The bond between father and son carries heft and import—and also joy, contempt, resentment and much more. The relationship presents a challenging dynamic at any age, but the question of the most important thing a father can do for his son is answered in different ways by different people. In this collection of seven vignettes, Newbery Medal-winning author Avi returns to the short-story form to take on this weighty subject. 

In one of the heavier stories, “Dream Catcher,” Paul is forced to meet the grandfather he never knew. Infused with sharp humor, “Tighty-Whities or Boxers” shows readers Ryan’s ingenious way of learning more about his potential stepfather. And in the more somber yet hopeful “Departed,” Luke arrives home to learn his father has died, and he continues to be haunted by his ghost. 

The questions here are universal: Where is home? What is family? How should I feel? And the situations presented hit upon pertinent and relatable themes—acceptance (or lack thereof), respect, anger, uncertainty, death, change and dysfunction. But along with the harsh realities, Avi’s characters experience awakenings and life-changing interludes as they seek to answer the titular question: What is the most important thing for fathers and sons? 

Avi is a master of just about anything he writes, and this collection is superbly crafted and ideal for discussions.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Avi for The Most Important Thing.

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

Timothy McGrother was born a boy but knows she is really a girl. Norbert Dorfman is battling bipolar disorder as well as being the new kid in town. Coming home from a Dunkin Donuts run, Norbert sees Tim in a dress and sandals, and his heart skips a beat for the girl with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes. The two meet again when Norbert spies Tim perched on the branches of the great banyan tree outside the local library. Norbert tells Tim that he prefers the name Dunkin, while Tim keeps mum about her preferred name, Lily. As an ensuing friendship unfolds, Lily and Dunkin each narrate their stories, exposing the good, the bad and the ugly that come with keeping secrets from themselves and from others. Despite their differences and conflicts along the way, Lily and Dunkin’s thread of friendship remains tight. 

Lily and Dunkin is a seamless blend of issues faced by transgender children and those who live with mental illness. Donna Gephart sensitively handles their choices and shows realistic consequences, holding nothing back when it comes to what it takes to be seen, and loved, for who you really are. But as these two eighth graders figure out their places in the world, friendship and honesty shape the true core of this strong coming-of-age novel.

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

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel is a charming, authentic and insightful account of an immigrant trying to make sense of America. The book also provides a peek at a moment in history when relations between Iran and the U.S. were severed due to the hostage crisis of 1979.

Delightful young Zomorod Yousefzadeh goes by Cindy, taken from “The Brady Bunch” television show. She is a new arrival to Southern California, where she must figure out the unwritten rules of middle-school conduct while serving as her mother’s interpreter. Her desire to fit in, combined with her kind-hearted embarrassment of her parents, leaves readers rooting for Cindy’s success.

This coming-of-age story takes a dark turn with the backdrop of heightening tensions between the U.S. and Iran. As an Iranian, Cindy is expected to be the expert on this political crisis, and she does her best to help people understand the situation. But she doesn’t fully succeed in her attempts to educate people, and she and her family become victims of a hate crime and racist remarks. While trying to discover the perpetrators of the crime, Cindy realizes she, too, was quick to unfairly judge a classmate.

After her award-winning memoir, Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas makes a humorous mark with her semi-autobiographical middle-grade debut.

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

Award-winning author Frances O’Roark Dowell’s latest book is a page-turner, but not in the traditional sense. The plot doesn’t race along at breakneck speed, nor is there a life-or-death mystery to be solved. There are no car chases or spies or evil villains. Readers of Dowell’s previous books will understand that the appeal of Trouble the Water is the author’s top-notch character building and storytelling prowess. 

The town of Celeste, Kentucky, in 1953 is no hotbed of politics and civil rights. But to Callie, neither is it the worst place to live. The 11-year-old watches the black people live and prosper on her side of town and only quietly resents the new white school and the whites-only swimming pool. When the white boy Wendell comes to her side of town and wants to help her find the owner of a mysterious wandering dog, she figures that’s his business. Yet as their friendship blooms, tensions come to a boil.

