Since today is Halloween, it should come as no surprise that the "craft" I'm sharing is my jack-o-lantern. While most of my family went with traditional faces, I decided to try something different and turned mine into a hedgehog. If you turn it around, the back is full of holes as well for additional "spikes".
Author: Hannah Gold
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelley
A Possibility of Whales by Karen Rivers
Rating:
.JPG)
Summary (provided by publisher): When Rio is sent to live with a grandmother he barely knows in California, he feels completely alone. Then he makes a new friend on the foggy beach—a girl named Marina, who teaches him about the massive grey whales that migrate nearby.
As Rio grows to love the whales, he discovers that his mother loved them, too. He’s suddenly sure that if he can somehow find a way to connect her with these gentle giants – and especially with a particular whale named White Beak – she will get better and come to join him in California. But White Beak is missing—and Rio must embark on a desperate journey across the dangerous ocean to find her.
My opinion: The main plot here, of Rio's drive to find White Beak, is easy enough to follow. And the subtext of his journey adjusting to his new life and coming to understand his mother and grandmother better is pretty straightforward as well. I appreciate too that Gold resists the temptation to make Rio wise beyond his years. He is serious, to be certain, since he has been serving as a caregiver to his mother. But he is still a child. He engages in magical thinking and is only beginning to see adults as real, complex people who don't have all the answers. The whale plot stretches the imagination a bit more than I would like but the characters are strong enough to give this one my approval.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
In plot alone Stroud has presented us with a strong book. The world of this series is one devastated by climate change and some unnamed disaster. Cities are abandoned and lost to wilderness and floods. The remaining towns are insular and ruled by secretive cabals and strict standards of "purity". The spaces in between are the domain of monstrous man-eating animals and a sort of zombie. All elements that make for exciting reading and would be enough to make this a book easy to recommend. But Scarlett and Albert, the titular outlaws, are phenomenal. Both are keeping secrets and both add charm and quirks to the story. Scarlett is the bandit we love, who commits her crimes with cheek yet seeks to do good in the world when she sees the chance. Albert is a wide-eyed innocent who loves everything, bumbles endlessly, but is so effortlessly charming and guileless that we automatically cheer for him. A charming listen that will engage reluctant readers.
Sometimes we give small children books about how the lives of kids around the world aren't so different. Their school might look different, we say, but they still go to school. As those kids age, it's important to give them books like this one. Books that lay out reality a little more plainly and show them how some basic things that we take for granted in the west, like clean water and education, are not so accessible in other places. Camlot presents the reader with several cases where groups have had to defy authority to obtain education. Several reasons are presented - sexism, racism, and classism being the primary driving forces. A variety of cultures and time periods are presented as well. A solid choice for a social science collection.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
Author: Bridget Farr
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Instructions for the End of the World by Jamie Kain
Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard
Rating:
.JPG)
Summary (provided by publisher): Gut a fish. Rewire a truck. Survive the collapse of the US government. All lessons fifteen-year-old Lark has learned during “homeschool” with her conspiracy-theorist-Doomsday-prepping parents. If only she’d also learned the fundamentals of human biology or even how to read. When Lark gets her first period and realizes how much she doesn’t know, she ignores her fears of everything outside their rural Montana farm and secretly attends school for the first time.
At high school, Lark discovers the world is very different than she has been told, from the basics of the internet to government takeovers that never happened. Lark uncovers the holes in her parents’ beliefs and realizes that she must decide her own truth. But it won’t come without sacrifices.
My opinion: There are plenty of books out there about teens learning to question their parents' views. Many of these books take the approach that adults are ignorant and teens need space to find the truth. I don't think most people will think that Lark's parents got things "right" but Farr's approach is a bit more careful than the standard "you're wrong". Lark doesn't wholesale reject what she's been taught. It's more about the opportunity to ask questions, to explore the world for herself and come to her own conclusions. Her parents, rather than backwards fools stuck in their ways, are portrayed as lost and desperate people looking for answers, doing all that they can to protect their only child. They've gone to extremes, certainly, but they are complex people with clear motivations. There are some elements of the plot that are confusing or never fully explained, but there is enough positives to this book to make it worth a read.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
When I'm not sure what to draw on a notecard, my fallback is always birds. There's just so many out there, all so different looking, and they're generally well received when I take them to craft fairs. This weekend I drew an oriole and a house finch.
Author: Skyler Schrempp
Genre: historical fiction
Similar books: Red Menace by Lois Ruby
The Journal of CJ Jackson by William Durbin
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher):When the skies dried up, Gloria thought it was temporary. When the dust storms rolled in, she thought they would pass. But now the bank man’s come to take the family farm, and Pa’s decided to up and move to California in search of work. They’ll pick fruit, he says, until they can save up enough money to buy land of their own again.
There are only three rules at the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard:
No stealing product.
No drunkenness or gambling.
And absolutely no organizing.
Well, Gloria Mae Willard isn’t about to organize any peaches, no ma’am. She’s got more on her mind than that. Like the secret, all-boys baseball team she’s desperate to play for, if only they’d give her a chance. Or the way that wages keep going down. The way their company lodgings are dirty and smelly, and everyone seems intent on leaving her out of everything.
But Gloria has never been the type to wait around for permission. If the boys won’t let her play, she’ll find a way to make them. If the people around her are keeping secrets, then she’ll keep a few of her own. And if the boss men at the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard say she can’t organize peaches, then by golly she’ll organize a whole ball game.
My opinion: This book provides a solid, compelling plot that does not shy away from harsh realities. Gloria's life is drastically changing. She's seen her family's way of life completely destroyed and her childhood has come to a premature end. We take a child already on the verge of realizing the complexities of life that come with adolescence and add in the cruelties of the Dust Bowl, of the death of a baby and a family thrown into abject poverty. She has the simple understanding of "fair" and "right" and is inclined to fight injustice every time she perceives it. She's learning why adults sometimes put up with indignity for the sake of a larger good. At the same time, she has a child's hopeful outlook and belief in the power of a baseball game. Not only does this book give the young reader a snapshot of the reality of life for people displaced by the Dust Bowl, it also encourages consideration of relative morality and the things worth fighting for.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
