Middle Grade Monday: A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga. 308 p. Balzar + Bray/ HarperCollins Publishers, October, 2022. 9780063113929. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Middle Grade Monday features A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga. This story is told from two points of view. Resilient, aka Res, is a rover that comes to consciousness in a NASA laboratory. It is his first-person narration that comprises the bulk of the narrative. Interspersed throughout, are letters written to Res from Sophie, the daughter of one of the scientists responsible for Res' programming. Sophie misses her mom because she works very long hours preparing Res to be launched into space and eventually explore Mars.

Even though Rovers are programmed to be precise and logical, Res develops a growing awareness of feelings, particularly toward Xander and Raina, the two primary scientists, who talk to Res and play music for him. Res' voice is at turns child-like, poignant and hilarious. Short chapters in the form of journal entries keep the story moving even though it takes place over seventeen years. Hey! It takes a long time to get to Mars! Once Res lands on Mars, with Fly, his trusty drone, they deal with Guardian, an imperious and logical satillite and the rough terrain and terrible dust storms on Mars as they collect specimens and search for a missing rover.

This book is my absolute favorite book of 2022. It's tender, engaging, hilarious and I never wanted it to end.

Teen Tuesday: Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

Image: Penguin Random House

Dear Justyce: a novel by Nic Stone. 266 p. Crown Books for Young Readers/ Random House/ Penguin Random House, September, 2020. 9781984829665. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Tuesday! Teen Tuesday features Dear Justyce: a novel by Nic Stone. In this sequel to Ms. Stone's critically acclaimed debut, Dear Martin, seventeen-year-old Vernell LaQuan Banks, Jr. (You better call him Quan) is awaiting trial for the murder of a police officer. It's a crime he did not commit, but he was at the scene. He has an arrest record, an overworked, possibly incompetent public defender and knows he's looking at hard time in prison.

He writes a series of letters to his friend, Justyce. The two met on a playground one night while trying to escape difficult times at home. The two boys were bright, loved school and loved to read. Quan had an aptitude for math and hopes for the future despite experiencing the trauma of witnessing the violent arrest of this father when he was eleven. Justyce had a mother who expected him to excel and supported him; Quan's mother sided with the teacher who accused him of cheating on an algebra exam. As Quan began to lose hope, the school-to-prison pipeline became an increasing reality.

Dear Justyce is a difficult read. It's raw. It's sad. It's intense. It's important. You don't really need to read Dear Martin before reading Dear Justyce, but you should. Both books belong on every kind of library shelf. 

Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: Get a Grip Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit

Image: Penguin Random House

Get a Grip Vivy Cohen! by Sarah Kapit. Dial Books for Young Readers/ Penguin Random House, February, 2020. 9780525554189. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Middle Grade Monday features a debut called Get a Grip Vivy Cohen! by Sarah Kapit. This is an epistolery novel. That means it's told in letters. In this case, it's letters as well as emails that Vivy writes to her favorite MLB pitcher, VJ Capello. Not only do they share initials, but VJ is famous for his knuckleball pitch and Vivy has a good one. Her older brother taught her how to pitch but it's getting harder and harder to get him to toss the ball with her in the park. A Little League coach spots Vivy pitching one day and asks her to join his Little League team. Vivy is interested even though the coach's son, who is a classmate, does not look happy. Neither is Vivy's mother, who worries that Vivy won't fit in. Not only will she be the only girl, she will be the only autistic player. Vivy is prone to having meltdowns when she gets frustrated. Vivy promises she will work hard with her therapist on her social skills if she's allowed on the team.

Readers get to know this feisty knuckleballer through her letters and emails to her hero. There's some good baseball in this story, but readers do not need to love baseball to enjoy the book. Vivy is trying to live her best life in a world that is often unkind to those who are not neurotypical.

