Glitter Gets Everywhere, by Yvette Clark

     The first teen book by author Yvette Clark, a London-born author who now resides in New York City. This is relevant because in Glitter Gets Everywhere, main character Kitty moves to New York with her dad and sister for 6 months for a change of scenery. The change is needed after the recent death of her mom, which Kitty is trying to work through from the very first pages of this story to the very last.

    This book starts off well but gets much better and stronger as it goes along. Perhaps it was just my own mood when reading on different days, but at first it seemed like Clark was trying too hard to write from the perspective of a young teenager, Kitty. But by about one third of the way into the story, the author really seemed to hit her stride, and the rest of the book was really difficult to put down! All of the characters and situations were pretty realistic and believable, and I found my pug self rooting for Kitty to have a good outcome. I won't share with you how close the actual ending was to what I hoped for, but I will say that this is a really good realistic fiction story about loss, family and friendship - and not just friendships between teens. Kitty also has a few adult friendships that help her deal with the loss of her mom. Clark builds a very good story here, worth your time. Fans of Patricia Riley Giff or Sharon Creech will really enjoy this, I think! 5 paws!

Running on Empty, by S. E. Durrant

     I haven't read anything by this Scottish author before (her first book is titled Little Bits of Sky), but instantly I was drawn to her style of storytelling. Durrant's writing reminds me a lot of A.S. King (one of my favorite authors!) but for younger readers, perhaps. Both write in a way that I find hard to describe to you...the honesty of the character's voice, and the way they both turn everyday thoughts, events and ideas into compelling stories is really amazing!

    Running on Empty is the story of AJ, who lives with his very quirky parents and has recently lost his Grandad, who we discover throughout the story kept AJ's family together and really made sure AJ was taken care of. AJ's Aunt Josephine and her family live nearby and are a big part of the story as well. But AJ is the narrator, and through Durrant's clever storytelling, we become AJ, in all the beautiful and strange ways a 7th graders navigates a complicated world. 

    I loved this short book, and recommend it to any of you who enjoy realistic fiction and above-average writing. I especially recommend it to those of you who are willing to lose yourself in someone else's thoughts for a while. Durrant is exceptional when it comes to writing "voice", and I found this book to be difficult to put down. 5 paws!

Alias Anna, by Susan Hood and Greg Dawson

      Alias Anna is the true story about Ukrainian-born Zhanna Arshanskaya. Later using the alias name of Anna, Zhanna and her sister, Frina, are being led, with their family, to what will be their deaths by the Nazis at the start of World War 2, when Germany invades Ukraine and starts eliminating all Jews. Zhanna and her family are Jewish, but her and her sister are also musical prodigies, having performed as children all over Ukraine for people at all levels of society. On the march out of Ukraine, Zhanna's father bribes a guard in the hopes that he will look away while his two young daughters sneak out of the line of people and into...a very uncertain future.

    This is an amazing story, and it just gets more amazing the farther that you read! Co-author Dawson is Zhanna's son, who is telling this story to award-winning author Hood. With short pieces of what seems like Zhanna's voice woven into the story, Hood and Dawson capture Zhanna and Frina's life while under Nazi rule and beyond, trying to survive without a family, a home, money, food - only a gift to play the piano - all the while trying to hide the fact that they are Jewish, which would quickly cost them their lives in the world they are living in.

    The book is written in poetry style, which I normally really enjoy. Some of my all-time favorite books, such as The Crossover, Long Way Down and Out of the Dust are written in this style, and it works so well. With Alias Anna, however, I kept wanting to read Zhanna's story as she would tell it, in chapter format, and not through someone else's words or in this poetic style. In the other books I mention above, the writing style adds to the story. Here, it takes away from it a bit. And that is a true shame, because this is a story you should read and know. It truly is amazing! Written in regular chapter format, this is an easy 5 paw book. But using poetry to tell this story seems forced, and doesn't make the story better. Nobody's fault, it just didn't make the book better. So, I give this 4 paws...but you should read it just the same! 

Patina, by Jason Reynolds

     Patina is book 2 in Jason Reynolds' Track series, which begins with the book Ghost (reviewed last month). The series is four books long, and each tells the story of the four "newbies" on The Defenders, an inner-city track team made up of kids from all across the area, each with more than their fair share of troubles and challenges, and each with their own ways of coping (and managing) their lives.

