Elem./MG – Force of Nature

Burg, Ann E. Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson. Illustrated by Sophie Blackwell. Scholastic Press, 2024. 978-1-338-88338-1. 304 p. $19.99. Grades 3-7.

Ann E. Burg’s well-researched historical novel-in-verse explores Rachel Carson’s life and research. Rachel Carson is best known as the groundbreaking American environmental conservationist who wrote Silent Spring. This fictionalized account follows Carson’s life through her first-person perspective. The story begins with Carson’s childhood during World War I and ends with her death in 1964. Throughout this telling, we also follow Carson’s family and collegial relationships through time, including the close bond she held with her nieces and great-nephew (although she had no children of her own). Carson journeys to college and then onward to obtain her masters degree at Johns Hopkins University. There, she marries her talent of writing with her scientific expertise in order to produce widely read and understood arguments about nature. She wins a National Book Award for The Sea Around Us (1952), and Silent Spring follows in 1962. Carson’s work largely catalyzed the modern environmental movement.

THOUGHTS: Force of Nature’s accessible format will allow upper elementary and middle school students to explore Carson’s story and her legacy. Students who love nature and biology will feel inspired by Ann E. Burg’s novel in verse long before they may actually read Silent Spring or other full-length nonfiction books about climate conservation. The story is also filled with moments highlighting nature’s quiet beauty. Burg does an excellent job of humanizing Carson and framing her as a pioneer for future female scientists. While this story can be read and enjoyed by anyone, students without background knowledge or strong inference skills may miss historical references in Force of Nature because they are written so subtly. Recommended for addition to upper elementary and middle school collections where historical fiction and verse memoirs are popular.

Historical Fiction

Elem. – You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce

Lee, Chiquita Mullins, and Carmella Van Vleet. You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce. Illustrated by Jennifer Mack-Watkins. Kokila, 2023. 978-0-593-40650-2. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades 1-3.

This fascinating picture book is a fictionalized account of the life of the African American folk artist Elijah Pierce. Born in Mississippi, Elijah was given a penknife as a young boy, which he used to whittle wood from a forest, creating animal figures or “…anything that came to mind….” Pierce learned the barbering trade and opened a barber shop in Columbus, but his passion for the wood arts remained with him his whole life. In this story, a boy comes into the barbershop with his dad, who tells him, “You gotta meet Mr. Pierce.” The barber-artist displays all his artistic creations in his shop and proceeds to show them to the boy after his haircut. Some are carved sculptures of a tiger and lion. Others are wall art like The Place of My Birth (1977), a carved and painted relief of a log cabin. Others depict stories from Pierce’s personal life, such as when he was falsely accused and accosted by an angry mob. Also displayed is what many call his masterpiece, The Book of Wood, created in 1932. Mr. Pierce carved Bible Stories on wooden panels, painted them and pasted them on cardboard to make a book. The unnamed boy, who was unsure of what to draw with the colored pencils from his mother, is now inspired to turn his own stories into art like his mentor. The artwork here is stunning. Mack-Watkins uses mokuhanga printmaking techniques and mixed media collages to create her drawings. The colors of the printed images are bold and vibrant and the observant reader will be able to pick out actual photos of a few animal carvings and of the artist’s family done as an overlay on the busy pages. The illustrator has truly captured the heart and  soul of this underrecognized African American’s talent. There is an author’s note that provides more details of Elijah’s life and an artist’s note that explains her techniques and preparation. Also included in the back is a gallery of Pierce’s art with titles and dates and a list of museums displaying his art.

THOUGHTS: This book is highly recommended for all elementary collections. Children will enjoy examining the images for the small details of the Caldecott quality art. This story could be paired with Bryant’s A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin to do a compare and contrast activity of the two African American folk artists.

Picture Book
Historical Fiction

YA – Kin: Rooted in Hope

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Kin: Rooted in Hope. Illustrated by Jeffrey Boston Weatherford. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-1-665-91362-1. 220 p. $18.99. Grades 8-12.

Weatherford has shared her collections of lyrical poems accompanied by the powerful illustrations of Jeffrey Boston Weatherford.  The poems follow her ancestors’ stories from the time that they were forced aboard the slave ships in Africa and up to the present day in America. The reader is immersed in these stories that Weatherford has woven beautifully into a powerful tribute to their family. Her poems are told through the voices of her family as well as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

THOUGHTS: Powerful, lyrical, such an important collection of the voices of the ancestors of the author. This is not an easy read, but a necessary one. This is a mother-son duo who put together this collection.

Historical Fiction

YA – The Blood Years

Arnold, Elana K. The Blood Years. Balzer + Bray, 2023. 978-0-062-99085-3. 390 p. $19.99. Grades 9-12.

