Tag Archives: Death of Parent

Elem. – A Walk in the Woods

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Grimes, Nikki. A Walk in the Woods. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney. Neal Porter Books, 2023. 978-0-823-44965-1 $18.99. Unpaged. Grades K-3.

One week after the death of his father, a young Black boy opens up an envelope his dad left behind to find a map of the nearby woods marked with a bright red X. The two of them used to walk in the woods together, but now that his dad is gone, the boy does not want to embark on an adventure without him. However, his curiosity gets the better of him, and he sets out to find the X that marks the spot. Along the way, he meets creatures like a garter snake and an eagle. The trees, with their familiar rustle in the breeze, comfort him along the walk. When he finds the spot marked on the map, he discovers a rusty metal box. Inside are several drawings of nature with unfinished stories underneath. His father created these drawings and stories when he was the boy’s age. Also included in the box is a note that encourages the boy to draw and write his own stories. Discovering this treasure lets the boy know his father will always be looking out for him from above.

THOUGHTS: This moving story actually rang true for illustrator Brian Pinkney who fused his late father’s sketches with his own watercolor paintings to create the beautiful images accompanying this story. This is a touching story about grief and holding onto the memories that keep a person alive in the hearts of all who knew them.

Picture Book

MG – Birdie and Me

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Nuanez, J.M.M. Birdie and Me. Kathy Dawson Books, 2020. 978-0-399-18677-6. 249 p. $14.81. Grades 5-8.

Jack and her little brother, Birdie, were perfectly happy living with Uncle Carl after their mother’s sudden death. Uncle Carl let them eat as many Honey Bunny Buns as they wanted, school was optional, and Birdie could wear his lip gloss and sparkly clothes.  But it turns out school is not optional, so Jack and Birdie are now going to live with Uncle Patrick. Life with Uncle Patrick is very different from their life with Uncle Carl or their life with their mom. He doesn’t talk much, and Jack and Birdie are sure he doesn’t like them. Living with Uncle Patrick means school every day, and Birdie will have to wear “normal” clothes if he wants to fit in with his classmates. But what about Jack? Can she find a way to fit in? And will Birdie’s bully back off if he wears the clothes Uncle Patrick buys for him? It won’t be easy, but if they all can confront the past, they may just find a way to become a family.

THOUGHTS: This is a beautiful debut about love and loss and how to make a family. An important addition to middle school libraries.

Realistic          Melissa Johnston, North Allegheny SD

YA – Clap When You Land

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Acevedo, Elizabeth. Clap When You Land. Quill Tree Books, 2020. 978-0-062-88276-9. 432 p. $18.99. Grades 9-12. 

Because of a terrible tragedy, two sixteen year old girls suffer an unimaginable loss. Though they’re half sisters, Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios have never met; they don’t even know of the other’s existence. When Camino arrives at an airport in the Dominican Republic to pick up her Papi for the summer, she sees a crowd of people in tears. The plane he was on went down over the ocean, and Camino’s future plans of attending medical school in the US vanish in an instant. Despite the utter hole her Papi’s disappearance leaves in Camino’s life, she holds onto hope that he will be found alive. Who else will protect her from El Cero, a local pimp who starts hanging around and following her. In New York Yahaira suffers a similar loss, though her grief is overshadowed by guilt and anger. Because she learned one of her Papi’s secrets, Yahaira gave up playing chess and rarely spoke to her father for the past year. Yahaira struggles to see her Papi as the man she grew up idolizing, as the man her local Dominican community in New York sees. Her mother is also experiencing similar mixed emotions, and she is adamant that Yahaira’s father be returned to the states, though his wishes were to be in the Dominican. As Yahaira learns more about her father and his time away from her, she becomes more determined to know more.

THOUGHTS: Told in alternating chapters of verse, do not miss out on this newest Acevedo book! It is a must have for high school collections.

Realistic Fiction          Maryalice Bond, South Middleton SD

Camino and Yahaira live in two different worlds; Camino in the Dominican Republic as an apprentice to her healer aunt, and Yahaira, a chess champion, in New York City. Camino dreams of attending Columbia University and lives for summers when her father, who works in NYC, returns to DR. Yahaira cannot escape who she is and the unspoken truths that surround her. Connected by a secret, completely hidden to one and unspoken by the other, a plane crash reveals the truth and connects these two together forever unleashing a world of pain, hope, and family.

THOUGHTS: Told through alternating, novel-in-verse chapters, Acevedo explores one family in two separate worlds: one of wealth and one of poverty. One of hope and one of want. One of love and one of anger. Yet it is not always clear which world each character lives in. The exploration of the haves and have nots as defined by the characters alternates within each story as each girl grapples with the world in which she lives. Throughout the story, Acevedo explores a variety of issues facing each character: sexual orientation, sex trafficking, abuse, loss, desire, and hope. Readers will connect with the characters of Camino and Yahaira even if their situations are a window.

