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Everything I Know about You and Halfway Normal by Barbara Dee

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Katy K.

Here are some more books I read for my KidLitCon panel on taboo topics in middle grade this year. I’d previously read and very much enjoyed her Star Crossed, but she has written a lot of books, all with very real-feeling kids facing serious issues. I was also privileged to read a very early version of her upcoming book, Maybe He Just Likes You, which she was talking about at KidLitCon. It was such an early version, though, that I’m not going to review it here. I’ll refer you to her column about it at the Nerdy Book Club, and say that E-ARCs are now available from Edelweiss if reading ARCs is your thing.

Everything I Know about You by Barbara Dee. Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Tally and her 7th grade class are going on their big trip to DC. It should be exciting – but things aren’t going the way Tally had thought. She’d wanted to room with her two best friends, Spider (a boy) and Sonnet. But she’s assigned to room with Ava, the lead “clonegirl” and Tally’s enemy. Spider is assigned to room with Marcus, a boy who bullied him a few years ago. Tally is horribly worried that Spider will be victimized again, and, like Tai in So Done, hurt that he feels he’s outgrown the nickname she gave him. Who is she if she isn’t her friends’ protector?

Tally herself is the opposite of fashion- and body-conscious, enjoying her strength, her squishy belly, and not-fashionable fashion statements, such as decorative cat-eye glasses with bowling shirts. But rooming with Ava makes it clear that Ava isn’t the perfect person she always appeared to be, struggling with her mother, one of the chaperones, and not eating at meals, going so far as to take uneaten food back to her room to throw away. What can or should Tally do for her, especially when there’s such a long history of dislike?

Halfway Normal by Barbara Dee. Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Norah is returning to seventh grade after 2 years of leukemia treatments. She’s ahead in school from her years of nothing but tutoring, but her physical growth and social development are behind. (The flat chest and short post-chemo hair lead to some unwelcome misgendering.) It’s hard for people to figure out if she’s broken and needs to be treated with extreme care, or so well that she shouldn’t be asking for special treatment, when the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Her former best friend Silas won’t talk to her, while her other best friend, Harper, tries and fails to understand her, and has new friends at school. When Norah herself makes a new friend, Griffin, in her 8th grade math class, she struggles with how much and what to tell him.

My own daughter has spent enough time in the hospital for me to recognize the details of children’s hospitals depicted here – solidarity with hospital kids and their families! Norah’s separated parents and her step-mother all try their best to work together to take care of Norah as she moves between needing lots of hands-on care and more independence. Norah’s drawing and doodling help her to understand herself better, and a project on Greek myths leads her to the central metaphor of the book, as Norah, like Persephone, moves between two very different worlds. It is so very welcome and needed to read a book about a kid with serious health issues that avoids both the tragic and unwarranted rainbows.

Posted in Books, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic | Tagged cancer, eating disorders, middle grade fiction, youth fiction | Leave a comment

Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Katy K.

Here’s a magical midsummer book for the summer solstice! I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book at KidLitCon, and waited to read it until closer to its release date.

Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca. Yellow Jacket, 2019.

Mimi is the youngest in her family, and feels that the major talents of her three older siblings – good at sports and drama, and all able to effortlessly play music together – have all passed over her. We as readers, of course, can tell that this isn’t really true as she is an excellent and dedicated baker, whipping up different favorite treats for each of her family members for different occasions. But she’s still missing her best friend, who recently moved away.

Many more changes come all at once – she hears a mysterious flute playing in the woods near her house and sees a strange, colorful bird. A new bakery, the While Away, run by the glamorous Mrs. T. has opened up in town, advertising a contest for young bakers with the prize of a lesson with former hometown celebrity baker and Mimi’s personal idol Puffy Fay. It’s pretty obvious from early on that Mrs. T is Titania, especially as the cafe is staffed by Peaseblossom and Cobweb, and Mimi’s brother is involved in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. ( I’d wondered whether or not kids would recognize the Shakespeare connection, but my nine-year-old looked at the cover and commented right away that it looked like A Midsummer Night’s Dream.) Much as in Star-Crossed, the plot here echoes that of the play, with a crazily enchanted person – in this case, Mimi’s food writer dad, who just starts eating everything in sight and is no longer able to distinguish the tastes – as well as some young love and a contest between Oberon and Titania.

