Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung

Image: Levine Querido

The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung.268 p. Levine Querido, October 6, 2020. 9781646140114. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

I'm back! I took a rare week off of blogging. My week at a lake in the Adirondack Mountains was filled with reading and mostly absent of wi-fi and cell service, which was weird. Cell service was spotty and I could occasionally get on the Internet but not reliably and not for any sustained length of time. 

My dogs loved the lake and the freedom of running around a fenced in yard and in and out of the water. We've always vacationed at the beach mostly due to the fact that we owned a beach house and the dogs were largely stuck inside since the property was small and not fenced in and dogs weren't allowed on the beach between May and October. I never thought of myself as a lake person. I was pleasantly surprised. 

Middle Grade Monday features The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung. The back row refers to the percussion section in a band and the boys refers to two best friends, Mike Park and Eric Costa. Mike is the narrator and he's super-anxious about the start of his sixth grade year. He doesn't look forward to all the changes sixth grade will bring; but he's happy to have Eric to help him through. They've been best friends since fourth grade band and also share a love of comics, especially Sandpiper. Eric has convinced Mike to switch from flute and piccolo to drums this year so that they can sit together during band. The two have to put up with their frenemy, Sean, who is also a drummer and takes a great deal of pleasure in bullying Matt and Eric, casually slinging racist and homophobic slurs their way. 

The boys do their best to ignore it and focus on the epic end-of-year band trip to an amusement park for a competition. Then they learn that the author of Sandpiper will be at a comic con nearby at the same time as the competition! They make plans to sneak away from band to attend but Sean wants in. What makes everything worse? Eric is moving across the country at the end of the school year.

This story is both amusing and endearing. It is familiar as well as utterly unique. It celebrates band kids and boy best friendship that is filled with warm affection and absent of budding toxic masculinity and constant competition. The Boys in the Back Row releases in October and is a first-purchase.

I've been a school librarian for twenty-two years now - the first ten were spent at a K - 8 school, the last twelve at a 5 - 8 middle school. I've also raised four boys. Something happens between fifth and sixth grades to both boys and girls. Grade five and below, the students are like adorable puppies, relatively inclusive and squirming bundles of energy. Some invisible switch clicks between fifth and sixth grade and suddenly lines are drawn and bewildered boys and girls find themselves excluded. Friendships fracture. Unwritten, unspoken rules are broken. Puberty happens for some and not others. Both boys and girls can turn mean. What is especially heartbreaking is how boy friendships evolve and how gentleness and affection get smothered by competition and one-upmanship. I love how Mike Jung has celebrated boy best friendship.

Picture Book Review: Ollie and Augustus by Gabriel Evans

Image: Candlewick Press.

Ollie and Augustus by Gabriel Evans. unpgd. Candlewick Press, May, 2020. 9781536209679. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Ollie and Augustus are bffs. Like most bffs, they occasionally clash, but always make up before lunch. Like most bffs, they do everything together. Ollie is small. Augustus is huge. They make it work. But. Ollie is about to begin school and he's worried that Augustus will be lonely without him all day, so he sets about finding a new friend for his pal. Did I mention that Augustus is a dog? 

This adorable friendship/ school anxiety story is both humorous and gently reassuring in the best possible ways. The pencil and watercolor vignettes charm from end-page to end-page. I just loved this one!

Waiting on Wednesday: Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz. 336 p. Scholastic Inc. February 2, 2021. 9781338245752.

Welcome back to school everyone! If you think you don't enjoy historical fiction, you have not read one by Alan Gratz. His many books are quite popular at TMS, so his fans will be excited to learn that he has a new book coming in February, 2021. Waiting on Wednesday features Ground Zero by Alan Grata. Next September will mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He often uses multiple points of view and here, he has two. Here's the synopsis from his website: Two kids. One devastating day.

September 11, 2001. New York City. Nine year old Brandon goes to work with his dad on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere an airplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion that threatens everyone in the building. Can Brandon survive–and escape?

September 11, 2020. Afghanistan. Eleven year old Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help him–and put herself and her family in mortal danger?

Ground Zero releases on February 2, 2021.

Fact Friday: One Person, No Vote: how not all voters are treated equally by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden

Image: Bloomsbury

One Person, No Vote: how not all voters are treated equally by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden. 276 p. September, 2019. 9781547601078. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Fact Friday features One Person, No Vote: how not all voters are treated equally by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden. The one hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment was August 18. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women in the U.S. the right to vote in 1920. Fifty years earlier, Black men were given the right to vote with the Fifteenth Amendment. However, Black men were systematically disenfranchised, meaning denied the right to vote, by illegal poll tests, poll taxes and the threat of violence. You might think that is a thing of the past, but in the 2016 election, millions of mostly Black Americans were purged from the voter rolls according to this eye-opening book that was written originally for an adult audience and adapted for teens by Tonya Bolden. 

I work in a middle school. Why should seventh and eighth graders care about voting? In a scant five or six years they will be eligible to vote and should exercise their right by becoming an informed electorate. This includes understanding history and why this nationwide reversal of voting rights protections is deeply disturbing. 

