Angela Leeper

How do Newbery Medalists follow their award-winning novels? If they’re Jack Gantos, they do it with more over-the-top humor and even crazier adventures. Picking up where Dead End in Norvelt left off, the war hysteria of the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes a big threat to a small town in From Norvelt to Nowhere. Although no longer grounded, young Jack Gantos (yes, still named after the author) remains Miss Volker’s assistant in writing obituaries.

Both mystery and history endure—and occasionally combine—when Miss Volker becomes the last original Norvelter. The town’s other original inhabitant was poisoned in the same fashion as in the first novel, and the town’s namesake, Eleanor Roosevelt, also passes away. When Jack accompanies Miss Volker to Eleanor’s gravesite to aid in writing a fitting obituary, their trip turns to hijinks. Soon the pair is on a course to Florida, hoping to catch Norvelt’s now infamous old-lady killer.

As Jack tries to avoid another one of his nose bleeds and keep Miss Volker from wielding her silver pistol, the latter continues to give the boy history lessons and creates plenty of red herrings along the way.

While the mystery drives the plot, the heart of the story is the intergenerational friendship between Jack and Miss Volker. Only Miss Volker would soak her hands in split-pea soup to restore their sensitivity, and only Jack would understand enough to help her. Hold on tight for another wild ride through the mind of Jack Gantos—both of them.

It’s been two years since the Civil War ended, but the “Damn Yankees” are “still beating up on Virginia,” at least according to 14-year-old Shadrach Weaver. While many children’s novels take place during the War Between the States, A.B. Westrick’s debut novel, Brotherhood, offers a revealing glimpse of life during the often overlooked Reconstruction era. Set in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, it opens as Shad’s older, good-for-nothing brother, Jeremiah, is arrested for the murder of a carpetbagger who moved south to open the city’s first "Colored Normal School."

The story then traces the events that led to the murder. After following Jeremiah on one of his evening escapades, Shad inadvertently becomes a member of the Ku Klux Klan. At first he relishes the seemingly playful camaraderie of the brotherhood and being part of a group that includes the city’s shop owners and sheriff.

The illiterate teen, who dreams of apprenticing in his grandfather’s tailoring business, begins teaching simple tailoring skills at a school in exchange for reading lessons. But if the Klan finds out this risky arrangement takes place in a Negro school, he and the students could all wind up dead.

Brotherhood is no Gone with the Wind as Westrick focuses on small-time farmers and tradesmen and their struggles during this time period. And as Shad grapples with the “familiar tone” of his black teacher and his surprising affinity for his black classmates, the author also doesn’t shy away from the truth about race relations during Reconstruction, making this a story for mature readers and ideal for parent and group discussion. The teen ultimately realizes that he’s growing up in a city and a nation reinventing itself. Shad’s spot-on dialogue and enlightening sentiments will be studied and savored for years to come.

On the first day of school, Billy Miller worries that he’s not smart enough for second grade. That’s the first of many trying moments for Billy, all portrayed in the four episodic sections of this charming chapter book. Billy fears that his teacher doesn’t like him, tries to stay up all night for the first time, discovers the value of little sisters and aims to write the perfect poem for his mother. Author Kevin Henkes handles every situation with sensitivity and gentle realism.

Pressured by classmates to switch from calling his father “Papa” to “Dad,” Billy finds himself in a difficult stage of childhood. He’s no longer a cute toddler like his younger sister, nor is he old enough to stay home alone. His year becomes, then, a time for growing up.

Despite his many worries, Billy also finds joy and comfort as he begins to discover his talents, forge deeper bonds with his family and rely on a quiet resilience.

Although The Year of Billy Miller has no underwear jokes, bodily fluids or crime-fighting superheroes, it is solidly a book for boys. Henkes brilliantly captures Billy’s view of the world from a male perspective. With so few books that tackle boys’ true emotions, this rare novel stands out for both its subject matter and its exquisite storytelling. While girls may relate to Ramona, now boys can claim Billy Miller.

Werner Berlinger, 12, has seen the Nazis pounding on the doors of his Jewish neighbors and knows why entire families have disappeared. In this second book in Rosemary Zibart’s Far and Away Series, which offers fictionalized accounts of unaccompanied and displaced children who found their way to the United States during World War II, Werner’s father gives him a passport and a ship’s passenger ticket from Hamburg to America just as Germany invades Poland in 1939.

Though he was hoping to find something grand in America, Werner ends up in New York City’s Lower East Side with his mother’s cousin, Esther, who has been struck by polio and lives in a tiny apartment. He quickly discovers that the land of freedom has its own bullies, hardships and even Nazi sympathizers. On a jaunt to Harlem with one of the first African Americans to befriend him, he also learns that fear and prejudice plague both sides of the ocean.

As Werner struggles to fit into his new life, elements of surprise and wonder—such as hotdogs, kind shop owners and the thrills of Coney Island—ease his longing for the rest of his family. The boy’s eagerness to become American shows in his curiosity and letters sent back to Germany, while the author’s use of street slang helps set the scenes among New York’s working class.

Although it’s easy to surmise what probably happened to Werner’s family, Zibart presents the harsh realities of Jewish life both in Germany and as an immigrant in the U.S. in a manner appropriate for middle grade readers. Despite his many setbacks, Werner comes to realize that he is lucky to be alive. This inspirational series continues to be an eye-opening look at World War II’s youngest survivors and heroes.