Elem. – Building a Dream: How the Boys of Koh Panyee Became Champions

Khiani, Darswana. Building a Dream: How the Boys of Koh Panyee Became Champions. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-0-802-85547-3 Unpaged. $17.99. Grades K-3.

In the Thai village of Koh Panyee, a group of boys are crazy about soccer.  But in a village floating on stilts in the Phang Nga Bay, there is little space to play. The boys use a beach (at low tide) but are thwarted when new homes are built. Even the most ardent of soccer fans in their village tells them to ‘stick to boat racing. It’s tradition.’ But the boys enjoy soccer and long to play (and win) against the mainland boys. They had an idea: build a floating pitch (field). Adults shook their heads as the boys collected materials, worked out the problems, and began to play. The floating pitch tested their patience and their balance, and the boys improved. Soon the villagers cheered them on as they practiced, and the boys headed to the mainland for the district tournament. They didn’t win, but opposing teams admired the ‘sharp skills’, and the villagers were proud of their accomplishments. 

THOUGHTS: This positive story highlights and celebrates the determination and dream of a group of boys. Recommended for early grades.

Picture Book 

MG – Salsa Magic

Marrero, Letisha. Salsa Magic. Levine Querido, 2023. 978-1-646-14260-6. $18.99. 273 p. Grades 4-8.

Thirteen year old Maya has been having vivid dreams about a goddess in white calling to her from the ocean. The dreams seem so real, but she is not sure what it means nor does she have time to think about it. Between school, soccer, and helping out at her family’s cafe, there is little time left for pondering strange dreams. Maya’s focus is on her soccer season and her developing feelings for her teammate Kayla… until a mysterious guest arrives at the restaurant. It is her Titi (Aunt) Yaya! Maya has never met Yaya because of her long-standing feud with Maya’s abuela, her sister. But the most shocking part is that Titi Yaya looks exactly like the woman from her dreams! Even though Titi Yaya ends up staying in the apartment above the restaurant, her grandmother forbids Maya from talking to her. Maya feels a strong connection to Titi Yaya and breaks her abuela’s rules. Titi Yaya teaches her about ancient santeria magic. She tells Maya that she has been chosen by the Yoruban goddess of water and that she must follow this calling. Maya knows if she is to answer this calling alongside Titi Yaya, she must convince her abuela to drop the feud. 

THOUGHTS: Marrero’s coming of age story tells a heartwarming tale of a multigenerational family made richer by interwoven depictions of Caribbean, Puerto Rican, and Mexican mythology and cultural traditions. This would be a solid purchase for middle grade libraries.

Realistic Fiction

YA – Chloe and the Kaishao Boys

Coyiuto, Mae. Chloe and the Kaishao Boys. Putnam, 2023. 978-0-593-46163-1. 341 p. $18.99. Grades 9-12.

Chloe Liang’s ultimate dream is to study animation. When she gets waitlisted from the California college of her choice, she resigns herself to stay in Manila; study business; eventually, take over Zip and Lock, her father’s lucrative business; and continue enduring her quirky family’s mandatory Sunday brunches. Then as the school year ends, she receives her USC acceptance and her dream is back in gear: go to college abroad where her Filipino-American mother resides. Her extended family, however, has not gotten the message that Chloe is serious about this pursuit. Her father, who constantly congratulates Chloe through hashtags but has difficulty actually talking to her, continues to refer to animation as her “hobby.” Her well-meaning but intrusive Auntie Queenie insists on planning an extravagant debut when Chloe turns eighteen in August. Part of the ceremony (think Quincenera, Filipino style) involves the selection of 18 of Chloe’s closest male friends to surround her. When Chloe comes up with only her uncles, Auntie Queenie takes things into her own hands. She sets up “kaishao,” occasions where Chloe can “meet up” with eligible boys. Though her best friend, Cia, is sympathetic, she volunteers her older brother, Jappy and her own secret boyfriend, Raf. The preparation for the debut takes center stage, with Chloe suffering some guilt for abandoning her single dad. Chloe feels some sparks with some of her kaishao boys and learns to appreciate the traditions as well as the concessions her Chinese-Filipino family. Though this book has the makings of a Netflix movie all over it, debut author Coyiuto presents a nuanced, colorful cast of Chinese-Filipino characters, whose dialogue–interspersed with Hokkien and Tagalog– is witty, snappy, and funny. Includes glossary of Hokkien and Tagalog vocabulary.

THOUGHTS: Truly funny books with an interesting plot don’t come along often. This is one. Coyiuto has a good ear for picking out the humor in a chaotic family situation and makes sure Chloe never takes herself too seriously. The animation theme is thin, but some students may be drawn to Chloe’s passion. Two situations that aren’t addressed in the book: Chloe’s mother emigrated to America as a child and met and married her father when he studied in the U.S., but never adjusted to life in Manila and left her daughter with her father while she returned to America, and Chloe’s perfect cousin Peter who comes to brunch with his perfect girlfriend, Pauline, shares with Chloe that he is gay. These situations highlight some taboos of this Chinese-Filipino family: homosexuality and divorce. Nevertheless, share this book with any student who needs a laugh, but particularly with Asian-Americans. 

