Review of This Story Is Not About a Kitten, by Randall de Sève, illustrated by Carson Ellis

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

This Story Is Not About a Kitten

written by Randall de Sève
illustrated by Carson Ellis

Random House Studio, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written January 25, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
A 2022 Capitol Choices selection

Here’s a heart-warming picture book about a community coming together to rescue a little kitten that’s lost and alone.

Oops! I told you what it’s about. The picture book itself does that with more artistic flair, in a cumulative refrain that tells us what the story is not about. Here’s an example, several pages in:

This story is not about the twins
who brought a box,
or the woman who held the dog
for the dog’s people who listened,
or the dog who stopped when it
heard the kitten,
hungry and dirty,
scared and alone,
meowing sadly,
needing a home.

As more and more people get involved, we see an entire neighborhood interacting to help. And when they figure out who can take the little lost kitten, they all come together with refreshments. And you see new friendships formed because they all worked together to help.

A beautifully simple book with a lyrical refrain, all about the connections built when people work together.

randalldeseve.com
carsonellis.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 Unbound, by Joyce Scott with Brie Spangler and Melissa Sweet, art by Melissa Sweet

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

Unbound

The Life + Art of Judith Scott

by Joyce Scott
with Brie Spangler
and Melissa Sweet
Art by Melissa Sweet

Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 44 pages.
Review written November 9, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Unbound is the story of Judith Scott, an artist who made wrapped fiber art sculptures.

This story is extra powerful, because it’s narrated by Judith’s twin Joyce. She starts when they were young and did everything together.

But when Joyce went to Kindergarten, she was separated from Judith, who had Down Syndrome. Before long, Judith was put into an institution, and the book expresses how terribly Joyce missed her sister.

Judy has never spoken a word. We wonder if she will ever talk. The doctors say that she is slow and will not get better, but they don’t know Judy like I do. She is perfect just the way she is. She knows things that no one else knows and sees the world in ways that I never will.

It isn’t until Joyce grows up and starts her own family that she is able to get Judith out of the institution to come live with her.

Since Joyce worked as a nurse, she found an art center that had programs for people with disabilities. It took some time, but that was where Judith discovered how much she enjoyed making wrapped fiber art sculptures.

For years, Judy wraps and weaves, creating fantastic, cocoon-like shapes filled with color.

She wraps her head in beautiful hats, scarves, and ribbons, becoming her own work of art.

Before her death, Judy’s sculptures achieved worldwide acclaim.

This story is especially inspiring because her twin sister believed in her and saw the beauty in her all along.

Melissa Sweet’s mixed-media art evokes Judith Scott’s work so beautifully. (There are some photographs to give you the idea as well.)

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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 Wide Awake, by David Levithan

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Wide Awake

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 221 pages.
Review written May 9, 2024, from a library book.

Notice the copyright date on this book of 2006. I checked out this book because I got to hear an author talk by David Levithan with him talking about his new book, Wide Awake Now. He described it as an update of this one — which he’d written in 2004, when George W. Bush defeated John Kerry for a second term.

This book features Duncan, a gay high school student who’s not old enough to vote, but involved in volunteering for a presidential candidate in a near future election. As the book opens, this candidate has just been elected as the first gay Jewish president of the United States. But there’s a problem. Though he won the popular vote, he only won the electoral college vote by one state, and the governor of Kansas has announced that he’s doing a recount. As the recount happens, he’s finding reasons to throw out votes. President-Elect Stein calls on his followers to come to Kansas in protest, and this book is about that road trip. Duncan’s boyfriend is on the trip, as are other campaign volunteers they’re already friends with, and more people they meet along the way. We get lots of Stein speeches about building community and caring for others and more great things.

Something I loved about the book was that a big part of Stein’s support came from people who were part of “the Jesus Revolution” – a group all about really living Jesus’s teachings of love and caring for the poor. How I wish he’d gotten that part of the future right! The opposition party call themselves the “Decents” and are against gay marriage and saying many of the same things Christians are known for saying today (sadly), but I was pleased to see at least one large group of Christians in this imagined future were firmly about actually following Jesus’s teachings.

Some omissions were interesting. Although he said these teens had been born “decades” after 9/11, there had never been a Black president, and gay marriage was not legal. That this wasn’t even imagined happening in 2006 was interesting to me.

