How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani

 

It's June 1967, and 11-year-old Ariel "Ari" Goldberg has just learned that her sister Leah, 18, is in love. The only problem is that the Goldbergs are Jewish and want nothing more than for Leah to find a nice Jewish boy to marry. Instead, the boy Leah is in love with is Raj Jagwani, a Hindu from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, but an American citizen and a graduate student at NYU. And so Ari and Leah spend the summer meeting Raj on the sly.

But when school begins in September, everything  changes. Leah has been forbidden to see Raj, and at school, Ari is sure she will face another year of struggling to write clearly until she is put into a class for kids who need more help. In the past, Leah had always helped her with her schoolwork, but now she's unhappy and too preoccupied with Raj. After Leah and Raj elope and just disappear, Ari is left to cope with school on her own. Then she discovers that her parent's bakery, Gertie's, is in financial trouble and may have to be sold. At school, Ari has always been tormented by an anti-Semitic bully, but luckily has always had her best friend Jane until they have a falling out. 

Ari has also been waiting for her new teacher, Miss Field, to finally recommend she be put into the slow class, but at a conference with Ari and her mother, she tells them she suspects that Ari has dysgraphia, a learning disability in which a person can't write coherently. Mrs. Goldberg is convinced Ari's inability to write is just laziness and requires more practice. But Miss Fields encourages Ari to write poetry, something she finds is an easy way to express how she feels, on the classroom's electric typewriter. 

When Ari's class is assigned a special current events project to present, Ari decides to do the Loving vs. Virginia case, something she learned about from Leah and a way to keep her connection to her beloved sister. Yet, unable to understand why she hasn't heard from Leah, Ari and Jane, who loves Nancy Drew mystery novels, decide to solve the mystery of where Leah has disappeared to. 

This is indeed a novel about searching for something. If it seems that there is a lot going on in Ari's life in this novel, and that Hiranandani throws a lot of things at her - the Loving case, the Vietnam War, racism, anti-Semitism, and learning disabilities - it is also a thoughtful exploration of Ariel's search to find her own voice and place in her world, and it is also wonderful to watch how Ari grows and changes as events unfold. Written in the second person singular, it was a little odd at first to be reading historical fiction in the present tense, but it also brought the story closer, doing away with historical distancing. After all, some of the events and attitudes in this novel are still with us today.

I think the fact that Hiranandani is biracial, with a Jewish American mother and an Indian father, made this novel feel more relevant and important because she was speaking from experience. She handles Ari's story with sensitivity, humor, and honestly. One of the things I really found interesting were the chapter headings, which all began with How to... It was like a little preview of what was coming without giving anything away. 

How to Find What You're Not Looking For is a wonderful heartfelt, character driven novel and if you think the ending is too pat, well, sometimes that's just what is needed.

The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

The World Belonged to Us 

written by Jacqueline Woodson,

illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2022, 32 pages

Schools out for summer and these kids are happy, excited, and anticipating a great time all summer long, playing games with friends and running free: "Free as air. Free as sun. Free as summer." Just look at those joyous faces. Oh, I remember that feeling, do you? Woodson has captured those past summers in Brooklyn perfectly in this charming picture book fictional memoir, and I know it's spot on because, well, I grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, too. 

With school out, it's life on the streets for two whole months. On hot days, the fire hydrants are opened and everyone races to get a cooling shower, clothes and all. The streets are chalked with game boards, jump ropes are pulled out and double dutch is the name of the game. 

Hanging with friends on a stoop, telling stories, learning about life from the older kids (I became a pretty good poker player hanging out on Ismael's stoop), other times a ball and stick are pulled out and a game of stickball happens in the street (only stopping when someone yells "car"). Ice cream trucks roll down the street and moms toss money wrapped in a scarf to the lucky kids who always share with the kids who have no money (for us, it was Mister Softee, Good Humor, and Bungalow Bar). And at the end of the day, as everyone knows, it's time to go home when the streetlights came on. 

If Jacqueline Woodson got summer all right in her text, Leo Espinosa got it right in the illustrations. Kids in the 1970s were probably the last of the free range children and in his illustrations it feels almost as if they knew and had to make it all extra special. The kids seem to be extra loud, just look at those wide open mouths and you can practically hear the kids calling to each other, and extra energetic, the kids are depicted in almost constant motion. And don't you just love those clothes. The kids are all diverse, just like Brooklyn was and is. And it really did feel like the world belonged to us.

I had a friend once who grew up in the suburbs and told me she felt sorry for me growing up in Brooklyn, because I must have been so bored. Bored? Really? Just look at these kids.  

This book really brought back memories of growing up in Brooklyn for me and the games we used to play during summer vacation. It was every bit as wonderful as this book says it was. 

I loved playing skelly as a kids and this is one of my favorite pictures in the book. Kids shooting their bottle caps (ours were filled with clay not tar), and a group of kids on the sideline watching and talking. And I'm happy to see that the thirteenth square is still surrounded by poison (land in poison and you lose a turn). 

In my Flatbush neighborhood, we called this game skelly,
not skully

,

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

 

It's weird to read a book that feels so much like historical fiction and yet the events take place in 1989, one year after my Kiddo was born, and I clearly remember what happened to communism all over Eastern Europe that year. This novel takes place in Romania, which had been governed under the repressive communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife since 1965 and the Romanian people were controlled by the secret police called Securitate through the use of mass surveillance, which included turning ordinary citizens into informers, usually through blackmail. 

And that is just what happens to Cristian Florescu, a 17-year-old student who dreams of becoming a writer and who secretly enjoys poetry and philosophy and buys English language stuff on the sly. Then one October school day in 1989, Cristian is pulled out of class by a member of the Securitate, or Secu, who informs him that they know what he has done. Cristian is an avid stamp collector and his crime was having given a Romanian stamp to American teen, Dan Van Dorn, the son of American diplomat Nick Van Dorn stationed in Romania. But later, when he looked through his stamp book, Cristian had discovered an American dollar inside it, which was illegal to possess and the Secu tells him he is now guilty of illegal trafficking. Unless...he agrees to collect information on the Van Dorn family where his mother works cleaning their apartment. In exchange for information, Cristian's grandfather, his Bunu, a rebel in his own right, would receive needed medicine for his leukemia.

