2+2 Cybils Graphic Novel Finalists

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Katy K.

I am here with more reviews of the 2021 Cybils Graphic Novel Finalists.  (I reviewed four of them earlier.) I only read two more of the teen books – I’d already read Girl from the Sea – and my life is unfortunately not in a place to deal with the heavy topics in the other four finalists just now.  I’m still posting the full graphic with all the covers – if you do have the brainspace for them, I trust the committee to have made excellent choices.  

Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2021. ISBN 9781534469884 Read from library copy. 

This is an adorable beginning graphic novel, suitable for readers who loved Elephant and Piggie or Frog and Toad. Chicken is determined to be cranky.  Worm is determined to make friends with Chicken.  Can Chicken believe herself worthy of a friend?  Can Chicken and Worm figure out what makes best friends?  This is an excellent and hilarious choice to introduce young readers to graphic novels, or to get reluctant readers hooked on books.  

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor. Kokila, 2021. ISBN 978-0525554882. Read from library copy. 

Thirteen-year-old Mei is growing up in a logging camp in 1885, where her father is the assistant cook.  Inside the camp, all the children play with each other, regardless of ethnicity, all of them gathering to listen to Mei tell stories of the giant logger Aunti Po and her giant blue buffalo.  Discrimination is already evident, as the Chinese loggers receive lower wages and don’t receive lodging as the white workers do.  But as the Chinese Exclusion Act is passed, things get even worse.  Meanwhile, Mei must deal with the hard working conditions and her growing crush on her best friend, Bee.  And when disaster strikes, will Auntie Po really be there?  This is illustrated with beautiful watercolor, and hollow-eyed characters reminiscent of Orphan Annie.  I really enjoyed it, and wish that I could take it back in time to give to my junior high self. 

Cybils 2021 YA Graphic Novel finalists - My Last Summer with Cass, My Body in Pieces, Girl from the Sea, Across the Tracks, Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms, Nubia: Real One, and In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers.

Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Fraiser.  Illustrated by Val Wise. Oni Press, 2021. ISBN 9781620109557. Read from library copy.  

High school senior Annie is fine staying home by herself, but her parents push her to do something – anything – social.  Very reluctantly, she signs up for cheerleading, along with her old friend BeBe, who’s recently transitioned.  Both teens are under a lot of pressure for different reasons, and Annie starts to realize how much BeBe is struggling behind her now-perfect makeup.  Slowly, this blossoms into a totally squee-worthy romance.  Classic pen-and-ink art makes this feel like it could be any other teen graphic novel, despite the groundbreaking content. This is another one my daughter found perfection.  

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smyth. DC Comics, 2021. ISBN 978-1401296407. Read from library copy. 

All of her life, teenaged Nubia and her moms have moved whenever she’s accidentally used her super strength, because while Wonder Woman can be strong and seen as awesome, that’s just not the case for a super-strong Black girl.  But now that she’s in high school, when she ruffles feathers by stopping a convenience store hold-up (in front of her crush, no less!  The horror!), they all decide to stick up for Nubia instead.  There’s also gun violence, police prejudice, a racist classmate who won’t accept Nubia’s best friend’s rejection, and a visit from a superhero Nubia had no idea her parents knew.  It’s illustrated with loose, expressive pictures that do a great job of conveying the many emotions on display here.  My daughter loved this so much that she was reduced to one-word ejaculations while waving the book in the air with one hand and gesticulating wildly with the other.   

Posted in Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Middle Grade, Realistic, Reviews, Romance, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Unicorn Island: Secret Beneath the Sand by Donna Galanti

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Katy K.

Thanks so much to Donna Galanti for sending me the second book in this appealing not-quite-middle-grade series. 

Unicorn Island: Secret Beneath the Sand by Donna Galanti. Illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe. Epic!, 2022. Review copy kindly sent by the author. 

Cover of Unicorn Island: Secret Beneath the Sand by Donna Galanti, Illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe.

Unicorn Island: Secret Beneath the Sand
by Donna Galanti. Illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe.

Epic! 2022

ISBN 9781524871970

Review copy kindly sent by the author. 

Sam’s adventures continue in this second book.  Sam is now happy living with her uncle, and especially happy with their regular trips to Unicorn Island.  She’s good friends with Verny the wyvern and Barloc, the young unicorn she helped save in the first book.  But the happy perfection is already cracking – earthquakes on the island are leaving huge cracks in the earth, while the unicorns’ beautiful horns are shrinking.  Can Sam and her best friend Tuck figure out what’s going on in time to save the unicorns?  Can Uncle Mitch (once again very grumpy in the face of these problems) open up enough to let Tuck’s veterinarian mother help?  This book contains a misunderstood monster, a big revelation, and hope for Uncle Mitch’s long-missing wife.  

Secret Beneath the Sand has even more to attract young unicorn lovers, as the magical creatures are present from the very beginning of the book instead of appearing halfway through.  The simple vocabulary, fast action, and frequent beautiful pictures in full color keep the story moving at a pace to entice newly confident readers, with enough plot complexity and emotional resonance to keep it from talking down to them.  This series continues to be a great choice for budding fantasy readers.  

Posted in Books, Early Chapter Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print, Reviews | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Remixed Classics: So Many Beginnings, Clash of Steel, and Travelers Along the Way

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Katy K.

My first experience with a remixed classic was Ibi Zoboi’s Pride, which I still regularly recommend to people.  That remix was set in the present day and published by Balzer + Bray.  These books, all from Feiwel & Friends’ Remixed Classics series, take the classics, still in their original time periods, and retell them from the point of view of people of color.  So far, all of them have been fabulous. 

Cover of So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow.
Cover of A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee
Cover of Travelers along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi.

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow. Feiwel & Friends, 2021. ISBN 9781250761217. Read from library copy. 

It’s 1863 in the Roanoke Freedmen Colony in this Little Women retelling. All four of our beloved sisters and their Mammy are present, recognizable while being their own people. Meg is teaching at the colony’s under-resourced school, while sincerely looking for a life partner.  Joanna tells stories to everyone while also doing construction work, though her sisters urge her to write her words down.  Bethlehem is a brilliant seamstress, taking apart and remaking the gowns from the former plantation house nearby. And Amy is allowed the new-found privilege of being bored, dancing through her days.   

I do not know how many times I’ve read Little Women, and this retelling stays close enough to the original for the beats and the departures to be easily recognizable,  the clear difference between the impoverished middle class existence of the sisters in the original and the struggling out of true poverty, hampered by prejudice and misunderstanding even from those claiming to support them. This was both fascinating and a little distracting from the newer story.  Still, as before, I felt a deep kinship with the sisters, and it was so interesting to be introduced to their journey through an episode of history that I ought to have known about and yet never did.  

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee. Feiwel & Friends, 2021. ISBN 978-1250750372 .Read from library copy. 

Xiang has grown up in the countryside of southern China with her tutor Master Feng and only occasional visits from her mother, a successful salt merchant.  She loves the legends of Zheng Yi Sao, the woman who was the Head of the Dragon, the queen of the largest fleet of pirate ships ever to terrorize the seas. (The title is made up for the book, but Zheng Yi Sao was indeed real and the most successful pirate ever.)  Xiang’s mother plans a safe and boring marriage for her, but on her first day visiting her mother’s large tea house in Canton, Xiang slips out to explore the city.  There she meets an enticing sailor girl named Anh.  And when Anh steals Xiang’s one valuable possession, but brings it back when she discovers that it holds a treasure map, they both decide to drop everything to search for the treasure.  Anh’s family ship, the Huyˋên Vũ, has a small but closely-knit crew whose members speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Thai. Once on board, Xiang starts to feel more at home than she ever has and to question everything she thought she knew about who she is.  Also, did you notice that beautiful cover?

I tried multiple times as a child, but never made it past the first chapter of Treasure Island, so I don’t really know how closely this plotline follows that of the original.  I do know that this was a wonderfully bold adventure with a restrained, slow-burn romance and a focus on found family and self-discovery.  

Travelers along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi. Feiwel & Friends, 2022. ISBN 9781250771278. Read from library copy. 