There’s depth, though, along with the hilarity of magically induced crushes, as Mimi tries to figure out what’s wrong, makes friends with a mysterious boy, and pushes herself to excel and to learn from failures. Mimi’s mixed Indian-American heritage is even tied nicely into the plot, without it being a story focused just on that aspect of who she is. What with the magic, the relationships, the humor, and the delicious-sounding treats, this has lots to appeal to a wide range of readers.

For more delicious treats paired with magic, try The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis, the Love Sugar Magic books by Anna Meriano, or Baking Magic by Diane Zahler. Those more interested in Indian-inspired fantasy could also read The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta or Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi, both with sequels out this year.

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged #OwnVoices, baking, India, shakespeare, youth fantasy | 8 Comments

Sequels: Fated Sky, Exit Strategy, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Katy K.

Sometimes I read the first book in a series and never go on. Other times I keep up in fits and starts. Here’s me trying to keep up. All of these deserve longer reviews, but here’s to living with reality.

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal. Tor, 2018.
The sequel to The Calculating Stars, as mentioned in Books I Missed in 2018 for Top Ten Tuesday. It’s 1961. The moon base has been established. Elma is flying shuttles on the moon in three month rotations and missing her husband Nathaniel. Complete climate collapse on Earth is still in the near future, but as progress towards establishing a colony on Mars slows down, so does government and popular support. Elma’s shuttle, returning to Earth, is held up by angry Earth First people who are convinced that Mars will be just for wealthy white people. Elma’s response puts her in the headlights she hates so much and leads the way for another alternate history science fiction adventure. It’s filled with authentically disgusting space details, personality clashes, confronting racism, tragedy – and still includes plenty of math, science, and headlines lifted and barely altered from real history. Continue reading →

Posted in Adult, Audiobook, Books, Historical, Print, Sci-Fi, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged adult science fiction, artificial intelligence, LGBTQ, Mars, pirates, science fiction, teen historical fiction | 6 Comments

A Baker’s Half Dozen of Gluten Free Cookbooks

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Katy K.

I was diagnosed with celiac disease just before Christmas last year, so as a break from my usual fiction, here are some of the cookbooks I’ve been reading. The first one arrived in the mail as a gift, and all the rest are from the library.

Gluten Free Cookbook for Families by Pamela Ellgen. Rockridge Press, 2016. – This book turned up on my doorstep a few days after I was diagnosed. So much good stuff here! Ellgen has her own mostly whole grain blend of gluten-free flour – a rarity in a field where most blends focus on replicating white flour. We’ve made her coffee cake and beef and broccoli stir-fry multiple times. I appreciate having many dinner recipes that are naturally gluten free, not trying to replicate wheat-based recipes. The only flaw is that she gives the prep time as 10 minutes for everything, even things like chicken pot pie that took my love and I two hours to prep working together. Still, we use this every week.

Cooking for your Gluten-Free Teen by Carlyn Berghof. Andrews McMeel, 2013. Berghof is a chef whose recipes are written for her daughter. She also worked with a pediatric gastroenterologist to find out the foods teens missed most – which is why you’ll find a “recipe” for a grilled cheese sandwich, along with recipes for donuts, pizza, and hot dog buns. A downside is a reliance on powdered egg whites, which I have a hard time finding and am not too excited about using in the first place. I did take her suggestion of investing in a bread machine with a gluten-free cycle, for easy, delicious and cost-saving bread.

