Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky 

By Remy Lai

I really enjoyed this interesting story of a boy who moves with his mom and little brother to a new country, where he doesn't know the language or have any friends.
Jingwen (age 12) loves to bake, and by planning and secretly baking elaborate cakes he copes with all of the strangeness of his new home. Making cakes also allows him to grieve for his father, who died before he could open the bakery of his dreams.
This story is told partly through cartoons and other pictures, which comically illustrate how Jingwen feels like he is living on another planet!

I am Alfonso Jones

I am Alfonso Jones
By Tony Medina
Illustrated by Stacey Robinson & John Jennings

I read this graphic novel for a book club--it is a powerful, intense story. This description is from Library Journal: 

Alfonso's playing Hamlet's ghost-father in his school's hip-hop version of the play while hoping for a second role as Danetta's boyfriend. But buying his first suit, he becomes a real ghost when a police officer mistakes a coat hanger for a weapon and shoots him. In the afterlife, he awakens in a subway train among other ghosts, who share their own experiences with police brutality. A gut-punching trip into a Black Lives Matter story, with black-and-white art.

(January 1, 2018)

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...

Far from the Tree

Far from the Tree
By Robin Benway

Oh, this book is so good!
There are three main teenage characters in this wonderful novel, and the chapters alternate between each of their stories: Grace, Maya and Joaquin are siblings who have just discovered each other because each was given up for adoption as a baby or small child. Now they are learning what it means to be reconnected, to be family. And each is stronger because of the connection.

• Grace has already had a baby of her own--at age 16--and chosen to give her baby to loving, adoptive parents. Her own adoptive parents have given her the love and support necessary to make such a hard decision.

• Maya, also adopted into a loving and supportive family, struggles to understand her mother's alcoholism. Her little sister and her supportive girlfriend provide help and support, especially when a bad accident happens at home.

• Joaquin was never adopted. He spent his whole childhood in foster homes, some better than others...But finally he lives with foster parents who want to adopt him--he just needs to figure out if he is brave enough to accept their love.  

*This novel just won the 2017 National Book Award!

Refugee

Refugee
By Alan Gratz

We hear a lot about refugees in the news--all over the world people choose to leave their homes or are forced from their homes because of war and other violence, unfair government, religious beliefs, or ethnicity.
In Refugee, Alan Gratz tells the stories of three children and their families: Josef, fleeing from Nazi Germany in the 1930s; Isabel, fleeing Cuba in 1994; and Mahmoud, fleeing Syria in 2015. Each of the journeys is dangerous and terrifying, heartbreaking and true-to-life.
Although the three main characters live in different time periods in history and travel in separate parts of the world, their alternating stories overlap in surprising ways.
Get ready to read this powerful book quickly, because it is hard to put down. And get ready to have a fuller understanding of what people are able to endure and overcome, everyday. 

Mockingbird

Mockingbird
By Kathryn Erskine

Caitlin has Asperger's syndrome.
Along with her grieving dad, she is trying to make sense of her older brother's death in a senseless and tragic school shooting.
When she learns about the word "closure" and looks it up in the dictionary (Caitlin loves words, and dictionaries) she realizes this is what she and her dad need to help them feel better.
With the support of an understanding school counselor, Caitlin works to overcome some of her fears and challenges so she and her dad can move forward after the tragedy they have experienced.
Mockingbird, like Out of My Mind, is a beautiful story that allows the reader to really step into the shoes of someone who may be experiencing life in a very different way.  

Lily and Dunkin

Lily and Dunkin
By Donna Gephart

Told through alternating characters/voices, Lily and Dunkin relates the story of two eighth graders dealing with some difficult stuff:
Lily Jo, known to most of her family and school as Timothy, is transgender and weighing her desire to come out as a girl with the consequences of serious bullying at school. And her Dad is having difficulty in coming to terms with his child's true identity.
Dunkin, known to his family and school as Norbert (a name he hates) has just moved to town after a family tragedy. He's struggling with bipolar disorder, and experimenting with being on and off of his prescription medication.
Each of the characters longs to connect with the other but circumstances dictate otherwise, for a while...Ultimately, Lily and Dunkin find the strength each needs to be brave enough to be friends, and to be who they really are.
Make sure you have some tissues handy as you near the end of this heartbreaking and heartwarming book!

Fallout

Fallout
By Todd Strasser

What if the Russian government had actually launched a nuclear bomb at the United States in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
During those scary years, some people--like author Todd Strasser's own family--actually dug out bomb shelters under their homes and stocked them with food, emergency supplies, and water. But what would it really be like to spend two weeks underground, surviving an attack? Especially if there were too many people for the shelter, and too few supplies...
Strasser explores this scenario in Fallout, a fictionalized account of survival during the worst WHAT IF? you might be able to imagine.
This is a pretty dark story, but a good one...it's a page-turner, and one that really questions the logic of building and keeping nuclear weapons in the world.

Outrun the Moon

Outrun the Moon
By Stacey Lee

Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong will win you over with her spunky attitude, strength, sense of humor, and determination. And she will need all of that and more to survive San Francisco's 1906 earthquake; not only does Mercy face the destruction of her city and beloved Chinatown neighborhood, but she faces discrimination at being a girl AND as a Chinese American.
Against all odds, Mercy talks her way into a private, elite girls school because she's convinced it is her only ticket to becoming the businesswoman she wants to be...but the Great Quake shakes up her plans and brings many unexpected connections, along with devastation and tragedy.
I could not put this book down!