Realistic Fiction

YA – Borderless

De Leon, Jennifer. Borderless. Caitlyn Dlouhy Book/Atheneum, 2023. 978-1-665-90416-2. 328 p. $19.99. Grades 9-12.

Sixteen-year-old Maya Silva has a promising career as a fashion designer at Salome’ Fashion Institute in Guatemala City. Her best friend Lizbeth is supportive, even when Maya makes the list to show her work at the big fashion show and she does not. Winning would help Maya and Mama make a new start away from the corruption and violence of their avenida. When Lizbeth meets Oscar, Maya keeps her suspicions about Lizbeth’s new boyfriend being a gang member to herself. After school one day, Oscar introduces Maya to his handsome cousin, Sebastian, who has recently been deported from America. He and Maya connect, making it harder for Maya to extricate herself from a situation that she senses could be dangerous. In an ether of young love, she makes bad decisions: inviting Oscar and Sebastian to her house, hanging out with Sebastian when she should be home, persuading Mama to hold off moving to the safer, sleepy hometown of San Marcos. The busy-ness of preparing for the fashion show mounts. Then, the unspeakable happens. Maya witnesses a tragedy that puts her and her mother’s lives in jeopardy. The only alternative to survive is to make the perilous crossing to the United States. Author Jennifer De Leon captures the language and conflicting feelings of a teen caught between a rock and a hard place. Borderless brings home the desperation of living in a neighborhood ruled by gangs and the harshness of being an undocumented migrant in a detention center, but the book has the rush of first love and the bustle of Project Runway. Readers can be enticed by the fashion, yet come away with compassion for asylum seekers.

THOUGHTS: DeLeon has an ear for the way young people talk, so even though the story takes place in Guatemala and all the characters are speaking Spanish, the dialogue is relatable and fresh, with some Spanish words thrown in. Maya’s relationship with her mother is endearing and authentic, and it’s nice that her best friend stays loyal till the end. Maya and Sebastian are in love and do some making out, but Sebastian is the one who shuts down any further sexual activity. Including a fashion design competition lightens the tone. This interesting touch counters the heaviness of the violence and danger infringing on the lives of Maya’s neighborhood. In one brutal scene, she sees Oscar shoot her neighbor’s son, execution style. Fear and anxiety heighten as Maya escapes to the United States, and remain as she lives in the horrendous conditions and uncertainty of the detention center and when she is separated from her beloved mother. The tension in this book is palpable, but the fashion aspect makes it familiar.

Realistic Fiction

YA – Greywaren

Stiefvater, Maggie. Greywaren. Scholastic, 2022. 978-1-338-18839-4. $19.99. 384 p. Grades 9-12.

The Lynch family secrets finally are being revealed. Their lives are intertwined with dreams and realities, but the surviving brothers are on the brink of destruction. Declan is doing his best to keep Matthew awake and alive while Ronan has fallen into a deep and unwaking sleep. As the story of their parents comes to light, so does the reality of Ronan’s actions, and dreams around the world are in dire need of sweetmetals to keep them awake. Will Ronan find the strength to save the world and his family, or will he abandon them to ruin and destruction amongst the chaos in the world?

THOUGHTS: Greywaren is the final book in Stiefvater’s Dreamer trilogy, a companion to The Raven Cycle. Stiefvater has crafted a perfect ending for the brothers Lynch, first introduced to readers in The Raven Boys, and readers will be rooting for Ronan and Adam as they find their way back to one another outside of their idyllic life at the Barns. 

Fantasy          Emily Hoffman, Conestoga Valley SD

Elem. – Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever

Morpurgo, Michael. Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Thames & Hudson, 2022. Unpaged. $17.95. 978-0-500-65294-7. Grades 2-5. 

A fictional girl shares memories of her father as driver of the Flying Scotsman, and her love of steam locomotives throughout her career and life. The Flying Scotsman, a passenger locomotive between London and Edinburgh, was built in 1923 and served proudly with crew for many years in the United Kingdom, later making visits to the United States, Canada, and Australia, giving it the honor of being the first steam locomotive to circumnavigate the globe. The girl in this story shares her pride in watching her father prepare the engine and driving the Flying Scotsman, waving and calling to his daughter. She wants to go with him, in fact, “to shovel the coal, to pull the whistle, to help him drive.” Her teacher tells her girls can’t, and her mother tells her not yet, but the little girl leaves a note and secretly follows her father to the train for her own secret ride. But the stowaway is found, and it is not until later that her father is granted tickets for his wife and daughter to ride in the luxury of First Class on Flying Scotsman. Her memories of that ride are vivid. Being dressed in their finest, having a magnificent breakfast and lunch in the dining car, seeing beautiful sights from the windows of their train car, and arriving in Edinburgh to cheers and a band, for the Flying Scotsman had set a world record for speed! The girl later has a career with the train, being honored to stand on the footplate, where her dad once had been. The book ends with facts about the steam locomotive and its travel years as well as its place now giving special passenger tours in the U.K. 