Gluten-Free and Vegan Bread by Jennifer Katzinger. Sasquatch Books, 2012.
I have friends who’ve given up baking because they can’t do gluten, dairy, or eggs. Katzinger to the rescue – this is one of three books of hers my library has. I made two recipes from here, the millet sandwich bread and the fougasse. Most recipes rely entirely on oven spring for their rise, which means you can just mix the bread up and pop it in the oven . I didn’t try her sourdough recipes, though I was pleased to see them. It’s not the perfect cookbook for me, because like most vegan cooking, it uses a lot of tree nuts (here in the form of almond or hazelnut flour), to which I am allergic. But if you can’t do gluten, dairy, or eggs and can do nuts, this could be a great cookbook for you.

Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. Thomas Dunn Books, 2014.
This is great in concept, but the execution fell a little flat for me. The recipes aren’t engineered for nutrition, first of all, and secondly, we don’t eat enough bread or have the refrigerator space to store the large amounts of dough the recipes make to be baked up a loaf at a time. Still, if you’re a bread lover with lots of refrigerator space, this might be the book for you.

The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen. America’s Test Kitchen, 2014.
My love is a big fan of Cook’s Illustrated. If you know the magazine, you already know that the Test Kitchen will walk you through all the mistakes they made in getting to the perfect version of a recipe. They’ve discovered, for instance, that gluten-free muffins and cookies will turn out much better if you let the batter rest for a half hour before baking. Well, that makes it much harder to make muffins for Sunday breakfast – but at least we know they’ll turn out well. We made several of the baking recipes from here, but left the dinner recipes alone as we just don’t have the time most nights.

The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook Volume 2 by America’s Test Kitchen. America’s Test Kitchen, 2015.
The big addition here is a whole grain flour blend based on teff. We made the whole grain sandwich bread, both by hand and adapted for the new bread machine, and it was delicious both times. I also made the brown sugar cookies based on the whole grain flour blend – a hit with everyone in my house.

No-Fail Gluten-Free Bread Baking by Pamela Ellgen. Rockridge Press, 2018.
This cookbook looks good, though I have yet to try any of the recipes. After a discussion of ingredients and techniques, they move to easy basic breads and proceed on through more advanced baking, including yeasted, quick, and sourdough breads, as well as muffins, scones, and even croissants and pain au chocolat. Yum!

Posted in Adult, Books, nonfiction, Print | Tagged cooking, gluten-free cooking | Leave a comment

Miss Buncle’s Book for Old School Wednesday

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Katy K.

I’m going to borrow a feature title from the Book Smugglers again and call this Old School Wednesday – taking a break from trying to keep up with the latest hot releases by reading an older book. This one first came out in 1936, but I had never heard of it until this year.

Miss Buncle’s Book by D. E. Stevenson. Sourcebooks Landmark. Originally published in 1936 by Herbert Jenkins Ltd.

It’s 1930s England, and Barbara Buncle, a single woman, needs a way to support herself, since her investments are no longer producing enough money. She hits upon the idea of writing a book, but since she feels she has no imagination, she writes a novel set in her own village, populated by the people who really live there. She changes their names, of course, but they are still quite recognizable. The first half pretty much follows real life, but she finds she has some imagination in the second half after all, writing of an almost magical Golden Boy who appears and brings change to the village. As the story opens, she is just finding a publisher for her book.

Miss Buncle hadn’t worried much about the reaction to her book because she really didn’t think anyone she knew would read it. But the book becomes a bestseller and her neighbors do read it. They recognize themselves. They are not happy – at least the ones who are pictured unflatteringly – are not happy. Miss Buncle, though happy with the income, is under some pressure. There is pressure from people in the village to unpublish her book (how?) and from the publisher to write another, though she is not feeling inspired. Then, an older teen girl, Sally, comes to visit her aunt in the village, and she and Miss Buncle become friends. Suddenly, parts of the book that were most definitely Miss Buncle’s imagination to begin with start to come true…

This was filled with well-drawn characters and wry reflections, especially on the limitations gender roles put on Miss Buncle and many of the other women in the village. While of course a product of its time, Miss Buncle still has a satisfying character arc. It is also just hilarious, and the plot went some directions that I was not expecting. It’s written for adults, but there is nothing inappropriate for advanced younger readers. My sister recommended this to me, saying that the following books in the series are even better. I really should get around to reading them, too.