     Patina, or Patty, lives a life complicated by the fact that her mother is diabetic and lost her legs, so can no longer care for Patty or her younger sister. But her mom is still part of their lives. Instead Patty lives with her godparents, Emily and Tony, who have both girls attending a private school. At school, Patty constantly navigates the wealthier student body, but she builds a strong friendship with one girl, Becky, who proves to be something Patty wasn't expecting. At the same time she is a new member of the elite, local track team, and the metaphors of running (away from problems, towards her true self) continue on from Ghost. 

    Having just finished Ghost for the second time (my human used it in summer school this year, so I read it again, too!) I wanted to continue the series, as Reynolds is one of my favorite writers! He uses a bit of the same catch phrases and "slanguage" that Ghost used, and that was a little disappointing to me. I know the stories are going to cross, but I didn't think Ghost and Patty would have some of the same speech patterns. That seemed a little...easy. But other than that minor detail, I enjoyed Patina quite a bit. The book reads very quickly, and her story is a good one. I will continue on in the series with the books Sunny and Lu, and I never complete a series, so that says something for Patina! Because of the repetition at times, I rate this a little lower than Ghost...but not by much. Still a good read and worth your time! 4 paws!

When the Ground is Hard, by Malla Nunn

     Wow! The first book I've read in a while that I simply could not put down! This is an OBOB book for the coming season, which is surprising as it seems to be an "older" book than I would pick for middle grade OBOB, at least when I first started reading it. When the Ground is Hard is author Nunn's debut book, and currently she has a second release (titled Sugar Town Queens, which I'll be sure to find and read!). She is a South African who moved at a young age to Australia where she currently lives. One of the things I loved about Ground is that it is obvious Nunn is not from the U.S. - her writing just has a different cadence, or rhythm, to it. It was a refreshing change of pace, and her writing is riveting! Honestly, when I wasn't reading I was trying to figure out when I could be reading again! Yep, this one is wonderful!

    This book tells the story of Adele, a mixed-race girl whose White father provides modestly for her and her Black mother. But because of apartheid laws in Swaziland, in southern Africa, where this story takes place, father and mother cannot live together, so Adele is raised by her mother while her father provides financially, but from another town, where he lives with his other (White) family. 

    Adele attends a Christian boarding school and usually is absorbed into the popular girls group. But in this new school year, she has been replaced in her girl clique, and finds herself rooming with a poor girl, Lottie, who doesn't follow the rules and likes to fight. The book is about Adele navigating race and class differences where she lives, but with many relevant issues that apply to people today, most anywhere in the world, which makes the book so good! Lottie is not what Adele thought she was, nor are the girls she used to hang with, but discovering all of that is challenging, and often hard.

    Treat yourself to this story! The writing is different because the author uses different descriptions and words than authors I often read. But that makes this book even better - it's fresh and new, and the descriptions will stay with you long after you put the book down. I hope the rest of the OBOB season is this awesome! 5 paws!

The Many Meanings of Meilan, by Andrea Wang

    Meilan is a middle school Taiwanese-American living in Boston with her extended family when a bedtime story that she tells her niece one night turns the family into a quarreling clan. The infighting escalates and continues for months, resulting in a move across the country for Meilan, her parents and her grandfather. In their new town in Ohio, Meilan really struggles to find herself among mostly White classmates and far from her best friend, her old schoolmates and the rest of her family.

    This first middle grade novel by author Wang has a lot of really good themes in it, the strongest of which includes identity, especially where race is concerned. Meilan finds that in her new town most people don't know a lot about other people or cultures, certainly not hers, and as she tries to navigate all of the negativity that that ignorance brings, she has to find sources of strength within, rethinking events and memories - even past relationships - to discover herself.

    

    There is a lot to like about this book, but I just couldn't get super excited about it. There were a few things that I felt Wang did that weakened the overall effect of what is a good story. For instance, she inserts a lot of Mandarin Chinese into the story, which makes sense as Meilan is pushed to learn her ancestral language by her parents. But she inserts it so often that it took away from the flow of the story for me. She also uses words that I don't think Meilan would use, such as when she's describing a certain food her parents enjoy but not easy to find in Ohio. In Meilan's narration, she describes the food as "gelatinous"...which sounds like it came straight from the dictionary, not a 7th grader. 

    

    Perhaps these things are my own pug biases coming out. After all, The Many Meanings of Meilan is getting really good reviews in most places. And I love much about Meilan and this story. But I couldn't get past the few things, like those I mentioned, that seemed to be due to a new author. With a few books under her belt, I think Wang would have created a stronger story. This one is good, but not as good as it could have been. 3 paws and a wag!

