Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh; illus. by the author Middle School, High School Abrams ComicArts 24 pp. 8/18 978-1-4197-2854-9 $19.99 “You don’t know our names but you’ve seen us.” The accompanying illustration is of Juan, an undocumented immigrant, with one hand raised in a fist and the other holding a megaphone from which the […]
Review of The Mad Wolf’s Daughter audiobook
February 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras; read by Joshua Manning Intermediate, Middle School Listening Library Rev. 7/18 6 CDs 6.62 hrs. 978-0-525-53134-0 $50.00 Drest is determined to free her captured older brothers and father from Faintree Castle, where they soon will be hanged, and she means to use the young knight she rescued to […]
Celebrating Black History 2019
February 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment
February is Black History Month. The following nonfiction titles present informative, inspirational, and moving stories about notable African American people and events, to be shared with readers all year long. See also our Five Questions interview with Claire Hartfield, winner of the 2019 Coretta Scott King Author Award for A Few Red Drops: The Chicago […]
Review of New Kid
February 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment
New Kid by Jerry Craft; illus. by the author Intermediate, Middle School Harper/HarperCollins 249 pp. g 2/19 978-0-06-269120-0 $21.99 Paper ed. 978-0-06-269119-4 $12.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-269121-7 $10.99 Craft’s engaging graphic novel follows Jordan Banks (an African American seventh grader from Washington Heights) through his first year at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD). Jordan […]
Review of The Grand Escape: The Greatest Prison Breakout of the 20th Century
February 6, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Grand Escape: The Greatest Prison Breakout of the 20th Century by Neal Bascomb Middle School, High School Levine/Scholastic Focus/Scholastic 276 pp. 9/18 978-1-338-14034-7 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-1-338-14035-4 $11.99 Bascomb follows his two previous WWII histories for young adults (The Nazi Hunters, rev. 9/13; Sabotage, rev. 7/16) with another gripping work of narrative nonfiction, this time […]
Review of Pay Attention, Carter Jones
February 5, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt Middle School Clarion 216 pp. g 2/19 978-0-544-79085-8 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-1-328-52691-5 $9.99 Sixth grader Carter Jones misses his soldier father, currently deployed in Germany; he misses his dead brother; he misses any semblance of normalcy in his life. When Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick, a butler bequeathed to his […]
Review of Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 audiobook
January 31, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 by Albert Marrin; read by Jim Frangione Middle School, High School Listening Library Rev. 3/18 5 CDs 5.75 hrs. 978-1-525-52609-4 $45.00 Marrin’s account of the flu pandemic that killed millions of people during World War I, plus modern-day efforts to identify that strain and prevent a […]
Review of Inventing Victoria
January 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Inventing Victoria by Tonya Bolden Middle School Bloomsbury 264 pp. g 1/19 978-1-68119-807-1 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-68119-808-8 $12.59 Set during the post-Reconstruction era, this novel offers an intriguing view of nineteenth-century African American upper-echelon society. Fourteen-year-old Essie longs to escape her miserable life in Savannah, Georgia, where her mother earns her living as a prostitute. […]
Review of They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems
January 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles Middle School Cinco Puntos 109 pp. g 9/18 978-1-947627-06-2 $18.95 Paper ed. 978-1-947627-07-9 $12.95 The dynamic complexity of the Rio Grande borderlands pulses in the poetry of twelve-year-old Güero — a nickname commonly given to light-skinned, freckled Mexican and Chicano boys. Inspired by the […]
Review of This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality
January 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy Intermediate, Middle School Bloomsbury 311 pp. g 1/19 978-1-68119-852-1 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-68119-853-8 $12.59 In 1956 in the small town of Clinton, Tennessee, twelve African American students integrated the all-white high school. Jo Ann Allen […]
