Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Root Magic by Eden Royce

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Root Magic by Eden Royce. Unabridged downloadable audiobook. ~594 minutes. Read by Imani Parks. Walden Pond Press/ HarperCollins Publishers, January, 2021. 9780063064416. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.) 

Middle Grade Monday features Root Magic by Eden Royce. Jezabel Turner lives with her twin brother, Jay, their mother and extended family in South Carolina in 1963. They are burying Jez's beloved grandmother at the opening of this leisurely, lyrical debut novel. Gran was a respected root worker, one whom many members of the community came to for help, but who also garnered suspicion and fear. Jez's uncle, Doc carried the Gullah Geechee tradition of root work and wants to teach it to the twins. Their mother is hesitant, but changes her mind after a racist deputy unlawfully searches their property and threatens violence.

The real dangers of the Jim Crow south and the potential danger of a malevolent presence in the marsh quietly ratchet up the tension as Jez and Jay learn the ways of root. Jez is a thoughtful and charming narrator. Other characters, such as Jay, Doc and her mother brim with energy and life.

Imani Parks' performance matched the measured pace of the narrative well. I enjoyed reading this with my ears. Readers who enjoy intricately crafted suspense will love Root Magic.

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert

Image: Little, Brown and Company

The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~5 hours and 36 minutes. Read by Jeanette Illidge. LBYR/ Hachette Book Group, March, 2020. 9781549157387. (Review of downloadable audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend filled with books and walks outside. The weather was cold but the sunshine was glorious. Boo and I took lots of long walks. He even got to run loose in the woods for a bit.

Middle Grade Monday features The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert. Ms. Colbert, an award-winning YA author, made her middle grade debut in this winning story of Alberta, who lives with her two dads in a California beach town. They are the only Black people in town and Alberta has gotten used to that thanks to her best friend, Laramie and surfing. Al lives to surf and she's good enough to compete, but her dads say she can't until she's thirteen. Life is pretty good except for her nemesis, Natalie, who lives next door, and whom Laramie seems to be taking a shine to. Just as seventh grade begins, Al learns that the B & B across the street has finally been sold. A Black family will be moving in and there's a girl just Al's age!

Edie and her mom have moved all the way to California from Brooklyn and Edie is not thrilled. She misses her friends, Brooklyn and most of all, her record producer dad. Her goth style, wearing all black, including lipstick, certainly draws attention at school. Can Al and Edie forge a friendship?

This was a fun read about friendship and middle school drama with a side of mystery. While cleaning up the attic, which will be Edie's space, the girls discover a box of diaries from the 1950s and set about reading them.

New-to-me narrator, Jeanette Illidge, sounded appropriately youthful as Alberta and had a distinct range of voices for the varied characters.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones

Image: Sourcebooks

I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones. Unabridged downloadable e-audiobook, ~5 hours. Read by Brittany Presley and Channie Waites. Recorded Books, September, 2019. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Gillie Segal and Kimberly Jones. This dual narrative is a taut, present tense narrative of one scary night that started at a high school football game, then ended on the streets of Atlanta. Two senior girls are thrown together after a racial slur prompts a fist-fight, which devolves into chaos once the police arrive. Lena is a confident alpha girl with a strong sense of fashion and Campbell is newly arrived at the school and just trying to get through senior year unnoticed. The two girls from very different backgrounds, one white, one black, must rely on each other to survive the night of rioting.

If the sequence of events seem a tad improbable, the quibble is soon lost in the intensity of the interaction between the two main characters. The authors vividly describe the chaos danger of the fighting, riots and looting. Also timely are the assumptions each girl has about the other. This fast, compelling read should spark conversations about race relations and  white privilege.

The pacing and performances of both narrators were pitch perfect, adding to the suspense of the story.

Review: Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham & Charles Waters

Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham & Charles Waters. 40 p. Carolrhoda Books/ Lerner Publishing Group, January 1, 2018. 9781512400425. (Review from finished copy won at AASL, courtesy of publisher)

Charles and Irene are classmates in Mrs. Vandenberg's classroom. They don't particularly like each other. Charles is chatty and fidgets. Irene is quiet.  They find themselves stuck with each other as partners in a poetry project. Charles is actually looking forward to working on this project because, "Words fly off my pen 
onto the paper, like writing is my superpower." 

Charles suggests topics like shoes, hair and church. Irene writes about how she wished for an afro when she was younger; but her perm was a disaster. Charles writes about how he feels when kids try to touch his hair. They get to know each other through their shared poems but not without some mis-steps. Irene wishes that she would be invited to join a game of freeze tag the black girls are playing. Shonda confronts her with, "You've got the whole rest of the playground... Can't we at least have this corner?"

When Charles is rebuffed on the playground, he invites Irene to work on their project. Charles clearly has more to deal with than Irene, but they both take tentative steps towards friendship. 