And because the Secu blackmailed people into becoming informers, Cristian had learned not to trust anyone, certainly not his best friend Luca, whom he is sure was the one who informed on him about the American dollar, or even Liliana, the girl he is attracted to. But Cristian decides that he will not be the kind of informer the Secu wants, thinking he can undermine the Secu. 

Meanwhile, Cristian learns about the fall of Communist regimes are happening all over Europe - Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia - secretly listening to Radio Free Europe on his family's forbidden radio. Why, he wonders, can't that happen in Romania? Perhaps if the world knew what was happening in there, things would be different. And Cristian has just the plan to hopefully make that happen.  

Ruta Sepetys has always been an author whose work I looked forward to reading and yet, I was reluctant to read I Must Betray You. Perhaps it was because of current events happening in the world right now, but once I began reading, I couldn't put the book down. Right from the beginning, Cristian is a compelling character, caring, sensitive and intelligent, curious about the world outside of Romania and, like the grandfather he looks up to, as much of a rebel as you can be under a harsh communist regime. And for that reason, I, of course, wanted to find out what happens once he becomes a reluctant informer for the Securitate. 

Sepetys has also drawn a picture of Romania under Ceaușescu's dictatorship that is as chilling as it is scary. Neighbors and friends informing on neighbors and friends, getting up early to stand in long lines to buy meager amounts of food, acquiring and keeping constant count of Kent cigarettes to use for bartering and bribing, never knowing what is being documented that can be used to manipulate or arrest you. Even the bottle of Coke or the Twinkie that Cristian and Liliana secretly share is documented - but how? Who saw it? Who reported it? But the Secu knows, just like they know about the American dollar Cristian finds. 

As with all of her novels, Sepetys has really done her research. She has managed to convey the hardships, the fear, the constant hunger, and lack of trust in the lives of the Romanian people at that time so well that I had to keep reminding myself that this is a story based on reality and not a dystopian novel, because that is almost what Ceaușescu's Romania felt like. 

Be sure to check the back matter. There is a variety of interesting and informative photographs, an Author's Note that shouldn't be missed, information on Sepetys' Research and Sources, plus an extensive list of sources. And for those who are sharing this book with their class or book club, you can find a Discussion Guide HERE 

This book was borrowed from the NYPL

How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino, translated from the Japanese by Bruno Navasky

How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino,

translated by Bruno Navasky

Algonquin Young Readers, 1937, 2021, 288 pages

How Do You Live? may be the most unusual coming-of-age story I've ever read. It was originally written in Japan in 1937, which, you may remember, was the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This war is never mentioned, and yet, the book very philosophically explores the question: how do you live your life in order to make it your best life?

Readers are introduced to 15-year-old Honda Jun'ichi, nicknamed Copper. His father has passed away and he lives with his mother in Tokyo, not far from an uncle who has taken Copper under his wing. Copper often visits his uncle in the evenings to play chess and indulge in some very philosophical discussions, which are then followed up with some thoughts written by his uncle about what they had talked about on a particular evening. The story, then, unfolds in alternating voices - on the one hand, the events and experiences in Copper's home and school life are told in the third person, on the other, there are the thoughts his uncles writes down for Copper on the first person.

Copper got his nickname after a long discussion with his uncle about Copernicus and this theory that the earth revolves around the sun which is at the center of the universe rather than the previously long help belief that the sun moves around the earth and that earth was the center of the universe. It doesn't take a philosophy degree to see that Uncle is telling Copper that he is one human among many. 

At school, Copper has two friends in his class, Mizutani, whom he has known since elementary school, and Kitami whom he has met in junior high school. There is also another boy in their class, Uragawa, a poorer student who, because his grades are low and he always smells like the fried tofu his parents sell, is nicknamed Fried Tofu and subject to many cruel pranks. 

When Uragawa is absent from school for a number of days, Copper takes it upon himself to visit him and see what's wrong and when he will return to school. Seeing what his family life is like, and Uragawa cleverness at making the fried tofu causes Copper to see him in a different light. He begins to help him with his homework and Uragawa's grades really improve. Pretty soon, Mizutani and Kitami come around and begin to include Uragawa in their group.

When some seniors at school set their sights on Katami, Copper, Mizutani, and Uragawa promise to stand with him if they threaten to beat him up. But when the time comes for this courageous act to happen, Copper finds that he can't move and join his friends in defending Katami. Crestfallen by his lack of action and loyalty, Copper becomes ill. Can he ever face his friends again? Or will he be shunned by them for his cowardice? 

In the end of Copper's ordeal, he has learned much about himself and about human nature, including how he wishes to live his life, while at the same time, realizing there is still much more to learn.

How Do You Live? in a very interesting school story and I would love to know what motivated the author to write it. I have to admit that, even though I was a philosophy major, I found myself more interested in Copper's story than in his uncle's treatises on life. And yet, the two parts make a very complex whole, supporting each other to make it all understandable for their teenage audience. Copper's story, written in 1937, is still relevant in 2021 because he goes through the same growing pains most younger teenagers experience. 

I believe the translation is faithful to the original Japanese and I felt author and translator had captured the themes of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and shame in such a way that readers will ask themselves the same questions the Copper was forced to ask himself. There is a forward by Neil Gaiman, who was interested in it because he knew it was a favorite book of filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and whose next film will be based on this book. 

How Do You Live? may not be a book for everyone, but for those who do read it, it is a very satisfying coming-of-age story from another era. 

This book is recommended for readers age 13+

This book was gratefully received from Amanda Dissinger at Algonquin Books

#MMGM Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

 

Echo Mountain

by Lauren Wolk

Dutton BFYR/Penguin, 2020, 356 pages

When the depression causes her family to lose everything, and move from town to a more rustic life on Echo Mountain, Ellie, 11, finds herself quite at home in the forests surrounding the mountainside, as does her father. Her older sister Esther and mother don't feel quite as at home and would prefer to move back to town and the life they once had, where father was a tailor and mother was a music teacher. But when her father is severely injured in an accident while he is cutting down a tree that leaves him in a coma, Ellie feels that she is entirely to blame for it, and knows that Esther sees it as her fault as well. Ellie begins to take over many of her father's responsibilities and the only bright spots in her life are the little carved wooden forest creatures and plants she finds in different places and her dog, Quiet. It was thought that Quiet was dead when he was born, but instead of burying him like she was supposed to, Ellie thrust him into a bucket of cold water, which revised the puppy. Unfortunately, similar rash attempts at reviving her father do not end that successfully.  

Ellie also has noticed a dog without an owner a number of times in the forest. But when she is led to the cabin at the top of Echo Mountain by the dog, she finds not the hag everyone says to stay away from, but a rather seriously ill elderly woman named Cate whom Ellie helps nurse back to health. Impressed by Ellie's innate sense of what to do, Cate begins to share her own secrets for healing. But Cate, like Ellie, has some secrets and as the two get to know and trust each other, secrets are revealed.  

I originally read Echo Mountain for the Cybils award, but recently had the pleasure of rereading it for a summer program. I loved it, as did the kids I read it with. In fact, I couldn't put it down both times that I read it, even knowing what was going to happen. It is the kind of book that I would have read as an 11 or 12 year-old and hung on every word. The writing is lyrically beautiful and the characters are just eccentric enough to be really appealing. I loved seeing Ellie grow and change, becoming more and more comfortable in her surroundings and just absorbing everything about natural healing that Cate can teach her. Overall, I thought Ellie was a wonderfully strong, independent protagonist and her story will resonate with readers for a long long time, as it did with my readers this summer.

I said the writing is lyrically beautiful. How beautiful? Let me share my favorite passage and judge for yourself:

"What am I supposed to do?" I said aloud, though I was alone. But the sky was busy being the sky. And the trees were busy being trees. And the birds, likewise, were busy being exactly who they were. Which was, in itself, an answer. I made up my mind to listen to the flame in my chest, which sighed and roared  and sighed again like a long piece of music I knew by heart but still seemed to be hearing fresh." (pg. 169)

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

MMGM: Three Keys (Front Desk #2) by Kelly Yang

 

It's 1994 and life has certainly changed for Mia Tang, 11. You may recall from Front Desk, that when she was much younger, Mia and her parents had emigrated to the United States from China hoping for a better life. But, you may also recall, the degrees and work experience Mia's parents had didn't help them get jobs for which they were qualified (he is a scientist, she is an engineer). Instead, they took menial jobs, finally landing at the Calavista Motel as maintenance workers. But eventually, they buy the Calavista from the very unpleasant owner Mr. Yao, whose son is in Mia's class and who bullies her every chance he gets. But the Tang's also make good friends among the more permanent residents of the motel. Mia and Lupe Garcia, whose dad works for the Tangs, are now BFFs, and she has even made friends with Jason Yao. 

Mia is excited to begin sixth grade, hoping to improve her writing with the help of her new teacher Mrs. Welch, who clearly resents teaching in a trailer because of budget cuts, blaming it on immigrants the state has to take care of. It soon becomes clear that Mrs. Welch supports Pete Wilson for governor and Proposition 187 which would prohibit undocumented immigrants from using any state services, including health care and public schools. 

Then Lupe tells Mia that her family is undocumented, but working on getting the papers they need, and they live in fear of being deported. When Mia's first writing assignment on immigration is returned, Mrs. Welch has only given her a C, not the A or B+ she was expecting. What begin as a great new beginning for the Mia feels like it is quickly turning into more disappointment and worry.

And she's right. When Lupe's grandmother in Mexico dies, her mother decides to take a chance and return there for her funeral. When they don't hear from Mrs. Garcia for weeks, there is nothing that can be done to find out what happened without the authorities discovering they are undocumented and deporting the whole Garcia family. But when Mr. Garcia drives down to the border to find his wife, he is picked up and held by the immigration police.

On top of that, the Tang's improvements of the Calavista are finally paying off financially, but when new property manager Hank (you remember him from Book #1) writes Immigrants Welcome in big letters outside the motel, it ends up on the nightly news and investors are not happy. Now, the Tang's financial future is once again in trouble but Mia insists the sign must not be take down.

It begins to look like nothing is going to go right during Mia's sixth grade year, but this is a girl with spunk and drive, and she is not going to go down without a fight. Can she change people's minds, though, especially Mrs. Welch's, about immigrants and the unfairness of Proposition 187? Can she help bring back Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, or has she lost her best friend to politics. 

Some of the issues addressed in Three Keys are pretty heavy duty for a middle grade novel, and yet what better place to explore these issues of immigration and racism than at this moment when they are sadly still so relevant and urgent. For example, there is racial animosity directed at Hank, who is African American, but who tells Lupe "I have fear every day...But let me tell you something about fear: If you don't control it, it controls you." (pg 215) And recent immigrants like Tangs are were and are still looked down on by people like Mr. Yao, and others. 

I wouldn't say that Mia develops as much as I would say that she expands who she is, and who she is is passionate about supporting the people she cares about, and what is happening in the world as it impacts them, as well as her and her family. Her political awakening is interesting to see and I think more kids are having that kind of experience today and can really relate to her. Mia certainly embodies Hank's definition of the three keys of friendship: "You gotta listen, you gotta care, and most importantly, you gotta keep trying." (pg 245)   

I would not skip reading the Author's Note in the back matter. There is a lot of information about Proposition 187 and life in California in 1994 for immigrant adults and children and she brings it into the present so well, and includes sources. 

The next book in the Front Desk trilogy, Room to Dream (Front Desk #3), will be out on September 21, 2021 and I can't wait to see what Mia, Lupe, and Jason are up to.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

MMGM: Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte

 

Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte

Scholastic, 2020, 288 pages

It's 1805 and Mary Lambert, 11 is living in a thriving if somewhat isolated town called Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard with her parents. Many of the people on the island are born deaf, as is Mary and her father, and the islanders have developed their own sign language that everyone uses on a regular basis whether or not they are deaf. It feels like a safe, protective community to Mary and she freely moves about that part of the island. 

Into this close knit community comes a scientist named Andrew Noble to study the people and to try to determine why there are so many deaf people. Noble doesn't have much respect for the deaf and treats them as though they were intellectually impaired, never speaking to them even though they are able to lip read (of course, Noble never made the slightest effort to learn their sign language). 

What Noble really wants is a living "specimen" to take back to Boston to study. One day he finds Mary alone on the beach and violently kidnaps her. After a horrible five day journey, the two of them reach Boston, and Mary discovers that away from Martha's Vineyard, deaf people are treated quite harshly and are considered to be dimwitted. Noble is quite abusive to Mary, but she is determined to escape and return home. Eventually, after some terrible adventures in Boston, Mary is rescued by a mysterious sailor. 

This is a riveting work of historical fiction based on a true story and the deaf community on Martha's Island is something I had never heard of before. Some of the issues and attitudes around disabilities did feel a little modern to me, but it didn't make the story feel forced, nor did it diminish the story's basic message. It also doesn't mean that these issues and attitudes weren't relevant or thought about 200 years ago. There is a parallel though less developed story about the early white settlers, including Mary's great grandfather, who colonized the island taking the land away from the Wampanoag and how their descendants are continuing to take more and more land from the Native Americans on Martha's Vineyard.   

A few years ago, I read a book by Ann Clare LeZotte called T4, a novel written in free verse about the Nazis' unthinkable Aktion 4 policy of euthanizing disable people. So. I was a little surprised to find myself somewhat reluctant to read this novel at first, even though it was only the cover that turned me off to it (I know, never judge a book by its cover, but sadly, we do). Then, as a Second Round judge, I read Show Me a Sign for the 2020 Middle Grade Fiction Cybils award at the beginning of 2021, and while it turned out that I liked it very much, in fact, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting, I never wrote about it here on Randomly Reading. So when I read that the sequel, Set Me Free, is due out September 21, 2021, I decided to reread Show Me a Sign and it proved to be every bit as engrossing and exciting as the first time I read it. 

I wish there had been a teacher's guide available from Scholastic for this novel because there is so much that could be unpacked and explored in it. Luckily, there are lots of other resources on the internet and in the library for anyone who wants to know more. 

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

 

Rita William-Garcia begins her epic story by giving a brief history of the land and people in what would later become the boot of Louisiana as a way to usher readers into the main part of her story, and ultimately situate them in the summer of 1860 in St. James parish on the ironically named Le Petit Cottage, home of the Guibert family and the people they enslaved.

The family is headed by its French-born matriarch Madame Sylvie Bernardin de Maret Dacier Guilbert, who never tires of telling people about her connection to Queen Marie Antoinette and the Bernardin de Maret vineyard owned by her family. Madame Sylvie taken from France by a middle age man who forced her to marry him at the age of 13. And before you go feeling sorry for her, know this - Madame Sylvie is so enamored of Marie Antoinette, she named her personal servant, the enslaved Thisbe, a girl taken from her family at age 6 to serve Madame only, after the Queen's dog, 

Le Petit Cottage has been run by Madame Sylvie's son, the poetry loving, syphilitic Lucien while her grandson, Bryon, 20, is attending West Point. The plantation is losing money and could soon be in the hands of creditors as Lucien waits for his mother to give him the stash of gold she had buried long ago and which she holds over his head. Bryon is engaged to be married, but he prefers the company of men, specifically his fellow cadet Robinson Pearce. Lucien is also hoping to make a good (and profitable) marriage for his daughter Rosalie, his beautiful, educated "quadroon" daughter. Her mother is an enslaved woman that Lucien raped during one of his visits to the slave quarters where he would often go for that purpose.   

After learning that Lucille Pierpont "had her portrait painted and hosted a much-talked-about showing at the Pierpont plantation," Madame Sylvie, now 80, has decided this is something she must also have done, even though the Guilberts can't afford it. And after finding out that a portrait of Bryon's finance's father had been commissioned as a gift to his daughter, Madame is even more determined, and almost beside herself when she learns that the painter was Claude le Brun, a descendant of Madame Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun who had painted a portrait of Sylvie and the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette when they were children. 

Into this cast of the major white characters comes Eugénie Duhon, Bryon's fiancee, and Jane Chatham, the 15-year-old abandoned daughter of plantation owners who only wants to ride her warhorse, Virginia Wilder, and of course, Bryon's lover Robinson, visiting for a few weeks before they return to West Point. 

I kept asking myself why would Rita Williams-Garcia write a story set in the antebellum south from the point of view of white characters. After all, that makes it sound almost like you are going to read an updated version of Gone with the Wind, doesn't it? But that couldn't be further from what Williams-Garcia has actually done here. Because it is through this very flawed, very cruel, entitled family that Williams;Garcia has captured the true horror of the institution of slavery. All the while that Williams-Garcia records the ups and downs of the Guilbert family, standing in the background, quiet, invisible, abused to their white owners are the enslaved Blacks, some of whom we do get to know well.

Had Williams-Garcia focused on only one enslaved character, for example Thisbe, readers wouldn't see how they are all treated and abused. By focusing on this family of enslavers, readers will "witness a brutal period in its benign and overt cruelty, to better understand its legacy of privilege and racism" and how it manifested itself on the people this family considered to be nothing more than property.

I won't kid you - this is not an easy book to read, and yet one that I found hard to put down. There are moments in it when you will pump your arm and say "yes," moments when you will reach for a tissue to wipe away your tears, and moments when you will want to turn away from what you are reading. All I can say is keep reading. This is too important a book to ignore. That said, you may be surprised to discover who the real hero of this story is. And then you will think about it, and you won't be surprised at all.

This book is recommended for readers age 16+

This book was very gratefully received from Keely Platt at Sparkpoint Studio

Oscar's American Dream by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell

 

Oscar"s American Dream by Barry Wittenstein,

illustrated by Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell

Schwartz & Wade, 2020, 36 pages

Not long ago, I reviewed a book about a lake house that bore witness to the changing 20th century in Germany. Now, here is a book about a shop on a corner in New York City that bears witness to 100 hundred years of people's different American dreams from 1899 to 1999.

Oskar Nowicki arrived in New York City via Ellis Island from his native Poland. He has a dream and with money loaned to him by his mother, Oskar "replaced the k in his name with a c" and opened a barber shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue in 1899. The barber shop was successful, but then the subway comes along, and in 1908, Oscar's dream changed when he went to work as a train conductor. 

Oscar's barber shop is replaced with Out with the Old, a successful women's clothing shop owned by Nettie and Yettie Jaffe. The Jaffe sisters dressed women from 1915s suffragettes to 1920s flappers, believing that "the good times were here to stay -" right up until the stock market crash of 1929 when "millions like Nettie and Yettie lost everything" and they were forced out of business. 

The shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue becamed a soup kitchen, feeding hundreds of hungry out of work New Yorkers and their families every day. When America entered WWII in 1941, the soup kitchen morphed into a United States Army Recruitment Office and "young men lined up around the block, eager for a chance to become heroes." 

After the war, the building was boarded up until Moises Ortiz Jr. arrived in New York with money his brother in Puerto Rico lent him and the shop on Front Street and Second Avenue became Bodega Suprema, selling everything "from cigars to coffee beans, toilet paper to newspapers and foods from home..." But when television came along, Moises's bodega became Renate's TV Center, named for his baby daughter. 

Renate's TV Center was a good business until fire swept through the shop and "Moise's dreams were no más." Was that the end of the shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue? No, indeed. Wittenstein continues through the 1960s and the March on Washington, and the changing demands of the 1970s and 1980s.

But in 1999, the "wheels of progress" brought a bulldozer to raze the the building. Will this really be the end of the shop that was the embodiment of so many American dreams?

Oscar's American Dream is fiction. There is a Front Street and there is a Second Avenue in NYC, but they don't intersect. No matter, because it is a story not interested in being a factual history, but in being a history about how American dreams are often manifested in the life of a single building. And in a way it tells us to look at that history from both a general point of view and a particular point of view. General, in that you could look at the history of any building anywhere that has been standing for a while and see how changing times and changing dreams have been reflected in it. It is particular because more and more old New York City buildings are being torn down and replaced with nondescript structures, devoid of any personality. Maybe that's true where you live, too. But, with those old buildings go a history of people's dreams.

I really liked the way Wittenstein seamlessly slipped from one era to the next, and using spare text provided a clear picture of what was happening both in the shop and in the world. His purpose, as he writes in his Author's Note, is to see if he could better understand the past by looking at just one building and I would say he has definitely succeeded at that. 

Complimenting the text are engaging pencil and pen digitally compiled illustrations. Readers will want to carefully explore these inviting illustrations and find all of little details that add to the story.   

Oscar's American Dream is an excellent way to introduce young readers to history, where they will discover that it "is alive. And if you stand on a corner and look carefully, you might even see it go marching by."

The NYC building I miss the most - Ralph's Candy Store on Church Avenue between Argyle and Rugby Roads - what great memories of candy, comics, chocolate egg creams, Mello-Rolls, and friends.  

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was gratefully received from the author.

MMGM: We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly

It's January 1986 and the nation was being geared up for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, a more than average historical event since it would include schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe as part of the crew. It is an exciting time for Ms. Salonga, science teacher at Park Middle School in Park, Delaware and on January 2, she begins a month long unit called Space Month. This is met with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the three Nelson Thomas siblings, Cash, 13, and twins Bird and Fitch, 12, all of whom have Ms. Salonga's class, though not together. 

At home, each of the Nelson Thomas siblings have learned to navigate around and out of the dysfunction the exists there. Parents Tammy and Mike constantly bicker with each other. When not doing that, Tammy escapes into a book and Mike continuously watches television. 

Bird, who is interested in science and engineering, loves to take things apart and put them back together again, carefully writing and illustrating her own manual for each item. She is also  obsessed with Space Month and the impending launch and hopes to become an astronaut someday. 

Fitch is obsessed with playing video games at the local arcade and couldn't care less about the space launch. When an unpopular girl from his class invades his space at the arcade, he loses his temper at school and ends up suspended for a few days. 

Cash has already been dropped from the basketball team he loved because of low grades and is repeating 7th grade, a fact best friend Brant never stops reminding him about. He breaks his wrist January 1st and spends the month angry and frustrated by the limitations wearing a cast causes.   

As the lives of the Nelson Thomas siblings begin to spin out of control, and they begin to behave and think more like their parents, Kelly literally builds up the tension day by day in anticipation of the day of the space launch (January 28). Each day is told from the perspective of each sibling, so readers learn about them, their thoughts and activities first hand. Knowing what happened to the Challenger only adds to the feeling of apprehension readers may feel for Bird, Fitch, and Cash. Is their story leading to an explosive end, like the Challenger, an end to Bird's dreams of becoming an astronaut, Cash's desire to be good at something, or Fitch's ability to control his temper? Or will these three siblings discover that they could form the family they have been wanting all along by themselves? 

*Possible Spoiler Alert* I have never been disappointed with a book by Erin Entrada Kelly. She can craft a story that is compelling  from beginning to end, with characters that are realistic and relatable. In We Dream of Space, space is a wonderfully fitting metaphor for what the Nelson Thomas kids are seeking - the space for their dreams to be valued and realized. Readers are not left with a nice tidy ending, but with the ambiguity of possibility. What Bird, Fitch, and Cash will do in the future is entirely up to them and each other.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was borrowed from the Queens Public Library

Where were you at 11:39 AM on January 28, 1986? I was at the Clinique counter in Saks Fifth Avenue with a friend, where there was a television mounted on the wall and I looked up just as the Challenger exploded. I have to say, it was traumatic to see. I've thought about it so often ever since. I can only imagine how the schoolchildren who watched this tragedy happen must have felt. I don't watch space launches anymore.

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle.

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott

I've never really had much of an interest in Joan of Arc. I knew who she was, of course, and what she had done, thanks to a hand-me-down Classic Illustrated Comics collection. And I did go see Saint Joan with Condola Rashad on Broadway, which was excellent. But that was basically it...until I read Voices. WOW! Here was a book that blew me away from the first poem to the last.

In Voices: the Final Hours of Joan of Arc, David Elliott offers readers an amazing perspective on the life and final moments of this courageous young woman (she was, after all, still a teenager when she died). In well-crafted and carefully constructed, often visceral poems, Elliott begins Joan's story at the end of her life, as she is tied to a stake, about to be burned alive as a traitor. He then recreates Joan's life, beginning with her visions through to her military triumph of restoring Charles VIII to power, his ultimate betrayal of her, her subsequent trials, and finally, her execution. Throughout this fictionalized biography in verse, Elliott has carefully and consciously chosen the voices who gets to tell her story besides Joan herself.

 The poems are amazing. The language is affective without being sentimental. There is energy in Elliott's choice of line breaks, coming at just the right time to maintain the lyricism and musicality of each poem - in other words, the lines are neither too long nor too short.

The imagery that each of the poems creates is clear and fresh; there is a specificity of detail in each poem, and provides the reader with imaginative sensory details without being overwhelming.

And Elliott created these images that tell Joan's story using a variety of poetic forms, some dating back to the medieval period, along with a diversity of voices besides Joan. Some of these voices include that of Charles VIII, her father, even personification of objects close to Joan, including her sword, her armor, the crossbow that wounded her and the fire that is so lovingly consuming her.

Elliott has also made effective use of direct prose quotes from the transcripts of Joan's trials. He has creatively recounted the life of Joan of Arc in a somewhat three dimensional sense, not an easy accomplishment in a book, allowing the reader to look at all sides of Joan's story and to draw their own conclusions as to her guilt or innocence.

And Elliot does all this while interrogating ideas about Joan's gender identity, her class, her decision to be a knight instead of a peasant girl remaining on the family farm until she marries, as well as her innocence in view of the politics of the time and the reason for the guilty verdict at her trial.

Elliott has taken a medieval heroine, caught up in the politics of her day, and brought her into the 21st century where her story will definitely resonate with today's readers.

Small wonder that Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc won the Claudia Lewis Award for poetry awarded by the Bank Street Children's Book Committee. Sadly, the Coronavirus meant canceling our awards ceremony this year. However, David Elliott was kind enough to send us a video recording, which you can also enjoy:

This book is recommended for readers age 13+

This book was an ARC gratefully received from publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

April is 

MMGM: Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorell

I have to be honest and say that I did not know anything at all about the Indian Termination Policy which ended the Federal government's recognition of the sovereignty of Native American tribes, including all support services, and the dissolution of reservations. Native Americans were now supposed to live "like Americans" and relinquish all tribal life, culture, and traditions. In 1954, Congress passed Public Law 588, The Western Oregon Termination Act, terminating 61 tribes, including the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. Aside from the loss of services, it meant the loss and sale of reservation land. Now, if you had the money, you could buy the land you had been living on at an inflated price; if you didn't have the money, you were required to leave. But wait! The 1956 Federal Relocation Program promised those who left the reservation good jobs, schooling, housing in an urban area so that they could really live "like Americans."

For 10-year-old Regina Petit, this law means she is no longer Indian, no longer part of the Umpqua tribe because now there would be no Umpqua tribe or Grand Ronde reservation anymore as far as the government is concerned. And since her family doesn't have the money to buy the land they have lived on, it means moving to South Central Los Angeles with her father, mother (who is actually Portuguese), younger sister Peewee, and her beloved Chich (grandmother). But it also means leaving behind a way of life, relatives, friends, and the cemetery where her Chup (grandfather) had recently been buried. 

The promised house is run down, the furniture is old, but the schooling promised her father was

An example of the brochure used by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs to convince
 Native Americans to relocate

good.  Regina is especially pleased that there is indoor plumbing, including an indoor toilet. The neighborhood is diverse, and the first kids that Regina and Peewee meet are two African Americans siblings Addie and Keith Bates. The sisters have never seen black people before, and their new friends have never seen Native Americans before. At first disappointed that Regina and Peewee aren't like the stereotype of "Indians" they have seen on TV or in the movies, they still becomes friends and spend the summer playing together and learning about each other,  along with two Cuban brothers, Anthony and Philip Hernández.

The move to Los Angeles has left Mrs. Petit sad and angry, and she just wants to go back home. Chich tries to make the best of it, using her sewing skills to help the family out, and continues to tell her tribal stories to the girls so they never forget they are Umpqua. But they are also introduced to customs like Halloween and Thanksgiving. Regina loves Halloween at first, after all, it's free candy, but a particularly disturbing incident involving white teens throwing eggs at her, Peewee, Addie and Keith while yelling the N-word spoils the pleasure she had found.

Indian No More was an eyeopening book for me. I went to school in NYC at a time when nothing was taught about the history of Native Americans and when they did come up, it was all very stereotypical. Regina's struggles with retaining her Umpqua identity and somewhat assimilating into life in Los Angeles offer readers lots of everyday details about what that was like there and on the reservation.

Front matter includes a map of the Pacific Coast tracing the route Regina and her family traveled, and a Glossary of Umpqua words and pronunciations. Back matter includes a list of important Definitions, an Authors's Note with photographs by Charlene Willing McManis, whose story this really and who sadly passed away in 2018, and a Co-Author Note by Traci Sorell.

Coronavirus Home Schooling Suggestion: Indian No More would be a excellent and instructive choice right now for anyone homeschooling their children and who wish to provide a unit on Native American History. The publisher, Lee & Low, have made an extensive Teacher's Guide available that can be downloaded HERE

Lee & Low also has a very interesting explanation of the dust jacket for Indian No More HERE

And The Classroom Bookshelf at SLJ has an extensive article called "Shedding Light on 20th Century Termination and Relocation Efforts with Indian No More that also include lots of useful links. You can access it HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC received from Edelweiss+

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle. 

Honey: The Dog Who Saved Abe Lincoln by Shari Swanson, illustrated by Chuck Groenink

In her debut picture book, author Shari Swanson re-imagines a little known event from Abraham Lincoln's life when he was only 7-years-old and living in Knob Creek, Kentucky in this fictionalized slice-of-life biography. While waiting for the miller, Mr. John Hodgen, to grind his sacks of grain, Abe usually wandered into the nearby woods, returning to the mill when he heard the miller's three shill blasts of his whistle. There were always so many things for a boy to see or animals to rescue in the woods.

