Diverse Reading Round-Up

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Katy K.

This year, instead of focusing just on reading diverse authors, I’m working on something even harder for me – trying to keep up with writing reviews. I’m linking up my reviews of #ownvoices books at Read Diverse Books. Here’s what I read in January and February this year. Links are to my own reviews where available.

Diverse Authors

 

White Authors, Diverse Characters

 

  • Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – I didn’t note in my original review, but this is chock full of diversity of all kinds. Just among the humans, brown is the default human skin color and one of the techs is a Little Person. There are also multiple interspecies as well as same-sex romances.
  • The Sunbird by Elizabeth Wein – Part of Wein’s less-well-known Arthurian spin-off series. This is set in medieval Ethiopia, told from the point of view of Telemakos, mixed-race son of Mordred and an Ethiopian princess. Just as suspenseful as you’d expect from the author of Code Name Verity.
  • Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie – the final volume in the Imperial Radch trilogy, which began with Ancillary Justice.
  • The Goblin’s Puzzle by Andrew S. Chilton – review to come.

[Updated 1/24/18 to link to reviews written after this post was first published.]

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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Katy K.

This is one I heard about from British bookish folk, and then had to wait a very long time for it to come out in the U.S., where it just came out last year, and a bit longer for it to burble to the top of the pile.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky ChambersThe Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Harper Voyager, 2014.
As our story opens, Rosemary Harper has just been hired as a clerk for a small, ramshackle tunneling ship that never was so official as to have someone to handle their legal paperwork before.  She’s got her secrets, but has at least legitimately gone through the training she’s claimed to. The crew of the small ship consists of some humans, including Captain Ashby; the cranky and anti-social Corbin who manages the algae the supply the ship’s power; and Jenks and Kizzy, the fun-loving techs.  It also includes the pilot, Sissix, a member of a cuddle-loving lizard-like species; Dr. Chef, who sounded rather like a large caterpillar; and Ohan the navigator, deliberately infected with a virus that allows for seeing through space/time, so that Ohan is now considered plural.

The ship’s work of creating the tunnels through space which allow for practical interstellar travel is considered unglamorous, but it does allow for lots of adventures.  Though there is a big mission towards the second half – the “angry planet” of the title – this is about the characters and the vignettes, as well as observations on cultural differences, both between species and between the different groups of humans.  I saw some people complaining about these in their Amazon reviews, but I liked the feeling that it gave me of classic sci-fi, only with modern ideas and characters I actually cared about.

It’s hard to avoid comparisons to Firefly with the ragtag crew and the cobbled-together ship, though this one goes on much more official missions.  But if you, like me, enjoyed the interpersonal relations in Firefly as much as the official Plot, this might be for you.  My love, when I described it to him, though it might be rather like his beloved Maturin/Aubrey seafaring books, which are much more about the journey than the destination.  This is written for adults, with references to a fair amount of sex and illicit drug use, none of it explicit.  I’d give it to sci-fi loving teens if I knew them and probably their parents well.  Definitely recommended for anyone looking for a character-focused space ramble.

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Towers Falling

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Katy K.

I was interested to see what the author of Cybils finalist Bayou Magic would do with the topic of September 11, just recently far enough in the past for students to need to learn about it in school.

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker RhodesTowers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Little, Brown and Co., 2016.
The good news is that Deja’s family is still together.  The bad news is that they’re at a homeless shelter.  Her father can’t hold down a job, and her mother can’t make enough to afford housing for their family of five. Deja has to start at a new school, along with taking care of her two younger siblings.  When her new teacher tells the class that they’re going to be learning about 9/11, she wonders what it could possibly have to do with her. As she works with her new friends, Ben from Texas and Sabeen, whose family is from the Middle East, she learns a whole lot about the connections that hold families and communities together, and how the effects of the past reverberate into the future, and what America and being American means to different people.  It turns out that this event that she thought had nothing to do with her has directly affected her family.

