Book Review: Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol

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Be Prepared cover imageNine-year-old Vera feels like the odd girl out among her friends, who get super-nice toys, have expensive birthday sleepovers, and go away to summer camp. As the daughter of a single-mom Russian emigrant, she lives in a house where money is tight and possessions are modest. So when she finds out about a Russian Orthodox summer camp near her home, she convinces her mom to sign her and her little brother up.

Be Prepared, a graphic novel by Vera Brosgol tells the mostly-true-tale of Vera’s time at camp. As the youngest in a group of girls, Vera often finds she still doesn’t fit in. She encounters mean pranks and is often lonely. She feels even worse when it seems her younger brother is having a great time. By the end of camp she has learned a lot about herself as well as how to make friends and be a good one.

Be Prepared provides an honest look at conflicting emotions and experiences kids can have at summer camp. When kids are required to live with each other 24 hours a day for weeks on end, moments of happiness and sadness are likely to ebb and flow depending on lots of variables. Even confident campers are likely to face challenges, and newcomers may have the hardest time adjusting.

Brosgol’s story is sure to resonate with anyone who’s had trouble fitting in and finding their way among a group of friends or in new situations. Her graphic illustrations show her as a wide-eyed, bespectacled nine year old who cycles quickly through emotional highs and lows depending on how confident she feels. It’s a great story for those who have been to summer camp as well as anyone who hasn’t always been part of the in crowd while they were growing up.

I recommend Be Prepared for readers aged 9 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Goodbye Brings Hello by Dianne White

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Goodbye Brings Hello cover imageYoung children are often frightened by the prospect of change, which they may see as uncertain and moving beyond their comfort zone. Dianne White’s picture book, Goodbye Brings Hello, can help them see that change can bring positive things into their lives.

Daniel Wiseman’s beautiful illustrations start the book with a depiction of trees changing with the seasons to set the tone that change is normal and expected. The story starts off depicting a child on a swing, and the words, “There are many ways of letting go. With each goodbye, a new hello.” The child is uncertain as he sits on a still swing, but on the next page you see him smiling as he holds the lines and swings through the air.

The book helps children see change as positive at common times of worry, such as outgrowing clothes, traveling to visit grandparents, learning to ride a bicycle, getting a haircut, and more. The book ends with leaving parents at home and starting school, one of the biggest worries of all.

I believe Goodbye Brings Hello is a great book for parents to read aloud, helping them calm common childhood fears so their children can see the positives of growing up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Speak: The Graphic Novel cover imageLaurie Halse Anderson’s Speak has been informing teens about sexual assault and speaking up for themselves since it was published to critical acclaim in 1999. Now, Anderson has collaborated with Eisner-Award winning artist Emily Carroll to adapt the story into a graphic novel sure to appeal to first-time readers as well as fans of the original book.

The graphic novel format is particularly relevant to the story of how a high school freshman uses art and a project assigned for class to break through her silence about a sexual assault. In the aftermath of the incident, which she doesn’t tell anyone about, she loses friends, sees her grades spiral down in school, and gets into trouble at home. She wonders if she was at fault.

Carroll’s stark images in black and white and grey match Melinda’s depressive mood and dark thoughts without being oppressively heavy. And they let us see Melinda’s world through her eyes, both the things that inspire her, like a Maya Angelou poster, and the things that repel and frighten her, like being stuck in detention with her attacker, who blows subtly on her hair and neck.

Speak: The Graphic Novel tells Melinda’s story in a different format than the original, which means the novel has the potential of reaching an even broader audience than before. I highly recommend it for readers aged 13 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Fantastic Library Rescue by Deborah Lytton

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The Fantastic Library Rescue cover imageRuby Starr loves books. She and her best friends are in a book club at school, and they often head to the library for suggestions when they want to choose their next selection. So when Ruby finds out that the library’s funding may be cut, which means fewer books and shorter hours, she decides to do something to help. Along the way she learns an important lesson about friendship too.

Ruby Starr: The Fantastic Library Rescue by Deborah Lytton highlights Ruby’s great imagination and her efforts to balance what’s important to her in life: family, doing well in school, being a good friend, and making a difference for something she believes in. Illustrations of Ruby’s daydreams about all kinds of situations keep the story fun and interesting as Ruby meets challenges and figures out how to meet them.

