What do you do when you have a couple of nice structured hats and no good place to hang them? You could buy a hat-rack, of course, but if you're me you look for a solution you can make for yourself. Preferably something not too expensive and relatively space saving. I took my inspiration from this pin. I did a much simpler design and used cord made from an old jersey knit sheet.
Author: Tracy Badua
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Happily for Now by Kelly Murpy
Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte
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Summary (provided by publisher): When a celebrity chef’s new restaurant threatens Mila’s family’s food truck, she plans to expose them for the recipe thieves they are—even if that means dabbling in the Filipino folk magic she’s tried to avoid. Fans of Tae Keller and Lily LaMotte will cheer for this charming story about food, family, and finding the place you belong.
Mila may have moved to Coral Beach months ago, but it still doesn’t feel like home. She wants to belong, but a few awkward incidents with her new friends make her wonder if she’ll ever neatly fit into the super-samey small town.
Mila feels the only place she can be herself is at her dad’s Filipino-Indian food truck, The Banana Leaf. But when celebrity chef twins the Fab Foodie Brothers open a restaurant nearby, it turns out the food they are serving is exactly the same as The Banana Leaf's--right down to the recipes!
Suspicious of the similarities, Mila teams up with family friend Ajay to investigate. She soon realizes that she needs to take the beloved Fab Foodie Brothers down before they run her family's tiny truck out of town. But that means dabbling in the Filipino folk healing and magical traditions that she has shied away from her whole life . . . as well as alienating her new friends.
Does Mila have to choose between her family and fitting in? Or, like the best recipes, will a blend of the traditional and the unexpected mix into something truly special?
My opinion: This book could easily have fallen into an easy good vs evil dichotomy. Consider the set up: a food truck accuses a celebrity restaurant of stealing their recipes. The little guy goes against seemingly impossible odds to take down the big guy who is lying and cheating. Basic stuff. But Badua elevates the plot by adding in more complexity. The powerful restaurant promises to bring more traffic to all of the businesses in their struggling town, so fighting will harm all of their friends. And side elements include the exploration of colorism, the complexities of cultural identity, and folk magic. None of the elements are explored in deep ways but with likeable characters and engaging writing this is a solid read for middle graders.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
We're seeing this construct more often now in picture books: the text starts with the narrator telling us explicitly what we won't find within the pages. Almost immediately the book is interrupted by a cheeky character determined to disrupt the plan. Of course, if the narrator tells us there are too many unicorn books and thus our book will have only cowboys, we're bound to have a unicorn intruding. The rest of the book follows a predictable pattern, with the unicorn and it's pug friend trying to sneak into the story and the narrator becoming increasingly frustrated. We know what's going to happen but it doesn't really matter. This style of narrative can be very appealing to a kid's sense of humor as it relies on disguises and wild excuses. The illustrations are exaggerated and expressive, making it a lot of fun to look at. This book would make an excellent read aloud for a mixed audience primed for a laugh.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
Author: Thanhha Lai
Genre: historical fiction
Similar books: In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo
Red White and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
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Summary (provided by publisher): Hà and her family have worked hard to make a life for themselves in the US, but it hasn’t come easy. Hà has only just started to feel settled when Mother decides that the family will move to Texas for a new job.
Hà knows how hard starting over is and doesn’t want to have to do it again. But sometimes even an unwanted change can bring opportunity, new friends, and a place to call home.
My opinion: If you've read Inside Out and Back Again you'll know what to expect from this book. The first volume introduced us to a refugee family and their struggles to find a place to belong in small town Alabama. This volume extends those ideas. Book one had them getting their feet under them. This book introduces more change as their mother is no longer satisfied with just surviving. She wants a better life for them so this book is all about making sacrifices in the name of a better future while her children try to find a place to belong again. While it builds on the events of the previous book, familiarity isn't necessary to understand this one.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
At the end of April I promised you a post about Mother's Day. I had every intention of making a gift for my mother and documenting the process here. But that didn't happen. I bought her a book and some tea and instead spent the weekend doing things with my mother. We baked bread and cinnamon rolls. We cooked meals, planned a garden, talked about everything under the sun, and made a couple of silly projects. So sure, all I have to share with you today is a flower made from a coffee filter and a hastily colored hedgehog. I regret nothing.
Author: Susan Tan
Genre: magical realism
Similar books: Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn
The Elephant's Girl by Celesta Rimington
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Summary (provided by publisher): Mo is not afraid of toast. Just to be clear. She is afraid of fires, though. Which can be caused by everyday appliances, like toasters. So toast isn’t the problem, but you could say it’s the start of a slippery slope. Since her family's recent move, Mo's been eating oatmeal for breakfast.
Moving to a new town is never easy, but it’s even harder when you’re dealing with a stepdad who just left and a mom who can’t get out of bed long enough to find a new a job.
But Mo doesn’t have time to dwell on these things. Because it’s her job to keep her family together. To keep them safe.
So when an elephant starts to haunt her dreams—and a mysterious spirit attacks her home—Mo knows it’s up to her to intervene before things get too dangerous.
With her new friend, Nathaniel, she embarks on an investigation, searching for the truth about the town, its people, and their history. But things are much more complicated and tangled than she thought.
To find out what’s really going on, Mo might have to live a little dangerously after all.
My opinion: How do you tell a ghost story without making it scary? You tell this story. You have a ghost that has an effect on the world but without really haunting anything. Now, it becomes apparent pretty early on that the ghost is a symbol for change and loss. It is, after all, a literal elephant in the room. It is the pain that Mo and her family don't want to acknowledge. While that metaphor is a bit heavy-handed for an adult reader it's about perfect for a young reader starting to read more deeply in a text. Tan uses specific sensory details to great affect so we truly experience the ghost and the junkyard along with the characters. With a decent level of character development this is a solid choice for a solo read or a book club or classroom setting.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
I'm often intrigued by the approach an author takes to a plot. This is especially true when they make the main characters animals. You can do things with animal characters that would seem implausible with humans. Simply by virtue of being animals, they encourage us to expand our suspension of disbelief. Not to mention they're usually cute and fun. Here are six new books published in the past six months that feature animal characters.
6 new books with animal protagonists:
