la linea by Ann Jaramillo

Miguel's parents left him and his little sister in Mexico while they went to California to start a new life.  That was nine years ago.  Miguel is now 15, and finally, his father has sent for him.  Miguel will make the dangerous journey north to the border.  It would have been hard enough alone, but when Miguel's sister Elena steals away after him, it might be impossible.  Without enough money for two, they'll have to take even more risks in the hopes of reaching la linea.

This is such a slim little book, but so powerful.  Jaramillo captured the fear, the danger, the determination, and the hopelessness of the kids who try to cross the border.  Some to rejoin families, but some are completely alone.

Spoilers ahead.

Jane, the Fox & Me by Fanny Britt, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

Helene used to be friends with a group of girls at schools.  But now they all make fun of her, calling her fat.  Helene has no one now.  She finds comfort in reading Jane Eyre.  Jane had no on either, but she was still smart and capable.  The final straw comes when Helene is humiliated in front of everyone on a school trip.  Not even Jane Eyre is enough anymore.

This was lovely.  A heartfelt story about bullying, the feeling of isolation, and the impact a single person can make by reaching out to another.

Helene takes things especially hard because the girls who are now tormenting her were once her friends.  Helene doesn't really know what happened, but now she has no one.  No one will talk to her.  She is a social outcast.  Helene works her way through Jane Eyre, finding a companion in isolation and comfort that things can work out OK, even for someone who is friendless.  Helene begins to despair when things take a bad turn for Jane, and she has to go on a retreat with her whole class.

It's on this retreat that Helene, feeling more alone than ever, sees the fox.  The fox is beautiful and approaches her.  But even this magical moment is ruined and makes her feel like a freak.

I was confused throughout the book by how Helene was draw.  All her ex-friends are calling her fat.  She's sure her mother is ashamed of her.  But she didn't look overweight at all.  It all becomes clear toward the end when Helene goes for her yearly physical and her doctor informs her she's right on track.  Helene insists she's fat.  The doctor informs her she isn't anything of the kind.  The kids at school calling her fat got into her head until Helene truly believed that she was.  And the kids calling her fat were just being cruel.  It was based on nothing.

The illustrations were for the most part in gray and black, reflecting Helene's depression and feelings of isolation.  The only color was when we saw Jane Eyre.  Jane's life had a little color in it, although Jane herself was still all black and white.  For Helene, everything is gray until the fox appears.  The fox is bright with color.  A fleeting brightness in Helene's life.  But then it's gone and everything is black again.

As Helene makes friends with Geraldine, color begins to come into Helene's world.  Not right away.  But after making a friend and realizing she isn't actually overweight, we begin to see a few spots of color.  On sneakers and tee shirts, in the trees, and it ends with Helene walking into a world of color.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Twins Jude and Noah once shared everything.  But when they were 13, a chain of events pushed them apart.  Now at 16, the two hardly speak, each having knowledge of something that would make the puzzle pieces of the last three years fit together.  But each is trapped in their created world of lies and jealously and fear.

I'll Give You the Sun just won the 2015 Printz Award.  So convenient since I'd just read it the week before and it was my favorite YA of the year.  The Printz Award has never gone to my favorite YA of the year, so it was all very exciting.

This was really beautiful.  The framing device worked perfectly, the characters were relatable, and even when they did some pretty terrible, I cared about them and wanted everything to work out in the end.  I actually ruined it for myself by flipping around and reading things out of order to find out what happened.  Don't do that!  It all comes together quite nicely if you let it.

Gabi A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Gabi starts keeping a diary the summer before her senior year of high school.  She writes about her life.  Her best friend Cindy, who finds out she's pregnant, her father and his meth habit, her mother who worries that Gabi's too fat, her friend Sebastian who's just come out, the boys Gabi has crushes on, and the poetry class she is coming to love.

It sounds like every single Issue Storyline is in this book.  And I guess it is.  But it worked, so, so well.  It did not feel like an after school special.  It felt heartbreakingly realistic.  This was Gabi's daily life.  This is what she is surrounded by in her community.

Gabi is hysterical.  She's sassy and vulgar and completely open.  She does not mince words.  She's full of self-doubt like any teenage girl, but also has a wonderful spirit.  She is empowered.  And she only becomes more so. 

Her mother is constantly telling her she's too fat and to lose weight.  No one will ever love her when she's fat.  Gabi thinks about this sometime.  She'd like to lose weight and be skinny and, in her mind (and her mother's), prettier.  But it's also clearly not the most important thing to her.  Gabi thinks on it, certainly, but she does not let it define her, despite her mother.  The other physical aspect Gabi thinks about is her skin color.  She's light skinned, and people sometimes don't know she's Mexican.  Some people think she doesn't look Mexican enough.  It frustrates her and makes her angry.