I was actually a little disturbed by a presidential candidate on the “good” side calling for his followers to protest about election results. To be fair, he won the popular vote and had already been declared the winner of the election. They were protesting the recount that the Kansas governor was trying to manipulate. Protesting that the results must stand. There was also no violence, and they didn’t break into any government building or threaten any government officials. So it wasn’t really obstruction of an official proceeding.

But speaking after January 6th, which forever changed my perspective, I don’t like the idea at all of determining official election results because of a protest. Because as we all know, no matter what the outcome — even losing by six states instead of one — any candidate can work their followers into a frenzy demanding that results be changed. And that’s just not how I want these things to be determined. By all means, put scrutiny on anything the governor in question may have done to change the results, but ultimately, I really do think we need to be able to trust the courts to determine legality and illegality.

All that said, it was a fascinating look at someone twenty years ago projecting what politics might be like around this time. Of course, someone like Trump wasn’t imagined at all. It’s also a good story – with interactions between Duncan and his boyfriend and parents and friends and teachers. And does paint a picture of a bright future. I’m definitely going to read the more recently written follow-up and hope the author has not gotten more cynical.

davidlevithan.com
randomhouse.com/teens

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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 Legend of Auntie Po, by Shing Yin Khor

Children's Fiction Review, Graphic Novel, Historical 0

The Legend of Auntie Po

by Shing Yin Khor

Kokila (Penguin Random House), 2021. 290 pages.
Review written November 4, 2021, from a library book
National Book Award Finalist

The Legend of Auntie Po is a graphic novel set in 1885 in a logging camp in the California mountains. Mei is thirteen, and her father is the cook for the camp. The owner of the operation treats them as friends, and Mei’s best friend is the owner’s daughter, but overall the Chinese workers aren’t treated as well as everyone else.

However, Mei makes the best pies and tells the best stories. She makes up stories about Auntie Po, a giant Chinese matriarch who looks out for her people, with the help of Pei Pei, her blue water buffalo.

But when trouble comes to the logging camp, Mei actually sees Auntie Po helping them.

The historical detail in this graphic novel makes you feel like it could have really happened. Mei’s a lovable character, and it’s lovely as her horizons open up as she and her father get through some tough things with friendship and determination.

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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*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 Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn, by Sally J. Pla, read by Gail Shalan

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn

by Sally J. Pla
read by Gail Shalan

Quill Tree Books, 2023. 6 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written May 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2024 Schneider Family Book Award Winner, Middle Grades

Oh, I love this one! I’m so glad I finally got around to listening to this award winner — the Schneider Family Award is given annually to books with the best portrayal of a disability. Awards are given for three age levels, along with Honor books, and this one won the award for Middle Grades.

The featured character in this book is Maudie McGinn, a 13-year-old girl with autism. She’s supposed to spend the summer with her Dad in his cabin in northern California. But while they are out to dinner, a wildfire sweeps in, and they have to evacuate. They find a place to stay in the coastal town near San Diego where her Dad grew up, so they’re staying in a trailer in a campground on the beach.

But Maudie’s Dad has friends there, and Maudie begins to make friends there — something she didn’t do in Texas, where she lives during the school year with her mother and stepfather. Maudie has two terrible secrets, but everything with Dad and the ocean helps her relax and begin to understand her own value. Her father has many neurodivergent traits, like Maudie, and he never puts her down for them or scolds her for them. The fact that Maudie thinks this is of note makes us wonder about her life with her mother, and plenty of flashbacks round out the picture of how much better and safer she feels with her father.

But the ocean helps Maudie put all that out of her mind. She even starts learning to surf! And she decides to surprise her father by entering the beginners’ surf competition at the town’s big end-of-summer Surf Bash. Yes, I know that might sound unrealistic in a book summary, but it builds gradually, and yes, we’re with Maudie all the way. (Though as the reader, I did have reservations about her idea of surprising her Dad.)

Maudie’s neurodivergence is sensitively and beautifully portrayed from the inside. And the flashbacks about how her mother responds to her are viscerally painful. The narrator does a wonderful job with the audiobook, giving each person a voice that fits how they’re described in words.