It is so hard to write a book on such hard topics that works for middle grade kids. The adults here emphasize both the importance of knowing what happened because it’s had such a large effect on daily life to this day, but also that kids shouldn’t be exposed to the videos to see the full horror of that day.  Deja is attending the school that in real life saw the events unfold through their windows. But Rhodes keeps the story positive by showing people of lots of different ethnic backgrounds using the past to create a better future.  This is a friendship and family story, just as much as it is a history story, and an excellent entry point to start discussions on 9/11 for older elementary and middle school students.

This book was nominated for the Cybils in the audiobook category, and I’m sorry to say that it is a case of the author not being the right choice to narrate her own book.  She made a couple of narrative choices that make sense individually – Deja is understandably unhappy, and sounds it. The text is lyrical, and she emphasizes this by carrying the words together in long arcing phrases.  The net effect, though, was that the book is read in a sustained whine that got under my skin like a kid begging for candy.  I had to stop the audio (which had kindly been provided to me by the publisher), and turned instead to the print version from the library, which worked beautifully.  Your mileage may vary, of course – but I recommend reading this book in print.

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12 Girl-Led Read-alouds for K/1s

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Katy K.

There’s been a lot of discussion about how people think that boys will only read or enjoy books about other boys.  I beg to differ.  It’s taken several months – but here at last is a list of girl-led read-alouds suitable for kindergartners and first graders, to go along with my lists for 2/3s and 4/5s.  Here are girls that both girls and boys will be able to relate to and enjoy.


Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke – Experience life in Africa and the trials and joys of living with a large family with well-meaning but trouble prone Anna Hibiscus.  Atinuke is a professional storyteller, so her stories work very well read aloud.

Gloria’s Way by Ann Cameron contains stories of neighborhood friends, a girl’s love for her mother and more, told in poetic language, with lots of humor and deep life lessons tucked gently inside.

Lola Levine is Not Mean by Monica Brown – Lola Levine is a spunky, soccer-loving Jewish-Peruvian girl, who gets called mean near the beginning of this book for accidentally kicking a classmate during recess soccer.  She works out her feelings by writing lots of notes ending in “Shalom, Lola Levine.”

Mango and Bambang: the Not-a-Pig by Polly Faber – Mango is a girl who’s good at almost everything.  She has time to know because her father is always busy in his office.  But when she finds a frightened tapir hiding in a crosswalk, her scheduled life takes a turn for the whimsical in this Cybils award-winning story that highlights the power of empathy.

Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Susan Guevara – Traditional stories where girls break out of traditional molds are a life-long favorite of mine, and folk tales are great for stretching the attention span without the commitment of a chapter book.  Master storyteller Jane Yolen retells stories including Atalanta the Huntress and Li Chi Slays the Serpent.

Picture Perfect by Jacqueline Jules – Sofia Martinez has a personality much bigger than the place she feels is given her in her large family. Hilarity ensues as she tries to focus a little more attention on herself.

Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolan (picture book) – Growing up on a farm, a girl learns how to take care of animals – but even her parents are surprised when she hatches a dragon egg that appears on the farm in this substantial picture book.

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker – if this isn’t a classroom classic already, it should be.  Clementine is used to people saying “Clementine, pay attention!” when she is paying attention – to things her seat mate being gone too long or the lunch lady and the janitor kissing in her car.  She is definitely allergic to sitting still. Every one of these stories is laugh-out-loud funny while tugging on the heart strings.

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones – Introduce kids to a master fantasy writer with one of DWJ’s offerings for younger readers.  Earwig is an orphan used to getting what she wants, and she’s not about to let go of that, even when she’s adopted by a very strict witch.

The Mystery of Meerkat Hill by Alexander McCall Smith – Young Precious Ramotswe is full of curiosity.  When her new friends’ cow goes missing, Precious is on the case.  This is told in a conversational style that’s meant for reading aloud.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren –Pippi is the classic rule breaker with a heart of gold and a huge sense of fun – a classic every child needs to read.

The Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale – I’m putting this on my list for younger readers, as it is a book meant for younger readers. But I’ve the princess who hides her superhero identity under fluffy pink dresses make kids of all ages and genders laugh out loud.

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Evil Wizard Smallbone

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Katy K.

Today, a review of a Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction finalist.

Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia ShermanThe Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman. Candlewick, 2017.
Nick Reynaud’s life has been harsh since his mother died, leaving him in the hands of his uncle and cousin Jerry, where the care ranges between neglectful and abusive.  His runaway attempts have gotten better over the years, though this time, he’s forced to leave without the bag of supplies he’s gathered for himself.  He winds starving and freezing at an old house with the sign Evil Wizard Books.  The old man there, who introduces himself as the Evil Wizard Smallbone, isn’t any too friendly, but won’t leave a boy out in the cold to starve.  He tells Nick he’ll take him on as an apprentice, knowing that Nick will only learn what he, Wizard Smallbone, chooses to teach him, because Nick can’t read.

Nick, though, is an accomplished liar.  He can read, and the bookstore seems to want to teach him magic, starting with E-Z Spelz for Little Wizardz. Nick learns spells in secret, while Smallbone teaches him to do the cooking and take care of the animals – two dogs, two cate (Hell Cat and sweet orange Tom), as well as assorted barn animals.

Smallbone is the guardian for the small tourist town, though he’s been there for so many centuries with things mostly stable that many of the villagers no longer believe he’s really necessary.  That doesn’t stop them from being furious when Smallbone’s nemesis, the evil wolf Fidelou, along with his pack of coyotes, are able to come onto territory that should be blocked.  Dinah, a 10-year-old scientist, exposes the fraying boundaries through her curiosity.

This is a book that is brimming with colorful personality, including of course tough and cautious Nick and gruff Wizard Smallbone (how evil is he really?), but also the many animals, Dinah and her mother, and the bookshop itself.  It sounds trite to say that Nick has a journey to believing in himself, but it’s framed more as a path to figuring out what he really wants.  That and his path to wanting to help anyone but himself are genuine and delightful without feeling overwrought.  There are also some genuinely surprising and equally fun twists.

While there is no real ethnic diversity in this book, Delia Sherman is one of the few middle grade authors openly in a same-sex marriage.  It’s also notable for a book with an older middle grade hero in that there is no hint of romance of any kind, either for Nick or any of the adults.  This can be a selling point for the older elementary and middle grade students who are quite opposed to having any romance in their books, as many are.

The modern-day setting in rural Maine is quite different, but writing about this reminds me of the many similarities between this and Sage Blackwood’s Jinx, one of my favorite series.

 

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Cybils Winners

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Katy K.

Cybils 2016Hooray!  Hooray!  The Cybils winners are out, and for the first time ever, a book that I nominated made it to be the winner.  The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz is the winner in the Audiobooks category.  I love this book so very much!  If you haven’t yet read it, do yourself a favor and do it now!  And though I read and loved the audiobook version, the illuminations in the print version are also charming. cover of the Inquisitor's Tale by Gidwitz

Other winners I’ve read include Elementary Non-Fiction winner Giant Squid by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann; Poetry winner The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan, one of my favorite audiobooks that didn’t quite make it to the shortlist, and of course Young Adult Speculative Fiction winner Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

I have several more finalists checked out right now – I’m taking a course right now that’s cutting into my fiction reading time – and hope to be back with more reviews when I’ve finished them.

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Two Naomis

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Katy K.

Tomorrow is Cybils Day!  I’m still reading finalists at home and am happy to report that my daughter gave two thumbs up to Early Chapter Books Finalists Weekends with Max and His Dad by Linda Urban.

Thanks once again to Brandy at Random Musings of a Bibliophile, who brought this book to my attention.

Two Naomis by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and Audrey VernickTwo Naomis by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich & Audrey Vernick. Balzer + Bray, 2016.
Naomi Marie is a very smart girl who does West African dance, keeps trying and failing to start up new clubs at her library branch, and who loves the bakery at Shelly Ann’s the best.  She’s also quite bossy with her little sister Brianna, though I’m sure she would say she’s just trying to help.  She and her dad do board games and puzzles when she goes over to his nearby apartment.

