Beyond Me*; Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe*; Raven Jacobs Saves the Planet*; The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry*; Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?*; Consider the Octopus*; The Secret Language of Birds*; Song for a Whale*; Singing with Elephants*; The Star Outside My Window*; Hatchet; A Rover’s Story*; Shift*; Make a Little Wave*; With Just One Wing*; The Secret of the Dragon Gems*; Iceberg*; Saving Wonder; Willa and the Whale*; The Line Tender; Two Degrees; Me and Marvin Gardens; Finding Wonders; Ninth Ward*;
Jumper*; Paradise on Fire*; Up from the Sea*; Force of Nature*; Your Heart-My Sky*; Wings in the Wild*; Flooded*; An Inconvenient Truth; Flight Behavior;
Hoot; Forest Has a Song (picture and poetry book); Great Gusts* (picture and poetry book); Squirm; Flush; Scat; Chomp
[*titles reviewed below]
Reading about nature and the natural environment through stories inspires an appreciation of nature and our natural environments, brings about awareness of the natural world—and the problems that we now face, and teaches readers about the many aspects of nature. These books, and others like them, can be employed in science classes, reading in book clubs where readers can discuss what they learn about science— geology; animals, the oceans and marine life, birds; weather; natural disasters; astronomy and space; forests and other natural habitats—with their peers, in English-Language Arts classes, or in interdisciplinary units between the two subjects while reading a good story.
I read and recommend all the books pictured; below are reviews of my most recently-read.
[More reviews coming soon]
A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga
Two rovers, one little drone, a bossy satellite, two empathetic scientists, and an adolescent girl, all involved in one mission.
Resilience, named by a sixth grader, was built to be a Mars Rover, to search Mars for another rover that had gone off-line years ago and for signs of water and life. Being trained and tested in the lab with his two hazmats (Res’ name for the humans wearing hazmat suits), Rania and Xander, he is learning, and maybe even feeling, human emotions—belief, hope, trust, and, later, fear, worry, surprise, and love, not necessarily a good thing.
As fellow rover Journey tells him, “We are built to be logical. To make calculated decisions. You could say that is the opposite of human feelings.… Resilience, don’t you understand that human feelings are dangerous? They make humans make poor decisions. You see, humans have attachments. And because of their attachments and their feelings, they do things that are dangerous. We were built to avoid the problems of humans. We were built to make good decisions.” (43-44)
When Res meets his drone, whom he names Fly, they become quite a team—planning, exploring, and singing nursery rhymes together. And they make it to Mars. “I am a rover who has made it to Mars! And I am a rover who can rove on Mars.” (154) Res wants to “wow” Rania and Xander and make discoveries important enough to earn his very expensive return to Earth. On Mars, Res and Fly meet Guardian, a very logical satellite, and despite her counsel, they take risks to fulfill their mission on what proves to be a dangerous and hostile environment.
“I am looking for something that will prove that I am a worthy rover.
I think of Journey, and how Journey once told me that the hazmats [humans] sent us to Mars because we are rational, unlike them. Because we do not have attachments, unlike them.
But I have attachments.
I am attached to Rania. I am attached to Xander. I am even attached to Journey.
And that is why I am pushing forward.” (246)
“Resilience” is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences. I have written frequently about characters—girls and boys—who are resilient, but there has been none that are more resilience than Res, the rover.
Readers follow Res’ journey (and fall in love with the little guy) through his first-person narratives and the letters of Sophie, Rania’s daughter who ages from 12 to 17 and then (waiting for Res' return) to 33-years-old during the rover’s adventures on Earth and Mars. Readers also learn quite a bit about rovers, Mars, scientific process, and space exploration. This would be a good read-aloud for younger kids because of the short chapters and sometimes challenging vocabulary and an add to a science curriculum on space.
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Two rovers, one little drone, a bossy satellite, two empathetic scientists, and an adolescent girl, all involved in one mission.
Resilience, named by a sixth grader, was built to be a Mars Rover, to search Mars for another rover that had gone off-line years ago and for signs of water and life. Being trained and tested in the lab with his two hazmats (Res’ name for the humans wearing hazmat suits), Rania and Xander, he is learning, and maybe even feeling, human emotions—belief, hope, trust, and, later, fear, worry, surprise, and love, not necessarily a good thing.
As fellow rover Journey tells him, “We are built to be logical. To make calculated decisions. You could say that is the opposite of human feelings.… Resilience, don’t you understand that human feelings are dangerous? They make humans make poor decisions. You see, humans have attachments. And because of their attachments and their feelings, they do things that are dangerous. We were built to avoid the problems of humans. We were built to make good decisions.” (43-44)
When Res meets his drone, whom he names Fly, they become quite a team—planning, exploring, and singing nursery rhymes together. And they make it to Mars. “I am a rover who has made it to Mars! And I am a rover who can rove on Mars.” (154) Res wants to “wow” Rania and Xander and make discoveries important enough to earn his very expensive return to Earth. On Mars, Res and Fly meet Guardian, a very logical satellite, and despite her counsel, they take risks to fulfill their mission on what proves to be a dangerous and hostile environment.
“I am looking for something that will prove that I am a worthy rover.
I think of Journey, and how Journey once told me that the hazmats [humans] sent us to Mars because we are rational, unlike them. Because we do not have attachments, unlike them.
But I have attachments.
I am attached to Rania. I am attached to Xander. I am even attached to Journey.
And that is why I am pushing forward.” (246)
“Resilience” is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences. I have written frequently about characters—girls and boys—who are resilient, but there has been none that are more resilience than Res, the rover.
Readers follow Res’ journey (and fall in love with the little guy) through his first-person narratives and the letters of Sophie, Rania’s daughter who ages from 12 to 17 and then (waiting for Res' return) to 33-years-old during the rover’s adventures on Earth and Mars. Readers also learn quite a bit about rovers, Mars, scientific process, and space exploration. This would be a good read-aloud for younger kids because of the short chapters and sometimes challenging vocabulary and an add to a science curriculum on space.
----------
Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor
You’re having a new kind of year.” Mr. Menkis says it for me. ”Treat yourself sweetly, Aurora. Change happens. It’s the world’s number one constant.” (66)
Sixth-grader Aurora Petrequin has known Frenchie Livernois since the beginning of third grade when he and his mother rented their next-door house. The best friends are inseparable and opposite. Frenchie has autism and doesn’t speak—at all; Aurora is loud and talks impulsively—all the time. Together they explore nature—Frenchie obsessed with birds, Auruora with rocks, especially finding a tourmaline, a mineral produced in areas of her native Maine.
Aurora has no trouble understanding Frenchie and interpreting his body language, and one goal she has is to help others see him. When Sheree of Troviosity gifts Frenchie with an expensive Audubon print of a nuthatch for his bird print collection, Aurora says, “Thanks for seeing him.” (99)
But then sixth grade arrives, and for the first time Frenchie is in a different class and has a new aide, Mr. Menkis. Aurora panics, “Mom! Pop! Gracia! There’s a mess-up of all mess-ups here! Frenchie and I got put in different classes.” (3) And another change is that two new students move to her school and class and, for the first time, besides Frenchie, Aurora has friends.
When Frenchie disappears one day, Aurora panics and feels guilty for not walking him to his room that morning. While they search for Frenchie, Aurora examines everything she knows about him. As she tells Joanie and Leena, “Frenchie doesn’t get lost.… He gets me unlost. Like a human compass.” (86)
But one day turns into two. “I’m thinking about Frenchie. Best Days. Like, when Cedar came home. And family dinners and pancake Sundays. Bird hounding and rock hounding, and me cheering Frenchie on the day he learned to float. Him going along with me, the times we trailed the piebald deer. And him knowing the way home. Having a true friend—the thing I am aching for this morning. (265)
And this is truly a story about friendship. It is not about neurodiversity; it is not about nature (although nature is a catalyst and a bond between Frenchie and Aurora and between many of the townspeople), it is first and foremost about the power and symbiotic relationship of friendship like no novel I have every read.
As the town gathers and comes together to look for Frenchie, adding more and more people to the search, people who remember meeting Frenchie with Aurora, people begin to see Frenchie, “[Aurora’s] bird-loving, no-talk, very best friend.” (321)
A story told in multiple viewpoints for all upper elementary and middle school readers offering adventure, mystery, nature, characters of all ages from baby Cedar to adults who sometimes surprise us, and heart.
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You’re having a new kind of year.” Mr. Menkis says it for me. ”Treat yourself sweetly, Aurora. Change happens. It’s the world’s number one constant.” (66)
Sixth-grader Aurora Petrequin has known Frenchie Livernois since the beginning of third grade when he and his mother rented their next-door house. The best friends are inseparable and opposite. Frenchie has autism and doesn’t speak—at all; Aurora is loud and talks impulsively—all the time. Together they explore nature—Frenchie obsessed with birds, Auruora with rocks, especially finding a tourmaline, a mineral produced in areas of her native Maine.
Aurora has no trouble understanding Frenchie and interpreting his body language, and one goal she has is to help others see him. When Sheree of Troviosity gifts Frenchie with an expensive Audubon print of a nuthatch for his bird print collection, Aurora says, “Thanks for seeing him.” (99)
But then sixth grade arrives, and for the first time Frenchie is in a different class and has a new aide, Mr. Menkis. Aurora panics, “Mom! Pop! Gracia! There’s a mess-up of all mess-ups here! Frenchie and I got put in different classes.” (3) And another change is that two new students move to her school and class and, for the first time, besides Frenchie, Aurora has friends.
When Frenchie disappears one day, Aurora panics and feels guilty for not walking him to his room that morning. While they search for Frenchie, Aurora examines everything she knows about him. As she tells Joanie and Leena, “Frenchie doesn’t get lost.… He gets me unlost. Like a human compass.” (86)
But one day turns into two. “I’m thinking about Frenchie. Best Days. Like, when Cedar came home. And family dinners and pancake Sundays. Bird hounding and rock hounding, and me cheering Frenchie on the day he learned to float. Him going along with me, the times we trailed the piebald deer. And him knowing the way home. Having a true friend—the thing I am aching for this morning. (265)
And this is truly a story about friendship. It is not about neurodiversity; it is not about nature (although nature is a catalyst and a bond between Frenchie and Aurora and between many of the townspeople), it is first and foremost about the power and symbiotic relationship of friendship like no novel I have every read.
As the town gathers and comes together to look for Frenchie, adding more and more people to the search, people who remember meeting Frenchie with Aurora, people begin to see Frenchie, “[Aurora’s] bird-loving, no-talk, very best friend.” (321)
A story told in multiple viewpoints for all upper elementary and middle school readers offering adventure, mystery, nature, characters of all ages from baby Cedar to adults who sometimes surprise us, and heart.
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Beyond Me by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake, the strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, shook northeastern Japan, unleashing a savage tsunami. More than 5,000 aftershocks hit Japan in the year after the earthquake. The tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant resulting in the release of radioactive materials. (LiveScience.com and National Geographic.org)
Beyond Me is one story of this tragedy. Fifth-grader Maya lives in Japan with her American mother and Japanese father, grandmother, and great grandfather. On March 9, 2011, at the end of their school year, her class feels an earthquake, different from earthquakes they have experienced before.
On March 11th at 7:44am the “earth shudders.” Beginning at 2:46pm an earthquake struck the eastern coast “so strong it pushed Japan’s main island eastward, created a massive tsunami, and slashed the eastern coastline in size.” (89) And even though Maya’s family lives miles from the tsunami, they are affected, and Maya is terrified. She chronicles the 24 days after the earthquake, sometimes minute by minute, as she shares her thoughts and feelings over what is happening in her house, her town, and, through the news, the people of Northeast Japan. The house shakes, food is rationed, and transportation has stopped, but she and her family are safe.
Readers see Maya overcome her fears and reach out with her mother and father to help those most affected by the disaster. She and Yuka fold paper cranes and ask for sunflowers seeds to plant, and Maya writes notes to the “People of the Northeast.” Maya continues journaling for 113 days after she and her best friend plant sunflower seeds on her grandparents’ farm, strengthening and helping to heal Earth as the mug she put back together with lacquer and gold dust.
Through free verse, timelines, and creative word placements readers take this journey with Maya as they learn a lot about nature and the effects of earthquakes.
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On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake, the strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, shook northeastern Japan, unleashing a savage tsunami. More than 5,000 aftershocks hit Japan in the year after the earthquake. The tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant resulting in the release of radioactive materials. (LiveScience.com and National Geographic.org)
Beyond Me is one story of this tragedy. Fifth-grader Maya lives in Japan with her American mother and Japanese father, grandmother, and great grandfather. On March 9, 2011, at the end of their school year, her class feels an earthquake, different from earthquakes they have experienced before.
On March 11th at 7:44am the “earth shudders.” Beginning at 2:46pm an earthquake struck the eastern coast “so strong it pushed Japan’s main island eastward, created a massive tsunami, and slashed the eastern coastline in size.” (89) And even though Maya’s family lives miles from the tsunami, they are affected, and Maya is terrified. She chronicles the 24 days after the earthquake, sometimes minute by minute, as she shares her thoughts and feelings over what is happening in her house, her town, and, through the news, the people of Northeast Japan. The house shakes, food is rationed, and transportation has stopped, but she and her family are safe.
Readers see Maya overcome her fears and reach out with her mother and father to help those most affected by the disaster. She and Yuka fold paper cranes and ask for sunflowers seeds to plant, and Maya writes notes to the “People of the Northeast.” Maya continues journaling for 113 days after she and her best friend plant sunflower seeds on her grandparents’ farm, strengthening and helping to heal Earth as the mug she put back together with lacquer and gold dust.
Through free verse, timelines, and creative word placements readers take this journey with Maya as they learn a lot about nature and the effects of earthquakes.
-----------
Consider the Octopus by Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner
“Consider the octopus, dude, duh,” I say out loud to myself because sometimes it helps to talk to someone. “That part is the important part. The octopus.” (88)
And the pink octopus avatar starts the chain of events which lead 12-year-old Sydney Miller (not marine biologist Dr. Sydney Miller of the Monterey Bay Aquarium) and her goldfish Rachel Carson to Oceana II, a ship researching the Great PGP.
When seventh-grader Jeremy JB Barnes, under the custody of his recently-divorced mother, chief scientist of the Oceana II, finds himself accompanying her on her mission “to sweep and vacuum up approximately eighty-eight thousand tons of garbage” called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, he was less than enthusiastic. “I like the ocean plenty from the beach.”
Until the high school SEAmester students arrive, he is the only adolescent on board. But tasked with the job of inviting well-known scientists to the join them, JB inadvertently sends the invitation to the wrong Sydney Miller who jumps at the chance, looking for something to do this summer now that her best and only friend has moved away. Sydney and her grandmother agree, “It’s synchronicity” (91), the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. “What psychologist Carl Jung called ‘meaningful coincidences’…” (228) However, “These signs we see all the time, the universe, these coincidences that we give meaning? They only work if we want them to…” (12)
And Sydney and Jeremy want these signs to work. Hiding Sydney on the ship, sometimes in plain sight with the help of two of the SEAmster girls, Sydney and JB hatch a plan to bring about the publicity the mission needs to retains its grant. “Maybe we’re here because we’re supposed to be here. Maybe the two of us are supposed to do something really important.” (144)
When you put two of my favorite authors together, what do readers get? A fun, important adventure with engaging characters who present two voices, representing two perspectives, and who show that, according to news reporter Damian Jacks, “Mark my words: kids and our youth. That’s who’s going to really help change things..… Kids, not adults, are the future of our planet.” (171)
And there is a lot of science and information about the polluting of the oceans. “It’s amazing how many people still don’t know how much waste—garbage,” she corrects herself, “is floating in the middle of the Pacific.” (226)
Readers learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and its importance to our environment. Besides the garbage that is killing sea life—birds and fish, this affects all of us.
“Because every drop of water we have, all of it, circles around, evaporates into the sky, and comes back down as rain, or mist, or snow. It sinks into the ground and fills rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and the well in my backyard.
Water I shower with. Cook with.
And drink.
No new water is ever made.
This is all we’ve got.” (167)
----------
“Consider the octopus, dude, duh,” I say out loud to myself because sometimes it helps to talk to someone. “That part is the important part. The octopus.” (88)
And the pink octopus avatar starts the chain of events which lead 12-year-old Sydney Miller (not marine biologist Dr. Sydney Miller of the Monterey Bay Aquarium) and her goldfish Rachel Carson to Oceana II, a ship researching the Great PGP.
When seventh-grader Jeremy JB Barnes, under the custody of his recently-divorced mother, chief scientist of the Oceana II, finds himself accompanying her on her mission “to sweep and vacuum up approximately eighty-eight thousand tons of garbage” called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, he was less than enthusiastic. “I like the ocean plenty from the beach.”
Until the high school SEAmester students arrive, he is the only adolescent on board. But tasked with the job of inviting well-known scientists to the join them, JB inadvertently sends the invitation to the wrong Sydney Miller who jumps at the chance, looking for something to do this summer now that her best and only friend has moved away. Sydney and her grandmother agree, “It’s synchronicity” (91), the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. “What psychologist Carl Jung called ‘meaningful coincidences’…” (228) However, “These signs we see all the time, the universe, these coincidences that we give meaning? They only work if we want them to…” (12)
And Sydney and Jeremy want these signs to work. Hiding Sydney on the ship, sometimes in plain sight with the help of two of the SEAmster girls, Sydney and JB hatch a plan to bring about the publicity the mission needs to retains its grant. “Maybe we’re here because we’re supposed to be here. Maybe the two of us are supposed to do something really important.” (144)
When you put two of my favorite authors together, what do readers get? A fun, important adventure with engaging characters who present two voices, representing two perspectives, and who show that, according to news reporter Damian Jacks, “Mark my words: kids and our youth. That’s who’s going to really help change things..… Kids, not adults, are the future of our planet.” (171)
And there is a lot of science and information about the polluting of the oceans. “It’s amazing how many people still don’t know how much waste—garbage,” she corrects herself, “is floating in the middle of the Pacific.” (226)
Readers learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and its importance to our environment. Besides the garbage that is killing sea life—birds and fish, this affects all of us.
“Because every drop of water we have, all of it, circles around, evaporates into the sky, and comes back down as rain, or mist, or snow. It sinks into the ground and fills rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and the well in my backyard.
Water I shower with. Cook with.
And drink.
No new water is ever made.
This is all we’ve got.” (167)
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Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown by Ann E. Burg
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed. Twenty million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh poured into Johnstown [Pennsylvania] and neighboring communities. More than 2,200 people died, including 99 entire families and 396 children. [Author’s Note] The flood still stands as the second or third deadliest day in U.S. history resulting from a natural calamity.
Richard Peck wrote, “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.” And author Ann E. Burg
introduces readers to individual residents of the town.
We read the stories of fifteen-year-old Joe Dixon who wants to run his own newsstand and marry his Maggie; Gertrude Quinn who tells us about her brother, three sisters, Aunt Abbie, and her father who owns the general store. We come to know Daniel and Monica Fagan. Daniel’s friend Willy, the poet, encouraged by his teacher to write, and George with 3 brothers and 4 sisters who wants to leave school and help support them. We watch the town prepare for the Decoration Day ceremony honoring the war dead.
And after the flood, readers hear from Red Cross nurse Clara Barton, and Ann Jenkins and Nancy Little who brought law suits that found no justice, and a few of the 700 unidentified victims of the flood.
And there are the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club—Andrew Carnegie, Charles J. Clarke, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, Cyrus Elder, and Elias Unger, the wealthy of Pittsburgh who ignored repeated warnings that the dam holding their private lake needed to be repaired so it wouldn't give way. “They don’t care a whit about the likes of us.” (57)
This is a story of class and privilege and those who work tirelessly to make ends meet. As Monica says, “People who have money, who shop at fancy stores and buy pretty things, shouldn’t think they’re better than folks who scrabble and scrounge and go to sleep tired and hungry.” (111)
In free-verse narrative monologues, readers experience the lives of a town and its hard-working, family-oriented inhabitants—people we come to know and love, reluctant to turn the pages leading towards the disaster we know they will encounter. We bear witness to the events as we read and empathy for the plights of the people affected by those events.
----------
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed. Twenty million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh poured into Johnstown [Pennsylvania] and neighboring communities. More than 2,200 people died, including 99 entire families and 396 children. [Author’s Note] The flood still stands as the second or third deadliest day in U.S. history resulting from a natural calamity.
Richard Peck wrote, “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.” And author Ann E. Burg
introduces readers to individual residents of the town.
We read the stories of fifteen-year-old Joe Dixon who wants to run his own newsstand and marry his Maggie; Gertrude Quinn who tells us about her brother, three sisters, Aunt Abbie, and her father who owns the general store. We come to know Daniel and Monica Fagan. Daniel’s friend Willy, the poet, encouraged by his teacher to write, and George with 3 brothers and 4 sisters who wants to leave school and help support them. We watch the town prepare for the Decoration Day ceremony honoring the war dead.
And after the flood, readers hear from Red Cross nurse Clara Barton, and Ann Jenkins and Nancy Little who brought law suits that found no justice, and a few of the 700 unidentified victims of the flood.
And there are the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club—Andrew Carnegie, Charles J. Clarke, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, Cyrus Elder, and Elias Unger, the wealthy of Pittsburgh who ignored repeated warnings that the dam holding their private lake needed to be repaired so it wouldn't give way. “They don’t care a whit about the likes of us.” (57)
This is a story of class and privilege and those who work tirelessly to make ends meet. As Monica says, “People who have money, who shop at fancy stores and buy pretty things, shouldn’t think they’re better than folks who scrabble and scrounge and go to sleep tired and hungry.” (111)
In free-verse narrative monologues, readers experience the lives of a town and its hard-working, family-oriented inhabitants—people we come to know and love, reluctant to turn the pages leading towards the disaster we know they will encounter. We bear witness to the events as we read and empathy for the plights of the people affected by those events.
----------
Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson by Ann E. Burg
Society has a stranglehold
On my dreams.
If only I could change society
And the world! (99)
A biography will tell readers who, what, and where, but this new “novel of Rachel Carson” gives us the “why.” Ann Burg takes readers through the life of Rachel Louise Carson. The first-person narrated novel begins when her mother tells Rachel, “We must always leave nature as we find her.” (Prelude)
Rachel Carson was born in 1907. Readers learn firsthand about her family life—the sister who left high school to marry the boy who then leaves her, the brother who left to join the Army Air Service, the father who abandoned his dreams to peddle insurance to try to save their acreage near the Pittsburgh steel mills, and the mother, a former teacher, who sells fruits and piano lessons and pins all her hopes on Rachel.
Fifth grade Rachel has no school friends, only Candy her dog and the nature that surrounds her. We follow her through school where she acquires her love of poetry and the sea.
When her teacher tells them,
Writers observe things
even small things most people
don’t notice…
A writer sees, listens, and feels.
Most of all, they want to share
What they discover with the world. (25)
Rachel decides that she wants to become a writer and begins writing stories that are published in St. Nicholas Magazine. Marion gives her a notebook and Rachel’s Field Notes become entwined in the novel’s narration.
Marian marries again and Robert returns from WW1 and, in 1925, Rachel begins college at Pennsylvania College for Women where she majors in Composition, still planning to become a writer.
Miss Coff says my writing style
is exemplary—she says my work
has a lyrical quality unexpected
from someone my age.
She has no doubt my dream
of becoming a writer will come true. (59)
But, to her surprise, biology becomes her favorite subject. However, when she decides to change her major, Miss Croff, her advisor, as well as Miss Skinker, her biology professor, advise her to settle for a minor in science, as
There is very little opportunity
For a woman in science. (85)
The power of this book is for teen readers to follow Rachel as she combines her love of science with her gift for writing. After earning her Masters, she secures science jobs with the government (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services) while publishing UNDER THE SEA WIND, THE SEA AROUND US (National Book Award winner), THE EDGE OF THE SEA (Finalist, National Book Award), and her well-known SILENT SPRING (Finalist, National Book Award), which alerted the world to the dangers of the misuse of pesticides, through which
I have given voice
To all the creatures
Of land and water
Who share
Our wounded home. (259-260)
Never forsaking her family, Rachel supports them after her father dies, raises her nieces after the death of her sister, and adopting her grandnephew after her niece dies.
This is the story of a strong, resilient, innovative woman of her time period who can serve as a role model for today’s youth.
----------
Society has a stranglehold
On my dreams.
If only I could change society
And the world! (99)
A biography will tell readers who, what, and where, but this new “novel of Rachel Carson” gives us the “why.” Ann Burg takes readers through the life of Rachel Louise Carson. The first-person narrated novel begins when her mother tells Rachel, “We must always leave nature as we find her.” (Prelude)
Rachel Carson was born in 1907. Readers learn firsthand about her family life—the sister who left high school to marry the boy who then leaves her, the brother who left to join the Army Air Service, the father who abandoned his dreams to peddle insurance to try to save their acreage near the Pittsburgh steel mills, and the mother, a former teacher, who sells fruits and piano lessons and pins all her hopes on Rachel.
