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)

 

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)

All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson

 On Sage's 13th birthday, her best friend is hit by a car and killed. Sage is overcome with grief, and works with councilors to try to deal with it.  She is part of a grief group at school, but feels that her own situation is far more difficult than those in the group who lost their grandmother or someone through a long drawn out sickness, because her friend died so suddenly.  Can Sage ever feel joy or happiness again?

This novel, written in verse, won the Newbery Medal this year  It is very well written and feels like it authentically represents what a young teen might go through while grieving the death of their friend.  I can see why the committee chose it for the Newbery Medal, but I am also disappointed that it won.  It really is a bit of a downer.  I could see that it would be valuable for a child going through grief, but I don't know if I would ever recommend it to a child who was just looking for a good book to read. I think that sometimes the committee is moved by these kinds of Rx books, thinking that they would be "so good for children."  The truth is, no book is good for children unless they are willing to read it. Only a small subset of children are interested in a book where someone's best friend dies. (2025, 208 p)

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

 Michael Rosario doesn't understand why the adults around him aren't preparing for the Y2K crisis that is looming in a couple of months. He is secretly stockpiling canned food, filched from the local grocery store, under his bed. His mother works three jobs, and he has a crush on his 16 year old babysitter, Gibby.  One day a strange teen-age boy shows up on the bench outside of his apartment building. Ridge is wearing strange clothing, and seems fascinated by pretty normal every-day things, like a microwave, or a CD player. Michael and Gibby discover he has traveled from the future, and he is both excited to learn about the 1990's and terrified about what his presence in the past will do to his world in the future. Ridge had a book with the general outline of events during the next ten years, and Michael is desperate to read it and discover if Y2K is going to be as bad as he fears. Can he betray his new friend and risk the future of the world to allay his own anxieties?

This is the Newbery book for this year.  It is a well deserved award, and I think a lot of people, both kids and adults would enjoy reading this book.  There is a lot in here about family and the importance of relationships.  There is also a major theme about how to calm anxieties about the future. Kelly conveys the idea that, although bad things happen, in the end we will get through them, without monologuing or feeling preachy.  Michael and Gibby are authentic and sympathetic characters, and even Ridge comes across as a normal kid in a complicated situation. The overall tone of the book is hopeful--a message kids really need right now. (272, 2024)

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

Nisha and her twin brother, Amil, live with their father who is a doctor, their grandmother, and a servant, Kazi, in what is about to become Pakistan. Nisha's father is Hindu, and Nisha and her brother have been raised to be Hindu, but their mother, who died in childbirth, and Kazi are both Muslim.  When India gains its independence from England, they partition the larger country of India into India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims.  Violence erupts, and people who used to be their friends, are suddenly trying to drive Nisha's family from their home. The politics are confusing to the children, and they are upset to have to leave their home and friends.  On the trek across the desert to the border they face starvation and violence, but their struggles also bring their family together. 

I don't know how I missed this book back in 2019 when it won a Newbery Honor. (Actually, I was so caught up with being a new library director that year, I missed a lot of things.)  This is a beautifully written but heartrending historical fiction.  Both Nisha, who is shy and studios, and Amil, who is active but has learning disabilities, are sympathetic characters. Every character in the story is fully drawn and the reader can feel their internal struggles.  Before reading the book I was not really aware of what happened when they partitioned off Pakistan from India, and it made me wonder, as Nisha did, why freedom from England should have created such discord in India. An author's note at the end explains more about the humanitarian tragedy. (304, 2019)

The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers

 Johannes is a stray dog who lives in a large park in a large city. The bison watch over the park to maintain the balance, and Johannes acts as "eyes" for the bison who are confined in an enclosure. Whenever Johannes sees pet dogs, he is proud of his freedom, but the thing he is most proud of is how he can run "at the speed of light". Things start to change in the park.  There is a new building, a boatload of goats, and new kinds of visitors that bring trouble.  All these start to change Johannes' view of the world, and of himself.

