Middle Grade Monday: The Other Side of the River by Alda P. Dobbs

Image: Sourcebooks

The Other Side of the River by Alda P. Dobbs. 368 p. Sourcebooks, September 6, 2022. 9781728238449. (Review of arc courtesy of author.)

Happy Monday! Happy Labor Day and happy book birthday tomorrow to The Other Side of the River by Alda P. Dobbs. This sequel picks up immediately after the ending of The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna, which was the author's debut and won a Pura Bel Pré Honor. (Spoiler alert.) Petra, her abuela, little sister and baby brother may have made it across the river and out of Mexico, but their troubles are far from over. 

The refugee camp is getting more and more crowded and smallpox breaks out. The refugees are given a choice to either return to Mexico, where the revolutionaries are gaining ground or find a job and move on. Each decision the family needs to make is daunting. Petra's abuela leans toward returning, but Petra, armed with her talisman, her baby diamond, argues in favor of following her father's directions to start anew in the U.S. The family moves on to San Antonio, where they find a place hovel to rent while Petra looks for work. With each step away from Mexico, she worries about her father-whether he's still alive after having been forced to fight for the Federales, and if so, how the family will reunite. Most of all, she wishes to learn to read, something her abuela calls barefoot dreams.

Though this story, based on the author's family takes place in 1913, issues of immigration, the plight of refugees, and racial prejudice unfortunately persist.

Petra is resourceful and resilient; so much so that readers might forget that she's only twelve-years-old. While she feels responsible for her family, her sister and abuela do their fair share as well, something Petra occasionally forgets. She and her family continue to form community wherever they go as they try to forge a new life in America. There is so much to love here.The voice is engaging and short chapters move the story along, helped by colorful secondary characters and setting. An author's note follows. Finally, I just think that cover is gorgeous!

Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15th. I try to book talk diverse books all year long, but these thirty days are a good time to celebrate and highlight stories around Hispanic people and culture. Petra's story is sure to inspire. Both books belong on any library shelf. Highly recommended! Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs

Image: Sourcebooks

The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs. 288 p. Sourcebooks, September, 2021. 9781728234654. (Review of arc courtesy of the author.)

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed your weekend! We had a snow day here on Friday, so the weekend felt luxuriously long. Students have a scheduled long weekend next weekend for MLK's birthday. Teachers have a PD day.

Middle Grade Monday features The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs. This historical fiction set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution is based, in part on the author's family history.

Twelve-year-old Petra Luna gathers wood to sell in her village each day. She doesn't go to school. Neither she nor her father nor Abuelita read, but she longs to. Her mother died giving birth to her brother and her father has been conscripted by the Federales, who are brutally hunting down and quashing the revolutionaries. She promised her father that she would look after her grandmother, younger sister and baby brother until they could be reunited, but now the Federales have burned their village to the ground the the family are refugees heading north to the border and the U.S. How can she shepherd her remaining family across the desert on foot, with little money and scant knowledge of life outside of her village?

Readers will instantly root for the resilient Petra and become immersed in her dangerous trek. Though the Mexican Revolution happened over a hundred years ago, the continued plight of refugees all over the world makes this a timely novel to read today. There is an immediacy in Ms. Dobbs' writing, so much so that I often had to put the book down to take a break from the emotion that it evoked.

The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna is the author's debut. I recommend it highly-for fans of historical fiction and for any reader wishing to become more empathetic. Happy reading!

What's New? Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Hop on over there to ogle what other bloggers got this week.

I didn't think I'd have a Stacking post today, then these two landed on my doorstep and I decided not to wait until next Saturday to post. 

For Review:

Image: Candlewick Press

Fungarium curated by Katie Scott and Ester Gaya. Welcome to the Museum series. 66 p. Big Picture Press/ Candlewick Press, April 6, 2021. 9781536217094.

Publisher synopsis: Illustrator Katie Scott returns to the Welcome to the Museum series with exquisite, detailed images of some of the most fascinating living organisms on this planet—fungi. Exploring every sort of fungi, from the kinds we see on supermarket shelves to those like penicillium that have shaped human history, this collection is the definitive introduction to what fungi are and just how vital they are to the world's ecosystem.

Welcome to the Fungarium! Step into the world of fungi and learn all about these strange and fascinating life-forms.

Image: Sourcebooks

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs. 274 p. Sourcebooks Young Readers, September 14, 2021. 9781728234656.

Publisher synopsis: It is 1913, and twelve-year-old Petra Luna’s mama has died while the Revolution rages in Mexico. Before her papa is dragged away by soldiers, Petra vows to him that she will care for the family she has left—her abuelita, little sister Amelia, and baby brother Luisito—until they can be reunited. They flee north through the unforgiving desert as their town burns, searching for safe harbor in a world that offers none. 

