Gā's Reviews

David Ezra Stein has a beautiful sense of comic timing (Pouch, Interrupting Chicken) that has not deserted him in his new picture book, in which a bear waking from hibernation—“It was his second year. ‘I’m back!’ he said.”—remembers the terrific taste of honey. Warm and whimsical for the toddler set. Ages 2–5. - Ga

A small, slim child swims at a community pool with his grandmother and her friends. We see the friends (gorgeously illustrated in watercolor, gouache, and ink on brown paper), rotund and dignified and socializing by the side of the pool while Julián swims about. Returning from their ablutions, Julián and his grandmother board a bus. Three dazzling people dressed as mermaids board as well; they are on their way to a parade. Julián is entranced. At home, Julián’s grandmother heads for a bath and Julián has a good idea: he dons feathers, flowers, lipstick, and gauzy curtains. He knows he’s a mermaid and his grandmother, barely pausing, knows it as well, enhancing his joy by giving him her necklace of pearls, a sea-thing gift to complete his transformation. Together, hand in hand, they head out into the world to join a crowd of mermaids, rays, and crustaceans as they parade down the street to the beach and across the sands. Quietly underplayed, a brave and joyous book about unconditional love and acceptance. Ages 4–8. - Ga

Two really funny books about a boy and girl who are befriended and aided by extra-ordinary companions. (One is an anthropomorphic inkblot. The other is a clever, sweet, green-hued, demigod-like well-dweller—in a chicken suit.) Heartwarming and zany, with great artwork. For kids who found Wild Robot irresistible. Grades 3–6. - Ga

Three not-yet-friends team up to hunt for a rumored land where 11-year-old Byx—our lead character—may find others of her kind and mitigate the pain of being the last of her species, an endling. Byx is a Dairne; she’s canine’ish, speaks intelligently, walks upright, and, when in need of swift locomotion, glides small distances. She rescues Tobble, a small, round, fiercely loyal, unfailingly polite Wobbyk. They travel with a human (Can you trust them? Humans are among the six species vying for power in Nedarra and are responsible for the genocide of Byx’s people.) The human Khara is 14 years old, brown-skinned, disguised as a boy, and playing her own intricate game. As they hunt for Dairneland, Byx, Tobble, and Khara are being hunted due to another skill the Dairne possess: the invaluable ability to always recognize a lie. This book is not just a whimsical animal fantasy; it is a brightly shattering, all-too-aware environmental novel with a bracingly quick pace, set in a highly believable landscape, and one of my favorite books this season. Grades 4–7. - Ga

Ten-year-old Raymie’s dad has run away with a dental hygienist. Raymie can’t make him return unless, she reasons, he sees her photo in the paper as the baton-twirling winner (she’s never twirled a baton) of the Miss Central Florida Tire Competition of 1975. Two other girls covet this prize, each for their own similarly unreasoned reasons. The three girls become loyal friends and, without winning a contest, win a respite by rescuing each other. Droll, heartbreaking, and ultimately triumphant. Grades 4–7. - Ga

Clayton Byrd yearns to be, like the grandfather he misses, “a true bluesman among bluesmen.” Musical in its language, this novel is both an homage to the blues and an exploration of familiar territory for Williams-Garcia, asking (as she did in the just-about-perfect One Crazy Summer) if a person can be singularly devoted to their art and still be a responsible and loving parent. An interesting examination of an artist’s life and choices. Grades 4–7. - Ga

Young Cora is queen-in-training and her parents are diligent. Dull academic exercises followed by dull physical exercises and three baths a day leave Cora fervently wishing for a dog and a day off (to roam and ponder). Her fairy godmother grants her a crocodile instead. When the princess and the crocodile swap places, the crocodile behaves wholly inappropriately and the princess learns wisdom (and how to assert herself) in this sly, well-written, amusing, and very inviting early chapter book. Grades 1–3. - Ga

Atkins chose to write this searing biographical novel as a window into the difficult life of neoclassicist sculptor Edmonia Lewis. A woman of African-Haitian and Ojibwe descent, she attended Oberlin College in 1862, was expelled on trumped-up charges and, while working as a housekeeper in Boston, apprenticed to a sculptor. She studied in Italy and tenaciously worked toward artistic perfection in stone. Ages 13 and up. - Ga

During winter break her college freshman year, alone in upstate New York (instead of home in San Francisco), our hero muses and slowly, gently reveals her past. Here is an exploration of grief, betrayal and, most importantly, reconciliation. Exquisitely written and, for me, one of the year’s most deeply affecting YA novels. Grades 8 and up. - Ga

Funny and raunchy and hip-hop and tragic—can you say a Greek myth is timely? My gods, is it! This retelling of the minotaur story has the sea god Poseidon as our derisive, manipulative, gleeful narrator. But our sympathies lie with the physically deformed Asterion (our bull-headed boy) whose sensitivity, intelligence, and hope are over years eroded until, trapped in a maze, isolated, he falls into despair and violence. Expertly written, cleverly paced, and so effective. Ages 14 and up. - Ga