Review of Attack of the Black Rectangles, by Amy Sarig King

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Attack of the Black Rectangles

by Amy Sarig King

Scholastic Press, September 6, 2022. 258 pages.
Review written August 8, 2022, from an advance review copy picked up at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

Attack of the Black Rectangles is a story of censorship in a sixth-grade classroom — and the kids who decide to protest.

Mac and his friends Marci and Denis are happy to be in the same lit circle in their new classroom, reading The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen. But then they discover two places where words have been blacked out with a sharpie — and it’s the same in all of the books. What are the words someone didn’t want them to read?

Naturally, they go to get an uncensored copy of the book. The first passage is in a scene where girls in a concentration camp are naked in front of the Nazis. The words blacked out are “hands over her breasts.”

The kids feel insulted. As Marci points out, in sixth grade, they’re old enough to have breasts, but they can’t say the word? However, when they talk to the principal, she doesn’t seem concerned.

So they decide to take their message to more people. But at the same time they’re fighting censorship, Mac’s dad is causing their family some problems that have Mac torn up inside. And he wonders about his feelings for Marci. And there’s a kid at school who gives him a hard time.

Something I like about this book is that the author shows that even the teacher who censored the book isn’t all bad. As Mac says at the start, “No one is ever just one thing.” I like how the kids take on the challenge and show that in many ways, censorship is a matter of disrespect.

This book is, of course, very timely. And sadly, it’s based on something that actually happened to the author’s son. When she brought up the issue with the principal, they treated it like a big joke. After all, the books weren’t banned.

I appreciate that this book takes on an issue that adults may want to dismiss and shows kids it’s important. They’ll feel empowered to speak up if censorship ever happens to them.

as-king.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/attack_of_the_black_rectangles.html

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?

Review of All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All That’s Left in the World

by Erik J. Brown
read by Barrett Leddy and Andrew Gibson

HarperAudio, 2022. 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Teen Fiction

All That’s Left in the World is about two teenage boys trying to figure out how to go on in a post-apocalyptic world after everyone they loved died in a superflu epidemic.

The author’s note says that he signed the contract for this book in March 2020 — so he had no idea how realistic it would feel. But the illness in this book is much, much worse than Covid-19, and civilization in America has completely broken down.

At the start of the book, Jamison is in a mountain cabin that has its own electricity and well water. Andrew is in the woods in big trouble because he stepped into a bear trap. He needs help. When he sees the cabin, he tries the door, expecting anyone who lived there to be dead. Jamie almost shoots him, but instead ends up giving him antibiotics and helping him recover.

But after they’re settling into life in the cabin and getting used to each other and Andrew’s leg is much better, a group comes and steals their food, trying to get them to join their settlement. Andrew takes off to where he was going before — following rumors that the European Union is going to bring help to Reagan National Airport. He tries to sneak away so Jamie won’t stop him — and Jamie ends up coming after him.

What follows is a road trip novel with lots of danger. Some of the people they meet along the way are helpful and kind, but most are the opposite. (I wish I didn’t believe there’d be so many guns in post-apocalyptic America!) Just when I’d think they had things in a good place, some new danger would find them.

So there’s lots of tension, and there’s also romance. It’s the kind I like best, very slow and gradual, and you can understand why they like each other. Andrew knows he’s gay from the start, but Jamie has had only girlfriends in the past, and is confused by his developing feelings for Andrew. But it’s all handled really well, and the reader just hopes against hope they’ll be able to make it to somewhere safe.

I read a novel in late 2020 where the whole population caught a bug, and knowing so much about pandemics by then, I thought it was completely unrealistic. (Viruses don’t spread instantly, for example.) With this one, which took place after most people had died, I wish I didn’t feel like it was believable, but unfortunately it very much seems like it could happen like that.

Of course, there are things I would have done differently if I were writing a post-apocalyptic novel, but this author had me believing the story all along, and worrying about how the boys would survive and figure out they loved each other.

For something as disturbing as this scenario, this was an awfully satisfying novel.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/all_thats_left_in_the_world.html

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?

Review of Zero Zebras, by Bruce Goldstone, illustrated by Julien Chung

Delightfully Silly, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Zero Zebras

A Counting Book about What’s Not There

by Bruce Goldstone
illustrated by Julien Chung

Orchard Books (Scholastic), 2022. 36 pages.
Review written January 8, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Silly Fun Picture Books

I love this book in so many ways! In fact, many more than zero ways!

