Tag Archives: Mothers and Daughters

YA – Everything Is Poison

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McCullough, Joy. Everything Is Poison. Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025. 978-0-593-85587-4. $19.99. 304 p. Grades 9-12.

McCullough (Blood Water Paint, 2018; Enter the Body, 2023) returns with another powerful young adult historical fiction that transports readers to 17th Century Rome. Carmela Tofana is desperate to follow in her mother’s footsteps in their family’s apothecary La Tofana. Finally on her 16th birthday, Carmela is permitted to accompany the women of the apothecary into the workroom where all the ingredients for the magical remedies are stored. Often feeling like she’s in the way but desperate to prove that she belongs there, Carmela struggles to find her place among the respected (and sometimes feared) healers. As she masters simple remedies and the art of watching her tongue while working with customers, Carmela begins to blossom. However, there are remedies and secrets Carmela never knew about as a naive child. Some clients come to the apothecary and are seeking a last resort cure. When Carmela is faced with helping a peer who has been nothing but unkind to her, she has to decide who she will be and if she is cut out for the work of an apothecary woman.  

THOUGHTS: Filled with beautiful descriptions of plants and historical architecture, McCullough’s newest novel will fill a gap in older historical fiction, shining a light on women at a time when they were not recognized as powerful. This is more than just a historical fiction, so readers will enjoy the strong female friendships and familial relationships. Highly recommended for high school collections. 

Historical Fiction

MG – Happy & Sad & Everything True

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Thayer, Alex. Happy & Sad & Everything True. Aladdin, 2024. 978-1-665-95524-9. 272 p. $17.99. Grades 5-7. 

Dee Hiller is having a tough start to sixth grade. She’s always been able to rely on Juniper, her best friend, for support and camaraderie. But this year, Juniper is in another class and is developing a new group of friends who gossip about Dee and say unkind things. To make matters worse, Dee’s mother embarrassed her in front of the whole school at Parent PE Day. In order to avoid her peers, Dee takes to hiding in the restroom during her class’ “Snack & Stretch” time. One day, when hiding in the restroom, Dee hears a noise–it turns out to be Henry, one of her classmates, kicking a grate that connects the girls’ and boys’ restrooms. Henry is upset about a situation with his father; Dee lends a listening ear and her support. The next day, Dee chats with an elementary schooler upset about his spelling. Soon, word of Dee’s caring and supportive nature spreads, and she realizes she is pretty good at listening and supporting fellow students with their everyday, school-related problems. Slowly, Dee comes out of her shell, befriending Henry, while also gaining new appreciation for her mother.

THOUGHTS: This gentle story will resonate with many middle grade students, who may be feeling lonely due to fracturing friendships or struggling socially. Told in the first person, readers will appreciate Dee’s growth over the course of the story as she learns more about her strengths (and weaknesses) and gains a stronger sense of self. Recommended.

Realistic Fiction

MG/YA – Candle Island

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Wolk, Lauren. Candle Island. Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025. 978-0-593-69854-9. 352 p. $18.99.Grades 7-10.

After her father’s tragic car accident, twelve year-old Lucretia Sanderson and her mother crave a new start, so they move to the close-knit community on Candle Island, Maine. There is another reason for their move: privacy. Both Lucretia and her mother are painters and, recently, her mother’s paintings have reached a high point of notoriety. Straddling the line between townie and summer folk, Lucretia fights quietly to fit in with Island natives, Bastian and Murdock, a feat made more difficult because she is living in Murdock’s family home. Introspective as well as perceptive, Lucretia appears shy, but is quick to speak her mind with a maturity beyond her years. When Murdock is rude to her, she counters with kind but incisive comments; when the townies tease her, she holds her ground with shaky confidence. She, herself, declares that life on the island has prompted a change in her. As she settles into a routine that helps her explore her grief and enable that change, she nurtures a wounded osprey back to health; grooms her horse, Hog; sails on her skiff, Sprite; and secretly revels in the beautiful operatic voice of Bastien. But Lucretia and her mother are harboring a secret, one that is sure to disturb their serenity on the island. When the destructive antics of the bored summer kids – notably the trip of Trevor, Jasper, and Caroline – hit home, Lucretia aligns herself with the locals to reveal their guilt. Candle Island brims with beautiful writing, but the protagonist seems older than her years in speech and action. This book fits in a certain niche for sensitive readers who appreciate the writer’s craft.

