Review of Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island, by Jennifer Thermes

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Manhattan

Mapping the Story of an Island

by Jennifer Thermes

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2019. 64 pages.
Review written January 28, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This book is fascinating! I’m sorry that I didn’t discover it until I was pulling it from the library shelves to take off the New sticker. Usually I do that task rather mindlessly, but this book called out to me to open it, and then I couldn’t put it away until I’d pored over the fascinating details.

It’s a large-format book that uses maps to tell the history of the island of Manhattan. It talks about how it was formed and then about the Lenape living on Mannahatta for thousands of years.

Then it tells about the history of the island (with maps) through time periods. The Dutch put a town on the island, followed by the British, who occupied the city during the American Revolution. The commissioners planned the grid of streets in 1811. Further events resulted in changes, including the Great Fire of 1835, which led to the development of Central Park, and the Great Blizzard of 1888, which led to the development of the subway. It also mentions the importance of the slave trade to the city and slave labor to build the city. Free African Americans eventually moved outside the city to Seneca Village — and that land was taken from them for a low price to build Central Park.

We read about the importance of immigration to the island and the Gilded Age of 1870 to 1900, where millionaires lived on Fifth Avenue, while immigrants lived in poverty in tenements downtown. We learn about the building of subways and bridges and skyscrapers, which all changed the look of the city. And of course, it finishes up with Manhattan today — though I was surprised by a page before that mentioning Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and how the subways were flooded. The new threat to Manhattan is rising sea levels. As the author states, “Protecting it from water will be this century’s greatest challenge.”

And after all these big, fascinating pages of details, there’s a complete timeline in the back, next to a page of select sources.

I’ve been to New York City a few times, which helped give me context. If I ever get the chance to go again, rereading this book would be a wonderful way to prepare.

jenniferthermes.com
abramsyoungreaders.com

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Review of When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill

Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

When Women Were Dragons

by Kelly Barnhill

Doubleday, 2022. 337 pages.
Review written July 6, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy I got at an American Library Association conference.
Starred Review

Okay, this novel is something else. And I say that in a good way – it’s not like anything else I’ve read. I’m very glad I finally got around to reading it — I’ve been meaning to since before it was published in 2022. But I did some traveling and like to take Advance Reader Copies on my travels and give them away to friends before I return. This one I didn’t finish in time, but it still provided hours of entertaining reading on airplanes.

This book takes place in an alternate reality mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. The only thing that’s different from our world is that women have a tendency to spontaneously turn into dragons and take to the skies. In fact, in 1955, there was a Mass Dragoning event in which 642,987 American women transformed into dragons.

Here’s a matter-of-fact description of the event by our narrator, Alex Green, whose Aunt Marla left them during the event:

The facts, of course, are indisputable, but that did not stop people from attempting to dispute the facts. There were eyewitnesses, photographic evidence, utterly destroyed homes and businesses, and no fewer than 1246 confirmed cases of philandering husbands extracted from the embrace of their mistresses and devoured on the spot, in view of astonished onlookers. One dragoning – from its initial gasp, to the eruption of tooth and claw and wing, to the explosion of speed and fire – was caught on 35mm film, taken at a child’s birthday party in a backyard in Albany. Only one of three national news broadcasters attempted to show the film, but was censured immediately by FCC (and slapped with a hefty fine for the dissemination of obscene and profane material) and forced to suspend operations for a full week before having their license re-instated. It is assumed that more such films exist, but they were presumably either confiscated by local authorities (and in that case, are lost forever) or have been simply socked away in stacks of film canisters, hoarded in boxes in basements, likely decomposed by now. Too embarrassing to look at. Too inappropriate. It’s dragons, after all – tainted, it would seem, with feminine stink. Such things are not discussed. Best forgotten, people said.

The drive to forget dragons was so intense that when Alex’s family took in her cousin Beatrice after Beatrice’s mother’s dragoning, Alex was forbidden to call Beatrice anything but her sister. She’d always been her sister. Aunt Marla must be forgotten.

This is the story of Alex and Beatrice. For two of her teen years, Alex was solely responsible for bringing up Beatrice. It’s also about the drive to turn into dragons and women’s place in society and life choices and all the ramifications of all of that. The chapters are interspersed with notes from a scientist who surreptitiously studies dragons.

Although many of the dragons transform in a moment of rage, many also do so in a time of great joy. The book is dedicated to Christine Blasey Ford, “whose testimony triggered this book,” so it is indeed about rage, but it is also about joy, about taking up space, and about living lives with magnificence.

All told, it’s a fascinating book that makes me want to find my inner dragon.

