The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karnina Yan Glaser

 Luli lives in New York's China Town in the 1930's.  Her family's restaurant used to be crowed every day, but the stock market crash of 1929 changed all that, and now her family is at risk of losing not only their restaurant but their home. Luli tries to think of more ways to bring people to their restaurant, and decides to turn the storage room into a mini museum of some Chinese art that her uncle has collected. More than a century earlier, Han Yu's family comes down with a terrible plague. In a desperate effort to find a cure, 11- year-old Han Yu decides to travel the Silk Road with no one to help him but a host of animals, including a mystical tiger, that are strangely connected to him.  As the story of Luli and Han Lu play out in alternating chapters, both children test the limits of the courage to change the fates of their families. 

I put this on hold when the Newbery awards were announced back in January.  This was an Honor winner.  I was expecting to like is as much as "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri that won an Honor last year, but I did not. I think the problem with this book is that it tried to tell two stories. Though both of the stories were interesting, and the protagonists were likeable spunky children, putting both stories together slowed the pace of the book. It was clever how Glaser wove the two stories together around the central image of the silk fragment, but about 1/2 way through I got bored and had to increase the playback speed to get through it. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood this week. Still, I would recommend reading the Nayeri book over this one, especially for children, since the Nayeri book is half the length, and more exciting. (432 p. 2025)

 

Charming Artemis by Sarah M. Eden

 Charlie Jonquil, the youngest of the formidable Jonquil brothers, has only one enemy, Artemis Lancaster.  They have butted heads for years, and only just tolerate each other when they are brought together at family gatherings. Then, at one of said gatherings, they are caught in an innocent, but socially compromising position. The only way to save their reputations is to marry.  Artemis thinks all her hopes for a happy life are over, and Charlie has to give up his dream of becoming Cambridge Don.  Still, they are stuck with each other and it is in their best interest to try to get along. As they try,--and with lots of support from both their families--they begin to see good in each other and gradually, without really realizing it, they start to like, and maybe even love, each other.

This is, I think, the last of the "Lancaster Family" series.  In a way it serves as a kind of curtain call. We see all the different couples, joining together to help their youngest siblings.  It is also reminiscent of the first in the series, Seeking Persephone, because that one also dealt with two people learning to love in an arranged marriage. The book is very sweet and full of lots of warm fuzzies.  Even though Charlie and Artemis are supposed to be mean to each other, they never really are.  We see much more of them trying to get along than of them fighting. If you are at all not in mood for hot-chocolate-with-whipped-cream-and-sprinkles-in-print, you might want to wait on this one until you are. (281 p. 2017)

Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin by Nancy Springer

 Enola is at the funeral of one of her friends when she hears a bell ringing.  She follows the sound to its origins, and discovers that a young woman has been buried alive. Enola and her companions exhume and revive the woman, but she can't remember who she is and why someone would try to kill her. Of course, Enola is on the case, but as she starts to dig into the woman's past, she finds she is wading into very deep criminal waters. Soon, protecting her new young friend become a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Nancy Springer wrote her first six Enola Holmes books in the early 2000's and then waited more than 10 years to write the most recent four.  I think her return to the character is probably because of her success with the Enola Holmes series on Netflix. Or it might be because the Sir Arthur Conon Doyle family trust sewed Springer and others for copywrite infringement in 2020, but the suit was dismissed. Anyway, whatever the reason, we are glad she started writing more novels.  This one is as good as all her others.  Enola is such a fun character, with equal quantities of courage and insecurities.  (Spoiler) I thought it was brave of Springer to take on writing about Holme's arch enemy, but she used a creative angle and handled it well.  I wonder if her taking on "the man who must not be named" in this book means that it will be her last. (336p. 2026) 

Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah Eden

 Lieutenant Linus Lancaster has been hesitant to take the up the living that should have gone to his brother who died in his arms during the war. He reluctantly accepts an invitation to a house party being held by the Jonquil family not knowing that it is a ploy by his sisters to try to find a wife for him. He is not interested in the long line of debutants they march before him, but there is a young lady who catches his eye. Jonquil Dowager Matron has recently taken a companion.  Arabella was a neighbor to the Jonquils when they were all children, but left orphaned at a very young age.  She has long wished that she could be part of the large, energetic, and loving Jonquil family, but she, instead, was left to be raised by a cruel aunt and uncle. As the house party progresses, Anabella finds herself the keeper of many Jonquil family secrets, and the recipient of Lieutenant Lancaster's attentions. Their stations are so different neither of them believe they have a future together, but can they stand to live their futures apart?

Here is the next in the "Lancaster Family" series. I am not sure why 2 1/2 years have gone by since I read the last one.  I have enjoyed all of them.  They are clean, predictable, and heartwarming.  This one is no exception.  The romance between Linus and Arabella is sweet.  At one point the reader thinks, "why is he going away, doesn't he know he is in love with her?" but I think that young, inexperienced people sometimes take a little while to figure things out.  There is a tie-in to the mythological character, Linus, but it is not a major point in the plot. In the books in this series, the main characters are supported by their family and given timely advice. They are not perfect, but they do look out for each other, which is nice in this day and age when family units are not what they used to be.  (256, 2015)

The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri

When Babak's father is killed, Babak promises his little sister, Sana, vow they will stay together, even though their harsh aunt sends Babak to one family, and Sana to another.  In order to stay together they sneak away and attempt to join the nomadic travelers whom their father used to serve as an itinerate teachers. Their decision to find and follow the nomads lead them on a daring adventure through the deserts of Iran during WWII.  Because Iran is technically controlled by the Allies, British and Russian soldiers crowd the bars and tea houses, while German spies sneak around trying to learn secrets.  During their travels Babak and Sana meet a Jewish boy who is trying to return to his brother who has been shipped to Israel. Babak feels like he should help him, but the boy, hardened and sharpened by his experiences, has a difficult personality. Babak's only tool to deal with all the diversity and challenges of his life on the run is the chalk board that he father used to tutor nomadic children, and his love of language and teaching.

Here the winner of this year's Newbery Honor winner. It is a truly charming book and accessible to a wide range of ages.  I have read a lot of WWII stories, but this one is unique because Iran was an outlier in the conflict.  Both sides vied for control of its oil, but it never officially entered into the war.  The theme of the book is using communication to bridge cultural and political differences.  Babak tries to teach the nomads Farsi, and to get the Ben, the Jewish refugee, to teach him Hebrew. Barak not only tries to learn other's languages, he tries to understand how they are feeling as well. Babak's efforts to exercise cultural tolerance and understanding is at the core of the book's charm. It is interesting that this book and the previous book, Piecing Me Together, both deal with trying to understand different people's cultures and points of view, but this one does it in such a charming and heart warming way, while the other just left me feeling cold. (192 p. 2025)

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

 Jade is a "scholarship" student and one of only a few black students at an elite school in Washington. She knows she should feel grateful for the opportunity to get such a good education, but she often feels like she doesn't fit in.  However, when she gets together with the kids in her own neighborhood, she feels like an outsider with them as well, since they don't go to school together. When she meets a new girl, Sam, at her school who, although not black, at least has a family with as many challenges as Jade's, she begins to hope that she has at last found a friend at the school. As they hang out together, Jade begins to see that, even though Sam is from a similar neighborhood, life is different for her since she is white.  Sam doesn't seem to understand what it feels like to be the object of prejudice. Meanwhile her school councilor enrolls Jade in a "mentorship" program with a previous graduate of Jade's school who is a successful black woman. That doesn't work out as well as Jade had hoped either.  Why does everyone see her as someone who needs help instead of someone who could give help?

After I read All the Blues in the Sky by Ms Watson, I decided to read this, her earlier Newbery Honor book. It is well written. Watson tackles difficult questions about identity and race relations with sensitivity, and doesn't give in to any easy answers. It is probably inspirational to people in similar situations to Jade, but in the end I didn't enjoy it. Maybe that is the point. It is supposed to make white people feel uncomfortable. It helped me understand the defensive and combative attitudes I see in some of my minority students better, I guess. Still, I think there are other books about the same topic that I would recommend before this one, like anything by Jason Reynolds. (2017, 272p)

Land of Dragons by Beth McMullen

 In this second in the "Secret of the Storm" series, Cassie, Joe, Cassie's mom and  Miss Asher, the librarian, are all set to enter the Dragon World to save Albert.  Instead Albert comes back to their world, and seems to be on a mission to find someone who will help him save his mother.  The quest leads them to a dragon festival in another state where they make new friends and avoid old enemies. Meanwhile, Cassie's ability to control the glitter power she received from Albert is improving which is a good thing, because they will need all the friends and powers they can get if they are to save Albert's mother.

Sometimes when I am between holds, I just go through the books I have already read and look for the next in the series.  That is what happened here.  The second in the series does a good job of advancing the story of the first.  There are new characters to meet and new adventures to be had.  This is not likely to be an award winner, but I think there are a lot of 4th and 5th graders, or even younger children who are confident readers, who would enjoy this series. (272 p. 2023)