It All Comes Down to This by Karen English

This is an interesting historical fiction about a black girl that lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles in 1965.  Sophie and her family is one of the first black families in her neighborhood.  Her father is a lawyer, her mother also works full time and they have a maid that helps keep the house up.  Even though they are privileged does not mean they don't have their own struggles.  Sophie is sad that her sister will soon be going to college.  Sophie's sister is defying their parents by dating the son of their maid and "passing" as white at her place of employment.  Sophie is gradually coming to realize that even in her posh private school there is a lot of prejudice that prevents her from living her dreams. Everything comes to a head when Sophie's mother finds proof of what she has long suspected, her husband is stepping out on her.  With the help of a street toughened sister and a world-wise house maid, Sophie gradually learns to have the strength to make her own way in a difficult world.

This is a different view of the black experience in the 1960's.  English creates richly layered characters whose development through the book is authentically motivated.  Parents should beware that there is some language in this book, and English does not sugarcoat the conflict between Sophie's parents.  I really am not sure to whom I would recommend this book. It is the kind of book that is getting a lot of critical acclaim, but I suspect not a lot of kids will actually read it. (355 p. 2017)

Goodnight, Planet by Liniers

A favorite stuffed bunny accompanies its little mistress throughout the day, but at night it sneaks away to go in search of the moon with its friends, a dog and a mouse.  This is a nearly wordless picture book/graphic novel. As I have come to know graphic novels more this year, I have realized that there are graphic style books at all reading levels.  This one is appropriate for preschoolers, and the illustrations are lovely.  They are way above what people think of when they picture a comic book.  Still, it has the comic book format, with boxes and word bubbles.  It is an interesting time to be in tune with children's literature.  Authors and illustrators are blurring the boundaries of format and genre.  (32 p. 2017)

The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Morrigan is a Cursed Child.  Because Morrigan was born on Eventide she has spent her whole life being blamed for any bad thing that happened, and knowing she would die on her 11 birthday.  When her 11th birthday comes, instead of dying she is whisked away to another land, called Nevermoor, and registered as a candidate for the Wundrous Society.  Her sponsor is the jovial but mysterious Jupiter North, and soon she feels closer to him and her friends in Nevermoor than she ever did to her real family. But to stay in Nevermoor she must pass the four trials that will decide which of the 500 candidates will receive one of the nine appointments to the society.  As she progresses through her trials she learns more about herself, the other candidates, and the evil Wundersmith whose memory still haunts the land.

This is now my favorite fantasy from 2017.  It was fun and well crafted.  I kept expecting it to get dark and tragic, but it never did.  It has a lot of elements one could compare with Harry Potter, but not, I think, in a bad way.  The characters are strong, the plotting is great, and the fantasy world is a delight. I am eager to order a couple of extra copies of this one because I want to recommend it to a whole list of my favorite library patrons. I will have to look up and find out when the next in the series is coming out. (2017, 465 p.)

The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange

Henrietta (Hen) lives with her father, mother, nanny and little sister in a home in a forest outside of London shortly after WWI. The family is in mourning because their brother has recently died, and the mother has become severely depressed.  Hen and Nanny Jane try to keep the family going, but when the father goes away on business, and a over ambitious doctor wants to "experiment" on Hen's mother, Hen worries that her family and her life will fall apart.  She seeks solace with a vagrant woman she meets who is living in the forest near her house.  She  also gathers strength from her memories of her diseased brother who appears to her in the form of an imaginary friend.

This is a dark and brooding Gothic novel.  Hen's situation sinks lower and lower until she is at the point of despair.  She finally finds a way out, but the book might be too heavy for kids who are sensitive by nature and easily upset. It was a little bit hard for me to read, but Strange's beautiful use of language and a knowledge that children's books almost always have a happy ending kept me going. (2017, 288 p)

Swing it Sunny by Jennifer L. Holm

Here is the second in the graphic novel series that started with Sunny Side Up.  In this one Sunny is about to start Middle School.  She misses her brother who has been sent to a military school because of his rebellious behavior, but when he comes home for Thanksgiving, he is not very pleasant.  Sunny gets by and has fun hanging out with friends, watching TV, and eating TV dinners.  There were a lot of fun references to 70's culture that brought back personal memories. Sunny also has a sweet relationship with her grandfather.  It is targeted to those who like Smile or the other memoir type comics.  It was pretty good, not amazing, but I think kids will like it. (217 p. 2017)

Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke

Jack is charged with taking care of his autistic sister while he mom goes to work during the summer.  He isn't too excited about the prospect, until he buys a box of seeds at a flee market.  He and his sister enjoy working together to prepare a garden and plant the seeds.  Their crops are no ordinary vegetables.  They act like animals instead of plants and some even become threatening.  Jack is terrified by them, but his sister is really attached to them, and even speaks for the first time while in the garden.  Jack is torn between his fear the aggressive plants and his hope as he sees his sister's abilities improve.

This is an interesting modern twist on the "Jack and the Beanstalk" story.  Instead of a cow, Jack sells a car to buy the beans. The treasure Jack is after isn't gold, but his sister's welfare. There is no giant at the top of the beanstalk yet, but this is only the first book. This is a promising start to a new series with great action and characters. The second book in the series has already received starred reviews. (2016, 203 p.)

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez

Maria Luisa (Malu) is not happy that her mother is doing a sabbatical in Chicago.  It means that she will have to leave her friends and her father for a year and go to school in a totally new town. Her new school is bilingual, and Malu feels self conscious that even though her mother is Mexican, Malu doesn't know much Spanish.  Her mother is always wanting Malu to act like a "seniorita" but Malu would rather listen to punk musk and wear ratty jeans and band t-shirts.  As Malu struggles to make friends in her new school, and get along with her "supermexican" mom, she finds a way to acknowledge her Mexican heritage while maintaining her own identity.

 This is a cute and light-hearted realistic fiction.  Nobody dies, or does drugs or goes to jail.  It is just about a girl struggling to find her identity.  Between chapters Perez includes illustrations of the "zines" that Malu likes to make.  They are collages of pictures and words that mean a lot to Malu.  This, of course, would make a good kid's book club book, with the zines as a craft. I will have to think about whether I want to do this book for Mother/Daughter book club next fall. (2017, 310 p)

Dream Jumper by Greg Grunberg

Ben has very vivid dreams.  In them he meets and saves other people from peril.  He often ends up saving his best friend, only to find out that his friend had the exact same dream.  His parents are concerned about Ben's frequent nightmares, and send him to a sleep clinic.  But the sleep clinic is more than it seems, and soon Ben finds himself trapped in the dream world, and the only way out is to defeat the monster that lurks there in the shadows.

This was a great fantasy/adventure graphic novel.  The illustrations are all in color and the story moves along at an exciting pace.  I read this one because the second in the series is on my starred books list.  I have it on hold. (2016, 210 p.)

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

At the end of the book, "In the Shadow of the Sun" the author mentions some of the sources she used when researching the book.  One of them is this book.  When I finished that book, I opened my Overdrive app, and there, on the first page, was the book that I just heard mentioned.  I thought, "I don't have anything else to listen to right now, I might as well listen to this one."

It is a collection of stories by people who have defected from North Korea. Many of the stories focus on the time of the great famine in North Korea during the 1990's.  Some are about the wide spread starvation, and how people got by with only a few hundred calories a day.  Others are about how careful people had to be to not say or do anything that would bring them under suspicion.  The stories show how each of the featured people slowly came to distrust the indoctrination they had received their whole lives about their "Beloved Leader" and realize that life really was better outside of their homeland.  I enjoyed this book very much.  Since the author was telling stories about people's lives, it reads almost like a novel.  It made me very curious about how conditions are now, 9 years later.  (2009, 316 p.)

In the Shadow of the Sun by Anne O'Brien

Mia and her brother Simon, have traveled with their father to North Korea.  Mia's father has been an aid worker in North Korea for several years, but this trip is supposed to be purely recreational.  That all changes when Mia's father is arrested by North Korean police and Mia and Simon flee into the countryside so that they will not be arrested as well.  Mia and Simon start a long and dangerous trek toward the North Korea/Chinese boarder and along the way get a taste of what daily life is like for the oppressed people of that country.

I was fascinated to read this book and get a taste of what life is like for foreigners and citizens in what has been called the most oppressive dictatorships in the world.  The writer grew up in South Korea and the details of the story were meticulously researched.  O'Brien also does a great job with Mia and Simon's strained sibling relationship and character development.  This is a book that I am going to be recommending a lot, especially to adults that like to read children's novels. (2017, 303 p.)

The Song From Somewhere Else by A.F. Harrold

Frank, (short for Francesca) has been mercilessly bullied by Neil and his goons for over a year.  She lives in fear and sees no way out.  Then one day, Nick, a over-sized boy with body odor problems comes to her rescue.  At first Frank is afraid that now he will want to be her friend, which would cause her more social problems.  Yet something keeps bringing her back to his home, and slowly she comes to realize that he is more, much more, than he seems.

As always with these kinds of books, it was hard for me to read the bullying sections because of my own experience with bullying as an early teen. It is amazing how a few events from childhood stay with us for the rest of our lives.  I guess that is why so many writers write about bullying, because they are still dealing with wounds from their own early life.  The thing that made this story bearable is that Nick is such a nice guy.  Even when Frank does the ultimate betrayal of Nick, he doesn't lash out at her or blame her.  This is such a good story about how forgiveness can overcome hatred. The author left the story open for a sequel. We will have to see if one is forthcoming.  (2016 UK, 2017 US, 217 p.)

Charlie & Mouse by Laurel Snyder

One of my goals for the new year is to read more nonfiction and intermediate books.  I picked up this one thinking it was an intermediate, but it is actually an early reader. It is about the daily life of Charlie and his younger brother, Mouse.  They wake up every morning next to each other in bed.  They like bed time stories, neighborhood parties, and Popsicles.  The book contains 4 mini stories and is illustrated with charming ink and watercolor drawings. This book has very low level vocabulary, but a quaint kind of charm.  It reminds me a little of the Little Bear books. It has received some starred reviews and ended up on some Best Books lists. (2017, 36 p.)

The End of the Wild by Nicole Helget

Fern lives with her step father and two brothers in a small, run-down house in rural Minnesota. Fern's step father is unemployed and they get much of their food by foraging and poaching animals in a nearby forest. Despite their poverty and the absence of a mother who died in a car accident years before, they are relatively happy. Then a fracking company moves into town and threatens the woods near their home.  Fern feels threatened, but many in town welcome the company hoping for better employment opportunities.

I think this book is getting attention not because it is particularly well written, but because it deals sensitively with current issues.  The author resists the temptation to make the story about a innocent girl fighting against an evil corporation.  Helget clearly favors environmentalism, but acknowledges that there are arguments that fracking, although imperfect, may be in some cases better than other alternatives.  Like many realistic fiction, Helget adds a bunch of other social issues into the soup.  Fern's father has PTS and her best friend is a Muslim immigrant. There are discussions about foster care, and non-blood-related custodial parents. (Amazingly, no GBLT characters). Well drawn and sympathetic characters made it all work.  Best of all it was a really quick read. I actually read it in one afternoon. (266 p. 2017)

One Last Word by Nikki Grimes

This is the last book I needed to read from the Library's Mock Newbery List.  It is a collection of poetry by Nikki Grimes, based on poetry from many of the famous authors from the Harlem Renaissance.  What Grimes has done is taken lines, and even whole poems, and written new poems in which the last word of each line of the new poem is a word from the original poem.  For example, the line, "to your own self be true" could become the poem

It is not so hard to

Think of what your

Parents would do, but your own

Actions are a reflection of self

Not what your parents want you to be

So you must decide which you is true.

 (I just made that up, it is not from the book)

Grimes explains in an author's note that this form of poetry is call "Golden Shovel."  I must admit I wasn't that impressed at first.  I tend to like poetry with more rhyme and meter. As I read the collection, however, I began to realize that Grimes had put a lot of wisdom and hope into the poems. Many of the poems are directed specifically to a black audience, but have a message of self acceptance that is applicable to anyone.  I also really liked the illustrations that appear with each poem.  They are by a variety of the most prominent African American illustrators. All in all, I don't know how much readership this collection will have in my community, but I am not surprised that it has received a lot of national acclaim. (120 p. 2017)

Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman

This is one of the last books on my Newbery list.  It is a biography of Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo.  Vincent and Theo grew up in an small rural town in Denmark.  Their uncle was an art dealer, and Theo moved into that field as an adult.  Vincent tried a variety of professions before focusing on art in his early 30's.  He was manic depressive.  When he was on his high he would paint furiously all day and even when he crashed, he would paint to console himself.  Theo supported him financially and emotionally throughout his adult life and when Vincent committed suicide, Theo's health, never robust, declined. Theo died a short time after his brother. 

It is a very engrossing story and Heiligman tells it well with short chapters and an economy of words written in vivid present tense. The book has a few color plates of the art work discussed, but I wish they had included more.  I found myself stopping and looking up specific referenced paintings on google images.  This was a great book about brotherly love and the struggles of mental illness, but it absolutely is not a children's book.  Our library has it in the teen section, but it isn't a teen book either.  It is an adult book.  I hope it doesn't win the Newbery.  I don't want there to be a precedence of adult books being chosen as Newbery winners. (454 p. 2017)