The ending feels almost a little too tidy — but goodness, I would have been so angry if Maudie didn’t have happy times ahead to look forward to. And it wasn’t *every* single thing that worked out for them. I fell in love with this kid while I listened to her story, and I love how she learned that keeping secrets isn’t the road to happiness.

sallyjpla.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 Indivisible, by Daniel Aleman

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Indivisible

by Daniel Aleman
narrated by Adan Rocha

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2021. 8 hours, 35 minutes.
Review written November 2, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

This audiobook tells the story of Mateo Garcia, who’s a junior in high school in Brooklyn and wants to get involved in theater like his friend Adam. His parents came to America from Mexico before he was born. Then his whole life gets turned upside down when his parents get detained by ICE. Suddenly the things he used to be concerned about fade into insignificance.

Mateo doesn’t want to tell his friends at first, but big secrets like that take a toll. And meanwhile, he needs to take care of his 7-year-old sister Sophie and help at the store his parents spent years establishing. Mateo and Sophie hope against hope that things will work out, but have to figure out several new setbacks. They just want their family to be together again.

This novel has lots of heart, mixing regular high school concerns like romance and friends with fundamental concerns about housing and family.

Listening to the audiobook did pull me into this story, rooting for Mateo and his family, and frustrated about the situation so many have been thrust into, when they just want to make a home for their family.

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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.

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 Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! by Kate Bowler

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!

Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens

by Kate Bowler

Convergent, 2024. 204 pages.
Review written May 22, 2024, from my own copy purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

The title of this book perfectly encapsulates what’s so helpful about Kate Bowler’s writing. She is able to wish you a good day and uplift you, even while acknowledging that terrible things happen.

The content of the book is very like The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (with Jessica Ritchie). It’s a little bit oversized, and each day’s meditation takes up a spread. On the left half of the spread, we’ve got a Bible verse on the side and some thoughts about the situation where you might find yourself. On the right side, there’s a prayer for when you’re in that situation, followed by a short reflection prompt.

As an example, here’s the text on the left side of the first meditation, “when everything is out of control”:

There is something people say when you are in a lot of pain or trouble or life is out of control. They say: “All you can control is your reaction.” And, sure, that’s often good advice. We can try to reduce the scale of our problem-solving to a small, manageable step. But I don’t want you to have to skip that first true thing you are allowed to say: “I have lost control. This is happening to me.” This blessing is for when you need to say, “God, this is out of control. People keep telling me that I have control over this, but I really don’t. I need help.” Read or pray this meditation aloud if you need some divine rescue plan and some acknowledgment of that reality.

And the prayer on the facing page finishes up like this:

You are there, somewhere out there,
though I can hardly feel it.
Send an angel, send a fleet, send them now.

Like the other book, I found the meditations in this book encouraging and uplifting. They gave me words to pray that I might not have thought of on my own, but that did help bring me near to God and remember that God is listening.

This book has a section for Lent and a section for Advent, but the funny thing about that is that they miss a whole week of Lent! The 40 days of Lent on the calendar do not count Sundays. If you check a calendar, there are not a simple six weeks to Lent, because it starts on Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. There are, in fact, six Sundays during Lent — but that does not count Easter Sunday. The sixth Sunday of Lent is Palm Sunday. In this book, Palm Sunday is listed as the fifth Sunday of Lent, which doesn’t fit the calendar. I went back and checked — she only has 35 meditations during Lent, plus four Sundays set aside for rest. Missing the last week.

However, I just went back and did one of the earlier weeks during that week. The book is still a wonderful book of prayers, but that was a funny little glitch that the mathematician in me can’t bear to not point out. (Sorry!)

All that said, I love the way Kate Bowler models turning to God when things are difficult. Going through one of these prayers each day makes a wonderful morning routine.

katebowler.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 The Fox and the Forest Fire, by Danny Popovici

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Fox and the Forest Fire

by Danny Popovici

Chronicle Books, 2021. 40 pages.
Review written October 2, 2021, from a book sent to me by the publisher
Starred Review

This is a quiet book about a kid who moves to a house deep in the forest with his mother. He’s not happy about it at first, but he learns to love the forest.

Then a fire comes through, and they have to evacuate. When they come back:

Our house is gone,
but we are safe.

While things don’t look like they did before,
the forest knows what to do after a fire.

