BookPage Children's Top Pick, January 2017

A young man spends his summer being shut out of basketball games and learns a valuable lesson about persistence. Choctaw storytelling traditions keep a family in stitches, in between eye rolls. A girl’s anger when her father allows an injustice to stand shifts as she realizes he’s gently changing the world on her behalf. These stories and more fill Flying Lessons & Other Stories, and each unique journey reinforces the notion that diversity in publishing is not just welcome but vital.

The anthology, edited by We Need Diverse Books co-founder Ellen Oh, doesn’t limit itself to the here and now. Grace Lin’s fable “The Difficult Path” describes indentured servant Lingsi’s unexpected journey out of servitude in ancient China, a life made possible because she’s a rare commodity: a female who can read. Debut author Kelly J. Baptist sets much of “The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn” in a public library, where Isaiah escapes his difficult home life and disappears into the notebook his late father left behind. Stories by Kwame Alexander, Tim Federle, Jacqueline Woodson and the late Walter Dean Myers, to whom the book is dedicated, never let the reader stay in one place too long . . . and that’s the point.

By turns quick and funny, thoughtful and heartbreaking, Flying Lessons & Other Stories will expand your worldview in quick, addictive bites. Prepare for liftoff and enjoy.

This article was originally published in the January 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Misty Copeland, the first female African-American principal dancer in the history of the American Ballet Theater, brings her story to life in this special young readers edition of her autobiography.

Though her talent is unparalleled, Copeland’s journey to stardom in the classical ballet world was not easy. While most ballerinas begin lessons at 3 or 4 years old, Copeland came to the ballet world much later, at the age of 13. Despite this late start and the added challenge of an unstable home life, Copeland’s natural talent was apparent from her first day in a ballet class at her local Boys & Girls Club. Dubbed a prodigy by her teachers, Copeland was going en pointe, the technical term for dancing on the tips of your toes, after just three months of lessons, a technique that takes most young dancers years to master.

Young girls and boys alike will be captivated by Copeland’s story of hard work and perseverance, and encouraged to pursue their own dreams no matter what obstacles may stand in their way. Through spare yet beautiful language, Copeland shares both the hardships and triumphs of her journey in a simple yet honest way that younger readers will be able to easily comprehend. While Copeland’s illustrious career is certainly inspirational, this biography allows readers to peak behind the curtain of glamour and fame and get to know the true story of one of the world’s most famous ballerinas. Rather than skipping over the struggles along the way, Copeland relates them with grace and transparency, creating a genuine account of her impressive life that is sure to motivate young and old alike. 

James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein pen the perfect animal lover’s story in their new middle grade collaboration.

When a mischief of mice must run for their lives, all are caught, except for Isaiah. Frightened and feeling very much alone without his 96 siblings, Isaiah is unaware that he will have to face his fears as he sets off for uncharted territory. He is not your typical mouse, though. Besides his sky-blue fur and ability to read, Isaiah is a bit of an etymologist. His love for words and their origins work to his advantage when he gets involved with another horde and makes friends with Hailey, a human. The serendipitous connections present an opportunity for Isaiah to save his family, and only time will determine whether or not he is brave enough to execute his plan.

Patterson and Grabenstein have produced a coming-of-age story replete with human-interest issues. No doubt Isaiah, their protagonist who often speaks directly to his audience, understands the fears that many middle grade readers experience on a daily basis. Without using specific terminology, the author duo uses Isaiah and Hailey to address issues such as bullies, self-esteem and, most importantly, xenophobia. Patterson and Grabenstein’s portrayal of the latter is nothing less than stellar, as Isaiah and Hailey have to find ways to survive in a world that is uncomfortable with differences.

Each chapter opens with Isaiah’s golden nugget aphorisms and closes with a cliffhanger, and laced throughout are Joe Sutphin’s dramatic and animated pencil sketches. With plenty of unexpected everything from beginning to end, Word of Mouse is not only bound to be a favorite among middle schoolers, but also an inimitable classic.

The world has ended. A small group of children survive in a ranch surrounded by desert. They have been saved, their Teacher explains, because they are brilliant and special. The children themselves are not so convinced of this. To each other, they seem a ragtag bunch, plagued with peculiar obsessions. One of the girls, 12-year-old Eider, is haunted by memories of a girl named Robin, whom Teacher said was imaginary. A boy named Finch strains to remember how to construct a radio and is certain there is still something in the beyond. When Teacher begins testing the children in Extrasensory, with the intention of discovering which child is the most gifted, a new uneasiness comes between them. Just when Eider begins to cast aside old dreams of Robin and a world beyond, she and Finch make a discovery that changes everything.