Naomi E. is an only child living with her father, since her mother has moved to Hollywood to be a full-time movie costume designer.  Her father might forget to fix real meals once in a while, and Skype just isn’t the same as living with her mother.  She might be Jewish – the text talks about her attending a cousin’s bat mitzvah. Her favorite bakery is definitely Morningstar.

Both Naomis prefer to be called just by their first names, actually.  And life might not be perfect, but it’s pretty okay.  Both of them are resentful when their parents decide that they need to work on being best friends, and that they must both come up with different names to make things easier when they’re together.  Naomi E’s slight interest in checkers is certainly not a large amount of common ground with Naomi Marie’s interest in all sorts of other, more recent board games.  But their parents sign them up for Girls Gaming the System coding class together and start taking them to bakeries together – an exercise certain to disappoint girls with their own decided opinions.

Brianna openly expresses doubts about the arrangement, wondering with a four-year-old’s candor if it’s really OK for “white Naomi” to play with her own black dolls.  The older girls are much less concerned about their skin colors and more concerned about having friendship forced on them, a friendship that comes with the growing realization that it means that their parents are giving up on the relationship with the other parent.

This is a pitch-perfect middle grade story that looks with warmth and sympathy on two girls learning to find the positive side of a difficult situation.  Each Naomi is written by a different author, giving them very distinct voices.  Give this one to kids who enjoy realistic stories of family (with normal but happily not tragic levels of family stress), friendship, and excellent baked goods.

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Illuminae

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Katy K.

I put the sequel to this book, Gemina, on my want-to-read list after reading the Book Smugglers review of it.  (Those Book Smugglers!  Always lengthening my list!) I started this one when it was nominated for a Cybils Audiobook award, and am happy to say that it is a Cybils Young Adult Speculative Fiction Finalist.

Illuminae by Kaufman and KristoffIlluminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.
Breaking up with your boyfriend is a bad enough start to the day, but Kady’s day gets even worse when her planet is bombed and she has to flee her high school.  With the ex-boyfriend, Ezra.  OK, it was an illegal mining planet – but bombing is still extreme.  Through interviews, chat transcripts, private journal entries and more, we piece together Ezra and Kady’s stories.  The enemy ships are still after them.  Ezra is trained to be a pilot, while Kady uses her computer skills to try to figure out just what is going on.  It’s far from simple, as there are government secrets, cover-ups, a brain melting plague and a rogue AI – just to name a few of the factors.  Meanwhile, headings and notes at the beginnings of the sections make it clear that this is an investigation being put together for the very corporation that bombed the planet to start with.

It’s a fascinating story even if we the readers have to agree with Kady’s early assessment that there’s no good reason to bomb a planet when you could use legal paths to shut down the mining if that’s your goal. Our babysitter and teacher extraordinaire Aunt Silly pointed out that it’s a great book for kids who have difficulty reading but want to look and feel competent: at 600 pages, it’s hefty enough to give a great deal of book street cred, but it’s broken up into very short chapters with lots of white (or in some cases black) space, and the action is very fast.  There’s enough character development and deep issues to think about to keep it from being just action fluff, things like to role of government, the meaning of possessions, and ethics around artificial intelligence.  My son is currently reading this after deciding it would be a good school reading time book.

I listened to part of the audiobook as well as reading it in print.  I feel torn about it, honestly.  They tried so very hard to make the audiobook an amazing experience, with a full cast, music, and so on.  It’s very well done, but there are still a lot of unique aspects to this that just don’t translate to audio, like ship diagrams, spiral text, or just one white word on a black page.  It would work very well paired with the print book, though, especially for kids with reading issues.  I’ve been focusing on that because, having a sci-fi loving son with dyslexia, it is so hard to find print, non-graphic novel books that he will even pick up, let alone finish (that’s going to take a while here, but still!)  But this is a flat-out awesome story for every science fiction fan.

I hear the second book is even better.

