Review of Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, by Meg Medina

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Merci Suárez Plays It Cool

by Meg Medina

Candlewick Press, September 2022. 346 pages.
Review written July 23, 2022, from an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference, signed to me by the author.
Starred Review

This is the third book about Merci Suárez, in a trilogy that began with the book my committee chose to win the 2019 Newbery Medal, so it has a special place in my heart. But even though it didn’t seem possible, Merci grows on me even more with each volume.

And yes, I think you should read all three books in order, growing with Merci from sixth grade to eighth grade. She’s growing in her perspectives, but she still has issues with friends and family to face.

Now starting eighth grade, she’s got an in with one of the cool girls because of being on the soccer team together. And her schedule has more classes with her than with her older friends. But can she navigate that without hurt feelings? And how does she feel about it?

Then at home, her Lolo’s Alzheimer’s is getting worse, which is hard on everyone. And the twins are as incorrigible as ever.

None of this sounds funny and interesting and engaging when I give it in summary, but it’s all of that. It’s a solid book about an eighth grade girl growing up and navigating relationships with family and friends, and all packed with humor and heart. If you’ve read the others, you’ll be eager to spend more time with Merci. If you haven’t, good news: You can read the entire trilogy without waiting to find out what happens next!

megmedina.com
candlewick.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 Cubs in the Tub, by Candace Fleming

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Cubs in the Tub

The True Story of the Bronx Zoo’s First Woman Zookeeper

by Candace Fleming
illustrations by Julie Downing

Neal Porter Books, 2020. 48 pages.
Review written August 19, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a completely charming picture book biography, packed full of pictures of baby animals. I dare you to read it without smiling!

Besides the pictures of baby animals, we get the story of Helen Martini, whose husband was a zookeeper for the Bronx Zoo. Helen very much wanted a baby, but they were childless – and then her husband brought home a baby lion whose mother had rejected it. Helen took tender loving and motherly care of the baby, whom she named MacArthur.

After MacArthur was sent to a zoo in another part of the country, there were three tiger cubs that needed care. When they got so big their home couldn’t hold them, Helen had to bring them back to the zoo. But they didn’t like being apart from her, and she didn’t like being apart from them. So she made a nursery at the zoo out of an old storeroom and spent the night with her tiger babies.

When the tigers outgrew even the zoo nursery, it wasn’t long before other animal babies needed care. And Helen got offered a job at a time when all zookeepers had been men.

This inspiring story is told in an entertaining way, with plenty of pictures of baby animals to warm your heart.

HolidayHouse.com

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Source: This review is based on a book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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 Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, by Axie Oh, read by Rosa Escoda

Audiobooks, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

by Axie Oh
read by Rosa Escoda

Dreamscape Media, 2022. 8 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written July 30, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

This book is magical! Here’s how it begins:

The myths of my people say only a true bride of the Sea God can bring an end to his insatiable wrath. When the otherworldly storms rise from the East Sea, lightning breaking the sky and waters ripping up the shore, a bride is chosen and given to the Sea God.

Or sacrificed, depending on the measure of your faith.

This year, when the most beautiful girl in the village is being offered, Mina sees her brother Joon, who loves the girl, get on the boat with her. Mina follows him to save him from the sea god’s wrath — and then offers herself instead of the intended bride. She will tell the Sea God what she thinks of him for abandoning his people to the awful storms for a hundred years.

But when she gets to the Sea God’s city beneath the sea, nothing is as she expected. The Sea God looks like a boy — and he is asleep. There is a red string of fate between them. But when another young man cuts the red string of fate, he captures Mina’s soul in the form of a bird, so her first task is to get her soul back.

But that’s only the beginning. As Mina finds out what’s going on under the sea she learns that some of the other gods are trying to take advantage of the Sea God’s slumber. So they don’t want her to succeed. Others are loyal, but they don’t know how to help her. And she meets many spirits who have found their way out of the river of souls and help her in her tasks.