Dowell has given us a true hero in the character of Callie, a girl just realizing what segregation means in her life. Understanding that she can’t change the world unless she’s willing to change herself first, Callie’s journey by way of a small mystery and meaningful friendship brings the past and present together in unexpected ways. The anticipation to see how Callie ends up in this turbulent time will keep you turning the pages, as promised.

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

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

BookPage Children's Top Pick, May 2016

Genie Harris’ parents are “having problems” and are heading to Jamaica to figure things out. In the meantime, 11-year-old Genie and his older brother, Ernie, are to spend a month with their grandparents in North Hill, Virginia. Most of Genie’s story revolves around his blind Grandpop—his conflict with Genie’s father, his regrets over Genie’s Uncle Wood, his lonely seclusion in a room surrounded by caged birds, his intention to go through with a ritual to make Ernie a man on his 14th birthday, and the mystery of the yellow house out back, with a tree growing right through it and swarms of birds ever present.

Jason Reynolds’ middle-grade debut demonstrates the love of story apparent in all of his novels. With a palpable affection for his characters and their slowly unfolding stories, Reynolds writes with subtle humor and an ear for the apt simile (blind Grandpop’s eyes are “like fogged-up windows”) as he crafts one memorable scene after another. And if it’s Grandpop Harris who is blind, it’s Genie who learns to see and come to understand that even his “white-toothed crazyman” of a grandfather is brave. Though his family history includes suicide, a death in war, parents with problems and a grandfather with fears and regrets, Genie’s penchant for asking questions and observing those around him serves him well as he learns empathy and sees—in each of his family members and himself—the possibility of change and of making amends for the past.

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

When graphic designer Art Kane talked Esquire magazine into letting him take a photo of as many jazz musicians as he could gather in front of a Harlem brownstone in the summer of 1958, he wasn’t sure anyone would show up. But show up they did, 57 consummate musicians. The personalities whose faces lit up this rare Harlem photo are brought to life in Jazz Day, a beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book, through the graceful poetry of Roxane Orgill and the vibrant paintings of Francis Vallejo.

Orgill’s language, paired with Vallejo’s vivid illustrations and biographical notes on many of the musician pictured, builds a rich backstory for Kane’s photo, which is presented as a black-and-white fold-out near the book’s end. Orgill’s rhythmic words capture the spirit of the crowd, from Count Basie to Maxine Sullivan, from Thelonious Monk to Dizzy Gillespie, detailing their clothes, their quirks and their sounds. And the crowd of boys who played around the musicians on the street all day? They get their due, as does photographer Kane.

Sadly, when Kane invited the musicians to show up and be counted on that hot summer day, he asked them to leave their instruments behind, and, similarly, the book doesn’t include an accompanying CD. Readers of Jazz Day will doubtless be inspired to search out the music of these American jazz icons. A detailed bibiliography accompanies Orgill’s poems. 

Billie B. Little is the Founding Director of Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, a hands-on museum in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Action and adventure are the name of the game in The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, the first book of a new series featuring a squad of anthropomorphized nocturnal animals: Dawn the calm, resilient fox; Tobin the good-natured pangolin; and Bismarck, the French-speaking, know-it-all sugar glider.

This unusual trio decides to band together as the Nocturnal Brigade after suddenly being forced to scare off a menacing black snake. Soon they are joined by other animals―bats, a jerboa, coyotes, kiwis, a wombat and more―to investigate an even bigger problem: the mysterious disappearance of a variety of animals.

Adding to the exploits are the animals’ many personalities, as they navigate both their allegiances and natural suspicions of one another. “It is most confusing!” the ever-loquacious Bismarck proclaims. “Muy befuddling! Absolument absurd!”