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Sacrifice

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Katy K.

Sacrifice by Cindy PonSacrifice by Cindy Pon. Month9Books, 2016.
Cindy Pon’s previous book, Serpentine, ended on a dramatic cliff hanger, leaving me waiting a year to find out what would happen next.  If you haven’t yet read Serpentine, you might wish to do so before reading this review, as spoilers are inevitable.

Skybright, who had discovered that she was part serpent demon, and her monk love Kai Sen, tried to find a way to close the breach that allowed demons to come into the human world without the traditional method of an unknowing human sacrifice.  Skybright sacrificed herself.  Now she travels through other dimensions with Stone, the demon lord who oversees the battles between humans and demons.  Meanwhile, Kai Sen is given more and more responsibility in the monastery, even as he is less sure of its mission and his willingness to take the full vows.  He’s finding that there are still demons loose in the world, though Skybright’s sacrifice should have stopped them, and he’s still searching for a way to bring Skybright back.

Zhen Ni, meanwhile, knows nothing of what happened to Skybright.  She’s still heartbroken from being forced to separate from her girlfriend as well as what seems to be Skybright’s betrayal.  Both of these fade into insignificance, though, as she’s given in marriage to a rich but grotesquely ugly old man who appears out of nowhere and builds a beautiful estate just for her.  She soon discovers that the secrets beneath the estate contain nightmares.

The narrative alternates between all of these perspectives, as well as starting off in a dark place and getting darker from there.  Pon is not afraid to make some very bold choices with the narrative.  At one point, Stone is stripped of his supernatural powers, suddenly making him a much more sympathetic character. Though there is a love triangle of sorts for a while, there isn’t the easy and clear resolution that these usually have.  I approved of Skybright not being forced into a choice – but really, Kai Sen deserved better than the ending he got.  I know, she’s being bold, but still!  Zhen Ni gets the happiest ending here, and well deserved.  I was especially impressed with this.  So though I didn’t agree with everything here, for the most part, this is an original tale very well told.

Be sure to catch Cindy Pon’s excellent Silver Phoenix as well, and watch for Want coming out this year.

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The Firefly Code

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Katy K.

It was a little jarring after two years on the Round One panel for the Cybils Middle Grade Speculative Fiction to find that I had read only half of the finalists.  Here’s one that I had read, thanks to Brandy and Charlotte’s reviews.


The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer BlakemoreThe Firefly Code by Megan Frasier Blakemore. Bloomsbury, 2016.
In the not-to-distant future, Mori and her friends have grown up literally in a bubble, the town of Old Harmonie, created by the Krita Corporation to protect its residents from the corruption and rampant disease of the outside world.  Mori, Julia, Theo and Benji are all about to turn 13, the age when they will choose which talent or “latency” to have medically turned on in their brains.  As the story opens, Theo is just having his turned on, while the others with slightly later birthdays are still trying to decide what will be most important to them.  It’s also possible at this or earlier points for parents to have undesirable traits dampened, though Mori’s parents tell her they like her just fine as it is.  Into a tight-knit circle of kids the same age who’ve grown up on the same street comes a new girl, Ilana.  As Mori becomes close friends with Ilana, she begins to question what she’s been told all her life. Along with the normal difficulties of shifting friendships and growing up, Mori, granddaughter of one of the founding scientists of Old Harmonie, is trying to solve the mystery of why her grandmother’s best friend left.

Any reader who’s read books like The Giver will expect to find some elements of dystopia under the utopia, and this book, while much less sinister, is no exception.  Deep and thoughtful explorations of character, friendship and practical applications of scientific ethics underlie a story filled with summer swimming, walks in the woods, and exploring abandoned houses.  Also, lots of secrets.  The group of friends is diverse both in ethnicity and in family structure – Mori has been raised to be proud of her mixed Japanese and Scottish heritage.  The friendships drive this story as much as science fiction, leading to a story with very human faces.  This is a moving and beautiful story that gradually shifts from familiar to uncomfortable as Mori and her friends uncover more of the truth about their situation.

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