Prairie Lotus

 Prairie Lotus

By Linda Sue Park

I think this book is wonderful! It is a compelling, interesting story, and also tackles some big issues that were relevant in 1880 and are still very relevant today.

Hanna and her father move across the West from Los Angeles, landing in a tiny town called LaForge, in Dakota Territory. Hanna's mother, who died a few years prior, was half Chinese and half Korean, while her dad is white. In LaForge in 1880 there are no other Asians, and Hanna faces racism from the white townspeople. She notices American Indians facing similar injustices.

But Hanna is determined and strong, standing up for herself and committed to helping her dad establish a successful dress-making shop in town.

This story counters Laura Ingalls Wilder's popular "Little House" books, contributing a rich new perspective in historical fiction.

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)

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!

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...

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!

Wishtree

Wishtree

By Katherine Applegate

This is a sweet and funny but also very poignant tale of a changing neighborhood, told from the perspective of a 216-year-old oak tree named Red.
After a new family--who happens to be Muslim--moves into the neighborhood, a vandal carves a mean-spirited "Leave" into the tree's trunk. Red and their animal companions try to help the new family feel more acceptance by coming up with an action plan or two (or three) that involves some real creativity!  

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
By Chris Grabenstein

This is a fun and unusual adventure, perfect for puzzle and secret code lovers!
Set in a fantastic new high-tech library designed by famous game master extraordinaire Mr. Luigi Lemoncello, a group of kids must solve puzzles and follow clues to get out of the library and win the incredible prize being offered!
I think I read somewhere that this book is kind of a cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Mr. Lemoncello seems inspired by Willy Wonka, for sure) and The Hunger Games...but takes place in a library...
If you enjoy it, there are several sequels too.

Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again
By Thanhha Lai

This is a beautiful story, in verse, of coming to the United States from Vietnam just at the end of the war, in 1975.
Ten-year-old Ha, along with her mom and three brothers, flees Saigon and survives a harrowing boat ride--eventually ending up in Alabama. There, she struggles to be included in school and learn English while suffering the intolerance and racism of many neighbors and schoolmates.
Stepping into Ha's shoes, we can understand how it feels to have to start over from scratch, leave one home behind and build another, and the power of kindness and compassion.

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.  

Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf
by Ryan Graudin

Wolf by Wolf was hard to put down!
Set in an alternative historical time--Hitler has won World War II and is in power--a girl named Yael has survived brutal treatment and escaped from a Nazi death camp.
Now a teenager, Yael is part of the underground Resistance force, and she has a top secret, very dangerous mission: impersonate a famous German teenager (who happens to be the winner of a prestigious annual motorcycle race) so that she can win the next race, meet Hitler in person, and kill him.
Luckily Yael has some special powers that allow her to "skinshift", the result of horrible human experimentation she underwent as a little girl in the concentration camp.
She can make herself look like anyone.
But that is the easy part...winning the fiercely competitive motorcycle race across the continents, and then figuring out a plan to assassinate Hitler--and escape alive--are two unfathomable challenges she faces.
The sequel to Wolf by Wolf is Blood for Blood...you won't want to miss it!

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.

Cloud and Wallfish

Cloud and Wallfish
By Anne Nesbet

1989, East Berlin, Germany.
The setting of this story may or may not be familiar to readers, but this was the year the Berlin Wall came down--the Wall that divided a city, separated families, distinguished very different governments, all within the same country! This Wall served as a literal Iron Curtain, dividing capitalist systems from communist systems.
Noah Keller, an American kid, travels to East Berlin with his parents who suddenly get official permission to cross the border and do "research". But there are some weird things going on; Noah's parents insist that his age, birthday, home town and even his name must be changed while they are living in East Berlin. There are serious Rules to follow, and Noah learns quickly that the secret police may be listening to anyone's conversations, anywhere.
What is Noah's family really doing there?
What is going on?

The Lie Tree

The Lie Tree
By Frances Hardinge

The Lie Tree is part historical fiction, part fantasy--a mysterious, intriguingly dark story.
Fourteen year-old Faith Sunderly pretends to be a good, quiet girl because that's what is expected of her in Victorian England. But inside she is a gifted natural scientist, determined to win her famous scientist father's attention.
When he is mysteriously murdered, Faith does some detective work on her own. She discovers a fantastic tree her father has been hiding--a tree that feeds off of lies whispered to it in the dark. In order to learn more, and perhaps unable to resist the power of this strange specimen, Faith begins to spread her own lies. However, this becomes more dangerous that she ever could have imagined...