In a conversational tone and accessible language, the authors walk the reader through history to the present day efforts to disenfranchise voters. Prepare to be upset through much of this. Then prepare to advocate. This book belongs in every library and social studies classroom.

Friday Memes: Tornado Brain by Cat Patrick

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Image: Penguin Random House

Tornado Brain by Cat Patrick. 296 p. G.P. Putnam's Sons/ Penguin Random House, May, 2020 9781984815316.

Publisher synopsis: Things never seem to go as easily for thirteen-year-old Frankie as they do for her sister, Tess. Unlike Tess, Frankie is neurodivergent. In her case, that means she can't stand to be touched, loud noises bother her, she's easily distracted, she hates changes in her routine, and she has to go see a therapist while other kids get to hang out at the beach. It also means Frankie has trouble making friends. She did have one—Colette—but they're not friends anymore. It's complicated.

Then, just weeks before the end of seventh grade, Colette unexpectedly shows up at Frankie's door. The next morning, Colette vanishes. Now, after losing Colette yet again, Frankie's convinced that her former best friend left clues behind that only she can decipher, so she persuades her reluctant sister to help her unravel the mystery of Colette's disappearance before it's too late.

A powerful story of friendship, sisters, and forgiveness, Tornado Brain is an achingly honest portrait of a young girl trying to find space to be herself.

First Line: People used to believe that tornadoes only move in one direction-to the northeast-but that's not true.

Page 56: "Have a seat, Frances." Officer Rollins said when it was finally my turn in the interview room. My mom sat in the chair closes to the wall. She pulled her frumpy sweatshirt tight around her like she was freezing, but it was hot in the room.

     "I wanted to sit there," I said to her, crossing my arms over my chest.

     "Be flexible, please," she said.

     "I am," I said. "I'm trying." Flexibility is a big deal to her. And to therapists. And, I guess, to people in general. "But can I sit there?"

#tbt: Matched by Ally Condie

Image: Penguin Random House

#tbt celebrates the upcoming 10th anniversary this fall of the publication of Matched by Ally Condie. Matched was Ms. Condie's debut and is book one of a dystopian trilogy of the same name. Crossed and Reached are the sequels. Cassia Reyes is seventeen-year-old who lives in a tightly controlled community run by the Society. She is eagerly awaiting the assignment of her life partner. She's secretly hoping it will be Xander, her best friends and is overjoyed when it is. When she reviews information regarding her match later, it is not Xander's picture on the monitor, but Kai's. Kai is an outcast and not a suitable match. Cassia, whose eye for patterns has placed her on a career path to becoming a sorter, is intrigued. She's intrigued by Kai. She wonders if the Match system is flawed. She begins questioning everything about the Society.

If you enjoy dystopian literature, check out the Matched trilogy. 

Picture Book Review: Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio

Image: Penguin Random House

Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. unpgd. Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Random House, August 25, 2020. 9781524738884. (Review of electronic review copy courtesy of publisher.)

A favorite author and a favorite illustrator have a book releasing next Tuesday. It really should not be missed. Dark Was the Night opens with a watery double-page spread of deep space. The year is 1977 and Voyager I is headed out into the universe containing samples of human civilization, including a variety of music from different eras and cultures. One of the songs included on this "Golden Record" is a song called Dark Was the Night sung by Blind Willie Johnson. 

Quick, without consulting Google, do you know who Blind Willie Johnson is? I sure didn't. Now I do, thanks to this luminous picture book biography.

Willie Johnson was born in 1897. He loved to sing from an early age so his father made him a cigar box guitar. He lost his mother as well as his sight at an early age, but found comfort in his singing, at church as well as at home. Eventually, he made his was out into the world, traveling by train around Texas to sing in the streets where he was discovered by a man from a record company. He recorded his songs, which did well and were played on the radio thanks to his rough and raspy vocals and unique guitar playing. 

Mr. Lewis' liquid, impressionistic water color paintings quietly entrance, from the portrait of mother and child that conveys joy and possibility to the final portrait where the subject is bathed in yellow. Each spread pulls the reader in and invites lingering. I've read through this book many times and I find some new little detail to appreciate with each visit. 

We learn in the author's note that details about Mr. Johnson's life are scarce. Thanks to the work of music historians, not all was lost and Mr. Golio provides five titles for music-loving researchers to consult. How easily details of this innovative musician might have been lost had not some dedicated music historians not begun researching shortly after Mr. Johnson's death in 1945? Food for a rich class discussion.

I am a firm believer that one is never too old for picture books. I think they belong in all classrooms, and not just language arts classrooms, all the way through high school. Picture book biographies, in particular are quite useful as a means of enticing students to read longer biographies. Dark Was the Night will encourage students to think beyond the narrow confines of their world. While there is much to discuss here, there is also much to sit with and just quietly contemplate. 

In his note, Mr. Golio encourages the reader to search out a recording of the song online. I've read several of his books with my students, such as Bird and Diz and Strange Fruit. Bookmarking the link to the appropriate recording extends the experience beyond the book. While online, visit E.B. Lewis' website too. I cannot wait to share this with my students. Dark Was the Night releases on August 25. Remember how I said don't miss it up top? Don't.