THOUGHTS: Lauren Wolk, who is arguably one of the most lyrical writers in children’s fiction today, crafts a sensitive story of a family recovering from grief through creativity. Mother and daughter have a tight relationship, made more intertwined because of their mutual secret. Though other characters hold the readers’ interest and the elite trio of summer troublemakers cause the conflict, this novel is all wrapped up in Lucretia’s coming of age story. The battles and dreams captured in Lucretia’s head drive the story. She describes her daily chores and the tasks of others with minute detail; like the artist she is, the natural world comes to her in all sorts of colors. Things are happening but slowly; and although Lucretia assumes the quiet but fierce mantle of her namesake, the Quaker activist (who would spend most of her adult life in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania), the typical reader may find Lucretia’s adult ways admirable but not believable. In addition, I read this book believing it took place in the present day, not noticing that the characters never picked up a cell phone or computer. When searching for the number of pages (I read a Netgalley version), I saw the Kirkus reviewer placed the setting in the 1960’s-1970’s. All the characters appear white.

Historical Fiction  

Elem. – Poppy’s Family Patterns

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Semmer, Lauren. Poppy’s Family Patterns. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades K-3.

Poppy’s toy bunny has a torn dress. Her mother has the ideal solution: from a basket of fabric scraps, she fashions a patchwork dress for Poppy and one for the toy. As Poppy’s mother puts it together, she shows her daughter the different types of fabric and explains each one’s connection to a significant event in their family. The simple story is made more interesting by Lauren Semmer’s bold and vibrant full-page illustrations featuring African American, biracial, and white characters. Offering a pattern library with pictures and descriptions of such fabric designs as paisley, polka dot, chevron, and lace, Poppy’s Family Patterns can be a good prelude to the reading of Valerie Flournoy’s classic, The Patchwork Quilt, a picture book that shows a similar connection of fabric to sentiment on a deeper level. 

THOUGHTS: Each page of this picture book is saturated with color, and it is pretty to look at. Teachers of primary grades can follow up with sorting different types of fabric or matching them or creating fabric-based pictures, Ezra Jack Keats style. Students could also bring in a piece of fabric and relate a family memory to stitch together a story quilt. 

Picture Book
Realistic Fiction 

YA – Heist Royale

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Lewis, Kayvion. Heist Royale. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2024. 9780593625408. 320 p. $19.99. Grades 8-12.

Though the gambit is over, the stakes couldn’t be higher in this action packed follow-up to Thieves’ Gambit. Despite his betrayal, Devroe continues to pursue Ross, but she learned her lesson and holds her heart closer while still suffering from trust issues. Ross and Devroe both now work for the Organization, but when a dissenter tries to gain control Ross and Devroe will be pitted against each other once again, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Family loyalties run deep, and friends will have to choose sides. At the end, the winning team will seize control and eliminate the other. With team Count being challenged by team Baron, anything goes in this fast-paced adventure around the world.

THOUGHTS: The second book feels faster because readers already understand the high stakes world of thieving. With unpredictable twists, readers looking for a quick and crazy adventure will devour this one. Highly recommended for YA collections where mystery and adventure books are popular.

Mystery

YA – Little Moons

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Storm, Jen. Little Moons. Illustrated by Ryan Howe and Alice R.L. HighWater Press, 2024. 978-1-774-92107-4. 60 p. $20.95. Grades 9-12.