Here’s how the book begins:

I see one wallaby . . .
. . . and zero zebras.

Two tuna splish
and splash
and splosh . . .
. . . with zero zebras.

You get the idea!

As things progress with various jazzy animals, there’s wordplay and visual play:

Ten tigers tiptoe —
that’s how many.

What about zebras?
There aren’t any.

Eleven llamas
like to spit.

It’s zero zebras
that they hit.

But the fun really begins after we pass twelve turtles on the page.

What’s next? What’s here?
What do you see
perching in this tree?
Why, look at that!
By now you’ve guessed.
Zero zebras — obviously.

But that’s not all that isn’t here!
Do you see zero eagles?
You’ll find them next to zero pigs
and zero barking beagles.

Then we’ve got two more spreads with rhymes about all the things pictured that they are zero of.

The finishing thought is this:

So when you want to count a lot,
don’t count what’s there. Count what’s not.

Try counting zeroes with your friends.
The list of zeroes never ends!

The final pages have thoughts from the author about zero and infinity.

So there you have it. A delightfully silly picture book that invites play and imagination and all kinds of fun — while getting kids thinking about the important mathematical concept of zero.

I did quote a lot of this book, but please let that invite you to see it for yourself, because a picture book is always best with the words and pictures together.

brucegoldstone.com
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/zero_zebras.html

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?

Review of Bad Witch Burning, by Jessica Lewis

Paranormal, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bad Witch Burning

by Jessica Lewis

Delacorte Press, 2021. 340 pages.
Review written January 17, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2021 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Paranormal Teen Fiction

This book is so, so creepy!

I’m not usually a fan of creepy books, and if I hadn’t been reading it as a Cybils Finalist, I might have quit. I’m so glad I finished – this book is amazing.

The set-up is that sixteen-year-old Katrell has discovered she can help people communicate with their dead loved ones. All she has to do is write them a letter. The letter will catch on fire, and the loved one will appear. Okay, it gives Trell a headache, but she can make money that way. And she needs money, because her mother lost her job and her mother’s boyfriend Gerald likes to eat, and it’s up to Trell to pay the rent.

But then Gerald shoots Trell’s beloved dog Conrad – and in her anguish, Trell writes Conrad a letter, asking him to come back – and he does! Will this same thing work on humans? There’s a whole lot more money in resurrection than there was in simple communication with the dead.

No surprise, though – there are awful consequences to bringing people back to life.

This book is full of suspense and tension and horror – in the best possible way. Normally, when my time reading a book is full of mentally screaming to the main character, “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” – normally, I would think it was either unrealistic or the character is just stupid. In this case, although maybe Katrell didn’t exercise the best judgment, the author made me understand how strong her motivation was to continue. Never having had enough money makes money a pull, and being threatened by a powerful drug dealer is strong motivation, too.

I found myself completely caring for Katrell, and wanting her to get a break, to trust the people who care about her – and not be killed by the out-of-control Revenants she’d brought back from death.

Amazing that this is a debut novel. Can’t wait to read more from this author!

authorjessicalewis.com
GetUnderlined.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/bad_witch_burning.html

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?

Review of Answers in the Pages, by David Levithan

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Answers in the Pages

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 170 pages.
Review written September 15, 2022, from a book received at ALA Annual Conference and signed by the author.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Children’s Fiction

This is a children’s novel about censorship, and it’s very well done. Sadly, the author is among those with the most book challenges in America, so he knows what he’s talking about. This book looks at the issue of censorship from a kid’s viewpoint.

We get three stories in this book. One is a fictional book that a boy named Donovan is reading with his class. The book is called The Adventurers and we only get excerpts, but it’s a wild adventure of two boys named Rick and Oliver working together on a team with a girl named Melody to defeat a criminal mastermind, including escapes from alligators and a trap over a geyser and other frightening situations like those.

The problem comes from the last sentence in the book: “At that moment Rick knew just how deeply he loved Oliver, and Oliver knew just how deeply he loved Rick, and the understanding of this moment would lead them to much of the happiness and adventure that came next.”

When Donovan’s mother sees his book lying around and picks it up and reads that last sentence, she decides it’s a book promoting homosexuality and is not appropriate for fifth-graders. She gets the community involved and it all works toward a book challenge and a showdown at the school board meeting.

The other story being told is about a boy named Gideon in a different class than Donovan, reading the book Harriet the Spy in his class. There’s a new kid named Roberto who sits in front of him, and Gideon is happy as they start getting to know each other better.