Robin Hood has long been a favorite of mine – I read both the Howard Pyle and the Robin McKinley versions many times, and have gone on to love many other retellings as well, including Kekla Magoon’s Robyn Hoodlum series.  

This version is set in 1192, immediately following the fall of Akko/Acre during the third Crusade. Rahma al Hud had followed her sister Zeena to war.  Rahma is only moderately religious, but she loves her sister and certainly would like to see the foreigners destroy her country sent back home.  But as the story opens, the situation in Akko has gotten so bad that Rahma and Zeena are sent away to keep them safe, as the Faranji don’t respect women soldiers.  

They can’t quite agree on whether they’re headed to Jerusalem or home, but it will take a lot of cunning to make it through the lines of enemy-held territories.  They keep picking up more people along the way, from the Sky Worshiper Teni to Jewish alchemist Viva and even the false queen of Jerusalem’s prized horse, and running into the boy Rahma can’t forget from her childhood.  We also get short narratives from each of the three major political figures involved – Queen Isabella, Yusuf or Salah-a-Din, and Richard the Lion-Hearted.  But all of these figures seem to care more about their own victory than about the people whose lives are affected by their struggles.  Will Rahma al-Hud and her band be able to save the peace of the land?  While I loved all of these books, this is one I’m seriously considering adding to my permanent library.  

A fourth Remixed Classic, What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri, is due out in May, and there are more scheduled for 2023.  I’m looking forward to them!

Posted in Books, Historical, Print, Reviews, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Good Neighbors by Stephanie Burgis

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Katy K.

I’m always excited when there’s a new Stephanie Burgis book! If you are in need of some clever and comforting writing, this is an excellent choice.

Good Neighbors
by Stephanie Burgis

Five Fathoms Press, 2022

ASIN B09BS2JS1J

Review copy received from the author, forgetting that I had already pre-ordered it.  Disclosure: I sponsor Stephanie on Patreon.

Mia and her father have been hiding in a quiet town ever since their metal workshop in their old town was burnt down – though Mia prefers not to dwell on the details.  She’s just hoping that if they keep their heads down and she keeps the flower boxes filled, their new neighbors won’t notice that her metalworking is unnaturally magical.  

But the cozy house was affordable because it’s undesirably close to a necromancer’s castle.  And when undead minions start falling apart on Mia’s lawn, she can’t help but repair the poor creatures – after all, it’s not their fault they were put together badly.  And that naturally leads to social invitations from the necromancer, the indecently handsome Leander – because what necromancer’s heart isn’t warmed when someone takes the time to repair the minions he rescued from another necromancer?  And as she gets to know him, she learns that behind his cool surface is a man who’s made a life for himself after a traumatic childhood. 

This is, as promised on the cover, a cozy-spooky romance, one that I’ve already re-read since reading it for the first time in January. It was originally published as four short stories, which is apparent in the jumps in time and the little summaries of the previous sections woven into the beginnings of each, but which didn’t detract from the overall charm of the story.

But hidden behind the banter and duels with over-the-top evil necromancers are some deeper thoughts about the importance of being accepted and accepting yourself for who you are, whether your talents are considered normal or “unnatural.” And what starts as a clear mission for Mia to open up about who she is turns into a larger movement for other magical people to find a community where they can be celebrated instead of hidden or persecuted.  I was also very pleased to see that both of side romances were same-sex, even as one was sweet, subtle and slow-burn, the other tempestuous.  The sweet romance builds into a heartwarming and affirming ending, a story I expect to reread many more times.  

Posted in Adult, Books, Fantasy, Print, Reviews, Romance | Tagged , | 4 Comments

3 More Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Finalists

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Katy K.

Onwards with my reading of this year’s middle grade fiction finalists! To recap, I had already read Flight of the Puffin before the list was released, and read and reviewed Violets are Blue, Many Points of Me, and Finding Junie Kim back in February. I have so much respect for Cybils Round 2 judges – it’s hard enough narrowing a long list down to seven finalists, but I don’t know how I could ever pick one best book among so many different but great choices! (In case you missed the news, Linked by Gordon Korman was this year’s winner in this category.)

Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas. Amulet Books, 2021. ISBN 9781419751028 Read from library copy. 
This story alternates between two boys at a Nova Scotia junior high.  Red-haired Brian struggles with what he calls Super Awkward Weirdo Syndrome, which makes it hard for him to talk or make friends, even on the basketball team, and makes him a target for bullying.  When his father, who’s made a living growing not-quite-yet legal substances, runs away from the police, his family falls apart.  Soon, he and his little brother are on their own, trying to figure out what to do and whether to listen to their father’s friend Hank or a sympathetic police officer.  

Meanwhile, Jamaican-Canadian Ezra, on the same basketball team, has a much more stable home life but has been struggling with losing the close relationship with his former best friend.  That former best friend is picking up the openly homophobic attitude of the boy he’s now hanging out with – especially painful since Ezra is considering coming out.  Ezra just might have feelings for Brian – but will they be able to open up to each other?  Ezra’s many interests, including playing guitar and making playlists in addition to basketball, round out the story and keep it from being as bleak as it could easily have been.  This was a great balance of tension and sweetness, with a coming out story that was neither unhappy nor overly rosy.  

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus. Margaret Ferguson Books, 2021. ISBN 978-0823447053. Read from library copy. 
Inspired by the Pevensy children’s evacuation from London during World War II in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this historical fiction novel imagines life for three children similarly evacuated to the countryside.  The Pearce children – William, Edmund and Anna – have a secret mission as well.  Their uncaring grandmother, with whom they had been living, has died just before the start of the book, leaving them without any living relations.  Their solicitor hopes that they’ll be able to find a nice family to take them in while they’re being evacuated.  But this is much harder than they hoped, especially as no one really wants to take in three children together, and the siblings refuse to be separated.  Will they be able to stick together through bullying and poverty?  The only person who understands them and their love of reading is the librarian, Mrs. Müller, but both the town and the London evacuee coordinators dislike the children spending time with her for differing reasons.  

I won’t try to introduce you to the children and their different traits here, to save you the joy of discovering them yourself.  They have distinct personalities that feel realistic, all of them and the story filled with the charm of classic children’s books like Ballet Shoes. Despite the children being without a home or family, this felt like perfect comfort reading for these difficult times, a book which I happily passed on to my mother, who also enjoyed it.  

Linked by Gordon Korman. Scholastic, 2021. ISBN 9781338629118 . Read from library copy. 
The voices of three main characters and a couple of occasional extras link together to tell the story of Linked.  Michael Amoroso, art club president and the only Dominican kid in Chokecherry, Colorado, has had to bike back to his middle school late to retrieve his forgotten phone, when he sees a giant swastika painted on a large blank wall.  Lincoln “Link” Rowley is an inveterate prankster, not at all deterred by his father’s ambitious plans both for him and for the future of Chokecherry. His most recent prank is putting fertilizer in the new paleontology office that’s taking over everything since a small dinosaur bone was discovered.  Dana Levinson is one of the so-called “egglets”, the daughter of two of the paleontologists who’s trying to fit into her new middle school despite the double whammy of the disdain being called “egglet” demonstrates and being the only Jewish girl in Chokecherry.  This last feels even harder as more and more swastikas appear around the school, leading the teachers to start a tolerance unit that only makes things worse.  And as Michael comes up with the idea to make a paper chain 6 million links long, to demonstrate the scope of the Holocaust, Link makes a discovery about his own heritage that puts everything that’s been happening in a new light.  

With kids of different backgrounds and perspectives, the horrors and the thoughtfulness well-balanced with humor and middle school ennui, this story is classroom gold, excellent for class assignments or read-alouds, in addition to choice reading.

Posted in Books, Historical, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Ripped Away by Shirley Vernick

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Katy K.

I mentioned earlier that I had several great books that authors or publishers had asked me to review yet to share with you, and I’m so happy to share one of them with you today. This combination of true crime, time travel, and historical fiction is sure to keep you turning the pages!

Ripped Away
by Shirley Vernick

Regal House, 2022

ISBN 978-1646032037

Read through Edelweiss, at the author’s request.  

