Published by Simon Pulse, 2017
ISBN 978-1-4814-7868-7
For Teens Ages 12+
All Dimple wants to do is learn to code, make her mark on the world, and get her overbearing family out of her hair.
When he parents suggest she attend Insomnia Con - a coding contest that could make all the difference - the summer before college, she thinks that maybe, just maybe, her parents are finally seeing things her way.
For Rishi, family and duty has always been the most important thing. So it is a given that he trusts his parents when they find what might be a suitable future wife for him. All he has to do is meet up with her during Insomnia Con and everything will fall into place - at least if he can get Dimple Shah to fall for him that is.
When they meet and Dimple realizes the intent, a lot more than their personalities clash. But she can't let anything get in the way of her aspirations, and when Rishi proves to be more than helpful on her project - both of them begin working together. However, there may be more than an app that's building between them.
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This novel was exceptional. From the moment I began reading it I didn't want to put it down. Every chore and responsibility became the enemy standing between me and this book. There is something about the narration that just sucks you in and feels more than real. And maybe this is due to Sandhya Menon's OwnVoices perspective of growing up in an Indian family. I soaked in the cultural information presented in the story, and appreciated how it wasn't dumbed down for readers. Though sometimes it can bog down reading when you have to look things up, it was more a principle of curiosity, one that I think teens will rise to given the chance. I highly recommend this book, but don't just take it from me:
* New York Times bestseller 2017 * Buzzfeed Best YA Book 2017 * Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2017 * School Library Journal Best Young Adult Book of 2017 * Bustle Best YA Novel of 2017 * PopSugar Best Young Adult Novel of 2017 * Book Riot Best Book of 2017 * Paste Magazine Best Young Adult Novel of 2017 * Also check out this interview with Menon *
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Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014
ISBN 978-0-399-25251-8
For Children and Teens Ages 10+
"I cannot write a word yet but at three,/ I now know the letter J/ love the way it curves into a hook/ that I carefully top with a straight hat/ the way my sister has taught me to do. Love/ the sound of the letter and the promise/ that one day this will be connected to a full name,/ my own/ that I will be able to write/ by myself./ Without my sister's hand over mine,/ making it do what I cannot yet do./ How amazing these words are that slowly come to me./ How wonderfully on and on they go./ Will the words end, I ask/ whenever I remember to./ Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now,/ and promising me/ infinity," (Woodson, p. 62).
Told in verse, this is a thoughtful and at points haunting autobiographical telling of Woodson's life from birth onward as she and her siblings live through the era of civil rights and sponge in all the good and bad that is around them as children do. The book contains family pictures, a family tree, and a personal note from Woodson at the end of her narrative, lending to the feeling that you are reading someone's dairy - rather than a book from the library.
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When I dove into these pages it was with the sweet kiss of summer in the south and the hot asphalt and soaring buildings of New York City. It was the bitter segregation of seen through the eyes of a child, and the hope of a world about to change. I could see, taste, and feel what Woodson wrote - her descriptions more than words, they come off the page as a tangible thing to grasp in front of you and admire. The front cover art of this book couldn't have been more well done, because opening its pages feel just the same, like the story is coming out and surrounding you. This is an important book as it carries readers into history and shows what it was like to grow up in that time. Woodson's OwnVoice's story is a rich diversity narrative. Check out some of the following links to see more:
* 2014 National Book Award Winner * New York Times bestselling memoir * Coretta Scott King Award Winner 2015 * Newbery Honor Award * NAACP Image Award Winner * Sibert Honor Award Winner * School Library Journal review * Horn Book review * Kirkus review *
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Published by Greenwillow Books, 2017
ISBN 978-0062414151
For Children 8-12
Virgil is quite and shy and fades into the background of his boisterous and perfect family. It is the first day of summer and he feels especially dejected because he is the ultimate failure. Even talking about it is just too much - but he knows he has to do something.
