Category Archives: 5-6

Guest Reviewer Edition: A Review of Kindling

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Kindling
Chee, Traci
HarperCollins
February 27, 2024
Grades 9-up

Magical elite soldiers must confront their own traumas and identities while banding together to defend a town besieged by raiders. Inspired by Seven Samurai, Chee weaves together the stories of seven kindlings who are desperate for stability and purpose in a world that no longer needs them. Raised from the age of six to be elite weapons in a war of expansion, these kindlings now wander the countryside, but are soon gathered for a mission by one of their own. Initially, each kindling views the defense of Camas—the mountain village terrorized by raiders—as just a job. But as time passes and the soldiers’ lives and pasts show their impact, the group finds solace in one another and grows close. “That’s what home is. The people you love. The people you fight for.” (p. 417) Despite coming from similar backgrounds, each character has their own unique voice, characteristics, vices, fears and desires. One character is nonbinary; the rest are female. Even if they don’t bear the same scars, every kindling recognizes a bit of themselves in their comrades. Though all seven kindlings have point-of-view chapters, the book is written in second-person, which forces the reader to empathize with their harsh reality. These vignettes of grief, trauma and the effects of war are devastating and intensely realistic; Chee paints an unflinching depiction of violence and its effect on children. Interweaving these moments with lighter ones like romance and village camaraderie keeps the book from being bogged down by heavy topics. Action scenes towards the climax of the story are fast-paced and thrilling, but easy to follow. Despite a macabre tone throughout and bittersweet climax, the story ends on a note of newfound hope and optimism. Kindling puts the desperation of existing without guidance, and the challenge of living one’s life for oneself, on display in a way any reader can empathize with.

Guest reviewer Katie Steffensen, is a Dominican University MLIS candidate and works in youth services at a library in the North Chicago suburbs. She loves working with tweens and teens.

Can You Keep a Secret?: A Review of The Enigma Girls

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The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II
Candace Fleming
Scholastic
March 5, 2024
Age 8-12

It wasn’t just the boys doing their bit for the war effort during the harrowing years of World War II. Sibert Award-winner Candace Fleming follows The Enigma Girls, ten young women working with the British government, cracking ciphers and codes to help win the war. Based out of Station X at Bletchley Park, a once top secret center of the British intelligence, thousands of people (nearly ¾ of them young women, p. 237) worked night and day intercepting, decoding, transcribing, translating, and cataloging secret communications from German, Italian, and Japanese government and military leaders. Walking chronologically through the war years (1939-1945), Fleming introduces each woman as she’s recruited into the sphere of Bletchley Park, snippets of her life before, during, and after the conflict, and her often emotional reactions to the exhaustion, secrecy, and triumph of the work.

The brisk pace and simple, yet engaging prose of this narrative nonfiction title pull readers into the frantic feelings and tense atmosphere of Station X. Fleming balances that emotion with well-explained vocabulary and intra-chapter information about codes and code breaking. Extensive photo documentation of Europe at war and Bletchley Park in particular bring the horrors of war and high stakes of the work to vivid life. Due to the clandestine role that the women and Bletchley played in the war, primary source material from the time is limited. Fleming’s source notes show extensive research into the biographies and autobiographies of the women (most of them wrote of their wartime experiences once they were allowed), and archives in Britain and beyond. Other backmatter includes thorough source notes, photography credits, and author’s note, and an index to come (not included in the reviewed ARC).

A deftly crafted tribute to the unsung young women whose efforts often turned the tides of battle, saving the lives of allied servicemen.

Forgive Me?: A Review of The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman

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The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman
By Mari Lowe
Levine Querdio
Published November 7, 2023
Age 10-14

Awkward and excluded, 12-year-old Shaindy Goodman just wants to fit in with the girls at Bais Yaakov Middle School. When she’s invited by Gayil, the queen bee next door, to help with a series of pranks, she shrugs off her misgivings in favor of acceptance. Helping out with some harmless jokes, even if it means breaking into school, may be her chance to find friendship. Shaindy quickly realizes the pranks are more mean-spirited than high-spirited, and that only certain classmates are being targeted. Naïve to Gayil’s manipulation, she feels guilty but hopes for the best until the mischief and hard feelings are all pinned on her. As she finally understands Gayil’s acts of revenge for an unintended slight, she lets go of her own anger for lessons of penance, forgiveness, and taking responsibility for her actions.