Fifth grade Rachel has no school friends, only Candy her dog and the nature that surrounds her. We follow her through school where she acquires her love of poetry and the sea.
When her teacher tells them,
Writers observe things
even small things most people
don’t notice…
A writer sees, listens, and feels.
Most of all, they want to share
What they discover with the world. (25)
Rachel decides that she wants to become a writer and begins writing stories that are published in St. Nicholas Magazine. Marion gives her a notebook and Rachel’s Field Notes become entwined in the novel’s narration.
Marian marries again and Robert returns from WW1 and, in 1925, Rachel begins college at Pennsylvania College for Women where she majors in Composition, still planning to become a writer.
Miss Coff says my writing style
is exemplary—she says my work
has a lyrical quality unexpected
from someone my age.
She has no doubt my dream
of becoming a writer will come true. (59)
But, to her surprise, biology becomes her favorite subject. However, when she decides to change her major, Miss Croff, her advisor, as well as Miss Skinker, her biology professor, advise her to settle for a minor in science, as
There is very little opportunity
For a woman in science. (85)
The power of this book is for teen readers to follow Rachel as she combines her love of science with her gift for writing. After earning her Masters, she secures science jobs with the government (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services) while publishing UNDER THE SEA WIND, THE SEA AROUND US (National Book Award winner), THE EDGE OF THE SEA (Finalist, National Book Award), and her well-known SILENT SPRING (Finalist, National Book Award), which alerted the world to the dangers of the misuse of pesticides, through which
I have given voice
To all the creatures
Of land and water
Who share
Our wounded home. (259-260)
Never forsaking her family, Rachel supports them after her father dies, raises her nieces after the death of her sister, and adopting her grandnephew after her niece dies.
This is the story of a strong, resilient, innovative woman of her time period who can serve as a role model for today’s youth.
----------
Great Gusts by Melanie Crowder and Megan Benedict (illustrated by Khoa Lee)
“Listen
while the wind whispers
its name.”
Great Gusts, as the subtitle professes, does teach readers about “Winds of the World and the Science Behind Them.” The information is written in lyrical poetry by co-authors Melanie Crowder and Megan Benedict and beautifully illustrated by Khoa Le. The bottom of the page of each poem gives the geography of the wind and the scientific explanation. The back of the book contains
Readers visit such divergent areas as South Africa, Antarctica, the Mediterranean, British Columbia, Japan, and Hawaii and learn about such winds as the Oroshi, the Hawk, Sudestada, and the Willy-Willy—fourteen in all—through different types of poems (some following the traditional patterns of the regions of the winds), onomatopoeia, rhyme, and clever grammatical constructs.
A picture book for all ages and for Science, Geography, English-Language Arts (as a mentor text for writing), and even Art classrooms.
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“Listen
while the wind whispers
its name.”
Great Gusts, as the subtitle professes, does teach readers about “Winds of the World and the Science Behind Them.” The information is written in lyrical poetry by co-authors Melanie Crowder and Megan Benedict and beautifully illustrated by Khoa Le. The bottom of the page of each poem gives the geography of the wind and the scientific explanation. The back of the book contains
- additional information on what makes the wind
- how winds are named
- an explanation of regional poetic traditions employed
- a map showing the winds around the world
- a glossary
- further reading suggestions
Readers visit such divergent areas as South Africa, Antarctica, the Mediterranean, British Columbia, Japan, and Hawaii and learn about such winds as the Oroshi, the Hawk, Sudestada, and the Willy-Willy—fourteen in all—through different types of poems (some following the traditional patterns of the regions of the winds), onomatopoeia, rhyme, and clever grammatical constructs.
A picture book for all ages and for Science, Geography, English-Language Arts (as a mentor text for writing), and even Art classrooms.
----------
Iceberg by Jennifer A. Nielsen
“So I’d begun to work hard and to sacrifice what I wanted for what my family needed. I’d learned to be bold and to take risks when necessary. That’s what had kept my family going for the past two years. It’s how I would help them now.” (45)
Many of us know, or think we know, a lot about the Titanic, but Jennifer Nielsen lets us travel on the Titanic and learn about the tragedy through the eyes of twelve-year-old future journalist Hazel Rothbury, a stowaway third-class passenger. Hers is one story out of 2,224; one survivor out of 705.
Hazel didn’t mean to stow away. After her father’s death at sea, her mother was sending her to America to work in a factory with her aunt to support, and save, the family at home. When the money she had was not enough for a ticket, Hazel stows away, eventually with the help of Charlie Blight, a young porter also supporting his family. Hazel is also befriended by Sylvia, a girl in first class, much to the consternation of Sylvia’s governess.
Hazel had done her research on the Titanic, but when she overhears that there is a fire on the ship, she realizes how little she—and the other passengers—actually know and her questions grow. As she illicitly traverses the ship, talking with crew and passengers, she fills her notebook with questions and answers, hoping to sell a story when she arrives in New York and become a journalist rather than a factory worker. Her questions, and her doubts about the safety of the unsinkable Titanic, grow as she leans about single and double hulls, coal fires, the different types of icebergs and how they are discerned, Morse Code, and, most important, refraction.
In the midst of all this, Hazel becomes embroiled in a mystery. Is there a devious plot that will harm her new friend Sylvia? Her new, older friend Mrs. Abelman? Just who are the villains, what are they up to, and why do they wish her harm.
Readers learn much more about the Titanic, the passengers, their activities, the on-board class system—and the tragedy that sent 2/3 of the passengers and crews to their deaths and the heroes that helped 1/3 to survive. They learn such eye-opening facts that while the Titanic could have carried 64 lifeboats., it only carried 20, 18 of which were launched with passengers but with 472 empty seats. (299)
----------
“So I’d begun to work hard and to sacrifice what I wanted for what my family needed. I’d learned to be bold and to take risks when necessary. That’s what had kept my family going for the past two years. It’s how I would help them now.” (45)
Many of us know, or think we know, a lot about the Titanic, but Jennifer Nielsen lets us travel on the Titanic and learn about the tragedy through the eyes of twelve-year-old future journalist Hazel Rothbury, a stowaway third-class passenger. Hers is one story out of 2,224; one survivor out of 705.
Hazel didn’t mean to stow away. After her father’s death at sea, her mother was sending her to America to work in a factory with her aunt to support, and save, the family at home. When the money she had was not enough for a ticket, Hazel stows away, eventually with the help of Charlie Blight, a young porter also supporting his family. Hazel is also befriended by Sylvia, a girl in first class, much to the consternation of Sylvia’s governess.
Hazel had done her research on the Titanic, but when she overhears that there is a fire on the ship, she realizes how little she—and the other passengers—actually know and her questions grow. As she illicitly traverses the ship, talking with crew and passengers, she fills her notebook with questions and answers, hoping to sell a story when she arrives in New York and become a journalist rather than a factory worker. Her questions, and her doubts about the safety of the unsinkable Titanic, grow as she leans about single and double hulls, coal fires, the different types of icebergs and how they are discerned, Morse Code, and, most important, refraction.
In the midst of all this, Hazel becomes embroiled in a mystery. Is there a devious plot that will harm her new friend Sylvia? Her new, older friend Mrs. Abelman? Just who are the villains, what are they up to, and why do they wish her harm.
Readers learn much more about the Titanic, the passengers, their activities, the on-board class system—and the tragedy that sent 2/3 of the passengers and crews to their deaths and the heroes that helped 1/3 to survive. They learn such eye-opening facts that while the Titanic could have carried 64 lifeboats., it only carried 20, 18 of which were launched with passengers but with 472 empty seats. (299)
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Jumper by Melanie Crowder
Blair Scott has a passion – firefighting. She has a goal—to become a smoke jumper even though she is only 19 years old. But Blair also has a secret—she has Type 1 Diabetes, a condition which could keep her from reaching her goal.
Luckily, Blair has an aunt, a biomedical engineer, who has physically trained her to withstand and adapt to strenuous conditions and has modified her diabetes equipment and a Smart watch to monitor her. And she has Jason, her best friend, who follows her when, in exceptionally active fire year, they are both accepted into U.S. Forest Service smokejumper training.
Blair feels she has to take risks and prove herself as, not only a young recruit, but especially as a woman.
This is a novel of adventure, danger, courage, passion, friendships, support, grief, and, most of all, the power of fire. Well-researched, the novel provides a vast amount of information about wildfire and firefighting training and protocols and will appeal to many teen readers.
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Blair Scott has a passion – firefighting. She has a goal—to become a smoke jumper even though she is only 19 years old. But Blair also has a secret—she has Type 1 Diabetes, a condition which could keep her from reaching her goal.
Luckily, Blair has an aunt, a biomedical engineer, who has physically trained her to withstand and adapt to strenuous conditions and has modified her diabetes equipment and a Smart watch to monitor her. And she has Jason, her best friend, who follows her when, in exceptionally active fire year, they are both accepted into U.S. Forest Service smokejumper training.
Blair feels she has to take risks and prove herself as, not only a young recruit, but especially as a woman.
This is a novel of adventure, danger, courage, passion, friendships, support, grief, and, most of all, the power of fire. Well-researched, the novel provides a vast amount of information about wildfire and firefighting training and protocols and will appeal to many teen readers.
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Make a Little Wave by Kerry O'Malley Cerra
“One girl can’t save all the sharks in the ocean. But I’m not giving up on saving as many as I can.” (ARC 187)
Much to my delight, I have discovered a new teen justice and change seeker, eighth grader Savannah Braden. Sav and her family just moved from Orlando to Sandy Dunes, Florida. Living on the beach is not Savanah’s dream. In fact, ever since viewing the movie JAWS, she has feared the ocean—and sharks.
Missing her best friend Maisy, although they are “ interconnected like seaweed,” the first possible friend Savannah meets is Tanner Markell who is in her classes and Marine Club, is popular, and whose family owns the local charter fishing business. Invited to the opening of his family’s swanky restaurant, Sav is served shark fin soup. When she finds out what she is eating, she throws up, leaves the restaurants, and starts researching the inhumane ways shark fins are obtained and the applicable laws for buying and selling shark fins. She then finds her passion—saving the sharks.
But this passion turns more into a vendetta against the Markells and their restaurant, and Sav talks two classmates, Rav and Belen, into helping her close the restaurant or at least serving shark fin soup; she then decides to also close down their fishing business. With noble intentions but in typical 13-year-fashion, she initiates schemes that are harmful (setting out roaches in the restaurant and pumping water into the gas tank of the charter boat), gets in a lot of trouble, and alienates her new friends—and even Maisy. “It’s hard to make friends when you’re making waves.” (ARC 233) She also posts pictures of Tanner and Grant catching a shark (which dies upon release), her actions verging on cyberbullying.
Attending the Coalition for Sharks meetings, Savannah gathers the courage to participate in a family shark dive and realizes that she needs to change her tactics and speak out, a task that is very difficult for her, to actually help save the sharks. “Is this what Mom and Dad meant about doing the right thing the right way? Maybe it’s about focusing on what I’m fighting FOR, instead of only what I’m fighting AGAINST.” ARC 270)
Full of three-dimensional characters—Tanner, older sister Arbor, Maisy, Rav (a/k/a Benedicta), as well as quirky characters such as Tanner’s grandfather, Mr. Hopewell, and a main character who also shows readers something about navigating life as a Deaf teen with cochlear implants. Readers will learn quite a lot about sharks, and this novel would fit well in a science unit.
----------
“One girl can’t save all the sharks in the ocean. But I’m not giving up on saving as many as I can.” (ARC 187)
Much to my delight, I have discovered a new teen justice and change seeker, eighth grader Savannah Braden. Sav and her family just moved from Orlando to Sandy Dunes, Florida. Living on the beach is not Savanah’s dream. In fact, ever since viewing the movie JAWS, she has feared the ocean—and sharks.
Missing her best friend Maisy, although they are “ interconnected like seaweed,” the first possible friend Savannah meets is Tanner Markell who is in her classes and Marine Club, is popular, and whose family owns the local charter fishing business. Invited to the opening of his family’s swanky restaurant, Sav is served shark fin soup. When she finds out what she is eating, she throws up, leaves the restaurants, and starts researching the inhumane ways shark fins are obtained and the applicable laws for buying and selling shark fins. She then finds her passion—saving the sharks.
