Review of Painted Devils, by Margaret Owen

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Painted Devils

by Margaret Owen
read by Saskia Maarleveld

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 14 hours, 42 minutes.
Review written June 6, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Wow, these books by Margaret Owen are so incredibly good. And fair warning: There’s going to be a third book. Though this trilogy is done the way I like a series to be, with each book telling a satisfying story.

As the book begins, Vanya has chickened out on her plans with Emeric, and she didn’t go to meet him. She wants to make something of herself first. And she wants to find her family. But then, she accidentally starts a cult.

In this empire where low gods get power from the faith of people, Vanya borrows a character from a ballad to trick the townspeople into helping her pick the rubies she dropped out of the river. No one’s more surprised than she is when that character manifests as a low god. But when the Scarlet Maiden claims Emeric as her servant, and they learn the servant is going to be a human sacrifice, that’s a problem.

There seems to be a way around the problem – if Vanya can collect a drop of blood from seven brothers. But at the same time, Emeric is the Prefect Aspirant assigned to investigate the emergence of a new god. Was Vanya guilty of Profane Fraud? Emeric’s proctor seems convinced that it’s all Vanya’s doing. Though first they need to figure out how to save Emeric’s life. And go on that quest to find the seven brothers. And it just so happens that Vanya figures out how to right some wrongs and take down someone powerful along the way.

There are many plot threads in this book, expertly interwoven. (And I just have to say that because like Vanya I’m from a family of 13 children, I spotted something about her family before she did.) The relationship between Vanya and Emeric is beautifully drawn. She’s someone with every reason to be distrustful and to think herself worthless. Watching Emeric begin to change that is beautiful.

Fair warning: She’s also someone who never had someone to teach her about sex, so she gets some teaching along the way. And the two of them don’t rush directly into intimacy. This seems far more realistic than many books, but my warning is that teens who read this book will probably learn a thing or two about sex in a respectful and loving relationship as well. And as Vanya and Emeric waited until they were ready, some teens may want to wait until they’re ready.

But oh my goodness what a magnificent book this is! The romance is one part of that, but also finding her wonderful family, running a heist to help the powerless, even riding with the Wild Hunt – there’s so much to delight in here. And Saskia Maarleveld again does a perfect job with Vanya’s somewhat snarky voice and Emeric’s patient steadiness. I plan to reread both books in print form after I finish with the Morris committee — wish I could do that right away, but it’s something to look forward to for now. And to help tide me over before Book Three comes out!

margaret-owen.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 Just Jerry, by Jerry Pinkney

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Just Jerry

How Drawing Shaped My Life

by Jerry Pinkney

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 146 pages.
Review written 3/23/23 from a library book.
Starred Review

Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney had the words to this book almost completely written before his death in 2021, but the pictures were only in sketch form. However, Jerry’s sketches still make wonderful illustrations for a book, so the editors took what he had made and put it together. And what he made includes at least one sketch for almost every page. The print is in a font that’s easier with kids with dyslexia to read, something Jerry wanted in particular.

This book tells the story of a kid growing up in a Black neighborhood in Philadelphia, surrounded by friends and having adventures. However, he wasn’t so happy about school, because he had dyslexia before it was common to get a diagnosis. He only knew that he had trouble reading.

But a wonderful and understanding teacher noticed how much he loved to draw and let him get extra credit by drawing pictures for the class. And that was the first of many ways adults noticed his passion and encouraged him.

The summer before eighth grade, he got himself a job selling newspapers across from an art supply store. He spent his first earnings on a sketchpad and started sketching in between customers. Before long, he was selling his sketches along with the papers. And that led to meeting an artist who drew a comic in the very papers he was selling. With encouragement from people like these, he began to envision his art as a way to make a living some day, despite his difficulties with reading.

I love the way the book ends. It’s not a spoiler alert if you know that Jerry went on to a distinguished career illustrating and writing children’s books.

I couldn’t even begin to dream of my art being shown in a place like the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I’d never even been to a museum.