13-year-old Reanna’s life is turned upside down when her sister Chelsea goes missing. Despite searching for her both in and out of the reservation, her family cannot find her. Phone calls to her cell phone go unanswered. Posts on social media inquiring about her whereabouts eventually stop garnering comments. Reanna and her family have no choice but to try and move on as much as they can. Her mother believes moving to the city and starting a new life is the best way to dull her grief. Reanna and her siblings stay part time on the rez with their father and part time in the city with their mom, which Reanna hates. The only solace she finds from her grief is from diving into her First Nations culture, especially when she powwow dances in Chelsea’s beautiful regalia that she beaded herself. Only the youngest sibling, Theo, feels and sees Chelsea’s spirit in the form of a little moon. As Reanna’s mother distances herself from the tragedy, Reanna finds other ways to honor her sister’s life and make peace with the fact that she may never know her sister’s fate. 

THOUGHTS: Little Moons is a beautiful story about grief and how it impacts a family. Once readers know that Theo sees Chelsea in the form of a little moon, they will want to go back through all the pages to find where this little moon appears in the illustrations. Readers looking for a book with a neat, happy ending will not find it with this book. There is a content warning in the front as the book deals with the subject of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People (MMIWG2S), so take care when recommending to students.

Graphic Novel
Realistic Fiction

Elem./MG – Light and Air

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Wendell, Mindy Nichols. Light and Air. Holiday House, 2024.  978-0-823-45443-3. 188 p. $18.99. Grades 4-6.

In her debut novel, Wendell introduces us to Hallelujah Grace Newton, an only child who lives with her parents in New York in 1935.    Halle is a fifth grader who enjoys being with her friends when she is not helping her mother with chores. Even though her father is a high school history teacher, they struggle to make ends meet, which may explain why her father is becoming so distant and short-tempered  with his daughter. Family circumstances suddenly change when Halle’s mother is diagnosed with a severe case of tuberculosis. She is taken to the J.N. Adams Sanitarium located in upper New York state. Since there is no pharmaceutical treatment, doctors prescribe heliotherapy- fresh air and sunlight. Halle and her father also test positive, but have no sign of active disease. This does not deter some students from avoiding her and calling her names. Halle’s father is even more aloof and seems not to realize how much his daughter missing her mother. She decides to skip school and walk the long distance to the sanitarium, but becomes sick and is injured along the way. She develops a fever and cough and the doctor, concerned that she has active tuberculosis, recommends that Halle be admitted to the sanitorium. There she is diagnosed with pneumonia, not TB. After her release from isolation, Halle goes to a ward with other TB patients close to her age. After one of her new friends suffers a fatal lung hemorrhage, Halle is fearful she may also lose her mother, who is not responding to treatment.  The girl is determined to do all she can to help her mother get better and reunite her family, no matter how many rules need to be broken. There are many plot threads woven together in this short but engaging novel. More information about the hospital and the disease can be found in the author’s note. The author lives near the ruins of the J.N. Adams Sanitarium, which inspired her to write this story.

THOUGHTS: Readers may be surprised to learn how the lives of so many people, both young and old, were affected by tuberculosis at a time when there was no cure. With its bright attractive cover, this work of historical fiction deserves a place on the shelf of every middle grade library.

Historical Fiction

YA – Thieves’ Gambit

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Lewis, Kayvion. Thieves’ Gambit. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023. 978-0-593-62536-1. 384 p. $19.99. Grades 8-12.

Ross Quest is about to pull off the biggest heist of her life in order to save her kidnapped mother in this action-packed YA thriller. Ross and her mother have planned many robberies together—as one of the most notorious thief-families in North America, they have a reputation to uphold. When a robbery goes awry, Ross reluctantly must enter into the mysterious and dangerous Thieves’ Gambit, a high-stakes game made up of the best young criminal minds from around the world. If Ross wins, she’ll have one wish granted: in her case, it’s the wish to rescue her mother by paying her mother’s billion dollar ransom. All goes according to plan until feelings for one of the contestants, the handsome British Devroe, threatens to throw Ross off of her game. Filled with twists and turns right until the end, this one will keep your students reading the whole way to the last page.

THOUGHTS: A high-stakes heist must-read title. For teens who love lots of action, twists, turns, and a fast-paced plot, this is the ideal story. Thieves’ Gambit reads like a heist movie on paper as it takes readers on a wild adventure around the world. Ross is a likable and realistic character trying to fulfill quests before time runs out. There is enough romantic tension between Ross and Devroe that will keep romance readers loving this book, too. Ideal for fans of series like The Inheritance Games. Strong diversity and character development.

