“Open wide your arms to life, / Whirl in the wind of pain and strife, / Face the wall with the dark closed gate, / Beat with bare, brown fists – / And wait.” page 29 (excerpt from poem “Song”)
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Originally published in 1932 by Alfred A. Knopf, my edition Scholastic, New York, 1994. Poetry collection, 84 pages. Lexile: 1150L . AR Level: Not leveled.
Langston Hughes’ own selection and arrangement of his poems for young readers.
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
It’s books like this one that especially point out the lie that early literary education is not able to be diverse. Although my particular version was published in the early 90s, this book has been around since 1932!
The book opens with an introductory essay by Lee Bennett Hopkins, which succinctly summarizes the key points of Hughes’ life. It is skippable, but does add valuable context for those who choose to read it.
A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems by Gary Soto, illustrated by James M. Cardillo. Scholastic, New York, 1990. Poetry, 64 pages. Lexile: NP . (What does NP mean in Lexile?) AR Level: 5.4 (worth 1.0 points) . NOTE: See review for age appropriateness.
A collection of Gary Soto’s poems about growing up Mexican-American in the San Joaquin valley.
A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems by Gary Soto, illustrated by James M. Cardillo.
This was languishing in a little free library we frequent, untouched for far too long. I will probably release it back into a different free book environment if none of the kids I know want it.
With only 23 poems this is a slim volume. I thought at first that all or most were written for this book, but they are reprinted from other books or magazines. The majority come from his collection Black Hair, but some are from other sources.
The book also includes a forward, Q&A, and a few lines introducing each individual poem. That helps give context to the poems, adds more of a narrative flow to the book, and also helps make it a bit more substantial. It makes the collection more useful for teachers too.
“When I opened my eyes, I was, indeed, back home again. I took a deep, shaky breath. I was tingling all over.” page 49
The Cassandra Curse (Muse Squad #1) by Chantel Acevedo. Balzer & Bray, HarperCollins, New York, 2020. MG fantasy, 360 pages. Lexile: 650L . AR Level: 4.6 (worth 12.0) .
Weird things have been happening to Calliope Martinez-Silva (call her Callie, please). She has a terrifying accident, her best friend transforms into a pop star, then she’s informed that she’s one of the nine Muses and a portal sends her to another country. It’s a lot for an eleven-year old! Thankfully there are some other young Muses too, which is timely because with her best friend unrecognizable, Callie needs some backup.
Muse Squad: The Cassandra Curse by Chantel Acevedo.
This book has so much going on. There’s the usual tween intrigue, but made bearable thanks to the magical and mystery aspects. There’s learning to be a muse, and all the different muses from around the world who each have specific powers and callings, and the many many people in Callie’s life and whom she meets on her adventures.
“Ch’idzigyaak sat quietly as if trying to make up her confused mind. A small feeling of hope sparked in the blackness of her being as she listened to her friend’s strong words.” page 15
Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis, illustrated by James Grant. Originally published Epicenter Press 1993, my edition HarperCollins, New York, 2013. Adult folklore retelling, 134 pages. Lexile: 1030L . AR Level: 6.4 (worth 3.0 points) .
Two elderly women known mainly for complaining are left behind when their people move on in a time of starvation and hardship. If they are to survive in the Arctic, it will take all of their knowledge, strength and determination, plus reserves, or luck, they might not even know they have.
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis.
I took a chance on this one at a used book sale that absolutely paid off. Browsing time was short, and the story looked interesting, but the blurb simply stated that Wallis was “raised with traditional Athabascan values.” This is burying the lede that Wallis is herself Athabascan and thus particularly well suited to write this Gwich’in tale.
I was delighted to see that illustrator Jim Grant is also an Athabaskan native. Most chapters have one or two illustrations (one has none and another has three), and there are also some maps and the chapter ornament. One illustration is full-page, the rest are half-page or less. There are also two frontispieces which depict similar scenes to those found later, but are not the same as those within the chapters. All of the pictures are inserted where they make sense, and have some relevance to the narrative.
Pages 48 and 49 of Two Old Women show one of the full page illustrations, and an example of the text format.
