“It happened overnight.” On April 9, 1940, German forces invaded Denmark, where they would remain until surrendering in 1945. Also overnight was the start of a Danish resistance movement—not the result of government initiatives, but rather the selfless actions of individuals who risked their lives.

Through anecdotes, accompanying quotes and archival photos, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson tells the stories of some of these heroes in Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark. For example, Tommy Sneum was a young flight lieutenant in Denmark’s air force until it was grounded, at which point he turned to gathering information and discovered a new German Freya radar system. With harrowing events rivaling any Hollywood thriller, Tommy evaded death many times to take this information to Great Britain, where he was asked to serve as their first wartime spy in Denmark. Other resisters include Niels Skov, who started as a lone saboteur, using a screwdriver and matches to set German vehicles and buildings on fire, and student activist Jørgen Kieler, who was influential in an illegal newspaper and sabotage group.

In between their stories, which sometimes intersect, Hopkinson weaves big-picture historical information. The author also devotes portions of the book to resisters’ efforts to help 7,220 of Denmark’s 7,700 Jews escape to Sweden and the concentration camp internment of arrested resisters. She reveals moments of light in a dark time and encourages readers to ask themselves, what can one person do?

George looks and dresses like a boy, but inside, she’s not a boy. Her family doesn’t understand, but George knows that she’s a girl. It’s hard pretending to be a boy, but it’s even harder when the class bully picks on her and starts fights. 

When it’s announced that the fourth-grade classes will put on a production of Charlotte’s Web, George decides to audition for Charlotte, so she can finally play a girl’s role in front of her friends and mother, but mostly so she can feel like her secret self is out in the open. Her best friend helps rehearse, and eventually George confides in her that she’s really a girl. Kelly is supportive and encouraging, but their teacher insists George can’t play a girl’s part. Fortunately, an open-minded principal shows readers that being transgender is just another part of being human, and that there are people who understand.

Debut author Alex Gino beautifully addresses the struggles of being a transgender youth. It’s an intense conflict to be one sort of person on the outside but feel like someone else on the inside, and this book recognizes and straightforwardly discusses LGBTQ issues, including family misunderstandings, peer support and public acceptance. Readers going through a similar experience will feel that they are no longer alone, and cisgender (non-transgender) readers may gain understanding and empathy. 

Positive messages echo throughout George and to the reader: Be you, whoever you are. 

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Brian Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for his innovative 533-page picture book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, in which much of the tale is told in full-page black-and-white drawings that weave in and out of the story told in prose. Wonderstruck (2011) followed, with a similar format—460 pages of original artwork intertwined with two independent stories set 50 years apart. 

The Marvels opens with 400 pages of drawings telling the story of the fictional Royal Theatre in London and five generations of a family of actors. In 1766, young Billy Marvel runs off to sea, stowing away on the Kraken, the ship on which his older brother Marcus is a sailor. The ship sinks, and Billy is the sole survivor, along with his dog, Tar. Making his way eventually to London, Billy gets involved with the Royal Theater and becomes the progenitor of several generations of Marvels, great stage actors all. 

The story of the Marvels, related in black-and-white drawings, gives way to a seemingly unrelated prose story of young Joseph Jervis, who runs away from boarding school in 1990 and comes to dark and snowy London in search of his friend Blink and his estranged uncle, Albert Nightingale. His uncle lives in a magical house with smells of food and fireplaces, lighted candles, muffled voices, tables set with dirty plates and half-empty goblets and napkins carefully placed on the floor.

Unlike Selznick’s previous volumes, there is no weaving of pictures and text here, but the stories do connect, and the mysteries, large and small, will absorb readers young and old. Inspired by a living house museum in London known as Dennis Severs’ house, The Marvels is an enchanting tale of a young boy finding a home and a home finding a future. 

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Half-Japanese, half-black, Mimi Yoshiko Oliver loves looking at the moon and wants to be an astronaut. In January 1969, she moves from California to the frosty Vermont town of Hillsborough, an unwelcoming place. The farmer next door is always rude, and Mimi is teased at school. Even after she forms a tentative friendship with a girl named Stacey, she’s not invited to Stacey’s home. Then there’s the matter of shop class. Mimi would rather take shop than home ec so she can use power tools to work on her science project, but girls are supposed to “learn how to cook and sew so they can be good homemakers.” 

Slowly, Mimi and her family discover small moments of harmony, like finding the first crocuses in the snow. When Mimi and Stacey decide to challenge the exclusion of girls from shop classes, their courage inspires the entire eighth grade to an act of civil disobedience. 

Told in evocative free verse, Full Cicada Moon is a lyrical portrait of a strong family at a time of immense change, perfect for that budding scientist who loves to look at the stars.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Courage & Defiance.

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

As a teenage boy who loves fashion, Francis is used to being teased and bullied at school, and he feels totally alone until he meets Jessica, a girl who shares his untraditional interests. But Jessica has a peculiarity of her own: For all her good spirits, she is thoroughly, completely and definitely dead. Francis is the only person who can see or hear her.