Ghost, by Jason Reynolds

     The first book in author Jason Reynold's Track series, Ghost is the story of Castle Crenshaw, also known as Ghost. Living in a tough part of the city, not particularly successful in school, living with his single mom who is working full time and trying to get through night school classes to improve life for her and Ghost - all present challenges for our protagonist. He happens upon a local city track team in his neighborhood and ends up wanting to be part of that team. But does he have what it takes to work for it? And does he have the stamina to stick with it, and do it honestly? Can Ghost use a horrible event from his past to make his future better? Or will the past hold him back, heading towards a life much like his father is living now, a life of fighting...will Ghost run away from his past or towards his future?

    Reynolds is one of my all-time favorite authors, and if you've never experienced a Jason Reynolds book, do yourself a huge favor and read one today! This one is a great place to start, but you won't go wrong with any of his books. He writes excellent stories, realistic fiction, all with African-American characters and most with race as one of the themes of the story. Sort of a modern-day version of Walter Dean Myers. While I haven't read all four books in this series yet, I have read the first two, and they are really good, with Ghost being better than average, for sure! A pretty quick read, an excellent story...read this! 5 paws!

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna, by Alda P. Dobbs

     It's 1913 in Mexico, and the revolution is in full swing. Petra Luna has lost both of her parents to the revolution, which was supposed to be a good thing for the people of Mexico, but for many it meant the destruction of their towns and the disappearances of many people. Petra is trying to lead her siblings and grandmother out of harm's way, and she learns that the only direction to go is north, to cross the border into the United States. But can she get there? Can she get her and her remaining family there safely? Or would it be better to stay and join the forces that are trying to win Mexico back for its people (and not the corrupt government and military, who once promised a better nation, but who clearly will not be making that happen for Petra or others like her). 

    Author Dobbs creates a tense historical fiction story which seems to parallel today's headlines in many ways. It reminded me a lot of The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz in the sense that young people are in charge of saving themselves, and perhaps others, in escaping bad situations in countries south of the U.S. but with no guarantee that getting to the border will mean being able to cross. Those questions are still relevant today, which makes books like Petra Luna more riveting. It also gives us a better idea of the story behind the lives of people trying ti make their lives better, here or other places in the world. And do we as a country have a responsibility to help other countries? Other people? Weren't we, or our ancestors, once in need of a better life as well?

    A good read, with a strong lead character in Petra, and some historical information as the background to her story. Mixed together this is a very good window into the lives of those trying to find a better world, but not without putting in the work to make it better. 5 paws!

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies, by Joyce Sidman

     Subtitled; How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science, Sidman's book chronicles the life work of Maria Merian, a young girl who turned her love and fascination of nature into one of the most famous works of insect research and art the world has seen! And she lived in the 1600 and 1700s! Back then, to be interested in things such as "summer birds", or butterflies, and their different stages (pupa and caterpillars) could get you labeled a witch...and killed! But Merian coupled her talent for drawing and painting along with her intense interest in insects - butterflies and moths, mostly - into a lifelong journey to seek out and catalog as many species of these beautiful creatures as possible, from various places in the world (another element of her amazing life that did not come easily...it's not like she could hop on a plane to another continent back then!). 

    I loved the idea of this book, and was curious to get my paws on it. Then, once I started it, it took a little time to really settle into the short chapters and the story, as fascinating as it is. The artwork is gorgeous, and by pushing myself a little to stick with the story, I found myself having a hard time putting it down! What a brave person Merian was, to follow this dream and turn it into something that has lasted for hundreds of years! If she could do it back in the 17th century, then surely we can follow our dreams, too, right?! This book won't take long to finish and is worth seeing for yourself. A really powerful story, even if butterflies and moths are not your "thing"! 5 paws!

Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech, by Ted Kooser & Connie Wanek

     A picture book with wonderful illustrations! U.S. Poet Laureate Kooser and Wanek construct some fun poems using various word plays, showing how one might see something one way, while someone else may see it another...perhaps I see an empty nest perched on the branch of a tree, but you see a clown balancing a pie in a tree! The book of thirty poems is divided into four sections, one for each element (fire, water, air and earth). The poetry is simple in subject but really stays with you afterward, like a Shel Silverstein poem but with less silliness (or maybe just a different kind of silliness). If you enjoy words, poetry or otherwise, and are open to possibilities in the world around you, check this out! Our school library has a copy, just waiting for you to explore it! 4 paws!