2025 National Book Award Finalists and Audiobook Review: The Teacher of Nomad Land: a World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri

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The Teacher of Nomad Land a World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri. Unabridged downloadable audiobook, ~3 hours. Read by the author. Listening Library, September, 2025. Review of audiobook borrowed from public library.

I have been a bad blogger. I read this back in the fall with the intention of reading all the National Book Award Finalists for Young People's Literature. I absolutely loved it and was thrilled when it was given the National Book Award. Did I blog about it then? No. It also garnered a Newbery Honor on 1/26. Did I blog about it? Nope, nope, nope. Bad blogger.

Daniel Nayeri is a masterful storyteller. I wrote on Goodreads, "I can't think of too many children's authors who can spin an enthralling tale with such economy of words." It is a treat to hear him narrate as well. 

I was totally unaware of the fact that Iran was occupied by both the British and Russians during WWII. The tale Nayeri spins of the trials of the two orphans, from despicable relatives who take them in only to exploit them, to the endearing British soldier who befriends them, to the Jewish refugee they feed is suspenseful. I was rapt. I laughed and cried. Truthfully, it is that rare middle school reader who will appreciate this; but it's wonderful to have it to share with that lucky reader. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen

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Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowman. Of Mermaids and Orisa series #2. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~11 hours. Read by Betide Badaki. Books on Tape/ Listening Library, September, 2022. (Review of e-audio borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowman. This sequel to Skin of the Sea picks right up and, to avoid any spoilers, I will be vague. The mermaid Simidele has made a promise in order to save the ones she loves and leaves them without explanation. She is now bound to the god Olokun, who in turn made a promise to release Esu, but he reneges on that promise. Without Esu forever binding the ajogun, these malevolent beings begin wreaking havoc on land and in the sea, threatening the entire world.

Both of these books are steeped in West African mythology and the world building is lush, vivid and cinematic. I continue to prefer reading books like these with my ears for the melodic delivery and proper pronunciation. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson

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As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~15 hours, eleven minutes. Read by Bailey Carr and others. Books on Tape/ Penguin Random House, September, 2021. 9780593416761. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a thoughtful MLK Day. My students were off, but we teachers had PD. Teen Tuesday features As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson. This is the third and final book of a trilogy that many seventh and eighth graders have been recommending to each other and me. 

Pippa is getting ready to go to college, but she's in a dark place since her last investigation. She's definitely suffering from PTSD and having trouble with flashbacks and is unable to sleep. In fact, she has turned for former suspect and drug dealer, Luke Hastings for a regular supply of Xanax when her doctor cuts her off. While she's used to death threats, thanks to her true crime podcast, she has been receiving regular messages asking, "Who will look for you when you're the one who disappears?" She is definitely feeling like she's being watched. This intensifies when she's asked by the mother of a man convicted of being the area's serial killer from a few years earlier. Pip believes the wrong man is behind bars and of course, Detective Hawkins doesn't believe her. So it's up to Pip. Will this investigation be her last because she's off to college or because she's dead?

I must say that this series took a very dark turn in this final installment. The first two books are borderline middle school YA, but the last is definitely DARK and twisty. While the credits list multiple narrators, this is mostly Bailey Carr's show. I really couldn't distinguish between the other narrators. Carr's delivery turned a bit annoying, sort of whiney while stretching out intonations. Not that subtle. The twist and the ensuing events just strained credulity for me. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti

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The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~13 hours. Read by Brittany Pressley. Books on Tape/ Listening Library, September, 2022. 9780593611654. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti. Seventeen-year-old Harper Proulx is an anxiety-ridden perfectionist. She is the only child of a single mom who is a college professor and has high expectations of Harper academically and socially. Living through the pandamic quarantined with her mom has only worsened her anxiety. She finds validation with the likes by her many followers on Instagram, where she carefully curates her life. When a follower comments that she looks just like a friend, Harper has to agree, because they both have striking green eyes and auburn hair. The two meet and Harper learns that they share the same sperm donor and that Dario has discovered more half-siblings. Dozens more, in fact. They connect with two more half-siblings, Simone and Wyatt. They do some sleuthing and track their donor dad to Hawai'i, where he runs a surf school and Wyatt's parents own a condo. Though terrified to defy her mother, Harper does so and flies to Hawai'i to discover herself.