Based on events in the life of her own grandmother, Elana K. Arnold’s The Blood Years is a masterful and deeply moving work of historical fiction for teens. Spanning the years from 1939 to 1945, it follows the experiences of Frederieke Teitler’s teenage years in her beloved hometown of Czernowitz, Romania. “Rieke” lives with her depressive mother and headstrong older sister Astra (their father has abandoned the family) until her beloved grandfather, Opa, brings them to his apartment. It is the first of many times that Opa will shield Rieke from life’s cruelties. First introduced as a typical thirteen-year old attending school and dance classes with Astra, Rieke goes on to experience the stripping away of Jewish peoples’ rights as she moves through her teen years. Her situation changes dramatically as first the Russians and then the Germans occupy her city, and as a persistent cough leads to a dire diagnosis. As the circumstances in Czernowitz worsen for Jews, Opa’s ability to shelter his girls is pushed to the limit.

THOUGHTS: In her latest novel, Arnold truly proves that what is most personal is also most universal. The dehumanization of Jewish people during WWII is portrayed through the experiences of one young woman; Rieke’s trauma and resilience will not soon be forgotten by readers.

Note: The Blood Years contains anti-Semitic slurs and depictions of sexual assault.

Historical Fiction

MG/YA – Gallows Hill

Ruby, Lois. Gallows Hill. Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, 2023. 978-1-728-43102-4. 208 p. $19.99. Grades 7-12.

Gallows Hill is a fictionalized story of the Salem Witch Trials as told from the alternating perspectives of Patience and Thomas, two teens living during the 1692 height of hysteria. Patience aims to live up to her name, but when her own sister, Abigail, becomes “afflicted” and begins to accuse a local elderly widow, Prudence Blevins, of being a witch, Patience doesn’t know who to believe. Patience knows many women and men are being arrested in Salem—even a five-year-old child, Dorothy, is among the accused of witchcraft. Unlike Patience, who has lived in Salem her whole life, Thomas and his sister Grace are newcomers to Salem Village. Grace and Thomas are only trying to make a life for themselves after their strenuous trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Being of Quaker faith makes Thomas and Grace outcasts among their new Puritan neighbors. After Thomas is also arrested, he must fight against the odds to survive being swept up in the madness and sent to Gallows Hill.

THOUGHTS: This story is a compelling and well-researched fictional account of what it may have been like to grow up during the time of the infamous Salem witch trials. Ruby includes historically accurate diction (using phrases like Goody and Goodman), and she balances it with clear dialogue and short chapters to make this book accessible for middle school readers. While other middle grade and YA witch-trial related fiction often ventures into supernatural or fantasy genres, Gallows Hill stays true and realistic to the time. Strong sensory details placed throughout the story will bring the abysmal prison cells and Salem village itself to life for readers. Ruby also offers historical explanations, theories, and book discussion questions in the book’s endpapers. Recommended as an addition to middle school historical fiction collections.

Historical Fiction

Elem – I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871

Tarshis, Lauren. I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871. Scholastic, 2023.  978-1-338-82515-2. 158 p. $10.99. Grades 3-6. 

Eleven-year-old Oscar has only lived in Chicago for a few hours before he finds himself at the center of one of the deadliest fires in American history. Oscar never wanted to move to the big city, leaving his family farm behind, but when his mother remarries, she and Oscar relocate to Chicago to move in with his new stepfather. While still at the train station, Oscar’s luggage is stolen, and as he tries to track down one of the thieves, he’s separated from his family. Fire breaks out while he’s finding his way back, and suddenly showers of sparks are everywhere. With fire crackling at every turn, Oscar’s courage is put to the test as he struggles to find safety, and reconnect with his family, in an unfamiliar city. Backmatter includes a note from Lauren Tarshis as well as historical photographs and drawings of the way Chicago looked before the  Great Fire. 

THOUGHTS: The graphic novel format works well for telling this story, and the full-color panel illustrations effectively capture the chaos, confusion, and fear of Oscar and others as they navigate through the burning city on the evening of October 8, 1871. Hand this to fans of the original I Survived chapter books and to readers looking for plenty of fast-paced action. 

Graphic Novel

YA – Snow & Poison

De La Cruz, Melissa. Snow & Poison. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-0-593-32668-8. $19.99. 288 p. Grades 9-12.

The year is 1861. Lady Sophie of Bavaria has a lot of change coming her way. Her father, Duke Maximillan, is preparing for his wedding, and on the same night, Sophie will become a member of high society. After the wedding, Sophie does her best to befriend her new stepmother, Claudia, although mysterious things seem to happen when she’s around. When Sophie meets Prince Phillip of Spain at a ball, the two have an immediate connection. Unfortunately, Phillip’s father will only allow him to marry a princess, and Sophie is heartbroken when he must return to Spain. She tries to find comfort in Claudia, but rumors about her past and magic use persist to swirl around the castle. As Sophie attempts to discover the truth about Claudia, she also finds herself at the center of a war between kingdoms and does what she can to protect her family, her home, and her heart.

THOUGHTS: Snow & Poison is a twist to the familiar story of Snow White & the Seven Dwarves. In this version, most of the aspects of magic and fantasy have been removed, and this retelling is loosely based on some of the stories that inspired the original Snow White fairy tale. I haven’t read as many Snow White adaptations, and this one would be enjoyed by any reader that loves fairy tales, romances, and mysteries. 