Gabi has two great friends who are also going through some tough issues.  Cindy is pregnant and is going to keep the baby.  Sebastian has been kicked out of his house after coming out to his parents.  Gabi tries to be a good, supportive friend, even though she doesn't always agree with their actions.

The saddest part of the story, I thought, was Gabi's father.  He's a meth addict, and is constantly disappearing for weeks or months on end.  Gabi is afraid he'll die while he's out on one of his binges and they'll never see him again.  She's so angry with him for doing this to their family, but loves him anyway.  She loves her mother, even though sometimes her mother says some really cruel things to her.  She tries to help her little brother, who acts like he's OK, but is feeling so much it's exploding out of him in destructive ways.

All this serious stuff is going on, but they're all still just teenagers, and Gabi wants to find herself a boyfriend.  She's excited to go out on dates and kiss boys.  She makes lots of mistakes, messes things up, tries to fix things.

A definite bonus to this book was that the diary entries were done in a realistic way.  There was no, "I'm writing this while I'm supposedly in the middle of a big dramatic fight with someone."  All the entries are Gabi writing after the fact, telling what happened and reflecting on how she dealt with things and how she feels now.

Gabi is such a wonderful, relatable, joyful character.  Teens will connect with her and care about her and see aspects of their own lives in her stories.  This is definitely a book for older teens, because language and some graphic content.

Really wonderful.  A must read.

Hold Tight, Don't Let Go by Laura Rose Wagner

Magdalie was living with her aunt and sister-cousin Nadine in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck.  Magdalie's aunt is killed when the house she worked in collapsed.  Magdalie and Nadine are like sisters.  They forget that in actuality they are cousins and that Manman wasn't Magdalie's mother by blood.  This makes all the difference now, because this means that Nadine, who's father is in the United States, can get a visa to go live with him, and Magdalie can't.  Nadine promises to do everything she can to bring Magdalie to the U.S., but years pass, and Magdalie has difficulty letting go of her anger at being left behind.

Nadine leaves to live with her father early on in the book.  She swears she will bring Magdalie to America.  She'll convince her father, who she hardly knows, to get another visa.  At first, Magdalie and Nadine talk often.  Nadine says she's doing her best.  But as time goes on, Nadine calls and texts less and less often.  And when she does, she does not mention bringing Magdalie to live with them.

As long as Magdalie has the hope that Nadine will find a way to bring her to America, she has no reason to try and make things better for herself in Haiti.  What's the point of going back to school?  Or finding a better place to live?  Or making connections with anyone?  She'll be leaving soon.  She tries some desperate schemes to make money to buy a plane ticket, even though she doesn't have a visa and couldn't have gone anyway.  Magdalie falls into an angry depression.

Her life is grim.  She's living in a refugee camp with an uncle she was never close to, but they are each other's only family in the city.  There's little food, Magdalie doesn't have the money to return to school, and there's violence and despair everywhere.  Is there any reason to try and move forward?

Magdalie struggles with that question.  She isn't able to move forward for years after the earthquake and Nadine leaving.  Magdalie grows up a lot during those years, and finds her inner strength, and the strength to let go, move forward, and move on.

The book ends with a hopefully look at the future.  The author envisions Haiti in 2020, clean, safe, rebuilt and beautiful.  Magdalie and Nadine are reunited, and Magdalie is able to understand why Nadine drifted away after leaving.  It is a beautiful picture on Haiti, let's hope it comes to pass.

Hold Right, Don't Let Go comes out on January 6, 2015.

The Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine

It's 1953, and Tommy just wants to hang out with friends, be a cowboy and pretend to fight communists.  But then Tommy's older sister Mary Lou is terribly burned in an accident, and things begin to fall apart.  Tommy's mother, who was always moody, has violent outbursts and beats Tommy.  Tommy starts bullying other kids at school, and frames a shopkeeper for being a communist.  Rumors of communism spread out of control, and Tommy doesn't know what to do to set things right.

This was very well done.  The story is about Tommy and his family, but it's all the more powerful for being set against a backdrop of McCarthyism.  Tommy doesn't realize the consequences of his actions when he puts a communist newspaper in Mr. McKenzie's store.  He's angry and wants to do something mean.  It's shocking to him how quickly people turn away from Mr. McKenzie and boycott his store, even when it's made clear it was a prank.  Everyone is so afraid of being labeled a communist.  Tommy decides to find out who the communist newspaper actually belonged to, thereby finding the real communist and clearing Mr. McKenzie's name.  Every time he's ready to accuse someone else, he realizes things were not what they seem to be.  It takes a while for Tommy to learn not to make quick accusations, and also, that having different beliefs don't make a person bad.