Posted in Adult, Books, Historical, Print, Realistic, Reviews | Tagged classics, England, fiction, humor | 2 Comments

4 Kids’ Fantasies from Outside the US

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Katy K.

Here are four middle grade fantasy books from the English-speaking world outside of the US – South Africa, Australia, Ireland, and the UK. (Shorter reviews as part of my trying to catch up with my reading.)

The Turnaway Girls by Hayley Chewins. Candlewick, 2018.
In the world of this book from South African author Hayley Chewins, cloistered girls turn music into gold for the benefit of the wealthy Master that own the music. But one of the girls, Delphernia, has songs of her own that turn into birds and is full of forbidden questions. With the help of a rejected prince with brown skin and black eyes like hers, and a girl who dares to be a song master herself, Delphernia might find a way to freedom for herself and the other girls. This story is told in poetic language, but with graphic depictions of abuse that were difficult for me to read. It still resonated with deep honesty. Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

Wundersmith: the Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Little, Brown 2018.
Morrigan’s story from the Cybils award winning Nevermoor: the Trials of Morrigan Crow continues. Morrigan thought her troubles would be over once she was accepted to the Wundrous Society – but the promise of friendship seems fragile even among the nine members of her new school. Her supposed mentor, Jupiter North, continues being mostly useless as he is constantly gone investing a rash of missing people. The only person who seems interested in teaching her to use her powers (or knack, as it’s called here) is the evil Wundersmith, who keeps finding his way to her despite boundaries that are supposed to keep him out. But the series continues to balance darkness with whimsy with magical places, unique people, and things like the door that appears in Morrigan’s bedroom that leads only to the train to take her unit to daily classes. This is still such a charming series. Jessica Townsend is an Australian author.

Begone the Raggedy Witches. The Wild Magic Trilogy Book 1 by Celine Kiernan. Candlewick, 2018.
As Mup is being driven home from the hospital after the death of her aunt, she she clouds of ragged dark figures – both men and women – following the car. She calls them the Raggedy Witches. She learns that her family was in hiding, and the magic that protected them has collapsed with her aunt’s death. The “witches” are folk from the Other Side come to take her mother back over the border, with news that they’ve taken Mup’s (African-Irish) father hostage. As they all cross the border, Mup’s little brother Tipper turns into a talking dog (though their real dog, Badger, still doesn’t talk.) Mup meets a boy her own age, Crow, who can change between boy and crow shapes and is looking for his mother. We never learn Mup’s age, but she felt about 9 or so to me – quite a bit younger than most fantasy heroines. Even though both her parents are alive, she, Tipper, and Crow – with some help from Aunty’s spirit – are own their own for much of the book. And though Aunty tries to help, it’s also clear that she was keeping Mup and her mother away from a world where they have powerful magic without their knowledge or consent, making for some interesting ethical debates along with the rescue-the-parents adventure. This is the first book I’ve read by Irish author Kiernan, but I look forward to reading more. Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

Straw into Gold: Fairy Tales Respun by Hilary McKay. Illustrated by Sarah Gibb. Margaret K. McElderry Books/ Simon & Schuster.
British author Hilary McKay is a personal favorite of mine, though her other books – the Casson Family series, the Exiles, the Lulu books – are all realistic. Here, she retells classic fairy tales with named characters and real motivations, often from different points of view, and all with lovely Scherenschnitte-style illustrations by Sarah Gibb. Rapunzel, for example, is told from her children’s perspective, watching their mother work through her PTSD and agoraphobia. Rumpelstiltskin is a hob who really, really wanted a baby to love, where Petal the miller’s daughter just wants to be rich so she doesn’t have to do work. Cinderella’s prince breeds roses, and really wants a not-blue-blooded girl to marry, while Cinderella charms with her cheerfulness and her friendship with the king’s book boy. Chicken Pox and Crystal or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells a story of the evil magic mirror’s effect in future generations, as a much older Snow White nurses her granddaughter through the chicken pox with soup and stories. This story had some of my favorite quotes reflecting on beauty and its usefulness or lack thereof :

“Most witches are (or were) beautiful. That’s how they got away with so much… All little girls are pretty,” said her grandmother. “I’ve never seen one that wasn’t. Yes, Snow White was pretty, but it didn’t help her.”