Young teen Abe Pearlman has never been able to work up the courage to talk to his crush, Mitzy Singer. He’s feeling especially dejected one afternoon when he wanders into a fortune-teller’s shop.  He doesn’t have high expectations – but somehow finds himself sent back in time to London in the time of Jack the Ripper.  He’s still a Jewish kid, now named Asher, but at that time, that means he has a job he’s supposed to know how to do (much of the information lurking in his subconscious, fortunately) and a single mother he has to help support.  But this disorientation is soon a minor issue, as he quickly discovers that bit about Jack the Ripper – and that the police and the public are convinced that the Ripper must be a Jew, turning the Jewish community in general and people that Abe knows in particular into targets.  

He also finds that Mitzy has also been sent back in time.  She’s living in the apartment just above his – but in the life she’s taken over, she’s blind, and even more desperate to get back home than he is.  With no real idea how they ended up where they are, or who the real Jack the Ripper is, solving these dual mysteries is a tall order indeed.  On the plus side, Abe and Mitzy now have no option but to work closely together, getting to know each other in the process.  

This book worked very well – having the adventure be a time travel kept the situation from feeling too grim, while having the kids dropped into existing lives made for a much easier introduction into the other timeline than it would have been if they’d had to make places for themselves.  Both Abe and Mitzy were able to make real differences – Mitzy more with ideas, since she didn’t leave the apartment on her own.  I hadn’t known of the anti-Semitic connection with Jack the Ripper at all, and it’s a good thing to be reminded of in these times of sadly increased violence.  The adventure, though, is good enough to attract kids on its own.  

For another take on this book, here’s Ms. Yingling’s review.

This perspective is sorely lacking in historical fiction in particular. Laurel Snyder’s Seven Stories Up also has time travel, I think from a Jewish perspective (I know the author is herself Jewish), though the story is much slower-paced and gentler than Ripped Away. Jonathan Auxier’s Sweep is also set in 19th century London and includes violence and some Jewish elements. I have read more teen books in which characters travel back in time to witness injustice, like Zetta Elliott’s A Wish After Midnight. Readers, am I missing more of this in middle grade books?

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

2021 in Review – the Books

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Katy K.

We’re already almost a quarter of the way through 2022, and before time gets any farther away from me, I’m putting out this list of my favorites from the past year.

In 2021, I read 29 new-to-me books that I rated 9, plus 8 older favorites revisited. I also rated 104 books as an 8 – still excellent, and some of them I wonder in retrospect why I didn’t rate them higher. But in order to keep things manageable both for me and for you, dear reader, I’m limiting myself to the shorter lists to share with you here. And perhaps I can use this as a guide to what books to try to go back and write reviews of. I’m not holding my breath, though, the way things have been going.

Here is my standard disclaimer about rating books:

“I have never liked doing a public scale rating of books – the librarian in me would rather describe what’s in the book and let you decide if it sounds good for you. But I do give books number ratings on my own private spreadsheet. I shamelessly borrowed the Book Smugglers’ 10-point rating system for this, where 0 is “I want my time and my money back”, 5 is “meh” and so on. For my purposes, 7 is a book I enjoyed, 8 is one I loved and 9 is one I really, really loved. 10 only gets given out retrospectively to books I find myself re-reading and thinking about a lot – a true personal classic.”

Middle Grade

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
Strange Birds by Celia C. Pérez

Teen

  • Burn by Patrick Ness
  • Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
  • Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
  • Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer

Adult

Cover of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Rereads

The Girl with the Dragon Heart by Stephanie Burgis
Renegade Magic
Stolen Magic
Courting Magic
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
The Kairos Mechanism by Kate Milford

If you’ve made it through to the end of this long list and still want more, you may enjoy my end-of-year lists from previous years: 2020 , 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.

Posted in Books, Lists | Tagged , | 9 Comments

4 Cybils YA Spec Fic Finalists

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Katy K.

Here’s what I’ve read of the Cybils YA Speculative Fiction finalists so far.  All of them are very good – I’m always so glad for the chance to have some of the best books chosen for me.  I’m still waiting for the audiobook of The Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao.  And I confess, sadly but without shame, that I had checked out the remaining two finalists, Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis and The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros, when a family emergency struck and they both suddenly seemed too grim for me to deal with.  

The Gilded Ones  by Namina Forna. Delacorte, 2021. ISBN 978-1984848697. Listened to audiobook on Libby.

