Review of Divine Rivals, by Rebecca Ross

Audiobooks, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Divine Rivals

by Rebecca Ross
read by Rebecca Norfolk and Alex Wingfield

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 10 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written December 28, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 Teen Speculative Fiction
2023 CYBILS Award Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction

Okay, before I start talking about this awesome book, I need to digress because I was reminded of how much I love stories where a couple falls in love via letters.

The example most people know about is the movie “You’ve Got Mail,” but one of my favorite Young Adult Fantasy novels, Crown Duel, has a similar set-up in a fantasy kingdom. I like this kind of romance so much, I have an unfinished novel fragment where I attempted to retell “You’ve Got Mail”/Pride and Prejudice with the letters happening in a fantasy kingdom by way of a magical diary.

Well, Rebecca Ross pulls off this plot much more effectively, expertly connecting our main characters through letters typed on magical typewriters. Like the other books, we start with an enemies-to-lovers trope. Like the others, the guy knows before the girl whom he’s corresponding with and tries to change that “enemy” perspective, because he’s figured out he’s falling in love with the friend he’s writing to.

And yes, the slow-burn romance is exquisite! I’m convinced that a part of why I love this scenario is that as an INFJ, I dislike small talk, love the written word, and love how with letters you can really get to know people. Iris, our main character in Divine Rivals, mentions that we all clothe ourselves in armor, but with letters, we can take off small pieces of that armor and share our hearts.

Iris has been working in a newspaper office, competing with her rival, Roman Kitt, to win the position of columnist and be able to put away the obituaries for good. But when her mother dies, she misses a deadline and loses the columnist job. Iris decides there’s nothing more for her in the city, and she signs up to become a war correspondent – hoping to find her brother Forrest, who went off to fight for the goddess Enva and promised to write, but never did. Iris had begun her magical correspondence with Roman by typing letters to Forrest and putting them in her wardrobe.

This fantasy world is expertly drawn. Without a slog of back story, we listen to the two characters writing to each other about the god and goddess who woke up after hundreds of years and plunged the human world into war. The war is carried out with the technology of World War I from our world — think trenches and poison gas. Refreshingly, some social factors are not like our world, with Iris encountering two women married to each other and soldiers who are women, and she finds that unremarkable.

A lot of the action takes place at the front. It reads like a historical novel of World War I with our heroes falling in love during wartime.

And, oh, the romance! There’s a meeting of minds before the meeting of hearts and bodies, and that always wins me over. In fact, I’ve had to come to terms with realizing that’s my own private fantasy – to some day fall in love via letters (possibly in electronic form). I’m sure it was being influenced by this book that motivated me the day after I’d finished it to *not* shut down a stranger who slid into my direct messages on Twitter, asking me three times in two days how I was doing. Well, I very quickly saw that was a major mistake. But the fact remains that I have many dear friends in my life, both men and women, whom I have gotten close to through the written word, from letter-writing to my friend who moved away as a kid to emailing now. In this book’s case, it was lovely to enjoy an example where the close friendship built in letters went hand-in-hand with romantic compatibility. I’m well aware that doesn’t always happen, but so much fun to read a story where it does.

Now, a word of caution. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the cliffhanger ending. But there’s where I lucked out! And if you haven’t read this book yet, you too can luck out! You see, the sequel, Ruthless Vows was published two days after I finished reading the book. (And it’s said to be a duology, so the sequel should not have a cliffhanger ending.) Even better, I order books for our public library system. The audio version of the sequel had 49 Notify Me tags in Libby (the ebook had 81), and so of course I ordered it. But my big score was as soon as it got ordered, I went to my own Libby account and checked out a copy! I don’t often take advantage of this insider knowledge, but this time it made me very happy.

And yes, the audiobook version is wonderful, so I’m happy to get to listen to the next book, too. They have British accents and are a delight to the ear. I’m not sure if I will get the sequel finished before 2023 ends, but either way I have no doubt it will be a Sonderbooks Stand-out — either for 2023 or 2024.

I picked up this book because every week since it’s been published, we needed more ecopies at the library because of all the holds. Once I finished reading for the Morris awards, I decided to find out what the fuss was all about. I’m so glad I did!

rebeccarossauthor.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 Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend, by Noah Van Sciver

Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Novel, History, Starred Review 0

Paul Bunyan

The Invention of an American Legend

by Noah Van Sciver

With stories and art by Marlena Myles
Introduction by Lee Francis IV
Postscript by Deondre Smiles

Toon Graphics, 2023. 48 pages.
Review written December 1, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

The bulk of this book is the graphic novel story of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe — but this story goes further and shows us an advertising man with a lumber company making up the tale, exaggerating other lumberjack tales, in order to make their company look like heroes for clearing the old growth forests that used to blanket North America.

Set in 1914 on a train in Minnesota, there’s a delay in the journey and an ad man from the lumber companies starts telling the tall tales of Paul Bunyan, mesmerizing the other passengers as they wait for the train to start again.

But in this version, we see that a slick ad man is inventing the stories. And he gets some pushback from people on the train who saw acres and acres of mighty forest cut down. The land is laid bare, and the lumber companies simply continued to move further west.

The other people listed on the title page are Indigenous creators whose stories and art appear before and after the main narrative. They give more context about how those same lumber companies pushed out Indigenous peoples to get access to the trees.

Put together, it’s a thought-provoking and moving story that shows how much more there is to the tall tales I heard as a kid.

toon-books.com

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Review of An Echo in the City, by K. X. Song

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

An Echo in the City

by K. X. Song
read by Christina Ho and Ewan Chung

Hachette Audio, 2023. 9 hours, 13 minutes.
Review written September 13, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

An Echo in the City surprised me with how powerful it was. We begin in Hong Kong in 2019 with Phoenix, a junior in high school, whose mother is pressuring her to study to retake the SAT so she can get into Yale and leave Hong Kong. Phoenix lived in North Carolina when she was little, but her wealthy family took her back to Hong Kong for the opportunities. With her parents’ recent divorce, she feels like they hardly notice her except to complain about her grades.

But then she starts talking with her goof-off older brother’s new girlfriend Suki, who is involved in the student protest movement. The government had introduced a bill to allow extraditions to mainland China, and they feel this would allow anyone to be arrested who did anything China didn’t like – such as protest. Suki’s uncle has run a bookstore for years that sells books banned in China, and he is now on the blacklist.

As Phoenix gets more and more involved in the movement, she meets Kai, a handsome seventeen-year-old who has recently moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai after his mother’s death. What Phoenix doesn’t know is that Kai’s father is a police officer, and Kai has enrolled in the police academy to please him. So Phoenix doesn’t realize that Kai is on the opposite side of what turns out to be more and more like a war.

I appreciated the conflict in this book – it didn’t feel contrived. Each teen has a back story such that their reactions make sense. Their romance is lovely – while you know that there’s going to be conflicting emotions, and are just waiting for Kai to get found out.

I also had known nothing about the student protests in Hong Kong, and hearing about them from both the perspective of a student and the perspective of police was eye-opening.

Both characters grow in this book, with both of them realizing that they need to think about how they want their own lives to go and not just what their parents want for them. A story of star-crossed lovers that also teaches you about recent history.

kxsong.com

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Review of Kitty & Cat: Bent Out of Shape, by Mirka Hokkanen

Delightfully Silly, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Kitty & Cat

Bent Out of Shape

by Mirka Hokkanen

Candlewick Press, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written December 6, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Okay, there’s a place for simple books about shapes. They teach little ones something they need to know. Good.

And then we have books about shapes on an entirely different level — books that parent and child will thoroughly enjoy and laugh over — while learning about shapes at the same time.

This book would become a go-to pick for me for Toddler Storytime if I still worked in a library branch. The idea is simple: A cat hiding because he doesn’t want to take a bath.

On the first page we see Cat curled up in a Circle-shaped basket with a speech bubble coming from off the page: “Cat! Time for a bath!”

The next page shows the basket empty, and a small child’s feet nearby, with the speech bubble, “Cat?”

From there on out, we’ve got a repeating pattern: A spread in some room of the house with Kitty and Puppy cavorting about, along with the speech bubble pointing off-page: “Where’s Cat?”

The next spread says “There’s Cat!”