KellyBarnhill.wordpress.com
doubleday.com

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Review of Miss Quinces, by Kat Fajardo

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

Miss Quinces

by Kat Fajardo
color by Mariana Azzi

Graphix (Scholastic), 2022. 252 pages.
Review written June 28, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

The trials and tribulations of middle school and early high school are perfect material for graphic novels, and this one will delight young graphic novel fans.

All Sue wants to do the summer she turns fifteen is hang out with her comic creator nerdy friends, but her family is going to Honduras to see her abuela and various aunts, uncles, and cousins. Once there, to Sue’s horror, she learns that her mother has planned to throw her a quinceañera.

Sue protests, because she doesn’t want all the attention, doesn’t know how to dance, doesn’t speak Spanish well, and doesn’t like pink. But her abuela tells her about family traditions and she works out a deal with her mother that might make even having a quinces party worth it.

The plans all get thrown off in various ways, but the result is a graphic novel full of humor and heart with a big family learning how much they love each other despite lots of foibles.

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Review of Home in a Lunchbox, by Cherry Mo

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Home in a Lunchbox

by Cherry Mo

Penguin Workshop, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The more I look at this beautiful picture book, the more charmed I am.

It’s a story of a young girl moving with her family from Hong Kong to America, and it’s told mostly in pictures, with color showing emotion.

On the endpapers, we see a moving truck leaving behind the lights of Hong Kong and moving to a suburban street in America. On the title page, the sweet little girl’s mother gives her a loving good-by kiss, while good food is giving off smells on the table beside them. The girl is wearing a backpack and holding a lunchbox.

Right away at the bus stop, a friendly girl says Hello to our hero. She answers “Hel…lo!” When the girl asks, “What’s your name,” she consults writing on her hand, which gives her translations for the words Hello, Thank you, and I don’t know. So she answers, “Th…ank you…”

Riding the bus and getting school, the pictures show us how alone the little girl feels. She’s in color, but all around her the kids are drawn in gray. She’s given a worksheet and fills in “I don’t know” in all the blanks.

But when lunchtime comes and she opens her lunchbox, all is color and sparkles. There’s a full spread where we can see that her food gives her memories of happy times with family and friends back home.

As the week goes on, more mortifying times happen – especially when she asks for a “Toilet.” But in panels as days go by, she still gets color and sparkles and happiness when she opens her lunchbox.

And finally, it’s the lunchbox that helps her make friends. The original girl from the bus stop has been watching her. An exchange of food happens, they see her nametag on her lunch (Jun) and a new small group of friends comes together — now all full of color and happiness.

There’s a spread at the back explaining the food in Jun’s lunchbox, and the words she’s written on her hand, in English and Cantonese. It also explains that most people in Hong Kong learn the British way of asking for a restroom – asking for a “toilet.”

The back flap tells us the author based the book on her own experiences moving to the United States from Hong Kong when she was 10 years old. She’s communicated the whole thing so beautifully, in a picture book that transcends language.

cherrymo.com
penguin.com/kids

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Review of Gather, by Kenneth M. Cadow

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Gather

by Kenneth M. Cadow

Candlewick Press, 2023. 325 pages.
Review written June 26, 2024, from a library book.
2023 National Book Award Finalist
2024 Printz Honor Book
2024 Capitol Choices Selection
Starred Review

I finally got this book read a few days before I get to go to the Printz Award Ceremony and get to hear the author give his speech. I only wish I’d gotten around to it sooner.

In many ways this book reminded me of Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, as it is also about a poor kid living in rural America with a lot going against him. This book features a giant, lovable dog — a dog named Gather. Here’s how Ian, the sixteen-year-old narrator, explains his name:

I thought I’d name him Hunter at first, since he knew how to take care of himself. But since he was eating mostly vegetables he found on his own, well, that’s how I came to name him Gather.

Everyone who sees Gather offers up speculation as to what breed he might be, and it gets to be comical how few suggest the same thing. Gather’s a lovable dog who stays with Ian through everything.

The book opens in November with Ian’s mother’s friend bringing her back from the hospital. His mom has had trouble with drugs ever since she hurt her back and lost her job at the nursing home. Ian’s family has lived on this land for hundreds of years, and he used to go over it all with his Gramps. But Gram left after Gramps died, and then his dad left, and now it’s just Ian and his mother, who doesn’t have as much connection to the land as Ian does.

As they figure out ways to keep going, we learn that Ian can fix just about anything mechanical and has all kinds of savvy about things that aren’t taught in school. He goes to school, but has to drop off the basketball team to try to find a job. And while Ian goes around with Gather, helping people out, making money here and there, we learn about Ian and about his rural community. And when trouble comes, we understand how they all come together to help Ian, and we understand his heart.