The story of Tommy's family is a sad one.  Today, Tommy's mother would probably be diagnosed with a manic depressive disorder.  There are scenes of her staying up all night cleaning or cooking, and then spending days refusing to get up.  She could go from sweet to violent in a second, and seemed paranoid about people making fun of her.  After Mary Lou is burned and hospitalized, Tommy's mother because more physically violent.  His father doesn't know how to deal with it, and rather than protecting his children he stays away from home as much as possible.  It falls on Tommy to take care of his two little sisters, and take up Mary Lou's paper route.

Tommy, who has no one to vent his feelings to, turns into a bully at school.  In particular he picks on the new boy, Sam, who is Mr. McKenzie's son.  Tommy and his friend Eddie are cruel to Sam, making fun of him, tricking him, and getting him into trouble.  It was an interesting perspective to see where a bully might come from.  It doesn't excuse Tommy's actions, but it was understandable that he might lash out in this way.

Things finally reach a breaking point and Tommy has to make some hard choices.  He learns to ask for help and that accepting charity is not a bad thing.  There are people around him who can support him.

It sounds like there's a lot going on in this book, and there is, but it all worked together perfectly.  Great historical fiction read.

Running Out of Night by Sharon Lovejoy

She's never had a name, and she's never known a friend.  She takes care of her father's house and is treated brutally.  Everything changes when Zenobia, a runaway slave, stumbles into her home.  Zenobia names the girl Lark, and the two set out together, determined to find their freedom.

Such an interesting story.  Very different from other middle grade of YA stories I've read about slaves running during the 1800s.  First there is the aspect that Lark is white, but no less a slave than Zenobia is.  She realizes though, that while she was cruelly treated, it was still nothing like what Zenobia and other Black slaves suffered.

Unusually, story begins and ends in Virginia.  Zenobia and Lark run, but they never actually get very far away from Lark's home, despite all their traveling and hardships.  This book really showed the ruthless determination that slave catchers had, especially when a big reward was involved.  And Lark's father is not about to let her go so easily.  We never actually see any of the characters safe to freedom.  We never see them get out of Virginia.

Zenobia knows about the Underground Railroad, but despite that, it's not so easy to jump on.  And even when they do find a safe house, they're not safe.  That was definitely a theme of the book, looking for safety and freedom, never quite finding it, never stopping hoping it's out there somewhere.

Zenobia and Lark are taken in by a Quaker woman, Auntie, who shelters them and arranges for Zenobia's escape to Canada.  Canada, at this point in history, is pretty much the only safe place to run to, because even if a slave made it to the North, they could still be captured and returned.  The Quakers believe in nonviolence and are against slavery.  Many in the Quaker community are becoming reluctant to help runaways, because the runaways' harsh treatment is coming down on them too.  Indeed, when Zenobia is discovered and taken, Auntie is taken too.  She never stops believing that nonviolence is the only answer though.

Lark undergoes some changes throughout the book.  At first, she's too afraid to have anything to do with Zenobia.  She doesn't want any more trouble then she already has.  But she can't help but see Zenobia's fear is similar to her own.  And Lark starts to think about why she's never left the people who hurt her.  She realizes she's been a slave too, and that she doesn't have to anymore.  She can care and help other people, too.

The book ends with hope.  And we are left so wanting these characters to find their Promised Land, after everything they've been through.  Great historical fiction read.

Running Out of Night comes out November 1, 2014.

Stronger Than You Know by Jolene Perry

Joy is fifteen and until three months ago she lived a terrifying existence with her mother.  Now her mother is in jail, and Joy is safe, living with her aunt, uncle and two cousins.  But Joy doesn't feel safe, even though she knows she is.  She can't stop the panic attacks when she has to talk to someone, especially men.  She feels completely crazy and out of control and isn't convinced that things will ever get better.

For most of the book, it isn't stated explicitly what happened to Joy.  Depending on the maturity of the reader, you might make different assumptions.  Joy has a very hard time speaking to men.  Being alone with a man, even her uncle or cousin, can cause a panic attack.  She's afraid of the smell of beer.  She can't stand people looking at her.  I assumed she's been emotionally and physically abused by her mother, and raped by her mother's boyfriend, which we find out at the end of the book, at the trail of her mother, that's what happened.  The word "rape" is not mentioned the entire time until one sentence at the very end.

Because of this, this book might be a good choice for upper middle grade looking for a serious issues book.  It's not graphic or explicit.  It deals mainly with the aftermath and Joy trying to work her way through what happened to her and try and learn that she's safe now.