The “There’s Cat!” reveal is where the hilarity comes in. On the frontpapers at the start of the book, we’d seen nine simple shapes named. It turns out, Cat is very good at putting his whole body into these shapes. On each reveal spread, we see that Kitty or Puppy has knocked down an object with a simple shape — and now we see Cat, who’d been hiding behind it, exactly matching the shape.

First, he hides behind a rectangular cereal box in the kitchen, and then my favorite (because it’s just silly) — a triangular vase in the dining room.

And so it goes. The words are as simple as “Where’s Cat? There’s Cat!” but the pictures show Cat frantically trying to stay concealed while Kitty and Puppy romp about the whole house, making mayhem.

Cat’s expression after his bath is priceles, too. And the final shape is a heart with all three animals — but a new threat for Kitty and Puppy.

There’s another page of those same nine shapes at the back of the book — but this time all of the shapes have a picture of Cat inside of them.

Just absolutely silly fun — and Shapes!

candlewick.com

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Review of Hidden Systems, by Dan Nott

Graphic Novel, History, Science, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Hidden Systems

Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day

by Dan Nott

RH Graphic, 2023. 264 pages.
Review written September 29, 2023, from a book sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2023 National Book Award Longlist

Hidden Systems is graphic novel format nonfiction about some essentially important – but hidden things. In three sections, the author explains, with diagrams and drawings, how the Internet works, how electricity works, and how our water systems work.

It’s interesting that the topics are approached in the opposite order from the subtitle, which is also the opposite order from how they were developed in the real world. But taking a present to the past approach does get the information across.

At the front of the book, the author talks about what hidden systems are and how he learned about them by trying to draw them. Because so much is invisible, the metaphors we use to describe them are important. Here’s a bit from that introduction, which has a small picture accompanying each line.

A hidden system is something we don’t notice
until it breaks.

But when these systems are doing what they’re supposed to,
they become so commonplace
that we hardly see them.

Hidden systems are in the news all the time.
Usually when something dramatic happens.
(especially if something explodes)
But by overlooking hidden systems the rest of the time,
we take for granted the benefits they provide for some of us,
and disregard the harm they cause others.
These systems structure our society,
and even when they’re working,
are a source of inequality and environmental harm.

Something I appreciated about this look at the Internet, Electricity, and Water Systems is that he showed the big picture, too – how these things are physically hooked up and connected around the world.

There was a lot I didn’t know about each system: The importance of data centers for the internet, almost all the physical aspects of the electricity grid, and our frequent use of dams to run the water system.

Okay, this summary doesn’t do the book justice. Let me urge you to read it – and look at it – for yourself. (So much is communicated by the drawings!) The story of how humans have built these systems helps us think about what ways we could modify them to better work with our earth.

As he finishes up (accompanied by pictures):

We often just see the surface of our surroundings,
but by understanding these systems more deeply,
we can form our own questions about their past and future.
The answers to these questions can help us not only fix these systems
but also reimagine them –
creating a world that’s more in balance with the Earth
and that provides equitably for all people.

dannott.com
RHKidsGraphic.com

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Review of The Labors of Hercules Beal, by Gary D. Schmidt, read by Fred Berman

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

The Labors of Hercules Beal

by Gary D. Schmidt
read by Fred Berman

Clarion Books, 2023. 8 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written December 13, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I already knew I love Gary Schmidt’s writing. Even knowing that, this one blew me away, touching me to the point of tears in several spots.

This story is told in the voice of a 12-year-old boy. He’s the smallest kid in his class, but insists he’s begun with the “Beal growth spurt.” His name is Hercules Beal. And yes, he’s heard all the jokes about a small kid being named Hercules. He lives in Truro, Maine, which he is convinced is the most beautiful place in the world.

Herc’s parents died in a car accident earlier this year, and his big brother Achilles has come back from his adventuring to care for Herc — and run the Beal Brothers Nursery, which has been in their family since Herc’s great-grandfather and his brother started it. But the school bus route has changed, and they’re not on it, and Achilles isn’t interested in driving Herc to Truro Middle School every day. So Herc will now be walking 22 minutes each day to attend Truro Academy for the Environmental Sciences.

His new home room teacher is a retired marine who insists on being addressed as Lieutenant-Colonel Hupfer. In studying Greek mythology, he has individualized project assignments for the class that are going to take the whole year, with regular progress reports. Herc’s project is to study the Labors of Hercules, figure out how they apply to his life — and find a way to perform them himself.