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print, Reviews | Tagged fairy tales, youth fantasy | 4 Comments

Recent Teen Reading: My Lady Jane, Summer of Salt, On the Come Up

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Katy K.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows. Read by Katherine Kellgren. HarperCollins, 2016.
Many people whose taste I trust said they enjoyed this book, plus it’s narrated by one of the best narrators ever, Katherine Kellgren, and set in Tudor England – kind of. This is an alternate England, with conflicts between Eðians, who turn into animals, and Verities, who think this is wickedness itself. Edward is king, and dying. At the request of his advisor, Lord Dudley, he orders his best friend and cousin Jane to marry Dudley’s son, Gifford Dudley, who prefers to be called G. G has a secret – a rather large one. It took a little bit to take off, but was great fun once it did, filled with snarkiness and quotes from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, the Princess Bride, Shakespeare, and more. There were some historical inaccuracies that bothered me, such as blackberries being available year-round and a running joke about characters hunting for “pants” in an era when hose and slops with stockings would have been worn instead – but I could tell that accuracy wasn’t the goal here. Jane and G have a delightfully slow-building romance, while Edward’s sister Bess and Mary are wonderfully awesome and treacherous, respectively. Katherine Kellgren was just as amazing as I expected, though I am still sad that she is no longer around.

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno. Harper Teen, 2018.
This was a Cybils finalist in the young adult speculative fiction category, and also recommended by Charlotte at Charlotte’s Library. Spoiler/trigger alert: sexual assault. Georgina Fernweh and her sister Mary are almost 18, living on the tiny island of By-the-Sea. Its economy is sustained by the annual influx of tourists coming to look for Annabella’s bird, a distant Fernweh ancestor if the old stories are true. It’s the last summer before college. Mary (who can float) has dated almost every boy on the island. Georgina, our POV character, is still waiting for her own power to show up, and has had much less dating success (it’s harder to find girls to date with such a small population), though she does develop a crush on cute tourist Prue. But something is happening to Mary, and Georgina can’t quite figure out what it is. Colorful characters populate this story, told in dreamy language punctuated by realistic teen cursing. It’s a hard look at toxic masculinity set against the magic of women working together. So beautiful. The dreamy magic paired with horribly real issues is reminding of Fran Wilde’s new book, Riverland (review to come.)

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. Narrated by Bahni Turpin. Balzer + Bray, 2019.
Like the rest of the world, I loved The Hate U Give, so of course I had to read Angie Thomas’s second book. But as Maureen at By Singing Light said, I am a Nice White Lady without a lot of direct personal experiences relating to the book. On the Come Up is set in the same neighborhood of Garden Heights. Our heroine, Bri, wants to be a rap star like her father, who was murdered when she was very young. Now her mother and older brother, Trey, struggle to keep the family afloat. Even though they both tell her to focus on getting to college, Bri feels that the system is rigged against young black people like her and that making it as a rap star would offer her family a better chance of success. Family bonds are tested by the pressures of the gangs around them, and life at a majority white public school that wants its minority students to conform rather than trying to make them comfortable. This book was really difficult for me to listen to, as Bri’s impulsive nature led her to make choices that had me saying, “Oh, honey! Listen to your mama!” even as I knew that she wouldn’t and couldn’t while staying to true to herself. Her lyrics and struggles were real, and the tough scenes balanced with ones filled humor, affection, or a bit of romance. Bahni Turpin is an extremely talented narrator, bringing all the characters here to life. Another great book, and one that will be easy to sell to teens.

