Elem. – Sometimes Love

Moore, Katrina. Sometimes Love. Illustrated by Joy Hwang Ruiz. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2022. Unpaged. $17.99 978-0-593-32382-3. Grades K-2.

Sometimes an author’s words and illustrator’s drawings blend together perfectly. This is one such time. Moore pens a sentence or two per page, and Ruiz brings the story to life visually. A toddler is introduced by her parents, dark-skinned father and white military mother, to a puppy, and it’s love “at first lick.” Additional pages and pictures show how the girl’s bond with the dog grows through a variety of situations, discipline, compromise, and fun. Then, the parents share sad news with their daughter then lead her away from a Pet Center to a vehicle packed with change, to a place her dog cannot go.  “Sometimes love is letting go.” In her new home, the girl makes new friends, shares memories of her dog, and weathers a year (or two) until her family moves again. Once again at the “Pet Care for Serving Soldiers” center, the girl reunites with her dog in a scene of happiness, “where love has grown” (author’s emphasis). The closing page spread shows more ‘photos’ of the girl growing up with her dog, and a message from the author about helpful organizations such as Dogs on Deployment, which offer military personnel in-home boarding with volunteers until the military commitment is over. 

THOUGHTS: A winning combination of words and illustrations to send the message, “Changes come and changes go. Love through changes makes love grow.”  Highly recommended.

Picture Book          Melissa Scott, Shenango Area SD

YA – Walls

Elliott, Laura, and Megan Behm. Walls. Algonquin, 2021. 978-1-643-75024-8. $19.95. 352 p. Grades 7-12.

It is 1960, and Drew MacMahon and his family have recently relocated to West Germany. Drew’s mother is thrilled, since her family emigrated to the United States in 1934, and she is eager to reconnect with the great aunt, sister, and nephew that still live behind the “Iron Curtain” on the East Berlin side of the city. Drew has more reserved feelings about his family’s move; he is nervous about starting a new school and meeting his estranged extended East German family. Although he finds his cousin and aunts difficult to understand at first, he develops a tremendous amount of empathy for them and the harshness of life under Communist rule. Over the course of one tumultuous year, Drew tries to navigate his complicated new family members, the tensions of living so close to the border between East and West Germany, and problems of his new schoolmates.  At the end of the story, he and his cousin must make a terrifying decision that will change all their lives forever.

THOUGHTS: The family dynamics between Drew, his parents, his sisters, and his East German family are realistic and poignant in this book. Watching Drew’s character and sense of right and wrong, good and evil, and efforts to understand the motivations of his friends at school and the people on both sides of the Cold War was fascinating. The detailed photographs and captions at the beginning of each chapter help the reader gain much-needed context and a greater understanding of the cultural and political climate in the early 1960’s for this important historical novel.

Historical Fiction          Erin Faulkner, Cumberland Valley SD