The finalists for the National Book Award have been announced. The awards go to the best of the year’s adult fiction, adult nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners in each category will be announced on November 18th. Here are the finalists for the Young People’s Literature category:
Henry started out life talking and able to hear, until a fever took his hearing as a small child. By the time Henry is six, he is labeled as “unteachable.” He is turned away from the school for the deaf after failing their test, refusing to blow out a candle when asked. His parents are encouraged to send him to an institution where he will be cared for. Given their lack of money during the years before World War II, they reluctantly agree. Henry is sent to Riverview, where his life becomes bleak, food is often scarce, children are beaten and restrained. He makes some dear friends there though, working to protect and care for them even as the system works to tear them down. When World War II starts, Victor arrives at Riverview. He’s a conscientious objector, sent to work as an attendant there. He quickly learns that Henry is far from unteachable, reaching out to Henry’s family, including Henry’s beloved sister who has always seen that Henry is smart and kind.
Frost is a master at the verse novel, creating entire worlds that spin by with her poetry. Here the verse draws readers into the darkness of Riverview. One could get caught in that dark, but Henry is there to show a way to see the squirrels outside the window, make friends with some of the other children, and find a way to live one day at a time. While he misses his family horribly and does not understand what happened to make them send him there, he understands much more than everyone thinks he does.
Frost keeps hope at the center of the book. She uses both Victor and Henry’s sister and family members in this way. They all love Henry, trying to figure out how best to deal with an impossible situation exacerbated by poverty and wartime. But hope really is an inherent part of Henry himself, who faces every day and its brutal challenges with a touch of humor, a courage to defend his friends, and a determination to survive.
An important look at how those with disabilities were treated in our country and how conscientious objectors made a difference in their lives. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from copy provided by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
The winners of the 2020 Harvey Awards have been announced ahead of the award ceremony on Friday. The big winner is the amazing Gene Luen Yang, who won Book of the Year AND Best Children or Young Adult Book, for two different books! The entire list of winners is here.
Bea lives with her adopted grandfather, the Pig Wizard. Their life is quiet and simple with Bea entering the forest each day to gather ingredients for the potions they sell. Then one day, when Bea falls from a tall tree, she meets Cad. Cad is a Galdurian, a member of the ancient race who created the lights in the sky and rescued everyone from constant darkness. When they return to the shop, the Pig Wizard is gone, headed out on a quest that may or may not be real thanks to his faulty memory. Bea and Cad head after him, journeying across the land and encountering many strange and dangerous things. There are huge crabs that try to kill them, lizard men who try to eat them, and a pack rat who keeps stealing Bea’s Jar of Endless Flame. Meanwhile, in darkness, more creatures are stirring, creatures who are after what Bea has and who will follow her anywhere to get it.
In this debut graphic novel, Probert shows himself to be a graphic novelist of superb skill. The art and story flow together seamlessly, creating a world that shines with golden light. He creates vistas in his world so that readers can view the expanse of the continent. Then he populates this glowing world with amazing elements straight out of fantasies like the Last Airbender, Star Wars or Indiana Jones. With a sly sense of humor, he brings this world fully to life.
Cad is a marvelous hero, mowing down villains with his sword, and devoting himself to saving others. He is part frog, part giant, and full of myth and wonder. Bea is a great contrast with him. She worries a lot, the darkness spreading around her limbs and head, almost carrying her away at times. But she is also a hero, jumping in when she is needed, bravely fighting off foes and having cold feet (literally) along the way.
The first in a new graphic novel series that is sure to delight young fantasy fans. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith (9780823445592)
Based on the author’s own childhood, this picture book explores the life of a boy with a stutter. The boy wakes every day surrounded by words, many of which he can’t say aloud. They tangle his tongue and stick in his throat. So every morning, he stays silent. He’s quiet at school too, hiding in the back of the class and hoping not to be asked to talk. After a particularly hard day, his father picks him up from school and takes him to the river. After seeing how upset his son is by his “bad speech day,” his father points to the river and says that how the water moves is how his son speaks. The river runs over rocks, bubbling and churning, but it also goes quiet and still after the rocks.
Scott is a poet and his skill with words is on full display here. He uses gorgeous metaphors throughout, including the connection to the river. The words around the boy in the morning connect with his inability to speak at times, the pine trees sticking out from his lips, the crow cawing from his throat, the moonlight shining from his mouth. Each of these gives readers a new way to experience a stutter, each beautiful and haunting.
Smith’s illustrations are done in watercolor, ink and gouache. They capture both the quiet of not being able to speak as well as the connection between father and son. When they go to the water of the river, the illustrations show the bubbling and crashing, taking the boy into the river as he swims to the calm open water. They are exquisite.
A marvel of a book that beams with empathy and understanding of stuttering. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Neal Porter Books.
This gripping novel for teens takes readers into a world of high-rolling musicians and the abuse and exploitation of Black girls. Enchanted, age 17, is in high school, on the swim team and dreaming of making it big in the music industry. When she lies to her mother to get her to take her into the city for an audition, Enchanted doesn’t get the spot but does catch the attention of legendary R&B singer Korey Fields. As Korey begins to shower Enchanted with attention, her parents agree to let Enchanted leave high school and tour with Korey. What starts as a rocket to her singing career, quickly turns to a relationship with Korey. As Korey becomes more and more controlling, Enchanted finds herself unable to contact anyone for help, held against her will, and manipulated into staying. When Enchanted wakes up to find blood all around her and Korey’s body nearby, she needs to figure out what happened that night and what she did.
Jackson writes with such raw power here. She harnesses growing tensions, fear for Enchanted’s life, and reader’s horror at the situation that Enchanted finds herself in. Jackson shows how even a close and caring family can be conned into allowing their daughter to travel with an adult man and be taken advantage of. She shows how the families too are manipulated, beaten down and forced to be separated from the children they love. Readers will recognize many of the details in the book in the recent exposures of R. Kelly’s abuse of young Black girls.
Enchanted is a marvelous depiction of a seventeen year old. She is a mix of child and adult, yearning to be even more adult, to launch her life and be seen. But she is certainly still young, naive and innocent as Korey manipulates her, drawing her deeper and deeper into the world he has crafted to control her. The book is almost suffocating as their interactions become more and more abusive, leaving readers looking for a way out alongside Enchanted.
Powerful truth about Black girls and their place in the #MeToo movement. Appropriate for ages 15-18.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Katherine Tegen Books.
Waking Brain Cells 