Review of If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come, by Jen St. Jude

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come

by Jen St. Jude

Bloomsbury, 2023. 406 pages.
Review written May 29, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come begins on Avery Byrne’s nineteenth birthday morning. She’s walking to the river on campus, where she plans to drown herself. She’s written good-by letters and is ready to go.

But she’s interrupted by the news that a giant asteroid is going to strike the earth in nine days. It’s looking likely that not just Avery, but everyone she loves is about to die. That wasn’t how it was supposed to work.

Avery’s at an ivy-league university in New Hampshire, but she gets a call from her best friend Cass – at Pratt Institute in New York City – to meet in Boston. And Avery can’t help but promise to be there. She ends up traveling in a van with her roommate, Nigerian-born Aisha, and the professor who failed her first semester, along with his dog.

After some adventures meeting up with Cass in Boston, most of the book is set in Avery’s home town of Kilkenny, where her parents think they can make a bunker in the basement and survive the catastrophe. The asteroid is going to hit in Arizona, so it’s possible they might make it, if they can stockpile enough supplies.

The story plays out in the days leading up to the asteroid strike. And no, we don’t find out if they survive – not knowing and how you would live not knowing is what the book is about. The stories of the present are interwoven with stories of the past and what led to Avery’s deep depression.

Part of that is she’s long been in love with Cass, but wasn’t able to come out to herself as lesbian, let alone her family and friends. When the future is uncertain, somehow that seems more important.

The characters are nineteen, and there’s a somewhat detailed lesbian sex scene, so this isn’t necessarily for younger teens. This book is primarily about depression and seeing all you have to live for, as well as the importance of living for yourself, and not simply for others.

There are no pat answers in this book, but it’s beautifully expressed. I have to say that the writer shows Avery’s emotions so effectively, the book was a little sad to read. But it also realistically showed Avery coming to terms with her own attitudes that helped lead to her depression. And we believe in her plans to get a therapist and maybe take medication – if they all survive.

But I can’t express how beautiful and uplifting this book is despite all that. Avery does find joy and reasons to live. I was reading this book for the Morris Award, but my first time through, was so immersed in the book, I didn’t take much time to think critically about it. Whatever our committee ends up deciding, I highly recommend this book.

jenstjude.com
Bloomsbury.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 Continental Drifter, by Kathy Macleod

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

Continental Drifter

by Kathy Macleod

First Second, 2024. 216 pages.
Review written February 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award Winner, Middle Grades
2024 Cybils Finalist, Elementary/Middle School Graphic Novels

This is one of those wonderful middle school memoirs in graphic novel form – the perfect way to express the angst of middle school. In Kathy Macleod’s case, she feels pulled between two continents. During the school year, she lives in Bangkok, Thailand, where her mother is from. And this summer they’re going to Maine, where her father is from.

Kathy speaks English at her International school in Bangkok and she watches American TV shows, so she hopes that she’ll belong better in America. And this year, she finally gets to go to summer camp.

But at summer camp, there are girls who know each other already, and everyone has white skin, and they think she’s from Taiwan, and once again she has trouble feeling like she belongs.

This story expresses the ups and downs of being between cultures and gets you thoroughly on Kathy’s side as she drifts between continents.

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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 A Book of Maps for You, written by Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

A Book of Maps for You

written by Lourdes Heuer
illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 40 pages.
Review written June 3, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Well, I ordered this picture book for our library, but have discovered I didn’t order nearly enough – all copies are checked out and there are more than that many holds, so today I ordered more. I checked out the book myself (having placed a hold that came in) to see what the fuss was about. I was charmed.

Yes, this picture book gives kids an idea of how maps work – but even more wonderful is the warm and friendly story it tells.

I didn’t really notice when I first opened the book that the title page shows a boy in a big empty top floor room working at a table by a window. There’s a skylight in the slanted roof to one side, and a cat sleeping on a rolled-up carpet.

The next page focuses in on the table where the boy is working. It says, “I made a book of maps.” And below those words is the same book we see on the cover of this book, with the title “A Book of Maps for You.”

It starts with a map of town, also mentioning the orange groves that bloom every year. Then it zooms in to a map of a particular street and tells about the particular people who live in each house on that street, including nice things these people have done. Further maps include a little farm in town, the school, the library, a pirate map from a story in a book in the library, the park behind the library, main street, and more.

So every spread has a map, and every map has personal details about that place, so we get to know the town and the people an all the fun things you can do there.