Valencia is smart and tough and she isn't letting anything get in her way, not her being deaf, and least of all not a lack of friends. She will spend all of the summer observing nature, hanging out with the local flora and fauna, and convincing her parents to leave her alone. But she's plagued with bad dreams she can't make sense of, and she can't keep going without sleep.
When Virgil takes his problems to neighborhood child psychic, Kaori, she sees the problem as simple and sends Virgil out into the world on a quest for five stones. It's an easy task, one she is sure will be completed well before Valencia, her next customer, arrives. But what starts as a simple search turns into something much more when Virgil runs into The Bull, a bully named Chet. Suddenly Virgil finds himself in real trouble - the kind that only real friends can help you out of. Told from four points of view (Virgil, Chet, Kaori, and Valencia) the story winds and knits itself together into a whole - showing how some not quite friends can make a whole lot of difference.
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This was an interesting gem of a novel, rich in diverse character driven storytelling and with an added treat of folklore thrown in. Kelly makes use of her Filipina-American background to write Virgil and his family, weaving in Filipino stories, language, and traditions as Virgil works through the problems he faces. This is a book that definitely hits on a lot of diverse themes, including Virgil's Filipino ethnicity, Kaori's Japanese ethnicity, and Valencia being deaf and using a hearing-aide. Where Kelly's own history can't lend a hand, she seems to have done an outstanding job researching - especially when it came to narrating the experience of being deaf. I learned a lot about that experience I never realized and felt like I was walking in the character's shoes. I would be interested to see if an OwnVoices person who is deaf would agree (as I believe that Kelly is not deaf). Check out this interview of the author to learn a little more about her and her writing. Possibly the only thing that disappointed me about this novel is that I felt that her bully narrator, Chet, remained pretty flat as a character. I'd love to hear your point of view on this if you have read the book.
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Published by Roaring Book Press, 2017
ISBN 978-1-62672-371-9
For Ages 3-6
"There was a cat/ who lived alone./ Until the day/ a new cat came," (Cooper, p 1). This is a story of friendship. A story of love. A story of life. This book is an important one and should be on every child's shelf, because the lessons it carries are ones that they will at sometime face, and I can think of no better way to introduce them to some hard topics than with this book.
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This picture book is one of those rare beauties that tells the whole heart of a story in the simplest way. Everything about this book bespeaks minimal. Each page only has one line of the story, sometimes only carrying a few words. The bright illustrations are done in thick bold strokes, the cats of the story almost more ink splotch than cat occasionally. And yet, there is such life in those few spare strokes of ink. I have seen this style before and not liked it, but this was carried off flawlessly. There is a whole world of story and emotion in these 40 pages - in these 167 words. Some books catch me hard, hitting me so deeply in my heart I know I will never forget them, and this is one of those books. If I could give it a double thumbs up I would (it wouldn't fit....).
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Published by Feiwel and Friends, 2017
ISBN 978-1-250-07636-6
For Ages 2-6
Told completely in onomatopoeia and full spread illustration this is a story of snow and ice and wilderness. It is a the story of a little girl and a little wolf cub, alone in a harsh land. Lost and afraid. What will happen when humans and nature come together? A story at once simple and yet as deep and meaningful as time, without going over the old adage about pictures, anyone can agree that you don't need words to understand what is happening.
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Wordless picture books have been explored very deeply and many times over in publications for children. Some of them can dive straight to the heart of the story, entrancing readers and staying with them long after they have finished searching over the last page. Others I've found can fall flat - almost boring, or worse, trying too hard with busy panels and too much going on. Wolf in the Snow is most definitely one of the good ones. I appreciate the mixed style of at once blurred, simple, and unrealistic pictures, mixed with hyper-realistic moments of clarity where you can see each individual hair on the wolves. There is something about the snowy landscape that makes this style work exceptionally well. It reminds me of what it is like trying to look through an iced over windshield in a snowstorm. Some images aren't quite distinct, and if you leave the car, or let the heater do it's work, those same fuzzy images melt and meld into clarity - strong and distinct. The layout of the story also lends to this clarity. For the most part each page is a full color spread of the story, and when it does break into panels they are easy to follow and don't interrupt the flow of the story. The distinct tone of sound, not spoken word, as the narrator further lends to the snowy atmosphere. As a reader you can feel the icy silence of the land, interrupted only by the sounds of the human girl or animal inhabitants. You can easily see that the characters are well and truly on their own, and each page builds on the tension, pushing the reader forward. This type of book is great for child and parent reading sessions, where little voices can predict and add to the story. And though I usually don't use wordless picture books in a storytime, older preschoolers might have the capacity to follow this one. On a final note - I also appreciated the illustrated clues of the main character and her family being Native American or Alaskan Inuit.