Ian – whose name is short for Dorian Gray Henry – is one of those kids in literature that I just want to give a big hug. You come to appreciate what a great kid he is, but also how much is stacked against him. Reading this book, and spending time with Ian and Gather, is a treat.

candlewick.com

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Review of Carrimebac: The Town that Walked, by David Barclay Moore, illustrated by John Holyfield

Fantasy, Folk Tales, Historical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Carrimebac

The Town That Walked

by David Barclay Moore
illustrated by John Holyfield

Candlewick Press, 2022. 40 pages.
Review written May 25, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

The flap of this picture book calls it an “original folk tale,” and I’m not sure if technically one person can make up a folk tale, but that’s the feeling this book gives, whether or not you bog down on the technicality.

This is the story of how a town of African Americans outwitted the “Fearful Folks” (who wear white hoods and carry torches) back in 1876.

And it’s all about a 100-year-old lady, Rootilla Redgums, and her peculiar grandson.

Rootilla brought magic to the town.

She taught them to weave rugs that never wore down, to fire or bake ceramic jugs that never emptied of sarsaparilla, and to carve wooden walking sticks that somehow never got you lost in the woods.

But the Fearful Folks who lived around the town believed the Blacks who lived there practiced magic.

Rootilla always used to say that she wasn’t magic.
But the things she made were . . .

The first night the Fearful Folks decided to attack, Rootilla thwarted them, turning their torches into cornstalks. But they were planning to come back, and that next morning, on her 100th birthday, Rootilla passed away. She asked her ten-year-old grandson to carry her back to where she came from.

The way he answered that request makes a tale where the whole town escapes — and now there’s a lake in its place, named Carrimebac in memory of the folks who lived there before.

This magical and folksy tale is delightful fun. It’s always good to hear a story about humble people victorious over those who want to oppress them. The beautifully painted illustrations add to the warm feelings the book brings.

davidbarclaymoore.com
johnholyfield.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 Wingbearer, by Marjorie Liu and Teny Issakhanian

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

Wingbearer

by Marjorie Liu
illustrated by Teny Issakhanian

Quill Tree Books, 2022. 204 pages.
Review written May 23, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This is the first volume in a new graphic novel series. I was captivated, my only disappointment being that the story only begins in this volume, finishing with new questions and no resolution at all.

The book pulls you into a magical world right from the outset. The beautiful paintings are like looking at a skillfully animated movie. (I was not surprised to learn at the back that the illustrator indeed has a background with Disney and Dreamworks.)

Here’s the text on the first page, highlighted to indicate a kind of voiceover effect:

I don’t know how it began. That’s the truth, I promise.

The wings tell me that birds have always been immortal. That their spirits live forever, returning to this tree to be reborn. And I ask them, “Well, what about the rest of us?”

They have no answer.

But I think that if birds have a tree, then so must every other creature. And when we die, our souls travel to that place where we rest, just like birds, until we are reborn.

Unless of course, someone — or something — gets in the way.

Zuli is a little girl who lives in the Great Tree — a tree with roots down to the heart of the earth, where souls of birds come when they die and are soon reborn and sent on. Zuli doesn’t know how she got there.

But then the souls stop coming to the tree, and Zuli decides to go out in the world to find out what’s wrong and save them, accompanied by an owl companion.

The journey out in the big world is perilous. Zuli meets some companions and also seems to be hunted by a witch queen. She does learn that something is happening to the birds in the north, so that’s the direction she wants to travel. She also learns things about herself and that some beings were watching for her. Can she learn who her people are and why she was left as a baby in the Great Tree? And of course, can she save the souls of the birds from whatever is stopping them from being reborn?

None of these questions are answered in this volume, but I love the lavish art and Zuli’s kind spirit. I also love that even though this is some other world not at all like earth with goblins and dragons and griffins, Zuli is portrayed as a beautiful girl with black skin. Why shouldn’t she represent a generic human in this fantasy world?

The book takes less than an hour to read and the story isn’t finished, but the art is so lavish, I can forgive them for not waiting until the entire story is complete to publish part of it. I’m looking forward to reading more.

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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 A Journey of Sea and Stone, by Tracy Balzer

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Journey of Sea and Stone

How Holy Places Guide and Renew Us

by Tracy Balzer

Broadleaf Books, 2021. 228 pages.
Review written June 26, 2024, from my own copy purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

A Journey of Sea and Stone includes thoughts and meditations on spiritual direction – taken from the author’s experience guiding people on retreats on the Isle of Iona.

Now, I’ve been on Iona, and somehow when a friend proposed an exercise of visualizing where I want to be in ten years, I came up with the thought that future Sondy would be booking her annual personal spiritual retreat on the Isle of Iona. The spiritual retreat part being annual, the Isle of Iona part being special. I still hope it will happen – and meanwhile, this book let me do that in spirit, if not in person.

