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Dead Below Deck by Jan Gangsei is a great young adult mystery that will keep readers guessing until the end. It starts with what seems like a straightforward crime. Maggie is seen in video pushing Giselle from the railing of a luxury yacht into the open ocean. The two are about to graduate from a prep high school, and two other friends are along for a spring break trip on Giselle’s family yacht.
From there, the story travels back in time, with each chapter going one step prior to the previous one, as the story leading up to the night of the fateful event unfolds. Occasional chapters switch to events after the crime, through media reports and police interviews with other people on board.
Maggie tells her side of the story through straight narrative. Reader’s learn about Giselle’s perspective from her diary entries. Both girls seem to be hiding something from each other. They also misinterpret each other’s motivations. It all makes for an interesting mystery with lots of twists.
I guessed some of the some of the truths revealed at the end, but not all of them. I would have liked a little more time with the story after the reveal, but in general I found the end satisfying. I recommend Dead Below Deck for readers aged 16 and up.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Safi has strong magic, but she needs a mentor to learn how to use it. Her father and older sister know they can’t afford to pay someone to teach her, so they hope to find her an apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner. When traveling magicians arrive in their city to perform, they see Safi’s potential and sign a contract that takes her on as a trainee. All is not as it seems though, and Ada will need to call on all her resources to keep Safi safe from hidden dark forces.
The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen is a graphic novel set during the bleak days after a war in a fantasy kingdom. Ada and Safi’s mother died during the war, and their father is ill. It’s hard for them to know who to trust. The burden of keeping their modest store open falls particularly on Ada, who wants to protect her younger sister even if it means separating her from the family.
The story has an interesting twist in that Ada, who does not seem to have magic, is the main character who has to solve the problems that arise. This means that her solutions have some element of the fantastical, but they are anything but easy and they require collaboration from others. I found it a refreshing approach for a novel that includes magic.
The novel also has an unexpected resolution that I won’t spoil in the review other than to say it speaks to the strength of people banding together to forge bonds during tough times. The Firelight Apprentice brings up issues around trust, overcoming tragedy, fighting back against evil, and more. I recommend it for ages 9 to 12.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Remi Finch hates spending time with family. She particularly doesn’t get along with her two older sisters. But when her parents anniversary requires a mandatory appearance at a camping weekend, Remi knows she has to make the best of it. When an uninvited guest turns up dead and Remi is set to take the blame, she finds out just how far her family will go to protect her.
Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs follows an angsty protagonist with low self-esteem and loads of worries as she tries to hide a dead body, reassesses her opinion of her sisters, and lusts after a hot park ranger. The story is mostly serious, with an early scene of attempted sexual assault. But readers can also find humor, whining, and misunderstandings, sprinkled throughout. It’s also a bit of a mystery that provides a few twists up until the end.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
In Still There Was Bread, a picture book written by Lisl H. Detlefsen and illustrated by David Soman, a young boy learns to bake bread from his grandma. The story is seemingly simple, yet it feels as warm and comforting as the smell of rolls fresh from the oven.
The boy is excited when his grandma comes to his house one morning to teach him how to make the recipe that has been handed down from grandparent to grandchild for several generations. As they work on the dough then wait for it to rise, the grandma tells the story of how she learned to bake bread. The story goes back and forth from the present to the past, tracing how bread-making has become easier with modern conveniences.
For instance, the grandma’s own grandma had to get milk from the family cow and collect eggs from their chickens before beginning to bake. Through the years, bread baking helped when the family had little money to buy food and when illness kept them isolated at home.
The tale shows how simple ingredients—eggs, milk, flour, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, and water—plus time and effort, can be brought together to show love for family and friends. The book ends with an author’s note about her inspiration for the story, and best of all, the recipe for “Nana Rolls,” so young readers and their parents can try it at home.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Rubber is used to make many things we use every day, including balls, and bicycle wheels, and the soles of shoes. Rubber shows up in so many products it’s hard to imagine a time in history when it didn’t exist. Bounce: A Scientific History of Rubber by Sarah Albee talks about that history and how a simple product came to be in wide use.
Eileen Ryan Ewen’s illustrations are playful and fun, often showing one of the better known qualities of rubber: it bounces. Indigenous people began making rubber in a round shape that bounced thousands of years ago. In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s scientists in Europe and the United States experimented with other ways to use it. They created things like erasers, balloons, and waterproof shoes and clothing.
Every few pages throughout the book, a section talks about the science behind rubber, answering questions like: Why is it stretchy? Why does it melt in heat and get brittle in cold? How can it be molded and shaped?
For me, those sections didn’t match the tone of the rest of the book, as they were more technical and discussed advanced science. As such, they took me out of the story being told. They’re easy to skip over in a read-aloud, though, so depending on the child being read to, they can be included or not.
A timeline at the end highlights milestones in rubber production and use through the years. There’s also a note about some of the disturbing details about it, like the fact that workers in many parts of the world who farm it and create products with it have been mistreated and abused. And the demand for rubber has created environmental problems. It’s important that the complete story of rubber is told, and these side notes do so in a sensitive way.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Sylvia Doe doesn’t know where she came from or who her parents were. All she knows is she would rather stay at the Highground Home for Children, where she can tend horses and be surrounded by nature, than live in a foster home in the city. So she keeps running away from new placements to find her way back.
After Sylvia escapes one time too many, the authorities want to put her in a secure facility. An epic flood disrupts those plans and brings unexpected things riding the current of the local river. When Sylvia rescues a near-drowning boy from the water, the two set off on a journey to discover where he belongs and stop the cause of the flooding. Along the way, they both learn more about themselves and how to get back home.
Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood by Robert Beatty is a tale of adventure, courage, and self-discovery. Sylvia and Jorda (the boy she saves), must face their fears over and over again as they continue their quest. Along the way they discover that Jorda comes from the past, and so do the creatures washed out by the flood. But they’re not sure if they can figure out how to get him home and find a place where Sylvia belongs, too.
Touted as a nature-based mystery-adventure, Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood moves at a fast pace. Sylvia’s bond with the horses, and with a caretaker at Highground, are touching. And her observations about nature and wildlife through the ages could inspire young readers to pay more attention to the world where they live. Her growing feelings for Jorda make their quest more complicated.
The descriptions of how Sylvia and Jorda navigated the water sometimes got confusing, and they spent a lot of time fighting the water. But I expect that young readers aged 9 to 12 will be intrigued by both the mystery and adventure enough that any confusions won’t bother them.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
During his life Edward Gorey was the artist for many children’s books written by other authors. He also wrote and illustrated his own. He won awards designing costumes for plays, but he preferred to spend most of his time quietly at home snuggling up to his cats.
It’s appropriate then, for children to read a picture book about this artist who inspired other famous artists. As Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey in Three Acts is written by Matthew Burgess and Marc Majewski.
From his early life, Edward was an avid reader and wholly individual. As a child he wrote stories and painted his toenails green. As an adult he wore lots of clinking rings on his fingers and attended nearly every performance of the New York City Ballet for 20 years. Later in life, he lived by the sea and wrote plays for local theaters.
As Edward Imagined is playful and colorful, much like the artist himself. It’s a great introduction to young readers about the man whose work continues to charm.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Sometimes all you need to create art is a little bit of inspiration and some straightforward instruction on getting started. That’s what budding artists and their parents will find in How To Be A Super Awesome Artist: 20 Art Projects Inspired By The Masters by Henry Carroll & Rose Blake.
Using well-known artists as examples, the book presents nearly two-dozen projects that can be taken on with a few simple supplies. For instance, one project encourages young artists to be scavengers in the style of Aaron Johnson’s piece called, “Dandy.” In it, Johnson arranges different types of socks that he painted to create a monster face. The challenge presented to readers is to find any old household items or containers and arrange them to make something new.
Even Pablo Picasso’s “Dachshund/Sausage Dog,” which uses one continuous line to draw the dog, can inspire multiple drawings using only a pencil. The book goes over basics of drawing with exercises in shading, smudging, cross-hatching, and more. And it covers the basics of using paint, particularly acrylics.
The back of the book contains a brief history of art with a timeline. How To Be A Super Awesome Artist is the kind of book that can inspire art projects for years, as each challenge can be completed more than once. I recommend it for readers aged 8 to 12.
The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