Posted in Audiobook, Books, Fantasy, Print, Realistic, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged #OwnVoices, African-American, alternate history, LGBTQ, teen audiobooks, teen fantasy, teen fiction | 5 Comments

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Katy K.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. Rick Riordan Presents/Disney Hyperion, 2019.
The story starts with the raw chicken in the locker. Sal put it there, to get bully Yasmany off his case in hopes of making it through the hallways with his diabetes gear intact.

They both end up in the office. Sal is talking the principal out of being mad at him when a girl with curly hair and barrettes with personality of their own shows up, claiming to be Yasmany’s lawyer. She’s Gabi, and even though they’re on opposite sides of this particular conflict, Sal figures out pretty quickly that she’s a good person to have on his side.

Sal has problems beyond Yasmany, including just having moved to Florida and starting at a new school that doesn’t have experience dealing with a kid with Type 1 Diabetes. But Sal, his Papi and American Stepmom moved to Florida because of Sal’s difficulties accidentally pulling things and people through from other dimensions. Sal’s trained himself to be really good at traditional magic tricks, but sometimes slips up with the things from other dimensions (the chicken in the locker, though? that was deliberate.)

This is from the new Rick Riordan Presents imprint, but doesn’t follow the formula. I kept waiting for Sal and Gabi’s problems to get to the epic scale of a classic Rick Riordan, but it never does. Somehow, this really worked for me. We have two kids full of personality, lots of delicious Cuban food, an impossible climbing wall in the school gym, and problems that include a dead mother on Sal’s side and a baby brother in intensive care on Gabi’s. I think it was this more personal focus that kept the story working so well for me, despite the fast pace.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Even though I read it in print, Sal’s voice was so strong, talking so quickly and full of enthusiasm. There are some very sad events, but they were balanced by plenty of humor, friendship, and strong family love, both in Sal’s family, and Gabi’s (which included her mom and a whole lot of dads.) Sometimes the dialogue drifts into Spanish for a bit, sometimes translated, sometimes not- I was mostly able to follow along with my very limited Spanish, though I looked up the occasional phrase – one that charmed me was “buena y sana y brinca la rana,” which my mother and I translated (roughly) to “safe and sound and the frog jumps around.”

As I said, I passed this on to my mother, who loved it enough to write a thank-you note to the author. She said it had her in carcajadas (another sign that my mother’s Spanish is much better than mine.) as well as telling him that she would tell me to write a review. (This was not really necessary.) This funny and heartfelt story is recommended to a broad range of readers.

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged #OwnVoices, Florida, humor, Latinx, youth fantasy | 14 Comments

New Kid by Jerry Craft

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Katy K.

I first saw Jerry Craft’s work illustrating the massively underappreciated Zero Degree Zombie Zone. Now he’s come out with his own graphic novel, which is receiving a lot of very deserved attention.

New Kid by Jerry Craft. HarperCollins Childrens, 2019.

Jordan Banks is just starting middle school at the prestigious, private Riverdale Academy Day School. He wanted to go to art school, but his mother is convinced that this school will give him the best possible start in life, even though there are very few other students of color. Those are the kids he first looks to for new friends, and sitting with them at lunch lets him observe how they are treated in general.

There are multiple microaggressions towards the students and teachers of color, such as the white boy who assumes that Ramon’s mom can make the best tacos, when he’s Nicaraguan and multiple white people not able to tell Black people – kids or adults – apart. The worst is a well-meaning white teacher who can’t remember Black kids’ names and think they’ll all be troublemakers like the one kid she had two years ago, confusing DeAndre and Drew.

At the same time, Jordan also has to work past his assumptions that other Black kids are the ones he’ll have most in common with. There’s also a nice plot line involving Alexandra, a shy white girl who always has a sock puppet on one hand that she uses to talk for her. Unsurprisingly, this makes it very hard for her to make friends. On the humorous side, there’s also a plot line involving the pink or “salmon” colored clothes that are – inexplicably to Jordan – popular among the boys at school.

The art here is top-notch – not just a pleasant accompaniment to the text, but conveying a lot of information. Every chapter starts off with a clever remake of a movie poster now starring Jordan and his friends – “Upper, Upper West Side Story” , “Jordan Banks: the Non-Winter Soldier”, “The Socky Horror Picture Show”. Some pages are pulled from Jordan’s own sketchbook, including a hilarious spread of zombie kids from different neighborhoods all headed to their respective schools.