But this passion turns more into a vendetta against the Markells and their restaurant, and Sav talks two classmates, Rav and Belen, into helping her close the restaurant or at least serving shark fin soup; she then decides to also close down their fishing business. With noble intentions but in typical 13-year-fashion, she initiates schemes that are harmful (setting out roaches in the restaurant and pumping water into the gas tank of the charter boat), gets in a lot of trouble, and alienates her new friends—and even Maisy. “It’s hard to make friends when you’re making waves.” (ARC 233) She also posts pictures of Tanner and Grant catching a shark (which dies upon release), her actions verging on cyberbullying.
Attending the Coalition for Sharks meetings, Savannah gathers the courage to participate in a family shark dive and realizes that she needs to change her tactics and speak out, a task that is very difficult for her, to actually help save the sharks. “Is this what Mom and Dad meant about doing the right thing the right way? Maybe it’s about focusing on what I’m fighting FOR, instead of only what I’m fighting AGAINST.” ARC 270)
Full of three-dimensional characters—Tanner, older sister Arbor, Maisy, Rav (a/k/a Benedicta), as well as quirky characters such as Tanner’s grandfather, Mr. Hopewell, and a main character who also shows readers something about navigating life as a Deaf teen with cochlear implants. Readers will learn quite a lot about sharks, and this novel would fit well in a science unit.
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Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhoads
“To know yourself, you need to journey, Adaugo. Remember what’s forgotten.” (7)
I just met one of the strongest girls in MG/YA literature!
“I need to see everything. I need to know where to run, where to hide…where to stay. Where to fly. Escape. Flee. From what? My mind answers, ‘Fire.’” (64)
Adaugo is enrolled in Wilderness Adventures, a summer camp in Paradise, California, for a group of six Black teens from eastern cities. There she meets fellow campers Jay, Nessa, Kelvin, A’Leia, DeShon, and counselors Jamie and Dylan. Most important she meets Leo, ranch owner and environmentalist, and his dog Ryder.
Pretty much a loner, Addy lives with her Nigerian grandmother, her Bibi, who has raised her ever since her parents were killed in a house fire when she was four and her mother threw her out the window to safety. Since then, Addy is obsessed with mazes, maps, escape routes.
At the camp they learn to hike, climb, repel, and respect nature. Addy sees them all becoming stronger. “We’re pulling far, far,…farther away from being our old selves, just city kids. I’m becoming new. More me.” (87)
Leo sees Addy’s needs and teaches her how to read maps and map the natural environment. He knows that in the forest everyone needs an escape route. “Forests burn. Animals’ homes are destroyed. As our planet warms, there are more heat related deaths.” (119) However, “97 percent of wildfires are ignited by people.” (Afterword, 244)
When the six teens and their counselors leave for their final hike and campout, fire breaks out and the group disagrees on the right way out of the forest. Dylan and Jaime insist on hiking north where the ranch is , taking Kelvin and A’Leia with them while Addy’s instincts tell her to go the opposite way, toward water. She is convinced there is a way out. “There’s always a way out. Use your mind, your heart.” (157) Jay, Nessa, and DeShon follow her, believe in her.
On a harrowing journey, the four, led by Addy, work together, employing the skills and knowledge they have cultivated on their city streets and in the wilderness. Addy realizes, “Jay’s awesome; Nessa’s kind; and DeShon’s actually a good guy. They’re my crew—never had one before. Who knew? Never knew how much I needed one.” (158) “Survival is more than just me.” (205)
This is a true survival story, featuring a teen who is resilient and caring and learns to rely on her instincts— and learns a love for nature. It is a novel filled with details, and information, and will engage readers looking for adventure and readers who are future environmentalists and anyone who loves beautiful language and imagery. “Pancake clouds float. Mountain clouds burst, scatter as the plane flies through them.” (9) Written in short sentences, it a novel appropriate for both emerging and proficient readers and even though the characters are teens is appropriate for grades 4- and up.
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“To know yourself, you need to journey, Adaugo. Remember what’s forgotten.” (7)
I just met one of the strongest girls in MG/YA literature!
“I need to see everything. I need to know where to run, where to hide…where to stay. Where to fly. Escape. Flee. From what? My mind answers, ‘Fire.’” (64)
Adaugo is enrolled in Wilderness Adventures, a summer camp in Paradise, California, for a group of six Black teens from eastern cities. There she meets fellow campers Jay, Nessa, Kelvin, A’Leia, DeShon, and counselors Jamie and Dylan. Most important she meets Leo, ranch owner and environmentalist, and his dog Ryder.
Pretty much a loner, Addy lives with her Nigerian grandmother, her Bibi, who has raised her ever since her parents were killed in a house fire when she was four and her mother threw her out the window to safety. Since then, Addy is obsessed with mazes, maps, escape routes.
At the camp they learn to hike, climb, repel, and respect nature. Addy sees them all becoming stronger. “We’re pulling far, far,…farther away from being our old selves, just city kids. I’m becoming new. More me.” (87)
Leo sees Addy’s needs and teaches her how to read maps and map the natural environment. He knows that in the forest everyone needs an escape route. “Forests burn. Animals’ homes are destroyed. As our planet warms, there are more heat related deaths.” (119) However, “97 percent of wildfires are ignited by people.” (Afterword, 244)
When the six teens and their counselors leave for their final hike and campout, fire breaks out and the group disagrees on the right way out of the forest. Dylan and Jaime insist on hiking north where the ranch is , taking Kelvin and A’Leia with them while Addy’s instincts tell her to go the opposite way, toward water. She is convinced there is a way out. “There’s always a way out. Use your mind, your heart.” (157) Jay, Nessa, and DeShon follow her, believe in her.
On a harrowing journey, the four, led by Addy, work together, employing the skills and knowledge they have cultivated on their city streets and in the wilderness. Addy realizes, “Jay’s awesome; Nessa’s kind; and DeShon’s actually a good guy. They’re my crew—never had one before. Who knew? Never knew how much I needed one.” (158) “Survival is more than just me.” (205)
This is a true survival story, featuring a teen who is resilient and caring and learns to rely on her instincts— and learns a love for nature. It is a novel filled with details, and information, and will engage readers looking for adventure and readers who are future environmentalists and anyone who loves beautiful language and imagery. “Pancake clouds float. Mountain clouds burst, scatter as the plane flies through them.” (9) Written in short sentences, it a novel appropriate for both emerging and proficient readers and even though the characters are teens is appropriate for grades 4- and up.
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Haven Jacobs Saves the Planet by Barbara Dee
“Although maybe we all had stuff in common with penguins. Maybe we were all standing on shrinking ice. Knowing it was shrinking and not knowing what to do about it. If there was even anything we could do at all.” (15)
Eco-anxiety is defined as “extreme worry about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.” A new survey of 10,000 young people in 10 countries finds climate change causing widespread, deeply felt anxiety. (Medical News Today) More than 45% of young people in [the] survey said their feelings about climate change "negatively affected their daily life and functioning." (World Economic Forum)
Seventh grader Haven Jacobs suffers from “eco-anxiety.” She bites her nails, can’t sleep, and has stomach upsets. She also starts “doomscrolling,” endlessly watching videos about environmental disasters. Her grades in social studies, the class with her favorite teacher, suffer as she begins to find studying history pointless.
Haven is also having trouble with her friends, mostly her old friend Archer, her best friend Riley, and Riley’s new friend Em. “I hadn’t told Archer how I felt about him avoiding me at school. I hadn’t told Em how I felt about the sleepover business. I hadn’t even told Riley how I felt about her telling me she’d left Em’s sleepover when actually she hadn’t. It was strange: I squabbled with Carter all the time, but sometimes when it came to my friends, I was kind of a wimp, wasn’t I? “ (97) Things start building as her eco-anxiety and friendship complications increase. “Right then I had this feeling: I don’t understand anything. Not just what was happening with the river, but with people, too. I never used to feel this way, but now, all of a sudden, everything felt like a giant mystery, with no identification chart.” (108)
When her science class embarks on the annual study of the town’s local river, Haven and her classmates discover that the river has changed a lot since her older brother’s class conducted the same study. There were no longer any frogs and the pollution-sensitive macroorganisms appear to have died. Their hypothesis is that someone is polluting the river, and the only new industry in Belmont is Gemba, her father’s employer.
“One of the things [Ms. Packer] taught me this year is that if you can’t do great things, you should do small things greatly.” (267) Haven organizes a river cleanup, but even though the whole town shows up, not many are come to her information booth to hear about the state of their river, and even though everyone participated in the river cleanup, they left as much trash on shore as they took from the river. Sensing the failure, Haven organizes a Memorial Day protest which turns into a sleepover (which actually does end up solving her friendship problems).
With the support of her older brother Carter, her parents, and her new friend Kenji, son of the glass plant manager, Haven overcomes her fear of public speaking and addresses the town council—with some results. “Sometimes change was scary, like what was happening to the planet. But when it came to people—including older brothers—sometimes change could be kind of amazing.” (257)
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“Although maybe we all had stuff in common with penguins. Maybe we were all standing on shrinking ice. Knowing it was shrinking and not knowing what to do about it. If there was even anything we could do at all.” (15)
Eco-anxiety is defined as “extreme worry about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.” A new survey of 10,000 young people in 10 countries finds climate change causing widespread, deeply felt anxiety. (Medical News Today) More than 45% of young people in [the] survey said their feelings about climate change "negatively affected their daily life and functioning." (World Economic Forum)
Seventh grader Haven Jacobs suffers from “eco-anxiety.” She bites her nails, can’t sleep, and has stomach upsets. She also starts “doomscrolling,” endlessly watching videos about environmental disasters. Her grades in social studies, the class with her favorite teacher, suffer as she begins to find studying history pointless.
Haven is also having trouble with her friends, mostly her old friend Archer, her best friend Riley, and Riley’s new friend Em. “I hadn’t told Archer how I felt about him avoiding me at school. I hadn’t told Em how I felt about the sleepover business. I hadn’t even told Riley how I felt about her telling me she’d left Em’s sleepover when actually she hadn’t. It was strange: I squabbled with Carter all the time, but sometimes when it came to my friends, I was kind of a wimp, wasn’t I? “ (97) Things start building as her eco-anxiety and friendship complications increase. “Right then I had this feeling: I don’t understand anything. Not just what was happening with the river, but with people, too. I never used to feel this way, but now, all of a sudden, everything felt like a giant mystery, with no identification chart.” (108)
When her science class embarks on the annual study of the town’s local river, Haven and her classmates discover that the river has changed a lot since her older brother’s class conducted the same study. There were no longer any frogs and the pollution-sensitive macroorganisms appear to have died. Their hypothesis is that someone is polluting the river, and the only new industry in Belmont is Gemba, her father’s employer.
“One of the things [Ms. Packer] taught me this year is that if you can’t do great things, you should do small things greatly.” (267) Haven organizes a river cleanup, but even though the whole town shows up, not many are come to her information booth to hear about the state of their river, and even though everyone participated in the river cleanup, they left as much trash on shore as they took from the river. Sensing the failure, Haven organizes a Memorial Day protest which turns into a sleepover (which actually does end up solving her friendship problems).
With the support of her older brother Carter, her parents, and her new friend Kenji, son of the glass plant manager, Haven overcomes her fear of public speaking and addresses the town council—with some results. “Sometimes change was scary, like what was happening to the planet. But when it came to people—including older brothers—sometimes change could be kind of amazing.” (257)
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Ninth Ward by Jewel Parker Rhoads
In 2016 I experienced my first (and hopefully last) Category 5 hurricane. As Hurricane Matthew approached South Carolina, our governor announced a mandatory evacuation. My husband, dogs, and I were only too happy to comply. But as we safely waited out the hurricane for a week in a motel, eating in restaurants, over 200 miles from home (where our car had taken us), I wondered how many people had the means to do so. We read about people who “refuse” to leave their homes, but is it stubbornness or lack of resources?
Ninth Ward takes the reader into the Ninth Ward neighborhood during Katrina. When the hurricane strikes, readers have already become well-acquainted with 12-year old Lanesha, a young girl who is an orphan, sees ghosts, is ignored by classmates, but loves and is loved by Mama Ya-Ya, the midwife who has raised her since the death of her mother during birth.
Readers experience the hurricane through the eyes of two young adolescents who don’t leave for safer places because they can’t—no car, no money, no place to go. We meet their community and feel the panic as first the hurricane hits and then the water rises over their homes, their lives. We applaud as Lanesha and TaShon fight to saves their lives, strength gathered from the love of Mama Ya-Ya.