Lowe uses the period of the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as well as their lessons, as a frame for this middle grade drama of judgement and atonement. She crafts a well-rounded and sympathetic character in Shaindy, expressing a universal need for friendship and belonging, and the way tweens and teens often make poor decisions in search of them. The plot and pace of the title move quickly through the season, mirroring the way bad choices can often lead to snowballing consequences. Moments of lightness, Shaindy’s struggle with roller blades, and final closeness with her sister help temper more serious content and lead to a satisfying conclusion. In the penultimate scene, a classroom of girls offers each other silent acknowledgment of wrongs and forgiveness for them. The wise words of a teacher, “The hardest thing many of you will do in your lives… is admit you were wrong,” (p 155) is a life lesson for those of all ages and religious backgrounds.

Elementary!: A review of The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall

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The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall
Ali Standish
Harper Collins Children’s Books
Age 8-12
Available September 12, 2023

In a middle-grade twist on the Sherlock Holmes stories, a brilliant young Arthur Conan Doyle accepts a full scholarship to a mysterious school for exceptional students. In the hopes of providing a better life for his family, Arthur devotes himself to school, including the friendships, mysteries, and mayhem that one would expect of a 19th century English boarding school—eccentric students and professors, secret societies, magical clocks, and even a baby dinosaur. But when it comes time to submit to the questionable ethics of the secret society, and their promises of wealth and power, or do the right thing at the possible expense of his future, Arthur shows integrity to the end.

Standish borrows liberally from the Holmes novels with characters, like Dr. Watson, Jamie Moriarty, and Sherlock Holmes himself, named for many of the original Doyle’s most famous characters. Arthur himself is drawn as one would imagine a young Sherlock. These details, however, may be lost on young readers. The swiftly plotted and intricately detailed mystery can stand alone though, using its quirky characters and darkly atmospheric setting to draw the reader into its world and to rooting for the cast of diverse and well-crafted characters. Themes of friendship, integrity, and problem-solving run heavily through the novel and help to ground some of the more outlandish plot devices, like time travel and dinosaur hatching. And with a parting “the game is afoot” (p. 310), Standish sets the stage for a series of future adventures that junior sleuths will be sure to love.

Claiming Her Place: A Review of We Still Belong

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We Still Belong
Christine Day
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Age 8-12
August 1, 2023

Excitement, anxiety, disappointment, and hope—over the course of one emotional day, Wesley Wilder explores all the feeling middle school has to offer. As the early riser in her close-knit, multi-generational, indigenous household, Wesley battles nerves over the big day she’s planned. She’s written a heartfelt poem for the school newspaper in celebration of Indigenous People’s Day. She’s planning to use the same newspaper issue to ask her kind, funny, gamer-boy, crush to the school dance. And will cap off the day celebrating at the intertribal powwow planned in her Seattle area community.

As the title implies, themes of belonging, community, family, and friendship drive the fast-paced plot of this middle grade novel. Wesley is a thoroughly sympathetic character, full of all the uncertainty, eagerness, and budding confidence of adolescence, while exhibiting a strong connection to her single mother, grandfather, and extended family (a well-crafted network of supportive adult characters). Her thoughtful voice, and desire for community, come through in care for her best friend, Hanan, and her efforts to reach out to those around her in need of a friend. And even when things around Wesley seem to unravel, like her crush already having a date or her aunt’s family’s potential move, she grounds herself in gratefulness, showing a mindfulness uncommon to most middle grade characters. Day (Upper Skagit) handles incidences of discrimination toward indigenous people and causes with a gentle touch, weaving them into the narrative in a way that explains and exemplifies Wesley’s kindness. A day in the life of a soft-hearted girl growing into her voice.

Cracking the Code of Middle School: A Review of Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes

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Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes
Marissa Moss
Walker Books
June 13, 2023
Ages 8 to 12

Talia loves cracking codes and doing math, but can’t seem to solve the puzzle that is middle school. Joining the mathlete team was supposed to help with her transition, but as the only girl on the team, the boys make her the outcast. When her mathlete best friend, Dash, gets too embarrassed to be best friends with a girl, and wants to hide their friendship, there’s only one thing Talia can do—make her own all-girls mathlete team! With her new friends by her side, Talia becomes determined to bring their team to victory, get her friend back, and figure out the social rules of middle school.

