Powerful Short Novels

Particularly touching in this brief memoir-novel are Dino’s descriptions of Manhattan compared to the vivid colors of his hometown, Havana—“When you fall and scrape your skin on the pavement, that’s how New York feels against the eye”—a contrast that is also gorgeously expressed in Ferguson’s richly hued illustrations. Grades 3–6. —Holly

To write or find reviews for a newsletter, you read hundreds of new books. You prune, and fiddle, and reread, and finally you have a list of books you really want to talk about. These are the books. You’ve decided. There’s room for 28 reviews. You write reviews. And the night before the newsletter is due at the printer, you read another book. And it can’t be left out. It’s simply too exhilarating. Maybe it’s the only book that can’t be left out. So here’s that book: As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins. It can’t win the Newbery because the author’s already won it, but it’s a sweet, immensely enjoyable, narratively acrobatic, road trip of a book for ages 12 and up. A perfect family read for the holidays, perhaps on the porch or down by the water or in front of a fireplace. —GA