What are the chances that your father would marry the mother of your secret crush and he would move into your house? But this is not what the cover art falsely sells it to be. It is so much better. Eva Gibson gives us Elaine Jamison — or Lane. Lane is complex. Lane has had a rough go. She found her mother in their bathroom dead from a brutal suicide. This brings nightmares on a regular basis. Then her father does remarry. And her new step-brother, Greyson, whom she secretly infatuates over, is dating her good friend Sadie. Lane doesn’t let her secret be known and continues to hang out with the couple which leads her to meet Connor, Sadie’s older brother. Sparks will fly between Connor and Lane, leaving her overwhelmed with emotions — but not just about the boys. Issues of homelessness, religious fundamentalism, and drug abuse will all rear their heads in addition to the grief around Lane’s mother’s death. Lane is raw and more mature than the average teen. The Connor vs. Greyson battle will come to the forefront eventually but it is not the book’s focus. Situations explode and then take time to resolve, like real life. This reader was happily surprised that the book was better than the cover and title and will recommend it to high school students.

Naaz Khan created a wonderful, rhyming, funny tale of a brother, Musa, and his sister, Dada, on their trip to the beach in the daladala, a bus, in Zanzibar. This book is a fun counting book as they continue to add 1, 2, 3 and up to 10 things and people to the daladala. Musa doesn’t think any more can fit, at each stop he says there is no more room, but his sister believes they can fit everyone who needs the lift. By the end of the story when they are adding 10 divers to the bus, Musa is laughing along with his sister and ready to welcome anyone aboard. Finally, they make it to the beach and as everyone spills out, you count backwards remembering all the people and animals and things Musa and Dada made room for along the way.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the representation of Africa in the illustrations. The pictures show so much joy and movement and all the reader can do is giggle along with Musa and Dada as they stuff as many things as possible onto the daladala bus. I also enjoyed how the text was represented, also with alot of movement, using large type-face for some words and arranging the phrases in different places across the page.

The book does have a glossary at the back for a few Arabic and Swahili words that show up in the text. Although it does explain the words, it does not help pronounce them.

I think many kids would find this book funny and it will spark great conversations about different cultures, countries, and language.

Aaron Slater Illustrator by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts is another great addition to the Questioneers collection. In this rhyming story, Aaron Slater is born LOVING stories, he loves listening to stories and what his heart wants most is to create his own stories. But to write, first he must read, and words are not easy for Aaron to understand – they’re all just squiggles. Aaron struggles to write and read in school and keep up with his classmates, one day when Miss Greer asks the class to write a story Aaron just tells his story. He doesn’t have a single word on his page, but his class sits in rapture as they listen to the words spill out of his mouth. His teacher recognizes this special gift of Aaron’s and thanks him for the beautiful story. Aaron discovers that he can succeed, his path might just be a little different.

I love this story because it highlights a student struggling with dyslexia, and a teacher embracing him for who he is and appreciating his gifts. I know many students will identify with Aaron Slater.

The illustrations are fantastic and its so much fun to find the other Questioneers among the pages. Don’t forget to check out the hardcover under the jacket for more of Aaron’s (Roberts) illustrations!

by Barbara Dee

12-year old Wren has a lot on her plate: her parents’ recent divorce, her dad’s new family in another state, and a new school. Fitting in isn’t easy for Wren. Her Mom copes with her jilted marriage by spending a lot of time sleeping on the couch and behind her locked bedroom door. Wren escapes to her computer, where she watches videos on how to apply special-effects make-up. Trying to appease her mother by getting involved in a school activity, Wren gets the position of being the make-up artist for her school’s musical, Wicked.

This is where artsy Wren begins to shine in front of the cast. Respect is gained, friendships deepen and her confidence grows. But beware the comments about Mom not showing up for work. When Wren and her new friend sneak off to meet her Internet make-up artist at an event in the city, mom is admitted to the hospital for overdosing on pain pills.

I would give this book to those artsy kids who have their unique look. Finally, a book just for them! I think they’d appreciate her talent, her successes, and her introverted life-style.

When four year old Cece came down with meningitis, her whole world changed. Cece entered the world of deafness and all of the challenges that go with it. Cece used hearing aids to overcome some of the challenges, but hearing aids only go so far. This is author Cece Bell’s childhood story dealing with her lack of self-confidence due to wearing a large chest mounted hear aid (she stands out, and not in a good way) and other peoples over compensations when trying to help Cece understand what they are saying. Talking louder does not make her hear it better, nor does talking slowly make it easier to read lips.

Cece slowly develops friends, one is too bossy but seems not to notice her hearing aid, another one talks too loud and too slowly and when a new neighbor girl moves in across the street Cece acquires a true friend.

Cece Bell shares her fun memories, too. Cece’s new hearing aid model for school has her teacher wearing a special microphone. This allows Cece to hear her teacher even when the teacher is in another room, say – the restroom. Now, Cece’s class can goof-off when the teacher is out of the classroom because Cece warns the class prior to the teacher’s return. What a super power!

Cece Bell’s “A Note from the Author” ends with- “And being different? That turned out to be the best part of all. I found that with a little creativity, and a lot of dedication, any difference can be turned into something amazing. Our differences are our superpowers.” ( 237)

AND because this is the Superpowered Edition! Cece Bell has included an additional forty pages of photos from her childhood, early El Deafo sketches, early El Deafo drafts with revisions and storyboards, and ends with items her readers have sent to her.

Poppy, the pit bull, and Hannah, the new girl in town, have similar trials to overcome. Poppy must live with the bad reputation pit bulls have of being vicious. Hannah must overcome the misconceptions new people have of her when they see the “reddish-purple birthmark that covered almost half of her face.” (1)

Hannah’s family moved from Michigan to California the summer before she will start sixth grade. Hannah suffers from the typical dismays young people experience when they move away from their friends and familiar surroundings. Next door to her, Poppy is a rambunctious six month old puppy Hannah’s neighbor, Mrs. Gilly, who is recovering from hip surgery, has for companionship. Poppy is a bit too much for Mrs. Gilly to handle as she recovers from her hip surgery. Hannah suddenly volunteers to take Poopy for walks and eventually to train Poppy, so Poppy won’t be taken back to the shelter.

Poppy and Hannah become inseparable as they both work to fit into their new home situations. Training Poppy helps Hannah develop the confidence she needs. “Hannah and Poppy were totally in sync, as if they’d learned to share different facets of their personalities–as if Poopy had gained some of Hannah’s calm seriousness and Hannah had gained some of Poppy’s happy confidence.” (196-197)

Once the story concludes, Jennifer Shotz has added a three page section – ALL ABOUT THE PIT BULL to inform readers about pit bulls. This is followed by the first two chapters of her book BRAVE, also in the American Dog series.

Reviewed by Nicole Sande, counselor at my school:

This book was a bit dry until the end. The author focused on four teenage girls but the book had several characters. The perspectives kept changing which made it really difficult to follow. Once I finally grasped the four characters, I felt the book ended. There wasn’t much character development. The author also wrote a lot of the quotes in a dialect from the Bahamian culture and some slang was used making it difficult to understand what was being said. I had to reread several pages for a better understanding. I even found myself skipping paragraphs and pages that felt irrelevant just to get to the end. This story could be told in 200 instead of 400 pages. The story itself wasn’t bad. I just felt like you were following some normal teenage drama. It felt like four different stories being forced into one and trying to make a story interesting that really wasn’t. Readers will be drawn to the cover and the Bahamas setting but overall it is a coming-of-age book with many of life’s challenges that some students may connect with but is an additional purchase.

Written by acclaimed author and Constitutional law scholar Lawrence Goldstone, Separate No More beings with the landmark Supreme Court’s decison of Plessy v. Ferguson and leads up through the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Goldstone outlines how Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine, and how the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka unanimous Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Goldstone explains how Brown v. Board of Education served as one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all.

Separate No More introduces the reader to icons of racial justice from Brooker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois whose exacting work finally culminated in the Topeka case. In between, Goldstone introduces the reader to major events in the struggle including the Springfield, Illinois massacre of 1908, the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACPA) in 1909, the Red Summer race riots in 1919, and the Student Revolt of 1951.

As with other non-fiction books by Goldstone in my library’s collection, including Unpunished Murder: Massacre at Colfax and the Quest for Justice, and Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights, Separate No More includes substantial source notes, bibliography, photograph and illustration credits (there are many primary sources in this book), and index.

This book would make an excellent addition to a high school library’s non-fiction collection.