This second in the series is a good follow up to the first. Ruby’s struggles and successes are sure to resonate with 9- to 12-year-old readers, who may also feel empowered and inspired to work for a cause of their own after reading the book.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: All Summer Long by Hope Larson

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All Summer Long cover imageThirteen-year-old Bina can’t wait for school to be over and summer to start. But when she finds out her next-door-neighbor and best friend Austin is spending a month at soccer camp, she realizes she won’t be having her usual summer adventures. Often finding herself alone and lonely, Bina discovers new interests and friendships in unexpected places.

All Summer Long is Hope Larson’s graphic novel about growing up, evolving friendships, and self-discovery. Bina, like most people, is comfortable doing what she’s always done. Without Austin she spends a lot of time bored and wondering what to do. When she tries new things, she sometimes makes mistakes and misses the mark, but she also discovers what she really likes.

In the end Bina finds change can bring new beginnings even as old things end. That’s a good thing to remember not only for tweens and teens, but for adults as well. I recommend All Summer Long for ages 11 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: What Do They Do With All That Poo by Jane Kurtz

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What Do They Do With All That Poo cover imageWhat Do They Do With All That Poo? by Jane Kurtz taps into the fascination most kids have with the concept that everything poops. On a tour of zoo animals Kurtz sneaks in education about what animals eat and how that affects the waste that comes out of their bodies.

For instance, “a penguin shoots its poo out in a fishy-smelling streak.” Since penguins don’t have teeth, “fish go through them fairly rapidly.” Kids learn about hippos using dung to mark their territory, wombats pooping cube shapes, snakes that only poop once a year, why panda poo doesn’t stink, and more. They also learn about how zoos handle the waste. Lots of it get trucked away. Some goes to research. Some gets turned into compost or even paper and sold to people who want to use it.

What Do They Do With All That Poo interior imageAllison Black’s illustrations are cute and whimsical, showing happy animals smiling while they do what every living thing does. What Do They Do With All That Poo? is sure to prompt lots of laughter while encouraging parent-child conversations about bodily functions, zoo animals, and the role of waste in nature.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee

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What I Leave Behind cover imageWhen Will needs time to think he walks. And he has a lot to think about: his dad’s suicide, his best friend’s rape at a party after he left early, his boss at the Dollar Only store where he works.

Walking helps him process his grief. It also brings him in contact with others who help him see the world in a new light — a young boy who believes in magical butterflies, a homeless man who accepts Will’s offer of food.

Eventually Will discovers that walking will take him only so far, and reaching out after his friend’s attack could require his biggest step of all.

Alison McGhee’s What I Leave Behind presents hope for those experiencing grief, depression, or others kinds of emotional struggle. Told in 100 chapters of 100 words each, the story has a lyrical feel, enhanced by references to David Bowie’s Space Oddity and lines from other popular songs from the 1970s. It also refers to the concept of 100 Chinese blessings, and how choosing a blessing for a friend who is suffering can help the giver as well.

What I Leave Behind is a quick read that invites a second reading and may inspire longer-term thought about an individual’s place in the world as well as among friends and family. I recommend it for readers aged 14 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne

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Brightly Burning cover imageIn a future world where a new Ice Age has sent humans onto spaceships orbiting Earth, Stella Ainsley is an orphan looking for a better life. Part-time teacher, part-time engineer, she finds employment as a governess to one child on a private vessel, a move that whisks her away from her failing ship to surprising luxury and into the orbit of a mysterious, brooding captain. On the Rochester she finds love, confronts corruption and injustice, and struggles to find her place among a community fighting to survive.

Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne is a captivating re-imagining of Jane Eyre. The story of an orphaned, impoverished girl becoming governess to a child in a wealthy household that harbors a secret provides the base. But moving that story to a science fiction future frees the heroine to evolve from the strictures of female characters in the past.

Stella follows her own conscience and set of ethics in all her actions, and she’s willing to give up her new life and her love to help her friends and others. What emerges is a strong heroine who fights for what she believes in and in the process defies her corrupt government to create something better than existed before. Stella provides a good example of how female characters can follow their heads as well as their hearts in the pursuit of being true to themselves.

As an updated classic, Brightly Burning taps into Jane Eyre’s spirit while also evolving her into a modern character. It’s a story that entertains until the last page. I recommend it for readers aged 12 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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