Historical Fiction      

MG – The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine

Marsh, Katherine. The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine. Roaring Brook Press, 2023. 978-1-250-31360-7. 368 p. Grades 6-8.

Flipping between the days of the pandemic in 2020 and the Holodomor in the Ukraine in 1933, this eye-opening historical fiction work tells the story of Matthew, a young man barely tolerating the conditions brought on by COVID days and three cousins from the Ukraine. Matthew’s mother has moved GG, Matthew’s 100-year-old great-grandmother, to their home to protect her health. As a diversion from video games, she encourages her son to help GG sort through the many boxes from storage that GG brings with her. At first reluctantly, then gradually eagerly, Matthew gets to know his immigrant grandmother in a new way, learn about this atrocity that was suppressed in even prestigious newspapers like the New York Times, and form a tighter bond with his journalist father who is seconded to Paris for his work. In each compelling chapter, the reader uncovers the struggles, beliefs, and failures of the girls: Helen, the cousin who lives in a cramped apartment in Brooklyn and is trying to shed light on the Ukrainian famine; Mila, the spoiled daughter of a staunch Stalinist who has grown up believing the doctrine of the Communist Party; and Nadiya, the poor peasant whose family resists the collective farms and suffers terrible consequences. Author Katherine Marsh, whether deliberately or inadvertently, draws similarities between the disinformation prevalent during COVID in contemporary times and the near silence on the Ukrainians’ years of starvation in the early thirties. With the current war in the Ukraine continuing, the reader cannot help but feel sympathetic toward this country that has endured so much.

THOUGHTS: Students having Ukrainian or Russian ancestry will gain the most from this book, but everyone who reads it will know of the Holodomor. (I asked a student whose family came from the Ukraine if she knew about the Holodomor and she immediately said yes, though I just learned about it from this book.) It provokes discussion of perpetuating true information and encourages a stronger discernment of governments and the news they pass on. This title is a springboard for preserving family stories. Matthew’s search for information is contagious, and the action keeps building, but more prolific readers may predict the plot twist before it happens.

Historical Fiction                                          

MG – Light Comes to Shadow Mountain

Buzzeo, Toni. Light Comes to Shadow Mountain. Holiday House, 2023. 978-0-823-45384-9. 263 p. $17.99.  Grades 4-6.

In her debut novel, Buzzeo has crafted an engaging story based on the arrival of electricity to the eastern Kentucky mountains in the 1930s. At that time, few rural areas had electricity, even though most cities did. Cora Mae Tipton lives on Shadow Mountain, one such unelectrified community. She dreams of becoming a journalist like Nellie Bly, while her best friend Ceilly wants to be an aviator. When news of the Rural Electrification Act arrives in the holler, the two girls are thrilled to learn about the formation of an electricity cooperative. Not everyone is excited about the life-changing news, including Cora’s mother, who is pregnant and still grieving for her daughter Ida, who died from the flu. Cora, always with a notebook in hand, questions her Pap, who is now working for the project. The budding journalist learns about the fees, which are prohibitive for some families and the school. Believing in the importance of electricity in the school, the friends come up with a successful plan to raise money for a subscription, but then trouble besets the Tipton family. Mrs. Tipton becomes more depressed, and there is frequent bickering between mother and daughter. One of the twins is badly burned, and the fundraising money is needed for medical bills. Cousin Glenna comes to stay to avoid an abusive father. Then Mrs. Tipton goes into premature labor at home. With no adult to help, Cora must call on  her inner strength if she is to save the baby and bring the Mountain out of the shadows. This piece of historical fiction offers an eye-opening look into rural America of the past- a world of pack horse libraries, settlement schools, and the frontier nursing service, which are all described in the back matter. The author has created well-developed characters, some who are resistant to change and some who embrace it. With its compelling plot, this deep and sensitive story will leave readers hoping for a sequel to learn what the future holds for the likeable Miss Tipton.

THOUGHTS: This outstanding book is highly recommended for middle grade libraries.

Historical Fiction

YA – Enter the Body

McCullough, Joy. Enter the Body. Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-0-593-40675-5 . 336 p. $18.99. Grades 9-12.

Question: What happens when you place Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia in a room beneath the famous Bard’s stage? Answer: They develop a voice and get to tell their story, their way. It sounds like a corny joke but is anything except a joking matter. All wronged by their co-stars and the famous Bard, each young woman has the opportunity to talk through (when able) her experiences in what reads like a group therapy session. The women are given the chance to decide how they would have done things differently if given another occasion and the ability to make their own decisions. Familiarity with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and Titus Andronicus (I was familiar with all but the last) is helpful for context but not a necessity. Naive readers – or those not familiar with the plays – may miss the seriousness of this tale (all of these characters were seriously wronged and are dead) but will enjoy the story nonetheless. At times this novel in verse reads like a teenage sleepover, with characters constantly interrupting each other. McCullough brings a contemporary voice to these classic characters that will resonate with today’s readers.

THOUGHTS: The audiobook is outstanding! One does not need to like Shakespeare or classic literature and plays – I am not a fan of either – to be moved by Enter the Body. Highly recommended for high school collections.

Historical Fiction