Tag Archives: Friendship

Elem. – Two Together

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Wenzel, Brendan. Two Together. Chronicle Books, 2024. 978-1-797-20277-8. $18.99. Unpaged. Grades PreK-1.

In this companion to They All Saw a Cat (2016) and Inside Cat (2021), a dog and a cat explore the wilderness together as they take the long way home. They find a toad, cross a stream, discover a pear tree, wake a bear, and so much more. The illustrations, however, are the true star of this story. The cat is depicted in thin, scribbly colored pencil lines, while the dog is rendered in broad acrylic brushstrokes. Everything they come across in their journey is portrayed in a combination of these two styles, indicating that each creature sees the world differently. These differences do not, however, keep them from curling up together at the end of the day.

THOUGHTS: This is a skillful exploration of perception, differences, and friendship that belongs in every elementary library. The lyrical, rhyming words would make this a delightful read aloud choice. Don’t miss this newest title by Caldecott Honoree Brendan Wenzel!

Picture Book  

Elem. – How to Cheer Up a Friend

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Calmenson, Stephanie. How to Cheer Up a Friend. Illustrated by Shannon McNeill. Beach Lane Books, 2024. 978-1-665-91024-8. $18.99. Unpaged. Grades K-2.  

A young boy knows his elephant friend is sad but is unsure what to do. Rhyming text depicts answers, some helpful, some not. “Do you tickle his trunk/ to get him out of his funk?” Maybe pampering, or silly jokes, maybe a hug. But honor his choice: “if he says no, let it go.” Maybe a walk, or letting him talk–and talk even more while venting frustration. The text wisely adds: “He might have many troubles to tell./Don’t interrupt. Just listen well.” The text gives realistic attempts at helping a friend, showing that patience and listening are the ways to connect and help. 

THOUGHTS: A fine addition to social-emotional learning offerings, this book can help young readers know how to be a friend when a friend is sad. 

Picture Book

YA – Biology Lessons

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Kantor, Melissa. Biology Lessons. Feiwel & Friends, 2025. 978-1-250-33404-6 . 272 p. $19.99. Grades 9-12.

Despite her parents’ wishes that she stay closer to home, Grace Williams is a Texas high school senior who is determined to follow her dreams of attending Barnard College in New York. Ever since visiting her great aunt, Grace has loved the city, and she has big plans for a future Biology career. Her excellence in science leads to a tutoring position with popular classmate Jack Nelson, a star baseball player who’s struggling in AP Bio. What starts as adding to her resume turns into flirting, and tutoring moves from the library, to Jack’s dining room, then living room, and finally bedroom. The Biology lessons move from books to the more physical. There are no hurt feelings when Grace and Jack decide to part ways; they’re not really in the same league anyway. Then Grace fails her first test ever: a pregnancy test. With Addie, Grace’s best friend for years, and Sebastian, a friend whose family moved to Austin in search of a more accepting LGBTQ community, by her side to support her, Grace has to face the reality of her situation. She lives in Texas where abortion is illegal. If they find out, there is no way her parents will let her consider anything except staying in Texas and raising her child. With the help of her friends, Grace faces the biggest challenge of her young life: making the choice that’s right for her. But this choice comes at a price, and anyone found to have helped Grace faces dangerous, life-altering consequences. Numerous real world decisions are packed into 272 pages, and Biology Lessons will have readers racing to find out what happens next.

THOUGHTS: My heart broke for Grace as she realizes the reality of her situation and limited choices. Recommended for high school collections where character driven novels are popular.

Realistic Fiction

MG/YA – Thief of the Heights

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M., Son. Thief of the Heights. Illustrated by Robin Yao. HarperAlley, 2024. 979-8-368-73772-0. 240 p. $26.99. Grades 7-12.