16-year-old Deka is horrified when she bleeds gold instead of proper red at the coming-of-age purity ceremony in her village.  Rejected by both a would-be suitor and her father, she is eventually recruited by an unnamed woman to join with other alaki girls in training to fight the monsters attacking the empire. The beautiful cover had led me to expect a more stately story, but this is a story of war where Deka must figure out what’s going on and who to trust on her own.  There’s some romance – lower key than is usual in teen fantasies – with stronger female friendships and a definite emphasis on men’s distrust of women’s power.  Sadly, I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, but I could definitely see why it’s as popular as it is, and I’d happily give it to my son, who loves military strategy speculative fiction.  

Mirror Season  by Anna-Marie McLemore. Read by Jennifer Jill Araya. Recorded Books, 2021. ASIN B091HYSDWV

Ciela is trying as hard as she can to forget what happened to her at the party that was supposed to kick off the school year, forget the boy she could hear being assaulted at the same time.  But all around her, things keep turning to mirror glass, and she finds herself drawn to the boy, Lock, when he shows up in her classes.  Meanwhile, she’s trying to navigate her work at her family’s pastelería, having her best friend off at college, and teasing at school by people who don’t understand what being bisexual means.  Ciela is an unreliable narrator, as we slowly learn that she has not told herself the truth about what happened that night in order to protect herself from the pain. The tiny magics of mirrors and the secret forest that Lock is building help to shelter the reader from this pain, at least a little bit, helped also by the delicious baked goods from the pastelería.  This is beautiful, deeply real and personal.  

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. Margaret K. McElderry Books. 2021. ISBN 9781534477117 Read from library copy. 

Artemisia is a novice in the order of the Gray Sisters, who ever since the Sorrow struck the kingdom of Loraille, have worked to make sure the dead stay resting.  Artemisia is good at defending against the spirits, but with her scarred hands and nonexistent social skills, has never felt that she really fits in with the other novices. 

And then, unbelievably, an army of the dead breaches the blessed walls of the convent, and Artemisia is the last defense against terrifying higher spirits.  The only way to stop them is to try to use a saint’s relic that contains an even more powerful revenant, one that wants nothing more than its own freedom…

While a second book is due out in the fall, there is so far no sign of romance at all, a pleasant break from the usual teen drama.  This was the winner of the teen spec fic category, and deservedly so.  It had impressive world-building with an authentic medieval feel, though clearly an alternate world which worships the Lady and has a female-led church structure.  This world-building and Artemisia’s growth both as a person and in using her abilities is spread through a pulse-pounding story of rising evil and corruption.  My mother and I are both very excited for the next book!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He. Roaring Brook Press, 2021. ISBN 9781250258564 Read from library copy. 

Sometime in the future, Cee has spent three-plus years on an abandoned island with only a small refurbished android for company.  She can’t remember how she got there, but she does remember that she has a sister, Kay, and that she needs to find her. 

Sixteen-year-old Kasey, who once had a sister named Celia, lives in a floating eco-city, built to house deserving climate refugees, since too-frequent storms have made land unsafe.  She’s trying to solve the mystery of Celia’s disappearance, as well as find a solution to save the vast numbers of earth’s population who won’t fit in the eco-cities.  Both stories have their own struggles, and though it’s clear from the beginning that they must connect somehow, the twist that connects them is still mind-bending.  This one, grounded in a failing Earth, looks at relationships in families and what we owe to our fellow humans.  

Have you, dear reader, read any of these or the other finalists I haven’t gotten to yet? Let me know in the comments!

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias. Illustrated by Tracy Subisak

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Katy K.

Hello, friend! It’s been a while, but I am finally back with one of the lovely review books I promised you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Amah Faraway
by Margaret Chiu Greanias. Illustrated by Tracy Subisak

Bloomsbury, 2022

ISBN 978-1547607211

Review copy kindly sent by the publisher.

Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias. Illustrated by Tracy Subisak Bloomsbury, 2022 ISBN 978-1547607211 Review copy kindly sent by the publisher.