Journal entries from the 1800s begin each chapter and readers may wonder about the relevance, but they are beautifully tied together in what is an epic journey of self-discovery on two levels. I also appreciated how the author depicted Harper's anxious obsession with presenting a perfect hash tagged life. Her lack of being present led to her losing her boyfriend, Ezra, whom she treated as little more than a cameraman. The narrator also did a wonderful job of bringing that to life with her almost staccato delivery. Harper starts out a bit self-centered and unlikable, but her growth is believable. A recommended coming-of-age story!

(My one quibble has to do with the prevailing traits shared by most of the offspring - green eyes and auburn hair. These are recessive genes and I found it a bit of a stretch. Teens may pick up on it. I know I knew about recessive and dominant genes from about seventh grade on.)

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

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Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours, 55 minutes. Read by Bailey Carr and multiple narrators. Listening Library, March, 2021. 9780593342398. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. Pippa Fitz-Amobi has sworn off detective work, but hosts a viral podcast with Ravi's help, where she discusses the cold case she just solved. But when the brother of a friend of hers goes missing and the police won't investigate because he has a history of running away, Pip can't say no. Pip has definitely made some enemies and some people are quite reluctant to be interviewed by her, especially since she's podcasting her investigation in real time. 

This sequel pretty much hits the ground running. It takes up shortly after events in the first book, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Fans of the first will not be disappointed. While this installment can be read without reading the first, it is better to have the background info and avoid spoilers for book one.

The main narrator continues to keep a brisk pace and sound reasonably young. The addition of multiple narrators also keeps the story moving. 

Middle Grade Monday: The Fort by Gordon Korman

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The Fort by Gordon Korman. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~6 hours. Read by Christopher Carley, Michael Crouch, Nick Walther, Ramon De Ocampo, Tom Picasso, and Mark Sanderlin.

Recorded Books, June, 2022. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday TMS! I hope you had a blast this weekend and got outdoors in the gorgeous weather! I also hope you got a glimpse of the Hunter's Moon which rose on Saturday night.

Middle Grade Monday features The Fort by Gordon Korman. What kid doesn't dream of having a fort-a place to hang, to escape or just dream? When four best buds plus one new-comer literally stumble upon a fully-stocked underground bunker, they can't believe their luck and swear each other to secrecy as they explore their new digs and eat canned food. Suspension of belief is definitely required for this story told from multiple points of view. Each boy has an issue, whether it's fighting parents, absent parents or crippling anxiety.

The Fort is Mr. Korman's 100th book, and, while not his best, certainly starts with a terrific premise and features engaging characters. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray

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Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~15 hours. Read byKeylor Leigh Benjamin Charles and Yinka Ladeinde. Books on Tape/ Listening Library, July 2022. 9780593414774. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray. This sequel to Beasts of Prey begins immediately with Koffi awakening a prisoner of Fedu, god of death and Ekon reeling from the secrets he learned and hiding from his former warrior brothers. Koffi must find a way out, but first she needs to learn about her powers as a duraja. Ekon must learn to trust his instincts even if it means going against his training. 

Readers of Beasts of Prey will re-immerse themselves into the lush and magical world building and the cliffhanger ending will leave them panting for the next installment. Suspense, betrayal, twists and turns abound. This summary was kept deliberately vague to avoid spoiling the first installment.

I read Beasts of Prey as an arc with my eyes and was utterly entranced. I chose to read Beasts of Ruin with my ears and was disappointed. While I found the two female narrators to be fine, the voice actor for Ekon kept making his voice break, which sounded stilted and artificial.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Rivals by Katharine McGee

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Rivals by Katharine McGee. American Royals #3. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~12 hours, 37 minutes. Read by Brittany Presley. Listening Library/ Books on Tape, May, 2022. 9780593584408. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from the public library.)

Happy 'I'm melting' Tuesday! The heat continues in NJ, and while not as bad as other places in the U.S., it isn't conducive to the yard work I have on my to-do list! We had a little excitement in the neighborhood yesterday. My neighbor finally broke ground on her addition, and thanks to the previous owner's un-permitted and shoddy work and faulty marking by the gas company, the backhoe hit the gas line. Talk about starting a project with a bang! Here's hoping the rest of the work goes smoothly.

Teen Tuesday features Rivals by Katharine McGee. This is book three of the American Royals series, so as usual, I will be a bit vague in my summary. Even though the main characters in this series are older teens, the alternate history aspect and storytelling from multiple points of view are just plain fun. 