So this book is about Hercules Beal performing the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Like Lieutenant-Colonel Hupfer says, when you really look for parallels, you’ll find them. It starts out simple — instead of catching the Nemean Lion, Herc clears an abandoned house of feral cats. Many of the feats feel truly Herculean — and Herc learns along the way that he can ask for help.

My only complaint about the book is that the assignment was too big and the labors fit too well — how could the teacher ever have predicted that some of these labors would come to him? And a lot of them seemed like way too big a thing to put on a 12-year-old kid. Though Herc did learn that he was not alone — and some of the touching things about the book were his reflections on what he learned from each labor.

This book is deeply sad, because of Herc’s missing parents. But it’s also funny, quirky, inspiring, and beautiful. Gary Schmidt is great at writing characters who are so distinctive and unique, you don’t doubt for a second they’re fully alive. This book is one to treasure up in your heart.

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Review of Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws, by Alan Hamilton

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Luke

Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws

by Alan Hamilton

Abingdon Press, 2022. 155 pages.
Review written April 5, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review

My church went through this book in our small groups (including the one I co-lead) as an all-church Lenten study. There are six chapters, one for each week of Lent, and there is a leader’s guide and videos to go along with it, as well as the sermons from our pastors on the same topics.

I’ve grown up in church and know the Bible well, so it’s always a challenge to set aside what I think I already know and gain new insights. That wasn’t a problem at all with this book. Although I think I’m very familiar with the book of Luke, I had never noticed the theme that Alan Hamilton brings out again and again — of Jesus lifting up the lowly.

Indeed, there’s a chapter on Jesus’ interactions with women, and I’d never noticed how very much Luke includes women in his gospel — much more than the other gospel writers.

Since there are 24 chapters of Luke, but only 6 weeks of Lent, the study is only loosely chronological. We start with a firm foundation of Jesus seeing and paying attention to outsiders, outcasts, and outlaws all through the book before traveling with Jesus to Jerusalem, looking at his final week, and then covering the crucifixion.

Even with the crucifixion, Adam Hamilton points out that the words on the cross that Luke chose to report fit with his theme of lifting up the lowly. This is where we read about Jesus’ forgiveness, his promise to the thief, and ultimately committing himself into his Father’s hands.

This paragraph is from the first chapter, looking at the Mary’s Magnificat:

It is on the lips of Mary that Luke lays out the theme of his Gospel, the theme of this book: God looks with favor on those of low status. God brings down the powerful from their thrones. God lifts up the lowly. God chooses the people others think are washed up or have no value. God values and uses those who have been pushed down, oppressed, or disdained. This one line captures Luke’s theme.

And here’s a paragraph from the chapter about Jesus’ crucifixion:

Regardless of what Luke was seeking to convey about Jesus’s death, he clearly sees this as the climax of the story he has been telling. Here, too, Jesus is lifting up the lowly. In Jesus’s death, we see his obedience to God (“not my will but thy will be done”), his innocent suffering, and, once again, his ministry with and for the outsiders, outcasts, and outlaws. We see his mercy and grace as he prays for his Father to forgive even those who tortured him. We see him reaching out to “seek and save the lost,” even from the cross. We see him as a King suffering for his people — a picture of selfless love. And we see Jesus absorbing evil, hate, sin, and death. As we will see in the postscript, Jesus ultimately triumphs over those things, and in the process brings salvation to the world.

Studying along with this book gave me a whole new appreciation for the gospel of Luke.

AdamHamilton.com
AbingdonPress.com

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Review of Tomfoolery! by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Barbara McClintock

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Tomfoolery!

Randolph Caldecott and the Rambunctious Coming-of-Age of Children’s Books

written by Michelle Markel
illustrated by Barbara McClintock

Chronicle Books, 2023. 40 pages.
Review written December 6, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This picture book biography of Randolph Caldecott begins like this:

Come on in.

A whole world lives and breathes inside these pages. You’ll find frisky animals, sprightly characters, and a hero so chipper he can barely hold still on the paper.

But in the 1850s, there are no children’s books like this one. Many are published, but their pictures look stiff, full of pretty poses and cluttered scenery. No one has yet imagined how much fun an illustrated book could be.

