Butler Bookshelf

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Our Butler Bookshelf this week features our new arrivals touching on historical events, themes of romance, and even some nonfiction about the body. One of our powerful new works is a young adult adaptation of Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” a posthumous publication from Zora Neale Hurston that illustrates the experience of the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade in 1927: Cudjo Lewis. Adapted by Ibram X. Kendi, this nonfiction work gives age-appropriate historical context to Lewis’ story, brought to life with Jazzmen Lee-Johnson’s accompanying illustrations.

Check out more of our new additions below!

Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers
Written by Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi
Illustrated by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson
Published by Amistad Books for Young Readers
Available now!

I Hope This Doesn’t Find You
Written by Ann Liang
Published by Scholastic Press
Available now!

It’s So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, Gender, and Families
Written by Robie H. Harris
Illustrated by Michael Emberley
Published by Candlewick Press
Available now!

Uprising
Written by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Published by Scholastic Press
Available March 5, 2024!

Yours from the Tower
Written Sally Nicholls
Published by Walker Books
Available now!

You’re Invited: A review of My Big, Fat Desi Wedding: A YA Romance Anthology

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My Big, Fat Desi Wedding: A YA Romance Anthology
Edited by Prerna Pickett
Page Street Publishing
February 13, 2024
Age 14+

All the big flavors, big fashion, and big family drama of an extravagant Desi wedding, in an extraordinary series of bite-sized stories. Jaanu, a sassy younger sister who’s very words can mysteriously bring about disaster for the happy couple—rainy weather, a tipsy bride, or a missing wedding dress. Zayna, driven to distraction by a desire to help her mother and avoid a cute, but infuriating classmate, finds that food and friendship can go hand-in-hand to help heal a heartache. In a blackout experience, Shloka, binds herself, and her cult, to a rival vampire who also happens to be her long-lost love. Eight short stories full of wedding drama and swoony romance, spanning genre, culture and location, are bookended by the perspective of a mysterious auntie that flits through the stories like a Desi fairy godmother.

Prerna Pickett expertly weaves these stories of family, tradition, and love while still honoring the diversity of Desi cultures the authors celebrate. Each well-crafted story shines, and includes its own variation of the highs and lows that all families go through and the complex emotions that often bubble up around even the most joyous wedding celebration. The individual authors’ style and flair are evident, and the entries vary in themes and tone (from humorous to horrifying), while still reading as a well-linked collection. Design details such as the mehndi-like border to the chapter breaks and the varied skin tones and traditions represented in the cover art add to the cultural (and romantic) emersion readers will get from this delightful anthology. A fun and fast-paced collection sure to entice romantics, foodies, fashionistas, and maybe a meddling auntie or two.

Butler Bookshelf

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Love and belonging is the theme of this week’s Butler Bookshelf. We are featuring Courtesy of Cupid by Nashae Jones on the Butler Bookshelf this week. Jones recounts the story of Erin Johnson’s 13th birthday, which begins like any other day. Erin competes with her rival Trevor Jin for the number one spot in their class and indulges her quirky mother who wants to celebrate her birthday after school. However, her birthday presents this year are unusual: magical powers. Erin finds out that her enigmatic father is Cupid the love god, and she has inherited his talent for love. Erin thinks that if she wraps Trevor around her finger with her new talent, she will win the race against him for president of the Multicultural Leadership Club. For more amazing titles, check out the list below!

Courtesy of Cupid
Written by Nashae Jones
Published by Aladdin
Available now!

Diary of a Confused Feminist
Written by Kate Weston
Published by Simon & Schuster
Available now!

How Big is Love?
Written and illustrated by Emma Dodd
Published by Candlewick Press
Available February 6, 2024!

Love Lah, Lah!
Written by Nailah Blackman
Illustrated by Jade Orlando
Published by Random House
Available now!

Okay, Cupid
Written by Mason Deaver
Published by PUSH
Available now!