Beatrice is settling into her new role and about to host a week-long event called The League of Kings. Samantha seems to be settling down nicely with Marshall and Jefferson is starting college. There's plenty of court intrigue, high fashion and backstabbing to keep listening, and a "wait, what?" ending that will leave fans of the series panting for the next installment.

Ms. Pressley continues to keep the delivery breezy and fun. She employs a variety of voices and accents. While you can jump into this series at book three, why miss all the soap-opera-ish fun? Here's a link to my review of American Royalty. Happy reading.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

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Family of Liars by E. Lockhart. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~531 minutes. Read by Kimberly Farr. Listening Library, May, 2022. 9780593608852. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Family of Liars by E. Lockhart. This story is a prequel to Ms. Lockhart's We Were Liars. This book is wildly popular among TMS eighth graders and was published in 2014. It contains one of the best plot twists in YA lit. While Family of Liars is a pre-quel, there are spoilers to We Were Liars, so while the book can be read as a stand alone, I'd read We Were Liars first.

Carrie Lennox Taft Sinclair is asked "What's the worst thing you've ever done?" by her son during one of his late night visits to their vacation compound. Yes, compound. The Sinclairs are very wealthy and own an island off the coast of Massachusetts. Carrie reluctantly returns to the summer of 1987 to tell her son the story. It was a year after her youngest sister drowned. She's still grieving, but the family never shows any emotion and so, Carrie is grieving alone. She's also becoming addicted to pain killers after having jaw surgery at her father's insistence. That summer she not only discovers a family secret, but also falls for Pfeff, the flighty friend of her cousin's boyfriend.

This story surprised in the best possible ways. I was pleasantly surprised by the narrator's performance, because I didn't love her narration of French Braid. Fans of the first book will WANT this book and love it. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

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All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours, 26 minutes. Read by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan and Kausar Mohammed. Listening Library, March, 2022. 9780593502228. (Review of finished e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Ms. Tahir made a huge splash with her debut trilogy starter, An Ember in the Ashes. Here she turns from fantasy to contemporary realistic fiction and the results are gut-wrenching and utterly compelling.

Salahudin and Noor are eighteen-year-old seniors living in a small town in the Mojave Desert in California. They are the only Muslims in town and used to be best friends. Noor is an orphan who lost her parents in an earthquake in Pakistan when she was six. Her uncle, who owns a liquor store and was her only living relative, brought her to the U.S., but has banned her from speaking Punjabi or practicing Islam. Though Noor wishes to attend college and eventually study medicine, her uncle's plans for her to work at his liquor store full-time.

Sal's parents own the financially failing Cloud Rest Motel and his mother, Misbah has ignored her health problems due to lack of insurance. His father struggles with alcoholism. Sal learns of the severity of the financial problems when Misbah dies. His father is useless and Sal vows to save the motel, but makes a poor choice in order to do so.

The POV (point-of-view) shifts between Noor and Sal in the present with snippets of the past narrated by Misbah. The result is a feeling of immediacy and utter dread as the story unfolds. Issues of class, race, Islamaphobia, abuse, found family and the criminal justice system collide in a compelling, yet painful narrative. I read this one with my ears and had to stop often due to the intensity of emotions I felt.

Mature teen fans of the author's Ember in the Ashes Trilogy will most definitely want to read All My Rage, as will fans of contemporary realistic fiction. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time. 

I'm so glad I read this with my ears. The three narrators were pitch perfect. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz

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Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours. Read by Lauren Ezzo. Listening Library/ Books on Tape/ Penguin Random House, March, 2022. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! It's going to be a lovely day today! I hope you get outside, get some exercise, then sit in the shade with a good book. I took Boo for a medium-long walk, went to yoga class, and will be heading into the garden with an audiobook soon.

Teen Tuesday features Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz. This is a lush and lovely retelling of Cinderella set in the late 1600s at Versailles during the reign of King Louis XIV. Cendrillon's hopes of becoming a lady-in-waiting in King Louis' court are dashed when her beloved father suddenly remarries and dies soon after. Her stepmother assumes ownership of the chateau and Cendrillon is reduced to a life of servitude. She had hoped her godmother would eventually marry her father. Cendrillon wonders why she doesn't visit. She's isolated and lonely. So when the king decides to have a ball in order to pick 25 maidens for his son, Prince Louis to court, Cendrillon decides to attend.