In the main art, there’s an evocative scene where Jordan is trying to connect with fellow Black student Maury – first little Black angels appear over Jordan’s shoulders, only to fall away as the background turns black and Jordan and Maury are depicted on separate planets, completely failing to connect. I also really appreciated scenes from Jordan’s bus ride across multiple neighborhoods and the changes he has to make to his appearance and activity to fit in through all of them, starting off with hoodie up, sunglasses and earbuds in place and ending with hood down, accessories off, working on math homework.

I’ve focused a lot here on Jordan’s difficulties specifically as a Black student in a mostly white school. But there’s a lot of universal appeal here, as well – middle school is a tough time for everyone – and the humor is spot-on. My daughter read this book through daily for a couple of weeks, and even started to write a review of it to post here. I was interested to note that Jordan’s problems with prejudice didn’t feature in her review at all. She also didn’t know any of the original movies that the chapter headers are based on. Though I’m guessing she’ll get even more out of this as she gets older, this book gets very high marks from her. It would pair well with All’s Faire in Middle School or be a nice step up for notebook novel readers.

Posted in Books, Graphic Novel, Middle Grade, Realistic | Tagged #OwnVoices, African-American, youth graphic novels | 4 Comments

3 Fantastic Graphic Novels for Kids

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Katy K.

Here are three recent fantasy and science fiction graphic novels for kids

Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill. Oni Press, 2018.
I’m really fond of Katie O’Neill’s beautiful art style paired with woman- and queer-power storylines and couldn’t resist getting this one for my daughter for Christmas. In this story, young Lana is visiting the tiny island fishing village where her aunt lives and where her mother died. Ever-worsening storms are threatening the village, though. It’s up to Lana and the magical aquicorns she meets to help find a new balance. As usual with O’Neill, the story itself is short but heartfelt, and paired with stunning art. An author’s note explains more about current threats to the ocean and how they affect both humans and ocean life.

Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks. Disney-Hyperion, 2018.
Two kids living on a space station have to save it in this fun science fiction story. Sanity is the inventor, and Tallulah her slightly crazy but loyal friend. Sanity has done some definitely against the rules experimentation to create an adorable three-headed kitten, Princess Sparkle, Destroyer of Worlds. When it escapes and things start to break on the ship, it’s up to the girls to find the kitten before the angry adults do. But on the way, they find that things are much worse than they originally thought. There are some side plots with other characters, but the main focus here is on the two girls and their awesomeness as well as mistakes. The art is cheerful and straightforward and will appeal to fans of Raina Telgemeier or Ben Hatke. I’m still waiting for some graphic novels for Black girls by Black women or girls, but this is a fine and entertaining story that I will happily pass on to kids. The kids in school in space element here also reminded me of the Astronaut Academy books by Dave Roman.

The Hidden Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag. Graphix/Scholastic 2018.
The story from Cybils-award winning Witch Boy continues here. Aster won the right to get witch lessons with his female cousins, but it’s hard when the aunts who teach it clearly don’t want him there. Meanwhile, his best friend Charlie meets a new girl at school, Ariel, a foster child who is convinced that she can’t make friends and who has grown bitter from all the rejections she’s faced, making this as much Charlie’s story as Aster’s. Then, Aster’s grandmother asks him to work with his great-uncle Mikasi, who’s been stuck in dragon form for decades. That will require a lot of courage on Aster’s part. The book has themes of secrets, and the power of stored and amplified negativity to hurt, versus that of friendship to heal. The art includes some very creepy depictions of misused magic, as well as a stunning spread in which melting candle wax holds scenes from the past. My daughter reread this many times before we could take it back to the library.

Posted in Books, Graphic Novel, Middle Grade | Tagged LGBTQ, space travel, witches, youth fantasy, youth graphic novels, youth science fiction | 6 Comments