It does not happen all at once.  When the book starts, Joy has been with her aunt and uncle for three months and hadn't made very much progress.  She's not convinced she'll ever make progress.  But she slowly begins to.  She's able to be in the same room as her uncle, and then she's able to talk to him.  They eventually become close and he becomes her biggest advocate.  Joy starts making friends.  She is able to speak up a little more, and discovers new things about her personality.

It isn't all smooth sailing.  Joy has lots of stops and starts, and sometimes she falls backwards.   She worries what an imposition it must be to her aunt and her family to have to take her in.  She is surprised to learn her aunt feels horrible guilty for not getting Joy away from her mother earlier.  Joy has to deal with one of her cousins who is tired of everyone tiptoeing around her and doesn't understand why she can't just be normal already.

I thought Stronger Than You Know did an great job showing the aftermath of trauma and how it is truly a process to overcome it.  The book ends with hope, and we know, that even as Joy continues to struggle, she'll come out on top.

Stronger Than You Know came out September 1, 2014.

brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her early life in beautiful verse.  Woodson had the unique experience of growing up in both the South and the North in the 60s and 70s.  She never felt completely at home in either place, always missing somewhere.  Although very young, she was aware of the dramatic cultural shifts happening around her, even if she didn't really understand them.

Another beautiful book from Jacqueline Woodson.  Woodson started off her life in Ohio.  Her father did not like where her mother came from, South Carolina, where Black people had to sit in the back of the bus and say "yes sir" and "no sir" to white people.  He never wanted any of his children to have that experience.  But when Woodson's mother and father separated, they returned to her mother's home.

South Carolina was very different from Ohio.  Woodson and her siblings had lots of new rules to learn.  Despite her mother telling them they "were as good as anyone else" that was not how it seemed.  Despite the things she observes, Woodson and her siblings love living with their grandparents.  Their mother is often away in New York though, and after a time, they all move to New York.

Another move, another completely different cultural experience.  It's the 70s now, and with it comes the Black Pride movement and the Black Panthers.  Woodson is still to young to really understand what's going on.  But she can see that there are places where only Black people live, and places where only white people live.

Over the course of the story, Woodson also expresses her growing love of writing and telling stories.
 Sometimes she spins fantastical stories about things she's done.  They're things she wishes she had done, or places she wishes she had gone too.  Doesn't that make them kind of true?  Her stories get her into trouble sometimes, but she never stops.

It's Woodson's life, but it reads like historical fiction.  Simple and engaging, yet so much going on behind it.

I wonder about shelving this.  It should go in nonfiction, right?  It's the story of her life, told in verse.  But a kid would be much more likely to stumble on this in the fiction section, with the rest of her books.  But it wouldn't be right to put it in fiction.  Thoughts?
 

brown girl dreaming comes out August 28, 2014.

The Night Journey by Kathryn Lasky

Rachel isn't supposed to ask her great-grandmother, Nana Sashie, about her past.  Her parents say it upsets her.  But Nana Sashie seems to want to tell Rachel her story.  Rachel begins sneaking up to Nana Sashie's room whenever she can, and listens in amazement to Nana Sashie's story of her family's escape from tsarist Russia.

There are so many books about the Holocaust, and those are very important books.  There are fewer books about tsarist Russia, and how Jews were treated during this time period.  There are fewer books about Jews who were subject to pogroms by Russian soldiers that could happen at any moment, and the fact that despite this treatment, Jewish men were forced to serve in the army.  Books like these are important so that history is not forgotten.

Rachel is a typical pre-teen.  Her parents annoy her at times.  She isn't thrilled with having to sit with her great-grandmother, who isn't always lucid.  But when Nana Sashie begins talking about how her family escaped from Russia, Rachel is pulled into the story.  She had no idea that this was part of her family history.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel what it was like to live in Russia during this time period.  Jews were constantly afraid.  They never knew when a pogrom might happen.  At any moment their village could be full of Russian soldiers who would kill everyone and burn down the village.  And there was no one to stop them, and there were no consequences for the killers.  Nana Sashie was just a little girl when her father decided they must leave Russia.  But the family, made up of Sashie, her mother and father, her two younger siblings, her grandfather and her aunt, couldn't just leave.  They couldn't just stroll over the border.  They would have to find a way to sneak themselves close enough to the border, and then bribe a guard to get them across.  It would be very dangerous.  They would need a plan.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel how she came up with much of the plan on her own, even though she was a little girl.  The escape had many frightening moments, when it seemed like they might be caught, which would certainly mean death.  But they made it.

