The Spy with the Red Balloon

Locke, Katherine. The Spy with the Red Balloon. Albert Whitman & Company, 2018.

Ilse and Wolf can work magic with their blood, but their experiments are put on hold by the second world war. Ilse is assisting the Americans in building a bomb, while Wolf is sent behind German lines to sabotage German plans for the same type of weapon. Will they be able to keep each other alive and also maintain their secrets?

This book has some great character development and world building and is a perfect book for those who enjoy reading about the second world war. There are other novels about this time period and other spy novels available, but the magical realism that is added into this novel makes it unique and interesting. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: the violence of war
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Wolf by Wolf, The Librarian of Auschwitz, Code Name Verity

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purposes of review.

Front Lines

Grant, Michael. Front Lines, Katherine Tegan Books, 2016.

The world is on the brink of a second world war, but something has changed from the history we know: the United States has extended the draft to include both male and female people over 18. This book follows three different girls who all enlist for various reasons and end up running into each other during the course of the war.

Told in alternating chapters among the three characters, this is a fairly standard war story with a small twist. It's still about training and fighting and killing people and questioning your motives, etc. etc. But the difference is that the three characters we follow are female, so in addition to typical soldier issues, they are also dealing with quite a bit of sexism (and racism, and classism, etc.). The three girls are from three very different parts of the country and each have their reasons for enlisting. This story is action-packed, fast-paced, and an easy book to recommend to teens.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: sexist, racist, homophobic slurs - all fitting with the time period depicted; violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: All Quiet on the Western Front, Wolf by Wolf,Rose Under Fire

Lair of Dreams

Bray, Libba. Lair of Dreams. Little, Brown BYR, 2015.

This follow-up to The Diviners follows Evie, who outed herself as a diviner in the first novel, along with Henry, Ling Chen, and a cast of supporting characters as well. In addition to being a creepy paranormal story with a mystery element to it, the historical aspects of this story are excellent, including both race issues and issues of closeted LGBT characters.

I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator did a superb job differentiating between the various characters. It would have been difficult to follow the stories of the different characters without a great narrator, who did such a phenomenal job that my wife and I brought this book into the house to finish over the weekend when we knew we wouldn't be driving anywhere. Highly recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: racist and homophobic comments from various characters, all historically appropriate
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Black Dove, White Raven, Lies We Tell Ourselves, In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Night on Fire

Kidd, Ronald. Night on Fire. Albert Whitman & Company, 2015.

Billie, a tomboy growing up in small-town Alabama, doesn't think she's racist. She just wants things to stay the way they've always been, since everyone's comfortable being "with their own kind." But Billie's eyes are soon opened to the ugliness in prejudice as she sees the hateful way her neighbors treat the Freedom Riders, and she begins to understand that standing by and doing nothing is the same as agreeing with the haters.

This was an interesting book in that it told one of the stories of integration from the perspective of a white child. It reminded me of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with the way the main character was beginning to learn the implications of the "separate but equal" ideas. I appreciated the way the main character realized what was wrong in her thinking, and with the naivete of childhood, set about fixing it, even if it meant endangering herself.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: lots of racially motivated violence - people beating other people (or inanimate objects like buses and doors) with chains and baseball bats
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Stella by Starlight,Lies We Tell Ourselves

Paper Wishes

Sepahban, Lois. Paper Wishes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2016.

Manami and her family are sent to an internment camp during World War 2. Manami is sad because she tried to sneak her grandfather's dog into the camp and was not able to. She is hoping she can find the dog again, or that the dog can find her.

The writing in this book is very simplistic. A 2nd or 3rd grade student could easily read and understand what was going on. Manami's feelings were real, her mutism was frustrating both to her and those around her, and she experienced a serious amount of guilt over the loss of her grandfather's dog. Woven around this simple plot is the story of the internment camps, again told in a way that is simple enough for even young children to understand.

Recommended for: lower elementary as a read-aloud, middle grade
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Red Pencil, Rain Reign, The War that Saved My Life

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

These Shallow Graves

Donnelly, Jennifer. These Shallow Graves. Random House Children's, 2015.

Josephine's father dies in an accident, and Josephine is determined to figure out what really happened. She is sure it wasn't an accident, like the newspapers say, nor a suicide, like her uncle says. But how can a girl in late 1800s New York solve a mystery when she is supposed to be mourning her father, planning her possible future wedding, and behaving like a proper young lady?

The cover of this book is what drew me in. It looks spooky, possibly zombie-esque, and I felt the promise of a creepy mystery/thriller. Unfortunately, this book is not as creepy or spooky as it appears. Instead, it reads very similarly to The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and Chasing Secrets, both of which are excellently written middle grade historical novels featuring female protagonists. The difficulty here is that These Shallow Graves is written for a teen audience and the protagonist is 17 years old, but she reads very often like a 12-year old. The entire book felt like a middle grade book for me, but some of the content is not necessarily appropriate for a typical middle grade audience. Also, this book is very, very long, much too long to tell its story. I'm not sure there's a good audience for this one: teens will likely be bored by the repetitive, plodding story.

Recommended for: young teens
Red Flags: girls discuss what happens on their wedding night - no explicit details are given, but it is implied
Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

The War that Saved My Life

Bradley, Kimberly. The War that Saved My Life. Dial Books, 2015.

Ada has never left her apartment. Her abusive mother refused to have Ada's clubfoot treated when Ada was an infant, so now Ada crawls about their apartment and cares for her younger brother. With the second world war on the horizon, many parents choose to send their children out of London to keep them safe, and Ada escapes with her brother and ends up living with an older single woman who never wanted children. Ada is safer now than she's ever been, but will she ever learn to trust?

Wow, this was a hard book to read. There will be spoilers in this paragraph, so consider yourself warned. Ada's mother locks Ada in a cupboard to punish her or her brother. I spend the first part of the book wanting to slap the woman for treating her children like that. When she escapes, Ada exhibits all the typical symptoms of a person with PTSD: she gets irrationally angry, has nightmares, and sometimes experiences panic attacks that are only abated when she is wrapped tightly in a blanket. Until she escapes London, Ada has never seen grass or trees, has never been educated, hasn't ever eaten a peach or a Brussels sprout. In the country she learns and grows and recovers and is well-fed. The book has a bit of a sad ending, but it's better than I had initially expected.

I highly recommend this book to fans of WWII historical books as well as those who wish to add more books about differently abled characters to their collections.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: Ada's mother slaps her and her brother, locks her in a cupboard, and calls her horrible things. There is a mild amount of British cussing involved. Ada herself is violent toward her brother until she learns not to react that way. Survivors of childhood physical abuse and neglect may need to take special care.
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Chasing Secrets

Choldenko, Gennifer. Chasing Secrets. Random House Children's, 2015. 

Lizzie lives in San Francisco at the turn of the last century, and because she's a girl, she's stuck learning about leaving calling cards and dancing instead of studying science and medicine. Luckily, her father, who is a doctor, allows Lizzie to accompany him on many of his calls. She is determined to learn as much as she can so she can go to medical school and become a doctor herself. But when Chinatown is cordoned off due to rumors of plague, Lizzie finds herself wrapped in a mystery, one that could have devastating consequences.

This is a great historical fiction book for middle grade children. There is enough mystery and action mixed in with very real historical events to keep even reluctant readers still turning the pages. I was drawn to this book because of the San Francisco setting, and I am now curious to learn more about the plague outbreak of 1900. I could easily recommend this book to the tweens at my library and am considering using it as a book club book for my 9-12 year old book club.

Recommended for: middle grade, tweens
Red Flags: Lizzie's older brother wants to be a fighter, so he comes home beaten up on occasion. There's some "minor peril" as Lizzie attempts to break into Chinatown and find her friend.
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, The Fire Horse Girl, Elizabeth Blackwell: America's First Woman Doctor, Stella by Starlight

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

Echo

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Echo. Scholastic Press, 2015.

A magical harmonica is passed down throughout decades until those trapped within can be released. This summary doesn't really say anything, but it's hard to describe this book. The beginning and ending are parts of a fairy tale, and between that are three stories told in 500 pages that link together because of the aforementioned harmonica.

This is, without a doubt, a beautifully written book. I could easily get lost in the language and the stories. I enjoyed each story by itself, even without the connective summary at the ending. This book will definitely reside on my library's shelves, and it will be easy to book talk to my stronger readers who have conquered all of the Harry Potter novels and others of similar length. However, I think the sheer length itself is going to be problematic when it comes to convincing any but the strongest readers to pick this book up. It's thick, and it's heavy, and it doesn't have the benefit of illustrations a la Hugo Cabret. That being said, it is indeed a beautifully written book.

Recommended for: strong middle grade readers
Red Flags: some intense situations for each character, but no violence/language/etc that could pose a problem.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Under a Painted Sky

Lee, Stacey. Under a Painted Sky. G.P. Putnam BFYR, 2015. 

Samantha hates Missouri and wants to move back to New York, but her father insists that they will soon head west. When her father's shop burns down with him inside, and Samantha is captured and nearly forced into prostitution, Samantha and her new found friend Annamae are forced to flee for their lives. They disguise themselves as boys and head West, Sammy looking for her father's friend and Andy looking for her brother. They soon find themselves neck-deep in their lies and hoping to save their own skins.

It took me a little bit to get into this story, but once I did, I was hooked. I like stories of people traveling West, and the added element of two nonwhite girls disguised as boys was intriguing. Historical fiction isn't usually a super-popular category for teens, but this particular book would be an easy one to book talk.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: Sammy is nearly raped near the beginning of the book, several people are shot and/or die throughout the story.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Ghosts of Heaven

Sedgwick, Marcus. Ghosts of Heaven. Roaring Brook Press, 2015.

Four different stories, all involving spirals. The first story tells of ancient people, the second takes place during the witch burnings of the 1700s, the third in an insane asylum in the early 1900s, and the final story is in the future. Three historical fiction stories and one science fiction combine into one very strange novel.

I generally enjoy Marcus Sedgiwck's writing, and this book was no exception. The stories are beautifully told, even though it took me a very long time to get interested in the first one, which is told in free verse. I enjoyed the second and third stories and was excited for the connection I was sure would come from the fourth one. Unfortunately, even though there are hints of previous stories in each successive tale, the fourth story didn't tie the whole book together for me as neatly as I'd have hoped. I would recommend this book for strong teen readers who don't need everything tied up neatly at the end.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: violence in all four stories
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

Kelly, Jacqueline. The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate. Henry Holt & Co BYR, 2015.

In this second installment in the Calpurnia Tate series, we get to watch Calpurnia and her family as they react to a hurricane that hits the coast of Texas. Calpurnia is up to her usual adventures - spending time with her grandfather, getting into trouble with her younger brother, and being forced by her mother to learn to be a lady. Calpurnia is even more aware of the inequities between the way she and her brothers are treated, and it is grating on her. She wants to go to veterinary school, but her father wishes for her to get a teaching certificate.

I enjoy Calpurnia's curiosity and her thirst for knowledge. I was glad that Calpurnia noticed the inequities in her life and was frustrated along with her that she was unable to change them. I am looking forward to additional installments in this series and will definitely recommend it to my young patrons.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: none - this is a great book to give to patrons who want "clean reads" for their kids
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Stella by Starlight, Paperboy, Little House on the Prairie

Stella by Starlight

Draper, Sharon. Stella by Starlight. Atheneum BFYR, 2015.

Stella's North Carolina town has been invaded by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  Stella already knew that there were different rules for her than for the white children in her town, but this becomes even more obvious with the KKK becoming a part of her town. When a neighbor's house is burned to the ground, Stella witnesses her neighbors banding together to help each other, regardless of color.

Stella is a very likable character; I enjoy the fact that she gets up at night to "practice writing" since she thinks she's not very good at it.  I was glad for the historical details, especially the mention of the fact that African-American men who wanted to vote had to pay a fee and take a complicated test, while white men could simply sign their name to the list of registered voters. This book would be an excellent read-alike for Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, especially for slightly younger children. Historical fiction isn't usually an easy thing to sell to kids, but this book would make an excellent classroom read aloud as well.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: obvious racism (no uses of the "n" word, however); one family's house catches fire and for a while the reader thinks one of the children has been trapped inside the building
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Unstoppable Octobia May, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, One Crazy Summer 

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Talley, Robin. Lies We Tell Ourselves. Harlequin Teen, 2014.

Sarah is one of a group of black students who will be integrating into the all-white high school in their town in Virginia. She is a senior, an honors student, and headed to college. She has been reminded many times how important it is for her to succeed in this very difficult endeavor. Linda is a white student at the same school. Her daddy runs the city newspaper and is very opinionated when it comes to integration. Linda is hoping for graduation to come soon so she can marry and get out of her dad's house. These two characters tell alternating sections of the story of integration at a Virginia high school.

Wow. I love the idea of telling the integration tale from both sides of the coin. I loved reading how Sarah interacted with Linda and was able to make her think about things. Integration stories are always hard to read because I hate it when people act like jerks for stupid reasons, but this book was a quick read because I simply had to find out what happened. This is a great historical fiction story that would be easy to recommend to today's teens.

Recommended for: young adults
Red Flags: lots of violence, bullying, language
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Lions of Little Rock, Brown Girl Dreaming,March: Book One

Paper Cowboy

Levine, Kristin. The Paper Cowboy. Putnam Juvenile, 2014.

Tommy is a bully who gets away with things because he's a cute kid. He picks on the weaker kids and school and even picks on his own friends. At home, though, Tommy has a lot to deal with. His mom has an undiagnosed mental illness and frequently vacillates between extreme happiness and beating Tommy for the smallest infraction. Also, Tommy blames himself for an accident that happens to his older sister, so he's feeling guilty on top of taking care of his younger sisters and his house and covering his older sister's paper route. Things come to a head as Tommy realizes that all actions have consequences and that sometimes all a person needs to do is ask for help.

This was an excellent book, although it wasn't an easy book to read. Tommy is not a likable character, but the glimpses into his home life help explain why he is such a jerk to the people around him. I could very easily use this book as a read-aloud in an upper elementary or middle school classroom. There is a great discussion of the Cold War and McCarthyism throughout this book, as well as dealing with bullying, abuse, and mental illness.

Recommended for: middle grade, tweens
Red Flags: abuse (mom beats the kid on several occasions)
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Paperboy, Okay for Now, Dead End in Norvelt

Paperboy

Vawter, Vince. Paperboy. Delacorte BFYR, 2013.

Victor has a stutter, so he's used to people not taking him seriously. He's excited about taking his friend's paper route for him for a month in the summer, but he's nervous about collecting the money at the end of each week. Throughout his route, he ends up meeting a cast of very interesting characters.

This book is fairly slow-moving, so it might be difficult to convince kids to read it, but it would make a great class book or read-aloud book. I listened to it as an audio book during my commute each day and the audio book does a great job at portraying Victor and his stutter without making fun of him. This book also tackles some difficult issues: racism, a kid who is deaf/mute, a woman who is an alcoholic, etc.

Recommended for: tweens, middle grade, classes
Red Flags: alcohol use (by adults), some bullying
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alike Suggestions: The Wednesday Wars

Between Shades of Gray

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Philomel Books, 2011.

Lina and her family are torn from their home in Lithuania one night and sent to an internment camp in Siberia where they are being punished for unnamed crimes against the Soviet government. Lina and her fellow prisoners must work together to survive in this harsh environment.

This was a very sad and slow read. It's a sad story along the lines of Holocaust stories, and there isn't the same level of action that many teens have come to expect in other novels. But it's a good story, and it's one that needs to be told. Historical fiction doesn't circulate much in my library, but I am making sure to book talk this particular book so that the students will have a better chance of picking it up.

Recommended for: teens, fans of Holocaust literature

Red Flags: lots of violence

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Escape to Gold Mountain

Wong, David H.T. Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012. 

This book details the experience of Chinese-Americans who emigrated and then worked to build the railroads both in the United States and in Canada. The historical events surrounding this time period - including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake - are included. The artwork is well done and appropriate to telling the story. I do not have a copy of this book in my library, but I wish I did. My students would enjoy the graphic format, and the book would inform them about a time period that is often glossed over in American history textbooks.

Recommended for: tweens, teens
Red Flags: violence, racial slurs
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Whistle in the Dark

Long, Susan Hill. Whistle in the Dark. Holiday House, 2013.

Clem wants to go to school and become a writer someday, but in his small town, all the men work in the mine. Clem is disappointed, although not surprised, when he is pulled out of school to begin work in the mine. He finds the mine stifling and wishes he could somehow escape it.

This book reminded me a lot of the movie October Sky, where a kid from a mining town wants to enter a science fair. The tone in this book is similar: Clem dreams of bigger things but is trapped because he needs to help support his family. In Clem's case, though, the explosion in the mine solves the problem for him. This story is a bit bleak, but it is interesting and also likely a realistic portrayal of life in a mining town.

Recommended for: tweens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

The Kingdom of Little Wounds

Cokal, Susann. The Kingdom of Little Wounds. Candlewick, 2013.

This book received a place on Publisher's Weekly's 2013 top ten list for books for young adults. I can't imagine what the editors at PW were thinking when they rated this book on that list.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds is a story that follows two servants in a royal household in northern Europe. Touted by the author as a "fairy tale about syphilis," the story details the lives of the royal family as they struggle to survive in spite of having an STD, all seen through the eyes of a couple of servants.

What I liked: The cover is beautiful. The writing is excellent. I enjoyed the fairy tale qualities of this book, and I can imagine my middle school or high school self picking up this book based simply on the synopsis and the cover art.

What I didn't like: Pretty much everything else. This book is VERY graphic, to the point that I do not think it is appropriate for tweens or teens at all. I would not ever recommend this book to a teen or a child. I would barely recommend this to an adult. This is a very long book, and it's filled with graphic death scenes, sex scenes, rape, etc. In the first sixty pages alone there are three sex scenes, one of which ends in a death and one of which is forced. The first rapist we meet has jewels sewn into his penis so he can keep them on himself in case of emergency, with the added bonus that he gets to enjoy hurting those women he rapes. One of the protagonists believes that she was impregnated when her fiance ejaculated onto her stomach: she says that his "seed" must have found its way inside her to make her pregnant.

I spent most of the time while reading this book either shuddering in disgust or shaking my head in disbelief. People who enjoy well-written books and are not bothered by graphic violence and sex might really enjoy this book, but it's not one I would ever put in my library, nor would I consider recommending it to my patrons. I'm not sure why Publisher's Weekly passed up so many good books to put this one on their top-ten list for this year.

Recommended for: no one. Adults, maybe. Fans of Fifty Shades, probably.
Red Flags: the entire book! Graphic sex, rape scenes, violent, explicit deaths, lots of alcohol use (some probably by the readers so they can stomach this book)
Overall Rating: I'd give this zero stars, but that's not an option on GR.