I like the way the separate stories come together at the end.

But I also like the way different characters defend the book against the challenge. Here’s what the teacher says to the class when it’s first challenged:

“It doesn’t matter how you identify Rick or Oliver, or what you think their relationship is or ultimately will be. If we’re going to defend this book — and I promise you, I plan on defending this book — the proper line of defense is not ‘But they’re not gay!’ Because that implies that there would be a legitimate problem if they were gay. The proper defense is ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re gay. The characters can be whoever they are.’ And I know some of you might think I’m saying that because I myself am gay. But I am not saying this as a gay man, or as a gay teacher. I’m saying this as a human being who believes that all human beings should be treated with respect.”

I also like what Donovan says to his Mom:

“I don’t know what world you think we live in, Mom. There are plenty of gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary people on YouTube and TikTok and all the other things we watch. And other books I’ve read have had gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary characters. Kira in our class has two moms, and there are other kids in our school with two moms or two dads or two parents who just want to be called parents. Some kids have nonbinary older siblings. And there’s even a gay kid in my class.”

I won’t say more of how that discussion goes, but I thought it was portrayed well. And ultimately, the book showed that trying to keep kids from knowing about the world around them doesn’t do the job and it harms the kids who are in that group grown-ups are trying to pretend doesn’t exist. Because, as the characters point out, if you can’t know you’re gay in fifth grade, then how can you know you’re straight?

Besides telling about this all-too-relevant issue, the book tells a good story as well, about some kids being kids.

rhcbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/answers_in_the_pages.html

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?

Review of Year of the Reaper, by Makiia Lucier

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Year of the Reaper

by Makiia Lucier

Clarion Books, 2021. 324 pages.
Review written November 9, 2022, from a library book.
Starred Review

When I was more than halfway through this book, I looked at some ads for other books in the back and realized that this author also wrote The Isle of Blood and Stone, which I had enjoyed very much during my Newbery reading, but ended up being more Young Adult than Children’s. There’s something about her writing that captivates me. I’m going to look for more of her books.

This book takes place after war and plague have ravaged a medieval world. A prologue shows us a delegation from Brisa, including Princess Jehan and her maid Lady Mari. She is going to Olveras to marry the king — and stop a war that’s been going on for fifty-two years. But on the way, they left behind guards who came down with the plague, until finally the ambassador himself, Lady Mari’s father, succumbed. He sent her on with a small party. Because nothing is more important than stopping the war.

The main book starts a year later, featuring Cas, a nobleman coming back after three years in a Brisan prison. He didn’t get out because of the new peace. He got out because everyone in the prison caught the plague, and Cas survived. On his way home, we learn that Cas can see ghosts. He tries to pretend he can’t, so they won’t try to talk with him, but sometimes he gives himself away.

He has some adventures along the way, including a woman stealing his horse and then him needing to save her from a lynx with the plague. But when he arrives in his home city, he learns the king and his new queen are there, and it is their son’s naming day. But when Cas sees an assassin in a tower shoot an arrow at the prince’s nurse, Cas is the one who is quick enough to save the baby from the lake. But the assassin escapes.

The story that follows includes Cas trying to get used to living among people again, as well as trying to keep the royal family safe from whatever the assassin has planned.

I’ll admit that I saw a major twist coming right from the start — because a very similar twist happened in a book I’d recently read. But that was merely coincidence. I thought it wasn’t obvious if you hadn’t just read a similar book.

The characters in this book won me over — they’re flawed, and they’re dealing with tremendously difficult things. But you watch them, for the most part, making good choices and caring about people. It’s a story that won my heart.

makiialucier.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/year_of_the_reaper.html

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?

Review of Open and Unafraid, by W. David O. Taylor

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Open and Unafraid

The Psalms as a Guide to Life

by W. David O. Taylor

Nelson Books (Thomas Nelson), 2020. 230 pages.
Review written December 15, 2022, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I’ll be honest, the reason I ordered this book was that I was looking for competitive titles to go with my own book that I’ve written about Psalms. And I was delighted with this one. I do believe that the two can go together, more complementary than competitive. They have different approaches, but someone who enjoys one book will also enjoy the other, because both books are focused on that amazing book in the center of the Bible, a book that engages your emotions and gives examples of people bringing their lives before God.