Each night when Petra closes her eyes, she holds her dreams close, especially her long-held desire to learn to read. Abuelita calls these barefoot dreams: “They’re like us barefoot peasants and indios – they’re not meant to go far.” But Petra refuses to listen. Through battlefields and deserts, hunger and fear, Petra will stop at nothing to keep her family safe and lead them to a better life across the U.S. border – a life where her barefoot dreams could finally become reality.

Purchased:

Leave a link to your stack in the comment section. I'd love to visit.

Teen Tuesday and review: Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. Illustrated by Giovanni Rigano. Lettering byChris Dickey. 138 p. Sourcebooks/ Jabberwock, August, 2018. 9781492662143. (Review from purchased finished copy.)

Readers meet twelve-year-old Ebo shivering and wet, huddled in an overcrowded raft in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean. The group are hoping they are on course to land in Italy and argue whether the moon should be to their left or their right. They are running out of fuel and hope as they realize they will soon be adrift when that happens. Chapter two flashes back nineteen months to Ebo in his village as he realizes that his brother has left to immigrate to Europe. His sister left months earlier. Now Ebo will be left alone with an alcoholic uncle. 

The action switches from "now" to "then" in alternating chapters, with the palette for "now" done in blue hues and "then" done in browns and greens. Ebo is determined and resilient. He finds a way to travel to the city without stealing from his uncle. Against all odds, he reunites with his brother and the two work hard and live in a storm drain to save money to buy passage to Europe. This involves a trek across the desert without enough water as well as being cheated by their smugglers.

The harsh realities of the boys' life is offset by the love and devotion they have for each other and Ebo's eternal optimism. But this is a heartbreaking and intense read. It is also important for young people, especially those in first-world countries, to read and understand that the refugee crisis is real and that refugees are people, not statistics or faceless monsters. 

The art is often quite moving and many panels arrest the eye and cause the reader to linger or return. 

There are quite a number of fans of Alan Gratz's Refugee at my school. I am sure they will be interested in reading Illegal as soon as school starts again. Illegal is a must-read, must-purchase, must-share book.

Arc Review: Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan. 326 p. Sourcebooks Fire, April 1, 2016. 9781492630142. (Review from arc courtesy of publisher)

Max Cobb is coasting through high school, bland and invisible with his 2.5 GPA and zero social life. He's a huge fan of heist movies and admires the pranks of the Chaos Club, a legendary, secret club famous for epic pranks at his high school. So when he receives an invitation from them, he can't believe his luck. But he can't help wondering, why him? Why Just Max? Should he become Not-Max and go for it?

He does but instead of glory, he and four other "invitees" were set up as the patsies. And their fail was epic. The entire school was talking about it. Unfortunately for the Chaos Club, Max isn't going to take this sitting down. Not-Max may have been duped but Not-Max is someone he kind of likes. He and his fellow dupes form an unlikely alliance with one mission. Take down the Chaos Club.

Ordinarily, I don't particularly enjoy heist or prank themed movies. The suspense of the heist makes me too antsy and I am not fond of pranks. If I do find the prank funny, I always feel guilty because pranks usually rely on humor at someone's expense. But pranks and heists have hit children's and YA literature hard the last year or so starting with Varian Johnson's The Great Greene Heist and Jude Watson's Loot. Both authors are due to drop sequels in the coming year. And I did enjoy both. I also ended up enjoying The Tapper Twins Go to War (with each other) by Geoff Rodkey and The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John. When I learned of this debut during a Sourcebooks Preview webinar, I just had to request an arc.

It is totally apropos that the book birthday for Don't Get Caught is April Fool's Day. Teens looking for a fast-paced romp narrated by a snarky, smart, wry high school boy will swallow this whole and eagerly await/ hope for a sequel. The laughs come fast and furious. The pages of my arc are dog-eared to mark not only all the hilarious moments, but also moments of pure teenage truth with all its blemishes from the shark-tank social hierarchy through hard-ass teachers through unrequited love. The characters are smart but not in that overly twee way that sometimes dominates popular YA novels. These characters sound real. These characters have depth.

The story twists and turns as the capers unfold prompting quite a few, "Wait! What?" moments where I needed to stop to go back and reread. And that ending? Never saw it coming. Bloody brilliant. 

Don't Get Caught might be a tad mature for my crowd. I'll be rereading it to try to make it work. I'm considering the eighth grade only shelf. I highly recommend it for high school and public library collections, as well as LA classroom collections. Teen boys and girls will enjoy this equally; as will reluctant and enthusiastic readers, fans of Andrew Smith and fans of heist movies. Don't miss out.