THOUGHTS: Share this with those with a love for trains and their history or anyone with wanderer’s lust for new sights. This book could easily spark a love for trains, history and travel.

Picture Book          Melissa Scott, Shenango Area SD

Elem. – Why Not You?

Wilson, Ciara and Russell. Why Not You? Random House, 2022. 978-0-593-37440-5. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades K-2.

Why Not You? is a picture book that focuses on boosting a child’s confidence and self esteem by encouraging them to go for their dreams, no matter how big they may seem. This book is told through illustrations and words, showing children how they can achieve their dreams because, as the book says, “why not you?” The illustrations show a diverse range of students, as well as showing a wide range of dreams that each student has. The illustrations show the students encouraging each other’s dreams which is a wonderful addition to the story.

THOUGHTS: Overall, this was a lovely picture book with a really great message! This would be a great addition to any elementary classroom, or a great read aloud for guidance lessons. 

Picture Book          Mary McEndree, Lehigh Valley Regional Charter Academy

MG – Kaleidoscope

Selznick, Brian. Kaleidoscope. Scholastic Press, 2021. 978-1-338-77724-6. 208 p. $19.99. Grades 5-8.

Have you ever woken up from a dream and only remembered bits and pieces, like a blur in the back of your memory? Have you ever felt that stories are all loosely connected but not sure exactly how the thread begins or ends? Have you spun a kaleidoscope and wondered about the tiny pieces that get reflected and refracted and turned again and again into patterns of endless combinations? Brian Selznick brings some of those ideas to print in his latest genre twisting novel. Using his classic black and white illustrations, he offers one picture that is in kaleidoscope vision, then a focused image accompanying a short vignette depicting mainly scenes from a narrator’s first person view. Often a character named James shows up for comfort or reminiscing or the narrator is grieving his passing; however, there is not a linear narrative or consistent plot. Instead, the reader is invited to take in each snapshot and interpret for themselves. Themes and objects repeat through the book, much like gems in a kaleidoscope tumble and change focus. The view at the end may surprise and delight some readers and will certainly encourage repeated readings for further meaning.

THOUGHTS: The short stories stand well on their own, but may not help younger readers to keep focused on the arching story. However, classes could easily study literary examples such as setting, narrative, theme, allegory, and allusion throughout. Recommended.

Fantasy          Dustin Brackbill, State College Area SD

A thirteen-year-old narrator wants to find out more about the world around him, so he sets sail with his friend James. The journey takes them to the moon. They find that the moon is at war with the sun because the sun believes no one needs the darkness the moon brings. But James defends the moon’s side, arguing that people need to have the dreams that come about when the moon is high. James is crowned king, and he defends the moon’s honor for years and years to come. In the subsequent chapters, the narrator and James have a bunch of different adventures that transcend time and space. Although the stories are different, there are common threads running throughout, including references to biblical and mythological items that tie the stories together. Much like a kaleidoscope itself, each scene (or in this case, story) is unique but made up of a different combination of the same bits and pieces.

THOUGHTS: Brian Selznick has once again written a fascinating book that children will enjoy. Each chapter is accompanied by his signature black and white drawings, this time of kaleidoscope scenes. This would be a great pick for a book club or class novel as it might be a bit confusing for readers to understand how the stories connect. Overall, Selznick’s story collection should definitely be included in middle grade libraries.

Fantasy/Short Story Collection           Danielle Corrao, Manheim Central SD

MG – The Dream Weaver

Alegre, Reina Luz. The Dream Weaver. Simon & Schuster Publishers, 2020. $17.99. 978-1-534-46231-1. Grades 5-8.

After drifting around the country following her father’s next big idea her whole life, twelve-year-old Zoey Finolio and her college-bound brother, Jose, land at the Jersey shore living with their maternal Cuban grandfather—one of the most stable homes since their mother’s death. Though Zoey loves her father, she revels in a summer at the beach, doing things most kids her age do and embraces the dream of saving Gonzo’s, her grandfather’s rundown bowling alley, from a developer. When she gets a chance to fill in as a bowler on a local team headed for a championship, Zoey sees it as an opportunity to not only savor friendship but also rejuvenate the boardwalk business. The familial relationships and friendships are nurturing and supportive throughout the book, but this book doesn’t resort to past solutions. Even after the valiant efforts of Zoey and her new friends, Pappy decides to unload the bowling alley and just manage it; Jose still wants to pursue his dream of being an engineer at college; and Zoey’s father continues to try his luck at a different job despite sacrificing his children’s stability. Zoey shows strength of character in expressing her feelings to her father and finds solace in her supportive brother, her new friends, and her new home with her beloved Pappy.