The simplicity of Kirsten Hubbard’s storytelling works well with the limited understanding of the children’s situation. Clues of a world beyond creep in and out of the narrative as easily as half-remembered dreams, keeping the reader as hesitant and suspicious as the children themselves. The story has a creepy edge similar to that in The Giver, allowing readers to imagine a truth that could be dreadful or benign. For that reason, the abrupt ending can be forgiven, since it draws the suspense out until the very last page. This is a good recommendation for young fans of Margaret Peterson Haddix or Suzanne Collins. 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

These days, when discussing the subject of World War II in middle school classrooms, American teachers are sure to include the history of the Japanese internment camps in the United States and the result of the U.S. decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What might be missing is a book that examines the life of a “hibakusha”—a survivor of these bombings. With Caren Stelson’s new book, Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story, the void is more than adequately filled.

Sachiko Yasui was only 6 years old on August 9, 1945, when she lived with her family in Nagasaki. Stelson’s narrative gently takes readers through her whole life, offering exquisite little details but also keeping it simple. As a survivor, Sachiko now tours Japan giving talks on her history and her desire for peace. Stelson includes sidebars and insets that provide further history and rounds it all out with photos of the war and of Sachiko.

Wonderfully written, easy to read and highly informative, this book should be a must-have for every school library. It includes a glossary, endnotes, bibliography and index.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through 8th level Catholic school.

Prejudice. Hate. Fear. Farting dragons? Though Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale often careens into the absurd, it is rooted in the reality of the outcast. Grounded in the perennial quest to see beyond one’s self and social group, to grasp the common humanity of all—particularly those branded as other and lesser-than—The Inquisitor’s Tale is a rare page-turner, both humorous and profound.

Drawing on myths and historical figures, The Inquisitor’s Tale recounts the adventures of three misfits: William, a mixed-race monk in training who possesses superhuman strength; Jeanne, a peasant girl who has visions of the future; and Jacob, a Jewish boy who can heal mortal wounds with plants and prayer alone. Along with their resurrected dog, Gwenforte, these three outcasts take on a dyspeptic dragon, a fanatical Bishop and a monarchy hell-bent on burning every last Talmud in France.

Fast-paced and thought-provoking, Gidwitz’s well-plotted tale overcomes its only failing—a cast of diverse narrators whose voices sound, essentially, alike—with a wealth of humor and a story so compelling you won’t care who’s telling it. Slyly crafty, Gidwitz’s prose is sparse yet densely descriptive. Coupled with Hatem Aly’s whimsical “illuminations,” which mark nearly every other page of text, this action-packed tale of the oneness of humanity will captivate readers, young and old alike.

“When my death came it was swift,” reports 12-year-old Daisy. “One moment I was in the car, the next on the road, and then I wasn’t anywhere.” But Daisy isn’t left wondering for long. She soon finds herself in a sort of job center for souls about to be returned to Earth. 

There’s only one hitch: Although instructed to go through the door on the right to take up her new corporeal form, Daisy goes through the door on the left. The result is her reincarnation into a puppy, and she remembers everything about her past life as a girl.

Although perfectly able and willing to take up her canine responsibilities, Daisy finds her first home leaves a lot to be desired. But after running away, she finds a true companion in a homeless boy called Pip, who names her Ray. Pip and Ray set off on a series of adventures: Pip is seeking the father who doesn’t know he exists, and Ray is hoping to catch sight of her own parents, whose lives have been inextricably altered since Daisy’s fatal car accident. 

The Dog, Ray by Linda Coggin, first published in the U.K. in 2010, is told from Daisy’s often-humorous perspective: “It’s perfectly obvious to me what sit means. She doesn’t have to say it slowly, in a loud voice, as if I come from a foreign country.” While the voice is lighthearted and Daisy’s story has a satisfying ending, the book’s themes of death, the afterlife and homelessness make it best suited for readers age 10 and older.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Steamboat School.

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

A red flag goes up for Devlin Quick when she learns that a rare map has been stolen from the New York Public Library. A modern-day version of Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and a bit of Encyclopedia Brown, 12-year-old Devlin enlists the help of friends Booker and Liza, as well as her grandmother Lulu, to do some major sleuthing. Clues seem to point in the direction of an upcoming exhibition. As Devlin and her friends prepare to attend, they have no idea how things will unfold, especially when Devlin’s sleuthing impulses kick into high gear.

Into the Lion’s Den, the first book in bestselling author Linda Fairstein’s Devlin Quick Mysteries, wraps education and detective work into one delightful literary package. The action-packed, first-person story is full of informational tidbits on beloved authors (Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen), cartographers, New York library history and much more. With a balanced mix of well-defined characters, engaging dialogue, cliffhanging chapters and unexpected scenes, this book is nothing less than one riveting read.

Into the Lion’s Den has high reader appeal, reaching out to young mystery enthusiasts and beyond.

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Clara didn’t even want to go shopping in the first place. But when the 12-year-old finds a mysterious note in a department store handbag, she feels compelled to act. The note, written by Yuming, a desperate girl in a Chinese sweatshop, begs for someone to rescue her from her captivity inside the “pink factory.”

