Review of Charlie & Mouse Are Magic, by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Emily Hughes

Contemporary, Easy Readers, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Charlie & Mouse Are Magic

by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Emily Hughes

Chronicle Books, 2022. 38 pages.
Review written September 30, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

I love the Charlie & Mouse series! These books are easy readers with four short chapters, lots of white space on the page, and pictures on every page — pictures that include lots of expressions and lots of joy. The books are about two young brothers, Charlie and Mouse, and the things they get up to together.

In this book, we start out with Mouse mixing up a magic potion while Mom is making dinner. After he finishes making the potion, he puts a drop on his nose and makes a wish. I love what happens next:

“Mouse,” said Mom.
“I would really like to finish dinner. Do you think if I gave you a cookie, you could wait in the other room?”

“Mom!” shouted Mouse. “Wow! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”

“What?” said Mom. “What can’t you believe?”

“A cookie is EXACTLY what I was wishing for.
Isn’t that amazing? My potion works!”

“Amazing!” said Mom. “Now scram.”

And that’s only the beginning. As things continue, Charlie and Mouse go outside and try being invisible with the potion. (There is some joyful naked dancing in the rain with strategically placed plants.) And Mom apologizes for being grumpy. And all the animals share dinner with them. And at the end, Dad gets his wish.

It’s all a bunch of gentle and imaginative good fun. And will keep both beginning readers and their parents entertained.

I always love what it says in Laurel Snyder’s bio, where she mentions her two sons: “She would like to state for the record that while none of these stories are exactly true, none of them are exactly untrue either.”

chroniclekids.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 Choosing Brave, by Angela Joy, illustrated by Janelle Washington

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Choosing Brave

How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

by Angela Joy
illustrated by Janelle Washington

Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 64 pages.
Review written October 24, 2022, from a library book.
Starred Review

This powerful picture book biography tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till’s mother, and how she made hard choices so that the world would know about the terrible injustice that happened when her son was killed.

But that wasn’t the first hard choice she made. She faced bullying at school, though she graduated at the top of her class. Emmett’s father left her when Emmett was a baby, so she was a single mother. Polio left Emmett with a stutter, but she helped him and taught him to whistle to get through the stutter. That may have been why he ended up being accused of wolf whistling at a white woman. And murdered for it.

After Emmett’s death, Mamie paid a year’s wages to bring him north and used a glass-topped coffin to show the world what had been done to him.

Her brave choices helped start the Civil Rights movement, and even after Emmett’s murderers went free, she kept going to rallies, calling for justice.

Here’s how the book ends (before eight pages of notes at the back):

Yet still today, we whisper her name.

For lessons unlearned and hatred still living,
we whisper her name.
For strength to sow love in spite of our pain,
we utter her name.
For every son and every daughter who suffers still,
we cry her name.
For justice. For peace.
We shout her name.

A powerful and moving story, told in simple language and striking images.

AngelaJoyBooks.com
WashingtonCuts.com
mackids.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 Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, read by Lin Manuel Miranda

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
read by Lin Manuel Miranda

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2021. 10 hours, 3 minutes.
Review written April 30, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World is the sequel to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and yes, you should read them in order. So if you haven’t read the first book, please don’t read more of this review as it may give you some spoilers.

If possible, I loved this second book even more than the first. It’s from Ari’s perspective as he navigates his senior year of high school. He’s accepted that he’s in love with Dante, and he’s figuring out what that means.

But why I loved this book so much is that Ari also learns to develop many meaningful relationships. In the first book, Dante was his first friend. But now, as well as being in love with Dante, he develops deep friendships with some fellow students, with his parents, and with some teachers. All of those relationships help him get through when hard things hit.

And it’s definitely not all sun and roses. Some major life events happen that are hard to face. Ari goes to visit his older brother, who is in prison. And Ari and Dante have been accepted into colleges far apart from one another, so they both have anxiety about what comes next.

Also, the book is set in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Both Ari and Dante are coming to terms with what it means to be a gay man in a culture that hates them.

But they encounter beautiful people in their journey, and all the difficulties they face in this book are faced with a community of supportive friends, which makes all the difference.

benjaminsaenz.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 Windswept, by Margi Preus

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Windswept

by Margi Preus

Amulet Books (Abrams), 2022. 288 pages.
Review written September 30, 2022, from an advance reader copy I got at ALA Annual Conference
Starred Review

Windswept is a new fairy tale, crafted full of references to the old Norwegian fairy tales, and some influences from the Brothers Grimm. Since I read lots of fairy tales as a child, I appreciated the way this one wove in themes that show up again and again.

And since they’re Norwegian fairy tales, there have to be trolls! Expect some danger from trolls, and you will not be disappointed.

This fairy tale is set in a future earth without technology, with people living in villages, governed by the Powers That Be. There are lots of artifacts around from the Other Times — especially plastic, which is cluttered all over the place. But the Powers That Be have declared the only books Youngers should read are field guides and factual things like that.

But above all, Youngers must be kept indoors. We’re told the tale from the perspective of Tag, whose real name is Hyacinth, but who was always a tagalong to her three older sisters. But one fateful day almost seven years before her adventure begins, their guard fell asleep and Tag’s sisters went Outside. Tag was slow getting her shoes on, and didn’t quite make it over the threshold, so she saw with her own eyes the snow squall that suddenly descended and the wind that swept her sisters away.

In the seven years since, her father spent all his money looking for them, and died of a broken heart. Instead of keeping a guard, her mother keeps Tag indoors, with all the windows and doors boarded up. There’s one little knothole through which she can see a piece of the Outside.

But one day another eye appears on the other side of the knothole, and then an invitation pops through.

And when Tag finds a way to accept the invitation, encouraged along by something with a bit of magic, she finds four other Youngers and a little dog who are also defying the Powers That Be. They decide together to do something. And together, they set out on a quest to rescue their siblings, who were all windswept like Tag’s sisters.

Their quest is full of fairy tale logic and a little chaotic, but involves finding what they need to help along the way, with old crones to advise them. Not to mention trolls! And of course the ever-present danger from the wind. And they’d better watch out for small curses.

Of course, one of the best things about Norwegian fairy tales is you often have a little girl doing the impossible and overcoming against all odds. This tale falls nicely into that category.

amuletbooks.com

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Review of A Seed Grows, by Antoinette Portis

Children's Nonfiction Review, Contemporary, Good for the Very Young, Picture Book Review, Science, Starred Review 0

A Seed Grows

by Antoinette Portis

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2022. 36 pages.
Review written August 30, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

As I write this review, I’m still deciding whether to put it on my Picture Books page or my Children’s Nonfiction page as an example of beginning nonfiction for the very very youngest listeners. I think I will put it on the Picture Books page, because this is the kind of book I’d love to use in a story time or to read to a small child on my lap, and I don’t usually look on the Nonfiction page for such books.

In fact, for years, I’ve kept my eyes open for picture books with very few words on a page to use for Toddler story times and their shorter attention spans. Even though I’m not doing story times any more (with my new awesome job as Youth Materials Selector), I have to point out that this book would be perfect for that — and it teaches little ones about the life cycle of plants in a way they can understand, so it would also work for a STEM story time.

There are few words on a page and they’re short and sweet, and the bright, colorful illustrations use simple shapes. Here’s how the book starts out:

A seed falls

[That’s on a white background. The facing page shows one striped sunflower seed falling against a blue background.]

and settles into the soil

[Now we see the same blue background with a stripe of brown at the bottom and the seed sitting on top of that.]

and the sun shines

[Now the facing picture is a big round sun.]

and the rain comes down

[Now the picture side has raindrops filling the page.]

and the seed sprouts

I think by now you get the idea. Very simple language and simple, colorful pictures show the entire process of a sunflower growing. When it grows to its full height, the page folds upward to show how tall it gets.

After the sunflower blooms, it makes seeds which birds take to their nests. Eventually, to end the book, a seed falls. And we’re back to where we started.

Three pages at the back give more information for readers a little bit older, including a diagram of the life cycle of a sunflower plant.

This book is simple, but the bright blue and yellow colors leave me smiling.

antoinetteportis.com
HolidayHouse.com

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Review of A Magic Steeped in Poison, by Judy I. Lin

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Magic Steeped in Poison

by Judy I. Lin
read by Carolyn Kang

Listening Library, 2022. 11 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written September 19, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

The first thing I need to say about this book is that it’s one of those where the story doesn’t finish at all. In fact, it ends right at a point where things are looking bad for the main character. However, the good news is that the second volume is already out, and the literature says it’s a duology. So I plan to finish the story soon.

But the story is a good one — magical and imaginative, all about magic inherent in tea as well as the skills of the person making and pouring the tea.