Love and resilience is the centerpiece of this novel; it is a story, not of a hurricane but of any disaster that can test our limits and transform us.
----------
In 2016 I experienced my first (and hopefully last) Category 5 hurricane. As Hurricane Matthew approached South Carolina, our governor announced a mandatory evacuation. My husband, dogs, and I were only too happy to comply. But as we safely waited out the hurricane for a week in a motel, eating in restaurants, over 200 miles from home (where our car had taken us), I wondered how many people had the means to do so. We read about people who “refuse” to leave their homes, but is it stubbornness or lack of resources?
Ninth Ward takes the reader into the Ninth Ward neighborhood during Katrina. When the hurricane strikes, readers have already become well-acquainted with 12-year old Lanesha, a young girl who is an orphan, sees ghosts, is ignored by classmates, but loves and is loved by Mama Ya-Ya, the midwife who has raised her since the death of her mother during birth.
Readers experience the hurricane through the eyes of two young adolescents who don’t leave for safer places because they can’t—no car, no money, no place to go. We meet their community and feel the panic as first the hurricane hits and then the water rises over their homes, their lives. We applaud as Lanesha and TaShon fight to saves their lives, strength gathered from the love of Mama Ya-Ya.
Love and resilience is the centerpiece of this novel; it is a story, not of a hurricane but of any disaster that can test our limits and transform us.
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Shift by Dana Goldstein
“People don’t want to know the truth, even when it’s so obviously in their faces they cannot ignore the evidence. But they will try. Then they will say you are crazy.” (198)
Sixth grader Dax Masters is a science nerd—he notices things and wants to find the truth. In this he is supported by his two best friends, Avery and Kayla.
When a small earthquake hits Calgary, a town “nowhere near a fault line” at the very same time one is experienced across the world in the Maldives, Dax wonders if there is a connection. Then his dogs and the other dogs in the dog park act strangely, “All of them frozen as if listening—or feeling—something only they could sense.” During the next few weeks Dax begins to notice many oddities—“Earthquakes where they never happen. Boiling water where it is normally temperate. Oversized vegetables [in his mother’s garden]. Animals leaving the safety of their forests.” (148)
He decides to investigate these phenomena as his school science project, hoping to win a chance to compete at the Innovative Science Convention with “the best from North America.” After ruling out climate change as the cause of these anomalies, he realizes “those changes are most likely caused be something deeper, somethings less obvious, something happening internally in the earth” and, after much research and study, begins “working on the theory that the movement of the tectonic plates has changed direction.” (130)
“You know what’s amazing about all this?…That you had the ability to recognize that something was different about the world around you and that you did not let it go. So many people notice change and shrug it off. But you let your scientific mind do the work. You explored. And the world is better off because of explorers like you.” (235)
This is a perfect novel for a science class or an ELA class working with a science class, especially one whose content covers earthquakes, geology, and land formations—and the scientific process. The characters are in 6th grade, but the storyline and content would be appropriate for 6th through 9th as the scientific information is quite involved.
----------
“People don’t want to know the truth, even when it’s so obviously in their faces they cannot ignore the evidence. But they will try. Then they will say you are crazy.” (198)
Sixth grader Dax Masters is a science nerd—he notices things and wants to find the truth. In this he is supported by his two best friends, Avery and Kayla.
When a small earthquake hits Calgary, a town “nowhere near a fault line” at the very same time one is experienced across the world in the Maldives, Dax wonders if there is a connection. Then his dogs and the other dogs in the dog park act strangely, “All of them frozen as if listening—or feeling—something only they could sense.” During the next few weeks Dax begins to notice many oddities—“Earthquakes where they never happen. Boiling water where it is normally temperate. Oversized vegetables [in his mother’s garden]. Animals leaving the safety of their forests.” (148)
He decides to investigate these phenomena as his school science project, hoping to win a chance to compete at the Innovative Science Convention with “the best from North America.” After ruling out climate change as the cause of these anomalies, he realizes “those changes are most likely caused be something deeper, somethings less obvious, something happening internally in the earth” and, after much research and study, begins “working on the theory that the movement of the tectonic plates has changed direction.” (130)
“You know what’s amazing about all this?…That you had the ability to recognize that something was different about the world around you and that you did not let it go. So many people notice change and shrug it off. But you let your scientific mind do the work. You explored. And the world is better off because of explorers like you.” (235)
This is a perfect novel for a science class or an ELA class working with a science class, especially one whose content covers earthquakes, geology, and land formations—and the scientific process. The characters are in 6th grade, but the storyline and content would be appropriate for 6th through 9th as the scientific information is quite involved.
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Singing with Elephants by Margarita Engle
“Poetry is a dance of words on the page.” (1)
“Poetry is like a planet…
Each word spins
orbits
twirls
and radiates
reflected starlight.” (10)
“Poetry,
she said,
can be whatever you want it
to be.” (25)
And poetry is what connects a lonely girl with a new neighbor who turns out to be Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American (and only Latin American woman) winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Poetry also helps this young girl to find her words and her courage to face a grave injustice.
Oriol is an 11-year-old Cuban-born child whose veterinarian parents moved to Santa Barbara where
“the girls at school
make fun of me for being
small
brownish
chubby
with curly black hair barely tamed
by a long braid…”
…call me
zoo beast”
…the boys call me
ugly
stupid
tongue-tied
because my accent gets stronger
when I’m nervous, like when
the teacher forces me to read
out loud” (7-8)
Oriol’s friends are her animals and the animals she helps with in their clinic and on the neighboring wildlife zoo ranch. She learns veterinary terminology from her parents and poetry terms from her new friend.
When the elephant on the zoo ranch owned by a famous actor gives birth to twins and one is taken from her family by the actor and held captive, Oriol, with the help of her mentor, her family, and her new friends, fight to reunite the baby with her mother and twin.
Readers learn Spanish phrases and quite a lot about poetry, animal rights, Gabriela Mistral, xenophobia, and courage.
“courage
is a dance of words
on paper
as graceful as an elephant
the size of love” (99)
As part of a poetry, social justice, or science unit, Oriol’s story will speak to readers and help move them to passion and action.
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“Poetry is a dance of words on the page.” (1)
“Poetry is like a planet…
Each word spins
orbits
twirls
and radiates
reflected starlight.” (10)
“Poetry,
she said,
can be whatever you want it
to be.” (25)
And poetry is what connects a lonely girl with a new neighbor who turns out to be Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American (and only Latin American woman) winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Poetry also helps this young girl to find her words and her courage to face a grave injustice.
Oriol is an 11-year-old Cuban-born child whose veterinarian parents moved to Santa Barbara where
“the girls at school
make fun of me for being
small
brownish
chubby
with curly black hair barely tamed
by a long braid…”
…call me
zoo beast”
…the boys call me
ugly
stupid
tongue-tied
because my accent gets stronger
when I’m nervous, like when
the teacher forces me to read
out loud” (7-8)
Oriol’s friends are her animals and the animals she helps with in their clinic and on the neighboring wildlife zoo ranch. She learns veterinary terminology from her parents and poetry terms from her new friend.
When the elephant on the zoo ranch owned by a famous actor gives birth to twins and one is taken from her family by the actor and held captive, Oriol, with the help of her mentor, her family, and her new friends, fight to reunite the baby with her mother and twin.
Readers learn Spanish phrases and quite a lot about poetry, animal rights, Gabriela Mistral, xenophobia, and courage.
“courage
is a dance of words
on paper
as graceful as an elephant
the size of love” (99)
As part of a poetry, social justice, or science unit, Oriol’s story will speak to readers and help move them to passion and action.
----------
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, 9.8 million Americans aged 18 or older, or 4.2% of the adult population, are living with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder. Two-thirds of females and one-half of men afflicted with serious mental illnesses are likely to be parents.
“Turns out, it’s easier than you might think to sneak out of town smuggling a live cricket, three pocketfuls of jerky, and two bags of half-paid-for merchandise from Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry grocery store. The hard part was getting up the guts to go.” (1)
As the story begins, Ariana “Cricket” Overland's father and grandmother have died, her mother has left, and she is living with her Aunt Belinda who is secretly planning to pawn her off on Great-Aunt Genevieve. Her mother, a creative artist, has struggled between depression and wild adventures for years and is obsessed with a Bird Room she once saw, a room where “Everything was alive.” Cricket is sure that her mother will return to lay her grandmother’s headstone and, having said she wished her mother could “just be normal” (106) the night before she took off, Cricket wants to find the Bird Room and prove that her mother is not crazy and maybe find a treasure using clues hidden by the mysterious Mr. Bob. “I couldn’t stop Mama from leaving, and I couldn’t stop Daddy from dying, but I could sure do something now. (11)
When Aunt Belinda abandons her in Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry, Cricket takes her pet cricket, spends all her money on supplies and food, writing an IOU for what she can’t afford, and takes off for Woods Time, as her father would say. Living in a tree house and following her father’s guidelines for survival, she survives raccoons stealing most of her food and supplies and an ice storm, and explores the ghost town, torn down and abandoned by a lumber company, until clues—and a snake bite—lead her to Miss V, the one person whose house still exists, a woman who helps Cricket discover that not only her mother, but she, “contains multitudes.” “I thought about what Miss V had said about Mama being more than what the neighbors thought…. And it wasn’t who I was, either. I was my own, whole person.…Maybe it was time to start taking chances on me.” (203)
Ariana Overland is an adolescent a reader really wants to champion. I found myself cheering her on throughout the book. She joins the ranks of literary strong girls as the resourceful and resilient hero of an adventure story about family and identity.
----------
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, 9.8 million Americans aged 18 or older, or 4.2% of the adult population, are living with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder. Two-thirds of females and one-half of men afflicted with serious mental illnesses are likely to be parents.
“Turns out, it’s easier than you might think to sneak out of town smuggling a live cricket, three pocketfuls of jerky, and two bags of half-paid-for merchandise from Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry grocery store. The hard part was getting up the guts to go.” (1)
As the story begins, Ariana “Cricket” Overland's father and grandmother have died, her mother has left, and she is living with her Aunt Belinda who is secretly planning to pawn her off on Great-Aunt Genevieve. Her mother, a creative artist, has struggled between depression and wild adventures for years and is obsessed with a Bird Room she once saw, a room where “Everything was alive.” Cricket is sure that her mother will return to lay her grandmother’s headstone and, having said she wished her mother could “just be normal” (106) the night before she took off, Cricket wants to find the Bird Room and prove that her mother is not crazy and maybe find a treasure using clues hidden by the mysterious Mr. Bob. “I couldn’t stop Mama from leaving, and I couldn’t stop Daddy from dying, but I could sure do something now. (11)
When Aunt Belinda abandons her in Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry, Cricket takes her pet cricket, spends all her money on supplies and food, writing an IOU for what she can’t afford, and takes off for Woods Time, as her father would say. Living in a tree house and following her father’s guidelines for survival, she survives raccoons stealing most of her food and supplies and an ice storm, and explores the ghost town, torn down and abandoned by a lumber company, until clues—and a snake bite—lead her to Miss V, the one person whose house still exists, a woman who helps Cricket discover that not only her mother, but she, “contains multitudes.” “I thought about what Miss V had said about Mama being more than what the neighbors thought…. And it wasn’t who I was, either. I was my own, whole person.…Maybe it was time to start taking chances on me.” (203)
Ariana Overland is an adolescent a reader really wants to champion. I found myself cheering her on throughout the book. She joins the ranks of literary strong girls as the resourceful and resilient hero of an adventure story about family and identity.
----------
Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly
Song for a Whale is a story of isolation and the need for connection and belonging.
Iris is twelve years old and deaf as was her grandfather—her closest ally—and her grandmother who is grieving her husband’s death and has isolated herself. At her school Iris is somewhat isolated as the only Deaf student. The only person she feels close to is her adult interpreter. The other students may try to include her in their conversations, especially an annoying girl who thinks she know sign language, but Iris gives up as she “tries “to grab any scrap of conversation” (64) and communicate better with her father.
In one of her classes Iris learns of Blue 55, a hybrid whale who sings at a level much higher than other whales and cannot communicate with any other whales. As a result he belongs to no pod and travels on his own, isolated. Iris decides to create and record a song that Blue 55 can hear and understand. “He keeps singing this song, and everything in the ocean swims by him, as if he’s not there. He thinks no one understands hi,. I want to let him know he is wrong about that.” (75)
Iris is a master at fixing old radios and feels without the storeowner for whom she fixes radios, she “wouldn’t know I was good at anything.” (68). With her knowledge of acoustics, Iris records a song at his own frequency for Blue 55, mixing in his song and the sounds of other sanctuary animals and sends it to the group in Alaska who are trying to track and tag him.