Get a Grip Vivy Cohen! is a great addition to any collection!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~5 hours. Narrated by Katie Koster and Christian Barillas. Scholastic Audio, June, 2019. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library. Finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

When I opened the hard cover of this epistolary novel, my heart sank a bit to find that it is told entirely in text messages. I don't love texting irl and my digital-immigrant eyes have trouble following long strings of text. Still, the premise intrigued. Luckily, I found it while browsing new e-audio additions in Libby. It was delivered to my phone after a brief hold. I found it quite entertaining. 

High school senior, Haley receives a text from a classmate in her AP history class regarding an upcoming assignment. He identifies himself as Martin Nathaniel Munroe II. The only problem is that there are two Martin Nathaniel Munroe IIs in her class and she hates one of them. Believing she is talking to the one she doesn't hate, Haley answers his question. He responds and the two begin to banter. Soon the bantering turns into full-fledged honest conversations as the two open up. Is it time to meet irl?

This was kind of fun. It was like eavesdropping. The challenge of the text format is that the only clues we have to these characters are what they say type to each other. There is no interior dialogue, no setting, and few extra characters weighing in to add dimension. All have is two smart teens getting to know each other in all its messy glory. 

Another challenge when texting or reading texts is the absence of emotional clues. Sure, we have emoticons, of which I am not fluent; but it can become tricky. The performance of these two new-to-me narrators helped with that. Haley was snarky and anxious and often hilarious. Martin was earnest. But then, perhaps the audio turned the book into a series of phone conversations? 

Either way, Technically, You Started It was an amusing experiment. I'm eager to book talk it when we return to school. I think my teens will love it. Not sure I'd jump into another text-only novel very soon, but interested in reading more from this debut author. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman. Unabridged downloadable e-audiobook, ~4 hours. Read by the author. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House/ February, 2019. 9781984845108. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from public library. Own hardcover.)

Middle Grade Monday features The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman. This first-person novel takes place in Chennai, India and is written as a series of letters from Vigi to her sister, Rukku. When their abusive father turns his anger on Rukku, who is developmentally disabled, and slaps her, Vigi gathers some food and a few belongings and runs away with her sister. There are very few prospects for the girls in the streets of Chennai and many dangers. Luckily, they fall in with two boys who are willing to share their space under an abandoned bridge and show them how to garbage pick. The four form a close-knit family until disaster strikes.

Readers will ache for these children from the start and quickly become invested in their story. This slim novel packs a punch. It's quite an impressive debut! I expect it will grace a number of year-end best lists and be discussed in a variety of committees. 

The author's performance was understated, perfectly paced  and absolutely lovely. Both the book and audio belong in every library. 

Teen Tuesday: Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Dear Martin by Nic Stone. 224 p. Random House Children's Books, October, 2017. 9781101939499. (Borrowed from public library.)

Like Starr in that other auspicious debut, Justyce McAllister straddles two worlds, only he boards at his tony prep school and doesn't have the intact family and extensive extended family support that Starr had. He's a top student with his eyes on an Ivy league education; but he begins to question all that when he is arrested as a suspected carjacker when all he was trying to do was help his drunk ex-girlfriend get home safely. Luckily for him, his friends and their parents have his back and charges are soon dropped, but the experience causes him to question everything and everyone. He tries to sort through his feelings by writing letters to the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Interspersed between his letters and the narration of events are bits of dialogue.

Stone packs a lot into this relatively short book. There will be tears and anger. While some characters receive short shrift (I for one, wanted to know more about his tough-love mother), readers, both reluctant and avid alike, will tear through this and have much to think on. I have a student who discovered Jason Reynolds' book Ghost at the end of his seventh grade year. He came back to eighth grade wanting Patina, then read every one of Reynolds' books before moving on to Kekla Magoon's How It Went Down and Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give. He devoured Dear Martin as well.

I read this one with my ears. While narrator, Dion Graham turned in his usual stellar performance, the lists and sections of dialogue are more difficult to convey. Either way, Dear Martin is a must-read and must purchase for high school and public libraries.