We get a hint of Wallis’ approach to this story when, after the title page, she steps into the dedication – no apologies for those left out, no fluff about how important each person is, simply several pages of names preceded by
This book is dedicated to all of the elders who I have known and who have made an impression in my mind with their wisdom, knowledge and uniqueness.
page ix
Having thanked the elders first, Wallis then steps into a brief, more traditional acknowledgements page which ends with a thank you (Mahsi Choo) to her readers. Only then does she turn to the Introduction about how she first heard this story, her choice to adapt it, and the setting.
“This is not just a book for Black people. It’s a book for *all people* about Black people.” Front matter, emphasis from the author
Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments by Carell Augustus. Ebony Magazine Publishing with Sourcebooks, Naperville, Illinois, 2022. Art book, 230 pages. Not leveled.
Photographs from an eleven year project to recreate iconic movie posters, screen moments, and pinups with Black models.
Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments by Carell Augustus.
Over the last few years I’ve been trying to expand our art collection. We’ve reached the “some disposable income” stage but definitely not the “buy independent artworks” level of wealth. Libraries, digital collections, and museums have been wonderful but I’d like to have more at home. Thus calendars, postcards, and art books!
Because art books tend to be pricey, I usually research and apply coupons, wait for seasonal sales, or buy used. This one was more of an impulse purchase – saw a new copy at 50% discount and bought it without the previewing that I normally would have done.
You know how some kids are really into sneakers, or horses, or rap, or drawing? I was a book kid and always have been, so movies, television, and such tend to be what other people around me want to watch, rather than something I seek out. Honestly, I’d probably only heard of maybe half the movies or people in this book. But I still loved it.
Pages 20 and 21 of Black Hollywood include a scene from Fight Club with all the characters modeled by Wesley Jonathan and notes from both the model and photographer.
Augustus recreates a wide variety of films including comedies, science fiction, horror, and action movies, as well as some portrayals of specific people (like Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin). The majority, although not all, of his models are actors and actresses.
“That’s the problem. He is so old, he has trouble remembering things now – like where he is. Sometimes he thinks he’s back in Vietnam.” page 87
Sea Sirens: A Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure (#1) by Amy Chu and Janet K. Lee, with lettering by Jimmy Gownley. Viking, Penguin Random House, New York, 2019. Middle grade graphic novel, 144 pages. Lexile: 240L . AR Level: 2.5 (worth 1.0 points) .
Vietnamese American Trot and her cranky one-eyed rescue cat spend a lot of time surfing at the beach where they mutually babysit her grandpa (he has dementia, she’s not quite old enough to be left alone yet). One day, she sneaks out to catch a wave and wipes out so badly they end up in an underwater world. At first she’s happy to avoid her mother’s rules, but after landing in an undersea war, will Trot and Cap’n Bill ever get home again?
Sea Sirens (Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure #1) by Amy Chu, illustrated by Janet K. Lee, with lettering by Jimmy Gownley.
I had no clue what to expect when we first got these. Even the blurb does little to explain the awesomeness of Cap’n Bill (turns out cats can talk, we just don’t listen well). The realistic part of the story is also hard-hitting; Trot and Grandpa are grounded because one day she forgot to keep an eye out while surfing and he wandered away from his fishing resulting in a Silver Alert.
“They got only this one egg a year even though the children’s mother tended chickens and ducks that produced seven or eight eggs a day right there in the front courtyard. But the eggs weren’t for the family. They were a small business that Gao Xiuying ran to earn a little bit of extra money.” page 49
A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream by Richard Bernstein. Originally Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, New York, 2011. My edition Yearling, Random House Children’s Books, New York, 2012. Middle grade (YA?) nonfiction, 272 pages. Lexile: 1080L . AR Level: 6.6 (worth 11.0 points) .
In 1978, an eleven year old girl traveled from her small town on the northern border of China to the Beijing Dance Academy for their open auditions, along with sixty thousand other applicants. Against all odds, she managed to be one of the twelve girls chosen – but that was just the start of her troubles.
A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream by Richard Bernstein.