But all that time I’d put into drawing, I was drawing my dream. And one day, more than fifty years later, the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted a solo exhibition titled Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney.

Mother had turned out to be right. She had always said that I would make something of my name.

I had the privilege of hearing Jerry Pinkney speak more than once, and every time he left me with a smile. This book does the same, making me happy that the boy we read about went on to make so many other children happy with his wonderful art.

justjerrypinkney.com
lbyr.com

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Review of Odder, by Katherine Applegate

Animal Characters, Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Odder

by Katherine Applegate
with illustrations by Charles Santoso

Feiwel and Friends, 2022. 274 pages.
Review written January 15, 2023, based on an advance reader copy I got at ALA Annual Conference
Starred Review
2022 Cybils Award Finalist, Novels in Verse

Katherine Applegate does it again! Like The One and Only Ivan, this novel in verse for young animal-loving chapter book readers takes the perspective of a wild animal and completely wins readers’ hearts.

Odder is a young sea otter living in a slough near Monterey Bay off the coast of California. When Odder gets a little too adventurous and ventures into the bay, she’s bitten by a shark and needs the assistance of the scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium — the same people who nurtured her when she was an orphaned pup — to recover and survive. This is Odder’s story.

Along the way, we learn about this endangered species and how humans are learning to care for them so their numbers can increase. Odder’s story is based on actual sea otters helped at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The story is mostly told from Odder’s perspective. And she’s a sea otter — there’s nothing cuter! Her perspective is all about adventure and play. The accompanying illustrations are of course adorable, and this book will oh-so-easily win kids’ hearts.

The story is told in verse, so it’s a much quicker read than it might appear at first. I think the final version may have more cute drawings than my advance reader copy does, but my hold was taking a long time to fill, so I’ve needed to order the library more copies. This book will bring smiles wherever it goes.

katherineapplegate.com
montereybayaquarium.org
mackids.com

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Review of Still Stace, by Stacey Chomiak

Biography, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Still Stace

My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story

by Stacey Chomiak

Beaming Books, 2021. 270 pages.
Review written May 8, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Still Stace is a memoir about an earnest and devoted Christian teen girl who found herself attracted to other girls. She was told by her parents, friends, leaders, and even a Christian counselor that this was disgusting and sinful and she needed to change. Stace tried and tried. She prayed about her “struggle” for years. In fact, she sprinkles her story with prayers she wrote in her journals at the time. She desperately wanted God to change her, to give her victory over her desires. Over the years, she was told if she just prayed harder, she’d change and be okay.

Then when she went to an Exodus International event, hoping to become ex-gay, and met a girl who flirted with her and made out with her — she concluded that being ex-gay wasn’t possible. At the same time, her best friend confessed she was falling in love with Stace.

So she entered another relationship, but continued to feel guilty. And she hated hiding who she was from her parents.

But I love the chapter where she came to terms with how God saw her and how God made her. It involved a week-long retreat of praying and seeking God. In the end, after much agonizing, God answered her questions and flooded her with peace.

Full, soft, healing . . . peace. In that moment, I finally allowed this truth to enter my heart and resonate deep within. The fears in my head and fears of what God’s people thought of me were no match for the perfect love of God himself.

God said to me: I made you. ALL of you. Fearfully and wonderfully.

And the story continues as she experienced God’s abundant life, as the person she truly is.

This book is beautiful and was hard for me to stop reading. It’s not a graphic memoir, but she’s an animator, and fills the pages with wonderful illustrations. I grew up in an evangelical church and went to an evangelical university. I didn’t have the same struggle as Stace, but I had her same heart for following Christ and believing that meant following the rules I’d been told. I remember the struggles and shame once I did get a boyfriend, trying to not give into temptation. We solved that difficulty by getting married. And when I learned that some friends were gay, I was so sad for them. It all helps me begin to imagine what she must have gone through and have sympathy for her agonizing.