Clara is dealing with the recent death of her adopted Chinese sister, Lola, and Clara believes she was meant to find the note: She couldn’t save Lola from cancer, but maybe she can save Yuming. After all, isn’t that what Lola would want her to do? Clara tells her parents about the note, but is convinced she is Yuming’s only hope. So after convincing her parents to take a trip to China—under the ruse of honoring Lola’s heritage—Clara attempts to find Yuming, who has planned an escape of her own. 

Ami Polonsky’s Threads is a powerful story, told through Clara and Yuming’s alternating perspectives. Both girls have soul-wrenching missions, both are willing to risk everything to accomplish them, and both ultimately need each other more than they think they do. Their intersecting stories speak of loss, but also of hope and the realization that we are more alike than different. All we want is respect, connections and a chance to be heard—which both Clara and Yuming come to realize.

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Sixth-grader Maggie Gallagher is a hacker, but not with computers. She takes after her late father, who went to MIT, where he learned to “hack”—to pull wildly elaborate practical jokes. Stuck in the stagnant small town of Odawahaka, Maggie imagines conversations with him while living and breathing by his notebook, The Hacker’s Bible. She adores explosions, but she abides by her father’s rules to be safe and not destroy other people’s property. 

Not surprisingly, Maggie is Nothing but Trouble, especially after she teams up with a new girl in town named Lena. Their dilapidated school is about to be demolished, so the pair concoct a scheme to have a mascot mouse be elected class president, in honor of the fabled mice that live within the school’s walls. 

This is indeed the story of a mouse that roared, as what begins as a prank turns into a movement, empowering not only Maggie and Lena but all of their classmates to stand up against the dictatorial new principal, Mr. Shute. The girls find a surprising ally in their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Dorn-busch, the school’s oldest and most feared teacher, also known as the Dungeon Dragon.

While comical, the novel extols some high concepts. Lena is a fan of the Dadaist art movement (mentioned and explained throughout), and there’s an entertaining physics-based activity section at the book’s end related to hacking. Both at school and at home, Maggie learns to delve deeper into relationships, especially with her wheelchair-bound grandfather and still-grieving mother, who struggles with alcohol. Author Jacqueline Davies (The Lemonade War series) also leaves readers with a teaser in this first book of a new series, as Lena promises to explain some of her family’s “oddities” in the near future.

Filled with heart, humor and plenty of practical jokes, Nothing but Trouble portrays an improbable but poignant middle school world. Sometimes getting in trouble is worth it, Lena and Maggie learn, and middle school readers will enjoy their rollicking journey.

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

While her daddy (dubbed “Scrappy” after his fondness for fighting) serves time in the county jail in Raleigh, North Carolina, and her mama can’t make it out of bed anymore, fifth-grader Charlemagne “Charlie” Reese has gone to stay with her aunt and uncle, Bertha and Gus, in their house that seems to hang off the side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Charlie, who inherited her father’s impulsiveness, may admit that she likes spending time in the mountains, but there’s no way she’s going to live where it’s just red dirt roads and “hillbilly kids” who probably eat squirrel. But no matter where she is, Charlie never passes up the chance with a four-leaf clover, a fallen eyelash or a rare yellow train car to make a secret wish.

Once again author Barbara O’Connor wields her Southern charm to tell this spunky gal’s story. When a stray dog appears, especially a dog that won’t judge Charlie’s past, she can’t help but name it Wishbone and begin to open up her guarded heart. Once opened, her heart finds a friend in Howard, an ever-positive boy, even when picked on for his up-down gait. Alongside painful truths about her parents, Charlie experiences family with Bertha and Gus—and her wish just might come true after all.

Like a generous portions of grits, Wish makes the world a little better.

Debut author Kate Beasley crafts a story packed with wit and down-home charm, led by a heroine with enough spirit and spunk to rival the likes of Junie B. Jones and Ramona Quimby, and complemented by illustrations from Caldecott Honor artist Jillian Tamaki.

Gertie Reece Foy is a force to be reckoned with. She always has at least one mission in the works, and she never fails to complete them. Described by her father as “a bulldog with its jaws locked on a car tire,” Gertie’s greatest strength is that she never gives up on anything. So when she finds out that her estranged mother plans to leave their coastal Alabama town, Gertie immediately concocts a plan to convince her to stay: She will become the greatest fifth grader in the whole universe. All she has to do is write the best summer speech, become the smartest student in her class and win the lead part in the play. There’s only one problem: It turns out that Gertie has some competition for the title of best fifth grader, one Mary Sue Spivey, and she won’t be an easy rival to defeat.

This is a classic coming-of-age tale filled with hope and heart. Gertie will burrow her way into your heart right from the very first page, and stay there long after the book is closed. Beasley’s writing sparkles with just the right balance of humor and emotion, and readers are sure to find parts of themselves in Gertie’s quest of self-discovery.