Review: Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World

Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter, illustrated by Catherine Stock.
Amistad, HarperCollins, New York, originally published 1986, my edition 2010.
Realistic/historical fiction, 132 pages.
Lexile: 620L .
AR Level: 3.9 (worth 3.0) .

Ten-year-old Justin doesn’t see why anyone expects him to clean his room, help with the dishes, or do any sort of housework. After all, his older sisters and mother always do it better than him anyway, so they must just be naturally better at it, right? That is, until he’s invited to stay on Grandpa’s ranch, where men learn how to do things they don’t know yet. Justin also attends a fair, learns about Black cowboys, helps ride fence, and is surprised by the history of his own family. Then he comes back home with a surprise of his own.

Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter, illustrated by Catherine Stock.

Credit where credit is due, our reading of this book was entirely based off Heritage Mom’s recommendation on this list, which I found so helpful – we already had a few, but I bought most of the rest (as I write this I’m reading her book also). Her youth book group also did this book so she has a guide as well.

Graphic Novel Review: Sea Sirens

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.

Review: Ancestor Approved

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith.
Heartdrum, HarperCollins, New York, 2021, my edition 2022.
MG short story anthology, 312 pages including back matter.
Lexile: not yet leveled
AR Level: 5.0 (worth 9.0 points) .
NOTE: This review is longer than usual since I discuss each piece and the book as a whole. Also see note on accent marks.

An anthology of pieces centered around one powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Despite having left school library life some time ago, I still get excited to see new collections and anthologies like this one published, because they are such important additions to the classroom. Ancestor Approved manages to take this to the next level by having the stories and poems all connected, despite most being by different authors. If it’s difficult as a reader to wrap your head around the many linkages and connections, just imagine the work Cynthia Leitich Smith did to bring this book together!

There are 18 different pieces by 16 different authors (and Nicole Neidhardt who contributed the excellent cover illustration is also rightfully acknowledged). Most are short stories although the book closes and opens with poems. There’s also considerable supportive matter, including a foreword, glossary broken down by story, notes, acknowledgements, and brief biographies of all contributors. As is my custom for anthologies and collections, I’ll discuss each of the individual pieces briefly before returning to the discussion of the work as a whole.

Review: Share a Birthday

Ling & Ting: Share a Birthday by Grace Lin.
Little, Brown, and Co., Hachette Book Group, New York, 2013.
Early chapter book, 48 pages.
Lexile:  320L  .
AR Level:  2.0 (worth 0.5 points)  .
NOTE: This is part of the Ling and Ting series.

Six birthday short stories from the life of Chinese-American twins Ling and Ting.

Ling & Ting Share a Birthday by Grace Lin.

My children were so enamored with the first book in the Ling and Ting series, and read it so many times, that I went ahead and purchased the rest of the books.  There isn’t really a clear indicator of order in this series, and I don’t think that the order really matters to most readers, but I like to know.

So extrapolating from the publication date the series is:

1. Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
2. Ling and Ting: Share a Birthday
3. Ling and Ting: Twice as Silly
4. Ling and Ting: Together in All Weather

Again, you could easily read these out of order though, as there is no numbering to the series.  Some books do make reference to others, but there definitely isn’t a strict chronology to this particular series, which is great for young readers who tend to pick things up randomly, or teachers who would like to break students up into groups that read different-but-similar materials.

Review: Wave in Her Pocket

A Wave in Her Pocket: Stories From Trinidad by Lynn Joseph, illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
Clarion, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1991.
MG stories, 52 pages.
Not leveled.

A collection of Trinidadan stories tied together by the narrator Amber, and her incredible Tantie who tells these tales to her and her cousins.

A Wave in Her Pocket by Lynn Joseph, illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

First I must make a note on the classification, because these books are the sort that would wake me in the middle of the night back when I did cataloging for school libraries. Joseph is retelling 6 different Trinidadan stories, but she uses the conceit of a first-person narrator, and formats them similarly to short stories. This method is very effective, but much like Kadir Nelson’s famous Heart and Soul, raises the question on where they should be shelved.

In fact, I am not the first librarian to feel conflicted by this dilemma, as the copyright page has the Library of Congress suggesting PZ for juvenile fiction, and a Dewey Decimal Classification of 398.2 under folklore. One can make a reasonable case for this book either way, so if you happen to be a librarian Googling, shelve this wherever you think it’s likely to circulate best, and don’t hesitate to recatalog if needed!

Luckily, I no longer have to worry about how to catalog these types of books and can shelve items wherever I please in my home library. This book contains fantasy, horror, and historical fiction within a realistic fiction framework, although most likely to appeal to students who like speculative fiction or mythology with some creepiness.

Review: Ghost Boys

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes.
Little, Brown, and Company, Hachette Book Group, New York, 2018.
Middle grade fiction, 214 pages.
Lexile: HL360L ( What does HL mean in Lexile? )
AR Level: 3.0 (worth 3.0 points) .
NOTE: this is a work of historical/fantasy fiction, not to be confused with the 2013 disability memoir Ghost Boy. Also, this review deviates somewhat from my usual style as I found this novel difficult to unpack.

Ostensibly the story of twelve-year-old Jerome, an unarmed Black boy shot in the back by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun – but really the story of Sarah, the police officer’s daughter and the only one who can see Jerome’s ghost. The ghost of Emmett Till also plays a peripheral role.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

This is the fourth book by Jewell Parker Rhodes that I’ve read, and while each of the previous books I liked more than the last, unfortunately this one sorely disappointed me. Sugar was not my favorite on initial reading, but over the years has truly stuck with me and is now one I regularly recommend. The historical fantasy and ghosts of Ninth Ward wasn’t my cup of tea, but I adored Bayou Magic and included it on my first list of diverse middle grade fantasy novels. Ghost Boys returns to ghostly visitation, and I suppose I should have been prepared to dislike this given that her previous ghost story was my least favorite of her books.

Review: The Immortal Boy

The Immortal Boy by Francisco Montana Ibanez, translated by David Bowles.
Levine Querido, New York, 2021.
Billingual fiction, 154 pages English, 154 pages Spanish.
Not yet leveled.

Two stories in Bogota, Colombia: five siblings try to stay together in their father’s absence, and a girl left in an orphanage follows a child called The Immortal Boy.

The Immortal Boy by Francisco Montana Ibanez, translated by David Bowles.

After rejecting the overwhelming stereotypes of Villoro’s The Wild Book, I was still searching for a Latine youth fantasy novel in translation. I respect David Bowles and had seen this mentioned without a clear age range, so hoped it would work for my diverse MG fantasy booklists.

Alas, it would be a stretch to consider this MG, although it may be suitable for individual readers. The Immortal Boy is disturbing and morbid… but still good? A difficult book to put down and also an emotionally challenging read. The story is one of nearly unrelenting misery, yet paradoxically beautifully written.

Review: On These Magic Shores

On These Magic Shores by Yamille Saied Mendez.
Tu Books, Lee and Low, New York, 2020.
MG fantasy/contemporary, 278 pages.
Lexile: not yet leveled .
AR Level: 4.8 (worth 8.0 points) .

Minerva Soledad Miranda (call her Minnie, please) just wants to fit in as much as possible, but it’s not easy to keep up with seventh grade, let alone audition for the school play, when she has to watch her sisters while her mom works two jobs. It’s hard to focus when they are crying from hunger. And it’s especially difficult when Mama suddenly doesn’t come home.

On These Magic Shores by Yamile Saied Mendez.

As soon as this book arrived, it stood out because of the unusual format. I bought the hardcover, but it’s smaller than any other MG fantasy on my shelf, sized more like a softcover novel. The blurbs were also impressive for a first edition of a new author’s book from an imprint with less than 50 releases.

Tu books is a MG/YA focused imprint of Lee and Low which publishes mainly genre fiction. Their historical fiction has a good reputation, but they’ve only published one other middle grade fantasy novel so far. However, they have a schedule of intriguing books coming up over the next few years, starting with this story of fairies and hardship.

First, just a note to apologize. I’m aware that the author’s last name includes an accent, but with the new version of WordPress, I have not been able to type special characters. No disrespect intended, simply a technical failure here.

Why Laurence Yep Was Stressful

These posts always tend to stem from a review that gets far too long and I just want to talk about something. In this case it’s my experience as a reader, educator, librarian, and finally just a reader again encountering Laurence Yep. In case you are new here (and how did you land on this post first, go read my reviews or booklists first, they’re better), I’ll mention that I do enjoy and often recommend his books, although they have sometimes caused me some hassle.

I have a long, often fraught relationship with the works of Mr. Yep. He has written a lot of books, and is probably best known for either his Golden Mountain historical fiction series or his fantasy novels. He worked with major publishers so his books could be found at the library. The major pre-internet problem we had, though, was that many of his historical fiction works have dragon in the title. And some of his magical books give no indication that they are magical. And he also has historical fantasy. And sometimes the books would randomly get retitled.

Review: Fish in a Tree

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.
Puffin, Penguin Random House, New York, 2015.
MG realistic fiction, 276 pages + sketchbook of impossible things and excerpt.
Lexile:  550L  .
AR Level:  3.7 (worth 7.0 points)  .
NOTE:  This review is a lot longer than my usual.  If you’d just like a general opinion, scroll down to the final paragraphs.

Ally’s been to half a dozen different schools.  With a military dad and working mom, it’s easy to hide things from teachers, like not being able to read.  If trouble arises, she just goes with the laughs and builds on her trouble-making reputation.  But the new teacher is bringing light to her gifts and might illuminate her struggles also, if she lets him.

I wanted to love this book.  It’s been on my wishlist for ages and I hoped this would be a good book to share with the kids.  Instead, I feel ambivalent.  None of the individual issues alone were major enough to ruin it; some parts I liked, but many aspects were problematic.