Rachel begins to see how important it is to Nana Sashie that she tells someone this story.  It's important that someone knows and someone remembers what happened so long ago.  Rachel begins to write down her great-grandmother's story so it will never be forgotten.

A Millions Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget

Poppy Parker has lived with her grandmother practically her whole life.  But now Grandma Beth has had a stroke and can't take care of Poppy anymore, which means Poppy is stuck in an orphanage.  Things get even more confusing when Poppy is witness to a crime and the police want to keep an eye on her until the suspect is caught.  Poppy ends up in the home of Detective Brannigan's mother.  Poppy just wants everything to go back to the way it was before, but some changes are here to stay.

A lot was going on in this book.  There's Poppy having to deal with her grandmother's stroke and scheming to get her home, there's the crime Poppy's seen committed and maybe the suspect is looking for her, there's the German shepherd, Gunner, at the animal shelter she volunteers at that might get put to sleep.  It was a lot, and sometimes it seemed like all the different plots were fighting against each other.  Most of the time, however, I suspended my disbelief because it was a good story and I liked Poppy.

Poppy is described as being "impulsive."  She doesn't always think things through.  It's because she so much wants to see her grandmother she can't wait another day and heads out on her own to find her, even though she doesn't even really know where the nursing home her grandmother is recovering at is, that she inadvertently is a witness in a drug store robbery gone wrong that leaves the cashier dead. Poppy was face-to-face with the bugler.  The police don't have enough people to make sure Poppy is safe at all times while they search for their suspect, so Detective Brannigan brings Poppy to his mother's house.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

Ruby's mother died, and now she has to leave her home and her friends, her boyfriend and everything she's ever know and move in with her father on the opposite coast.  Her father who left before she was born, who Ruby has never seen or spoken to.  At least in real life.  Ruby's father is a famous actor.  And now she's stuck with him.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies was written in verse, which for most books written this way I often feel that it doesn't work super well, like the writer just didn't want to have to worry about hashing things out and went with stream of consciousness instead.  In this case, however, I liked it a lot.  It made sense that Ruby would be writing in a fractured, distracted kind of way.  She feels fractured and distracted.  She's mourning the loss of her mother, but on top of that, she's mourning the loss of everything that's been familiar to her her entire life.

When Ruby first arrives in L.A., she's naturally miserable.  She angry and resentful of her father, who couldn't take the time from his busy movie career to call or visit her.  She misses her best friend and her boyfriend.  She misses her aunt, who's going off on a six month archaeological dig with her boyfriend and won't even be available for Ruby to talk to.  And, of course, she misses her mother.  And on top of all that she has to start a new school, which turns out to be this weird, hippy place full of famous actor's kids and Ruby feels lost and out of place.

As time goes on, Ruby struggles to stay miserable.  Her father, Whip (yes, Whip) is always nice to her and is always trying to give her things and take her places.  Her father's assistant is really nice and he and Ruby get on great.  She's making some friends.  She even flirted with another guy and instantly feels guilty.  And as the book goes on, we learn more about Ruby's mother.  Ruby's mother wasn't perfect.  Not that she was a bad parent by any means, but that she had her flaws, just like anyone else.  Ruby feels guilty thinking about that too.

Spoilers

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Lanesha lives in New Orleans' Ninth Ward with Mama Ya-Ya who's cared for her since she was born.  Lanesha doesn't really have any contact with her uptown family, but she doesn't let it bother her.  Mama Ya-Ya is all she needs.  Mama Ya-Ya has visions and see ghosts.  When Mama Ya-Ya has a vision about upcoming hurricane Katrina that leaves her unable to take care of Lanesha, Lanesha knows it's time for her to help them both.

This was a beautiful, lyrical story.  It's not told in verse, but the language itself had a poetic, flowing quality to it.  Lanesha is a strange child, and she knows it.  She doesn't have any friends at school, all the kids think she's weird.  Lanesha loves math (she practices for fun) and sees ghosts, like the ghost of her mother who died giving birth to her.  Many people are scared of Mama Ya-Ya and think she's a witch.  Mama Ya-Ya was a midwife, but people stop wanting her to deliver their babies.

Lanesha is happy and secure inside her small world with Mama Ya-Ya, despite her lack of friends and the fact her blood family want nothing to do with her.  She has everything she needs, and Mama Ya-Ya takes care of her. 

As the hurricane approaches, Mama Ya-Ya starts to act strange.  She's had a vision she doesn't understand.  She keeps saying, "the hurricane is not the problem."  Lanesha is worried.  Mama Ya-Ya has never acted like this before.  She's never not taken care of things.  So it falls to Lanesha to prepare for the hurricane, and it's Lanesha that keeps them safe.