Bake It ‘Till You Make It: A Review of Gut Reaction

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Gut Reaction
Written by Kirby Larson and Quinn Wyatt
Scholastic Press
Ages 8-12
Available March 5th, 2024

Tess Medina’s new beginning is anything but refreshing. She just moved to a new town, she’s started a new middle school, and ever since her dad died three years ago, she can’t shake these new sharp pains in her stomach after every meal. Luckily, Tess is an excellent baker thanks to her dad—but she can’t eat anything she makes, and she has to develop a mental map of all public bathrooms in case “the Knife” visits her stomach (p 137). Despite these difficulties, Tess meets some warm, unwavering friends (with the help of her salted butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies), who help give her courage to enter the Junior Baker Competition. As she prepares, Tess’ pain becomes so unbearable that she eventually receives another new thing: a diagnosis. Culminating in an exciting, fast-paced baking competition that pushes Tess to her mental and physical limits, she learns how to fit her love of baking into her new normal.

Award-winning author Kirby Larson partners with her daughter, Quinn Wyatt, for a mother-daughter debut that balances grief, loneliness, and chronic illness with joy, passion, and friendship. Wyatt’s personal experience with Crohn’s disease genuinely immerses readers in Tess’ emotional and physical distress. At the same time, mouth-watering recipes, strong friendships, and witty middle-school humor add depth and hope to the more distressing plotlines. As Tess works through pain and grief, Larson and Wyatt slyly offer readers coping skills, such as Tess’ breathing mantra: “inhale to four, exhale to eight” (p 9). Ending the book with Tess thinking, “I have a disease; I’m not a disease,” Larson and Wyatt instill a lasting powerful message of self-acceptance that can help give readers strength during any number of middle-grade maladies (p 253).

Butler Bookshelf

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The Butler Bookshelf is featuring some of our newly acquired children’s fiction this week, highlighting the graphic novel Shiny Misfits by comedian and disability advocate Maysoon Zayid. This novel centers a confident, smart, talented, Arab American, Muslim middle schooler named Bay Ann with cerebral palsy, a strong friend group, and determination the strength of steel. After winning her school’s talent show with her tap dance routine, Bay Ann feels flustered and almost falls in the presence of her crush, Alyee Maq, who ends up catching her on stage. Alyee becomes and instant viral sensation, minimizing Bay Ann’s identity down to her disability. Furious and driven, Bay Ann uses the help of her friends and her own will power to reclaim her identity and take the spotlight back from Alyee.

Check out this hilarious, trailblazing novel along with more of our children’s fiction below!

The Fifth Hero: Escape Plastic Island
Written by Bill Doyle
Published by Random House Children’s Books
Available January 30, 2024!

Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor
Written by Alan Gratz
Published by Scholastic Press
Available February 2, 2024!

Marshmallow Martians: Museum Sleepover
Written by Deanna Kent
Illustrated by Neil Hooson
Published by Random House Children’s Books
Available today!

Shiny Misfits
Written by Maysoon Zayid
Illustrated by Shadia Amin
Published by Graphix
Available April 16, 2024!

The War of the Witches
Written by Zetta Elliott
Illustrated by Cherise Harris
Published by Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Words are Magic!
Written by Zaila Avant-garde
Illustrated by Felicia Whaley
Published by Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Tumultuous Times in Middle School: A Review of Timid

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Timid 

Written and Illustrated by Jonathan Todd 

Published by Scholastic Graphix 

Ages 8-12 

April 2, 2024 

 

Outsider. Misfit. Alone. Everyone has felt like they don’t belong at one point in their lives, just like Cecil Hall. Shy, artistic Cecil has just moved with his family from Florida to the Boston suburbs. He is worried about making friends and fitting in at his new middle school. Leah, Cecil’s older sister, thinks he should make friends with the other black kids at school. Bookish and unathletic Cecil is unsure how to befriend the black kids without it being awkward. He wants to be known for his comic drawing talent anyway. When one of Cecil’s drawings is used by a “friend” for a prank and gets him into trouble, find out if he stands up for himself and discovers his real friends. 

 

Tweens will empathize with the protagonist in Jonathan Todd’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel. When Cecil gives his white “friend” Ruthie a drawing she had requested, she rubs his hair and says, “Great job, fuzzy” (p. 190). Cecil believes that Ruthie is treating him more like a pet that can be ordered around than a friend and his sister was right all along. He should have joined the black kids’ lunch table on the first day of school. The black kids treat him like a human being, not based on the color of his skin. Assertiveness and finding your voice are timeless lessons in this story for middle-grade readers. Set in the 1980s, the deep beige, brown, and blue hues evoke a throwback appeal. Speech bubbles used throughout the novel showcase Cecil’s innocent and sweet thoughts and move the plot forward. The author’s note in the backmatter reassures readers that middle school can be rough, but that they will make it through the tough times.  