And then at the end we are looking out the front porch, and the Book of Maps is taped right in front of the door, and the kid is getting into a car behind a moving van. Then on the next page we see a new kid sitting on the front porch, looking at the book – and moving boxes are in the living room, and we see that her family is moving into the house that the other kid just moved out of. And that was when I turned back to the title page and saw what I might have noticed right away – that the first kid made this whole lovely book to welcome the new kid to town.

And the whole thing left me with a warm and friendly feeling. What a way to get a start in a new place. And kids who read the story may find themselves making their own maps, even if they’re not moving away.

lourdesheuer.com
maxwelleaton.com
HolidayHouse.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 My Mechanical Romance, by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Contemporary, Mathematical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

My Mechanical Romance

by Alexene Farol Follmuth
read by Amielynn Abellera and Christopher Salazar

Recorded Books, 2022. 8 hours, 46 minutes.
Review written December 14, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, ages 14-18

My Mechanical Romance is a super fun high school romance tale about a new girl named Bel who turns out to be good at robotics. After her thrown-together egg drop project is the best performer of her class, her teacher says her grade won’t get docked if she tries out for the robotics team and joins AP Physics.

Teo is captain of the robotics team and captain of the soccer team, too. He begrudgingly allowed auditions for the team, even though they already have enough seniors. When Bel wows them with an again thrown-together project, she gets a spot on the team, even though the only other girl on the team doesn’t think she knows what she’s doing.

Bel and Teo start getting to know one another in a lovely slow-burn romance. Bel’s switched schools her senior year because of her parents’ divorce. Teo’s dad is a high-powered software developer, and Teo takes for granted the weight of their expectations.

I did not like the voice the narrator used for Bel’s best friend, a Valley girl accent. But since the book takes place in the San Fernando Valley, where that accent came from, I probably shouldn’t complain.

I loved the portrayal of what women in STEM are up against. I didn’t like, though, that a couple times Bel called herself “not a math person.” Usually I’d think math and robotics go together, and Bel’s taking Calculus, so I wish she’d gotten a little pushback for that. Bel’s portrayed as learning about robotics from tinkering with machines in her dad’s workshop and building and welding things since she was small, so it’s more of an intuitive sense of mechanics. Not to give spoilers, but I loved the way the book ended, too, and the portrayal of adjusting future plans with an epilogue set two years later.

I listened to this book on a Sick Day when I was getting obsessive about a jigsaw puzzle and listened to the whole thing in one day. Completely delightful. And go, women in STEM!

alexenefarolfollmuth.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 Bad Badger, by Maryrose Wood

Audiobooks, Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Bad Badger

by Maryrose Wood
read by Chris Devon

Dreamscape Media, 2025. 2 hours, 41 minutes.
Review written April 24, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Maryrose Wood is good at writing straight-faced stories that gradually get sillier and sillier. This one is perfect for kids ready for chapter books.

Bad Badger is about a badger named Septimus who is afraid that he’s not very good at being a badger. Instead of stripes, he has spots. Instead of living in the forest, he lives in a cottage by the sea. He loves listening to operas in Italian on his phonograph, collecting shells, making omelets, watching the sunset, and other activities not at all usual for badgers.

But then Septimus makes a friend. A seagull comes to his house every week on Wednesday. Gully doesn’t say much besides “Caw,” but Septimus feels their friendship grow and become tremendously important to him – so they share things they each enjoy most.

But when Gully goes missing, Septimus doesn’t know how he will find him, simply that it must be done.

This sweet story is about true friendship and not letting others define who you are.

maryrosewood.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 March Sisters, by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

March Sisters

On Life, Death, and Little Women

by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley

Library of America, 2019. 182 pages.
Review written November 2, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

This book is a collection of four essays by four distinguished authors about Little Women. Each author focused on a different one of the March sisters. Kate Bolick wrote “Meg’s Frock Shock”; Jenny Zhang wrote “Does Genius Burn, Jo?”; Carmen Maria Machado wrote “A Dear and Nothing Else”; and Jane Smiley wrote “I am Your ‘Prudent Amy.’”

I loved this collection. Mind you, I read Little Women enough times in my youth to understand every single reference, no matter how obscure. Every single quote brought recognition. I’ve read a lot about Louisa May Alcott’s family and knew about the originals of each sister as well.

So for someone well-steeped in everything about Little Women, this book was a delight – delving deeply into psychological ramifications of details in the text, complete with references to the essay authors’ lives as well as references to Louisa May Alcott’s life.

Honestly? I’d never given this much thought to the other sisters – I was all about Jo. I was fascinated and captivated to think about the lives presented here with adult eyes, and through the lenses of the essayists.

I must recommend this book to my own sister. (One Christmas the two of us received an entire set of Louisa May Alcott’s books, split between us.) Anyone who has ever read and loved Little Women, take note!

loa.org

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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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