In the Introduction, the author tells us his hopes for the book:

I’ve written this book so readers would become excited to embrace a prayer book that has been deeply influential, not just for Jesus and the apostles and for monastic and cathedral practices of prayer but also for the hymns of the Reformation, the spirituals of African American slaves, and the songs of the global church. My hope is that church leaders and laypersons, and even seekers and “nones” (those claiming no religion), would understand that they are never alone in their sorrows, angers, doubts, joys, thanksgivings, or questions about life and death.

I love the title of the book, because it reflects the psalmists’ stance before God — Open and unafraid. The psalms are amazing in their honesty and the openness of their emotions before God. In fact, as David Taylor approaches the Psalms by looking at many different themes, he begins with the theme of “Honesty.”

What the psalms offer us is a powerful aid to un-hide: to stand honestly before God without fear, to face one another vulnerably without shame, and to encounter life in the world without any of the secrets that would demean and distort our humanity. The psalms, then, are for those who know that they spend much of their life hiding secrets; they are also for those who know that standing in the presence of God “is the one place where such secrets cannot and must not be hidden.”

The other themes the author takes up to look at the Book of Psalms are Community, History, Prayer, Poetry, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Enemies, Justice, Death, Life, Nations, and Creation. Every chapter includes Questions for Reflection and Exercises, all of which run deep, so this book would be wonderful material for a small group to work through together.

The psalms invite us to risk the love of God and neighbor and of the world that surrounds us with the reassurance that we do not venture this risk alone. We venture it together with an extraordinary company of fellow pilgrims across the ages.

Dive into the psalms with this book. Like the author, I hope it will encourage you to spend time reading the Book of Psalms again and again as you come to understand why they have been beloved by God’s people for thousands of years.

thomasnelson.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/open_and_unafraid.html

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?

Review of Gibberish, by Young Vo

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Gibberish

by Young Vo

Levine Querido, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written April 16, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 General Picture Books

Gibberish reminds me of The Arrival, by Shaun Tan — but for young elementary school readers. I may have had to hold back a tear when I read this book at work — it’s heart-melting.

Here’s how the book begins:

First Dat sailed on a boat,
then flew on a plane,
and today Dat will be on a school bus.

“When people speak it will sound like gibberish, Dat.
Just listen, and do the best you can,” Mah said.

Next we see Dat introduce himself to a bus driver. The bus driver answers with symbols that aren’t words and ends with “Dav?”

Dat nodded.
But he didn’t really understand.

Then the teacher talks to the class with Dat at the front — and we see gibberish coming out of her mouth, ending with the word “Dan.”

The illustrator draws everyone Dat doesn’t understand as a black-and-white cartoon space alien. With scribbles of gibberish in the air. Dat doesn’t understand anything.

But at lunchtime, after eating alone, “something unexpected fell from a tree.” It’s a cartoon girl with a lunch box. She takes Dat’s hand and plays with him.

After a tough afternoon back in the classroom, Dat is sitting alone on the bus. And then the girl drops in again! She draws on a pad and talks with Dat. As her words begin to make sense, her picture in the book gains color and becomes less cartoonish. She’s the first person who uses Dat’s actual name, and Dat learns that her name is Julie — just in time to introduce her to his mom when he gets off the bus.

This book is a wonderful way to help kids understand what it would be like to come to a new country where you don’t understand the language. A beautiful story for building empathy as well as encouraging kids in that situation to stick it out.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/gibberish.html

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?

Review of Lakelore, by Anna-Marie McLemore

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Lakelore

by Anna-Marie McLemore
read by Vico Ortiz and Avi Roque

Recorded Books, 2022. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written October 25, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

In my years of reading speculative fiction for the Cybils, I’ve become a fan of Anna-Marie McLemore. I didn’t think of myself as a fan of magical realism until I started loving her books. They also often include wonderfully nuanced representation of transgender characters.

Lakelore features two transgender teens. Bastián is a transgender boy and Lore is transgender nonbinary. Both have brown skin, and both have encountered discrimination and bullying.

Both kids have also dealt with brains that don’t work like other people’s. Bastián has ADHD and has learned to manage his thought processes so he can function. As part of that management, his brother taught him to make alebrijos, fantastical creatures made of wire and papier-mâché. When something is bothering Bastián so much he can’t stop thinking about it, he makes an alebrijo and puts that energy into it. Then he releases the alebrijo into the world under the lake, the one no one else knows about, and it gets out of his mind.