The book begins as Ning is preparing to go to the capital city to compete to be the court shennong-shi — the best in the art of wielding the magic of tea. The winner of the competition will be granted a favor from the princess. And Ning thinks this is her only chance to save her sister Shu, who is desperately ill, having been poisoned with the same tainted tea that killed their mother.

Shu was the one who trained to be their mother’s apprentice in the arts of shennong-shi. But Ning learned many of those skills, as well as some of the art of their father, a physician.

When she gets to the palace, there’s plenty of contempt among the other competitors for girls from a rural province, but Shi befriends another like herself. She encounters a handsome stranger who turns out to be part of the imperial family — the part that is in rebellion to the emperor.

Besides the competition, which is full of creative and challenging ways for Ning to use her gifts, the book is full of court intrigue and danger. Ning wants to find out who was responsible for the poisoned tea that killed her mother. And then she needs to combine her physician skills with shennong-shi to save a life. But her skills may put her in grave danger.

I’m glad I listened to this audiobook, because I wouldn’t have known the correct pronunciations for many words, and the narrator did a nice job pulling me into the story. The original magic made this a fantasy tale that stood out, and Ning’s a character who’s resourceful and unstoppable. This book left her in a bad place, and I very much want to read on and discover how she gets out of it.

judyilin.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 Sanctuary, by Christine McDonnell, illustrated by Victoria Tentler-Krylov

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Sanctuary

Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women

by Christine McDonnell
illustrated by Victoria Tentler-Krylov

Candlewick Press, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written August 5, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a picture book biography of a woman I’d never heard of before — who truly deserves to be celebrated.

Kip Tiernan grew up during the Great Depression and watched her grandmother serve soup to the line of men who came to their door. Later, as an adult in 1968, she sold her business and gave the rest of her life to serving the poor.

First, she worked in shelters. Kip noticed that women would disguise themselves as men to get help in the shelter.

She later opened the nation’s first women’s shelter. Her work was beautiful because she respected people’s dignity.

She wanted to open a sanctuary with flowers and music where women wouldn’t be reminded they were poor, a shelter with no chores, no questions asked, just good meals and warm beds. She hoped the volunteers at her shelter would listen to the guests. When you listen to others, you show respect; you learn who they are and what they need.

This beautiful picture book celebrates a woman who gave her life to helping others.

The author teaches English to immigrant women today at the shelter that Kip Tiernan founded.

wanderwomenproject.com/places/kip-tiernan-memorial
candlewick.com

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Review of The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Golden Enclaves

Lesson Three of the Scholomance

by Naomi Novik

Del Rey (Penguin Random House), 2022. 407 pages.
Review written October 2, 2022, from my own copy, preordered from Amazon.com
Starred review

Okay, this book is SO GOOD!!!!

All right, enough gushing, now for a serious review. First, I’m so happy that my preordered copy arrived just before Cybils season started, so I could read it before I need to start madly reading Young Adult Speculative Fiction books, which is the category I’m judging this year. Although this book is speculative fiction and features a young woman freshly out of school, it’s published for adults and isn’t eligible for the Cybils Awards.

First, let me say that this is a trilogy where you absolutely must read the books in order to understand what’s going on. So I’m going to speak about the trilogy in general terms in this review so as to not give anything away. If you haven’t read the earlier books yet, you are in luck! You won’t have to wait a year in between books to find out what happens after huge dramatic reversals at the ends of books one and two. But be prepared — once you start, you’re going to want to finish. I stayed up awfully late last night because of this book. (And I suspect I’ll want to reread the entire trilogy after my Cybils reading is done.)

The story is amazing how it pulls you in. I couldn’t stop thinking about it this morning. My shorthand way of talking about it is that it’s a story about a Wizard School that wants to kill you.

But I love the way Naomi Novik does the world-building, gradually telling us more and more about the world and the magic they use. This is why you really need to start at the beginning.

The trilogy follows El (short for Galadriel) whom the universe – and the Scholomance – seems to want to make a frightfully powerful death sorceress. This is in balance with her mother, who only works healing magic with sweetness and light. The first book starts with her junior year in the Scholomance.

We learn about the magic in that universe – parallel to ours – which always has a price. Wizards can get mana by doing work and helping others, which gives them power to do magic. But they can also use malia, which gets power from taking from the life force of others. The things that want to kill you in the Scholomance are malificaria, and they are drawn to magic, and especially to young and powerful wizards, so they flock to the Scholomance like a magnet. In the earlier books, we learn that El has a grudge against the kids from enclaves, where wizards band together to share magic. But it’s hard to get into enclaves, and there’s a prophecy about El destroying enclaves. And then there’s Orion, that annoying hero from the New York enclave who won El’s heart. He wound up in a bad place in the last book. Has she seen the end of him?

So in this book, El is out of the Scholomance and figuring out what she’s going to do with her life and what she’s going to do about Orion. She came out of the school with the Golden Sutras — powerful spell books about building Golden Enclaves without using malia.

And then a mawmouth is attacking the London enclave. A mawmouth is the most horrible kind of malificaria of all. It devours all in its path — and they don’t die, but remain suffering inside it forever after. Before El, there was only one living wizard who’d ever defeated a mawmouth. El, however, fought and destroyed more than one in the Scholomance. Her classmates know this, and call her to London. And that has consequences….

Another thing I love about this book is the way El, who started out friendless, now has a whole community who care about her and help her.

Okay, I’d love to say more, but I should stop. If you enjoy reading fantasy at all, tackle this brilliant trilogy. It’s outstanding.

TheScholomance.com
naominovik.com
randomhousebooks.com

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Review of A Spoonful of Frogs, by Casey Lyall, illustrated by Vera Brosgol

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

A Spoonful of Frogs

written by Casey Lyall
illustrated by Vera Brosgol

Greenwillow Books, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written September 21, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

I’m a big fan of the art of Caldecott Honor illustrator Vera Brosgol, and this picture book is full of her signature humor and charm.

In the set-up, we’ve got a nicely-dressed witch appearing on a cooking show, “Bewitching Kitchen,” demonstrating how to make “a witch’s favorite treat” — Frog Soup. After all the other ingredients go into the cauldron:

The last and most important ingredient is a spoonful of frogs.

This will add a kick of flavor and a pop of color.

But it turns out that getting frogs to stay on a spoon is not an easy task. And that’s what the majority of the book is about — chasing frogs, trying to get them on the spoon, with the frogs hopping every which way. When she thinks she finally has them — well, things don’t work out.

And it’s all good silly fun. Lots and lots of opportunities for Vera Brosgol to insert her wonderful visual humor.

Even though I don’t work in a library branch any more, I still look at a book like this and see wonderful opportunities for story time. I predict this will get a roomful of preschoolers or Kindergartners laughing.

Like Frog Soup, I recommend that you enjoy this book with friends.

caseylyall.com
verabee.com
harpercollinschildrens.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 Miracles and Other Reasonable Things, by Sarah Bessey

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things

A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God

by Sarah Bessey

Howard Books (Atria), 2019. 222 pages.
Review written September 6, 2022, from my own copy
Starred Review

First, a big thank you to my friend Amanda who recommended Sarah Bessey’s writing. I purchased this book shortly after it came out, on her recommendation. When I finally got around to reading it a few years later, I wondered what took me so long. I loved it!

First, Sarah Bessey has a way with words. Her writing is lyrical and lovely. This book is full of stories that pull you into the scene and keep you reading. She also finds ways to interweave emotions and thoughts about God that get you thinking as well.

This book begins with a very bad car accident. One that significantly messed up her health.

In the middle of the book, she receives a miraculous and dramatic healing. But although that healing was real, other parts of her body were still in bad shape. She had to grapple with the miracle that did come and the miracles that didn’t come. And she explains that journey in a way we can all relate to.

Here’s a paragraph that I love, when she was talking about a way God had reached out when she was discouraged and told her she was not forgotten:

I have never gotten over that moment, that word of knowledge, and I hope I never do. My mantra was disrupted, and I had a new path to walk, a path I still walk to this day. If God had not forgotten me — and clearly God had not — and yet I was still part of the company of the unanswered prayers, perhaps that meant that I had misunderstood something about God. Perhaps the problem wasn’t God; perhaps the problem was the God I had created and the God I had been given.

In the miracles and the lack of miracles, she looks at what she needed to unlearn and relearn about God, and she takes the reader on that journey with her.

I also loved the chapter where she visits Prince Edward Island. I was there in 2019 with two of my best friends. I’m always happy to read the thoughts of an L. M. Montgomery fan! And yes, I can’t think of a better place for a spiritual retreat.

I’m going to look for more of Sarah Bessey’s writings. Like me, she comes from a Christian background, but some of her beliefs have changed as an adult. I appreciate her stance of not being certain that she has all the answers.

sarahbessey.com
SimonandSchuster.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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