review written October 2, 2021, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

Here’s a fun story about a girl who’s given sourdough starter and told to feed it. They explain that the “bread pet” is alive and gets hungry twice a day. The friend forgot to tell her she could slow down the growth by putting it in the refrigerator.

So the bread pet grows and grows. She has to measure carefully to give it the right amount of flour and water. But soon there are more bread pets all over the kitchen. Time to bake some bread.

When even that doesn’t reduce the bread pet enough, the family thinks of a clever way to let the community center help spread the love.

The interracial family featured in this book has two moms and the illustrations are fun and whimsical with smiling bread pets taking over the kitchen. There’s a recipe for sourdough starter and sourdough bread at the back. There’s lots of math behind the scenes in this story and a graphic illustration of how doubling can quickly get out of hand.

barefootbooks.com

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Review of The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, by Ashley Herring Blake

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary 0

The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James

by Ashley Herring Blake

Little, Brown and Company, 2019. 370 pages.
Review written January 22, 2020, from a library book
Honor Selection of the City of Fairfax Regional Library 2020 Newbery Book Club

I read this book in January 2020 because one of the girls in my Newbery Book Club nominated it as a contender. I was sorry I hadn’t read it sooner.

The book begins as Sunny St. James is ready to have her heart transplant. She has plans for her new life with a new heart: Do awesome amazing things she could never do before; find a new best friend; and find a boy and kiss him.

Well, the first two things are easy enough. Though Kate, her guardian since her mother gave her up when she was four, is very cautious about what she will allow Sunny to do. She’s so used to being worried about Sunny’s heart.

Then Sunny meets Quinn, a girl on the beach who’s visiting for the summer. She will make a wonderful new best friend. She doesn’t know that Sunny’s old best friend told the whole swim team that Sunny sometimes wondered about what it would be like to kiss a girl. Quinn doesn’t know about that, and Sunny makes it clear she’s looking for a boy to kiss. It doesn’t help that the first time Sunny gets near a boy that summer, she accidentally breaks his nose.

But Sunny’s mother also comes around for the first time in eight years when she learns about Sunny’s heart transplant. She wants to get to know Sunny, and Sunny’s not sure about that. But it turns out that her mother isn’t nearly as cautious about what she’ll allow Sunny to do as Kate is.

In tone this book reminded me very much of the author’s recent book, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, so I wasn’t at all surprised that Sunny might rethink her plan to kiss a boy. So I didn’t get a surprise, but I did like the way the story was carried out with some realistic ups and downs among fallible people trying to love each other well.

This book is the story of a middle school girl trying to figure out life with a new heart. Like Sunny, the book shines.

lbyr.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 Nigeria Jones, by Ibi Zoboi

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Nigeria Jones

by Ibi Zoboi
read by Marcella Cox

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 9 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written March 22, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
2024 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
Starred Review

I wanted to read this book from the minute the publisher sent me an advance reader copy last year. But I was on the Morris Award Committee, so I wasn’t able to fit in very many books that weren’t debut books. When it won the Coretta Scott King Author Award, I was reminded I’d been meaning to read it and got it in my eaudiobooks queue.

Nigeria Jones is a 16-year-old girl who’s been brought up in her father’s Black Liberation Movement. The book opens on July 4th, her baby brother Freedom’s first birthday, and the movement is having a gratitude celebration marking the one-year anniversary that Freedom Sankofa Jones chose them as his family.

Nigeria loves her baby brother, but she wonders if Mama will come to Freedom’s celebration. She left them a year ago, but Nigeria keeps getting glimpses of her. And the movement and life in the Village House has not been the same since Mama left.

When Nigeria learns that her Mama had made plans and filled out an application for Nigeria to attend a private school, Philadelphia Friends School, she knows her father won’t like it. Her father essentially cut off his own sister when she sent her son Kamal to that school. Her father says that schools and hospitals are all run by white supremacists, and they should have nothing to do with them. Nigeria has been home schooled all her life and has rarely been around white people at all. She knows her people’s history, and she knows about oppression, so why is she so fascinated by the thought of going to this school? But if Mama wanted her to go there….