Eventually, the group finds itself drawn deeper into the dizzying dangers lurking in a vast underground cave, where a crowd of crocodiles holds the missing animals hostage. The big finish involves a high-stakes (and creative) hockey-like game that pits the Nocturnals against the Crocs, led by a menacing reptile named Boris. The Nocturnals are literally playing for their lives, and by the end of the game, the seemingly evil Boris proclaims, “What a thrilling turn of events! My heart can’t handle it! My cold blood is boiling!”

Tracey Hecht’s first novel is an appealing page-turner for middle-school readers, combining a likable cadre of unusual animal characters with fast-paced, clever dialogue and, of course, plenty of suspense.

Bestselling YA author Ally Condie’s debut middle grade novel transports readers to a small desert town called Iron Creek, in the first summer following an automobile accident that changed 12-year-old Cedar’s life. Cedar’s father and younger brother Ben, a boy with special needs, were killed by a drunk driver, leaving Cedar, her mother and youngest brother Miles to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Buying a house in the town where she grew up is Cedar’s mother’s idea, and Cedar does her best to be supportive, though it’s hard to drum up much enthusiasm. It’s not until Cedar spies a boy named Leo speeding by on his bicycle that she begins to take an interest in making new connections. Through Leo, Cedar gets a job selling concessions at the Summerlost Festival, a Shakespearean festival held on the town’s college campus each year.

As Cedar forges a friendship with Leo, she realizes they both often feel different. She has been teased in the past on Ben’s account, and a group of local boys makes fun of her Chinese-American features and Leo’s theater costume. Cedar also gets drawn into the mystique surrounding the town’s most famous resident, a Hollywood actress who got her start on stage at Summerlost and later died in town. That’s not the only mystery plaguing Cedar: Someone is leaving odd gifts on her windowsill at night. Is it Leo, the strange birds in the tree or her brother’s ghost trying to make contact?

Summerlost is a sensitive look at the power of family and friendship in the grieving process, with humor and mystery that will draw in boy and girl readers alike.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is A Bandit's Tale.

Sophie Quire is just an ordinary 12-year-old girl: She works as a bookmender in her father’s bookstore, reads until all hours of the night and is pursued through her village by a boy wearing a blindfold while attempting to steal books that are going to be burned to prevent the spread of nonsense. Well, maybe she’s not completely ordinary. In fact, in Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, written by Jonathan Auxier, Sophie finds out very quickly that her very ordinary life is about to change in a very big way.

Sophie first meets Peter Nimble when he rescues her from arrest after she steals a forbidden children’s book. Soon after, she is asked to repair a very old, and very damaged, book. Sophie is able to repair it, but when she wonders out loud who created the book, the book answers back. Sophie soon finds herself on the run, protecting the Book of Who and trying to find the Books of Where, What and When before the increasingly evil Inquisitor Prig finds them first.

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard takes place two years after we first meet Peter Nimble in Auxier’s debut novel, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. Auxier manages to conjure the magic and adventure once again, while introducing us to a strong, brave and unwavering new hero. Thrust into adventure from the first pages and surrounded by an increasing assortment of fantastical characters, Sophie Quire proves why she is chosen to be the Last Storyguard.

In The Somewhat True Adventures of Sammy Shine, by author and prolific illustrator Henry Cole, Sammy the pet mouse is mouse-napped by his owner’s older brother and put inside a remote-controlled airplane. When the brother accidentally steps on the control device, rendering it useless, Sammy becomes a most reluctant pilot. He struggles with the onboard controls as the plane does loop-de-loops, finally coming to a crash landing at the edge of the big woods.

Although woozy from the crash, Sammy realizes he is somewhere quite different from his shoebox home containing peanuts and sawdust. He’s somewhere rather special, surrounded by flowers and plants of all kinds. After Sammy is rescued by a mouse colony, he sets off on a journey to find his airplane and then to find Goggles the raccoon, the only creature who can help him fix the plane. He knows his trek to find Goggles is dangerous; there is a trouble-making weasel who is also on the hunt for the plane. Sammy and crew have scary adventures while looking for the plane, but they also find true friendship, which is the real treasure that shines throughout the story. 