Francis and Jessica become fast friends and soon befriend two other loners: Andi, a girl with a reputation for picking fights, and Roland, a 300-pound giant who refuses to go to school. The four form a close bond unlike anything they've ever experienced before.

Then Jessica discovers that she died by suicide and that each of her friends has considered it. She has been left to roam the earth, befriending those in need and keeping other teens from hurting themselves. Someone needs Jessica’s help—but who?

Through these deftly-drawn, realistic characters, author Andrew Norriss pulls the reader into a story that makes this difficult subject accessible. Friends for Life is a vital book, emphasizing the power of friendship and the importance of reaching out to others when in distress. It will resonate with any young reader who suffers the isolation of feeling “different.”

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

There’s no doubt that Louis Sachar, the Newbery Medal-winning author of Holes, knows how to draw in his readers. His latest book, Fuzzy Mud, reads like a middle school version of Contagion―it’s a thriller that will have readers quickly turning its pages.

In this case, the culprit isn’t a virus, but a mutant microbe of an amazing new biofuel that’s somehow multiplying like crazy in the woods next to Woodbridge Academy. Three Woodbridge students end up in these woods one afternoon when seventh-grader Marshall Walsh takes a shortcut to avoid a fight with bully Chad Hilligas. Fifth-grader Tamaya Dhilwaddi has followed as well; she always walks home with Marshall, her neighbor.

The trio has no idea that a strange mutation under their feet threatens to become a world crisis, but Sachar inserts short portions of secret Senate hearings between chapters to enhance the big picture. Then Tamaya unknowingly dips her hand into the mutant microbe (which she calls Fuzzy Mud) and flings it at Chad’s face. Tamaya and Marshall run home, but the next day they’re dismayed to hear that Chad is missing. Meanwhile, Tamaya’s hand is covered with a bloody, blistering rash that is spreading like wildfire. Tamaya and Marshall face a moral crisis about whether to return to the woods to try to help their lost enemy. Their ensuing search is so dramatic that readers will genuinely fear that none of them will make it out alive.

Although the novel’s imagined biological catastrophe seems far-fetched and the biofuel inventor never becomes more than an eccentric caricature, the heart and soul of this book belongs to Tamaya, Marshall and Chad, and their compelling journey from hatred to friendship.

In Jennifer Bradbury’s exciting new work of historical fiction, River Runs Deep, 12-year-old Elias is suffering from tuberculosis in 1842. He’s sent from his home in Norfolk, Virginia, to recover in an underground hut in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. He will be cared for by the real-life Dr. John Croghan, who during one winter ministered to 16 tuberculosis patients, who sought the benefit of the cave's dank air and lived in small rooms built by slaves.

As the world’s longest known cave system, with more than 400 explored miles of passages, Mammoth Cave is a fitting setting for this middle grade adventure. As lonely Elias lies in bed recuperating, he feels like he’s dying of boredom, but soon he meets a cast of characters who draw him into a web of intrigue involving a group of slaves hiding in a large secret chamber and a bounty hunter determined to find them.

Elias befriends several real-life slaves (Stephen Bishop, Materson and Nick Bransford) who show him many of the cave’s wonders and pitfalls, such as the Star Chamber and the Bottomless Pit. As Elias begins to recover, his strength and energy become vital to uncovering a fellow patient’s nefarious scheme to capture the hidden slaves. Elias’ own questioning of his attitudes toward his family’s slaves provides readers with just the right touch of moral perspective.

A map at the beginning helps readers follow the mounting action, and suggestions for further reading are helpful. Bradbury, who grew up near the cave, has created a thrilling underground adventure that’s jam-packed with fascinating historical tidbits.

More than 100 years ago, there was little understanding of the concept of invisible dangers like germs. The story of Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was passed off as one of intentional harm, when in reality she didn’t believe she was a danger to anyone. 

Mary emigrated from Ireland to New York City, was hired as household staff and found a specialty in cooking. From 1897 to 1907, 24 people in households where she worked developed typhoid fever, and one died. Later, 25 people developed the illness after consuming her cooking. Dr. George Soper, sanitary engineer for the United States Army Sanitary Corps, began investigating the outbreak at Mary’s last house of employment and then Mary herself as a healthy carrier of typhoid. Mary was held against her will at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island in New York’s East River, and the story only gets darker from there.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s extensive research, complete with photographs and illustrations from the early 1900s, brings little-known facts to light and this fascinating tale to life. Terrible Typhoid Mary provides insight and understanding for a woman previously portrayed as a villain.

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

History remembers the various resistance groups that cropped up during World War II, but few people know about the Edelweiss Pirates, formed by German young adults aged 14 to 17. A factually accurate portrayal of this group serves as the backdrop to My Brother’s Secret, the gripping tale of 12-year-old Karl, a staunch supporter of Hitler and the Hitler youth group to which he belongs.

