Review of Max in the House of Spies, by Adam Gidwitz

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Max in the House of Spies

A Tale of World War II

by Adam Gidwitz

Dutton Children’s Books, 2024. 320 pages.
Review written April 26, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a World War II book that’s a whole lot of fun – not sure if I’ve ever said that before.

Max Bretzfeld is a Jewish boy born in Berlin, and in 1939, he got sent to England for his own safety from the Nazis. He is taken in by a rich Jewish family headed by Lord Montagu. But Max wants to get back to Berlin to protect his parents. In England, Max encounters more antisemitism and bullying at the snobbish private school where Lord Montagu’s children attend.

But what keeps this from being a sad story about an oppressed kid is that Max is a genius. He is clever with radios, he knows how to plan a serious prank, and he knows how to get the attention of Lord Montagu’s brother, who works for British Intelligence. Max wants to go back to Berlin to protect his parents – why not go as a spy?

Oh, and did I mention? Max has two immortal creatures sitting on his shoulders. A dybbuk and a kobold joined Max when he left Germany. Only Max can see them and talk with them. They are less than thrilled about him going back to Germany.

The majority of this book is about Max’s training to be a spy. It’s unorthodox training for an unorthodox spy. And yes, all along the way, the adults question their choice about sending a Jewish child back to Nazi Germany.

So what we end up with is a cross between a spy novel and The Great Brain. Like I said, a whole lot of fun. And the Author’s Note at the back reveals that he took great pains to get historical details right, and inserted many actual historical people into the tale.

The first page of this book is a wonderful introduction to Max, so I’m going to copy out the whole thing here:

Once there was a boy who had two immortal creatures living on his shoulders.

This was the fourth most interesting thing about him.

The first most interesting thing about Max – that was his name – was that he was a genius. He could make a working radio from the junk at the bottom of a trash can, and he could usually predict what someone was going to say ten minutes before they said it.

The second most interesting thing about Max was that, when he was eleven years old, his parents sent him away from Germany, where he was born and grew up, to England. All by himself. Even though he’d never been there, didn’t know anyone there, and barely spoke any English.

The third most interesting thing about Max was that, when he got to England, he fell in with spies. Real, honest-to-goodness spies. A lot of them.

And the fourth most interesting thing about him was that he had two immortal creatures living on his shoulders.

The story does not end with this volume, even though it comes to a good stopping place. I’m definitely hooked and want to find out what will happen to this resourceful kid next.

adamgidwitz.com
Penguin.com/kids

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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 The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Current Issues, History, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

created by Nikole Hannah-Jones
edited by Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein
read by a full cast

One World/Ballantine, 2021. 18 hours, 57 minutes.
Review written 2/4/24 from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have intended to read this book since the day it came out. Putting it in my eaudiobook queue was the key to it finally happening.

And it was so much more than I expected. Instead of one continuous book of history, this is a collection that includes eighteen essays about the significance of slavery to every part of American life combined with thirty-six poems and works of fiction highlighting key moments in our history.

This audiobook is the work of multiple authors and multiple narrators, all coming together in one epic tale.

Because of the multiple authors, the book turned out to be a little repetitive, but I learned a lot as I listened, and repetition probably helped me to retain what I heard. 1619 is the date that the first slave ship came to Virginia. This book talks about how slavery shaped our nation from the beginning, and continues to affect us from Reconstruction to the present. The essays, stories and poems help the reader understand that’s not at all a far-fetched claim.

I can see why white supremacists would want to erase this work of history with its conclusions. My own eyes were opened to historical events I was never taught about in school.

You don’t have to agree with everything you’ll find here, but surely this powerful voice should be heard. Surely this side of our joint history, too, should be illuminated. This book isn’t about silencing white voices. But it is about acknowledging the impact of Black people who were brought to our shores against their will and became uniquely American.

1619 Project Website

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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 Where Lily Isn’t, by Julie Paschkis, illustrations by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Where Lily Isn’t

by Julie Paschkis
illustrations by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Godwin Books (Henry Holt and Company), 2020. 32 pages.
Review written March 5, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a simple but beautiful book about loss. I wouldn’t use it for storytime. But I think it would be appreciated if you read it with a child who’d lost a pet. It leaves room for sadness, but has a message of hope that transcends being trite because the weight of this beautiful book is behind it.

Lily was a loving, happy dog. Here’s how the book begins:

Lily ran

and jumped and barked and whimpered and growled and wiggled and wagged

and licked and snuggled.

But not now.

And then the book catalogs all the places where Lily isn’t now, places like “beside my chair, waiting for some food to fall” or “waiting just inside the door.” At the park now, the bushes are unsniffed. And when the letter carrier puts letters through the slot, they just fall to the floor, with no barks.

The book ends with the sentiment that Lily will always be in the girl’s heart, and shows her drawing many pictures of Lily in places we’ve already discussed.

This book wouldn’t have to be as nice as it is. But the pictures go beautifully with the words, and thinking about all the ways Lily interacted with her owner as she went through her day makes the reader feel the loss, too.

juliepaschkis.com
chodos-irvine.com
mackids.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but 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.

What did you think of this book?

*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 Cast Away, by Naomi Shihab Nye

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Cast Away

Poems for Our Time

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 159 pages.
Starred Review
Review written March 6, 2020, from a library book

This is a book of poems about trash. And I was surprised, but it made me want to write poems about trash, too. In fact, I will never look at things thrown by the side of the road the same way.

In the Introduction, Naomi Shihab Nye writes about her compulsion to pick up trash. She makes a habit of going out and cleaning up her spaces. And other spaces in her neighborhood. And even spaces where she visits.

And then she writes poems about it. Here are a few short ones.

Two

Two white buttons
not matching
in hot white gravel
dreaming of
shirts

Junk Mail

The great poet
William Stanley Merwin
known as W. S.
wrote first drafts of his poems
on junk mail envelopes
plucked from the garbage
so he never had to worry
about wasting paper
or being perfect

Most of the poems are longer than these. And most either make you smile or make you think.

I enjoyed this book, reading several poems per day. I will not look at things thrown out the same way again. I’m even thinking maybe it’s time to pick up some of the detritus on the edges of my local lake.

My favorite part of the book, though, is at the back, called “Ideas for Writing, Recycling, Reclaiming.” After reading all the poems about things thrown away, I was ready for ideas about getting out and cleaning up – and then writing about it. Here’s the second idea listed, after the first idea of ways to equip yourself to get out and pick up trash:

Write about what you find. You learn a lot about human nature while doing this. Why do people throw certain things away? What do these leavings tell you about your neighbors? Imagine the litterer. Create a character study from everything you find on one day, as if it all came from one person. Or write a story including 5-10 of the items you find.

Further ideas involve ways of including other people as well as further writing prompts. I also like this one: “Write a letter to a particular piece of trash.”

The final paragraph of this section is something she’s shown to be true with the entire book:

It’s never too late to make things better. Understanding them more might help.

harpercollinschildrens.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 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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*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 Animal Albums from A to Z, by Cece Bell

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Animal Albums

from A to Z

by Cece Bell

Walker Books, 2024. 72 pages.
Review written April 23, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is seriously the silliest serious silly children’s book I have seen in a long long time.

And oh my goodness — that’s what I thought before I found the QR code leading to the YouTube channel featuring performances of all the songs. (Oh wait. It looks like only four of the songs are up when I’m writing this. But I hope more will come.)

The book is played completely straight. We’ve got an intro at the front that the author is sharing her obsession with us. That page is just too good – so let me share how it begins:

I love finding and acquiring old albums, especially those created by animal musicians. The “animal albums” in my treasured collection reflect the visionary work of several small human-run recording studios whose mission was to elevate and promote musical talents of all kinds. From the 1940s to the 1980s, these albums proved somewhat popular and profitable, with the animal musicians themselves experiencing varying degrees of success.

However, my research reveals that these albums were never easy for the studios to produce. The communication difficulties between humans and animals during the recording sessions were a constant challenge; the volatile disagreements regarding proper toileting procedures could not have helped, either. By the early 1980s these difficulties, coupled with a waning interest from audiences, both human and animal, signaled the beginning of the end of an extraordinary time in the history of music.

