It’s 1861, and the men of Keokuk, Iowa, have finally been called to war. Unfortunately for 11-year-old Ike Button, he’ll have to stay behind with the women while his older brothers, father and uncles all serve in the Union Army. Ike doesn’t want to care for his baby cousins when he could be off fighting like the men. Determined to forge his own destiny, Ike conjures up a scheme to go to Missouri and slip into the regiment. But before those ill-conceived plans come to fruition, Ike discovers that the war is happening in Keokuk, too, and he doesn’t need to be a soldier to fight for the cause.

The Curse of the Buttons is the third installment in the delightful Button family saga, though readers do not need to have read the other books to enjoy this one. Anne Ylvisaker wastes no words; her narrative is charming in its simplicity and entrances the reader by fully immersing them in the time and place. Even as the Button family faces challenges, they prevail with kindness and spirit.

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, November 2014

First there was Wilbur the pig. Then there was Ivan the shopping mall gorilla. Now there’s Audrey the cow.

Farmer Glenn might think Audrey is a food cow, but according to Audrey, she’s a poet cow, a white Charolais who can appreciate the finer things in life, like landscapes to admire and flowers to eat. More than two dozen distinct voices, including cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, deer and humans, take turns relating what happens as Audrey draws on her dead mother’s tales—and her farmyard friends’ resourcefulness—to plan a daring escape.

Like Katherine Applegate in her Newbery Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan, author Dan Bar-el starts with a true story and expands on it, granting voices and agency to his animal characters. Also like Ivan, occasional black-and-white drawings (here by Tatjana Mai-Wyss) add visual interest and help emerging readers relate to the unusual narrators.

Elementary school readers can cheer for Audrey’s quest while an older audience can giggle at the clever wordplay: The French-derived word for slaughterhouse, abattoir, is misheard by the animals as “Abbot’s War,” and gossip literally comes from the horse’s mouth. Don’t stop to question who exactly these voices are talking to—or why people seem to have cell phones at some opportune moments but not others—because doing so would spoil the fun of this gentle tale. Instead, focus on the postmodern storytelling, the perfect combination of humor and pathos and the determination of a cow who isn’t willing to give up.

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Everyone has thought about what three wishes they would make if they ever found a genie in a bottle. But what if you couldn’t think of three? Or, worse, what if the genie had lost his powers and couldn’t grant them anyway? This is what happens to young Emma in Cornelia Funke’s new book for young people, Emma and the Blue Genie.

Being the only girl with four younger brothers, Emma likes to escape the noise by sitting on the beach near her home and listening to the waves. One night she finds a stoppered bottle and releases a sad, blue genie named Karim who needs her help more than she needs his. Karim promises to grant her wishes after he has taken back his stolen magic nose ring from an evil yellow genie. Emma decides that going with him on this adventure, along with her dog Tristan, sounds better than waiting at home.

Flying away on a magic carpet, Karim and Emma (and Tristan) go to a strange, distant land where they must use all their bravery and cleverness to best the yellow genie. Written in prose that is easily accessible to elementary students, this tale will delight boys and girls alike. Beautiful color illustrations by Kerstin Meyer make a wonderful accompaniment. This book was tested on a second-grade boy and given two thumbs up!

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

Rural North Carolina in the 1920s is modernizing at its own pace. Arie Mae loves her hometown and family, but dearly wants a friend to call her own. When Tom comes from the city to study the old ways of living, she’s sure she has found him, but nothing is ever that easy. Anybody Shining illuminates friendship, family, faith and all the things that can be left behind for the sake of progress.

Author Frances O'Roark Dowell (The Secret Language of Girls) tells the story through a series of letters from Arie Mae to a distant cousin. The joy of a barn dance and the scary fun of hunting for “haints” (ghosts)—and sometimes finding them—interweave with the community’s patronizing mistreatment by well-intended outsiders. For the locals’ part, they’re mystified as to why someone would want to learn weaving when you can finally buy ready-made cloth from the Sears catalog. Arie Mae tries to balance her view with respect for everyone involved: “Mostly we have got the stomping kind of dances here, and I wouldn’t mind to see a new step or two. But this ain’t something I would say to Daddy, as he’s partial to our ways.”