On a “run-away” cruise to Alaska, Iris and her grandmother reconnect; her grandmother makes new connections to others and finds a place she now needs to be; Iris connects with Blue 55 giving him a place to belong; and Iris is finally able to request to go to a new school that has a population of Deaf students with Wendell, her Deaf friend.
Scattered within the story are the heartbreaking short chapters narrated by Blue 55.
Readers will learn a lot about whales, about acoustics, abut Deaf culture, and even more importantly, about those who may feel isolated and the need for belonging in this well-written new novel by Lynne Kelly, a sign language interpreter.
----------
Song for a Whale is a story of isolation and the need for connection and belonging.
Iris is twelve years old and deaf as was her grandfather—her closest ally—and her grandmother who is grieving her husband’s death and has isolated herself. At her school Iris is somewhat isolated as the only Deaf student. The only person she feels close to is her adult interpreter. The other students may try to include her in their conversations, especially an annoying girl who thinks she know sign language, but Iris gives up as she “tries “to grab any scrap of conversation” (64) and communicate better with her father.
In one of her classes Iris learns of Blue 55, a hybrid whale who sings at a level much higher than other whales and cannot communicate with any other whales. As a result he belongs to no pod and travels on his own, isolated. Iris decides to create and record a song that Blue 55 can hear and understand. “He keeps singing this song, and everything in the ocean swims by him, as if he’s not there. He thinks no one understands hi,. I want to let him know he is wrong about that.” (75)
Iris is a master at fixing old radios and feels without the storeowner for whom she fixes radios, she “wouldn’t know I was good at anything.” (68). With her knowledge of acoustics, Iris records a song at his own frequency for Blue 55, mixing in his song and the sounds of other sanctuary animals and sends it to the group in Alaska who are trying to track and tag him.
On a “run-away” cruise to Alaska, Iris and her grandmother reconnect; her grandmother makes new connections to others and finds a place she now needs to be; Iris connects with Blue 55 giving him a place to belong; and Iris is finally able to request to go to a new school that has a population of Deaf students with Wendell, her Deaf friend.
Scattered within the story are the heartbreaking short chapters narrated by Blue 55.
Readers will learn a lot about whales, about acoustics, abut Deaf culture, and even more importantly, about those who may feel isolated and the need for belonging in this well-written new novel by Lynne Kelly, a sign language interpreter.
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The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly
“Here’s something else about cuckoo eggs: sometimes the parents notice a new egg that doesn’t look like the others, and they throw it out of the nest. Maybe that cuckoo egg kind of looks like their own, but it’s obvious it doesn’t belong there.” (ARC 53)
Nina is not very good at making friends. She is convinced that a neighbor (who just happens to be Iris from SONG FOR A WHALE) moved to a new school because of her awkward attempts to become friends at school, being overly-pushing when trying to communicate in sign language. She also doesn’t feel a fit in her family of six. In fact, stopping at Buc-ee’s on the way home from a family trip, when she stepped outside to follow a mockingbird who appeared to be singing her name, her parents and siblings drove away without Nina in the car. It took one of the toddler twins to notice her absence.
After that day Nina develops a strong interest in birds, adding a bird app on her phone, ordering a trail cam for the yard, and looking for and identifying birds and their songs. Then her older sister suggests that, instead of letting her mother choose her summer activities as usual, Nina attend their Aunt Audrey’s summer camp. “There must be something else out there for you, somewhere else you’re supposed to be.” (ARC 17)
Nina goes to the camp to help her aunt and the staff and take part in the activities, and there she meets three girls—the only new 13-14-year-old campers. “’We’re sort of the leftover cabin,’ said Emma.…’Seems like everyone else already know each other, right?’” (ARC 41-42) They have named their cabin the Oddballs and are more than happy to include Nina in their activities and also in their cabin whenever she chooses to stay there, making her feel “a little less like a mismatched cuckoo egg.” (ARC 69)
Each summer the oldest campers perform the annual nighttime tradition of visiting the haunted infirmary cabin where, 100 years earlier, a camper named Josephine was quarantined with TB and died, her only the companions the marsh birds and animals she watched through the window and drew on the walls. When the girls see her “ghost,” they all run, but Nina realizes it is a large white bird, possibly a whooping crane, but whooping cranes don’t live in their area. Throughout the camping season, Georgie, Emma, Ant, and Nina visit the old infirmary daily, filming the bird and its companion and observing their nest, which may contain an egg, on behalf of Odetta of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. One bird is tagged with a leg band and is a surprise discovery, but the female bird is a complete mystery. “This was bigger than seeing a whooping crane. I’d found two whooping cranes, and they had a nest.” (ARC 99)
Nina and her new friends, with the remote technological help of Iris, finally identify the mystery bird proving her sister’s theory that “Part of our brain is that same as a bird’s, right? [Zugunruhe is] in there somewhere, telling us we need to leave, that there’s somewhere else we’re supposed to be.” (ARC 16) This is where and when Nina was meant to be.
----------
“Here’s something else about cuckoo eggs: sometimes the parents notice a new egg that doesn’t look like the others, and they throw it out of the nest. Maybe that cuckoo egg kind of looks like their own, but it’s obvious it doesn’t belong there.” (ARC 53)
Nina is not very good at making friends. She is convinced that a neighbor (who just happens to be Iris from SONG FOR A WHALE) moved to a new school because of her awkward attempts to become friends at school, being overly-pushing when trying to communicate in sign language. She also doesn’t feel a fit in her family of six. In fact, stopping at Buc-ee’s on the way home from a family trip, when she stepped outside to follow a mockingbird who appeared to be singing her name, her parents and siblings drove away without Nina in the car. It took one of the toddler twins to notice her absence.
After that day Nina develops a strong interest in birds, adding a bird app on her phone, ordering a trail cam for the yard, and looking for and identifying birds and their songs. Then her older sister suggests that, instead of letting her mother choose her summer activities as usual, Nina attend their Aunt Audrey’s summer camp. “There must be something else out there for you, somewhere else you’re supposed to be.” (ARC 17)
Nina goes to the camp to help her aunt and the staff and take part in the activities, and there she meets three girls—the only new 13-14-year-old campers. “’We’re sort of the leftover cabin,’ said Emma.…’Seems like everyone else already know each other, right?’” (ARC 41-42) They have named their cabin the Oddballs and are more than happy to include Nina in their activities and also in their cabin whenever she chooses to stay there, making her feel “a little less like a mismatched cuckoo egg.” (ARC 69)
Each summer the oldest campers perform the annual nighttime tradition of visiting the haunted infirmary cabin where, 100 years earlier, a camper named Josephine was quarantined with TB and died, her only the companions the marsh birds and animals she watched through the window and drew on the walls. When the girls see her “ghost,” they all run, but Nina realizes it is a large white bird, possibly a whooping crane, but whooping cranes don’t live in their area. Throughout the camping season, Georgie, Emma, Ant, and Nina visit the old infirmary daily, filming the bird and its companion and observing their nest, which may contain an egg, on behalf of Odetta of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. One bird is tagged with a leg band and is a surprise discovery, but the female bird is a complete mystery. “This was bigger than seeing a whooping crane. I’d found two whooping cranes, and they had a nest.” (ARC 99)
Nina and her new friends, with the remote technological help of Iris, finally identify the mystery bird proving her sister’s theory that “Part of our brain is that same as a bird’s, right? [Zugunruhe is] in there somewhere, telling us we need to leave, that there’s somewhere else we’re supposed to be.” (ARC 16) This is where and when Nina was meant to be.
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The Secret of the Dragon Gems by Rajani Narasimhan LaRocco and Chris Baron
There is no such thing as a “perfect” book. Readers have differing interests in topics, characters, plots, and writing styles, and as teachers, librarians, and parents (or grandparents), we need to help make, or find, the match for our readers. However, this new novel has enough to engage diverse readers, grades 4-8. It has male and female multicultural protagonists; a mystery; science fiction; geology; adventure; codes; Indian and Jewish culture, religion, and recipes; a possibly evil villain; new middle school friends and frenemies; and a feisty grandmother.
“When our bar mitzvah time comes, we learn about observing the mitzvot, which is sort of our version of what you [Tripti] were saying—good triumphing over evil.… It’s cool how different religions can be so much the same.” (Sam, 158)
Eleven year old Tripti Kapoor from Massachusetts and eleven-year-old Sam Cohen from California meet on the last night of Camp Dilloway where they become instant friends when they find two glowing rocks; each takes one home. Through letters, emails, field journals, and a chat program, they share the growing mysterious and magical qualities of their rocks which they name Jasper and Opal, as well as the challenges and shifting friendships they are navigating in middle school. Besides their stones, Tripti and Sam share a love of the three-book series THE DRAGON GEMS, especially Volume 3 through which their stones appear to be sending them codes. The author of THE DRAGON GEMS is another secret to be solved. From different sides of the country, they collaborate to send Jasper and Opal home.
Meanwhile, camp director Sanford P. Dilloway, III, is trying to find the missing stones, and readers are privy to not only his letters to the campers but his personal journal. It appears that he will stop at nothing to get his hands on the stones—for reasons unknown.
The variety of formats (and fonts)—emails, journals, chats, MeTube Video transcripts, drawings, and THE DRAGON GEMS, Volume 3 excerpts—will especially appeal to our more reluctant readers as will the differing perspectives of the main characters provided by the co-authors.
----------
There is no such thing as a “perfect” book. Readers have differing interests in topics, characters, plots, and writing styles, and as teachers, librarians, and parents (or grandparents), we need to help make, or find, the match for our readers. However, this new novel has enough to engage diverse readers, grades 4-8. It has male and female multicultural protagonists; a mystery; science fiction; geology; adventure; codes; Indian and Jewish culture, religion, and recipes; a possibly evil villain; new middle school friends and frenemies; and a feisty grandmother.
“When our bar mitzvah time comes, we learn about observing the mitzvot, which is sort of our version of what you [Tripti] were saying—good triumphing over evil.… It’s cool how different religions can be so much the same.” (Sam, 158)
Eleven year old Tripti Kapoor from Massachusetts and eleven-year-old Sam Cohen from California meet on the last night of Camp Dilloway where they become instant friends when they find two glowing rocks; each takes one home. Through letters, emails, field journals, and a chat program, they share the growing mysterious and magical qualities of their rocks which they name Jasper and Opal, as well as the challenges and shifting friendships they are navigating in middle school. Besides their stones, Tripti and Sam share a love of the three-book series THE DRAGON GEMS, especially Volume 3 through which their stones appear to be sending them codes. The author of THE DRAGON GEMS is another secret to be solved. From different sides of the country, they collaborate to send Jasper and Opal home.
Meanwhile, camp director Sanford P. Dilloway, III, is trying to find the missing stones, and readers are privy to not only his letters to the campers but his personal journal. It appears that he will stop at nothing to get his hands on the stones—for reasons unknown.
The variety of formats (and fonts)—emails, journals, chats, MeTube Video transcripts, drawings, and THE DRAGON GEMS, Volume 3 excerpts—will especially appeal to our more reluctant readers as will the differing perspectives of the main characters provided by the co-authors.
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The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
Juniper Berry lives in the woods with her parents Zephyr and Clara, her older sister Skylark, and her 5-year old brother Hawk. It seems that her parents moved into the woods in their twenties to get away from “society” and all its problems. They were all very content until Hawk becomes ill from appendicitis.
They take Hawk into town and while he is in the hospital, the family moves in with Clara’s brother Uncle Parker (who the children had not heard of) and his two daughters, both to stay near Hawk and to earn money for the growing hospital bill. Juniper and Sky notice that Uncle Parker refers to their parents as “Sarah” and “Paul” and wonder what else they don’t know.
Although Sky adjusts quickly to school, wearing her cousin’s skimpy outfits, society is full of curiosities—some positive (the laundry box and pizza) but most negative for Juniper. She questions of the function and utility of much she sees. “And her nails were so long, they were more like claws—painted claws. What kind of person needed claws? Someone who had to defend themselves against predators? Someone who had to climb cliffs? Someone who had to tear apart their supper? And if they did, why would they paint them bright colors? I didn’t understand this new world of fire hair and people claws.” (63)
When Juniper starts school, her cousin Alayna is embarrassed by her clothing, her lack of understanding in classes (even though she had attended Earth School taught by Clara), climbing a tall tree in the school yard, and kicking the most popular boy. But Juniper notices how mean the middle school girls can be. As she observes Alayna being humiliated and hurt by her popular friends, she realizes that Alayna’s “friends” are like chickens—“It just depends on the pecking order. If the top chickens don’t like one of the others anymore, it can get dangerous.” (ARC 171) Even though Juniper stands up for Alayna to her “friends,” her cousin makes her walk three houses behind her and ignores her in school even as they become closer at home. “Having me as a cousin in society was not a good thing.” (170)
But in PE Juniper runs fast and earns the respect of the popular boy. “But then Keenan looked over. He still couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t either. But he nodded. It wasn’t a coyote nod, like he was going to bite my ankle and take me down. It was more like a stag nod. Like we had run together. Like we were the same. Like he respected me.” (ARC 139) And Juniper is invited to join the track, and later, the soccer teams.
Juniper still desperately misses the woods, and when she finds some—“I closed my eyes and felt like I was home. The birds chirped. They weren’t singing for anyone else like all of the music on everyone’s phones and in their ears. The birds chirped for themselves.” (141)
She thinks she is figuring out society, but when she tries to make videos to earn money to help with Hawk’s hospital bills, Juniper is is surprised to be offered help in some unexpected places, and, when she finds out why Clara/Sarah left society, she is able to help her also.
Readers will learn not only about nature and survival but, through Juniper Berry’s eyes, will be able to examine their own society. Juniper’s story tackles issues of mental health, bullying, acceptance, and being open to learning about others. “I had spent most of my time in school not liking people, because I was sure they didn’t like me. I hadn’t realized that I was acting like a surly bobcat and hissing at people before I even got to know them.” (227)
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Juniper Berry lives in the woods with her parents Zephyr and Clara, her older sister Skylark, and her 5-year old brother Hawk. It seems that her parents moved into the woods in their twenties to get away from “society” and all its problems. They were all very content until Hawk becomes ill from appendicitis.
They take Hawk into town and while he is in the hospital, the family moves in with Clara’s brother Uncle Parker (who the children had not heard of) and his two daughters, both to stay near Hawk and to earn money for the growing hospital bill. Juniper and Sky notice that Uncle Parker refers to their parents as “Sarah” and “Paul” and wonder what else they don’t know.
Although Sky adjusts quickly to school, wearing her cousin’s skimpy outfits, society is full of curiosities—some positive (the laundry box and pizza) but most negative for Juniper. She questions of the function and utility of much she sees. “And her nails were so long, they were more like claws—painted claws. What kind of person needed claws? Someone who had to defend themselves against predators? Someone who had to climb cliffs? Someone who had to tear apart their supper? And if they did, why would they paint them bright colors? I didn’t understand this new world of fire hair and people claws.” (63)
When Juniper starts school, her cousin Alayna is embarrassed by her clothing, her lack of understanding in classes (even though she had attended Earth School taught by Clara), climbing a tall tree in the school yard, and kicking the most popular boy. But Juniper notices how mean the middle school girls can be. As she observes Alayna being humiliated and hurt by her popular friends, she realizes that Alayna’s “friends” are like chickens—“It just depends on the pecking order. If the top chickens don’t like one of the others anymore, it can get dangerous.” (ARC 171) Even though Juniper stands up for Alayna to her “friends,” her cousin makes her walk three houses behind her and ignores her in school even as they become closer at home. “Having me as a cousin in society was not a good thing.” (170)
But in PE Juniper runs fast and earns the respect of the popular boy. “But then Keenan looked over. He still couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t either. But he nodded. It wasn’t a coyote nod, like he was going to bite my ankle and take me down. It was more like a stag nod. Like we had run together. Like we were the same. Like he respected me.” (ARC 139) And Juniper is invited to join the track, and later, the soccer teams.
Juniper still desperately misses the woods, and when she finds some—“I closed my eyes and felt like I was home. The birds chirped. They weren’t singing for anyone else like all of the music on everyone’s phones and in their ears. The birds chirped for themselves.” (141)
She thinks she is figuring out society, but when she tries to make videos to earn money to help with Hawk’s hospital bills, Juniper is is surprised to be offered help in some unexpected places, and, when she finds out why Clara/Sarah left society, she is able to help her also.
Readers will learn not only about nature and survival but, through Juniper Berry’s eyes, will be able to examine their own society. Juniper’s story tackles issues of mental health, bullying, acceptance, and being open to learning about others. “I had spent most of my time in school not liking people, because I was sure they didn’t like me. I hadn’t realized that I was acting like a surly bobcat and hissing at people before I even got to know them.” (227)
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The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q Rauf
A am a huge fan of Onjali Q Rauf’s The Boy at the Back of the Class about a young refugee from Syria and his British classmates who concoct a plan, the Greatest Idea in the World, to help him find his parents. The Star Outside My Window is about another child with a plan.
When 10-year-old Aniyah’s mother disappeared in a sudden explosion, Aniyah was sure that her mum had become a star. Aniyah, her younger brother Noah, and Mum had been playing Hide and Seek with their father and staying in a hotel-that-wasn’t-really-a-hotel; the night that their mother disappeared, two policemen and a woman in a black suit took Aniyah and Noah to Waverly Village to live with Mrs. Iwuchukwu, a loving foster mother to Travis and Ben and the adopted Sophie.
But when they see on television that astronomers have sighted a phenomenon, “a real live burning star moving from one end of our solar system to the other…unlike anything else we’ve seen” (29-30), Aniyah, an amateur star hunter, is convinced the star is Mum’s heart. There is a contest to name the star, and Aniyah is determined to get to the Royal Observatory in London in time to make sure the star is not given the wrong name.
Ben and Travis help her come up with a plan, involving a 72.6 mile bike ride at night in their Halloween costumes, “Because we’re foster kids, and foster kids stick together no matter what. That’s the law.” (102) Despite having to leave their stolen bikes, a woman calling the police, carrying Noah, sneaking onto a bus, a possibly-broken ankle, and a lot of walking/hopping, the four bedraggled, and tired children, still in Halloween costumes, make it to the Kronos Annual Gala Dinner Observatory where Aniyah is determined to complete her mission. “I had to try to make them understand. Mum’s star needed me to.” (253) Led to The Great Equatorial Telescope, 1893, Aniyah uses her star hunting skills to show the adults the location of “the star that has transcended the laws of physics” (242) with her home-drawn map that she made “from my window.” (261)
This is an adventure story about domestic abuse, parental love, friendships, foster children and parents, and a bully—and lots of map skills and astronomy. The author includes references for domestic abuse survivors.
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A am a huge fan of Onjali Q Rauf’s The Boy at the Back of the Class about a young refugee from Syria and his British classmates who concoct a plan, the Greatest Idea in the World, to help him find his parents. The Star Outside My Window is about another child with a plan.
When 10-year-old Aniyah’s mother disappeared in a sudden explosion, Aniyah was sure that her mum had become a star. Aniyah, her younger brother Noah, and Mum had been playing Hide and Seek with their father and staying in a hotel-that-wasn’t-really-a-hotel; the night that their mother disappeared, two policemen and a woman in a black suit took Aniyah and Noah to Waverly Village to live with Mrs. Iwuchukwu, a loving foster mother to Travis and Ben and the adopted Sophie.
But when they see on television that astronomers have sighted a phenomenon, “a real live burning star moving from one end of our solar system to the other…unlike anything else we’ve seen” (29-30), Aniyah, an amateur star hunter, is convinced the star is Mum’s heart. There is a contest to name the star, and Aniyah is determined to get to the Royal Observatory in London in time to make sure the star is not given the wrong name.
Ben and Travis help her come up with a plan, involving a 72.6 mile bike ride at night in their Halloween costumes, “Because we’re foster kids, and foster kids stick together no matter what. That’s the law.” (102) Despite having to leave their stolen bikes, a woman calling the police, carrying Noah, sneaking onto a bus, a possibly-broken ankle, and a lot of walking/hopping, the four bedraggled, and tired children, still in Halloween costumes, make it to the Kronos Annual Gala Dinner Observatory where Aniyah is determined to complete her mission. “I had to try to make them understand. Mum’s star needed me to.” (253) Led to The Great Equatorial Telescope, 1893, Aniyah uses her star hunting skills to show the adults the location of “the star that has transcended the laws of physics” (242) with her home-drawn map that she made “from my window.” (261)
This is an adventure story about domestic abuse, parental love, friendships, foster children and parents, and a bully—and lots of map skills and astronomy. The author includes references for domestic abuse survivors.
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Up from the Sea by Leza Lowitz
"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.”--Richard Price. Instead of focusing on the overwhelming statistics generated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan—nearly 16,000 deaths and 3,000 people missing—the event becomes even more intense and compelling as author Leza Lowitz relates the story of one town and one boy and the resilience of many.
The story begins on March 11 when Kai, a half Japanese, half American 17-year-old and his teachers and classmates experience the “jolting of the earth,” and as trained, they evacuate, running for their lives, looking for the highest place, as their town is destroyed. Written powerfully in free verse, the reader feels the fury of nature as the water “churns,” “thrashes,” “surges,” “sweeps,” “charges.” Kai ends up in a shelter having lost his mother, his grandparents, and one of his best friends. His father left years before to return to America.
Faced with overwhelming loss and trauma, Kai walks into the ocean but is saved by one of his classmates and convinced to accept the opportunity to go to New York City on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 where he will spend some time with young adults who lost their parents as teens in the 9/11 attacks. At Ground Zero, Fia tells him, “Bravery means being scared and going forward anyway.”
Kai hopes to find his father in NYC but returns to his village to help the young adolescents who lost their families and to rebuild his town. “I want to be/ like that tree/ deep roots/ making it strong/ keeping it/ standing tall.” And it is to his roots Kai returns and stays—“The quake moved the earth/ ten inches/ on its axis./ I guess/I shifted,” too.
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"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.”--Richard Price. Instead of focusing on the overwhelming statistics generated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan—nearly 16,000 deaths and 3,000 people missing—the event becomes even more intense and compelling as author Leza Lowitz relates the story of one town and one boy and the resilience of many.
The story begins on March 11 when Kai, a half Japanese, half American 17-year-old and his teachers and classmates experience the “jolting of the earth,” and as trained, they evacuate, running for their lives, looking for the highest place, as their town is destroyed. Written powerfully in free verse, the reader feels the fury of nature as the water “churns,” “thrashes,” “surges,” “sweeps,” “charges.” Kai ends up in a shelter having lost his mother, his grandparents, and one of his best friends. His father left years before to return to America.
Faced with overwhelming loss and trauma, Kai walks into the ocean but is saved by one of his classmates and convinced to accept the opportunity to go to New York City on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 where he will spend some time with young adults who lost their parents as teens in the 9/11 attacks. At Ground Zero, Fia tells him, “Bravery means being scared and going forward anyway.”
Kai hopes to find his father in NYC but returns to his village to help the young adolescents who lost their families and to rebuild his town. “I want to be/ like that tree/ deep roots/ making it strong/ keeping it/ standing tall.” And it is to his roots Kai returns and stays—“The quake moved the earth/ ten inches/ on its axis./ I guess/I shifted,” too.
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Willa and the Whale by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
“The ocean is filled with more wonders than the most brilliant explorer could ever discover or fully appreciate.” (1-2)
Twelve-year-old Willa inherited her knowledge and love of marine life from her mother, a renown marine biologist. Three years after she and her mother move to Japan to work, her mother dies of a heart condition. Willa returns to her home, Tupkuk Island, Washington, to live with her father and her new stepmother, stepsiblings, and baby half-sister.
Filled with grief and not used to a noisy household where she doesn’t feel she fits, Willa connects with a female humpback whale on a whale-watching expedition and finds they can communicate with each other. As Willa explains human behaviors to “Meg”, the whale helps Willa navigate her new life as she tries to reconnect with her former best friend Marc and figure out a new frenenemy, Lizzy, the smartest student in the class and who just may be more like Willa and a better friend than Willa assumes.
When an endangered blue whale washes up on shore and dies, Willa finds that her community, new friends, and family care as she does an,d each in their own ways, help her find a solution that respects Blue’s death.
Told through first person narrative, Willa’s journals, and the journals of her mother from when Willa was a baby, readers will learn not only an amazing amount of information about ocean life but about dealing with loss and relationships of various kinds.
As both Willa’s mother (Journal #13) and Meg say, “There are a lot of wonders and beauties in this world that continue to interest and surprise me, and I love a good surprise.” (247)
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“The ocean is filled with more wonders than the most brilliant explorer could ever discover or fully appreciate.” (1-2)
Twelve-year-old Willa inherited her knowledge and love of marine life from her mother, a renown marine biologist. Three years after she and her mother move to Japan to work, her mother dies of a heart condition. Willa returns to her home, Tupkuk Island, Washington, to live with her father and her new stepmother, stepsiblings, and baby half-sister.
Filled with grief and not used to a noisy household where she doesn’t feel she fits, Willa connects with a female humpback whale on a whale-watching expedition and finds they can communicate with each other. As Willa explains human behaviors to “Meg”, the whale helps Willa navigate her new life as she tries to reconnect with her former best friend Marc and figure out a new frenenemy, Lizzy, the smartest student in the class and who just may be more like Willa and a better friend than Willa assumes.
When an endangered blue whale washes up on shore and dies, Willa finds that her community, new friends, and family care as she does an,d each in their own ways, help her find a solution that respects Blue’s death.
Told through first person narrative, Willa’s journals, and the journals of her mother from when Willa was a baby, readers will learn not only an amazing amount of information about ocean life but about dealing with loss and relationships of various kinds.
As both Willa’s mother (Journal #13) and Meg say, “There are a lot of wonders and beauties in this world that continue to interest and surprise me, and I love a good surprise.” (247)
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Wings in the Wild by Margarita Engle
2018: Teen refugees from two different worlds. Soleida, the bird-girl (La Nina Ave), is fleeing an oppressive Cuban government who has arrested her parents, protesters of artistic liberty, their hidden chained-bird sculptures exposed during a hurricane; she is stranded in a refugee camp in Costa Rica after walking thousands of miles toward freedom. Dariel is fleeing from a life in California where he plays music that communicates with wild animals but also where he and his famous parents are followed by paparazzi and his life is planned out, complete with Ivy League university. When a wildfire burns his fingertips, he decides to go with his Cuban Abuelo to interview los Cubanos de Costa Rica for his book. And then he decides to stay to study, hopefully to save, the environment.
When Soleida and Dariel meet, he helps her feel joy—and the right to feel joy—again, and they fall in love, combining their shared passions for art and music, artistic freedom, and eco-activism into a human rights and freedom-of-expression campaign to save Soleida’s parents and other Cuban artists and to save the endangered wildlife and the forests through a reforestation project. This soulful story, beautifully and lyrically written by the 2017-19 Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle is not as much a story of romance but of a combined calling to save the planet and the soul of the people—art. Soleida and Dariel join my Tween and Teen Justice & Change Seekers.
Wings in the Wild also reintroduces two of my favorite characters, Liana and Amado of Your Heart-My Sky, who “became local heroes by teaching everyone how to farm during the island’s most tragic time of hunger.” (5)
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2018: Teen refugees from two different worlds. Soleida, the bird-girl (La Nina Ave), is fleeing an oppressive Cuban government who has arrested her parents, protesters of artistic liberty, their hidden chained-bird sculptures exposed during a hurricane; she is stranded in a refugee camp in Costa Rica after walking thousands of miles toward freedom. Dariel is fleeing from a life in California where he plays music that communicates with wild animals but also where he and his famous parents are followed by paparazzi and his life is planned out, complete with Ivy League university. When a wildfire burns his fingertips, he decides to go with his Cuban Abuelo to interview los Cubanos de Costa Rica for his book. And then he decides to stay to study, hopefully to save, the environment.
When Soleida and Dariel meet, he helps her feel joy—and the right to feel joy—again, and they fall in love, combining their shared passions for art and music, artistic freedom, and eco-activism into a human rights and freedom-of-expression campaign to save Soleida’s parents and other Cuban artists and to save the endangered wildlife and the forests through a reforestation project. This soulful story, beautifully and lyrically written by the 2017-19 Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle is not as much a story of romance but of a combined calling to save the planet and the soul of the people—art. Soleida and Dariel join my Tween and Teen Justice & Change Seekers.
Wings in the Wild also reintroduces two of my favorite characters, Liana and Amado of Your Heart-My Sky, who “became local heroes by teaching everyone how to farm during the island’s most tragic time of hunger.” (5)
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With Just One Wing by Brenda Woods
Cooper Jaxon Garnette was a Safe Haven Baby; his birth mother brought him to the local hospital emergency room when he was one day old.
Coop was adopted by his first foster parents and raised in a loving household with two parents and, across town, two paternal grandparents, all extremely musically talented. Coop could not even carry a tune, but he knew he was loved. However, for eleven years he wondered how a mother could give a baby (him) away. He has unrelenting questions that he asks himself, “Where is she, somewhere close or far away? Does she ever think about me? Would I recognize her if I saw her? Would she recognize me?” (ARC 11)
Watching some bird eggs in his G-Pop’s tree and then climbing for a better look, the bird parents protect their eggs, divebombing Coop, and he falls and is in a coma. Finally released from the hospital with a broken arm and no basketball to keep him busy, he and his friend Zandi watch the birds become hatchlings and then nestlings and, finally, three of the four become fledglings, leaving the nest and learning to fly.
He and Zandi rescue the mockingbird baby born with only one wing and research how to care for and feed him. They grow to love Hop and builds a small Bird Sanctuary in G-Pop’s yard which he can watch from his cage and the deck.
But when Hop gets lose, is injured, and taken to a vet, they learn that it is illegal to keep a mockingbird caged. Coop and Zandi also understand that Hop needs other birds to help him learn to sing. They can follow the law and put Hop in a safe place if they relinquish him to a bird aviary run by the Yolanda, the Bird Lady. “’Thank you, Coop,’ Yolanda replied. ‘Giving up something we love because we know it’s the best thing to do takes courage.’” (ARC 154).
Even with all the unfortunate events, the summer experiences just may have helped Coop to understand why his birth mother may have done what she did.
This novel could serve as a mirror for children who are adopted or in foster care as well as any grade 4-8 readers looking for characters who show resilience.
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Cooper Jaxon Garnette was a Safe Haven Baby; his birth mother brought him to the local hospital emergency room when he was one day old.
Coop was adopted by his first foster parents and raised in a loving household with two parents and, across town, two paternal grandparents, all extremely musically talented. Coop could not even carry a tune, but he knew he was loved. However, for eleven years he wondered how a mother could give a baby (him) away. He has unrelenting questions that he asks himself, “Where is she, somewhere close or far away? Does she ever think about me? Would I recognize her if I saw her? Would she recognize me?” (ARC 11)
Watching some bird eggs in his G-Pop’s tree and then climbing for a better look, the bird parents protect their eggs, divebombing Coop, and he falls and is in a coma. Finally released from the hospital with a broken arm and no basketball to keep him busy, he and his friend Zandi watch the birds become hatchlings and then nestlings and, finally, three of the four become fledglings, leaving the nest and learning to fly.
He and Zandi rescue the mockingbird baby born with only one wing and research how to care for and feed him. They grow to love Hop and builds a small Bird Sanctuary in G-Pop’s yard which he can watch from his cage and the deck.
But when Hop gets lose, is injured, and taken to a vet, they learn that it is illegal to keep a mockingbird caged. Coop and Zandi also understand that Hop needs other birds to help him learn to sing. They can follow the law and put Hop in a safe place if they relinquish him to a bird aviary run by the Yolanda, the Bird Lady. “’Thank you, Coop,’ Yolanda replied. ‘Giving up something we love because we know it’s the best thing to do takes courage.’” (ARC 154).
Even with all the unfortunate events, the summer experiences just may have helped Coop to understand why his birth mother may have done what she did.
This novel could serve as a mirror for children who are adopted or in foster care as well as any grade 4-8 readers looking for characters who show resilience.
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Your Heart - My Sky: Love in the Time of Hunger by Margarita Engle
This verse novel introduced me to a somewhat recent era of Cuba''s history, “el period especial en tiempos de paz.” The government’s name for the 1990s is “the special period in times of peace,” but in reality is a period of extreme hunger resulting from the loss of Soviet aid, the US trade embargo, and the government prohibition of the growing, buying, and selling of agricultural products. Even though the 1991 Pan Am Games are being held in Havana, where visitors and athletes are sure to find food, the people in the towns face starvation, their food rations reduced even more.
No witnesses.
We are like an outer isle
Off the shore of another island.
Forgotten. (3)
My parents quietly call it tourist apartheid.
Everything for outsiders.
Nothing for islanders. (Liana, 6)
Readers are introduced to the disastrous effects of these policies on the citizens through the three narrators: Liana, Amado, and the Singing Dog who serves as a matchmaker between, and a guard of, the two adolescents.
Liana and Amado are both rebels in their own ways: Liana skips la escuela al campo “a summer of forced so-called-volunteer farm labor,” possibly giving up college or a government-assigned tolerable job, spending her days looking for food. Amado has made a pact with his brother who is in jail for speaking against the government. He is worried that he won’t be able to keep his promise to avoid the mandatory military service—“men have to serve in the reserves until they’re fifty”—and promote peace, possibly joining his brother in prison.
Maybe I should let myself be trained to kill,
become a soldier, gun-wielding, violent,
a dangerous stranger, no longer
me. (Amado, 24)
In beautiful lyrical verse, lines that caused me to re-read and savor, Liana and Amado meet and fall in love,
The pulse in my mind wanders away
From hunger, toward something I can barely name.
A spark
of wishlight
on the dark horizon’s
oceanic warmth. (Liana, 35)
Liana meets Amado’s grandparents who are growing vegetables and fruits in hidden gardens, and she is given seeds to start her own gardens. She dreams of starting a kitchen restaurant.
Everything has changed inside our minds
So that we are intensely aware of our ability
To seize control of hunger,
Transforming food
Into freedom. (110)
Amado and Liana help fleeing refugees, even though
Leaving the island is forbidden by law
And it is equally illegal
To know that someone is planning to flee. (95)
When Amado receives a note from his brother releasing him from their pact, he secretly plans their rafting escape. But the indecision brought about by the precariousness of the trip cause them to reconsider.
All we have in our shared hearts
is one imaginary raft--
How shall we use it?
Climb aboard or set it loose,
Let that alternate future
drift away? (Liana and Amado, 197)
A beautiful story of a terrible time in Cuban history and two resilient families connected by love (and a singing dog).
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This verse novel introduced me to a somewhat recent era of Cuba''s history, “el period especial en tiempos de paz.” The government’s name for the 1990s is “the special period in times of peace,” but in reality is a period of extreme hunger resulting from the loss of Soviet aid, the US trade embargo, and the government prohibition of the growing, buying, and selling of agricultural products. Even though the 1991 Pan Am Games are being held in Havana, where visitors and athletes are sure to find food, the people in the towns face starvation, their food rations reduced even more.
No witnesses.
We are like an outer isle
Off the shore of another island.
Forgotten. (3)
My parents quietly call it tourist apartheid.
Everything for outsiders.
Nothing for islanders. (Liana, 6)
Readers are introduced to the disastrous effects of these policies on the citizens through the three narrators: Liana, Amado, and the Singing Dog who serves as a matchmaker between, and a guard of, the two adolescents.
Liana and Amado are both rebels in their own ways: Liana skips la escuela al campo “a summer of forced so-called-volunteer farm labor,” possibly giving up college or a government-assigned tolerable job, spending her days looking for food. Amado has made a pact with his brother who is in jail for speaking against the government. He is worried that he won’t be able to keep his promise to avoid the mandatory military service—“men have to serve in the reserves until they’re fifty”—and promote peace, possibly joining his brother in prison.
Maybe I should let myself be trained to kill,
become a soldier, gun-wielding, violent,
a dangerous stranger, no longer
me. (Amado, 24)
In beautiful lyrical verse, lines that caused me to re-read and savor, Liana and Amado meet and fall in love,
The pulse in my mind wanders away
From hunger, toward something I can barely name.
A spark
of wishlight
on the dark horizon’s
oceanic warmth. (Liana, 35)
Liana meets Amado’s grandparents who are growing vegetables and fruits in hidden gardens, and she is given seeds to start her own gardens. She dreams of starting a kitchen restaurant.
Everything has changed inside our minds
So that we are intensely aware of our ability
To seize control of hunger,
Transforming food
Into freedom. (110)
Amado and Liana help fleeing refugees, even though
Leaving the island is forbidden by law
And it is equally illegal
To know that someone is planning to flee. (95)
When Amado receives a note from his brother releasing him from their pact, he secretly plans their rafting escape. But the indecision brought about by the precariousness of the trip cause them to reconsider.
All we have in our shared hearts
is one imaginary raft--
How shall we use it?
Climb aboard or set it loose,
Let that alternate future
drift away? (Liana and Amado, 197)
A beautiful story of a terrible time in Cuban history and two resilient families connected by love (and a singing dog).
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