The poems are paired on each page - one by Charles and one by Irene. They read smoothly, are accessible and a good choice to share with children to start a conversation about race - a conversation that many adults feel uncomfortable having. Pair a reading of this with Julius Lester's Let's Talk about Race, and you have two texts to help guide discussion with almost any age group, including young adults. The mixed media illustrations enhance the text. Observant readers may pay close attention to the newsprint used in the collage work. 

At AASL2017 in November, I attended a panel discussion entitled, Mirror, Mirror, Reaching All Readers, moderated by Carole Boston Weatherford. The panelists included Bill Konigsberg, Ellen Oh, Icy Smith and the two poets of this title. The authors read from their most recent work and went on to answer a series of fascinating questions posed by the moderator. I was so impressed by the discussion of Can I Touch Your Hair?, I made a note to myself to order it. Near the end of session, Waters announced that Lerner had provided several copies of Can I Touch Your Hair? to the attendees who could answer some poetry trivia questions. I was able to answer, "Who is the Children's Poet Laureate of the United States?" I won for knowing it is Margarita Engle! I beelined to the front of the room at the end to get the book autographed. I can't wait to share this with my colleagues and students.

Audiobook Review: Historical Fiction Double-header

Sigh. There was a time when I reviewed everything I read. Then, I reviewed only what I really liked. Lately, I realized that I am not even doing that! I never reviewed two audiobooks that totally blew me away this summer. So here's a double review of two historical fictions not to be missed.

Both of these feature totally fictional characters set during a notable historical event, neither of which, I am embarrassed to admit, I had ever heard. But then, I always learn the most interesting things by reading literature for young people.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez. Unabridged audiobook on 10 compact discs, 12 hrs., 50 mins. Read by Benita Robledo and Lincoln Hoppe. Listening Library, 2016. 9780735289475. (Purchased)

Set in New London, Texas in 1937, where a deadly explosion  at a school killed scores of children, Out of Darkness tells the story of Naomi and Wash. Fifteen-year-old Naomi is Mexican and her five-year-old half-siblings are bi-racial. They've recently been summoned by Naomi's white stepfather to live as a family in New London. Her half-siblings mix easily but Naomi is immediately confronted with racial hatred aimed at Mexicans. All the boys in her high school make assumptions and all the girls hate her because of those assumptions compounded by her beauty and apparent disinterest. She does, reluctantly at first, become interested in Wash, an ambitious African American boy with college prospects. She and Henry, her step-father, share a terrible secret. Henry has supposedly repented and become a Christian, but with each passing day, his resolve waivers and Naomi finds herself the object of his advances. 

This just shredded my heart to bits. Nothing like listening to a book and knowing from disc one that lots of terrible things are going to happen. Evocative and layered, this elicited so many emotions-like falling in love with the characters and wanting to keep them safe; like the fury of unrelenting wrongs and injustice. This was one tough but powerful read. The audio performance was first-rate. The narration by new-to-me narrator, Benita Robledo was commanding. I will definitely be interested in listening to more of her performances. Lincoln Hoppe served as the voice of the "Greek Chorus." Highly recommended!

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Unabridged audiobook on 7 compact discs (8 hrs., 48 min.) Read by Jorjeana Marie, Cassandra Morris, Will Damron and Michael Crouch. Listening Library, 2016. 9780147525451. (Purchased)

Salt to the Sea is told from the points of view of four young people as the losing German army retreats from Russian forces across East Prussia. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse shepherding a group of refugees to Gotenhofan to attempt to gain passage on the ship, Wilhelm Gustloff. She encounters Emelia, a young Polish girl and Florian, a deserting German soldier. There's also the POV of Alfred, a delusional German Navy seaman who finds multiple ways of shirking his responsibility. Each hides secrets both tragic and dangerous. The chapters are short as the point of view shifts quickly from person to person. Be patient with the set-up for as the pieces of this puzzle begin to fit together, the suspense will prevent you from putting the book down (or, in my case, stop listening). So will the love you may be surprised to have for some of the characters. Even the secondary characters are so vividly drawn that I wept over some. 

I was unaware that the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlaff was the worst maritime disaster in history. As she did in Between Shades of Gray, Ms. Sepetys brings a little known segment of World War II to vivid life. While all the characters are completely fictional, what happened to them in the book, really happened to refugees. 

The four performers did a wonderful job. Three of the four were new-to-me narrators. Cassandra Morris' performance as Emelia was particularly affecting. I'm not sure who voiced Alfred, but his portrayal was creepily smarmy as fitting Alfred. Great job. 

Both books will require a sophisticated reader for both structure and content with Out of Darkness being more appropriate to a high school reader. Out of Darkness won a Printz Honor in January and Salt to the Sea is getting some award buzz for the 2017 season.