Anybody Shining has rich atmosphere, and the friendship between Arie Mae and Tom is sweet and inspiring. History teachers will love the references to the post-Civil War South, the eerie way Indians went from living nearby to becoming the stuff of legend, and the “songcatchers” who traveled out to find traditional roots music. (One refuses to listen to a contemporary fiddler for fear of being “inauthentic.”) Grab some molasses candy and dig in; Anybody Shining is a pleasure.

Heather Seggel reads too much and writes all about it in Northern California.

Twins Johnny and Will and their friend Rad are back for more adventures in the third installment of Allen Johnson Jr.’s Blackwater Novels, set in 1940s Alabama and Georgia. When Linc, the African-American man who became a hero to the boys in previous books, helps foil a developer’s search for oil in the local swamp, the frustrated oil man sends the Ku Klux Klan to terrify Linc and his supporters. Now it’s up to the local sheriff—with the help of the boys—to come up with a clever way to show the Klan they aren’t welcome in tolerant Blackwater County. In between run-ins with the KKK, the boys help catch a team of burglars, cause mischief at school, camp out on their favorite island and enjoy fishing, reading comics and playing catch with their beloved dogs.

Allen Johnson Jr, grandson of the founder of Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, writes in a voice that’s authentic to his own boyhood experiences in the deep South. Linc and other African-American characters speak in strong dialect, and villains frequently invoke the n-word, while Sheriff Clyde actively condemns its use. Descriptions of long-distance train rides, Southern cooking and popular radio shows of the time round out this tale. Kids whose fathers and grandfathers read Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys will find much familiar territory in this new generation of stories.

Jill Ratzan reviews for School Library Journal and works as a school librarian at a small independent school in New Jersey.

Milo was ready to enjoy a quiet Christmas vacation at his parents' hotel, Greenglass House, in the fictional harbor town of Nagspeake. Usually inhabited by local smugglers, the hotel receives not one but five unexpected visitors on the same snowy night. After Milo finds a map (with possible ties to Greenglass House) that was dropped by one of the hotel guests, it’s clear that they’re all looking for something—but not necessarily the same thing. Figuring out why the visitors have arrived and what each wants becomes Milo’s mission.

In this atmospheric, multilayered mystery—filled with gorgeous (and of course, green) stained-glass windows, an attic begging to be explored and a quirky cast of squabbling characters—the cook’s daughter, Meddy, suggests to Milo a role-playing game called Odd Trails. Their new traits give the children the confidence they need to sort through the ambiguous facts, lies and clues, especially when objects start disappearing and the hotel guests take turns telling tales around the fireplace. His alternate role also allows adopted Milo to explore his Chinese ancestry and wonder about his birth parents.

Reminiscent of The Westing Game, Greenglass House offers smart storytelling and plenty of secrets, sabotage and twists. For fans who want to know more about this unusual hotel and its history, author Kate Milford refers them to an invented tourism site for the town of Nagspeake. On their own snowy, homebound days, readers will have trouble finding a more charming story.

Set in a small village separated from a once-powerful kingdom by a mystical, moving forest, The Witch’s Boy is a fable filled with unlikely friendships, creatures and humans dealing with loss, rulers struggling for power and the world’s last remaining bit of real magic.

Ned and Tam, the inseparable twin sons of the woman known only as Sister Witch and her woodsman husband, live on the edge of their small—and small-minded—village. One fateful day, the boys decide to build a raft and float down the nearby Great River to the sea. But when their raft crumbles in the river’s rapids, their father only has enough time to save Ned from the deathly currents. Sister Witch tries to revive her son, but she knows this is a lost cause and is unwilling to bear losing both her children. Instead, she uses her magic to bind Tam’s soul to the fading Ned. But the magic is dangerous and not without consequences.