Three friends, Basem, Mustafa, and Aarfah have made a decent business in Muqadas, but they dream about getting out and ending up in the top tiers of their city, away from the diseases and death that surrounds them. One day that dream comes true, and they are approached by a scout who wants to bring talent to the top tiers of their city. However, things aren’t quite what they seem, and Mustafa and Aarfah are cast out back to where they started. Will Basem stay in the upper city, fall in line, and live out his dreams? Or will he fight to help those he left behind?

THOUGHTS: This is a great graphic novel with some excellent disability representation. The story is a little hard to follow at times, and the ending feels like there has to be a sequel coming at some point. Would be appropriate for higher middle school students all the way up to high school. 

Graphic Novel
Science Fiction (Dystopian)

YA – A Language of Dragons

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Williamson, S.F. A Language of Dragons. Harper Collins, 2025. 978-0-008-74072-6. 473 p. $19.99. Grades 9-12.

A Language of Dragons begins with Vivian Featherswallow getting ready to start the rest of her life, with an internship to study dragon languages on the horizon. By the end of the night, her parents are arrested for being traitors, her little sister is in hiding with another family, and she has started a civil war between the humans and dragons. Not quite what she thought was going to happen, Vivian is determined to fix it. She is given an opportunity to go to Bletchley Park and do something top secret. If she succeeds, her family will be safe, and life will go back to how it was before. However, as she tries to break a new dragon language, she discovers there is more to all of this than she thought. Now she has a hard decision to make which will affect her family and everyone she cares about.

THOUGHTS: This is a fast paced, high action fantasy with amazing characters and creepy villains. This book is great for fans of the Wings of Fire series and is a must have for every high school collection.

Fantasy

Elem. – Home in a Lunchbox

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Mo, Cherry. Home in a Lunchbox. Penguin Workshop, 2024. 978-0-593-66134-5. 34 p. $18.99. Grades PK-3.

Jun and her family recently emigrated from Hong Kong to America. She starts school knowing a few English words and phrases, but she finds it difficult to communicate with her peers and teachers. The book timeline spans about a week or so. The illustrations are mainly muted and gray, representing her fear and homesickness, until Jun opens her lunchbox and her surrounding area becomes bright and colorful. Her lunchbox contains her favorite Chinese foods which remind her of the comfort and love of home. Over the week, one of her classmates tries to connect with her, and by the end of the story a few more students share their lunches with Jun and she shares hers with them. This is a wonderful story illustrating the want to belong somewhere as well as the powerful of kindness.

THOUGHTS: This beautifully illustrated story is one of my students’ favorites. They love exploring the pictures and really felt for Jun. This reminded me of Danbi Leads the School Parade and will work well paired with it. Home in a Lunchbox is a worthy addition to all school libraries. 

Picture Book

Elem./MG – Boy vs. Shark

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Gilligan, Paul. Boy vs. Shark. Tundra, 2024. 978-1-774-88044-9. 234 p. $20.99. Grades 3-6.

It’s the summer of 1975, and ten-year old Paul is at a bit of a crossroads. He still loves to play with his friends, but his best friend David seems more interested in hanging out with an older boy named Swain. His dad wants him to learn about cars, but Paul would rather read comics. When Swain encourages the boys to get into mischief, Paul fears his father’s “Irish Eye,” which sees all. Meanwhile, the nation is obsessed with Jaws, and seeing the movie is a rite of passage for Paul and his friends. When his dad agrees to take him, Paul’s delight turns to a terror that lasts long after the credits roll. He’s so afraid of water he refuses to cross the creek, enter a pool, or even take a bath! Then, in a fantastical twist, a shark emerges from Paul’s closet to antagonize him, mock his fear, and dispense terrible advice. As Paul tries to fit in with David and Swain, his conscience grows heavy despite the shark assuring him that “being a jerk is cool.” Luckily Paul has learned from his comic book superheroes how to vanquish a big bad. Over one indelible summer, Paul learns valuable lessons about trusting his instincts, being a true friend, and taking responsibility for his mistakes. Author and illustrator Paul Gilligan’s deceptively simple drawings really capture a moment in childhood and in time. 