In this book, Cece Bell shares 26 gems from her supposed collection, including beautiful album cover art, with the lyrics to one of the songs printed out on the facing page. I couldn’t resist sharing this book with my coworkers, and more knowledgeable than me about album cover art, they’re pretty sure most of them reference classic albums.

Some of the albums are “Blame It on the Baloney” from the Barbershop Beagles, “A Little Lounge Music” from Leo Lionel, and Tubby Tapir’s “Let’s Twist Tomorrow and Tuesday Too.” The lyrics are completely silly in their seriousness. Here’s a bit from The One and Only Olga the Ostrich of Opera singing “The Oysters Are a Little Off”:

The oysters are a little off my love
There’s mold upon the bread
Let’s postpone the party
Let’s watch TV instead

The oysters are a little off my love
The house, a total mess
Our party days are numbered
Don’t cry, I must confess

It is I who left the oysters out
It is I who let them rot
A party wasn’t in the cards
My dear, it just was not

Or from Ivanna the Iguana, “I Am an Inspiration to Me”:

You might think
You’re as lovely as me
But we both know that’s simply a lie —
My skin is the best
My hair’s even better
The pink of my lips makes me sigh!

REFRAIN
I’m an inspiration to me, to me
I’m an inspiration to me!
I do everything perfectly —
I’m an inspiration to me.

As if all this weren’t enough, at the back there are bios of all 26 performing groups. My favorites are N and Y:

Nose flautist Natalia Numbat is beloved worldwide for mystical soundscapes that evoke the tinkling of mountain streams and the flushing of porcelain toilets. Numbat got her start touring with her siblings, the Numbat Nine. She left the group in 1982, stating, “My siblings couldn’t appreciate the subtle nuances that my nose fluting brought to the music.” Her song “Next November (I’ll Be Normal)” addresses that familial fissure.

Despite having no musical talent, siblings Yvette and Yohan Yak were pressured by their mother, Yolanda, to perform a yodeling act throughout the Carolinas in the early 1970s. Neither sibling was able to play the alphorn that Yolanda had ordered from a Sears catalog; what you hear on Yodelay-Yoo-Hoo was lifted (illegally) from Heilwig Schweizer’s instructional recording “The Alphorn and You.”

My first reaction was not being sure who this is for. Will kids get any of the references? But then I reflected that I have a stunted musical education and don’t get any of the references (just know enough to be pretty sure there are lots of references) — and I’m completely delighted with the cleverness and ingenuity and just plain silliness. And all that before I found the YouTube channel. I’m sure there are kids out there who will be delighted, too.

The fact that this book exists makes the world a better, and sillier, place.

YouTube channel
walkerbooksus.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 Leaving Lymon, by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Leaving Lymon

by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Holiday House, 2020. 199 pages.
Review written April 1, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Leaving Lymon is a “companion novel” to Finding Langston, but there’s no need to read one or the other first. In fact, for me having read Finding Langston long enough ago that I remembered it without the exact details ended up confusing me. Since the names “Langston” and “Lymon” are so similar, I wrongly thought for quite awhile that this was telling the backstory of our hero in the earlier book. I was wrong – it’s telling the backstory of the bully in the earlier book.

But aside from my confusion about where I’d seen this kid before, this is a wonderful and emotionally gripping novel about a black kid with a tough family situation growing up in the 1940s.

It starts in 1938 when little Lymon visited his father at Parchman Farm in Mississippi. Lymon didn’t know it at the time, but that farm was really a state penitentiary where the prisoners were rented out to do hard labor.

Lymon’s being raised by Grandpops and Ma (his grandma), and Grandpops encourages his love of music. But when Lymon starts to school, the letters all get mixed up in his head, and Grandpops starts getting sick.

After Grandpops dies in 1942, Lymon and Ma have to move to Milwaukee with Aunt Vera.

School never did get much better after the first day. Nice as Miss Arthur was, she wasn’t Little Leonard or Fuller or even Miss Stokes. Out on the playground, sometimes I joined in with the other boys playing tag or kickball, but when it came time to walk home, seemed like everybody went to one part of town and I went to another. Even though I was never ‘shamed about having a daddy at Parchman, I was ‘shamed now ‘bout Ma and her swolled legs and not having any people in Milwaukee ‘sides her and Aunt Vera’s family. In Vicksburg, it felt like just ‘bout everybody was family. And if they weren’t, they knew the type of people I was from.

In class, I worked on my letters, nice and slow, like Miss Arthur told me, but they didn’t look nothing like the other boys’ letters. Most times, when we finished lessons, I turned over my paper, hoping no one would see I was still writing like a baby. Seemed like I was playing a game of Mother May I? where I took one baby step while everybody else in class took five.

Lymon’s Daddy does get out of Parchman and starts coming around. But he’s a musician chasing gigs and never stays long. So when Ma gets hospitalized with her diabetes, Lymon’s Momma comes from Chicago and takes him back with her. The situation with his stepfather is never good – and that’s how Lymon ends up being a bully to Langston in Chicago.

But this story goes beyond that and what happens to Lymon after he leaves that class. We cheer for Lymon as he discovers more music and gets to a day when he stops being left.

By the time I finished, then I remembered Lymon in the other book – a character I never would have guessed anyone could get me to care about. But Lesa Cline-Ransome pulls it off and gives us a powerful story where we understand all Lymon is up against and become convinced that he’s going to manage to triumph in the end.

HolidayHouse.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 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.

What did you think of this book?

*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 Mama’s Sleeping Scarf, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing as Nwa Grace-James, illustrated by Joelle Avelino

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
writing as Nwa Grace-James
illustrated by Joelle Avelino

Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. 32 pages.
Review written December 13, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf is a bright and joyful picture book about a day in the life of a little preschool-age girl – and it’s held together by Mama’s sleeping scarf.

The book begins with Chino looking at Mama’s scarf. We get a full spread appreciating it:

Mama’s scarf is green.

It has big red circles and little blue circles.
Chino likes to trace the circles with her finger.
First, the big red circles.
Then, the little blue circles.

Chino likes to touch Mama’s scarf
because it is so silky and soft!

Next, the book explains that Mama wears the scarf at night to keep her hair all soft and nice. In the morning, Chino’s sad because Mama is getting ready to go to work. Mama assures Chino that she’ll always come back — and gives Chino her scarf to play with until she does.

And so begins a day of play with Mama’s scarf. I like the way at seveal points in the day, the scarf goes “wheeew!” and we see it floating across the pages.

Chino’s stuffed toy Bunny joins with her in all the play, talking to Chino in “her secret voice.” As the day goes on, Chino also interacts with Papa, Grandpa, and Grandma, with the scarf coming along, too.

After some peek-a-boo with Grandma, she offers to tie the scarf around Chino’s head — so she looks just like Mama.

Chino gets to wear the scarf all evening — even eating some vegetables the same color as in the scarf. When it’s time for bed, it’s time for Mama to wear the scarf, and when they take it off Chino’s head, the scarf again goes “Wheeew!”

A cozy happy story that ends with a child sleeping in bed, surrounded by love and good night wishes.

chimamanda.com
aaknopf.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 Accountable, by Dashka Slater, read by Ariel Blake

Audiobooks, Current Issues, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction, True Stories 0

Version 1.0.0
Accountable

The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

by Dashka Slater
read by Ariel Blake

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 9 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written April 18, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
2024 Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award Winner
2024 Capitol Choices Selection
Starred Review

I did not enjoy listening to this audiobook. But it completely deserves the recognition it’s won. This book is on an important and timely topic, and it is thoroughly researched and presented clearly and in great detail, with lots of nuance and with respect for the people involved. It gets you in the heads of all the kids, not simply the ones on one side of the issue, and you fully appreciate how complicated and complex the matter is.

The subtitle explains what’s in this book. A high school kid in a small California bay area town made a private Instagram account and invited thirteen of his friends to follow it. He posted “edgy” memes trying to get approval from those friends — and they got more and more racist, targeting mostly Black girls who attended their high school. The images progressed to pictures of nooses and other horribly racist content.

When the targets found out, it started a big scandal. But staff and administration didn’t really know how to handle it. Should those who followed the account but never commented receive consequences, too? The whole high school community got involved and the account followers — not only the account owner — were shamed and threatened. Eventually even the courts got involved – mostly as to whether the schools had violated their students’ first amendment rights in their response to the account followers.

But every single kid on either side of the event had their life disrupted by it. The girls who were targeted had visceral reactions, from not feeling safe at school to having nightmares and going into deep depression. But the perpetrators, no matter how remorseful they felt, seemingly had no possible way to live it down and get past it, so their lives, too, were dramatically affected.

But shouldn’t their lives have been affected? I like the author’s choice of title, because that’s the question: In what ways should 16-year-old kids be held accountable for terrible things they did when they didn’t fully understand how terrible they were? And what is the appropriate way to make them understand? And how can we bring healing to those who were harmed?

Before I listened to this audiobook, I didn’t begin to understand how difficult and complex answering those questions can be.

This book is a resource for administrators and teachers everywhere in the age of social media. But I’m especially glad that it’s written for teens and targeted to teens, because it’s also a cautionary tale and will surely save at least some kids from making similar mistakes.

dashkaslater.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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 Snapdragon, by Kat Leyh

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

Snapdragon

by Kat Leyh

First Second, 2020. 224 pages.
Review written July 17, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Snapdragon is a girl who all the kids at school think is weird. She lives with her mom and her dog, Good Boy. When Good Boy goes missing, she looks at the house of the old witch, who’s rumored to eat pets. She does find Good Boy, and he’s been patched up after a car hit him.

The next day some boys are playing with the body of a dead possum and trying to gross out Snapdragon. But she finds the possum’s babies and goes to the witch’s house to get help taking care of them. It turns out the witch is a lady named Jacks who harvests roadkill and ends up selling their reticulated skeletons on the internet.

Snapdragon is fascinated by that and keeps coming for help with the possum babies and learning about the skeletons, and then it turns out that Jacks really is a witch. So now it’s time to learn about magic.

That summary doesn’t begin to convey the richness of the characters in this graphic novel. Jacks is not at all a stereotypical witch anymore than Snapdragon is a stereotypical outsider kid. Challenges come up, and even though magic comes into play, it feels like the challenges are dealt with realistically.

As a graphic novel, the book is short, but I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

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.

What did you think of this book?

*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 The First State of Being, by Erin Entrada Kelly

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The First State of Being

by Erin Entrada Kelly

Greenwillow Books, 2024. 253 pages.
Review written April 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book opens with a kid named Michael Rosario in August 1999, on his eleventh birthday, stealing canned peaches from a grocery store to save for his mother after the world ends with the Y2K bug.

Michael’s mom lost her job at that same grocery store because she’d called in to take care of him when he was sick. (His fault, obviously!) Now she works three part-time jobs and is almost never home. She pays an older teen named Gibby to watch him a few days a week.

But when Michael and Gibby go out of the apartment to feed the cats who hang out by the dumpster, they see a strange teen named Ridge wearing strange clothes. He talks strangely, using slang awkwardly, and asks weird questions like what the dumpster is for and what plastic is and what year is it?

The next time they see him, he tells them he’s from the future. And gives them convincing proof without telling them anything they’d be able to change.

And adventures follow. Ridge wasn’t actually supposed to use the Spatial Teleportation Module. His brother goaded him into it. But now that he’s here, he wants to see a mall. Michael wants to find out how he should prepare for Y2K – but Ridge doesn’t dare tell him anything that might change the future.

To be fair, I am the wrong audience for this book. I don’t actually believe that time travel is possible. I don’t believe in alternate universes. And I did computer programming before the year 2000, and my eyes are still rolling about the gloom and doom people were predicting as Y2K approached. (The whole day on January 1, 2000, I kept saying, “I knew it! I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.” Though I also knew that programmers were right to do lots of work fixing accounting programs and the like. But they did that, folks.) So I didn’t have much sympathy for poor anxious Michael. Though we got glimpses into the Spatial Teleportation Summary Book and the reader also knows that though the Millennium Bug caused widespread panic, that ultimately no disaster came to pass.

But Erin Entrada Kelly hits exactly the right note for a beginning time travel book. It ends with a very light touch of paradox, but the main story is about a group of relatable kids in an ordinary situation that turns out to be extraordinary. With a lesson thrown in about living in the present.

erinentradakelly.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?