Elsewhere in the woods, the fire-haired Bandit King longs to reclaim the world’s lost magic and use it for his own gain. When he discovers that Sister Witch possesses the last bit of it, he attempts to take it by force. But when Ned tries to stop him by binding the magic to his own body, he gets swept up in an adventure that has him crossing paths with the smart and self-sufficient Áine of the woods and a young wolf that seems to understand much more than it should.

In The Witch’s Boy, Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Kelly Barnhill sucks the reader into a moving and expansive story she started crafting accidentally on a walk in the woods with her young son. As her fable unfolds, we learn from her cast of characters that the magic and powers we all possess can manifest in any number of unexpected ways.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

A nest is a haven—a place of safety and repose. But for 11-year-old Naomi Orenstein, her safe haven is turned upside down after mounting family tragedy.

Naomi, known as “Chirp” for her ornithological interests, lives with her older sister, psychiatrist father and dancer mother in 1970s Cape Cod. But after being diagnosed with MS, Chirp's mother sinks into depression that brings about more tragedy.

This could be more than most tweens can absorb or understand, but Chirp is strong, to a point. Her love of nature comforts her, and Joey, the boy down the street, takes her on adventures designed to make her forget the stress of losing a parent—and help Joey forget the stress of living with an abusive one.

Ultimately, it boils down to what Chirp believes, “You can’t make grown-ups not do what they’re going to do.” So the two set out to make sense of their lives by escaping their troubles.

In this debut novel by Esther Ehrlich, Chirp’s voice rings true, both in her dealings at school and with her family in disarray. It is a sad story but overwhelmingly powerful in the way families and their trajectories are presented—and in showing how family members react in various ways.

Chirp’s nest will never be the same, but when she returns from her adventures with Joey, she realizes that no matter what has happened, she is home.

Sharon Verbeten is a freelance writer and children’s librarian in De Pere, Wisconsin.

“I’m a risk taker.” With that short sentence, readers are introduced to Arcady, a goal-scoring, wisecracking soccer star. However, very few people know just how good Arcady is at soccer. Arcady is a resident of an orphanage in Soviet Russia intended for children of enemies of the Soviet state. Instead of fame and fortune, Arcady plays for stolen rations and survival.

This all looks to change when a group of inspectors comes to the orphanage. Bribed by the director of the orphanage, Arcady participates in a series of soccer competitions against larger and stronger boys, with the intention of entertaining the inspectors. But a few days later, one of the inspectors returns to adopt Arcady. Although Arcady is freed from the confines of the orphanage, this does not mean his life will be easier.

Arcady’s Goal, the latest novel by Newbery Honor-winning author Eugene Yelchin, is a sparse book that carries great weight. A companion to Breaking Stalin’s Nose, it brings to light many of the struggles faced by children who did nothing wrong but were punished solely because of what their parents believed. Both haunting and laugh-out-loud funny, Arcady’s Goal will score big with readers.

This article was originally published in the October 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In this standalone companion to the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning Elijah of Buxton, author Christopher Paul Curtis returns to the Canadian town founded in the 1860s by former African-American slaves. Although few of the original settlers still live in Buxton in 1901, one of their descendants, Benji Alston, stands out. An aspiring newspaper reporter, Benji understands the power of the written word and enters an apprenticeship with Miss Cary, the daughter of real-life Mary Ann Camberton Shadd, an abolitionist and journalist in neighboring Chatham. Also residing in Chatham is Alvin “Red” Stockard, who is often mistreated by his bitter and racist grandmother, who suffered during the Irish immigration to Canada during “The Great Hunger.”

Benji and Red alternate as narrators, incorporating historical details and fun antics from the first book. As they become fast friends, they realize they’ve both heard tales of the Madman of Piney Woods, who is rumored to be an escaped slave from the U.S. and may even be a potential murderer. When the boys face a shocking encounter with the Madman, each begins in his own way to understand the nature of fear and heroism. Countering heartbreak with humor, Curtis gives middle-grade readers another fine novel to ponder the wonders of humanity.