This is the Newbery winner for this year, and oh, does it deserve it.  The writing is fresh and vibrant and the story is original.  Most of all, Johannes and the other animals in the park have wonderful voices. Johannes sounds "doggy," the Bison sound "bison-y" and the squirrel sounds "squirrel-y".  What's more, the reader does a wonderful job performing all the different characters, capturing, especially, Johannes' exuberance for life. As soon as I read this book I wanted to order a copy for my grandkids.  I really think it will take its place among other great animal classics like Charlotte's Web and The One and Only Ivan. (2023, 256 p.
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Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson

 Clay and his family is in lockdown during a world pandemic. Clay and his siblings squabble over use of the computer, and his parents are worried about money. To escape, Clay goes into the forest behind his house.  There he finds an unusual looking dog. He does not know that the dog, Elphinore, is from the fairy realm. At first Elphinore wants to return to the royal kennels in the Fairy Court, but she soon comes to enjoy playing with the boy and being part of his family. While he is with Elphinore, Clay can enter and explore the fairy realm.  They go on adventures together and make both friends and enemies, but Clay's adventures help heal his lonely heart, and his relationships with his family. 

It is kind of fun that M.T. Anderson has finally won a Newbery Honor. My kids and I really enjoyed his fantasy series when they were teens, and he has also done some picture books and historical fiction.  Most of his novels are YA, but this one is squarely middle grade. It is an unusual choice for Newbery.  It is amazing that it doesn't have a single LGBTQ character, and the only social issue it deals with is the strain that the global pandemic had on families. It is, in many ways, just an old fashion fantasy, with some funny scenes and some intense scenes.  There is a bit of common wisdom that when they world is tough, the Newbery choice is gentle, and when the world is gentle, the Newbery choice is tough.  I think we are seeing that here.  There is so much strife in the world, I think the committee liked that the book was about family healing. As difficult as the pandemic was, I have heard several people say how staying home with their families during the pandemic brought them closer together.  Even though this is a fantasy with a magic dog and fairy people, that is what this book captures. (2023, 240p)

The Many Assassinations of Samir, Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri

 A young orphan flees from some angry monks from a monastery where he had been working as an errand boy.  He is saved by a traveling merchant, Samir, who buys him from the monks for the value of six lengths of cloth. Samir calls the boy Monkey, since he wears a monk's robe, and together they travel along the Silk Road with a caravan of interesting tradesmen and women. Monkey soon figures out that his new master is not always honest in his transactions, and as a result, there are a lot of people who want to kill him.  Monkey has to decide how far he will go to help Samir in hopes of winning his own freedom. 

This is one of the Newbery Honor books this year.  I must give the committee credit for choosing something original and unique.  The setting is interesting; the Silk Road trading route in the middle ages. The author includes a note in the end explaining what the Silk Road was and how much of the setting and the ethnic groups represented were based on history.  The thing that makes the story really work, though,  are the characters of Samir and Monkey. Samir is a trickster character, but a loveable one.  He always has a good story to tell, and sometimes shows surprising willingness to forgo an advantageous trade to help someone out.  It is fun to watch Monkey slowly switch from being a self-righteous monk's apprentice to learning the art of the bargain, and, when needed, the hasty escape. I can't say I was as impressed with this book as I was with the other Newbery Honor I read recently, Simon Sort of Says, but I do appreciate that it wasn't just another social issues book. (2023, 224 p.)

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

 Homer has grown up as an enslaved boy on a plantation with this mother and sister, Ada. His mother and the two children make an attempt to escape to the south, and they are partially successful, but Homer convinces his mother to go back and get his best friend Anna.  When she does, she gets caught.  Homer and Ada are on their own in the swamp near their plantation.  The are found by a formerly enslaved man, Suleman who leads them to a secret community called Freewater deep in the swamp.  Homer and Ada find safety and friendship in the community, but Homer feels a terrible need to return and free his mother.  One of their new friends, Sanzi wants to be just like her hero, Suleman, and longs to leave Freewater where she was born to see the outside world. Defying all the advice of the adults around them, the children set out to make things right.

This is the winner of both the Newbery and the Coretta Scott King award last year.  I am sorry to say I didn't much like it. I only fought my way to the end because it received so much attention.  So, what didn't I like about it? The main problem was the character of Sanzi.  She was stupid and selfish.  Someone might defend her character by saying she was acting like a pretty normal 10-year-old would have acted, and that may be true, but I still didn't want to read about her.  She was making such big mistakes that had life-and-death ramifications for the whole colony and nobody was stopping her. Where were the adults in her life? All they did was give her a heart-felt lecture and then let her run off and do reckless things again.  I hate reading about stupid children in books. The other thing that bothered me was that the place, Freewater, didn't ever feel like a real place to me. I felt they didn't really capture how hard and nasty it would be to live in a swamp. They didn't talk about mosquitos, or stink, or fire ants, or the problem of getting enough nutrition living on a diet of fish and acorns. One commentator I read suggested the setting was implied to be in Florida.  I lived in Florida for five years, and know a little what a southern swamp is like.  In a southern swamp you never forget about the bugs, or the cotton mouths, or the gators if you want to stay alive.  Anyway, I think maybe kids might like it because there are adventures, and kind of an idealized hideaway place...I guess. Not my favorite Newbery. (416 p. 2022)

Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango

 Iveliz is excited to have a new start in seventh grade.  The last few years have been difficult as she has dealt with PTSD and other mental health issues.  She makes goals to listen to her mother, do well in class and not be sent to detention.  She also wants to help her grandmother, who is suffering with Alzheimer's disease and recently moved from Puerto Rico, feel comfortable in America.  All her plans fall apart when kids at school make fun of her and she looses control.  From there things spiral until she finally has to face the fact that she needs real help. 

This is one of the Newbery Honor books for this year.  It is written in free verse, but listening to it on audio, I wouldn't have been able to tell you it was written in verse.  It it really just very sparse prose. It has a lot of Spanish in it, and usually I can follow Spanglish in books, but on the recording it was spoken with a Puerto Rican accent and I had a hard time following.  This is one of the social issues books where there are multiple trials the girl is going through.  Unfortunately life for some kids are like that, and perhaps reading a book like this will give some kids hope.  Iveliz has an authentic voice, and the other characters in the story--the mother, her friends, her therapist and her grandmother--are all multidimensional and sympathetic.  It is impressive how much Arango fits into so few words.  I can see why this book won the Newbery Honor, but sometimes I feel sad that all the Newbery winners these days are RX books.  None of them are just fun books that are a delight to read.  I know it is important to have books that help children deal with complicated lives, but it is also important to have books that allow kids to escape and have fun.  I guess those kinds of books are out there.  They just don't win prizes.  (272 p. 2022)

Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee

 Maizy lives in California, but is spending the summer in Last Chance Minnesota with her grandparents. She hasn't had much interaction with them because of tension between her mother and grandmother, but now her grandfather's health is failing and Maizy's mother has come to help run the family Chinese restaurant and care for her father.  Maizy ends up being assigned to keep her grandfather company and they strike up a friendship.  As Maizy's grandfather teaches her how to play poker, he also tells the story of his family's journey to American and their experiences as the only Chinese-Americans in Last Chance.  

This book was a Newbery Honor and a National Book Award finalist this year.  It is well written and gives an age appropriate look into the experience of a multigenerational Chinese American family.  During the Covid-19 epidemic, there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment because some people blamed China for the epidemic. I think it likely that this book was written in response to that.  I think is is a good response to that, but I didn't think it was a lot better written than a lot of other multicultural realistic fiction that I have read.  Still, it was sweet and sincere.  (2022, 288p.)

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontorvat

 Sai pretends to be a well-bred young woman from a prominent family, but she is really the impoverished daughter of a petty criminal.  By a stroke of luck, she becomes the assistant to a famous mapmaker, and when the emperor calls for ships to go on exploring expedition she jumps at the chance to accompany her master, if only to get away from her overbearing drunk of a father. Once on the high seas, her excitement about the adventure wanes when she discovers that her shipmates have hidden agendas that lead into danger.  She must choose between glory and honor, loyalty and riches and the choice might just cost her life.

This is an interesting Newbery honor book from last year.  The book is clearly set in a fantasy world based on an Asian culture, but I didn't know it was based on a Thai legend until I read the Amazon blib just now.  This book has a lot going for it. It is an exciting adventure story with a strong but complex main character. There is intrigue and mystery. The reader, like the characters, is not sure whether the legends about the Sunderlands are true or not until the very end. There is also a loud and clear message about the consequences of unrestrained ambition and imperialism.  I am always glad when a Newbery winner is actually going to be an easy book to recommend to kids and I think this one fits the bill. (2022, 368p)

Merci Suares Changes Gears by Med Medina

 Merci is starting her first year of junior high at a private school.  She misses the nurturing support of her 6th grade teacher, but looks forward to getting to play on the junior high soccer team.  Merci lives in Florida, in a row of three houses occupied by her extended family.  She is especially close to her grandfather whom she calls Lolo.  As the school year progresses, Merci begins to notice that her Lolo is struggling with some things that never bothered him before.  Merci has her own struggles at school as she repeated finds herself at the mercy of a bossy queen bee, Edna. Then there is the new kid, Michael, from Montana, that seems to want to spend more time with Merci, who definitely does not have a crush on him, than Edna, who definitely does. Could life ever be more complicated?

This book won the Newbery in 2019, but I had never "read" it because, for some unknown reason, it is not available in audio.  I finally bit the bullet and checked out a text based version.  It received a lot of attention and awards when it came out, and it was good, but I didn't think it was amazing.  It is one of the books that tries to pack in a bunch of social issues. I thought the way Medina handled Merci's grandfather's decline was well done.  Her relationship with her brother is sweet, and her challenges with her "friends" believable.  It was worth reading, but I don't know if I would have given it a Newbery. (2018, 368 p)

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

 Petra Pena loves the stories her grandmother tells of their Aztec ancestors.  She wants to become a storyteller, too, but her life is upended when Haley's Comet goes of course and heads towards Earth.  Petra's family is given the chance to join a few hundred who will escape the utter distruction of the earth in star ships.  She will be put in stasis and awaken 400 years later on a new planet.  It is a desperate plan, and, unfortunately, desperate people send it off course, just like the comet.  When Petra wakes up the ship has been taken over by a group of radicals who want complete unity through complete homogeneity. Petra tries desperately to hold onto her dream of being a storyteller, while trying to find her family and see a way through to a new life like the one she was promised.

This is the Newbery winner for 2022.  I have been waiting on hold for it for 6 months, and it turned out to be nothing like I expected.  First off, it is amazing that a science fiction won the Newbery Medal.  The last real SciFi to win was The Giver written about 30 years ago. This book was like The Giver in theme, crossed with Wall-E in setting.  The whole message was about the importance of diversity and culture in making a life meaningful.  I guess I can see how that message could resonate right now with so many groups clamoring for inclusivity and tollerance.  

I must admit I didn't love the book.  The scientific elements were weak, which was distracting to me. Also, as Petra was telling the other children her stories, I kept thinking, "They have been on a space ship 400 years, why would they know that word, or that term?"  I also thought there wasn't much character development. Petra goes through horrific experiences, but doesn't really change much because of them. She endures, but doesn't grow. The thing that was the biggest turn off was that most of the book felt pretty hopeless. I knew it would have something of a happy ending at last, because it was written for a middle-grade audience, but it was 98% downer and only 2% happy ending. I am being overly harsh.  I am impressed with how original it was in concept, and different from what others are writing.  I can see how lots of people will have liked it. It just wasn't my cup of tea. (2021, 336 p)

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

 Nina has grown up with her grandmother and great grandmother's stories about the animal people from the land of spirits. Odd people visit her father's book store every week, and she secretly suspects they are from the other realm.  Oli is a cottonmouth person from the spirit world who is just learning to survive on his own.  When one of his best friends is threatened with extinction, he gathers up his courage, and a crew of loyal friends, to venture to the world above.  There, by chance, he meets Nina, and together they face down incredible forces. 

When the Newbery winner and honors were announced a couple of months ago, I went ahead and put them all on hold. This was an honor book, but I don't know why.  In the story a Native American girl meets a character from her culture's faith tradition. The cultural elements of the story were fairly interesting, but the pacing of the story was terribly slow. I think it could have been a good story but it needed an editor with a stronger hand to wrestle it into shape.  For instance, the two main characters don't even meet until were half way through the book.  The author could have started where Oli and Nina meet, fill in the backstory along the way, and the book would have been much more engaging.  The other main flaw was that the reader who read Oli's chapters wasn't very good.  He kept missing the natural flow of the sentences, so they often sounded stilted and unnatural. So, I am not sure why this book won an award, except that maybe someone on the committee thought Native American authors were underrepresented. (352 p. 2021)

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff

 Bug lives in a haunted house with her mom and uncle.  When her uncle dies after a long sickness, paranormal experiences in the house escalate, and Bug believes her uncle is trying to tell her something.  Meanwhile, Bug's best friend, Moira, is gearing up for their first year in middle school by practicing makeup and upgrading her wardrobe to include more cute sundresses. Bug feels vaguely that she should be interested in those kind of things, but when Moira tries to dress her up in cute girly clothes or paint her fingernails, it only makes something in her stomach twist. Meanwhile the experiences with her uncle's ghost lead her on a path to self-discovery that ultimately helps her accept her real identity.

This is another of the Newbery Honor books from last year.  I didn't like it as well as Red White and Whole (see previous review).  It is well written, and the characters are sympathetic, but there are a lot of controversial ideas here.  (spoiler alert).  In the end, the ghost leads Bug to discover that she is transgender. I read the book George, and in that book, the child had believed he was really a she for a long time and the book was about getting the courage to tell someone how she felt.  In this book, however, the only evidence that Bug has that she is a he, is that he isn't interested in dresses and makeup and giggling about boys.  I don't know if it is a great message that if you are not a girly girl, you aren't a girl at all. There are plenty of girls who don't like makeup or dresses, but are still girls.  Also, Bug makes the discovery that she is transgender soon after the death of the Uncle, during a family financial crisis, and right before starting middle school. I don't think an 12-year-old, who hasn't even started puberty yet, should be making those kinds of decisions in the middle of emotional crisis.  Finally, the book portrayed Bug's decision to come out as transgender as the solution to all his problems.  Everyone in his life accepts his decision without drama or trauma.  I don't think that is realistic.  I don't see a school of early teenagers, or their teachers, all being that kind and accepting. (2021, 192 p)

Red White and Whole Rajani LaRocca

 Reha is the only daughter of a couple from India.  They came to America to make a new life for themselves and for Reha.  As Reha prepares to start high school she feels stifled by her parents conservative traditionalism.  She wants to fit in with her friends, but her parents want her to maintain the standards of their Hindi heritage.  Then Reha's mother becomes ill and Reha begins to question all the times she had resented her parent's strictness with her.  She thinks if she can be the perfect Indian daughter, maybe the gods will hear her prayers to save her mother.

This was a Newbery Honor book last year, and totally deserves it.  It is beautifully written in free verse; both heartrending and heartwarming at the same time.  Even though Reha is dealing with issues around being Indian, her story is about every child growing up and wrestling with how they fit into their family while fitting into the world.  I was really impressed with the fact that she has two parents who love her but show it differently.  It is pretty rare these days to have functional family life portrayed in children's literature.  I am glad the Newbery committee chose a book that is inclusive but not overburdened with a dozen social issues. (2021, 224 p)

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

A family of fox kits sneaks out to hear stories that are supposed to be so scary they will "put the white in their tales."  Six young foxes sit together as the stories begin, but as the heroes of the stories face sickness, familial betrayal, a giant water lizard, and a crazed taxidermist, one fox after another sneaks away to the safety of their own den.  As the storyteller warned at the beginning of her tale, only those who are brave enough to last until the end will find the stories contain, not only terror, but also love.

This book won a Newbery honor medal last year.  It is a unusual book.  You wouldn't think that stories about anthropomorphized foxes could be very intense, but they are.  Heck, I almost sneaked away like the little foxes did after the first couple of stories.  The writing is lovely, and, like I said, very intense.  I am not quite sure what, if anything, the book was meant to accomplish, except maybe to reassure the reader, that, no matter how bad things get, there can still be better times ahead.  That said, I would not give this to any child unless they specifically asked for a scary story.  It could make a sensitive child have bad dreams for weeks, especially if they didn't finish the book.  Especially disturbing is the story about the an knife wielding Beatrix Potter. She puts even Dolores Umbridge to shame. (2019, 314 p)

New Kid by Jerry Craft

Jordan is going to a new school for the first time.  He is from the Bronx, but his new school is a private school uptown.  Jordan experiences subtle acts of prejudice, but eventually makes friends with two other boys who each have their own reasons for feeling like outsiders.

I am a little embarrassed that it took me so long to read this book that got starred reviews everywhere last year and was the first graphic novel to win the Newbery.  I ended up liking it a lot.  It feels like the Smile by Telgemeier or Real Friends by Hale, but with a boy main character.  Craft sheds a light on all the subtle ways we can be and show prejudice.  One of Jordan's teacher's keeps calling him the name of the other black kid in his grade.  One of the boys keeps calling his Hispanic friend Mexican even though he is from Nicaragua.  Jordan, himself, is prejudice because he thinks his rich white friend doesn't have his own struggles.  Jordan shows courage to reach out, to defend, and to lift, and as he does, he builds friendships that cross social divides. (2019, 256 p.)