Listen, Slowly

Listen, Slowly
By Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai also wrote Inside Out & Back Again, a novel in verse (poetry) which I loved. This story Listen, Slowly is not in verse but touches on similar themes of family, adjusting to a new culture, and friendship.
The main character is Mai, a twelve-year-old Vietnamese American girl from Laguna Beach, California. Instead of hanging out at the beach with her best friend and new crush, Mai is sent to Vietnam with her grandmother to spend the whole summer in a tiny village--where she can't even communicate very well with the locals. Despite her misgivings about Vietnam, Mai makes some new friends (and rethinks her old ones) and learns some important stuff about her family's past. This novel is really funny!

Snow & Rose

Snow & Rose
By Emily Winfield Martin

Two sisters, Snow and Rose, once lived a fancy life with their loving parents in a fancy house with a beautiful garden. But their father disappears one day, and the girls and their grieving mom move to a tiny cottage in the mysterious and possibly dangerous woods. Snow and Rose meet a quirky boy named Ivo, who has a vast knowledge of mushrooms, and they discover a library in the woods filled with magical objects (instead of books!). There is also a bear who befriends the girls and helps them out of some trouble...
This fairy tale is illustrated with gorgeous pictures and is full of mystery, magic, and bonds of friendship and sisterhood.

The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov; Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia
by Candace Fleming

I also read this book before I visited Russia last summer, along with Symphony for the City of the Dead.
Tsar Nicholas Romanov II of Russia was shot and killed along with his entire family--his wife and five children--during the Russian Revolution, in 1917.
Leading up to that, the Romanov family was one of the wealthiest royal families in the world, ruling over 130 million people, most of whom were poverty stricken. Tsar Nicholas--the last emperor of Russia--barely acknowledged the hardships people were living with, while his own family frolicked in luxury.
This nonfiction narrative describes the rise and fall of the House of Romanov, complete with their bizarre connection to a mystic, Rasputin. The photographs in the book are fascinating, as is the story!

Symphony for the City of the Dead

Symphony for the City of the Dead; Dimitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

By M.T. Anderson

This not a book everyone will love, or even should read. But it is powerful, and I am glad to have read it. If you are interested in classical music, Russian history, or World War II, you might enjoy this incredible true story....and M.T. Anderson is such a great writer! I visited St. Petersburg last summer--formerly known as Leningrad--and read this before I went. Unbelievable history.

Review from School Library Journal:

This ambitious and gripping work is narrative nonfiction at its best. Anderson expertly sets the scene of the tumultuous world into which Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and traces his development as an artist and a public figure. He also tells the story of the composer's beloved Leningrad, focusing on the creation and legacy of the symphony written in its honor at the height of World War II. In his author's note, Anderson poses an intriguing question: "How do we reconstruct the story of someone who lived in a period in which everyone had an excuse to lie, evade, accuse, or keep silent?" The compelling, well-researched narrative relates what is known of Shostakovich's story, what is speculation, what is revisionist history, and what new sources have revealed. The chilling details of the Stalin regime and the plight of the Russian people even before the Germans arrived will be eye-opening to many teen readers. The book has all the intrigue of a spy thriller, recounts the horrors of living during the three year siege, and delineates the physical oppression and daunting foes within and outside of the city. This is also the story of survival against almost impossible odds. Through it all, Anderson weaves the thread of the composer's music and the role it played in this larger-than-life drama. 

School Library Journal (September 1, 2015)

The Stars Beneath Our Feet

The Stars Beneath Our Feet
By David Barclay Moore

This is another book set in the diverse New York City neighborhood of Harlem (like The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street). This story is about a 12-year-old boy named Lolly who is grieving the death of his older brother from a gang-related shooting. To help, Lolly's mom's girlfriend, Yvonne, brings home giant bags of Legos for Christmas, and Lolly begins to build an amazing city at the local community center--because his city outgrows their apartment! Along with his best friend Vega and a new friend, Rose, Lolly must navigate not only his grief, but make decisions about how to avoid the feuding gang members in his neighborhood. 

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
By Karina Yan Glaser

I loved this fun, funny, and poignant story of a big biracial family trying to stay in their beloved Harlem brownstone home. The 12-year-old twins Isa and Jessie, along with their 9-year-old brother Oliver, and their two little sisters Hyacinth (6) and Laney (4), set out to save their home when their mysterious and mean landlord refuses to renew their rental contract. Without telling their parents, the kids try all kinds of things to convince their landlord to let them stay--and since each kid has their own quirky personality and special talents, the efforts are pretty funny! There is a sequel, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden, which I also loved, and a third book coming out next fall about the lively Vanderbeeker family.

Flying Lessons

Flying Lessons and Other Stories
Edited by Ellen Oh
(Cofounder of We Need Diverse Books)

This is a fabulous book of short stories, by a group of very diverse authors. One of the great things about reading short stories is that they can introduce you to a new author, someone who may have other books you'd want to check out; another thing about short story collections is that you don't have to read them all, or even read them in any particular order...and they may be different styles and genres. Some you may like more than others.

I love the variety of the stories in this collection. Basketball, crushes, dreams, new neighborhoods, family craziness, school stuff...a little something for everyone!

Skellig

Skellig

By David Almond

In this mysterious story, a soccer-playing boy named Michael moves into an old fixer-upper house with his family. While his mother is in the hospital with his new baby sister--who is very sick--Michael discovers a strange, sickly, ghost-like man in their run-down garage. Michael takes care of this man, who has wings, by bringing him Chinese food and medicine as often as he can. With the help of a neighbor and new friend, Mina, Michael eventually moves "Skellig" to a  more secret, safer place so he can grow stronger. In this mystical novel there are many unanswered questions that make you think about the story long after it ends.

Turtles All the Way Down

Turtles All the Way Down
By John Green

From the author of A Fault in Our Stars, another heartbreaking story; this one about a teen with a mental health illness. But this book is both a romance and a mystery!
This review is from Publishers Weekly Annex:

Like many of Green's characters, Aza Holmes is whip smart, articulate, and tortured by worry. When she was eight, her father succumbed to a heart attack while mowing the lawn. Now 16, Aza takes meds (irregularly) to treat anxiety, which is manifesting in increasingly self-destructive ways. Her problems amplify when she reconnects with Davis, a boy she met years earlier at "Sad Camp," where both had gone to grieve their recently deceased parents. Now Davis's billionaire father is missing, running from a warrant for his arrest. Aza's best friend Daisy, in a classic sidekick role, pressures Aza to contact Davis, hoping they'll learn something about the disappearance-and maybe get a cut of the $100,000 reward. The reunion leads to romance, until Aza's anxiety won't allow it...