I read it slowly, a short section at a time. But it’s full of inspirational thoughts about sacred places and how the holy fits into our lives. Each chapter ends with Questions for Spiritual Direction. As an example, here are the questions at the end of the first chapter:

1. Where are the sacred places in your life? How have they changed you?

2. If you were to be honest with God about the deepest longings of your heart, what would they be? What is keeping you from admitting them?

3. When have you experienced kairos? Is there something in your life that creates an obstacle to kairos?

Even though it was a very different place than Iona, I took this book with me on my 60th birthday trip back to Germany and finished it there. I like the author’s way of raising thoughts and asking questions. She gets you thinking about how the holy touches your life.

tracybalzer.com

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Review of Out of the Shadows, by Fiona Robinson

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Out of the Shadows

How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairytale Movie

by Fiona Robinson

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022. 44 pages.
Review written May 4, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This exquisitely illustrated book tells a story I’d known nothing about and fascinated me all along the way. It’s a picture book biography of the young woman who pioneered techniques in animation and made the first full length animated movie.

The book starts with Lotte’s love for fairy tales and her discovery of Chinese puppets, jointed puppets controlled with sticks. Next, Lotte learned at school the traditional craft of Scherenschnitte, cutting paper to make intricate character outlines. Then she combined the two techniques, making characters from paper and turning them into jointed puppets. All while she was still a child.

As an older teen, Lotte got to go to acting school where she met a German moviemaker. Movies were still silent in those days, with intertitles between scenes to give dialog and live orchestras playing while the movies played.

I love the spread that describes why she got a chance to try her puppet techniques in animating movies. It was for a movie about the Pied Piper of Hamelin. They brought rats to the street where they were filming and set them loose.

The rats didn’t magically follow Wegener. They disappeared into the town, plaguing the townsfolk.

Next, the crew tried guinea pigs, painted gray with tails attached. A gunshot was fired into the air. The camera whirred. The guinea pigs were released. Wegener turned to see the little creatures in the middle of the street, chewing their fake tales off.

So Lotte got the chance to create her first animation. She used stop motion animation, giving the crew big baskets of wooden rats. They moved them little by little and photographed each step. It took all day, but when they combined the pictures of the rats with the pied piper, it worked perfectly. The movie was a hit!

The book talks more about how Lotte did her work, using a special table to film animations done with cut paper, and then the new improved table she invented herself to give more depth to the animation. It all builds up to a full-length movie they weren’t sure people would be able to sit through — and then had to have police manage the crowds. I like the story included that Lotte noticed smoke that the audience thought was a special effect and successfully stopped a fire by discovering the source.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed took its place in film history as the first full-length fairytale movie. It is also considered the oldest surviving full-length animation. For a young woman in 1926, this is a remarkable, almost unbelievable achievement. But all of this is true, and absolutely not a fairy story!

And if Lotte’s story weren’t fascinating enough, the wonderful illustrations accompany the text in perfect harmony. There’s generous use of silhouettes, mimicking the cut-paper characters from her work, but there’s plenty of variety. Sometimes words show as if on a reel of film and titles between sections look like the intertitles from silent movies. The back matter tells the reader more about Lotte’s amazing life.

This is a truly stellar picture book biography that I didn’t even know I needed.

abramsbooks.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 Thirsty, by Jas Hammonds

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Thirsty

by Jas Hammonds
read by Alaska Jackson

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2024. 8 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written June 25, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

You love to see it when a debut author wins an award for their first novel (in this case, the John Steptoe Award for New Talent for We Deserve Monuments) and then goes on to write a second book that’s even better. For both books, Jas Hammonds has shown great skill in creating characters, but this one found its way deeper into my heart.

In the summer after high school, Blake and her beautiful girlfriend Ella want nothing more than to get into the secret Serena Society for accomplished Black women. Ella’s mother is even still the advisor for undergraduates in the society, so she’s a sure thing. But Blake doesn’t have the connections, the clout, or the money of Ella’s family.

But Blake finds that she can be the life of the party – and impress the president of the Serena Society – when she drinks. She transforms into Big, Bad Bee, and she’s not afraid to be somebody.

When her best friend expresses concern about Blake’s drinking, her reaction is anger and defensiveness. But as the pledging process gets more intense, Blake ends up having a lot to grapple with.

I didn’t see myself in Blake. I went to a Christian high school and college and, believe it or not, we didn’t drink at parties. But Jas Hammonds skillfully pulls us into Blake’s perspective and we’re completely with her, understanding her pull to alcohol and her need to impress the richer kids around her. The author paints a picture of addiction that is sympathetic to Blake’s plight rather than condemning her. And not to give anything away, but I do like the way it resolves, both realistic and hopeful.

jashammonds.com

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