On one visit to the mill, Abe wandered into the woods and discovered a little honey-colored puppy with a broken leg. After setting the puppy's leg with sticks and bark, he took the dog home with him, begging his mother to let him keep him, telling her: "He'll do lots of good things for me." From then on, everywhere Abe went, Honey followed.

One day, after dropping off a bag of grain at the mill, Abe and Honey took to the woods. Discovering a cave, they no sooner started exploring than Abe's foot became wedged between two rocks. As day became night and Abe hadn't returned to the mill, Mr. John and Abe's mother Nancy waited and worried. Finally, Honey showed up and led Mr. Hodgen, Nancy, and some neighbors to the cave where they rescued Abe. Indeed, Honey lived up to Abe prediction, doing lots of good things for him, including saving his life.

There's nothing more appealing to a young reader than a story about a boy and his dog and their adventures. Honey: The Dog Who Saved Abe Lincoln is a particularly appealing story because it introduces them to an historical person that they may already be familiar with, but in a more accessible way and it provides a nice window for them into the kind of man the boy Abe Lincoln grew up to be.

Though this is a fictionalized account, it is based on a true story that had been recounted by Abe's best friend, Austin Gollaher. You can read more about Abe and Honey in the Author's Note in the back matter. Swanson also includes a Timeline of Abraham Lincoln and His Animal Encounters that young readers will no doubt want to explore.

Chuck Groenink's cartoon style illustrations, done in a palette of pastel earth tones and single and double page spreads, really compliment the text and show the the strong connection between Abe and Honey, as well as Abe love of all animals. Be sure to explore map of Abe's neighborhood in Knob Creek found in the end papers with your young readers to give them an idea of the kind of wilderness that surrounded the area back in 1816.

Honey: The Dog Who Saved Abe Lincoln is a book your young readers will want to return to again and again. I know mine do.

You can find an excellent Curriculum Guide to download for Honey on the author's website HERE
And there is a fun Activity Kit for young readers that can also be downloaded HERE

Meet the Author: 
Shari Swanson is a debut author who has been a middle school language arts teacher as well as an appellate lawyer. She received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she wrote her thesis on musicality in picture books. She lives in Southern California with her husband and their dog, Honey. You can find about more about Shari and Honey: The Dog Who Saved Abe Lincoln by visiting her website: https://shariswanson.com/ and you can follow her on twitter at @ByShariSwanson

Meet the Illustrator: 
Chuck Groenink hails from an overgrown village among the peat bogs in the north of the Netherlands, where he spent his formative years climbing tree, drawing, reading, and cycling. He attended the Artez Institute of Visual Arts in Kampen, graduating from the department of Illustration in 2004. He moved to Portland, Oregon in 2010, and now resides in Kinderhook, New York with his wife, dog, and two cats. You can find out more about Chuck and his art by visiting his website: https://www.chuckgroenink.com/ and you can follow him on twitter at @ChuckGroenink

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was gratefully received from Blue Slip Media

MMGM: Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

It's 1946, and 11-year-old Langston and his Daddy have moved from Alabama to Chicago as part of the great migration. Langston's mother has recently passed away and he is having difficulty coming to terms with his loss, and with living in a city he hates. Langston misses his Mama, Alabama and his family, and his loneliness is only magnified by all the noise and people around him. To top that off, at Haines Junior High School, Langston is the target of schoolyard bully Lymon and his two sidekicks, Errol and Clem, who delight in making fun of him for being a "country boy."

One day, to avoid a confrontation with Lymon, Langston heads out of school in a different direction and finds himself standing in front of the George Cleveland Hall branch of the Chicago Public Library. Going inside, Langston is awed by its beauty but more, noticing the portraits hanging on the walls, by the fact that it is a library devoted to African American artists, and that it is open to any Chicago resident. As he walks along the shelves of books, Langston discovers one with his name. Reading his first Langston Hughes poem, Langston feels as though he is reading the words in his own heart. And imagine his surprise when he discovers that Langston Hughes is his namesake, chosen by his Mama.

Langston returns to the library again and again, even lying to his father about where he is going, knowing he would disapprove. But when Langston is left in the care of a neighbor, Mrs. Fulton, while his father returns to Alabama for a week, he learns she is a high school teacher who also loves poetry. Will she be an ally now or an enemy?

Langston may have found sanctuary in the library and the books he reads there, but it doesn't mean that he is being left alone by Lymon. No, indeed, but will a confrontation with this bully finally open up some honest communication between Langston and his Daddy?

Finding Langston is Lesa Cline-Ransome's debut middle grade novel. I've always enjoyed her picture books, so naturally I was looking forward to reading this. And I loved it. It is historical fiction, set in the south side of a post-war Chicago, and is narrated in the first person by Langston. He tells his story plainly and simply, and despite missing his Mama and home, and his intense feelings of loneliness and alienation, he narrates without self-pity or anger, two emotions that would certainly feel understandable. Langston has keen awareness of his surroundings, both in Alabama and Chicago, providing the reader with multilayered and textured imagery appealing to their sense of touch, smell, and hearing as he experiences the world around him.

As Langston explores the poetry of Langston Hughes and others, he discovers the power of words to help him express himself and lessen his feelings of loneliness and loss knowing that others have felt the same way.

Finding Langston includes many details about life for African Americans, from the whites-only libraries in Alabama to the kind, welcoming librarians in the Chicago library. There is mention of the Port Chicago disaster, and the Harlem Renaissance, inviting readers to explore these topics more.

This is a short but powerful and beautifully written novel exploring themes of bullying, death, grief, and discrimination through the life of an 11-year-old African American boy. You can find a very useful Educator's Guide for Finding Langston from the publisher, Holiday House, HERE

Last Poetry Friday, I posted my personal favorite Langston Hughes poem and the one I used in school to introduce my students to Langston Hughes. It is called "I Dream A World," and as they always pointed out it still resonates in today's world.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was an ARC gratefully received from the publisher.

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle. 

MCBD2020: Lily and the Great Quake, A San Francisco Earthquake Survival Story by Veeda Bybee, illustrated by Alessia Trunfio

 Lily and the Great Quake: 

A San Francisco Earthquake Survival Story 

by Veeda Bybee, illustrated by Alessia Trunfio

Stone Arch Books, 2020, 112 pages

On the night of April 17, 1906, Lily, a Chinese American girl living in San Francisco's Chinatown, is celebrating her 12th birthday with her family, mother, father and younger brother Lee and baby sister June, friends and neighbors including elderly Mr. Quan. As a big surprise, Lily is given a copy of her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz and that night, she reads some of it to her brother before bed. But early the next morning, the earth begins to shake, and it keeps shaking as Lily and Lee crouch under the kitchen table while their home begins to fall apart and crumble around them. An earthquake is a scary experience, and this one was a big one, but as Lily and Lee wait to be found, trapped and in darkness, she reminds Lee about the cowardly lion who found needed courage within himself.

Finally, their father locates the siblings and together they dig out of the debris. No one is seriously hurt, except their mom has a badly sprained ankle. It is agreed that Lily and Lee will go ahead with Mr. Quan to the Ferry Building where they will all meet up and take the ferry across the bay to Oakland. The going is slow, partly because everyone else in San Francisco has the same idea, and partly because they are going with Jade See Young, a young women who has bound feet. 

As the city of San Francisco burns around them, and people push pass them to escape, Lily and Lee quickly lose sight of Mr. Quan and Jade. On their own now, Lily and Lee are faced instances of racism, with people who push them out of their way, and others who are happy to see Chinatown razed and would like the Chinese people to go back to China. More and more, Lily reminds herself and Lee about how the lion, the scarecrow, and the tinman from her book also had to deal with adversity as they traveled to the Emerald City. But inside, even Lily is worried. Will they be able to find Mr. Quan and Jade? And will they be able to find their parents at the overly crowded Ferry Building, with everyone else trying to get on a boat to get to safety? 

Lily and the Great Quake is the fourth book in the Girls Survive series. It is a wonderful chapter book that is filled with information about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as well as instances of Chinese culture, but it also doesn't shy away from dealing with issues of racism towards Chinese people. 

There are plenty of black and white illustrations throughout the book that really capture the destruction an earthquake can cause. Back matter includes an Author's Note, with photographs of San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake, a Glossary, and suggestions for reader to Make Connections. 

Lily and the Great Quake is the perfect book for celebrating Multicultural Children's Book Day, a great book to read anytime, and to share with other young readers. I can't recommend this book highly enough.  

I was gifted this book to review for MCBD2020.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020 (1/31/20) is in its 7^th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.  

Seven years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues.

MCBD 2020  is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Super Platinum

Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings, 

Platinum

Language Lizard, Pack-N-Go Girls, 

Gold

Audrey Press, Lerner Publishing Group, KidLit TV, ABDO BOOKS : A Family of Educational Publishers, PragmaticMom & Sumo Jo, Candlewick Press,

Silver

 Author Charlotte Riggle, Capstone Publishing, Guba Publishing, Melissa Munro Boyd & B is for Breathe,

Bronze

Author Carole P. Roman, Snowflake Stories/Jill Barletti, Vivian Kirkfield & Making Their Voices Heard. Barnes Brothers Books,  TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books,  Charlesbridge Publishing, Barefoot Books Talegari Tales

Author Sponsor Link Cloud

Jerry Craft, A.R. Bey and Adventures in Boogieland, Eugina Chu & Brandon goes to Beijing, Kenneth Braswell & Fathers Incorporated, Maritza M. Mejia & Luz del mes_Mejia, Kathleen Burkinshaw & The Last Cherry Blossom, SISSY GOES TINY by Rebecca Flansburg and B.A. Norrgard, Josh Funk and HOW TO CODE A ROLLERCOASTER, Maya/Neel Adventures with Culture Groove,  Lauren Ranalli, The Little Green Monster: Cancer Magic! By Dr. Sharon Chappell, Phe Lang and Me On The Page, Afsaneh Moradian and Jamie is Jamie, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, TUMBLE CREEK PRESS, Nancy Tupper Ling, Author Gwen Jackson, Angeliki Pedersen & The Secrets Hidden Beneath the Palm Tree, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 by Mia Wenjen, Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher (Founders of Inner Flower Child Books), Ann Morris & Do It Again!/¡Otra Vez!, Janet Balletta and Mermaids on a Mission to Save the Ocean, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo & Bruna Bailando por el Mundo\ Dancing Around the World, Shoumi Sen & From The Toddler Diaries, Sarah Jamila Stevenson, Tonya Duncan and the Sophie Washington Book Series, Teresa Robeson  & The Queen of Physics, Nadishka Aloysius and Roo The Little Red TukTuk, Girlfriends Book Club Baltimore & Stories by the Girlfriends Book Club, Finding My Way Books, Diana Huang & Intrepids, Five Enchanted Mermaids, Elizabeth Godley and Ribbon’s Traveling Castle, Anna Olswanger and Greenhorn, Danielle Wallace & My Big Brother Troy, Jocelyn Francisco and Little Yellow Jeepney, Mariana Llanos & Kutu, the Tiny Inca Princess/La Ñusta Diminuta, Sara Arnold & The Big Buna Bash, Roddie Simmons & Race 2 Rio, DuEwa Frazier & Alice’s Musical Debut, Veronica Appleton & the Journey to Appleville book series  Green Kids Club, Inc.

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts

A Crafty Arab, Afsaneh Moradian, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Bethany Edward & Biracial Bookworms, Michelle Goetzl & Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Educators Spin on it, Shauna Hibbitts-creator of eNannylink, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joel Leonidas & Descendant of Poseidon Reads {Philippines}, Imagination Soup, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Serge Smagarinsky {Australia}, Shoumi Sen, Jennifer Brunk & Spanish Playground, Katie Meadows and Youth Lit Reviews

FREE RESOURCES from Multicultural Children’s Book Day

• Free Multicultural Books for Teachers 
• Our New FREE Teacher Classroom Physical and Developmental Challenges Kit http://ow.ly/kcbZ30p3QWz
• Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators
• Free Understanding Developmental & Physical Challenges Classroom Kit

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