Teen Tuesday: Stepping Off by Jordan Sonnenblick

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Stepping Off by Jordan Sonnenblick. 336 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., June, 2024. 9781339023175.

Teen Tuesday features Stepping Off by Jordan Sonnenblick. Sixteen-year-old Jesse Dienstag lives on Staten Island, commutes into Manhattan to attend a prestigious public school and yearns to leave the real world for his family's vacation home in Pennsylvania each summer where he teaches tennis at the local recreation center and hangs out with his two besties, Chloe and Ava, who also happen to live on the same cul de sac as Jesse. There's a wrinkle this summer though. Jesse realizes that he is in love. With both of them. If he's being honest though, he's a bit more in love with Chloe and hopes he can maintain his best friendship with Ava. Love problems aren't the only things Jesse is facing during the summer of 2019. He's devastated to learn that his parents' marriage is in trouble, though neither one addresses the issue with him. His perfect July 4th moment with Chloe and Ava is marred by tragedy, leaving Jesse and Chloe struggling to find ways to support Ava and her sister. 

Returning to the "real world" leaves Jesse stressed and his school work suffers. He also feels a bit left behind by his city best friend, Carson, who seems to have matured over the summer. Visits to Chloe and Ava don't help. As the stress builds, the pandemic hits. 

No one does male teen angst the way Jordan Sonnenblick does. Jesse is smart, self-deprecating and a bit wise beyond his years, but so dorky and cringey, yet hilarious in his romantic misadventures. My students love Jordan's books, and I know this won't sit. Stepping Off is the perfect romance for middle school readers. 

 

Teen Tuesday: Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

Image: Simon & Schuster

Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Jason Griffin. 384p. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum/ Simon & Schuster, January, 2022. 9781534439467. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Tuesday! Teen Tuesday features Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jason Griffin. Mr. Reynolds is a fearless writer and poet, never afraid to get to the difficult spaces to speak truth. This hefty, visually stunning new work contains about ten sentences and over 300 pages of art inspired by those words that center around breathe. A young boy is quarantining with his family in an apartment where his mom has the news on 24/7 and it seems it's all bad news, especially for Black people. His little brother is glued to his video game and his father struggled to breathe in a bedroom.

Mr. Reynolds' text is typed on strips of paper, which are "taped" onto Moleskine notebook pages that are filled with Mr. Griffin's mixed media art. Both the art and the poetry are profound, not to be rushed through and something to revisit again and again.

Fact Friday: Fever Year: the killer flu of 1918 by Don Brown

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Fever Year: the killer flu of 1918 by Don Brown. 96 p. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 3, 2019. 9780544837409. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Friday TMS Readers! Just three full weeks left of summer vacay! What are your plans - reading and otherwise? 

Fact Friday features Fever Year: the killer flu of 1918 by Don Brown. Brown is the award winning author illustrator of outstanding non-fiction graphic novels and picture books. His subtle watercolor panels and excellent storytelling affect and inform readers. Last year, he won a Siebert Honor (Informational literature award) for The Unwanted: Stories from Syrian refugees. 

In Fever Year, Brown meticulously recounts how the U.S. simultaneously entered World War I and contended with a national outbreak of what was called "Spanish Flu." The aggressive virus killed an estimated 5% of the world's population between 1918 and 1920. The arc I read did not have final art, but sample pages reveal a muted palette that effectively conveys the horror as the numbers of sick quickly outpaced the numbers to care for them or even to bury them. 

As usual in a Brown offering, back matter is excellent. I can't wait to see this finished volume come September. Another first purchase! If you are a graphic novel fan, you must check out Don Brown's work. If you are a student of the first World War, you should check Fever Year out as well! Happy reading!