After the hurricane, Lanesha's one friend, TaShon, who lives across the street from her comes back, having lost his family while taking shelter in the Superdome.  They are together when the levees break and the water starts to rise.  By this point, Mama Ya-Ya is sick and Lanesha and TaShon must work together to survive.

The ending of the book was hopeful but sad.  We feel Lanesha's triumph at having survived and taken care of herself and TaShon, but we don't know what will happen to her.  And we, the reader, know all the pain that will be coming in New Orleans.  But we're left feeling that Lanesha will be all right.  She is an exceptional child.  She will make it through.

Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth

Jarrett's mom takes in foster kids.  Usually babies whom need a safe place for a short period of time.  But this time it's not just a baby.  It's a baby and her older brother.  Jarrett hates having to share his room Kevon, a total stranger, and doesn't appreciate people assuming they're cousins or friends.  And since Kevon's father can't be found, it looks like they'll be staying for a while...

I thought this was really well done.  It showed Jarrett's complex feelings about what his mother does.  It's admirable and selfless that his mother takes in babies.  Jarrett knows that.  But sometimes he feels like it's all about the babies.  They can't do anything, or go anywhere.  He feels like he doesn't get as much of his mother's attention as he should.  His mother's been talking about going back to school for years, but hasn't.  And it's hard, getting attached to the babies and then having them leave.

Jarrett is 11 and Kevon is 12.  The start off pretty much ignoring each other.  But it's summer, and Kevon ends up going with Jarrett to the Center, where Kevon instantly makes friends with all the guys and turns out to be awesome at basketball.  Jarrett is a little jealous and wants to take Kevon down a peg.  The two sabotage each other back and forth, until they each do something to each other that is possibly unforgivable.

Kevon situation was realistically sad.  He had his sister, Treasure, end up with Jarrett's family because Treasure is hurt, social services are call,  and their father can't be found.  Kevon insists he doesn't know where his father is, but Jarrett is pretty sure he's lying.  It turns out that Kevon's father is mentally unstable and off his medication.  Kevon has mostly been caring for Treasure on his own.

Other, less serious stuff is going on as well.  There's a girl Jarrett really likes but can't get up the courage to talk to.  Jarrett and his friend Ennis, who has a secret of his own, are making movie trailers.  Jarrett is in summer school and he's afraid he might have to repeat a grade.  All this stuff about Kevon and his father make Jarrett wonder about his own father, about who he knows nothing.

I thought it was a really well done guys-friendship book, and one that might ring true for a lot of kids.

Kinda Like Brothers comes out August 26, 2014.

I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached

Zeina Abirached, who wrote the beautiful and poignant A Game for Swallows writes another graphic novel of wartime memories.

In A Game of Swallows, Abirached tells the story of  her time growing up during the civil war in Lebanon.  It was more of a tradition telling of her life during that time.  In I Remember Beirut, Abirached simply tells things she remembers.

"I remember when there was no electricity or gas, we used kerosene for heating."  "I remember traffic jams."  "I remember how to fold a paper boat."  Each of these memories relates to a larger event or experience Abirached recalls from the time of the war.

It paints a detailed picture of everyday life for a child during this time.  It also allows us to see the things that Abirached remembers and considers important as an adult, and in some cases, how they impacted her.

What I've loved about Abirached's graphic novels is that the simple and straightforward way they are told allows them to be appropriate for a middle grade audience.  Her graphic novels are an excellent way to help a younger child understand war the effects it has on the children, or to explore how another child's life can be so different from their own.

The illustrations are impactful.  Done in black and white, and fitting with the story, simple in detail, the panels and full page illustrations further show the impact these events had on Abirached's life.

I Remember Beirut comes out October 1, 2014.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since Rose was five.  Rose loves it there, and loves seeing her summer friend, Windy.  This summer, however, things are not the same.  Rose's mother is acting odd, and her parent's keep fighting.  Rose and Windy find themselves witnessing the drama of the local teenagers and taking sides.  Everything seems the same but different.

Beautiful coming of age story.  There's so much that's left unsaid, that doesn't need to be said because of the power of the illustrations.

I don't think it's ever explicitly said how old Rose is.  My guess is 12, maybe?  She's in that in-between stage.  She isn't a teenager, not in high school yet.  She's too old to think of herself as a kid anymore.  She's getting crushes on boys, thinking about getting breasts and her period.  Her best summer friend, Windy, is about a year younger than she is.

It's unclear for most of the story what's going on with Rose's mother.  Is she sick?  She does appear to be very thin and drawn.  She portrayed coughing a few times.  But we come to understand that Rose doesn't know what's going on with her mother either.  Just that she very withdrawn, often short-tempered, doesn't seem to have to patience for things they've always done.