This article was originally published in the October 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, October 2014

Most people don’t think much about homonyms or prime numbers. But most people aren’t 12-year-old Rose Howard, whose every waking moment is spent thinking about just those things. So it’s especially good luck that both her name (Rose/rows) and her dog’s (Rain/reign) are homonyms.

Few people understand Rose, whose OCD and Asperger syndrome make her the odd girl out at school and at home. Her mother left when she was young, so Rose lives with her father, an angry man who can’t deal with her eccentricities. Fortunately, her caring Uncle Weldon is her saving grace throughout the entire story. When Rain goes missing after a storm, Rose’s life changes dramatically. Her routine is disrupted, and her focus must shift to finding him.

Rain Reign is a triumph reminiscent of Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind, another excellent novel that illustrates what it’s like to live with special needs. Rose’s first-person narration is spot-on, relaying the repetition of her thoughts, her mind and the rules that guide her life. Readers should note the use of the word “retard” by Rose’s fellow students, but the context is appropriate and accurate.

It’s hard to imagine a more concise depiction of Rose’s Asperger syndrome, a more powerful portrayal of her father or a more heart–tugging story of love, loss and triumph. This poignant novel may very well bring Ann M. Martin her second Newbery Honor (after A Corner of the Universe in 2003) or, better yet, the Newbery Medal.

This article was originally published in the October 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

It may be hard to imagine growing up as a young girl in Sudan, raking cow plop, but with gentle restraint, award-winning author Andrea Davis Pinkney brings readers into the heart and mind of Amira, whose life is forever changed by the Janjaweed’s attacks in Darfur.

Pinkney chose an unusual format for The Red Pencil, calling it “a novel of poems, pictures and possibilities.” The cadence of the language and evocative line drawings by Shane W. Evans draw the reader into the warmth, traditions and superstitions of village life in Sudan and foreshadow a time when the “evil men on horseback” will appear.

Readers meet Dando; Muma; Amira’s disabled sister, Leila; her friend Halima, who’s lucky enough to go to school; and their family friend, Old Anwar. Amira is 12 and wears a colorful toob like her Muma, but she thinks Muma’s traditions are backward. Amira longs to attend school, and Old Anwar teaches her to read. When the Janjaweed kill her father and the villagers flee, Amira survives a treacherous journey to a refugee camp and loses her voice. An aide worker’s gift of a red pencil and tablet allow Amira to heal and to follow her dreams.

Although Pinkney’s form is untraditional in this important book, her poetry, merged with Evans’ vibrant drawings, takes hold and successfully transports the reader to Darfur.

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

There’s something about cats. In 2010, Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott and Josée Bisaillon showed the Nazi Kristallnacht riots from the point of view of an alley cat. Before that, The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse and Wendy Watson told how stray cats distracted Nazi dogs, allowing food to be smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto. And now there’s Clare, a cat who sees the contemporary Israeli/Palestinian conflict from a unique point of view.

Clare wasn’t always a cat: Once she was an American eighth grader, busily avoiding detentions and making fun of her new teacher. After she’s killed in an accident, Clare finds herself transformed into a cat living in occupied territory on Israel’s West Bank. Running from a hissing tom one day, Clare flees to a seemingly abandoned Palestinian house where two Israeli soldiers have set up a temporary spy headquarters. But a scared, possibly autistic boy is hiding in the house . . . and violence outside seems imminent.

Deborah Ellis, author of Breadwinner and other middle grade books set in the world’s most contentious battle zones, alternates between Clare’s current situation and her past reflections. Clare can’t go back and be a better sister and student—or solve the Middle East’s deeply entrenched problems—but maybe she can help fix just one moment.

Don’t be put off by this book’s unusual premise. The Cat at the Wall is a sensitive, deceptively simple tale of war, bullying and tempered hope.

Jill Ratzan reviews for School Library Journal and works as a school librarian at a small independent school in New Jersey.