To This Day

To This Day
By Shane Koyczan

To This Day is a spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan, beautifully illustrated in this powerful book by 30 different artists from around the world.
The video of Koyczan's poem about bullying--and being bullied himself--went viral on the internet in 2013. It is moving and inspiring.

Chained

Chained 
By Lynn Kelly

In northern India, Hastin lives with his mother and younger sister in a small village. After his sister contracts a serious illness from mosquitoes, Hastin decides to leave home to work off his family's debt for the hospital bill. Unfortunately, the circus master who "hires" Hastin has no intention of actually paying him anything, and treats him terribly. Hastin's job as the elephant keeper for a baby elephant he helped trap is the only thing that provides any comfort; he and the elephant develop a strong bond, and protect each other from the cruelty of the awful circus master.
Hastin must escape and get back to his home--but he can't leave the young elephant at the circus...he must figure out a way to save them both. It seems impossible!
A real page-turner for animal lovers.

Gracefully Grayson

Gracefully Grayson
By Ami Polonsky

Grayson appears to be a regular 6th grade boy--but inside, for as long as she can remember, Grayson has felt much more like a girl.
And she is dying to dress and act and be who she really is, and to let everyone else know too...but major obstacles stand in her way--misunderstanding, teasing, bullying.
A compassionate teacher boldly gives Grayson the lead role of Persephone in the school play, and this causes upheaval in the school community and within Grayson's own family. An understanding uncle also helps pave the way for Grayson to gain the courage and confidence to finally show the world who she really is: a girl.

Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s
By Holly Goldberg Sloan

I believe this is one of my favorite books, ever.
It is hard to imagine a novel that begins with a tragedy, is all about the agonizing process of grief, and somehow also makes the reader laugh out loud.
That is what Holly Goldberg Sloan has created--a beautiful, heart-wrenching and humorous story of a genius middle school girl dealing with the worst thing that has ever happened.
The quirky, eventually-lovable characters in this book are full of spirit but have real-life flaws and problems...they work together to make the impossible happen!
I love that the setting is Bakersfield, California, too.

Ninth Ward

Ninth Ward
By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Lanesha sees ghosts--all around her neighborhood in New Orleans, including her own mama who died giving birth to her. Growing up with her adopted grandmother, Mama Ya-Ya, Lanesha has become comfortable with the ghosts and even appreciates their company.
When Hurricane Katrina hits the city, Lanesha needs to be stronger than she's ever been, drawing on all the skills and knowledge Mama Ya-Ya has taught her over the past 12 years. Even the ghosts are called upon to help out as Lanesah, Mama Ya-Ya, a neighbor boy and their dog end up in a serious survival situation: the Mississippi River flooding into their home and the waters are rising and rising...
This is an intense book based on the real events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park
By Rainbow Rowell

For Valentine's Day I thought I'd treat myself to a love story; my librarian friend Chalida told me, "this one will tear you apart!" so I picked it up...and couldn't put it down! And she was so right.

The alternating voices of high school juniors Eleanor and Park tell a magnificent love story. Eleanor, proud and stoic, puts up with bullying at school and at home, while Park appears to have it all. Who would have thought they would fall in love with each other on the school bus--a true, deep love--and who would have thought there would be such a beautiful book that captures every single feeling?

Sigh....

The One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan

By Katherine Applegate

Just finished this one last night...sniffling, wiping my eyes a little, I'll admit. I can understand why it was selected for a Newberry medal.
Told simply but powerfully, from the perspective of a gorilla locked in a cage (for 27 years!) in a shopping mall, this novel is based--sadly--on a true story.
But author Katherine Applegate gives Ivan some special friends to keep him company in her story, including a stray dog and a couple of amazing elephants...and Ivan, who is a dedicated artist, really perseveres against all odds.

Bluefish

Bluefish
By Pat Schmatz

Travis is in middle school and can't read.
He's just moved to a new town with his alcoholic grandpa, and is missing like crazy his beloved old dog, Rosco, who disappeared just before the move. School and life feel unbearable a lot of the time--until he meets Velveeta.

Full of spirit and life, Velveeta basically forces Travis into a friendship that they both need. Velveeta, with sad secrets of her own, helps Travis find the strength he needs to learn to read.

With the support of a really great teacher, Mr. McQueen, and a geeky misfit named Bradley, both Velveeta and Travis find ways to stand up to the difficulties in their lives.

This book is a nominee for the 2014-2015 California Young Reader Medal (CYRM)...I hope it wins!

Caminar

Caminar
By Skila Brown

April is National Poetry Month, a perfect time to read a book written entirely in free-verse poetry!

Caminar is an intense, moving story of a Guatemalan boy, Carlos, who flees into the jungle when his remote village is attacked by the Guatemalan military. From his hiding place, Carlos hears his neighbors and family being massacred.

He survives alone until he meets a small band of guerrillas--a rebel group, striving to overcome the military soldiers--heading toward a mountain camp. Not understanding the reasons for the war happening in his country, Carlos grapples with who he should trust, and what responsibilities he must now have.

In beautiful language, the author focuses on the results of the violence on small, rural villages during the horrible Civil War in Guatemala in the 1980's. Although this story is fictionalized, it is in many ways an accurate account of what really happened during that time, and the recovery afterward--that continues in Guatemala to this day.