The comic diary form gives a personal touch to the feelings, actions, and reactions Talia has to daily life as a middle school student. The book is broken down into observations, deductions, quizzes, and puzzles, which act as chapters. With this style, readers get a fast-paced book with no breaks in the plot. The illustrations are meant to look like doodles in a diary but are still expressive with the use of postures and facial expressions. The colors are bright with the use of watercolors and gouache with ink to give definitions to characters and objects. The overarching themes of friendship, discovering a sense of self, and finding the courage to do something outside the norm make this book perfect for readers entering middle school. Talia evolves in her social development, starting as self-centered and refusing to see her friend’s perspectives then becoming conscious of her actions and how they affect other people’s feelings. Talia’s friends and family don’t have major character developments during the book, but they do support and encourage her on her journey through middle school. Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes is a STEM-oriented book that teaches young readers, especially girls interested in math or science, to be courageous and forge their own unique path in middle school.

How to Survive Sixth Grade with Glasses: A Review of Four Eyes

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Four Eyes
Rex Ogle
Illustrated by Dave Valeza
Graphix
Ages 8 to 12
May 2nd, 2023

Rex thought sixth grade was going to be exciting, with new teachers, a fancy locker, and his best friend by his side. He was going to conquer the year with flying colors. Then his best friend starts hanging out with the popular crowd who don’t like the comics and who start bullying Rex for being short. Rex’s year can’t get any worse—until he finds out he needs glasses. Now, Rex has to deal with wearing glasses and being bullied for it, while navigating sixth grade, having no friends, and a family who don’t understand him.

The pencil-drawn illustrations express detailed features like the emotional facial expressions of each character and objects in the background. The warmer-hued colors distinguish the characters and the scene and give energy to the novel, matching the fast-pace of the story. The author and illustrator express an encouraging tone when themes of growing up and trying to figure out a place in school are brought up in Rex’s life. As Rex matures into his own person, he learns that everyone needs help sometimes, even adults. A major emotional moment in the story explores the difficulty of living in a low-income household, and although his family can’t afford the fancy pair of glasses for him or the nice clothes, Rex learns that having a loving family, a safe place to sleep, and the things you need are more important than what you might want. Middle school may be hard to figure out, but Rex finds his place by making new friends, and with their support, stands up to the bullies that his friend is hanging out with. Eventually, he also understands that becoming your own person means it’s okay to let go of old friends and accepts that glasses don’t change who you are. Four Eyes is a coming-of-age story for readers who are trying to navigate the intricate balance of middle school and what it means to grow up.

Little Seeds Saving the Planet: A Book Review of Big Tree

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Big Tree
Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press
Ages 7 and up
April 4, 2023

Louise and Merwin, two Sycamore seeds, have always assumed they would live with their Mama for a long time before setting down their roots. However, when the mysterious voice of the Old One whispers of impending danger to Louise, and strange incidents start happening in the forest, Louise and Merwin are thrust into an unknown world away from their Mama. Forced to explore the changing and dangerous world around them, the siblings face dinosaurs, meteors, and volcanoes to find a safe place to grow. When the voice of the Old One becomes louder to Louise, she realizes that they may have a higher purpose—to save the world.

Pros and illustrations make this a non-traditional children’s fiction book as it uses both as an integral part of the story; with pages switching from pros, illustrations, and to a combination of both. The black and white charcoal illustrations bring another layer to the story while giving a changing perspective shift from microscopic to galactic view of the world and its creatures. The illustrations are ordered to show the motion of objects, animals, and plants giving life to the story, especially when whole pages portray the walk of a dinosaur past the forest (Pgs. 70-81). Through great changes, Merwin and Louise must change their perspective to adapt to the world around them. Merwin becomes pragmatic and protective of Louise, who is being guided to safety by the Old One, and mostly leads them astray of the Old One’s plan. Louise basks in the new sensations of the world and delves more into trusting and listening to the world around them. Eventually, learning to trust in one another, they both listen to the Old One and prepare for the chance to save the world. In this adventure, Selznick gives a voice to the world by using the Old One as a wise and protective being that wishes to help all its children, while also teaching them that death is just one part of the Cycle of Life. Selznick includes backmatter on the original idea of this book, the science behind key characters, and an acknowledgment of all the scientists and specialists that have helped him research in preparation for this book. As Louise guides Merwin, Big Tree will guide readers to listen to the sound of the world and care for our fragile planet before it’s too late.