THOUGHTS: This whimsical, heartwarming graphic novel will appeal to readers who, like Paul, are growing up fast but aren’t quite ready to leave childhood behind (and those who still hear the Jaws theme every time they go near a body of water).

Graphic Novel

Elem. – The Hotel Balzaar

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DiCamillo, Kate. The Hotel Balzaar. Candlewick Press, 2024.  978-1-536-22331-6. 151 p. $17.99. Grades 2-5. 

Marta and her mother live in a tiny attic room of the Hotel Balzaar where Marta’s mother works as a maid. Her mother constantly reminds Marta to remain as quiet, as a small mouse, and to be as invisible as possible. Marta spends her days admiring the hotel’s artwork and watching the hours pass on the grandfather clock. Life is uneventful until a mysterious countess with a parrot arrives. She insists on telling Marta a series of seven stories, each one containing details that inexplicably seem to mimic events and details in Marta’s own life. Although she is initially skeptical of the countess and her tales, Marta begins to wonder if the stories have anything to do with her soldier father’s mysterious disappearance. This title is the second in DiCamillo’s Norendy Tales trilogy, following The Puppets of Spelhorst. 

THOUGHTS: Themes of love, loss, longing, and hope are woven through Marta’s story as well as the stories the countess tells. Thoughtful readers will enjoy putting the pieces of the countess’s stories together and matching them to bits from Marta’s own life. DiCamillo reminds us how stories connect us all and to never give up on happy endings. 

Fantasy

YA – The Glass Girl

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Glasgow, Kathleen. The Glass Girl. Delacorte Press, 2024. 978-0-525-70808-7. 464 p. $21.99. Grades 9-12.

Meet fifteen-year old Bella. With her parents’ fairly recent divorce, her beloved grandmother’s sudden death, and an ex-boyfriend who told her she’s “too much” as he broke up with her, nothing seems to be going right in her life. To compensate, Bella tries her best to keep it all together. She helps out with her very needing, annoying 7 year old sister; she acts like more of an adult when they stay at their dad’s apartment; she checks on her grandmother’s house for her mom; and she gets good grades – usually. Increasingly, Bella uses alcohol to escape the reality of her situation and ease the pain of seeing her ex with his new girlfriend. Everyone drinks, so she doesn’t see the big deal. Most of her friends are down for shoulder tapping to get a bottle of vodka and going to parties together, but Amber, who doesn’t drink, becomes increasingly worried about Bella. Then Bella starts losing fragments of time while drinking and eventually drinks so much that she wakes up in the hospital. Her only option now is rehab. But Bella isn’t an alcoholic, and she can stop anytime she wants. Her rehab roommates even call her Baby Bella because she just drinks. Will Bella be able to admit to her problems and start down the road to recovery, is she stuck in a downward spiral?

THOUGHTS: Addressing serious topics, like underage drinking, drug use, and self-harm, Glasgow creates characters readers will root for. Highly recommended for secondary collections where honest, character driven novels are popular.

Realistic Fiction

MG/YA – When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

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Hoffman, Alice. When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. Scholastic Press, 2024. 978-1-338-85694-1. 282 p. $19.60. Grades 4-8.

When We Flew Away introduces the reader to Anne Frank before she got her diary, when she was a young Jewish girl trying to live a normal life in Amsterdam. It follows her as she goes to school, talks with her sister, and just lives her normal life before her world is turned upside down. Anne and her father go on a trip, just the two of them, to a little town to spend some time together before the Nazi invasion. The reader sees how her parents tried to escape Amsterdam, like so many other Jewish families. The slow descent into the Nazis completely taking over is also documented, with the different things that happen and affect Anne and her family’s daily life.

THOUGHTS: Anyone who has ever read The Diary of Anne Frank will thoroughly enjoy this book. It showcases the Anne that Alice Hoffman thinks she was before the diary, and it’s beautifully done. This would be a great companion to Anne’s diary or just a solid historical fiction book to read. Highly recommended for every middle and high school collection.

Historical Fiction