Realistic Fiction          Erin Bechdel, Beaver Area SD

MS Fiction – Metropolitans; Erth Dragons; Warden’s Daughter; Payback

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Goodman, Carol. The Metropolitans. Viking. 2017. 978-1-101-99766-6. $16.99. 355 p. Gr. 4-8.

Madge wanders into the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning after she is kicked out of her apartment by her aunt. Joe, a Mohawk boy, follows her into the museum after she shares her sandwich with him. In the museum, Madge and Joe meet Walt, a Jewish refugee from France, and Kiko, a Japanese-American girl whose father works at the museum. After the teens witness the theft of a rare Arthurian manuscript, they discover they have had the same foreboding dream, and the manuscript theft is just a catalyst for far larger evil. At first glance, The Metropolitans looks like a classic tween mystery. But the plot covers a lot of territory: Arthurian legend, treatment of Native American children (Joe is forced from his home into a brutal Indian school), and prejudice against Japanese Americans at the start of WWII. Laced with code breaking and channeling characters from Arthurian Legend, this story never slows down, as the four children rush to avoid the bombing of Manhattan.  THOUGHTS:  Of course this book brings to mind The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  This time, however, the venerable museum is at the center of a Nazi plot to bomb Manhattan. The four youths gain a firsthand understanding of war and prejudice as they desperately try to decipher what is happening around them.

Historical Fantasy     Nancy Nadig, Penn Manor SD

 

D’Lacey, Chris. The Erth Dragons: The Wearle. Scholastic, 2017. 978-0-545-90018-8. $16.99. 284 p. Gr. 4-8.

Hurray! Chris D’Lacey has a new series about dragons. Dragons inhabiting the planet Kimera sent an exploratory group to Earth but lost contact with them. A second group has been sent to determine the fate of the first dragons. This group has established a tenuous cohabitation with the humans in the area they have settled, but after a human who violates the boundary between human and dragon land is killed by the dragons, the humans goad the dragons into war. Ren, a young human boy is fascinated by the dragons and discovers a way to infiltrate dragon territory without being detected by the dragons. Caught in dragon territory when the war begins, Ren befriends Gabriel, a young dragon in disgrace with the colony. Ren discovers he understands the dragon, and the pair set out to discover the source of erratic dragon behavior which is fueling the dragon/homm (human) conflict. THOUGHTS: Fans of the Wings of Fire series will love this complex dragon world.  

Fantasy     Nancy Nadig, Penn Manor SD

 

Spinelli, Jerry. The Warden’s Daughter. Alfred A Knopf, 2017. 978-0-375-83199-7. $22.99. 341 p. Gr. 4-8.

Cammie is the warden’s daughter. Her father is the benevolent warden at a women’s prison outside Philadelphia, and she lives with him in an apartment overlooking the exercise yard. Cammie’s mother was killed when she was a baby and living with her father has always been enough. Until the summer of 1959, when Cammie is turning thirteen, and the impact of not having a mother hits home. Cammie decides to make Eloda Pupko, the prison trustee inmate who watches over Cammie and takes care of the apartment, her surrogate mother. The harder Cammie pushes and acts out, desperate to hear words a mother would say, the more Eloda seems determined to keep her distance, until Cammie explodes, and Eloda finally forces the girl to face her mother’s death. Set against a background of rock and roll, American Bandstand, and the finely limned inmates, this story quietly sneaks up on you until the tears are rolling down your cheek. THOUGHTS:  Another masterful book from Spinelli. It may require a thoughtful reader to appreciate the nuances of character, but it is a beautiful story.  Historical Fiction       Nancy Nadig, Penn Manor SD

 

Korman, Gordon. Payback (Masterminds series). Balzer & Bray, 2017.  978-0-06-230005-8. 311 p. $17.99. Gr. 3-6.

In the third and final book of the Masterminds trilogy, Eli, Tori, Amber, and Malik are still on the run from the evil Dr. Hammerstrom and their former “parents” of Project Osiris. This project, a science experiment with dubious moral value, intended to answer the nature vs. nurture debate once and for all by cloning child versions of criminal masterminds of all kinds–thieves, terrorists, killers, computer hackers, and more–and raising them in a seemingly perfect community free of influence from the outside world to see if the child clones would turn into productive, honest adults or if they would follow in the footsteps of the people who provided their DNA. It sounds very dark, but Korman does a good job of writing the series at child-appropriate level. The four kids who escaped Project Osiris want to free the rest of the kids who don’t know the truth about their origins, so they travel around the country looking for help and answers from different adults while doing what they need to in order to survive, including living in a GIrl Scout cookie warehouse and stealing a few cars along the way. The series ends with Eli, Tori, Amber, and Malik at a tropical beach resort in a showdown with Dr. Hammerstrom and a satisfying ending. THOUGHTS: A great action adventure series for upper elementary students who can handle and understand the nature vs. nurture concept.

Action/Adventure             Lindsey Long, Lower Dauphin SD