* 2018 Caldecott Medal Winner * National Public Radio Best Book of 2017 * A Horn Book Magazine Best Book of 2017 * A School Library Journal Best Book of 2017 * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017 * A Boston Globe Best Book of 2017 * A Huffington Post Best Book of 2017 *
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Published by Imprint, 2019
ISBN 978-1-250-11582-9
For Ages 3-6
Honeysmoke is, as the subtitle says, "A story of finding your color) (Fields, p. 1). Simone is a multiracial little girl, and she wants to know what her color is. Her mother, illustrated to look African American, is much darker than Simone. Her father, illustrated to look Caucasian, is much paler than her. At school and at home Simone struggles to find a place for herself in this scheme, until she can find her own empowerment in the story.
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My first impression of this book was that I felt like there was something missing - or that maybe the story had missed the point. It has all the right things going for it. The author is a reporter who has written much on the subject of multiracial families, runs a website that lends support and encouragement to multiracial children and their parents, and the illustrator is in fact multiracial. The cast of characters are all very diverse and it does have a simple and sweet feel to the little girl's quest. However, I was left with the sense that it was trying too hard, and that while I get what the author's were going for (the empowerment of young people to find where they fit in), I felt that in actuality it was more about confining children to labels unnecessarily. I felt slightly under-qualified to judge the book completely (I am firmly Caucasian) - that maybe my whiteness meant I simply couldn't understand. So I went to my husband for some help. He happens to be bi-racial (identifying as Eurasian) he grew up in Hong Kong - too white to fit in with those he lived around, but too Asian to fit in when visiting the other half of his family in England. I wanted to know how he felt about the story and what he got from it. After reading through, he confirmed what I originally felt, offering that he felt that it was more important to stress being yourself and finding harmony with all your parts without being so stressed about labels, though he could understand how a child would want to fit in. I would love to hear more perspectives on this picture book - especially from those who might be considered an intended multiracial audience. Did you love it? Feel the same as my husband and I? Please let me know if you have thoughts. Also, for those who haven't read the book, check out the Honeysmoke website for more information.
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Published by Roaring Book Press, 2017
ISBN 978-1-250-17536-6
For Ages 4-8
This is a nonfiction picture book that focuses on the world of germs. Told with the help of some little germ buddies, and some honestly pretty cool super magnified pictures of everyday objects, the story pulls the reader along in an interactive experience where each page directs readers to do different things and think about the germs that live all around them.
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This book is a definite thumbs down. About the only thing I respect about it is the pictures (which were definitely interesting photos) and the idea of how easily germs spread. The way they get this across is just a step too far. Like many picture books recently published since Tap the Magic Tree got really big, this one has jumped on the interactive band wagon - in the worst way. After giving children background on the many varied places that germs exist, the book directs readers to touch the book in a certain circled spot. Then they immediately tell readers to touch their teeth with that same finger! This goes on, even including the belly button at one point. As an adult reader I got to the point where I'd want to Lysol this book before putting it back on the shelf. I appreciate the effort, and kids would probably enjoy it and maybe even learn something, but every circulation of this book would make my skin crawl. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and this is a hit just waiting to inform and educate children. But I feel like there are better ways... What do you think? If you haven't read it, check out this youtube video.
* Kirkus review *
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