Two new picture books and three middle-grade books are among Tracy Kampa's latest recommendations. Tracy is the children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library and reviews books for What We're Reading.
Picture books
A Little Like Magic, by Sara Kurpiel.
Tracy's take: She didn't want to go. It was cold and windy and she didn't like heavy coats or boots or places she'd never been before, but Mom insisted so off they went with her favorite plastic horse in her pocket to watch people create beautiful works of art from blocks of ice. When they grow so cold that hot chocolate can't even warm them, they go home. Only to discover that the plastic horse is gone. It is hard to be without your security, even if it comes in the form of a plastic horse.
They go back one night to see the completed ice sculptures, and while it was magical, it was also crowded and she felt as if she were caught in a forest. Until she sees an empty spot next to a sculpture. “I'm going there,” she tells her mother, and steers her power wheelchair to the sculpture of a beautiful baby horse and at its feet is the lost plastic horse. Even though she laments the fact that the ice sculptures will melt, she also knows that they will always be with her.
If you read one picture book this year, please make it A Little Like Magic, by Sarah Kurpiel.
Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim, by Kobina Commeh, illustrations by Bárbara Quintino.
Tracy's take: Kwesi is sad when all his friends are playing games in the water and he can't swim. His fears come to a head while playing a game with Nana Ruby. She reminds him that when she came to this country from Ghana, black people were not allowed to swim in pools with white people. And when the pools were desegregated, communities might even fill in their pools with dirt so black people couldn't swim. Because of that, generations of black people didn't learn to swim and couldn't teach their children. “So, I'll never learn to swim?” Kwesi asks Nana. Nana Ruby assures him that certainly he can learn how to swim, and if he does it, she will too. While it was not easy, especially when Kwesi felt the water was pulling his legs under, he did learn to swim, and Nana Ruby kept her word too. I loved this book.
Middle-grade books
Old School, by Gordon Korman.
Tracy's take: You know the same old book plot: kid gets sent to live in a retirement community with his grandma, and in order for the paperwork to go through, she puts his age at 60 instead of 6. Then six years later, the government is wondering why this 66-year-old man has never applied for Social Security benefits, only to find out he's 12. And has never gone to school. What? You've never read one like this before? Well, you're in for a treat because Gordon Korman, one of my all-time favorite authors, has published another winner.
In the six years that Dexter Foreman has been living at the Pines Retirement Village, he has been home schooled by some of the finest minds of the last century. His best friend, 99-year-old Leo, has even taught him how to code--a talent learned by Leo while winning World War II. But when the truant officer is sent to the Pines, everybody knows that the gig is up, and Dexter heads off to middle school. Everything at Wolf’s Eye Middle School is as foreign to Dexter as he is to the other students. After all, no other middle schooler has spent his life dressing in perfectly good hand-me-downs gifted to him by his 80-year old neighbors. Bullies crawl out from the woodwork, including Jackson, who is no longer the smartest kid on the math team now that Dexter has arrived. Dexter's skills, however, soon win the admiration of fellow students.
It is when Dexter pulls out his Swiss army knife though, to retrieve a packet caught up in a vending machine, that Dexter learns what a zero-tolerance policy is all about. Suspended from school, he soon becomes the center of student protest. While Dexter can't go to the middle school, the school comes to him as throngs of students descend on the Pines every day after school. They chat with the neighbors, they play shuffleboard and bingo, they learn to love hot tea, and when the time is right, they show up at the school board meeting.
Woven throughout this wonderful book is an ode to the generations before, to the folks who fixed things and helped one another and made do. You would do well to spend time with Old School, written by Gordon Korman.
No Purchase Necessary, by Maria Marianayagam.
Tracy's take: Ajay tries so very hard to live by the rules set by his strict Sri Lankan parents: know the difference between right and wrong, there is no such thing as a no-homework day and the list goes on. Looking forward to a fresh start at his new school, he knows that he needs to earn the respect of Jacob, the popular kid. Jacob, however, delights in tormenting Ajay.
One day, Jacob asked if Ajay would do him the favor of getting a Mercury Candy Bar for Jacob. After school, Jacob had been stealing from Scary Al’s convenience store and he thought that Al was on to him. Ajay recognized that this was his chance to get in good with Jacob, so he very reluctantly agrees. Ajay steals the candy bar, sliding it in the front of his pants. When he goes to give it to Jacob, he is met with derision. “You put it down your pants. That's disgusting. I don't want it now!” Jacob and his friends laugh as they walk away and Ajay is left standing with a slightly melted candy bar.
As Ajay eats the candy, he notices something written on the gold foil wrapper: “Congratulations. You are the winner of Mercury's $1 million grand prize.” And then Ajay's problems really begin. Ajay spends days agonizing over the ethics of claiming a stolen prize. His decisions ultimately lead him to work at Scary's convenience store without his parents’ knowledge, where he discovers that Al might not be as scary as Ajay was led to believe. Who owns the $1,000,000?
I'd highly suggest you check out No Purchase Necessary by Maria Marianayagam.
Will's Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.
Tracy's take: Will is the first in his family to be born out of slavery—Will his parents and his grandfather farmed cotton for other people. Will's father comes home with news of the upcoming Oklahoma Land Rush set to commence at noon on April 22, 1889. Could Will and his family possibly become land owners just by staking a claim? And the adventure begins. This is the book that I look for each and every time I order books. This is pure adrenaline. Will and his father and their friend, Caesar, who they meet along the way, must stop thieves and con-men and somehow defeat Mother Nature. They must cross a raging river surrounded by other people's treasures that were lost during previous crossings and even amidst the bodies of animals and people who didn't make it. There are gunshots and wounds to dress. There's even quicksand to overcome. And there is a critical time when Will must decide if he can go on alone. If he can save this dream for his family.
This by far the most adventure-filled book I've read in a year. The authors' note not only speaks to African Americans in the land rush but also reminds that the land being claimed was land that American Indians had lived on for thousands of years. This is an important and unique look at a time that the history books might lead us to believe was only lived by white people. But even beyond that, it is a fabulous book that I'm so glad I have on my shelves. Don't miss Will’s Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.
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