 

 

Black History Empowerment Through Children’s Literature 

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Get ready for a celebration of black culture and an understanding of black history through the eyes of children with these new titles that can be enjoyed all year round.

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement
Simon & Schuster (Paula Wiseman Books)
January 10, 2023
4 – 8 years

Love Is Loud is a nonfiction children’s book that is based on the true story of Diane Nash and how she became a civil rights movement leader at such an early age. The striking illustrations demonstrate her journey with bright colors and heartwarming imagery. Diane’s story is a reminder to be strong, determined and brave in the face of adversity.  

Lovely Day, based on the lyrics by Bill Withers, Illustrated by Olivia Duchess 
Scholastic  
January 10, 2023
4 – 8 years

Lovely Day is a visual guide through the famous lyrics of the song by Bill Withers. The lyrics on their own are positive, uplifting and reassuring. The whimsical illustrations highlight the bond of a black family and their beautiful neighborhood; this story inspires happiness to the beat of an iconic song.  

Sugar Pie Lullaby
Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Sawyer Cloud 
Sourcebooks Explore
February 7, 2023
4 – 8 years

Sugar Pie Lullaby is a children’s fiction book about family, togetherness and the unity. The music of Motown pumping through the veins of this story makes this a soulful read. The simple prose amplifies the love of family and the joy of music with references to songs like “Don’t You worry ‘Bout A Thing” by Stevie Wonder, “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” by Brenda Holloway and “You’re All I Need to Get By” by Nickolas Ashford.  

We Are Here  
Tami Charles, Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Scholastic (Orchard Books)
January 3, 2023
4 – 8 years

We Are Here is a children’s fiction book that celebrates impact, legacy, and heritage. The book follows a young black girl and those around her through a discovery of black culture and empowerment. The author penned this story as a tribute to their deceased child, making sure that their memory lives on by sharing the appreciation of blackness and black culture. “We Are Here” is a proclamation that explains why it is important for others to learn about black history throughout the generations.  

You So Black
Theresa Tha S.O.N.G.B.I.R.D., Illustrated by London Ladd 
Simon & Schuster (Denene Millner Books)
January 10, 2023
4 – 8 years

You So Black is a popular poem that has now transformed into this inspiring children’s book. The emotionally fulfilling poem in this story, paired with the intricately beautiful artwork of the illustrations, is striking and captivating. “You so black,” was once an insult to black people, but this author reclaims the phrase and turns it into empowerment for black culture.  

 

Who Wants to Be Normal?: A Review of Good Different

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Good Different
Meg Eden Kuyatt
Scholastic Press
March 7, 2023
Age 8-12

Always follow the rules for “normal” people: no crying in public, smile and nod, tell people you’re “fine.” But Selah doesn’t always want to be normal. In fact, she wants to be a dragon—escaping to fly free above the chaotic world below. She is pretty good at hiding her feelings in order to fit in, until an outburst at school pits Selah against her classmates, the school administration, and her mom. This leaves poetry (and her grandfather) as her only avenues to explore her feelings when speech fails her. A chance encounter with an understanding vendor at FantasyCon opens her eyes to a new definition for her experience—autism.

Kuyatt’s novel in verse follows Selah’s journey as a burgeoning poet and her exploration of neurodivergence as an explanation for the feeling and reactions she has always thought of as weird. Selah’s perspective shifts through the novel from a longing to hide, to self-discovery, to a desire to advocate for her needs, her loved ones, and her place in the world. Harsh treatment by teachers and school administrators, and her mother’s denial of any differences, paint a lonely picture of Selah’s experience. Other caring adults in her life help lighten the tone of this story, which focuses primarily on her struggles. As narrator, Selah’s typical seventh-grade self-centeredness leaves secondary characters like her mother, grandfather, and best friend less well-defined than they could be and add to the sense of isolation. Through her own determination, Selah finds her voice and a way to work with her world instead of against it. A thoughtful endnote, detailing the author’s own autism diagnosis as an adult, places the text as both a mirror for undiagnosed kids and a potential tool for adult readers, and provides an uplifting interpretation of neurodivergence as a strength rather than problem.