Tag Archives: Seattle

MG -The Jump

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Morris, Brittney. The Jump. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 978-1-6659-0398-1. 248 p. $19.99. Grades 7-9.

Team JERICHO has always worked together to be the best digital scavenger-hunting team in Seattle. Each member brings a unique skill to the team: Jax is the puzzler, Han is the master of maps and locations, Spider is the hacker, and Yas is the parkourist, and together they have been unstoppable. They have had little competition that is until The Order posts a new challenge. A challenge that guarantees a reward of power. The Order is a mysterious group whose agenda is to stop big oil from taking over part of the city. All four members of JERICHO will see their families’ lives displaced if this oil refinery is built. This new challenge would give JERICHO the power to save their families, but then enter TEAM ROYAL, and they are bent on taking down JERICHO, and will take extreme measures to stop them. Will JERICHO be able to win this ultimate challenge? And what exactly is this reward of power?

THOUGHTS: Social Issues and social justice are paramount in this book. The characters are relatable, and readers will become invested in them. Middle grade readers will enjoy this action-packed adventure. 

Adventure

Elem. – Kodi

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Cullum, Jared. Kodi. Top Shelf Productions. 2020. 978-1-603-09467-2. 176 p. $14.99. Grades 2-5.

While out on a walk near her grandmother’s Alaska summer house, comics-loving Katya encounters an enormous kodiak bear with its leg pinned under a fallen tree. Working together, Katya and “Meema” free the bear and mend his wounded paw. Katya and Kodi become fast friends (and an expert fishing team), so both are crestfallen when she must return to Seattle. When Kodi sees a tourist with a Seattle t-shirt, he realizes that stowing away on a cruise ship will deliver him to Katya. But finding a small girl in a big city requires some help; enter a fisherman named Joshua, who forms his own unique bond with the bear. Jared Cullum’s gorgeous watercolors portray a range of settings, emotions, and action with evocative style. Katya’s vulnerability is evident in her big eyes and slight build; her strength shows in her artwork and steadfastness. Kodi is both comically oversized and brawny, but gentle. Joshua, disabled in a previous fishing accident, is clever and kind. Readers who fly through the pages to find out what happens next will want to re-read, pausing to admire the mountain streams, city skylines, and ocean waves.

THOUGHTS: This beautifully illustrated graphic novel for young readers is also an homage to the power of friendship and creativity. Don’t miss this one!

Graphic Novel          Amy V. Pickett, Ridley SD

MG – Normal: One Kid’s Extraordinary Journey

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Newman, Magdalena, and Nathaniel Newman. Normal: One Kid’s Extraordinary Journey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. 978-1-328-63183-1. 327 p. $16.99. Grades 7-8.

Nathaniel has always felt normal despite living with Treacher Collins syndrome (TC), a condition diagnosed at birth which causes bones in his face to grow and others not to grow, causing breathing and hearing difficulties. Nathaniel and Magda, Nathaniel’s mother, recount the story of his life from infancy to his teenage years. Throughout his life, Nathaniel had over sixty procedures to correct craniofacial differences caused by TC. Despite the challenges, Magda and her family were determined to give Nathaniel a normal childhood, full of video games, pets, bike riding, and sibling rivalries. When he turned 11, Nathaniel chose to have his largest procedure yet which would eventually allow him to reach a lifetime goal, to swim submerged in water for the first time. Each chapter begins with a black and white cartoon which entices readers to finish the chapter. The story is told from two perspectives, as indicated by different font styles for each narrator, and includes flashbacks to Magda’s life growing up in Poland. Both Nathaniel and Magda teach all children to separate “who someone is from what he looks like.”

THOUGHTS: Readers of R.J Palacio’s Wonder will easily recognize this story and will enjoy learning how the book and movie positively affected the lives of “Wonder Kids” around the world. Middle Grade readers interested in digging deeper into Teachers Collins syndrome or those who enjoy reading books about diverse kids, will enjoy Nathaniel’s and Magda’s story.

617.5 Medicine and Health            Jaynie Korzi, South Middleton SD
Biography