Zhongmei spent years in training, and had a long career, but this story focuses mainly on preparing to audition and her first year at school. About half the book focuses on her journey to even make it to auditions and then her progress through the seven layers of audition. The second half covers her first year at the school, and finally an epilogue tells what happened to her after.
Bernstein employs a number of timeline skips to maintain the pacing, although he’s not always successful. His most frequent device is the letters sent back and forth between Zhongmei and her beloved da-jie Zhongqin. He also occasionally has Zhongmei think back on past events. At some points there are skips forward, when reasonable within the story.
“The ‘ohana felt a deep loyalty to their ahupua’a. It was their ‘aina, their homeland. ‘Ai means ‘to eat.’ ‘Aina, the word for homeland or birthplace, means ‘that which feeds.’ It was the ‘aina that nourished, or fed, the ‘ohana. This made it the responsibility of the ‘ohana to take care of their ‘aina.” page 87
From the Mountains to the Sea: Early Hawaiian Life by Julie Stewart Williams, illustrated by Robin Yoko Racoma. Kamehameha Schools Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997. Middle grade non-fiction, 178 pages. Not leveled. NOTE: I read a physical copy of this book, and this review is based on the print book. However, it is also available as a free ebook, currently at this link: https://ulukau.org/ulukau-books/?a=d&d=EBOOK-ENGLISH.2.1.1&e=——-haw-20–1–txt-txPT———– .
A classic school text on early Hawaii.
From the Mountains to the Sea: Early Hawaiian Life by Julie Stewart Williams, illustrated by Robin Yoko Racoma.
I came across this text some time ago through the acquaintance of a friend who was offloading some books before moving back to the islands. My friend generously passed many books that her family had read or weren’t interested in to us. I’m always interested in titles from small presses or exploring cultures I don’t know too much about, so this was fascinating to me even though it was dry at points.
This particular book was also especially interesting because I’ve always heard that there aren’t accessible texts for young readers about indigenous life pre-European contact. This is an area I’ve been actively seeking out books on, so it was rather shocking to find one that was not only published in the 1990s, but is part of a series. Indeed, after exploring the ulukau.org link above, I’ve discovered that several books from Kamehameha Schools Press are available there, and hope to review some others which would be cost-prohibitive to have sent to the Midwest.
Way back in 2017, I started working on a list of diverse MG fantasy novels. It took three years to compile the first list, and since many books on it begin a series, it has only been growing ever since. But finding a stopping point was also difficult because I kept coming across more books. Certainly there were some I’d overlooked or had not been able to access, but there was another reason my list of recommended diverse fantasy novels was quadruple what I’d scraped together five years ago – new releases!
We are living in a time when MG fantasy is rapidly diversifying. With the success of a few bold publishers and authors, others seem more willing to consider diverse fantasy, or are just interested in market share of an uncornered niche. Or maybe even, people have been pushing for diversity a long time and the environment is finally right. I’m not sure why now but this explosion of diverse literature is wonderful.
Today there is no excuse for a fantasy list that does not have even a single book with a character of color, let alone diverse authors. And there are enough books and series to make not just one, but many lists of diverse MG fantasy! I did make one change – on this list I included a few white fantasy novels with main characters who had disabilities, were LGBTQ, or had diverse living circumstances. This list also includes books in translation, and a handful of out-of-print but (as of this writing) still obtainable books.
“Up until now, we hadn’t told anyone about the Sight – at least not anyone who hadn’t already known about it.” page 59
Double Cross (Twintuition #4) by Tia and Tamera Mowry. Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2018. MG fantasy, 202 pages. Lexile: 600L . AR Level: 4.2 (worth 5.0 points) . NOTE: Review will contain spoilers for previous books in the series.
The final installment of a quartet about tween twins with visions of the future.
Twintuition: Double Cross by Tia and Tamera Mowry.
I’m glad I persisted with this series as this last book was definitely the best of the four. Honestly, if the social hijinks of sixth graders don’t highly interest, an older reader could probably skip ahead and read just this book without missing too much. All the major plot points important to this finale are summarized within the text somewhere anyway.
Colorful Book Reviews 