THOUGHTS: The close familial relationships and kind friend relationships are a delight to read. Zoey’s father’s behavior is abysmal and may be a form of bibliotherapy for some readers. In Chapter One, Zoey gets her period for the first time and the narrative explains her distress and how she deals with it, so using the book as a read aloud—at least the first chapter—may be uncomfortable.

Realistic Fiction          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia

Picture Books – No Honking Allowed!; That’s My Book; The Thank You Dish; Robinson

Calmenson, Stephanie. No Honking Allowed! Holiday House, 2017. 978-0-8234-3672-9. $16.95. Unpaged. Gr. K-2.
Friends (and dinosaurs) Rex and Stego go on a driving adventure in Rex’s car in this rhyming tale from Stephanie Calmenson. Rex is very excited about his car and wants to demonstrate his favorite features: the engine (“vroom”), the brakes (“screech”), and his favorite feature on the vehicle: the horn (“honk!”). In fact, everywhere he goes in the city, Rex wants to honk the horn. But before he can stark honking, Stego points out to him the “No Honking. Except for Safety.” signs posted throughout the city. When a fire truck needs to get through the crowded street, Stego finally gives Rex permission to honk the horn, which Rex does with enthusiasm. But after the fire truck passes, Rex must try to regain control over his urge to honk. THOUGHTS: Sure to be popular with readers, this humorous, rhyming story would be a perfect read-aloud choice. Recommended for schools and classrooms serving younger readers.
Picture Book      Elizabeth Henry, Lampeter-Strasburg SD

 

Yoon, Salina. That’s My Book! And Other Stories. Bloomsbury, 2017. 978-1-611963-891-4. Upaged. $9.99. Gr. K-2.

Salina Yoon returns with three new stories in the newest installment of Duck, Duck, Porcupine!.  In “That’s My Book!”, Porcupine and Big Duck are bored.  They ask Little Duck to borrow his books, but instead of reading them, they play dominos, “walk fancy”, and make a stage out of books.  This bothers Little Duck, so he takes his books back.  When Porcupine and Big Duck find a left-behind book, they open it and learn that reading is fun.  Story two, “Let’s Have a Talent Show!”, showcases that everyone has talents even when they don’t know it.  Big Duck wants to have a talent show, but Porcupine doesn’t seem to have any talents.  He soon realizes, as do the others, that he too has talents they are just different from Big Duck’s talents.  In the final story, “Dress-Like-A-Pirate Day”, Porcupine gives Little Duck an eye patch for Dress-Like-A- Pirate Day, but Big Duck doesn’t know it’s that day, so he’s worried that something is wrong with Little Duck because he’s wearing an eye patch and will only say, “Arr!”  He misses all of the signs as he tries to figure out what’s wrong with Little Duck.  THOUGHTS:  All three stories are fun read alouds with elementary students.  Each story has a great theme/moral that can lead to great character and kindness discussions.  This is a great addition to elementary libraries and classrooms.

Picture Book       Erin Bechdel, Beaver Area SD

 

Balla, Trace. The Thank You Dish. Kane Miller, 2017. 978-1-61067-644-1. Unpaged. $9.99. Gr. K-2.

The Thank You Dish highlights all of the people and things necessary for one meal.  As Grace and her mama sit down to dinner, Mama starts by thanking rain, soil, and the sun for helping with the meal.  Grace then begins to add in all of the other animals, people, and things that helped create the meal on her plate.  Each page spread uses muted yellows, oranges, and greens and highlights the image of Grace’s thank you.  THOUGHTS:  Although not a must-have, this is a nice concept book about what it takes to create a meal and also how to show gratitude for what one has.  It would be good to read around Thanksgiving or with a kindergarten class learning about kindness.

Picture Book     Erin Bechdel, Beaver Area SD

 

Sís, Peter. Robinson. Scholastic Press, 2017. 978-0-545-73166-9. 32 pp. $17.99. Gr. Pre-K-2.

A little boy who loves to play pirates with his friends is excited for a Halloween contest at school. His mom suggests he be the character from his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe, and he creates an elaborate costume. The boy is excited, until he gets to school and his friends laugh at him for wearing something so unusual. Upset, the boy goes home to bed and dreams of sailing to an island and living like Crusoe. In the end his friends come over to apologize and learn more about the boy’s favorite book.  THOUGHTS: An adventurous read about acceptance and being ok with one’s self. The drawings are typical of Peter Sís, beautiful and soft.

Picture Book          Emily Woodward, The Baldwin School