This book is a fascinating and nuanced look at a girl reclaiming her freedom and exploring what freedom even means. She doesn’t condemn her father or even disagree with everything he says. But what does freedom and revolution mean for her as her own person?

This book surprised me at every turn. No stereotypes here, and plenty of hard truths, but along with Nigeria, the reader gets a chance to look beneath the surface. A powerful story.

ibizoboi.net

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Review of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Version 1.0.0
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin
read by Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi

Random House Audio, 2022. 13 hours and 52 minutes.
Review written May 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m behind everybody else on reading novels for adults, but not being on an award committee right now, I’m trying to catch up on some of the titles that are popular at Fairfax County Public Library. (I can see how long the Holds lists are.)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the story of Sadie and Sam, both video game designers who treat their work as art. The book covers decades of their lives, as their friendship – and their art – evolves and changes over time.

They first met when they were kids. Sadie’s sister was in the hospital with cancer, and Sam was in the hospital having his foot put back together after a devastating car accident. They used to play video games together for hours. Sam’s parents were excited because Sadie was the first person Sam had talked to after the accident, and he’d been in the hospital for weeks.

But the book doesn’t start there. It begins when Sam and Sadie spot each other at a subway station in Boston, where Sadie is attending M.I.T. and Sam is at Harvard. Sam hadn’t spoken to Sadie in years – and we find out their history as back story.

Eventually, Sam and Sadie make a video game together and go into business together. And this book is far more interesting than that summary sounds.

There were times when I didn’t like the characters and thought about quitting reading the book, but was just a little too invested. Then later, I was mad at the author because I thought she’d completely cheated to resolve a love triangle.

But it turned out that wasn’t what was happening, and the event I thought was a cheat led to some innovative storytelling as the book went on and the characters were dealing with some tough things.

In a lot of ways, this author was like the characters: Trying to tell a story in innovative and creative ways, going beyond entertainment into art. I think she succeeds.

gabriellezevin.com

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Review of You’re SO Amazing! by James & Lucy Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

You’re SO Amazing!

Being Singled Out Doesn’t Always Feel Amazing.

by James & Lucy Catchpole
illustrated by Karen George

Little, Brown and Company, 2024. Originally published in 2023 in the United Kingdom. 36 pages.
Review written April 19, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Yes, it’s a message book. But like the message delivered in the author’s earlier book, What Happened to You?, this message comes wrapped in an engaging story about a sweet kid who just wants to play pirates.

In What Happened to You?, Joe made friends with the other kids on the playground. We can see from the pictures that Joe has only one leg. That doesn’t have anything to do with his enjoyment of playing on the playground.

But while Joe is playing pirates with his friend Simone, we can see that some grown-ups and bigger kids are watching him. After a kid calls him “Amazing!” Joe reflects that he knows he’s amazing because people keep calling him that. When he slides on the slide or swings on the monkey bars…

Joe was even amazing when he was doing ordinary things,
like waiting in line for ice cream . . .
or eating ice cream . . .
or just scratching his bottom.

“People need to relax,” said Simone.
“I know!” said Joe.

Next, Joe tries to be invisible, so people can see how amazing his friends’ running and jumping can be. Instead, a grown-up finds him hiding while they are running and jumping, feels sorry for him, and encourages him to try it, too.

But the book winds up with the big brother of one of his friends helping Joe practice shooting a soccer ball at the goal. And most of Joe’s shots aren’t great, but some are amazing.

And the book winds up by reflecting that he likes playing with his friends who know him.

With them, Joe wasn’t Amazing Joe,
and he wasn’t Poor Joe.

He was just Joe.

There’s a note at the back for adults, accompanied by a picture of the authors with their happy family. You can see in the photo that they’re disabled. So I hope it’s okay to say I love this amazing book. It effectively and simply shows a kid what it feels like to be singled out over and over again. Nicely done!

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