Cole’s intimate line sketches in shades of grey depict realistic yet whimsically drawn flora and fauna. Illustrations of each character, whether the crow, newt, shrew or mouse that Sammy befriends, exudes a wealth of personality. Delightful hidden numbers may be spied in the artwork found at the beginning of each chapter.

Troubled times stir up magic during the London Blitz in Janet Fox’s haunting middle-grade debut.

Hitler is making his move on England. Kat Bateson and siblings have been instructed to attend the children’s academy at Rookskill Castle in Scotland. Before leaving, great-aunt Margaret gives Kat her magical chatelaine, an odd key chain-like ornament. The Bateson children join four additional students, and soon the seven-fold contingent find that they are trapped under the firm control of the mysterious Lady Eleanor. Between creepy noises and ghostly children, most of the students believe the castle is haunted. Kat believes that the Lady is harboring a spy, and her suspicion is confirmed by the location of machinery. Yet all this pales in comparison to the steady disappearance of more and more students.

Fox’s original story is a stunning combination of espionage and dark magic set within a World War II realm. Key to Fox’s writing style is the way she builds the personas of her European and American cast by tightly entwining them within a dystopian period. Fox goes a step further by filling her third-person narrative with catchy subplots. As a result, Fox keeps her narrative flowing with a careful mix of character scenes and backstories set in the 1700s and 1800s—all filled with twists and turns and closing on a chilling note.

The Charmed Children of Rookskill is a gripping page-turner that has silver-screen potential.

Set in 1887 against the bleak backdrop of New York City tenement living, A Bandit’s Tale is the story of a plucky Italian boy and his adventures in a new world. After 11-year-old Rocco Zaccaro disgraces his impoverished family, his parents lease him to an unscrupulous man and send him to America to work as a street musician. Without any knowledge of English or how to play an instrument, Rocco is forced to earn money for his boss, the padrone. Rocco eventually gets mixed up with a pickpocketing gang and is arrested. After a daring prison escape, Rocco meets an Irish girl named Meddlin’ Mary and begins assisting the famous journalist and photographer Jacob Riis. Rocco morphs from a thief to a reformer as he tries to improve the lives of vulnerable kids like him.

Although Deborah Hopkinson acknowledges in an author’s note that the chronology and Rocco’s interactions with real-life figures Riis and Jewish reporter Max Fischel have been fictionalized, A Bandit’s Tale is historically accurate. Interspersed in the book are Riis’ photographs depicting the harsh living conditions of immigrants. Rocco’s lively narrative keeps the book from being morose, but parents may want to read along to help kids digest the history.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

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

Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown has parlayed his offbeat humor and dark, angular illustrations into his first chapter book. 

From the moment shiny robot Roz emerges from a crate that has washed up on the shore of a remote island, both Roz and the island’s animal inhabitants will never be the same. It’s a mysterious beginning for Roz, who wonders where she is and why she’s there. Soon, she’s worried about fitting in and surviving among the island’s animals, who fear this ominous metal creature and don’t try to hide their hostility. 

Brown’s short, well-paced chapters vary in perspective—some in Roz’s voice, some in third-person omniscient, some addressing the reader directly. The prose and dialogue offer an eager invitation for readers to discover Roz’s experiences on the island: clunking away from angry bears, saving an orphaned gosling or building a warm communal nest for the animals. Roz eventually wins over the island creatures, securing her place in the community—until a clever denouement threatens their unusual utopia. 

Without being preachy, Brown hits on many timely topics—friendship, the environment, technology, cooperation and differences—in this absorbing but very readable book. This hi-lo (high interest/low reading level) novel is especially ideal for reluctant readers.

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