Setting aside Cendrillon's infuriating naïveté, something teen readers won't notice, but this old lady did, fans of fairy tale retellings will love it. This fast-paced romance may have familiar trappings, but there is plenty to delight, with plenty of court intrigue along the way. The narration was well-paced and engaging. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiook Review: I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

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I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours, 10 minutes. Read by Edoardo Ballerini. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House, February, 2022. 9780593502280. (Review of downloadable e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys. The year is 1989. Romania is governed by a cruel dictator, Nicholae Ceausescu and Romanians are starving while he lives in luxury. His secret service, the Securitate, are everywhere, encouraging neighbor to turn in neighbor for the most minor of infractions. Seventeen-year-old would-be poet, Christian Fortescu lives in a tiny apartment with his parents, older sister and ailing but spunky grandfather, Bunu. Christian is rounded up by the Securitate and the agent blackmails him into becoming an informant. They've learned he has an American dollar, given to him by the son of a diplomat. This is a punishable offense, but if he agrees to spy on the diplomat, he will not be prosecuted. The agent even promises medicine for Bunu.

Who was the informant? It could be anyone, including his best friend, Luca. Or, could it be his crush, Liliana? Terse intelligence reports are interspersed between the short, tense chapters in first-person, which increases the already high suspense. 

Ms. Sepetys paints a vivid, bleak and scary picture of life under a repressive dictator who managed to keep his citizens in the dark about life outside Romania while communism fell. She narrated the plentiful back matter. Edoardo Ballerini deftly conveys Christian's growing paranoia and fear. Additionally, his fluent pronunciation of names was quite helpful. 

Fans of the author or complex, well-researched historical fiction will love this. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

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Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by Mitra Jouhari. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, May, 2021. 9780593411483. (Review of e-audio downloaded from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi. This breezy first-person narrative features fourteen-year-old Parvin (pronounced Par-VEEN, not Par-vin) Mohammedi, who is starting high school thinking she will rock it and is crushed when her new boyfriend dumps her at orientation because she's "too much." What does that even mean? Luckily, she has two bffs to turn to for comfort and she video chats with her college-aged aunt in Tehran, Iran regularly and her parents are supportive even if they do work long hours and don't cook much. When she spies her ex holding hands with another girl, she blurts out that she has a date for homecoming. Now all she needs to do is tone herself down and emulate all the white girls in her favorite rom-coms-be quiet and demure, not hairy and no snort-laughing. oh, yeah, and snag a date for homecoming so she can save face.

Her friends Fabian and Ruth and her aunt all tell her not to change herself-that she should be liked for who she is, but Parvin is wrestling with being bi-racial. She looks nothing like her blond, blue-eyed mother and doesn't feel Iranian enough, especially in Farsi school, where she struggles to learn the language.

Parvin is perfectly entertaining as she blunders her way through a variety of cringeworthy, yet relatable situations. Layered inside the humor are her deft observations of Islamophobia, micro-aggressions and outright racism as well as the shifting sands of high school hierarchy.

Perfectly Parvin is the author's debut and a series starter, so if you like rom-coms and irrepressible characters, you're in for a treat here. I read this one with my ears and appreciated the fluency of the narrator when pronouncing Farsi. Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Pony by R.J. Palacio

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Pony by R.J. Palacio. Unabridged e-audio book, ~7 hours. Read by Ian M. Hawkins, with Author Note read by the author. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, September, 2021. 9780593505410. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Middle Grade Monday features Pony by R.J. Palacio. Ms. Palacio steps outside the world of Wonder in this genre-blender of historical fiction, mystery and ghost story. It is 1860 and Silas lives in the woods in Ohio with his inventor father. Silas narrates and admits that he's not your twelve-year-old. He's at once naive and wise beyond his years. His mother died when he was born. He was struck by lightning and survived and his best friend is a ghost named Mittenwool. When his father is kidnapped by three men on horseback, he tells Silas to stay put and that he would return within the week. 

The following day, one of the rider's white-faced pony returns to Silas and though he has never ridden a horse, he decides to ride the pony in search of his dad. The journey involves trekking through mysterious woods where many ghosts, some not as friendly as Mittenwool reside, but he soon meets up with a cranky, old U.S. Marshall who is tracking some counterfeiters and reluctantly brings Silas on since there might be a connection between them and Silas' dad's kidnappers. 

Some degree of suspension of belief is required here, but Pony is a satisfying read all-in-all with some surprisingly emotional moments. The narration was leisurely paced and introspective. It did take me a little while to become fully invested in the story. I am eager to hear what young readers think. The extensive author's note, read by Ms. Palacio was quite interesting. Since I read with my ears, I missed the old-timey photos that headed each chapter in the print edition.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus

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You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours. Read by Rachel L. Jacobs, Anthony Rey Perez, Max Meyers and Malik Rashad. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, November, 2021. 9780593208359. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Happy Tuesday! Teen Tuesday features You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus. The queen of YA mystery/ thrillers is back with another whodunnit that will thrill her many fans at my school. High-strung, over-achieving Ivy Sterling-Shepherd has just lost the student council election to slacker Brian, Bony, Mahoney and she just can't bear to face attending the assembly where he will accept the position. She runs into her two former best friends in the high school parking lot and the three decide to skip school for the day to drive into Boston. They are going to try and recreate "The Best Day Ever," when they ditched a school field trip to hang out in seventh grade. They remained fast friends until high school, where they drifted apart. Cal is bummed that his "maybe girlfriend" stood him up and Mateo is beat from having to work three jobs to help support his ailing mother. The three are cautiously reconnecting in Boston when they spy Bony, or someone who looks just like him crossing the street. Ivy decides to confront him and gets up to follow, leaving the boys wondering what to do. When they finally catch up to her in an abandoned building, she's frozen in shock, staring at a dead body. It's Bony. The police are coming. The three are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and each has something to hide, so they run.

The pace is pulse-pounding as the POV shifts between Ivy, Cal and Mateo, leaving the reader guessing until the very end. As with all of Ms. McManus' books there is a high creep factor making this suitable for more mature teen readers. The audio performances were well-paced, with each performer nailing the teen voice and attitude. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

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Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~13 hours. Read by Emily Woo Zeller. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, July, 2021. 9780593398876. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! I hope you dress for the weather today! It's COLD out there (in northern NJ)! Teen Tuesday features Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. I admit that I'm partial to fairy tale retellings and boy, have I been on a tear lately, each one better than the last. It wasn't hard to discern from the title, which fairy tale the author retold, The Wild Swans is one of my favorites. I learned from the publisher's page for the book that it also weaves in elements of Cinderella as well as two tales that are new to me-Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and the legend of Chang E.

Shiori-anma is the youngest of her father's seven children. She's the only girl and his favorite. She's a pampered princess in every way, always getting her own way, until her father decided whom she will wed when she turned seventeen. Shiori wants nothing to do with this barbarian prince from a northern province. She's also hiding a secret. She has magic and her father has forbidden magic in his kingdom. So far, she has been able to keep her talent hidden, despite the close call with the paper crane she brought to life. When she loses control on the day of her betrothal ceremony and runs into the lake, she catches the eye of a water dragon, who rescues her and changes into his human form to talk to her. Her icy step-mother, whom Shiori believes possesses magic, curses her six brothers-by day, they inhabit the bodies of crimson crane and change back into their human forms only by night. Shiori is banished, cursed to wear a bowl on her head and warned that if she speaks, one of her brothers will die for each word she utters. And so, penniless, voiceless and with only her secret paper crane as company, Shiori sets out in search of her brothers and a way to break the curse.

Weighing in at more than 450 pages and 13 hours on audio, this story is epic! It's also the beginning of a series and I cannot wait for book two! The writing is wonderfully rich, but man, the pace is fast! The setting is quite vivid and the characters are all well-developed and complex. I loved the stories within the story as well. 

Emily Woo Zeller is becoming a favorite narrator. She paces her performances well and has a wide repertoire of voices. 

Book two, The Dragon's Promise doesn't have any info or cover yet. It's due out in August. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours, 18 minutes. Read by Kinsale Hueston. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, January, 2020. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I had a total of zero trick-or-treaters on Sunday. I'm also ready for our short week! NJ public schools are closed Thursday and Friday for Teachers' Convention Weekend. November celebrates Native American Indian/ Alaska Native Heritage month, so many of the books recommended this month will feature books by or about Indigenous North Americans (even though I try to keep the Daily Book Talks diverse all through the year).

Middle Grade Monday features Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. This entry in the Rick Riordan Presents Imprint doesn't disappoint. Twelve-year-old Nizhoni Begay has dreams of doing something heroic - on the basketball court, at school or onine. She's just a bit distractable and seems to always mess things up because she can see monsters hidden in human disguises and one happens to be at her basketball game where she has the opportunity to win the game for her team. She ends up on the gym floor with a bloody nose instead, and she returns home to fine the man/ monster in her driveway! He's her dad's new boss and the reason the family will be moving from New Mexico to Oklahoma.

Turns out, NIzhoni is a monster-slayer and her brother, Mac, has powers as well. They are both descendants of the Hero Twins of Navajo myth and legend and now they have to rescue their father and save the world.

The story is fast-paced and peppered with moments of humor and Navajo words, for which there is a glossary. I am glad to have read this one with my ears to hear the words and names correctly pronounced. Memorable characters include a talking horned toad, a guardian of a mountain made of crystal and Spider Woman.

Readers who love fantasy adventure like the Percy Jackson books will love this one. Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday: Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff

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Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~ 4.5 hours. Narrated by Jax Jackson. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, April, 2021. 9780593346310. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! How did everyone in the northeast fare with all that rain from Henri? It was the perfect day to read yesterday and it looks like today will be more of the same. I finished a fantastic YA debut fantasy yesterday and plan on finishing a debut contemporary YA today.

Middle Grade Monday features Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff. Mr. Lukoff's middle grade debut is difficult to classify. This first-person narrative is part ghost story and part coming-of-age story. It's pace is leisurely, thoughtful and very relatable. First off, Bug lives in a haunted house and the family is fine with that-well, Uncle Roderick is, but Bug's mother? She's skeptical. Bug totally buys in. Now, Bug thinks Uncle Roderick's ghost might be lingering after he died of cancer. Why? What's he trying to say?

Middle school is looming and Bug's bff, Moira, wants to try make-up and make-overs to make a fresh start. Bug avoids mirrors like the plague and isn't interested in make-up or boys. Obviously, this causes friendship friction. Moira has a lot of other friends, but Bug, not so much. What is it about Bug that makes it so hard to fit in?

I'm being purposefully vague here in an effort to preserve the surprises in this satisfying tale. I'm eager to hear what my students think when I add it to our collection. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Sunkissed by Kasie West

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Sunkissed by Kasie West. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~ 529 minutes. Read by Phoebe Strohl. Listening Library, May, 2021.9780593399552. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Sunkissed by Kasie West. Ms. West is a favorite author among romance fans at TMS and this is a perfect summer romance to read - frothy, fluffy and fun.

Avery wasn't terribly happy about her parents' planned summer getaway to a remote family camp that had no wi-fi, until she caught her best friend kissing her ex. Now, she can't wait to get away from the drama and apology texts. Once at camp, she gets off on the wrong foot with Brooks, a swoony musician who fronts the dinner band, but has higher musical aspirations. It shouldn't matter, as employees are forbidden from fraternizing with the guests, but Avery and Brooks seem to constantly cross paths. Eventually, Avery helps Brooks with lyrics to a song he's writing and a friendship develops. 

I wondered if summer family camps like this even existed any more. It's such a Catskills throwback. Hence the Dirty Dancing comparison. And, for such a strict rule, punishable by firing, the employees seemed to have lots of down time to flaunt the edict. This will likely not bother the target audience at all. 

Phoebe Strohl's performance was well-paced and she sounded appropriately youthful. Fans of Ms. West's books will not be disappointed. I'm definitely adding this to my school library's collection.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Image: Penguin Random House

 Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo. Unabridged audiobook, ~191 minutes. Read by the author. Listening Library/ Make Me a World/ Random House Children's Books, March, 2021. 9780593343708. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features another verse novel about the Muslim immigrant experience. In Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo, fourteen-year-old Nima despairs of ever fitting in and grieves for a father she never knew. Her father died in a car accident back in Sudan (presumably, it is never named) before she was born. Her mother and her best friend, both pregnant, immigrated to the U.S., where Nima and Haitham were born. They live in the same apartment building and Haitham is like a brother to Nima. He does his best to protect her from bullies, but she's constantly picked on for her religion, her skin color, and her poverty. Nima wishes her mother had stayed in Sudan and named her Yasmeen. She's convinced her life would've been different.

In fact, she believes that she glimpses Yasmeen from time to time and this is where the novel veers into magical realism. After a series of crises, Nima gets to travel the road not taken.

This was an immersive read. I'm glad I read with my ears. First, I adore listening poets read their own work. Secondly, as mentioned in Monday's post, I love hearing the foreign language words and names pronounced correctly. 

Home is Not a Country should appeal to teens who enjoy verse novels, stories of the immigrant experience and stories about finding one's place/ belonging.