Now, I’ve since that time come to understand that what we read in the Bible in English today isn’t necessarily even close to what it meant to the Hebrew and Greek speakers when the Bible was written. But what I can trust in the Bible is that God created us. And God loves us. And I love the way Stace’s story reflects that same message.

beamingbooks.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 Rain, written by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lisa Congdon

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Rain

written by Cynthia Rylant
illustrated by Lisa Congdon

Beach Lane Books, 2023. 44 pages.
Review written June 4, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a new storytime classic for rainy days.

This picture book, with endpapers of flowers, begins before the rain comes. The birds, the squirrels, the children in the park, the cats, and the dogs all know the rain is coming. Most of those hurry home, except many dogs who “stay right there in the yard and wait for the first wet drops on their noses. Just for fun!”

The turning point comes with the duck family.

And who is most happy about the rain?

Oh, the ducks of course.
They can’t wait.
They paddle and paddle
and spread the word.

Mama ducks gather up the babies
and promise them
a glorious day!

Then the rain starts, and the rest of the book is about how it is indeed a glorious day and about all the wonderful things the rain brings.

Rain is good for everybody!

This joyful and brightly-colored book (Really!) gives me a fresh, and happy, perspective on rain. What a delight it will be to share that perspective with kids.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Godbreathed, by Zack Hunt

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Godbreathed

What It Really Means for the Bible to be Divinely Inspired

by Zack Hunt

Herald Press, 2023. 188 pages.
Review written May 30, 2023, from my own copy purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

Godbreathed is a book about inspiration and what that means when we’re talking about the Bible, but also what it means when we’re talking about ourselves.

Zack Hunt was brought up, as I was, revering the Bible and believing in its inerrancy. But he shows in this book what’s wrong with that and how Christians who worship the Bible end up worshiping their own interpretation of it.

Here are some thoughts I marked from the first chapter:

When we transform the Bible into the divine, or more accurately our interpretation of the Bible into “a biblical worldview,” we begin to focus on the story we think it tells, rather than the story we are being invited into. When we conclude we have the Bible figured out, we end up telling others where they belong instead of trying to figure out our own place within the story of the people of God. We begin to tell a new story of our own creation and we have become very bad storytellers. We tell stories about exclusion and damnation, oppression and misogyny, of condemnation of the poor and scapegoating the stranger, and we do it all in the name of God.

When we put bad stories in the mouth of God, we smother what the Hebrew Bible calls the ruach of God, the very breath of God — that is to say, the Spirit herself from blowing how and where she will and to and through whom she will. This sort of idolatry kills, sometimes physically, but always spiritually. It should come as no surprise then to see the Bible lose not just its place of authority in modern life, but also its relevance or appeal to anyone not already warming a pew on Sunday morning. After all, who would want to be part of a story that crushes your spirit with constant judgment and damnation?

But this is not a book primarily about tearing down beliefs. It’s also a look at how the Spirit moves in the living church today.

It is from this biblical rebirth that we can begin to reimagine divine inspiration not as a form of heavenly dictation, but a Spirit-infused, wholly saturated way of life that begets more life. This is the indwelling of the spirit in our lives, this inspiration, literally the in-Spirit-ing of our very being. Or as the Bible calls it, being godbreathed (2 Timothy 3:16).

This is by no means a book about throwing out the Bible. But the author looks at the Bible as a godbreathed book written by humans in specific places and times. This is an uplifting book challenging but also helping the reader to be moved by the Bible to live a life of love.

I can’t say it enough: you are godbreathed. You. The one reading these words right now. God breathed you into existence and wants you to find your story within the story of faith that has already been told and is being told all around you. This is the calling of all godbreathed things, whether that be the written word or flesh and bone — to be godbreathed, to be filled with the Spirit of God, to be filled with love and wonder and share that love and wonder with the rest of the world just as God first shared it with us. We cannot make any claim to believing the Bible is godbreathed if that belief in a godbreathed word doesn’t lead us to love our godbreathed neighbors just as God first loved us.

zackhunt.net
heraldpress.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 Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Warrior Girl Unearthed

by Angeline Boulley
read by Isabella Star LaBlanc

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 11 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written May 11, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a companion novel to the amazing multiple award-winning Firekeeper’s Daughter, so you can be absolutely sure that I preordered a copy signed by the author. However, since I’m currently reading for the Morris Award (and this is not eligible), instead of reading my signed copy, I listened to the library eaudiobook. I will reread both books when the award reading is done.

