Non-fiction book review - The Great Shark Rescue

The Great Shark Rescue by Sandra Markle

If you're looking for a solid, accessible introduction to an animal and the ecological concerns surrounding it, Markle's books a a good place to start. Through the simple story of a pair of whale sharks in danger, Markle is able to introduce the reader to a wide variety of issues: the biology of sharks; how sea creatures get classified; how commercial fishing nets work; how scientists track and study sharks; how ocean species are affected by climate change; conservation efforts; the things we still don't know about this species. Each element is introduced and explored organically. 
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Book review - Black Canary: Ignite

Title: Black Canary: Ignite
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: super hero
Similar books: Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia

                      Supergirl: Being Super by Mariko Tamaki
Rating:

a fun little adventure

Summary (provided by publisher): Thirteen-year-old Dinah Lance knows exactly what she wants, who she is, and where she's going. First, she'll win the battle of the bands with her two best friends, then she'll join the Gotham City Junior Police Academy so she can solve crimes just like her dad. Who knows, her rock-star group of friends may even save the world, but first they'll need to agree on a band name. When a mysterious figure keeps getting in the way of Dinah's goals and threatens her friends and family, she'll learn more about herself, her mother's secret past, and navigating the various power chords of life.
With expressive and energetic art by Cara McGee to match the trademark attitude and spunk of Meg Cabot's characters and dialogue, this mother-daughter story embraces the highs and lows of growing up without growing out of what makes us unique. It's an inspirational song that encourages readers to find their own special voices to sing along with Black Canary!

My opinion: Black Canary is a superhero who doesn't get enough attention. All of the attention tends to be focused on the Superman/Batman world. While Black Canary exists in the same universe (the Joker is referenced several times in this book) those characters exist on the periphery. Dinah is able to establish herself as a hero of her own merits, to explore her powers without comparing to other heroes. And her powers are unique, sonic disruption through the power of her voice. This is not a perfect book. Characters get only a minimal amount of development and the plot can be a bit scattered. Still, it's a fun introduction to a character who deserves more attntion.
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Book review - What Makes Us

Title: What Makes Us
Author: Rafi Mittlefehldt
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Borderline by Allan Stratton
                      Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
Rating:

lots to think about

Summary (provided by publisher): Eran Sharon knows nothing of his father except that he left when Eran was a baby. Now a senior in high school and living with his protective but tight-lipped mother, Eran is a passionate young man deeply interested in social justice and equality. When he learns that the Houston police have launched a program to increase traffic stops, Eran organizes a peaceful protest. But a heated moment at the protest goes viral, and a reporter connects the Sharon family to a tragedy fifteen years earlier — and asks if Eran is anything like his father, a supposed terrorist. Soon enough, Eran is wondering the same thing, especially when the people he’s gone to school and temple with for years start to look at him differently. Timely, powerful, and full of nuance, Rafi Mittlefehldt’s sophomore novel confronts the prejudices, fears, and strengths of family and community, striking right to the heart of what makes us who we are.

My opinion: Several years ago we saw a lot of books about the families of school shooters. Now we've moved on to the families of terrorists. While the details change the general themes remain the same: grief at war with guilt and the pressures of public perception. In this case, we have the added complication of racism and anti-semitism. Eran's anger in complicated not only by his family history but by a public pre-disposed to unfairly judging him based on his race.This is just an added complication to the question of whether anger and violence are ever justified. There are elements of generational guilt and community ties. It comes to no solid conclusions, just starts a conversation that we must all decide for ourselves.
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Graphic Novel Spotlight - The Tea Dragon Society

The Tea Dragon Society and The Tea Dragon Festival by Katie O'Neill

As you might expect from the titles, the Tea Dragon books are a gentle and artistic exploration of a society. This is a world with dragons and other mythological creatures. Some are humanoid and, in fact, interact with people on the same level. Others, primarily the tea dragons, are more like pets or farm animals. Through the course of the two books we see various aspects of the world: careers, relationships, and dangers. The dangers come into play more in The Tea Dragon Festival, where we see the wildness and violence of the world. Even so, this is a relatively minor element of the plot. It's shown more as a complexity of the world an a real plot element. The art style is soft colors without distinct outlines, making the books gentle both to read and to look at.

Non-fiction book review - Ours to Share

Ours to Share by Kari Jones

Jones covers a great deal of group living in a handful of pages. This means that this is a simple overview but that's to be expected. Anything beyond an overview of the history of community becomes pretty complicated pretty quickly. Jones walks us through different forms of early society with a special focus on shared resources. It's the modern era, of course, that gets the most focus and that changes format. In the modern era we look at the difficulties of living in communities and the problems sharing resources. This highlights a serious and complex issue in a way accessible to young kids.
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Book review - Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

Title: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
Author: Kwame Mbalia
Genre: fantasy/mythology
Similar books: Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
                      The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Rating:

a delightful reimagining

Summary (provided by publisher): Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from the tragedy. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it--is that a doll?--and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price. Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?

My opinion: If you're familiar with Rick Riordan, you probably know what to expect from this book. A normal kid finds himself thrown into a world of mythology. The difference with this series, of course, is that Tristan is not a demi-god. In fact, there aren't many gods in this book. These are mostly legendary figures with god-like powers. John Henry, Brer Rabbit, that sort of thing. So Tristan's tie to their world is more related to personality and internal traits than blood. He starts out as an average kid, simply dealing with big issues: grief, parental expectations, fear and anger. Mbalia is exploring not specific stories so much as the role of storytelling in culture, how it morphs overtime but still ties us to our past. With a solid cast of characters and just the right amount of complexity for a middle grade novel, I consider this one a must read.
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Book review - Under the Broken Sky

Title: Under the Broken Sky
Author: Mariko Nagai
Genre: historical fiction/verse novel
Similar books: The Taste of Rain by Monique Polak
                      The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot
Rating:

lovely insight into a little recognized perspective

Summary (provided by publisher): Twelve-year-old Natsu and her family live a quiet farm life in Manchuria, near the border of the Soviet Union. But the life they’ve known begins to unravel when her father is recruited to the Japanese army, and Natsu and her little sister, Cricket, are left orphaned and destitute.
In a desperate move to keep her sister alive, Natsu sells Cricket to a Russian family following the 1945 Soviet occupation. The journey to redemption for Natsu's broken family is rife with struggles, but Natsu is tenacious and will stop at nothing to get her little sister back.
Literary and historically insightful, this is one of the great untold stories of WWII. Much like the Newbery Honor book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Mariko Nagai's Under the Broken Sky is powerful, poignant, and ultimately hopeful.

My opinion: We tend to get a lot of books about WWII, usually about persecution in Europe or resistance groups in Germany or France. Seldom to we read about other people whose lives were entirely changed by the war. We don't get regular citizens just trying to live in Germany or Japan, people who are loyal to their government. Good citizens, not committing atrocities, caught up in something larger than them. In this case we have Japanese citizens in China, children who have lived their entire lives in this occupied territory, suddenly in terrible dangers as Japan begins to lose the war. Children who are essentially on a death march. It's much like the stories we read of Jews fleeing Europe, walking through the night, sick and starving. And that's what makes it important. This is not a story about ideologies but about the general horrors of war, of being stripped of dignity and humanity. This could be used to great affect as a supplementary text.
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Pick 6: Magic

Spells, faeries, witches, giants. Magical elements seem to resonate with young readers and there are some really excellent fantasy novels being written for them. Here are six books published in the past six months that feature magic. In honor of Halloween, these magical books have more of a spooky air to them.

6 new magical novels

1. A Small Zombie Problem by K G Campbell
2. Hotel Dare by Terry Blas
3. The Oddmire by William Ritter
4. Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Berube
5. Witchy by Ariel Slamel Ries
6. His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler

Non-fiction book review - Brave With Beauty

Brave With Beauty by Maxine Rose Schur

Goharshad is an historical figure I'd never heard of before, which is a real shame because her story is fascinating. Living in a world that did not value the feminine, she did not make her mark by embracing the masculine. Instead, she found ways to encourage the things that she valued in society - beauty and fairness instead of aggression and self-importance. Young readers will learn from Goharshad's story the values of beauty and of being true to yourself.
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Book review - The Grace Year

Title: The Grace Year
Author: Kim Liggett
Genre: dystopia
Similar books: How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates
                      Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Rating:

dark but brilliant

Summary (provided by publisher): Survive the year.
No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.
In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.
With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between. 

My opinion: Let's be frank: the plot of this book is grim and cruel. There's blatant death and violence. Liggett doesn't hold back in portraying repression and the cruelty women inflict upon one another. This is a society where females have absolutely no freedom. They can't even have friendships. So, when they are given a year of absolute freedom, they turn on each other rather than banding together and fighting their oppression. They wield their small amount of power as a weapon against their peers. I got a little frustrated by all of the twists, the ways that the plot seems to constantly circle back on itself. The ending isn't neat and tidy but rather a first step towards change for the future.
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Book review - Mr. Penguin and the Fotress of Secrets

Title: Mr. Penguin and the Fortress of Secrets
Author: Alex T. Smith
Genre: early chapter book
Similar books: Fabio, the World's BestGreatest Flamingo Detective by Laura James
                      Snazzy Cat Capers by Deanna Kent
Rating:

Silly fun

Summary (provided by publisher): From the international bestselling creator of Claude comes a brand new hero: Mr Penguin. Indiana Jones meets Hercule Poirot in this series from Alex T. Smith. Follow Mr Penguin and Colin as they crash-land on a snowy mountain. Will they be able to solve the mystery of the missing pets? What are the strange noises coming from the abandoned fortress? And will Mr Penguin conquer his fear of flying?Find out in the second Mr Penguin book with plenty of slapstick humour, mystery and adventure. Highly illustrated throughout with a striking black and orange design.

My opinion: I had a few reserves about this book, mostly because I didn't love book one as much as I'd hoped. Book one was less cheeky with a more focused plot than Smith's previous series. I'm glad I gave this one a chance, because it's much stronger than the introductory volume. Now that we've met the characters and their world is established Smith has more room to develop the plot. And since he's more familiar with the characters, he's beginning to hit the perfect humor notes, just the right level of nonsense. So we get a bit more of the silly humor and oddball elements we saw in Claude the dog but with a more adventure focused plot.
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Picture books for everyone

Wonder Mole's Scent Costume Party by Pato Mena

The plot of this book is very simple but that kind of makes it more wonderful. It centers around the idea that the moles can't see the weasel, that all of their identifiers are scent-based. So the final turn is a pretty simple guess for an adult or even an older child who will enjoy the anticipation of what is coming. The younger listeners will likely find it a delightful twist. The simple but exaggerated features of the characters hold appeal for all ages.

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Non-fiction book review - The Girl Who Rode a Shark

The Girl Who Rode a Shark and Other Stories of Daring Women by Alisa Ross

My fascination with amazing women is no secret. I'm constantly on the lookout for more inspiring figurees, making books like this one thrilling to explore. Ross introduces the reader to more than 50 women, organized by the kind of contribution they made to their society or to the world at large. Each woman gets a couple of pages of information, mostly focused on their achievement. Most will be unfamiliar to readers, so hopefully young readers will be inspired to do more research. At the end of each profile, we are given the names of a couple of women who made similar achievements. So the reader walks away from this book with the names of more than 100 amazing women!
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Book review - The Long Ride

Title: The Long Ride
Author: Marina Budhos
Genre: historical fiction
Similar books: Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd
                      Loving Vs Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell
Rating:

a complex look at an oft ignored part of history

Summary (provided by publisher): Jamila Clarke. Josie Rivera. Francesca George. Three mixed-race girls, close friends whose immigrant parents worked hard to settle their families in a neighborhood with the best schools. The three girls are outsiders there, but they have each other.
Now, at the start seventh grade, they are told they will be part of an experiment, taking a long bus ride to a brand-new school built to "mix up the black and white kids." Their parents don't want them to be experiments. Francesca's send her to a private school, leaving Jamila and Josie to take the bus ride without her.
While Francesca is testing her limits, Josie and Jamila find themselves outsiders again at the new school. As the year goes on, the Spanish girls welcome Josie, while Jamila develops a tender friendship with a boy--but it's a relationship that can exist only at school.

My opinion: Our history classes have an unfortunate tendency to paint the Civil Rights Movement as a simple solution that "fixed" racism. They ignore the misguided attempts to equalize things that followed, efforts that lead to red-lining, disastrous busing, and increases in subtle racism and classism. And that's what Budhos is bringing into the light here. By centering her plot on a trio of upper middle class mixed race girls, we get an insight into racism, classism, and sexism, all of which are a regular part of the society they live in. These girls have no where to belong at the point in their lives where belonging feels most important. She takes us through the obvious clashes of race and class, leading us to more subtle messages about perception. The ultimate message of this book is how our self-perception affects how others see us. There's a lot of take away on a single read and the reader is likely to glean even more on a repeat.
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Non fiction book review - How to Draw and Write in Fountain Pen

How to Draw and Write in Fountain Pen by Ayano Usamura

Fountain pens seem like an anachronism but a little study proves that they are often used in art, especially comics and graphic design. So if you have any interest in those fields, knowledge of fountain pen use is useful. This book serves as a solid, basic introduction. Usamura provides a quick introduction to basic pen strokes followed by a generous number of simple examples of their use, both in drawing and lettering. These are quick little practice drawings to build up your skills for your own artistic endeavors in ink.

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Book review - The Secret of Shadow Lake

Title: The Secret of Shadow Lake
Author: Joe McGee
Genre: early chapter book
Similar books: The Spell Thief by Tom Percival
                      The Ghastly McNastys by Lyn Gardner
Rating:

simple entertainment, lacking that special something

Summary (provided by publisher): Norm is worried about fitting in at camp. Literally. He’s not just tall for a kid. He’s tall even for a bigfoot. Oliver, the only human at camp, has the opposite problem: he’s small enough that a strong wind might knock him over. With the help of their new friends, Hazel (a hyperactive jackalope) and Wisp (a boy fairy who has trouble flying), they’ll have to work together to earn their canoeing certification without disturbing the resident lake monster—or Barnaby Snoop, who will stop at nothing to capture Norm for his personal rare creature collection.

My opinion: I'm pretty accepting of oddities in a story. I consider myself pretty generous with my willing suspension of disbelief. This book tested that willingness. Even within the internal logic of the story there were things that didn't make sense to me, plot elements that seemed to only happen to conveniently move the plot along. I could be more forgiving of that if the villain storyline made more sense. His motivation is clear but his defeat is more the result of happenstance than real effort. Reminiscent of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Norm and his friends don't even realize they are under threat. So while this is cute and might entertain a young reader I doubt it will hold up to repeat readings.
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