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

258 p. Arthur A. Levine Books/ Scholastic Inc., July 30, 2013. 9780545417303. (Finished copy provided by publisher for review.)

Author Eric Gansworth takes us back to 1976 in his YA debut. Lewis Blake isn't expecting much in seventh grade. He is bright so he was accelerated in sixth grade, which meant that none of his friends were in his classes and, as the only "Reservation Kid," none of the white kids were interested in being his friend. It didn't help that he, 

"didn't grasp that the way we talk to one another on the reservation was definitely not the way kids talked in this largely white junior high. On the rez, you start getting teased a little bit right after you learn to talk, and either you learn to tease back or you get eaten alive." (p. 6/7)

After realizing that the nicknames he chose for two likely candidates for friendship, Spacey and Blimp Head, weren't endearing himself to them, he resigned himself to being "Invisible Boy."

"They pretended I wasn't there as much as they possibly could. During lunch, we were required to sit with our class at tow long tables. In every other section, the Indians gravitated to one another like atoms in some science experiment, but I sank to the bottom of my particular beaker, alone." (p. 7/8)

Still, after having his friend Carson hack off his two-foot long braid he had to face his mother who said, "You look like a Welfare Indian."
     "I am a Welfare Indian," I said.
     "You don't need to look the part," she said. (p. 10)

So his mother buzzes the rest of the mess off his head with clippers, "that made more noise than it should have, grabbed your hair like it was mad at you, and sometimes gave off a burning odor," leaving his eyebrows as the longest hair on his head. 

On the first day of seventh grade, most of the students are the same, but there is one new boy, a rather large boy named George who seems interested in getting to know Lewis despite being warned that he was "More trouble."

George is a military brat. He grew up mostly in Germany where his dad was stationed and met his mother, then lived in Guam before moving to upstate New York. He is very interested in meeting "a real live Indian." So when Lewis sardonically replies, "As opposed to a dead one?" George soldiers on. The two discover that they share interests and George soon invites Lewis to his home. 

Lewis is reluctant since that would mean a reciprocal invitation to his home, which is never going to happen. Still, he does accept a dinner invitation and meets George's parents, learns that George and his dad is a major Beatles/ Paul McCartney and Wings fan. Lewis and his uncle, Albert (Really? Was this intentional? Great stuff!) are as well. When Christmas rolls around and Lewis brings home the new Wings album,  Venus and Mars, Uncle Albert warns,

"The red planet is like the rez here. That other planet, Venus, I guess, that's the planet your buddy comes from. Now he might lend you albums and you'll have pizza nicey-nice every now and then, but these planets are still different. And we ain't got no rez rocket that's ever gonna get you that other one, even though I know that's where you want to be." (p. 98)

If you haven't already guessed by the length of this post already and the quantity of direct quotes, I loved this book. I could quote on and on and on. It's one of my most favorite YA titles so far this year. Of course, it begs comparison to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, an all-time favorite book of mine. Yes, both books feature bright boys with promise who face the challenges of navigating a white world and the alienation that comes with it and both (writers and characters) use humor and sarcasm to cope. Both books reflect racism. Both made me laugh and broke my heart simultaneously. 

This book deserves to stand on its own merit. It is a very different book but I can't quite explain how. Or, I could try but would just blather. It's really a book about friendship. Male friendship. Boy friendship. And boy emotions. There are a few authors who explore that territory and do it well. I'm thinking Matt de la Pena and Chris Crutcher and James Preller for the MG crowd. 

George and Lewis are great characters. There isn't a lot of honesty or sharing between them, but they instinctively like each other. Their love of music is the glue that holds them together. Lewis' Indian best friend, Carson loves music as well and the two take guitar lessons from an older neighbor, but Carson lords his ability over Lewis. 

His friendship with Carson is complicated. Carson makes fun of Lewis being in the brainiac class and questions his friendship with George, yet Carson can pass for white and is pursuing a friendship with the school bully, who is well-connected in the community and has set his sights on Lewis.

The secondary characters are richly developed as well. George's parents, Lewis' mom and Uncle Albert, all encircle the boys, loving them and doing the best they can by them. I loved Albert. He was wacky but he was wise. I also loved his mom and her fierceness. Oh how I ached for this family.

I enjoy picking up this book and opening it to a random page to read. Each time I do, it isn't long before I find a perfectly written passage. There isn't a wasted word and not a moment rings false. If I Ever Get Out of Here is definitely one for my reread pile. If there are plans to produce an audiobook, I'm in for an audio reread. For school librarians who find The Absolutely True Diary a bit edgy for their population, this one is more middle school friendly.

I hope the committees are paying attention to this one. I can't wait to booktalk when school resumes. It's going to be my "book aunt" gifts to my nephews come the holiday season. Do check this one out for yourself.