Mystery

YA – All the Right Reasons

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Mangle, Bethany. All the Right Reasons. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2022. 978-1-534-49903-4. 288 p. $18.99. Grades 7-12.

Cara was angry. So very angry. She was just so frustrated with her father. The fact that he left Cara and her mother. The fact that he quickly married a young bimbo. The fact that he constantly pushes her mother’s buttons during therapy, and he constantly lies. So one night, after hacking her father’s face out of photographs, she records an online journal entry to release her emotions. The next morning, she learns her rant was accidentally posted, and has gone viral. And caught the eye of a producer of a new reality television show pairing up single parents and their children. Before Cara, a high school senior, can live down her viral humiliation, her personal trainer mom has snagged a coveted slot on the show, and the two of them are whisked off to Key West. Cara sees the TV show as an answer to her and her mom’s financial problems, never imagining that the stress of living life under the eye of the camera could cause even more strife. Luckily, she has sweet contestant Connor to turn to. But what if he ends up as her half-brother? Just, ewww! This adorable rom-com has it all: heroines to love, villains to hate, drama, fights, friends, and kisses. Plus a helping or two of love. The inside look at reality television is fascinating, and readers will sympathize with Cara’s bewilderment with the pseudo-reality of the experience, never sure who is revealing their true emotions. There are a few twists and turns in the plot, but a happy ending is guaranteed. A wide range of ethnicities are represented: Cara’s mom is Korean; her father white. The contestants on the show include Black and Hispanic families. Connor is white. Minor flaws in the story involve Connor’s disability, which is mentioned once and dropped, and the younger members of the show’s strange inability to use pen and paper once their cell phones are confiscated, but neither of these points detract from the overall joie de vivre of the book. 

THOUGHTS: This is a perfect romance for tweens and teens. Cara is devoted to her mom, and readers will understand her honest, justified anger with her father. 

Romance          Nancy Nadig, Penn Manor SD

YA – Great or Nothing

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McCullough, Joy, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotsword. Great or Nothing. Delacorte Press, 2022. 978-0-593-37259-3. $18.88. 393 p. Grades 7-10.

Louisa May Alcott’s four March sisters have entered the 20th century, circa 1943. Beth has died, and the family struggles to cope with the overwhelming sadness of this loss. Marmee distracts her grief with committees and charitable works; Father, next-door neighbor, Theodore Laurence, and teacher John Brooks go off to fight the war; and the three young women are split apart. Four talented authors take on the personas of the classic characters, and each chapter recounts that character’s experiences against the backdrop of World War II. Beth’s voice in verse reflects her omniscient view of each of her sisters. Meg decides to stay close to home, dedicated to teaching at her former high school, but is so lonely, she concedes to pal around with an insipid but wealthy former classmate which results in revelatory consequences. After rebuffing Laurie’s unexpected marriage proposal, Jo goes off to Hartford, Connecticut, to work in a munitions factory and live in a boarding house with other female workers and pursue her writing. When she meets Charlie–Charlotte–a war journalist, Jo starts to come to terms with her sexual identity. Under the pretense of studying art in Montreal, Amy instead takes on a false identity and ships off with the Red Cross to minister to the morale of soldiers with coffee and doughnuts in London, England. There, she encounters prejudice and discrimination foreign to her upbringing, as well as the promise of true love. This contemporary spin on the classic Little Women is an easy read with touches of romance, LBGTQ+, and slang from the forties. Grab yourself a cuppa, curl up in your favorite chair, and hunker down to meet these Little Women.

THOUGHTS: Though four authors take on each of the March sisters, the writing flows smoothly and the writing is fairly even. Beth’s perspective voiced by Joy McCullough was my least favorite.  Reading the prose, characters were more well developed and satisfying. Though the story begins with the March sisters going their separate ways, it ends with the promise of them reuniting. Suggest this novel to lovers of the classic, but those who have never read Little Women will still understand the closeknit March family and the dynamic among the sisters.

Historical Fiction          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia