BookPage Children's Top Pick, May 2018

History comes alive in Ellen Klages’ captivating novel Out of Left Field. In 1957 San Francisco, 10-year-old Katy Gordon is an ace pitcher who makes a Little League team while disguised as a boy, only to be told she’s ineligible when the coach discovers she’s a girl.

Determined to prove that girls should be allowed in the organization, Katy heads to the library to learn about women who have played baseball. Her research unfolds like a scavenger hunt, with Katy writing about and interviewing several sports pioneers. “Anyone who says girls can’t play baseball is just ignorant about the history of the game,” one former player tells her.

Klages masterfully weaves in a multitude of historical details, addressing complex issues in sophisticated yet engrossing ways. In school, Katy learns about current events like the launch of Sputnik 1, the arrival of a new baseball team (the San Francisco Giants) and the civil rights movement. When Katy is assigned to write about a hero, she makes baseball cards featuring the diverse female players she’s learned about (they’re included in the back of the book along with other historical notes). “There had been a lot of girls like me, and I felt like we were sort of teammates,” Katie says. Out of Left Field is a grand-slam salute to the power of persistence, research and the pursuit of justice.

This article was originally published in the May 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Everything starts with a French horn and a wish for 11-year-old Augusta “Gusta” Neubronner once she moves to Gramma Hoopes’s Orphanage in 1941.

Her papa abruptly vanished during their bus trip from New York City to see her grandmother at her orphanage, leaving her to fend for herself until Gramma Hoope takes her in. Gusta can’t help but apply what she’s learned from her activist father and his connections with immigrant workers and union organizers when she learns of an uncle who’s out of work and can’t pay for a factory-related surgery. Her good intentions—including plans to sell her beloved French horn for cash as a last resort—are met with opposition, and soon Gusta has even more to contemplate when she learns of buried secrets that could threaten her grandmother’s orphanage.

Inspired by Nesbet’s mother’s childhood, The Orphan Band of Springdale is a story filled with thought-provoking metaphors and a host of colorful characters. Nesbet’s narrative has a lilting quality that makes her storytelling both unique and attractive, and young readers will appreciate her well-rounded characters as well as a small but highly engaging group of antagonists. Nesbet also incorporates factual information of the era to highlight relevant themes of injustice, immigration and the labor movement. The Orphan Band of Springdale is a heartwarming and educational read.

Just when 12-year-old Bea feels as though she’s lost her place in the world, a grandmother she barely knows takes her on the road trip of a lifetime in Rebecca Behren’s latest historical novel, The Last Grand Adventure.

It’s 1967 and Bea and her grandmother, who calls herself Pidge, are on a secret mission: They’re traveling from California to Kansas in hopes of reuniting with Pidge’s sister, who happens to be Amelia Earhart. They plan to reach the house where “Meelie” was born by July 24, on what will be the legendary aviator’s 70th birthday.

Behrens, who’s written about Alice Roosevelt (When Audrey Met Alice) and Roanoke’s lost colony (Summer of Lost and Found), makes this outlandish premise both believable and thrilling. Pidge reveals a handful of letters she’s received over the years, reportedly written by her long-lost sister, filled with intimate childhood details that only family could know. The letters reveal fascinating tidbits of Earhart’s life as well as actual quotes from the aviator herself, supplemented by a series of helpful author’s notes at the end.

Bea, meanwhile, is reeling from her parent’s divorce and her father’s remarriage. With her mother traveling as a journalist, Bea lives with her father, new stepmother and younger stepsister, Sally, who idolizes Bea—much to Bea’s annoyance. Wondering where she fits into this new family configuration, Bea jots down her many fears in a worry journal.

She begins to fill an adventure journal as well when she’s sent to help her increasingly forgetful grandmother adjust to her new retirement home. With little money or food, Pidge and Bea stowaway aboard a train, hitchhike, fly aboard a small plane and more in a desperate attempt to reach Kansas in time.

As they journey, Bea not only gets to know her grandmother but learns invaluable lessons about her own life. She begins to appreciate her mother’s career and to understand that her new stepsister might actually be a gift instead of a burden. Most of all, she learns that she’s a “capable Earhart Girl.”

The Last Grand Adventure is a tightly-plotted, beautifully written homage to the power of sisters, adventure and the enduring mysteries of history.

Brodie is a very good dog. He loves his boy wholeheartedly and will defend him with his life. That’s actually exactly how Brodie suddenly finds himself in a dog’s version of heaven, a place with wide expanses of grass for endless running, rolling and playing with other happy dogs. This is a transitional world, the place where dogs chill after they have died in our world and before they are ready to go to the Forever place. But something’s not right here for Brodie. He’s not interested in moving on to Forever. He wants to go back to his boy.

Author Dan Gemeinhart vividly captures the physical sensations of a dog’s existence. Brody senses before he thinks; his narrative flows in visceral waves of experience. These sensory pleasures are no match for the emotional sturdiness of Brodie’s good heart. Although he has no memory of his own death, he knows that he left his boy in a dangerous situation. Despite being warned that Brodie could lose his soul forever if he returns to our earthly world, Brodie takes the plunge—accompanied by an affable pit bull and appropriately snarky cat—and discovers that there are new dangers he must face while navigating the world in a ghost body. Other ghostly, yet evil animals are eager to devour their fresh souls. And Brodie has only pieces of memory to lead him back to his boy. In the end, this story is a beautifully rendered homage to the bond between lonely children and their devoted pets.

Sarah Jean Horwitz ups the quotient of magic, mystery, humor and heart in this riveting sequel to the well-loved series debut, Carmer and Grit: The Wingsnatchers.

Carmer, the gifted inventor and former magician’s apprentice, and Grit, the rebellious princess of the Seelie faerie court, may have escaped the clutches of the Mechanist and his dastardly plans to harness the power of the Fae for his own greedy purposes, but their adventures are far from over. The two unlikely allies-turned-friends are eager to leave the scene of their battle with the evil mastermind far behind them, so they hop into Carmer’s steam-powered house-on-wheels and hit the road. They end up in Driftside City, where they encounter Rinka Tinka’s Roving Wonder Show, the world’s most captivating flying circus. But when the two begin to suspect that stolen faerie magic might be the secret to the show’s success, they find themselves embarking on an investigation that will lead them to places and people they could never have anticipated.

This anticipated follow-up foray into the steampunk world of Carmer and Grit is packed with just as many elements of whimsy and awe as the first installment, from a circus made up of giant animal-shaped airships to faerie cowboys and underwater palaces. Add in a cast of intriguing, mysterious new characters and a dose of fright sure to produce goosebumps, and you’ve got the recipe for a sequel that's sure to have readers asking for more.

It’s a battle between corporate avarice and Wild Magic in The Boggart Fights Back, the third installment of Susan Cooper’s Boggart series.

It’s been five years since Allie and Jay Cameron visited their Granda in Scotland. The twin siblings are in for an adventure of mythic proportions soon after their arrival. William Trout and his monstrous corporation intend to convert the Loch Linnhe area—including Castle Keep, Granda’s store and his family home—into a luxury resort. Wasting no time, Trout’s crew sets to work by clearcutting ancient trees. Even though the whole Cameron family and the magical Boggart of Castle Keep, along with his cousin, the Loch Ness monster, get involved to put a stop to the disastrous demolition, all of their efforts are in vain—until Allie and Jay discover the truth about Trout’s plans. That’s when the real magic begins.

We then meet the Old Things: the Caointeach, Each Uisge, the Blue Men of the Minch, and the dreaded Nuckelavee. Newbery Medal winner Cooper has created another shape-shifting adventure with these mythical creatures, right in the heart of Loch Linnhe’s breathtaking landscape. Punctuated with all things Scottish, Cooper draws her middle grade audience into a fast-paced plot replete with lilting dialogue, Gaelic phrases, traditional songs, and “the defiant regular beat of a drum.” The Boggart Fights Back is an appealing read that provides readers with an appreciation for the environment and a chance to learn a bit about Scotland’s mythology in the process.

On the first day of seventh-grade science class, Natalie Napoli, the narrator of Tae Keller’s debut novel, learns that the scientific method begins with observation. And while Mr. Neely is a new teacher, and therefore “all optimistic and stuff,” Natalie finds herself drawn to his lesson on the scientific method. After all, she’s the daughter of a botanist who even wrote a book about miracle plants.

When Mr. Neely encourages Natalie to enter a city-wide egg drop contest, it makes her realize how much has changed since her botanist mother became depressed. “The old Mom would have loved this project. She would have sat with me for days, brainstorming different questions and experiments,” Natalie says. These days Natalie’s mother has all but disappeared into her room.

In attempting to apply the scientific method to her family’s situation, Natalie decides on a hypothesis and action plan. If her mom can once again connect with the miraculous Cobalt Blue Orchid she once studied, maybe she would be “excited by science and life and questions” once again. Natalie’s experiments lead to a daring break-in at a botany lab, and, in the end, the hope of an emotional breakthrough of another sort.

Natalie is an engaging narrator whose struggles at home and with her peers ring true. Educators will be especially pleased by the STEM connections in The Science of Breakable Things, as well as illustrations of experiments related to the egg drop contest. And as for a conclusion, it’s irrefutable: Readers will be eager to see what Natalie chooses to investigate next.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen.