As a parent have you ever wanted to tell your child, ” Stop playing that video game! How will you make a living?” This is the book that will give your primary-aged child an educated and profitable clue to answering that question.

This book is a winner. Natalie Kwee’s illustrations are simple enough to not cloud the issue of what is be conveyed and advanced enough to convey what is being stated in the text.

The book begins with the Glossary page next to the Table of Contents page. The three chapters are: Video Game Writer, Video Game Animator, and Video Game Programmer. As a parent, you will be happy to hear that a video game writer must be a good reader and good writer of stories prior to working with video games. As a parent, you will be happy to know a video game animator needs to be good at math. And as a parent, you will be happy to know a video game programmer must be a good problem solver and learn how to code computers.

As a child, they will see how to make their stories come to life, how their drawings can be made to move, and how to keep mistakes from happening in the final product.

Photos and drawings illustrate the large-font text that averages 3 sentences per page with 10-20 words per sentence. The book begins with a glossary and contents page It also includes a map of Tigers’ range and a graph comparing their maximum weight to that of other animals, ranging from house cats to polar bears.  The illustrations are engaging and relatable. As the title says, the text contains many facts about tigers. This would be useful for younger readers doing a research project or older readers wanting some quick information.

Eva so very much wants to dance but her physical limitations keep her wheelchair-bound. When one of her moms reads about a dance class for “…all abilities, all ages. All are welcome” Eva is excited about the chance to pursue her dream. She is also nervous about stares and whispers, and about being rejected. Eva gives class a try and discovers she CAN dance as part of a group of all abilities. Soft watercolors illustrate both typically abled and dancers with varying needs for physical accommodations. The illustrator manages the difficult task of representing dance in a two-dimensional work. One way she shows the interconnected nature of dancing is through the use of stars floating on a blue swirl intertwining around and between the dancers. The charming story is inspired by a child named Eva who learned to dance at the actual company, Young Dance. The book ends with an author’s note and a note from the executive director of Young Dance.

Rick is a quick, informative read that addresses bullying and some of the hardships kids endure when questioning their personal gender identity.  This coming of age book explores preferred pronoun usage, questions regarding sexual orientation and, most importantly, acceptance. 

It bothers Rick that his best friend, Jeff, (and sometimes his own father, too) objectifies girls and is often unkind to Rick, making fun of him.  Rick decides he doesn’t appreciate or approve of Jeff’s behavior anymore and conjures up the courage to stand up for himself and his new friends from the LGBTQ+ Alliance Club at school.

Rick exudes bravery and while at times the author uses fairly explicit language, this is a very sweet story for the middle-aged audience. It focuses on  a crucial, under publicized topic of our time. This was an enjoyable and eye-opening read.

This biography provides a fan perspective, but also addresses criticisms of Kobe’s “selfish” style of play. It briefly touches on a sexual assault case against him. The book ends with his posthumous induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Black and white line drawings accompany the easy-to-read text. The book includes a table of contents, a timeline of Kobe’s life beside a timeline of world events during that period, and a bibliography. There is a page of information for both Shaquille O’Neal and Lebron James as Lakers teammates.

It is great to have an up-to-date easy-to-read publication about a young person making headlines about climate change. There is additional information about Stockholm and about the Greenhouse Effect included in the book. The hazards of biographies of the living, particularly of young people, are the text will be out-of-date as Greta continues on in her life/work and as politics and policies around climate change continue to shift. Published in 2020, the book ends with former president Trump still in office and the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  The book includes a table of contents, timelines of Greta’s life and world events during that period, and a bibliography.

The simple text reciting memories of farm life on the prairie is paired with detailed artwork that illuminates the setting. This book portrays an idyllic slice of white middle-America in what appears to be the 1930-40s, with cars but also horses pulling wagons. The illustrations are intricate collages layered with color and patterns. The artist uses a variety of materials and techniques including homemade stamps, acrylics, and layered tissue paper. The book is happy and calming.

As you may guess from the title, “Gloom Town” is a dark story. Rory’s single mom works hard to make ends meet. When they are yet-again short on rent money and threatened with eviction, 12-year-old Rory takes a job at the creepy Foxglove Manor. There he encounters hard work, isolation, and deprivation. Rory’s curiosity gets him into trouble and he barely escapes with his life. He teams up with his best friend Izzy attempting to solve the mysteries of the mansion, it’s inhabitants and it’s visitors. Violence, death, the supernatural, witchcraft and magic are central to the story. In the end a surprise character arrives, perhaps too conveniently, to fit together some of the missing pieces of the mystery.
The time period is unclear, but reflects the past with gas lights and sailing ships. I don’t believe Gloom Town’s location is on any map that exists today. The main characters are believable. Race is not specifically addressed, but Rory is described as dark skinned and his mother and friend Izzy are fair skinned. I can recommend the story, but feel the dark themes are not for younger readers. For example, a child’s heart discovered buried in a box in the garden was a bit much for me. I know, however, that there are students who would enjoy that level of horror.

A Place at the Table is told from two voices in clearly marked alternating chapters. Sara and her family are Muslim Pakistani immigrants. Her chapters are written by Saadia Faruki who is a Pakistani immigrant herself and her children’s experiences are reflected in Sara. Elizabeth’s Jewish-American father is married to her British mother. Her chapters are written by Laura Shovan whose personal story is similar. The story is told with intersections of faith, family, food, and friendship. Issues touched on in the book include: not fitting in; judging and being judged on appearance; death of a family member; a parent’s depression; and family financial struggles. These personal struggles take place in the framework of the first year of middle school for both girls and the first year of public school for Sara.
The authors’ personal experiences add depth to their characters. The story provides an appropriate amount of tension and conflict. The ending is satisfying. The book includes a recipe and the authors’ websites provide a few more, Saadia Faruqi also has posted an “Educator’s Guide.” I highly recommend this pleasure-to-read book.

Yanka is looking for the story of where she came from. Who were her true parents? Why did they leave her out in the wild forest? Yanka loves the woman, her Mamochka, who found her and raised her as her own, but still there are questions.

The story is set in and around a village on the edge of a frozen forest. Yanka enjoys when Anatoly – the woodsman ventures out of the forest, stops by Mamochka’s house, and tells her tales that are true and partly true. Mamochka puts no store in these fairy tales, but Yanka does. Yanka, ” ‘ I feel the pull of the forest, stronger than ever before. Somewhere, deep in the dark between the trees, hides the truth of my past.’ ” (11) The morning after the Winter Festival, Yanka wakes with the legs of a bear! “Something about me has changed, beyond just my legs. Something deep inside. The thought is both exciting and nerve-racking, because although understanding animals could be wonderful, and all this change might help me discover the story of my past, I don’t know what it means for my future.” ( 60-61)

Yanka sets her mind to discover the answers to all of her questions by going into the forest. There the real fairy tale begins. Her bear senses make Yanka extremely alert to her surroundings. Wolves talk to her and she understands them. Yanka reveals to a wolf she possess one of its claws from long ago. How can that be? But, it was a part of one of Anatoly’s tales. Soon, other parts of Anatoly’s tales are revealed as true.

Yanka finds the story of her family. Yanka, also, finds that family is all about who you care for and the people you love.

Sophie Anderson has sprinkled eleven of Anatoly’s short tales throughout the book. They include a curse, a castle, a father who turns into a bear, a Yaga (witch) with a house that walks on giant chicken legs, and a dragon. Fairy tales within a fairy tale.

Super thief turned “good guy” Carmen Sandiego is out to stop VILE make a fortune by stealing extremely rare or endangered species to a private collector. What makes this book extra fun for the reader is being given choices to make as to how the story turns out in the end. I tried over 28 scenario combinations as to whether or not I would be helping Carmen Sandiego save the animals or whether I would be helping VILE sell the animals to the private collector. Each scenario kept my attention and wanted me to keep trying other possilibities.

This book just proves there is more than one way to end a story.

Could you survive if you were washed overboard and marooned on a deserted island? This is not a new concept for a story, but it is a new modern version of survival for intermediate readers who enjoy graphic novels.

When a snobby entitled teenage girl (Valerie) gets washed off of a resort’s new yacht with a young teenage girl (Merissa) member of the yacht’s crew during an upcoming storm, the two must work together to survive. Merissa knows all of the survival skills and many of the dangers of the island they land upon. Merissa is more than willing to show Valerie the ropes. By the time they are rescued, the reader has gained important real life survival skills, and Valerie has learned an important lesson about respect for others, as well as survival skills.

This book includes: three true short tales of survival, an “Island Survival Guide”, “What Do You Think?”, “Island Survival Trivia”, nonfiction network resources through abdobooklinks.com and a QR code.

People of all ages taking care of their individual plots in a community garden. Planting, cultivating, watering, weeding, and playing in the garden over the long weeks before an edible enjoyment of the garden’s success.

Written in short phrases, the word garden makes 24 appearances. Two of my personal favorites are, ” Garden hardly makes a sound growing, slowly, underground” and “Garden growing like a child, rosy, leggy, fresh, and wild _”

Simone Shin’s illustrations are full of the pride and joy of gardening from the work of being hands-on in the soil.

Someday We Will Fly is the story of a Jewish family, as told through the eyes of 15 year old Lillia, as they escape Poland, without Lilla’s mother, and find refuge in Shanghai. Lillia, her young disabled sister, and her heart-broken father learn to fit in as best they can in a foreign culture. The father struggles to find work and the reader is moved to see a once-proud parent reduced to the beaten down hopelessness that settles over him.

Lillia works hard to learn English and to help her little sister whose disabilities and malnutrition weigh on Lillia. Desperate times make people act in ways they might otherwise never consider, as when Lillia takes a job (unbeknownst to her father) as a dancer in a gentlemen’s club.

The reader is impressed by how hard Lillia works to learn Chinese and to achieve in school. She makes friend with Wei, a Chinese boy in her school. Lillia has less supervision in Shanghai than she ever had in Warsaw, but this benefit is greatly overshadowed by the suffering of both the Jewish and the Chinese communities under Japanese occupation.

For a Young Adult novel, there is a pleasantly surprising lack of romance. The ending is a bit contrived and seemed unrealistically optimistic. But it was plausible.

Someday We Will Fly is unique from other WWII historical fictions, covering the little known history of Jewish refugees in Shanghai. The reader learns that 23,000 Jews escaped from Europe and found refuge in Shanghai during the Nazi Regime.

Author Rachel DeWoskin spent much of her life in China, including the past six summers in Shanghai where she researched and wrote this book. She teaches fiction at the University of Chicago, and is an affiliated faculty member in Jewish Studies and East Asian Studies. Her scholarly background is evident in the Author’s Note and the extensive Sources Consulted at the end of this novel.

This is the fourth book in a non-fiction series “The Superpower Field Guide.” I confess I’ve never been a big fan of eels, but this book really held my interest. I wanted to know about Olenka’s migration. Black and white line drawings and more realistic colored illustrations help tell the story of “Olenka, migrating mistress of mystery.”
Olenka is a freshwater eel and her saga is divided into her ten “superpowers.” The author prefaces the superpower section with an introduction to eels in general and hooks the reader with the mystery of European eels, specifically one named Olenka. Having a specific eel to follow engages the reader in a story rather than just providing a list of facts.
A true-false quiz (with answers) adds some facts about a third of the way through the book. A second quiz at two thirds is a ‘Where’s the Eel?’ picture with the answers at the end of the book. The end of the text also includes a glossary and bibliography. Sadly there is no Table of Contents or Index provided.