The best day of Karl’s life is when he’s recognized for having the potential to make Hitler proud—but this day is also his worst, as his family learns that his German soldier father was killed on the Russian front. Following this soul-shattering event, Karl begins to question the wisdom of blindly following Hitler, but he finds it difficult to get any real answers in this untrustworthy environment where children are encouraged to turn in their parents as enemies of the state. Karl inadvertently runs afoul of the local Gestapo, putting himself, his friends and his family in grave danger.

My Brother’s Secret weaves a heart-stopping tale that doesn’t avoid the overt brutality and subtle coercion present in Nazi Germany. Young readers will learn a great deal from this up-close and personal story.

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Good historical fiction is hard to find, but it’s probably even harder to write. Newbery Honor winner Gennifer Choldenko’s ability to research obscure yet intriguing topics is uncanny, and as she did with the popular Al Capone trilogy, she turns a tough topic into a high-interest read with Chasing Secrets.

Thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy is stuck in a snooty girls’ school in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, but she feels free and competent when she accompanies her physician father on house calls, affording her the opportunity to show her knowledge and independence. But soon everything she knows—or thinks she knows—is challenged: The bubonic plague has led to part of the city being quarantined; many are threatening to burn Chinatown to the ground; and her family’s beloved Chinese cook is missing. Even worse, no one believes her fears. Her father and her powerful uncle, a newspaperman, deny the outbreak, and her older brother, Billy, is too distracted to help. Lizzie befriends the cook’s son, Noah, and together they hatch surreptitious, daring plans to connect the dots of the medical mystery plaguing their city and their families. 

Lizzie unabashedly takes on the problems of the world, reminiscent of Sophia in Avi’s Sophia’s War. Choldenko’s research is exhaustive, weaving little-known details into the narrative, as well as into the author’s note, chronology and endnotes. Themes of friendship, race relations and deception—with diseased rats thrown in for good measure and accuracy—mesh together to create a compelling work of historical fiction.

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Holly Goldberg Sloan knows how to write a story for young people, with a style that’s easily accessible and entertaining for new readers. Her latest book, Appleblossom the Possum, is no exception.

Appleblossom and her numerous siblings learn to survive from their mother, Ma Possum. Appleblossom and her brothers Amlet and Antonio aren’t sure they’re ready to live on their own, but during their first night solo, they’re pretty good at finding food, and they know to stay away from dangerous things like dogs, cars and people. But Appleblossom is a little more curious than an opossum should be, especially about the little girl who lives nearby.

Part realism (how an opossum lives in the world) and part fantasy (opossum rooftop disco in the city), Appleblossom the Possum is a fun read, and the illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to the lighthearted story.

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

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

It’s hard to navigate the world when you’re 12 years old, especially when you’re the chubby kid at a secret spy school. Not only is Hale Jordan having trouble passing his junior agent exam, but he’s the son of the Sub Rosa Society’s most elite spy team. Not to mention Hale’s younger sister is an acrobatic dynamo who will most likely pass her test before him. Being a spy is part of Hale’s DNA, although he may never get a chance to prove himself. While Hale’s classmates are busy teasing him, he’s using his smarts to scheme his way to success. His special skill set comes in handy when Hale’s parents don't return from an important, top-secret mission. When Hale cannot trust the adults at SRS to bring his parents home, he and his very clever sister resolve to find their parents and complete the mission.

Hale’s humorous narrative voice makes The Doublecross, the first in a new series, a fast-paced and engaging read. He’s the big-boned underdog that readers will root for the entire time. Hale says, “Trying to step in for our parents was sort of like me trying to do a pull-up. It just wasn’t going to happen.” Hale’s physique may make him the target of bullies, but he manages to circumvent even the smartest spy. Heroes come in many shapes and sizes, and Hale Jordan is no exception.

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

Graphic novels are all the rage with young readers these days, but this fact can be frustrating for adults who are trying to encourage kids to read more complex material. Thank goodness veteran comic-book creators Robert Venditti and Dusty Higgins have created a hybrid sure to satisfy both camps in Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde. Sixty-five of the 304 pages are comic panels drawn by Higgins, while the rest is prose written by Venditti.

“Mild-mannered” seventh grader Miles Taylor is given a cape imbued with superpowers by its previous hero, Gilded, and Miles must now be the one to save the world from criminals and disasters. Whenever Miles dons the cape and springs into action, the book’s format shifts (often midsentence) to graphic novel drawings. Unfortunately these exciting moments are punctuated by a story that moves a bit too slowly as Venditti builds the characters. This pace allows us to fully understand Miles and his friend Henry, but some judicious editing wouldn’t hurt.

Still, it’s a fun read, especially with the all the tongue-in-cheek humor (math teacher Ms. Euclid, annoying assistant principal Mr. Harangue, etc.) and the over-the-top evil alien invaders (Lord Commander Calamity and the Unnd). Best-selling Venditti and award-winning Higgins have created a world that will appeal to kids and grown-ups alike—and as a librarian who is sort of both, I look forward to recommending this one to my students.

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