Butler Bookshelf

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This week on the Butler Bookshelf you will find some tremendous teen fiction, including Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia. Teer tells the story of 14 year-old Almudena who has always been curious about the dad she has never met. When Almudena’s white mother decides to travel, she is left to stay with her Guatemalan father for the whole summer. Xavier is happy to have Almudena around, but he expects her to help repair his deteriorating brownstone home. The young Latina has to overcome the language barrier with her father who only speaks Spanish and learn to fit into Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. With time running out, can Almudena and Xavier make a connection despite their differences?

Brownstone 
Written by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia
Published by Versify
Available June 11, 2024!

The Colliding World of Mina Lee
Written by Ellen Oh
Published by Crown Books for Young Readers
Available January 23, 2024!

Dungeons and Drama
Written by Kristy Boyce
Published by Delacorte Press
Available now!

Looking for Smoke
Written by K.A. Cobell
Published by Heartdrum 
Available June 4, 2024!

A Place for Vanishing
Written by Ann Fraistat
Published by Delacorte Press
Available now!

Family Lost and Found: A review of Shut Up, This is Serious

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Shut Up, This is Serious
Carolina Ixta
HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books
January 9, 2024
Age: 14+

In a life full of heavy burdens and chaotic emotions, all Belén wants is a distraction. Her father has left the family, her best friend is pregnant (hiding it, and her boyfriend, from a strict Catholic father), and she can’t find the motivation to care about school. Maybe a boyfriend and the possibility of sex can distract her from reality? But as avoidance often does, plans backfire, and she’s left feeling worse and on the verge of not graduating. After a run in with her father, and near breakdown, Belén’s struggle is finally seen by her family and friends, getting her the help she needs to heal.

Debut author, Carolina Ixta, draws her protagonist as a brash-voiced, big personality to hide her insecurities. Weighed down by unnamed depression, Belén uses her responsibilities to the pregnant Leti and a one-sided relationship to avoid dealing with her feelings of abandonment and unworthiness. Comparison to the father she both despises and misses adds to her confusion and anger. Secondary characters are less developed in contrast to Belén, each dealing with trauma that blinds them to what is happening with the other characters. With a plot that spans a year, the pace moves from a drawn out fall full of heartbreak, questionable decisions, and painful truths, to a quick spring climax, and epilogue-like summer conclusion.

In this raw and emotional family drama, Ixta thoughtfully explores depression, cultural expectations, and the value of chosen family.

Butler Bookshelf

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For this week’s Butler Bookshelf, we are sharing some of our new picture books published in 2024! In the beautifully illustrated Gravity is Bringing Me Down, Wendelin Van Draanen mixes socioemotional learning with science as she walks readers through a day where nothing seems to be going right for the young Leda. She can’t stop dropping things or falling down, hilariously but seriously blaming the missteps on gravity and feeling more and more frustrated as the day goes on. After school, her mom brings Leda to the science museum, where she has fun, learns more about gravity, and eventually feels better. Not only will readers learn a bit about gravitational pull, but they might also hold gravity responsible for the next spilled glass of orange juice.

Check out more of our new picture books in our collection below!

Buffalo Fluffalo
Written by Bess Kalb
Illustrated by Erin Kraan
Published by Random House Studio
Available now!

Don’t Trust Cats: (Life Lessons from Chip the Dog)
Written by Dev Petty
Illustrated by Mike Boldt
Published by Doubleday
Available now!

Gravity is Bringing Me Down
Written by Wendelin Van Draanen
Illustrated by Cornelia Li
Published by Afred A. Knopf
Available January 16th, 2024!

Grumpy Monkey Spring Fever
Written by Suzanne Lang
Illustrated by Max Lang
Published by Random House Studio
Available now!

Like So
Written by Ruth Forman
Illustrated by Raissa Figueroa
Published by Little Simon
Available now!

The Spark in You
Written and illustrated by Andrea Pippins
Published by Random House Studio
Available now!

ALA Coretta Scott King Literature Week 2024

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The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given each year to African American authors and illustrators of children’s and young adult books. Join the ALA’s Coretta Scott King Round Tables and their guest speakers and readers celebrating the life and legacy of Coretta Scott King, African American culture, and universal human values. Scan the QR code to be admitted to these virtual events on January 15-19, 2024 at 7:00 PM EST.