And yes, Mina finds love. But how will that interact with destiny? And can she trust herself to choose her own destiny?

A truly beautiful story with many elements of Korean mythology that will enchant you as you listen.

axieoh.com
fiercereads.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 Iron Will of Genie Lo, by F. C. Yee

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Iron Will of Genie Lo

by F. C. Yee

Amulet Books (Abrams), 2020. 293 pages.
Review written December 15, 2020, from a library book

The Iron Will of Genie Lo is very much like a Rick Riordan book for teens, dealing with Chinese mythology, rather than Greek mythology. I hadn’t read the first book, The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, but I never felt lost. Since this is the second book, the reader doesn’t have to learn along with Genie that she’s the reincarnation of the Riyu Jingu Bang, the legendary weapon of the Monkey King. She already knows about her powers of shrinking or growing, her healing abilities, and her fist made of impenetrable metal. The Monkey King himself is actually her boyfriend, Quentin.

In this book she’s already the guardian of the Kingdom of California – and a bunch of demons who have been confined there. But a new threat appears to the universe and all of existence, a threat that frightens even a guardian dragon. Genie and some gods and goddesses, some of whom she thought of as enemies, must travel to a different plane to attempt to save the universe.

What makes this for teens rather than the kids of Rick Riordan’s audience is that there’s more kissing and relationship issues. Genie and Quentin are fighting for most of the book. Also, Genie has some college choices to make. She visits a college on a long weekend and ends up getting pulled into a raucous college party. It’s unfortunate that then a bunch of demons show up, fleeing a power that frightens even them.

This book ended up being a lot of fun and perfect for high school students who still want to read about modern day teens hanging out with gods and goddesses and saving the universe.

fcyee.com
amuletbooks.com
piquebeyond.com

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Review of Alias Anna, by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Alias Anna

A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis

by Susan Hood
with Greg Dawson

Harper, 2022. 339 pages.
Review written August 19, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

The only sad thing about this book telling a true story is that I’m afraid kids looking for a gripping historical novel in verse may not find it in the nonfiction section, but it would give them that reading experience.

This is the true story of Greg Dawson’s mother Zhanna and how she survived the Holocaust. He’s written the story for adults in his book Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy’s Story of Survival, 1941-1946. Susan Hood took the story and put it into poetry and language for children the same age as Zhanna was when World War II began to impact her life.

Zhanna and her younger sister Frina were child prodigy piano performers in Ukraine, already having performed on the radio and concert halls throughout their country before World War II hit.

First Stalin came, causing their family trouble, and then the Germans, causing even more trouble. Zhanna was 13 years old when her family was part of a death march — marched into the countryside, where thousands of Jews were gunned down. But on the march, her father bribed a guard, and Zhanna escaped.

However, her old town wasn’t safe, because she was famous for her performing, and her neighbors knew she was Jewish. She changed her name to Anna and got a new passport with the help of kind strangers. This book tells the saga as Anna and her sister ended up in a troupe performing for the Germans during the war, winding up in Berlin and traveling through the German countryside. They were used to build up the spirits of the German people, but this way of “hiding in the spotlight” saved their lives.

This is a story I might not have believed if it were fiction, as there were definitely coincidences along the way that saved her life.

Because of being poetry, this book reads quickly — but that’s also partly because it’s hard to stop turning pages as Zhanna is surrounded by danger all along the way.

This is one where you’re happy to be told at the beginning that this story is someone’s memories — you’re so glad to know right up front that she survived.

I hope kids who enjoy historical fiction will find this book, because it fits right in with other World War II novels, with maybe a few more coincidences and narrow escapes!

susanhoodbooks.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 Shaped by Her Hands, by Anna Harber Freeman and Barbara Gonzales

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Shaped by Her Hands

Potter Maria Martinez

by Anna Harber Freeman and Barbara Gonzales
illustrated by Aphelandra

Albert Whitman and Company, 2021. 32 pages.
Review written April 14, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Shaped by Her Hands is a picture book biography of Maria Povika Martinez, a woman who carried on the tradition of Native American pottery and became famous for perfecting new techniques.

It begins her story as a girl in a pueblo among the Tewa people of San Ildefonso. She learned to make pottery from her aunt.

Aunt Nicolasa was happy to show Maria the centuries-old tradition of san-away. Together, they gathered clay and thanked Mother Earth for sharing with them.

Nicolasa showed Maria how to mix the clay with water and volcanic ash, and how to roll coils between her hands to build the pot’s walls.

As the two of them worked, Nicolasa told Maria about the importance of sharing clay knowledge. She wanted Maria to know how to make pots to store seeds and grains in, so their Tewa traditions would live on.

The book shows Maria growing up and marrying and coming back to the clay. She developed a new technique from an ancient sherd of black pottery an archaeologist showed her. She and her husband, who added decorations, created beautiful black-on-black pottery that was extremely popular.

And throughout her life, she always found it important to share what she knew.

When Julian died in 1943, Maria’s heart and pots felt empty without her husband and partner. But she had spent her whole life sharing clay with her family.

First, her children came to paint the designs.

Later, her grandchildren came to help with the painting and polishing.

They made pots as a family, remembering to thank Mother Earth, and teaching new hands to form, polish, and design.

A lovely and simple book about someone who made beautiful art and passed on the knowledge.

albertwhitman.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 Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid
read by Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, and Robin Miles

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2017. 12 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written August 19, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

I heard about this book on Book Tok and thought I’d give it a try. I’m not completely sure why, because I’ve never been a fan of celebrity tell-alls, and this is essentially a fictional celebrity tell-all, telling the life of a glamorous Hollywood icon, the most beautiful woman in the world.

But once I started, the book pulled me in quickly. Instead of starting with the glamorous Evelyn Hugo, the book begins with Monique, a struggling biracial writer who works for an upscale magazine. Her new husband recently decided to move to the west coast, and she didn’t go with him, because this magazine is her chance and she needs to be in New York. So she’s thinking about her empty apartment and short failed marriage.

But then her magazine tells her to go interview the now-reclusive Evelyn Hugo for a feature article. When she tries to figure out why, it turns out that Evelyn Hugo requested her specifically. And when she begins the interviews, she learns that Evelyn doesn’t actually want to do a feature article. She wants to give her story to Monique to publish in a book after Evelyn’s death — but she won’t give Monique any idea if she has a reason to anticipate that will happen soon. The book will be worth millions, but meanwhile, what does Monique tell her employers?

And as we hear Evelyn’s life story, we get more and more pulled in. Despite the seven husbands, she’s no King Henry VIII. It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Evelyn is bisexual and the love of her life was a woman. But in Hollywood beginning in the 40s and 50s, that wasn’t something she could let people know and still have a career.

The book does have some raunchy moments. But mostly, you’re pulled into the life of the “most beautiful woman in the world” and come to understand her choices, even the questionable ones. In the middle of the book, I wondered why I’d been pulled into a fake celebrity tell-all, but by the end, I felt like something deeper and more important was going on. Monique gains perspective from hearing Evelyn’s story, and the reader will, too.

Oh, and if you start out by liking celebrity tell-alls, you should enjoy this book all the more!

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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 Grandmother School, by Rina Singh and Ellen Rooney

Contemporary, Picture Book Review 0

Grandmother School

by Rina Singh and Ellen Rooney

Orca Book Publishers, 2020. 32 pages.
Review written September 11, 2020, from a library book

Grandmother School is a picture book based on the true story of a school in India that was made especially for the grandmothers in that village.

The story is told by a little girl who walks her Aaji to Grandmother School.

Aaji started school a year ago. My teacher said almost everyone in the village could read, write and count except for all of the grandmothers.

So he built Aajibaichi Shala – Grandmother School.

Ajoba – my grandfather – shook his head and said that learning at this age was a waste of time, but most of the people in the village were happy for the grandmothers.

When Aaji first learned to spell her name, she did a little dance.

The book shows Aaji with daily tasks made simpler, and happy in her new-found knowledge. Her granddaughter helps her with homework and they have a new bond together, since they are both students.

This lovely picture book celebrates the joy and power that come from learning as well as the love between a grandmother and granddaughter.

orcabook.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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 Grand Theft Horse, by G. Neri, illustrated by Corban Wilkin

Biography, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Grand Theft Horse

by G. Neri
illustrated by Corban Wilkin

Tu Books (Lee & Low), 2018. 230 pages.
Review written July 30, 2022, from my own copy sent by the publisher
Starred Review

In this nonfiction graphic novel (or should I just say graphic nonfiction?), the author tells the amazing true story of his cousin, Gail Ruffu, who was the first person charged with Grand Theft Horse in California in 150 years.

She was acquitted of those charges, because the horse was her own — or at least she owned 20% of it — but the story is amazing, and that wasn’t the end of her troubles.

The story also sheds light on the problem of drug use and cruelty in the horse racing industry, where thoroughbreds are worked to death and their health and safety isn’t taken into account.

Gail Ruffu wanted to change that. She bought a horse, Urgent Envoy, who she thought was a winner, but could only afford to be a part owner. She thought she had the others on board for a no-drugs, patient approach.

But then they started pressuring her to race the horse before he was ready and even when he was injured. After they took her off the team, Gail learned that Urgent Envoy had a hairline fracture, but they were planning to race him anyway. If he raced, his leg would most likely break completely, and he’d be killed. So she took matters into her own hands and stole her own horse on Christmas Eve, 2004.

But she ended up suffering for that decision. Her main partner in ownership was a lawyer who eventually got her banned from the track. This is the story of her work to vindicate herself and to save the life and health of the horse she loved.

Since it’s a graphic novel, the story doesn’t take long to read — which is a good thing, because it’s compelling and not easy to stop reading.

A story of someone without power standing up to the powerful to help those who can’t speak for themselves.

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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 Downstairs Girl, by Stacey Lee

Audiobooks, Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Downstairs Girl

by Stacey Lee
read by Emily Woo Zeller

Tantor Media, 2019. 11 hours, 32 minutes.
Review written September 5, 2020, from a library eaudiobook

Set in 1890 Atlanta, 17-year-old Jo Kuan gets fired from the hat shop where she’d been perfecting her skills, in favor of a white assistant. The man who’s taken care of her all her life in the absence of her parents gets her a job as a lady’s maid back at the stately home of the family where he works as a groom.

Jo and her caregiver, Old Jin, live in an underground space remaining from the days when escaped slaves went through Atlanta, very careful to hide their presence. Jo indulges herself listening to the conversation of the family in the print shop over her bedroom. When they need something to boost circulation in their newspaper, she submits an advice column, written by Miss Sweetie, giving modern views in a clever way. Her column helps newspaper circulation turn around, but she knows she has to be anonymous because Atlanta society would be shocked if they knew they were listening to a Chinese girl.

Meanwhile, Jo uncovers a clue about the identity of her parents, but she has to deal with an unsavory character to find out more. And the unkind young lady Jo works for has secrets of her own. It all builds up toward Race Day, the social event of the year in Atlanta. Old Jin is keeping secrets of his own. Jo worries that he’s arranging a marriage for her, and she’s not ready to give up her freedom.

I enjoyed this eaudiobook, not sure at first I wouldn’t be sorry to start such a long one – but I finished well before the book was due, interested in the characters and their predicaments. I thought there were a lot of coincidences and things that worked out far too well to be believable, but it did make a fun story, and I was happy with the good outcomes. I especially enjoyed the clever letters from Miss Sweetie that started each chapter. Also, Jo’s voice in telling the story was pleasant, using apt metaphors that gave you the feeling of the time and place.

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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?