Kylie is about to visit her grandmother, her Amah, for the first time.  She mostly knows Amah from video chats, where Amah is animated and Kylie doesn’t know what to say.  It takes a long time for Kylie to warm up to the unfamiliar sights, sounds, and foods of Taipei.  Once she does, though, she’s reluctant to leave.  Then, computer chats are much more fun – and she can’t wait for Amah to come and visit her.

The book has a lovely parallel structure, where Amah takes the lead in the first half and Kylie takes the lead in the second half.  Tracy Subisak’s (Jenny Mei is Sad)  brilliant watercolor illustrations show Kylie’s slow transformation as well as the sights of Taipei. Taiwanese is shown in characters and sometimes spelled out, translated only when Kylie understands it, which is very helpful in showing her point of view.  Endpapers show paintings of significant things in the text, from slippers to soup dumplings, with English text in the beginning spread and Taiwanese characters plus spelled out in Western letters in the back.  

The book is of course especially important for Taiwanese-American families, but any child with far-away family members will be able to relate.  And I for one would now really love to visit Taipei!  I’ll be putting my review copy in my daughter’s school media center, where I’m sure it will be well loved. 

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3 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Finalists

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Katy K.

Continuing on with my read-through of the Cybils finalists in my favorite categories. I had already read Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden, and I’m so happy that it made the finalist list! I still have three books to go – one I can check out today, and two that I’m waiting on hold for.

Here’s all seven of the fabulous 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Finalists.

Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh. HarperCollins, 2021. ISBN 9780062987983. Read from library copy. 
Junie is dreading going back to middle school, where she’s bullied every day for being Korean-American.  And when horrible racist graffiti keeps appearing in the gym, her longtime best friend, Patrice, feels that they need to take action to show people that their actions or silence are hurting them.  But Junie’s efforts to stop the bully have only made things worse.  Then, she starts asking her beloved grandfather for stories of his childhood – during the Korean war. The resulting stories from him and from her grandmother show such suffering and resilience that Junie is determined to share their story, and to stand up more to the bullies herself.  She may not be comfortable with standing up in front of the school, but she can find other ways to support her friends and maybe make things better for herself as well.  This is such a beautiful book, and I learned so much about the Korean war and what life was like during it.  Highly recommended.

Many Points of Me by Caroline Gertler. Greenwillow, 2021 ISBN 978-0063027008 Read from library copy. 
Georgia has been struggling since her father, a famous artist, died.  Not only is her mother completely absorbed in putting together a retrospective show of his work, but everyone seems to expect Georgia to follow in his footsteps as an artist.  Meanwhile, she can’t seem to find any of the artistic inspiration that used to come so easily to her, and the big show only reminds her that she was never a subject of any of her father’s famous asterism portraits.  Both of these aspects are making it hard for Georgia to relate to both her mother and her best friend.  This is a thoughtful story of a girl finding her way through a hard time and back to herself, with special appeal to young artists.  

Violets are Blue by Barbara Dee. Aladdin, 2021. ISBN 9781534469181. Read from library copy. 
Seventh-grader Rennie would really just like to escape from her life.  Her parents have divorced, and her father moved to New York City, a plane flight away, and announced that he’s getting remarried.  Her mother has grown increasingly grouchy and withdrawn, yelling at Rennie alternately for keeping secrets from her and then for trying to pry into her own secrets.  On top of that, her former best friend has turned out to be not such a good friend after all. 

Her escape is her new hobby: watching YouTube videos by the famous CatFX, who does amazing special effects makeup tutorials, including the beautiful mermaid face shown on the cover.  Between her mom and her new stepmom, she’s able to put together enough supplies to practice the looks herself.  And when her mother moves to a new town, Rennie relaunches herself as Wren, tiny but fierce, finally making some friends as she joins the musical as makeup specialist when her mother pressures her to spend less time on her computer.  But warning signs that her mother is really not doing well keep building up, even as Wren doesn’t want to see them.  Will her hard work on makeup help her when things in real life start falling apart even more?

Not only does this have a great balance of Wren’s problems and fun obsessions, but her parents are shown as real people trying their best, even when it would have been easy to make any of them neglectful villains. This is one I think my daughter would love if I could convince her to read about anything but demigods or dragons.

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