No one, until…

Quick!

If you don’t move fast, you’re going to miss him — Randolph Caldecott, future famous illustrator. A fever has weakened his heart and left him frail, but he loves to be outdoors . . .

This amazing book shows us what made Randolph Caldecott different. We do see examples of picture books before Caldecott on that first page, and then the rest of the book is done in Caldecott’s style — with movement on every single page. There’s only one exception — the page where Randolph is sitting alone on a chair in his flat in London, sad and wishing to be back in the countryside. Even in that page, your eye is drawn out the window to the rooftops of London. Barbara McClintock expertly incorporates Caldecott’s own work in the illustrations — also full of movement — with even a grand full-color spread of Mr. Gilpin’s ride taken straight from Caldecott’s work — the same scene used for one face of the Caldecott Medal.

The page talking about Caldecott’s international success and how he transformed children’s picture books is especially wonderful, as it shows many Caldecott Medalists looking at their own books — I recognize several, including Maurice Sendak, Jerry Pinkney, and Dan Santat. My one complaint about the book is that they did not include a list of authors pictured in the back matter. They did include a list of Randolph Caldecott’s books and told which illustrations include reproductions of Caldecott’s own art and which of his books they came from.

I liked this even better than the author’s book Balderdash! about John Newbery, I think because the topic is so visual, and the artist could incorporate Randolph Caldecott’s own illustrations to show us how good he was at bringing characters to life.

Ha! And that’s interesting: In Balderdash! she mentioned that John Newbery used the story of Goody Two-Shoes to show that children could learn from stories better than sermons. But in this book, Goody Two-Shoes is one of the books shown as an example of picture books with stiff poses and little movement. So essentially, John Newbery helped publishers get started on making books for children, and Randolph Caldecott helped them make books with dynamic illustrations that captured kids’ attention.

michellemarkel.com
barbaramcclintockbooks.com
chroniclekids.com

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Review of Hey Otter! Hey Beaver! by Brian Pinkney

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Hey Otter! Hey Beaver!

by Brian Pinkney

Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2023. 36 pages.
Review written March 20, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This picture book with swirly-twirly art joins the tradition of friendship stories in books for young children.

“Hey, Beaver!” said Otter.
“The water is flowing. Let’s play!”

“Hey, Otter,” said Beaver.
“Look, flowing water! Let’s get to work.”

This beginning sums up the approach of the two friends. They find sticks, branches, and twigs. Otter wants to play with them, and Beaver wants to build with them.

Their conversation and rivalry is fun and begs to be read aloud. Otter gets to the things first and plays with them. And Beaver says things like:

“Hey Otter,” said Beaver.
“Give me those branches. I need those branches.
Please give me give me give me
those branches right now!”

Yes, there’s some rivalry and taking things back and forth, but it’s all in good fun, with a nice big crash at the end, and the two friends ready for more play and work together.

brianpinkney.net
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Review of Wildoak, by C. C. Harrington

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 1

Wildoak

by C. C. Harrington

Scholastic Press, 2022. 324 pages.
Review written February 21, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Schneider Family Award Winner, Middle Grades

Wildoak is set in 1963 in England, featuring Maggie, a girl who stutters. Maggie goes to drastic measures to avoid speaking aloud in class, and three schools have told her parents her disruption isn’t welcome. Her father seems ashamed of her. But in a last-ditch effort before sending her to an institution, her mother sends Maggie to her grandfather in Cornwall for two weeks.

Maggie has always been able to talk to animals without stuttering and has a small menagerie of animals she loves, but the only ones she can bring with her are two snails. Her grandfather encourages her to explore the woods, though the local landowner is planning to bulldoze one of the oldest forests remaining in England. But meanwhile, a wealthy society lady has released into that very forest a snow leopard cub she was given as an exotic pet.

Maggie sees the snow leopard, and later rescues him from a cruel trap. But her grandfather doesn’t believe her, because of course there aren’t leopards in Cornwall. It’s up to Maggie to help the cub recover from his wound and then defend him when the townsfolk start sighting a “monster” in the woods.

The book tells a gentle story about the small standing up to the powerful and about Maggie learning to use her voice, even if it won’t always do what she wants it to.

ccharrington.com

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