The Book Search

  This is always such a fun time of year.  The CYBILS awards are in their first round and there are SOOOO many books to be read.  This year I'm a second round judge so I'll have a shorter list to read, but I'm keeping my eye on things, just so I can keep up.  Two great books caught my eye this fall and they are great! The first one is a sequel to the CYBILS middle grade speculative fiction award winner last year-Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia.  I devoured that one last year during Thanksgiving weekend when people were giving me long looks when I would bust out laughing and then try to explain the entire story line without giving too much away.  I started reading it aloud to my fifth graders this year and they are only annoyed because I only get to see them once a week.  It's great being able to slow down a bit and talk about some of the amazing symbolism and cultural connections.  SO NOW, I just finished reading the second one, which is called

 I've been looking for titles for my library that will help drive a conversation about racial justice in our community.  These two titles will help with that! The first one is a young adult book.  It's called "Dear Justyce" by Nic Stone.  Nic won acclaim with her novel "Dear Martin" a couple of years back, which is about a young black man attending a prestigious high school in Atlanta while living in an impoverished neighborhood.  That one was great and this one might be even better.  It connects some of the characters from the first book to this one.  This one is told mostly from the point of view of Quan, who is writing letters to Justyce because he is in jail, awaiting trial for the murder of a police officer.  The story unfolds in flashbacks to different times and circumstances, which allows the reader to see how Quan came to be in such a position.  There are parts of the story that are hard to read-passages about abuse and neglect, about disrespect and

 Social issues and building empathy have been hot button topics in middle grade fiction. The current way of thinking about this is windows and mirrors.  Some books show us people who are like us and some show us people we never really thought about before.  Reading some of both kinds of books is important for kids, so I'm happy to share some new ones with you! The first one is called A Fish Out of Water by Joanne Levy.  It's about 12 year old Fishel who is living with his mom, his stepdad and his baby sister.  Fish is getting ready to celebrate is bar mitzvah and he needs to do a  kind of community service project.  His friends have ideas and would like Fish to do the project with them, but Fish really wants to think up his own project.  He gets a great idea from his grandmother.  He wants to knit socks and give them to people who need them.  His grandmother says that boys don't knit.  His stepdad agrees and encourages him to take water polo lessons at the community center.