Picture Books
Simon and the Better Bone
Corey R. Tabor
RFLBG
I’m not one who loves a picture book laid out in a different orientation, but this is the best use of a picture book gutter I’ve ever seen! It’s an amusing story, too.
Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock
Jesus Trejo and Eliza Kinkz
RFLBG
This was a delightful day of work with Papá and Jesus. It really captured kid logic, and the illustrations match the playful nature of the text.
Remembering
Xelena González and Adriana M. Garcia
RFLBG
Whew! This was full of a lot of feelings, beautifully illustrated. Goes nicely with The Longest Let’sGoBoy.
Middle Grade
Eb and Flow
Kelly J. Baptist
RFLBG
Two kids are suspended for fighting for what seems to me to be an incredibly long time. During that time, they learn a lot about themselves and how they interact.
The Girl from Earth’s End
Tara Dairman
RFLBG
A perfectly adequate story set in an unidentifiable time and place and populated with a diverse-in-all-ways cast. There is a bit of gardening, a bit of sick dad, and a bit of adventure. Most plot arcs were painfully obvious and a bit long.
Huda F Cares
Huda Fahmy
RFLBG
I like the words on the page. There was great sister stuff, and good everyday life while also being Muslim stuff. The graphic part of it wasn’t as appealing. I didn’t feel like I was visiting Disneyworld, it was hard to keep the sisters straight because they all looked alike, and I felt that all that white background space could be better used.
Young Adult
All the Fighting Parts
Hannah V. Sawyerr
RFLBG
A pastor is the opposite of holy in this novel in verse. Ameria deals with the fallout. The book portrayed several men who supported her, which was a nice change.
Plan A
Deb Caletti
“Maybe it’s because, right then, I am sure that this argument, about women and their bodies, about women and their rights, about abortion in general, won’t move an inch from where it is now. Not when kids this young already burn with righteousness.”
As usual, Caletti captures all the feelings. (I do wonder about sending your minor daughter across state lines with an of-age young man. That courts even more trouble.)
Forget Me Not
Alyson Derrick
RFLBG
It’s the plot of the movie the Vow, but sub in two girls in love (but otherwise closeted). Due to a head injury, Stevie loses a crucial two years. Thinking you are 16 when you are 18 is a pretty big chunk of development lost. An engaging conundrum.
Super Fake Love Song
David Yoon
An amusing exploration of how pretending to be something you are not might just lead to discovering what might be a better you. I enjoyed the details about heavy metal music and the general fussiness of the main character.
If You, Then Me
Yvonne Woon
Kudos to Woon for engineering a mostly believable Silicon Valley incubator for teenagers. The love triangle wandered off the page after a time, which made sense to me. Unfortunately, it made its way back in the final few pages of the book. Other than wandering and unsatisfying love triangles, this was a great (if not entirely realistic) example of too many grownup choices for a not-yet-grownup.
The Blood Years
Elena K. Arnold
RFLBG
The continued magnifying glass centered on the European World War II experience this time focuses on Jews in Romania. We get to see Frederika experience the fate of being Jewish under the Romanians, the Russians, and the Germans. And then the Russians again, for good measure.
This was obviously a story very close to the author’s heart, but important details were sometimes present and sometimes not. And, rare for an Elena K. Arnold book, the narrative didn’t pull me forward.
Grownup Fiction
Forget Me Not
Julie Soto
This was not the National Book Award Longlist book I was aiming for, but it was a very fun Sacramento-set wedding planner story with a cracking first page. It has a terrible cover though.
Happy Place
Emily Henry
I didn’t ever really accept the main secret needed to be kept, so the framework of the story didn’t work for me.
Young Nonfiction
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
Nicholas Day and Brett Helquist
RFLBG
A very readable narrative of what the title says. Plus additional information about Leonardo di Vinci and the Lisa that is Mona. It never occurred to me to wonder how the famous painting ended up in France. Day makes a solid case about the general public’s refusal to believe in anything but the art criminal mastermind. I do wonder if the writing was a little too razzle dazzle and if the illustrations skew young.
Search for a Giant Squid: Pick Your Path
Amy Seto Forrester and Andy Chou Musser
RFLBG
It’s a pick-your-path book, but one where you get to learn all about marine biology while on the quest to find the giant squid. The illustrations were both fun and detailed. I enjoyed that both boat pilots looked like they could use any of the pronouns, and I had fun working my way through every iteration.
The Day the River Caught Fire: How the Cuyahoga River Exploded and Ignited the Earth Day Movement
Barry Wittenstein and Jessie Hartland
RFLBG
The setup was the Cuyahoga River catching on fire, but the book pivots to the creation of Earth Day general environmental stuff, and then goes back to the river and tells us the river is cleaner. How did it get cleaner?
Plus, the book itself tells us that that same river had caught fire several times before. Why was this the fire that led to change?
Also, the gist of the author’s note is “You kids need to fix the environment.” What was his part in fixing or not fixing the environment?
Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe
Steve Sheinkin
RFLBG
Sheinkin drives the narrative by mostly focusing on a teenager who survived and escaped Auschwitz. But there was also a side narrative about a Slovakian girl who hid out in Hungary. Sheinkin provides many details about daily life in Auschwitz and also details of the escape. While the plight of Slovakian Jews in Hungary was interesting, I think the divided narrative sucked some of the urgency from the story.
