Thanks to Candlewick Press for this poignant novel set during World War II handling some tough topics with ease for a middle grade audience.
Ellen Hollingsworth's Aunt Pearl comes to the rescue when her father proudly signs up to go to war and leaves her and her mother to survive. Really, it's Ellen who's having to survive because her mother has stopped caring, suffering from deep depression. The two are taken to Aunt Pearl's home in tiny Snowden, Virginia. Ellen's finding it tough to live in this new simpler way of life: there's no electricity and she's got a classmate who smells of skunks. She worries that she will fall to the same depression that has claimed her mom, and insists that this new and awful place will never be "home".Ellen finds school hard to believe with a few children set on benches and a boy, Russell, older than she is at the front, still trying to learn the alphabet with the little ones and smelling like skunk! It's Russell and Ellen getting together, learning to survive homes with mental illness, abuse and alcoholism as they also learn how to be friends. There are touching moments along with frightening ones, but it feels as if the troubles met as well as possible might connect to children today living with similar challenges in their own young lives.
I enjoyed the tentativeness of the characters, making do in their lives, acting out on occasion with regret as children and adults do, feeling their way to thoughtful actions and beliefs, growing up. And they're learning that even adults learn, too. It's a complex story filled with complex characters facing tough odds for survival. Even the character one begins to loathe is given some sympathy.
Weaving the setting into this poignant story feels right, too. Seeing that others have lived happily with so little, reading the parts about the woods and the animals so loved by Russell showed that things in the outside world can offer solace in the midst of harsh living. I enjoyed the story and would like to know more about these characters as years pass. Some questions linger.
Thanks to Charlesbridge for the copy of this book!
In Neward, N.J., 1984, Beatriz Mendez and her older brother, Junito, lead the powerful Latin Diablos gang. But Beatriz doesn't celebrate her 15th birthday with the usual celebration because a Haitian gang leaves Junito for dead and Beatriz terribly injured. This is the second novel from Tami Charles, connecting to Like Vanessa opens with me shocked as this "just fifteen-year-old" Beatriz, an immigrant from Puerto Rican has “a blade tucked inside [her] cheek", ready to stop anyone who crosses a certain line. She has learned to be tough! She's struggling in school, desperate to raise her grades, needs to maintain her standing as a Diabla, and take care of her grief-stricken mother who hasn't spoken since Junito's death. She loves dancing, was taught as a young child and in lessons, and one good moment in her days is when she, her mother and her Abuela watch the TV show, Fame. She tells this tale, full of Spanish phrases, too, that sometimes I had to translate and enjoyed slowly learning more Spanish! Once in a while there are flashback dreams that catch readers up in Beatriz' past, and realistic newsprint clips of the gang news. A friendship with a new boy is up and down as she keeps her "real" self from him, soon discovers he is Haitian, the enemy! Slowly she realizes, with his help and the support of others that she can make her own choices, and it's not a betrayal of her brother. The story shows the complex layers of life children who face a new world and in poverty have many choices to make, many challenges to overcome. It is a world we might feel more sympathetic about if we read real stories like this one.
I forgot to share that I read this, but only AFTER I gave it to my fifth-grade granddaughter, then she loaned it back to me. Raina Telgemeier knows middle graders, speaks about her own experiences with empathy, shows them that many things may be troubling, but they are not alone. There is no more loving message one can find from a book than that, for all ages.
It's time for Oliver Wizard's bedtime, as told so sweetly by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Luckily for him, he has his cape and magic wand, and through the bedtime rituals like brushing his teeth and a quick snack, he parades around the house casting spells. Father continues to remind Oliver that it is time, time for sleep, that even wizards need rest. When it gets closer to time and Oliver is whisked off to bed, he shows a bit of worry, saying "I might imagine wild things." And dear Daddy tells him to "Whisper your best chant." And to "wave them away." Oliver waves that wand, whoosh to the ceiling and whoosh to the floor. "Like that?" And Daddy answers, "Like that." With the caring love from a parent helping, this young boy wizard manages one last chant and whispers a repeating phrase found throughout, "That should do it." Josee Masse's illustrations fit the bedtime dark and shadows, as she allows Oliver's imaginings to swirl around him and his Daddy as they follow this familiar ritual, still needing the chants so this little wizard can go to sleep. Be sure to watch for the cats who appear all along the way! I think I would love to have had this when I put my children or grandchildren to bed. What a comfort it will be to children to imagine their own spells at bedtime.
It's time for Oliver Wizard's bedtime, as told so sweetly by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Luckily for him, he has his cape and magic wand, and through the bedtime rituals like brushing his teeth and a quick snack, he parades around the house casting spells. Father continues to remind Oliver that it is time, time for sleep, that even wizards need rest. When it gets closer to time and Oliver is whisked off to bed, he shows a bit of worry, saying "I might imagine wild things." And dear Daddy tells him to "Whisper your best chant." And to "wave them away." Oliver waves that wand, whoosh to the ceiling and whoosh to the floor. "Like that?" And Daddy answers, "Like that." With the caring love from a parent helping, this young boy wizard manages one last chant and whispers a repeating phrase found throughout, "That should do it." Josee Masse's illustrations fit the bedtime dark and shadows, as she allows Oliver's imaginings to swirl around him and his Daddy as they follow this familiar ritual, still needing the chants so this little wizard can go to sleep. Be sure to watch for the cats who appear all along the way! I think I would love to have had this when I put my children or grandchildren to bed. What a comfort it will be to children to imagine their own spells at bedtime. 