This book takes place ten years after Firekeeper’s Daughter, so Daunis’s little nieces Perry and Pauline are now sixteen years old. Yes, you can get away without reading the first book, but as I usually say, why would you?

As the book begins, Perry was planning a summer of fishing and relaxing, but when she runs into a deer while speeding, Auntie Daunis holds her responsible for paying for the repairs, and she needs to do an internship. As the summer begins, she is assigned to Cooper, the museum curator. She learns about NAGPRA, the 1990 federal law requiring universities and museums to return ancestral remains and sacred items of Native Americans to their people. But she also learns that universities and museums have found ways to drag their feet indefinitely.

Cooper, though sometimes frustrated, is committed to working within the rules and the laws to get the remains returned. Perry is not so patient. And she’s horrified by what she sees at the local university and even at a local tourist shop — ancestors’ remains and crafts treated with complete disrespect.

A subplot along with that story is that indigenous young women are going missing. And the authorities outside of the tribe don’t seem to be taking it seriously. When it happens to Perry’s dear friend, she may have to take matters into her own hands. Though will that interfere with her plans to get her ancestors back?

And, yes, it all comes together in a dangerous adventure where stakes are high and lives are at risk.

I love the way this story is told, because we feel Perry’s heart for her people. If I read simple facts – for example, that Harvard has more Native remains than it does living Native students – I am bothered with my mind. But Perry’s story makes my heart hurt for them and helps me understand the significance more deeply.

Another amazing and wonderful book from Angeline Boulley. I hope there will be many more to come.

angelineboulley.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 Muhammad Najem, War Reporter, by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus, illustrated by Julie Robine

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

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter

How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria

by Muhammad Najem
and Nora Neus
illustrated by Julie Robine
colors by Shin-Yeon Moon

Little, Brown and Company, 2022. 314 pages.
Review written May 10, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This amazing graphic memoir tells the story of a Syrian kid who decided to let the world know what was going on in Syria — from the perspective of kids who lived there.

The war in Syria began when he was only eight years old. When he was thirteen, his father was praying at the mosque and was killed by a missile. His father had always been one to listen to everyone he met. He’d bring home their stories and tell his kids, “Everyone has a story.”

So when Muhammad got to be fifteen, he wanted to imitate his father and tell the world the stories of kids still living in the war zone of Syria. He began taking videos and posting them online. People warned him not to show his face, but he wanted to prove that real kids were being affected by the fighting. He hoped if the world knew what was happening, they wouldn’t be forgotten.

And then one day, Nora Neus of CNN contacted Muhammad. It turned out to be a few days before a big siege of Eastern Ghouta, where he and his family lived. But they moved to another part of Syria during a cease-fire, and CNN did an online article about him. That article went viral, and the world began to pay attention. Though there’s plenty of tension, because the fame makes Muhammad a target, and throughout the book his life is in danger.

This graphic memoir tells Muhammad’s story in a riveting way. It’s a story of a kid making a difference while lives were being uprooted all around him.

muhammadnajem.com
noraneus.com
julierobine.com
lbyr.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 The Notorious Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud, read by Sophie Aldred

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

The Notorious Scarlett and Browne

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Sophie Aldred

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written May 24, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is the second book about outlaws Scarlett McLain and Albert Browne, set in a future England after the Cataclysm, when people are huddled into towns for safety against animals that have evolved in dangerous ways and zombie-like once-human “tainted” cannibals.

