Book review - Picture a Girl

 

Title: Picture a Girl

Author: Jenny Manzer

Genre: verse novel

Similar books: Kyra, Just for Today by Sara Zarr

                      How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C Rudd

Rating:

 

well balanced

Summary (provided by publisher): Addie and her brother, Billy, live with their mom in a shabby rental cabin in the tourist town of Cedarveil, BC, right off the beach. Their lives are a little different than some—they often visit the food bank, and they don't have a phone or TV. For entertainment, their mom tells them stories before bed...if she's in a good mood, or home at all. Sometimes Mama copes with her depression by drinking; sometimes, she just disappears.
When Addie wakes up one Monday, she senses a stillness that tells her Mama's gone again. Addie knows it's up to her to take care of everything until her mom gets back. It's either not let on that anything's amiss or she and Billy will be separated from one another. Once again she makes it through until her mom's return a week later, knowing that she's strong enough to survive alone—but she's hoping this will be the last time.

My opinion: Sometimes, when you get a book about a kid with a neglectful parent, all we see is the bad. We see the way that the parent harms their child, intentional or otherwise, and the child's inability to find their way out. That isn't the case here. We see a kid desperate to keep her family together, certainly, but we also see the positives of their life together. Not just the fact that Addie wants to protect her mom but why she wants that. We see the way that her community comes together to help them while also doing their best to give the kids chances to ask for more help. As a verse novel it's very character driven, digging deep into Addie's feelings and motivation, but the physical events are easy enough to follow.

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Non-fiction book review - Say What

 

Say What? by Charlotte Molas and Radka Piro

Do not be mislead by the cover art here. This book is no simple look at language. It looks at all forms of communication, from language development to body posture. It encourages clear communication and listening skills, teaching kids to not only communicate their needs but also to respect all forms of communication from others. This is a book you could read all at once or in bits and pieces, gleaning new information each time. While the simple illustration style may be appealing to the very young, the content is aimed at more of a middle grade audience.

More information: Say What releases May 28

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

WWW Wednesday

 What are you currently reading?

Murray Out of Water by Taylor Tracy - Murray has always had a magical connection with the ocean but that is called into question when a hurricane destroys much of the town. And with that shaken, Murray begins to question a lot of other things.

What did you recently finish reading?

The Lamplighter by Crystal J Bell - A young woman defies expectations in her New England town, carrying on her father's work as the village lamplighter, and uncovers a dark secret.

What do you think you'll read next?

The Things We Miss by Leah Strecher

Book review - The Boo Hag Flex

 

Title: The Boo Hag Flex

Author: Justina Ireland

Genre: horror

Similar books: The Cursed Moon by Angela Cervantes

                      1, 2, 3, Scream by R.U. Ginns

Rating:

 

appropriately creepy

Summary (provided by publisher): The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Savannah to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father—a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby—she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him—something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.
The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. But then Tasha meets a girl named Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims. Tasha doesn’t believe it, but when she discovers a book of hoodoo legends in her grandmother’s trailer, and more people around Shady Pines start to appear unwell, she begins to fear the stories are true—and that danger is much closer than she thinks.

My opinion: I don't know about you, but I was definitely a middle grade reader who liked a good scare. An avid reader of Goosebumps. So this book would have been exactly my cup of tea. And it's tonally just about perfect. The new-kid dynamic is frequently used in horror as a way for characters to explain away strange happenings but it works quite well in this instance, partly because Tasha is a well developed character. Also in the book's favor is the use of a lesser known spook - the boo hag. The result is creepy, sympathetic, and just a touch gross. While the series construction of tales told in some kind of haunted, otherworldly camp cabin feels a bit forced, the internal story is strong and worth reading on it's own merit.

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Book review - Lion of the Sky

 

Title: Lion of the Sky

Author: Ritu Hemnani

Genre: historical fiction/verse novel

Similar books: One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

                      The Partition Project by Saadia Faruqi

Rating:

 

a nice, complex picture

Summary (provided by publisher): Twelve-year-old Raj is happiest flying kites with his best friend, Iqbal. As their kites soar, Raj feels free, like his beloved India soon will be, and he can’t wait to celebrate their independence.
But when a British lawyer draws a line across a map, splitting India in two, Raj is thrust into a fractured world. With Partition declared, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim families are torn apart—and Raj’s Hindu and Iqbal’s Muslim families are among them.
Forced to flee and become refugees, Raj’s family is left to start over in a new country. After suffering devastating losses, Raj must summon the courage to survive the brutal upheaval of both his country and his heart.

My opinion: Partition is, admittedly, an incredibly complex topic. It could be too much to address in a traditional novel, much less in a verse novel like this one. But Hemnani makes it work, partly by not trying to explain everything. We don't get a full picture of the politics of the region, the history of British occupation. We only get a snapshot of life in the region under British rule and the rapid shift after Partition is declared. The narrative covers a reasonable time span, less than a year, and shows us very different pictures of life in that time. More importantly, it's about more than just the affects of Partition. It is just as much about Raj's relationship with his father, the expectations he feels like he cannot meet.

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Non-fiction book review - Lies My Teacher Told Me

 

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen; adapted by Nate Powell

The simple existence of the original book shook up our understanding of history education and became considered essential reading. It's a bit to my chagrin that I've never managed to read the book. But when I learned that Powell was adapting the text into the graphic novel format I knew my chance had come. Now to be clear, this is still an incredibly text heavy book. In fact, if it were not an adaptation that would be a significant criticism. Instead I understand that Powell is doing his best to illustrate and include as much of the original language as possible since it was all carefully selected in the first place to convey essential information. This is not a graphic novel that you're going to fly through but rather read carefully. The illustrations highlight the text, assisting in understanding. 

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Book review - Maybe It's a Sign

 

Title: Maybe It's a Sign

Author: E. L. SHen

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: When Sea Becomes Sky by Gillian McDunn

                      A Duet For Home by Karina Yan Glaser

Rating:

 

nicely reflective

Summary (provided by publisher): Seventh-grader Freya June Sun has always believed in the Chinese superstitions spoon-fed to her since birth. Ever since her dad’s death a year ago, she’s become obsessed with them, and believes that her father is sending her messages from beyond. Like how, on her way to an orchestra concert where she’s dreading her viola solo, a pair of lucky red birds appear—a sure indication that Dad wants Freya to stick with the instrument and make him proud.
Then Freya is partnered with Gus Choi, a goofy and super annoying classmate, for a home economics project. To her surprise, as they experiment with recipes and get to know each other, Freya finds that she may love baking more than music. It could be time for a big change in her life, even though her dad hasn’t sent a single sign. But with the help of her family, Gus (who might not be so annoying after all), and two maybe-magical birds, Freya learns that to be her own person, she might just have to make her own luck.

My opinion: This could have been a simple story of a kid finding her way out of grief. It manages to transcend that. Certainly grief is a large element. It's also about parental expectations, both explicit and assumed, complex family dynamics, and self discovery. It's about learning to know yourself and the things that matter to you. This is not always a comfortable, relaxing read but it is an engaging one and it could spark a good conversation with a middle grade reader.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley