Book Review-     Bibliography: Craft, J. (2019).  NEW KID . Quill Tree Books.   Plot Summary: Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?   Critical Analysis: Craft uses the power of text and visuals to tell a vivid story narrated by Jordan Banks, who is the ambitious and talented main character. The other characters in the story, Maury, Liam, Drew and Mr. Garner are relatable an...

  Book Review:     Bibliography: Gaiman, N., & Atwood, M. (2010).  THE GRAVEYARD BOOK  (D. McKean, Ill.). HarperCollins.   Plot Summary: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.   Critical Analysis: This is a story about growing up and overcoming the most difficult and bizarre circumstances. Bod goes from being a child whose parents have been murde...

  Book Review:   Bibliography: Telgemeier, R. (2014).  SISTERS . Graphix Publishing.   Plot Summary: Raina can't wait to be a big sister, but once Amara is born, things aren't quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she's also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years, then a baby brother enters the picture. Soon after, something doesn't seem right between their parents, and they realize they must figure out how to get along. They are sisters, after all. Raina uses her signature humor and charm in both present-day narrative and perfectly placed flashbacks to tell the story of her relationship with her sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.   Critical Analysis: The storyline goes back and forth from present-day road trip/family reunion to flashbacks from earlier in Raina’s chi...

  Book Review:     Bibliography: Telgemeier, R. (2019).  GUTS . Graphix Publishing.     Plot Summary: Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it's probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she's dealing with the usual highs and lows, friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina's tummy trouble isn't going away, and it coincides with her worries about food, school, and changing friendships. What's going on? Raina Telgemeier wrote a thoughtful, charming, and funny true story about growing up and gathering the courage to face and conquer her fears.     Critical Analysis: The storytelling is relatable and absorbing, an excellent portrayal of anxiety and how therapy can benefit kids with anxiety. The scenes with her therapist were insightful and can ease any fears kids may have about s...

  Book Review:       Bibliography: Cline-Ransome, L. (2020).  FINDING LANGSTON . Holiday House.     Plot Summary: It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends. He misses everything, Grandma's Sunday suppers, the red dirt roads, and the magnolia trees his mother loved. In the city, they live in a small apartment surrounded by noise and chaos. It doesn't feel like a new start, or a better life. At home he's lonely, his father always busy at work; at school he's bullied for being a country boy. But Langston's new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the Chicago Public Library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston, a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him.   Critical Analysis: There is detailed character development in this book, from Langston himse...

  Book Review:       Bibliography: Vawter, V. (2014). PAPERBOY. Yearling.     Plot Summary: Little Man throws the meanest fastball in town. But talking is a whole different ball game. He can barely say a word without stuttering—not even his own name. So when he takes over his best friend’s paper route for the month of July, he’s not exactly looking forward to interacting with the customers. But it’s the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, who stirs up real trouble in Little Man’s life.     Critical Analysis: The theme of segregation underpins the novel but is not politicized in any way; rather, the author presents it as a series of very unfair and unjust situations that show the illogical principle that kept black and white people segregated at the time the novel was set. This book is Victor's big chance to get everything out there without hiding anything that's happened,  Because of this, the writing style is c...

  Book Review:     Bibliography: Cushman, K. (2022).  WAR AND MILLIE MCGONIGLE . Yearling.     Plot Summary: Millie McGonigle lives in sunny California. It should be perfect, but times are tough. Hitler is attacking Europe and it looks like the United States may be going to war. Food is rationed and money is tight. And Millie's sickly little sister couldn't be more of a pain if she tried. Still, there's sand beneath her feet. A new neighbor from the city, who has a lot to teach Millie. It's a time of sunshine, siblings, and stress. Will Millie be able to find her way in her family, and keep her balance as the world around her loses its own?     Critical Analysis: The book covers the period of time before, during, and after the Japanese first bomb Pearl Harbor. This novel brings to life the everyday struggles of Americans on the home front during WWII, job loss, economic instability, food scarcity, discrimination agains...

  Book Review:     Bibliography: Williams-Garcia, R. (2011). ONE CRAZY SUMMER. Quill Tree Books.     Plot Summary: In  ONE CRAZY SUMMER ,  eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.     Critical Analysis: The style of the text in this book confronts the reader with serious social, political, and ethical problems, which are otherwise out of children’s scope. I think it would cause the...

  Book Review-       Bibliography: Bartoletti, S. C. (2014).  THEY CALL THEMSELVES THE KKK: THE BIRTH OF AN AMERICAN TERRORIST GROUP . Clarion Books.       Plot Summary: “Boys, let us get up a club.” With those words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friend’s mansion, pulled pillowcases over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. The six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan, and all too quickly, their club grew into the self-proclaimed Invisible Empire with secret dens spread across the South. This is the story of how a secret terrorist group took root in America’s democracy.       Critical Analysis: Bartoletti uses chilling and vivid personal testimonies, interviews, historical journals, diary entries, and archived images from newspapers to bring the text to life. She includes an epilogue, acknowledging that the Klan has never en...