New books! March 2021

There are some amazing new books coming out in the next few weeks.  If you are looking for something awesome to read, these might be up your alley!

The first one came out in October and it is called Of a Feather by Dayna Lorentz.  It's a story told in two voices-one is Rufus, a juvenile great horned owl, who is struggling with confidence.  His mother is encouraging him to hunt on his own, but Rufus is afraid.  His sister is mean to him, which doesn't help.  His mother is hit by a car one day and Rufus ends up in a trap meant for a different kind of bird, which brings us to Reenie, the second story teller.  Reenie has been removed from her grandmother's care (Grandma has an abusive boyfriend) and her mom is in a mental health facility so Reenie ends up with a great aunt that she's never met.  Beatrice is a master falconer and keeps a red tailed hawk, Red, that Reenie is finds entrancing.  Beatrice tells Reenie that she would like to trap and work with a passage hawk-a young hawk that might not survive on it's own.  Together they set the trap and end up with Rufus, instead of a hawk.  The story follows a fairly predictable pattern-the girl helps the owl, the owl helps the girl, but what makes this such a great story is the voice of Rufus and the voice of the other birds.  Rufus's transition from an overthinking, anxious bird to a confident great horned owl is so much fun to read.  Reenie has her own transitions to deal with and those are good too-dealing with a dysfunctional family but finding a place where she can thrive.  There is also a very small but interesting piece about hunting and the idea of keeping birds versus allowing wild animals to live their lives without human intervention, even if it means the animal's life will be shorter.  This is a wonderful story that kids are going to enjoy reading.  The writing is terrific-enough description to help you create amazing mental images and enough compelling action to keep you reading.  Don't miss this one.  

Another one that came out last week (March 2) is the first in a trilogy by Jodi Lynn Anderson.  It's called The Memory Thief.  It's about Rosie who feels like there is something wrong with her mother.  It feels like her mom doesn't care about her at all and it's been that way her whole life.  Rosie takes care of both of them but is searching for something to get her mom to notice her and be the mom Rosie knows she should be.  Rosie has one good friend called Germ who has a loud noisy family and is an amazing combination of kind, cruel, fast, confident and brilliant.   One night, Rosie hears voices and believes them to be ghosts.  She enlists the help of Germ to help her figure out if they really are ghosts or not and when Germ spends the night, the two of them not only hear ghosts, but seem them.  The ghosts are surprised that the girls can see them and then leads them to a book hidden in a spot in the wall called The Witch Hunter's Guide to the Universe, which was written by Rosie's mother.  The ghost explains that the book was hidden there before Rosie was born and that her mom forgot about it.  Rosie starts reading the book and finds that it has beautifully rendered pictures and vivid descriptions of different witches and includes a description of the Memory Thief.  Rosie realizes that the Memory Thief must have stolen her mother's memory and sets out on a quest to vanquish the Memory Thief, before it can kill her.  This is a very exciting story of friendship and finding your own voice and listening to your own heart.  The witches and ghosts in this one are satisfyingly scary.  Rosie's voice is strong and interesting and I wanted to be friends with her and Germ.  My students love scary books and I think this one is going to find a happy home in my school library.