Most of this story is told in the detailed and beautiful illustrations. First, we see the boy learning to enjoy the forest and feeling at home there. Then the people and animals fleeing the fire, first spotted off in the distance. And finally, the forest coming back to life after the fire.

And how does the fox come into it? On almost every spread set in the forest, you’ll find a bright fox. Usually the fox watches the boy and even enjoys the same pool of water with the boy. After the fire, we know the forest is going to be all right when we see the fox.

A note at the back explains how forests are often strengthened by fire, but how we need to protect them from human-set fires and climate change.

This is a lovely and quiet story about the joy and wonder of a forest.

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.

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 Sheine Lende, by Darcie Little Badger

Audiobooks, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sheine Lende

by Darcie Little Badger
read by Kinsale Drake
illustrations (in the print book) by Rovina Cai

Recorded Books, 2024. 13 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written May 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I was so excited when I heard there was a prequel to Elatsoe coming out! Obviously, you don’t have to read them in any order. The events in this book happen first, but Elatsoe was written first. Reading Sheine Lende definitely made me want to reread Elatsoe, which was a Sonderbooks Stand-out and CYBILS Award Winner in 2020.

Like Elatsoe, Sheine Lende is set in a world just like ours – except that magic is a normal part of life. Different people have different kinds of magic available to them, and humans have contact with people from other realms, such as fairies.

Sheine Lende features Elatsoe’s grandmother Shane when she was a teen. Like Ellie, Shane has a ghost dog companion — well, it’s really her mother’s companion. Shane’s mother Lorenza has a pack of three hounds who are trained to track down missing persons. One of those hounds, Nellie, happens to be dead.

But when Lorenza goes missing herself when searching for two missing children, Nellie comes back to Shane, distraught. When Shane tries to take up the search again, she gets transported hundreds of miles away — and finds one of the children. But obviously, magical transport is involved and who knows where Lorenza and the little boy were sent? This was when humans were beginning to use transport by fairy rings. Going on the rescue ends up taking Shane on an epic journey. Also like Elatsoe, Shane gets an opportunity to use her powers to right an injustice against her people, the Lipan Apache.

Again like Elatsoe, this is a beautiful and uplifting book with characters it’s a delight to spend time with. I like the way Shane sees and cares for animals (Even insects! And mammoths!) and her little brother and people who are lost — basically anyone who needs help.

darcielittlebadger.com
levinequerido.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 Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, by Joya Goffney

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

by Joya Goffney
read by Jordan Cobb

HarperAudio, 2021. 9 hours, 39 minutes.
Review written October 25, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry is a teen romance with a lot of depth. Quinn is a senior in high school and one of the few Black girls at her private school. She pours out her private thoughts in her list journal. But one day, she accidentally picks up the journal of that cute guy in her study group instead of her own.

She works to fix the switch, but he’s lost her journal. Or so he says. Then someone anonymously starts blackmailing Quinn. If she doesn’t complete the items in her list to do before the end of high school, the blackmailer will start posting embarrassing pages from her journal on the internet – beginning with the revelation that she didn’t actually get into Columbia.

Quinn’s parents met at Columbia, and they’ve been planning on her going there since she was born, so Quinn didn’t manage to tell them she didn’t get accepted. She even forged an acceptance letter – and then they made the news known far and wide. Part of her list was to tell them the truth, but Quinn isn’t sure she can ever do that. Another item is to tell the guy she’s had a crush on for years how she feels – though that may be changing. Yet another is going to visit her grandmother, who’s in a nursing home with dementia. Quinn’s afraid she won’t even recognize her.

So she begins by tackling an easier item – visiting the two colleges where she did get accepted. And Carter, the cute guy who lost her journal, is willing to come along and help. Maybe he isn’t the blackmailer after all – though Quinn still isn’t sure she can trust him.

As Quinn works through all of this, she makes some new friends and gains some new experiences. And she does some things she was afraid of doing.

It all adds up to a fun read about a teen who made some mistakes, but is trying to pull herself out of them.

The only thing I didn’t like is that Quinn’s use of the list journal is seen as a bad habit. She wrote in the journal so she wouldn’t have to open up to actual people. I don’t think that’s the way it works. Journaling is good for you! And I think that opening up to a journal makes it easier to open up to actual people rather than harder. I think you’d be a lot less apt to stuff your emotions. So I hope she won’t give it up forever.

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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?

*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.