Rose is close with her father.  He laughs and jokes and teases her.  She feels abandoned when he leaves to go back to the city in the middle of their summer.  Now Rose feels she's completely on her own, trapped with her mother who isn't acting like her mother.

Windy's relationship with her mother is a sharp contrast to how Rose feels about her own mother.  Windy's mother seems open and passionate and outwardly shows her love for her child.  All the things Rose feels like are missing right now.  Although it's never said, Rose also feels some resentment toward her mother for wanting to have another child.  Why doesn't her mother feel like she is enough, like Windy's does?

Rose finds herself witness to the drama of the older teenagers of Awago Beach.  Rose has a crush on Doug, who works at the town store.  His girlfriend, Jenny, gets pregnant.  Doug won't talk to Jenny or call her.  Rose immediately falls into defending Doug in her head.  What if Jenny's lying?  What if it's not Doug's?  What if Jenny is cheating on him?  That Jenny is a slut.  Rose has no base for any of this thinking, really.  She has none of that "girls should stick together" mentality.  She just wants the boy she likes to be a nice, good guy.

There's a theme of children and childbirth.  Wanting babies, not wanting babies.  Being too old to have one, being too young to have one.  It gave the story a life-cycle feel.  Beginnings and endings.  Summer beginning, summer ending.  Growing up, getting older.

The art if just beautiful.  It's black and white, but the blacks have shades of blue and gray.  The quietness and peace of the summer that Rose so loves is reflected.  Through uses of close-ups and wordless panels, we get a clear understanding what the characters are thinking and feeling.

Quiet, beautiful, powerful story.  Highly recommended.  

Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Raleigh is fairly sure she doesn't have a soul.  She's also fairly sure a cat stole it.  She hates cats, but they always seem to be around her.  She's not good at interacting with people.  She doesn't seem to feel what other people feel.  And everything's always just so horribly confusing and mixed up all the time.  And now she's in a car with three classmates who she hardly even knows on a never ending road trip, and isn't even sure how she got there.

Raleigh's story slowly unfolds.  She's in a car with three other kids she doesn't seem to know super well.  It's unclear we're they're going to or heading from all how they all ended up in the same car.  Raleigh is very much trapped in her own head.  Her thoughts swirl in turmoil and confusion.  She's not good at interacting with people, or reading people.

In bits a pieces Raleigh reveals her background that got her to where she is now.  At the same time, the four teens are trying to get back home, dealing with car issues and trying to find hotels.  Raleigh starts to warm toward the others, although she's hesitant about opening up to people.

The whole "my soul was stolen by cats" thing was weird.  But her new friends take it in stride when she finally tells them this and they gamely sneak out cats to see if they can find Raleigh's soul.

The drawings are black and white and lack detail.  For the most part it was presented in traditional comic book frames with a few full paged spreads.  The darkness of the drawings and the lack of detail fit perfectly with Raleigh's confused and worried mind.

I found the ending a little unsatisfying.  It just ended after the big reveal.  There wasn't much more to conclude things.  We don't really know what happens.  I think it captures a teenager's angst and confusion well.

A little spoilery

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Elise Dembowski has always been an outsider.  She makes one final attempt to change herself and make friends, and when that fails she thinks she's ready to give up for good.  Then Elise comes across and underground party and finds her passion - DJing.  With it come real friends and crushes, but Elise still hasn't made her night life and the rest of her life come together.

Elise is an odd duck.  The kind of kid who I see in high school sometimes and I just want to tell them to hang on until they can go to college.  That it's going to get so much better for them.  She's not interested in things most other kids her age are interested in.  She doesn't like the sorts of clothes they wear so she doesn't dress like most kids.  Without common interests, Elise is alone most of the time.  She doesn't really know how to interact with people her own age.  Elise gets teased and bullied constantly.  She's always alone.  School is a torment for her.

The book kind of starts in the middle of the story.  Elise is reflecting back on her attempt to reinvent herself the summer between freshman and sophomore year.  She buys new clothes.  She studies pop culture and TV even though she doesn't care about any of it.  And on the first day of school she realizes it's never going to work.  She's always just going to be herself.  Elise decides she's going to kill herself.  But after cutting herself she realizes she doesn't actually want to die, but just wants to be noticed and cared about.

This attempt comes back to haunt her later on, when someone starts an online journal under Elise's name.  The journal says things about how everyone hates her (Elise) and she wants to kill herself.  Elise doesn't know who's doing it, but everyone at school thinks it's really her.