The book reminds me of the author’s wonderful Lockwood & Co. series. As in the earlier series, you’ve got a feisty and capable girl teaming up with a boy to do daring exploits. They’re of indeterminate age – somewhere in their teens, but living on their own and using their wits to get by.

In this case, Scarlett is using Albert’s mind-reading abilities to help them rob banks — and now they’re taking on the antiquities in the Faith Houses. But in this book, both their pasts catch up with them. For Scarlett, the Brothers of the Hand catch up with her and use some powerful leverage to get her to do one more dangerous job for them. In Albert’s case, a Faith House Operative with powers like Albert’s own comes after them. Albert’s going to have to learn to control and use his powers to be able to get past him.

This book is billed for kids, but let me warn you that there are heavy topics. We learn more about Scarlett’s back story, and there are some horrific things. And when she went to a Faith House for help, they turned a crowd against her. Oh, and there’s plenty of shooting, killing, dumping rocks on people, and letting loose the tainted to eat people. But no sex! So maybe that’s why it’s considered a children’s book?

And there’s lots and lots of tension, too. There are several deadlines in the course of this book — and they’re literally deadlines, when if not met, someone’s going to die. And every time, a solution comes at the very last minute. This warning is to lean toward giving it to older kids — you should have an idea what your kids can handle — but I for one love the series so much.

Of course, Sophie Aldred’s English accent adds to my enjoyment, and the voices she uses for Scarlett and Albert are perfect. I love these characters and hope for a five-book series, like Lockwood & Co. so I can spend much more time with them. Enjoy two kids getting out of horribly tight situations with cleverness and skill. Enjoy Albert’s irrepressible looks on the bright side along with Scarlett’s sarcastic retorts and amazing skill with a gun. In this book, they gain notoriety indeed, and it ends with a definite direction for future books. Hooray! May they come soon.

jonathanstroud.com
listeninglibrary.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 Sunshine, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Sunshine

How One Camp Taught Me About Life, Death, and Hope

by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Graphix (Scholastic), 2023. 240 pages.
Review written May 6, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Sunshine is another graphic novel memoir from the brilliant Jarrett Krosoczka. But this one, unlike Hey, Kiddo isn’t about his difficult growing-up years so much as about a transformational experience he had the summer he was sixteen — working as an intern at Camp Sunshine, a camp for families who have a child with a life-threatening illness.

I’ll say right up front that I did not read this at a good time, and don’t actually recommend it to anyone in my family. It’s too much right now. Because two weeks ago my six-year-old niece Meredith was diagnosed with relapsed leukemia. After being initially diagnosed at three years old, she’s been through two years of treatments, and then a year we all thought she was fine, and now she’s relapsed. So when the sweet little kid pictured on the cover of this book had the exact same diagnosis as Meredith — and in the last chapter relapsed and died (some time after the camp experience) — it just had me sobbing.

It is a terrible thing when kids die.

But the beauty of the camp experience was that they gave those kids a chance to be the normal ones, a chance to goof off and play with friends and just be kids. And a chance for their personalities to shine through, way past the fact that they were sick. And a chance for people working at the camp to come to love them.

The author says right at the start:

Just about everyone who asks about the experience seems to have the same knee-jerk reaction: It must have been so sad.

But that could not be further from the truth. I mean, a camp for pediatric cancer patients shouldn’t be sad — those kids already have enough to deal with.

No, camp was happy, the happiest place I’ve ever been. It was a space where illness didn’t define the campers while they defied their diagnoses. It was uplifting, celebratory.

The kids I met weren’t dying — they were living. Living life to its fullest.

All these years later, there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think of them.

So yes, this book will touch your heart. And even though it struck way too close to home for me, I’m glad I read it. And I love the way he celebrated the lives of those kids. And showed that even kids whose lives are way too short make this world a better place, just by being ordinary kids.

[And medicine is constantly getting better and that was many years ago and we don’t even know Meredith’s prognosis yet.]

Excuse me, I’m going to go cry a bit more.

studiojjk.com
scholastic.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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