Well, almost no one else knows about the world under the lake. One day when they were nine years old, Lore was visiting the lake on a field trip and ran from a bully. She ran past Bastián, and much to both of their surprise, the world under the lake opened up for Lore as well, and she was able to hide there until the bully had stopped looking for her.

Now they are sixteen, and after a disaster at school, Lore’s family has moved to the town by the lake. It’s summer, but when she encounters Bastián, they both remember. Lore has dyslexia, and that has added to the bullying she’s encountered.

But after Lore shows up in town, the world under the lake starts coming to them. The alebrijos come to life and swim through the air to find them. The walls in Lore’s new home echo with a ghostly laugh that only she can hear, and she sees water coming up from the lake.

What does it all mean? And what does it have to do with the parts of themselves they’re hiding from one another?

This book gives a wonderful portrayal of how it feels to be transgender, as well as how it feels to live with ADHD and dyslexia. The paranormal context make it much more interesting than a problem novel, though. Really beautiful writing and a wonderful story of friendship and learning to reach self-acceptance.

annamariemclemore.com
fiercereads.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/lakelore.html

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?

Review of Amari and the Night Brothers, by B. B. Alston

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Amari and the Night Brothers

by B. B. Alston

Balzer + Bray, 2021. 408 pages.
Review written January 6, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 Children’s Speculative Fiction

I thought I was jaded about stories of kids discovering they have magic and getting training with others – but Amari and the Night Brothers delighted me.

Yes, a lot of elements in this book call to mind Harry Potter, but there were enough imaginative elements and interesting characters to make it feel fresh.

As the book opens, Amari’s in trouble because she shoved a girl who’d been bullying her. She’s going to lose her scholarship. Amari has never fit in at that private school, but she knows she disappointed her Mama. But Amari loses it when kids say that her big brother Quinton is dead. Quinton’s been missing for months, but she knows he’s not dead.

I used to swear up and down that Quinton was some super-secret spy like James Bond. But he would just give me this little smirk and say, “You’re wrong, but you’re not totally wrong.” Whenever I tried to get more out of him he’d just laugh and promise to tell me when I got older.

See, Quinton is smart smart. He graduated valedictorian from Jefferson Academy and got full scholarship offers from two Ivy League schools. He turned them both down to work for whoever he was working for. When he went missing, I was sure his secret job had something to do with it. Or at least that somebody who worked with him might know what happened. But when we told the detectives about his job they looked at me and Mama like we were crazy.

They had the nerve to tell us that – as far as they could tell – Quinton was unemployed. That there were no tax records to indicate that he ever had a job of any kind. But that just didn’t make sense – he’d never lie about something like that. When Mama told them he used to send money home to help out with bills, the detectives suggested that Quinton might be involved in something he didn’t want us to know about. Something illegal. That’s always what people think when you come from “the Wood,” aka the Rosewood low-income housing projects.

So when Amari gets a magical invitation from her brother, she can’t help but follow it. She ends up at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs as a trainee. The Bureau’s job is to keep secret all the magical and supernatural creatures and objects from the mundane world.

Amari’s brother invited her into that world. She’ll train in the summers until she is eighteen, but has to pass tryouts in order to train for a specialty. It turns out that Quinton was a celebrity, along with his partner, Maria Van Helsing, who was from a family ensconced in the supernatural world. Together they had captured the most evil magician of all time. Maria’s younger twin siblings are trainees with Amari, but the popular sister looks down on her, just like the kids at the Academy did.

It turns out that Amari, like her brother before her, is assessed with the highest possible potential – a moonstone badge. However, when the Crystal Ball evaluates her talent to enhance one supernaturally, it’s revealed to the entire supernatural world that Amari is a Magician, which is illegal.

So Amari’s in a familiar situation – people think she’s a bad person simply because of who she is. The book is about her quest to find her brother, but also to prove herself and to earn a place in the tryouts. Oh, and all that happens while battling an evil magician with plans for tremendous destruction.

There are lots of fun imaginative details in the supernatural world. I especially love Amari’s roommate, who is a weredragon and can read people’s emotions. Their supernatural games include Sky Sprints that let them walk through the air and Stun Sticks, which immobilize people and then make them giggle.

There’s lots of fun in this fantasy along with saving the world from great evil and a girl everyone underestimates discovering she has enormous potential. I’m looking forward to telling kids about this book.

harpercollinschildrens.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/amari_and_the_night_brothers.html

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?