While Elise is suffering at school, she's blossoming in the underground club scene.  She accidentally stumbles upon the party during one of her evening walks and, amazingly to her, makes friends with two girls, who introduce her to the DJ Char, who takes her under his wing.  Elise feels like a different person there.  A confident person with friends who is talented and has something to give.  As DJing becomes more important to her, Elise finds it hard to keep on getting up to go to school each day.  And DJing can't magically make all her problems go away.

Elise continues to struggle with her feelings of worthlessness.  She starts hooking up with Char, even though she knows he fools around with lots of other girls.  When Elise is offered her own DJing gig, rather than be happy for her, Char is jealous and wants her to turn it down.  Elise doesn't know what to do.  She's gone so long believing that she'll never be good enough, never be what anyone wants.  I wanted to grab Elise and shake her and say, "Don't listen to that stupid boy!  You're going to be awesome!  He's just jealous of you!  Also you should probably stop hooking up with him!"

Elise's two worlds collide when her parents see a journal entry on the fake Elise's site that says she's going to kill herself.  Her parents, of course, freak out and set out to find her.  With everything out in the open, real change can finally be made.

The book doesn't end with everything being fixed and better.  But we are left with the feeling that Elise is going to be OK.  She's found a place for herself, and she's found a way to bring that person she is at night into the rest of her life.

It's a great story and also deals with those tricky themes of bullying and identity that can so easily become heavy handed and preachy.  It was an finding yourself with an edge, realistically portrayed.  I found Elise's voice to very true and on point.  Highly recommended.

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

It's shortly after WWII, and Jack Baker finds himself in a boys' boarding school in Main, far away from his home in Kansas.  There he meets Early Auden, a strange boy with a fascination with the number pi.  During school vacation, Jack and Early are the only ones left at school, and they head out onto the Appalachian Trail on a quest.

This reminded me a bit of Francesca Lia Block's Love in the Time of Global Warming.  Not in writing style, of course.  But in both books we have a story, in LITTOFW it was The Odyssey, in Navigating Early it was the story of Pi, and the characters in the book go off on a journey that perfectly mirrors the story they read/heard/told.  I enjoyed Navigating Early much more.

It's an odd little book, one I think that's probably going to have more appeal to adults than middle grade kids, but I could be wrong about that.  It does have some boy appeal in two guys going off on an adventure.

Jack is torn up about the loss of his mother, although he tries not to show it.  He hardly knows his navy father, recently returned from the war, and his father is not the best at comfort and talking.  Jack feels lost and adrift, and the Main boarding school isn't helping to anchor him.

Although Jack is casual friends with the other boys, Early is the only one who really talks to him.  Early is odd.  He's probably has Autism in some form.  That's just my guess, it's not actually said in the book, that wouldn't have been appropriate for the time period.  Early has a number of characteristics that would fit though.  His father is recently dead, and he's living in the school basement, hardly ever going to class, and no one seems to care enough to do anything about it.  Early is adrift too, but in a different way.  What grounds him is the number pi.  In the never-ending numbers, Early can read a story, about a boy called Pi that loses his way, but finds his way home.

Early's brother has died in the war.  But Early is convinced his brother isn't dead, and that he's tied up in the story of Pie.  If only the story can have an ending, if Pi can find his way home, Early's brother will be able to as well.

Jack goes along with Early, mostly to not be left behind and alone.  Their journey mirrors Pi's journey, all the twists and turns, the meeting of strange characters and escaping danger.  Early is unflaggingly determined, Jack is skeptical.  The journey allows both boys to anchor themselves, although perhaps in unexpected ways.

I liked both the characters of Jack and Early.  They were well developed and unique and their actions were always believable.  The story surprised me and kept me interested.  Although there is action and adventure and even pirates, for heaven's sake, it's still overall a very quiet, thoughtful sort of book.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park meet on the school bus.  Park thinks Eleanor is a freak and Eleanor doesn't think much of him either.  But slowly, over shared comic books and music, they can't be apart from each other.  But not even their relationship can alleviate what's happening in Eleanor's home, and it's not something that Park can help her fix.

The way Eleanor and Park are shown falling in love was great.  It was perfectly captured how it made absolutely no sense at all.  It didn't happen immediately.  But they grew on each other.  Like fungus.  And then they couldn't remember how they could have ever not liked each other, even though they both clearly remember how they didn't.  That sentence didn't really make sense, but I think you know what I mean.

They also didn't see each other as flawless and perfect.  Park has doubts about Eleanor.  He wishes she was friendlier.  Then he feels guilt for wishing she was different.  But he does sometimes.  Eleanor is the same way.  And she never open ups to Park about what is happening in her life, not until the very last minute.

Some spoilers, in the sense that I talk about details from the book.