friendships

Review: This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki

| Tasha

this one summer

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

Rose goes to Awago Beach every summer with her parents, but this summer things don’t feel quite the same.  Rose’s friend Windy is also there and the two of them hang out together just like every other summer.  But Rose’s parents are always arguing and her mother won’t go swimming with them at all.  Rose and Windy find their own way to escape the fighting, they rent horror movies from the local shop.  While they are there picking out and returning their movies, they watch a summer of teenage drama unfold in front of them.  This is a summer unlike any others, one where secrets are hidden and revealed and where sorrow mixes with the summer sun.

Done by the pair that did Skim, this is an amazing graphic novel for teens.  It deals with that fragile moment in life where children are becoming teens and everything around them is changing.  These two girls are suspended in that time during the summer, learning about themselves, about their parents and witnessing events around them in a new way.  The use of a summer vacation to capture that moment in time is superb.  Yet this book is not a treatise on the wonder of childhood at all.  It deals with deeper issues, darker ones, ones that the two girls are not ready to handle yet.  And that’s what makes it all the more wondrous as a book.

The art in the book is phenomenal.  The two girls are different physically, one a little stouter than the other and both are real girls expressing real emotions.  And the larger of the two girls is not the shy, meek one.  She has a wonderful sassiness to her, an open grin, and rocks a bikini.  Hoorah!  The art captures summer days, the beach, what a face of sorrow looks like and how it tears into ones entire physique.  Done in blue and white, the images are detailed and realistic.

A glimpse of one summer and what happens during it, this book is about capturing a moment in time, one that is filled with depth, despair and desire.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from digital copy received from

Review: The 26-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

| Tasha

26 story treehouse

The 26-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton

This sequel to The 13-Story Treehouse tells the story of each of the main characters and how they all met.  Most of it’s even true!  But it’s not that straight forward either because emergencies keep happening, like the sharks in the treehouse’s shark pool eating Terry’s underpants and getting very sick.  Thank goodness that Jill can come over and try to have them feeling snappy again soon.  Then of course no story is complete without a villain and Captain Woodenhead, the evil pirate makes a great one.  Set aside your disbelief heading in, because this rollicking and very funny book will have you believing in plenty of nonsense by the end!

After the first book, I knew there would be more adventures of Terry and Andy, but I hadn’t expected double the number of floors on the treehouse!  This book is more of the merry adventures of Terry, Andy and Jill.  The flying cats return and many other favorites from the first book make an appearance, but this is a fresh story too, perfect for fans to get even more of the humor and silliness of the series. 

Looking for a new series for Wimpy Kid fans, this one has illustrations that break up the text, a similar amount of funniness, and plenty of gross outs too.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel & Friends.

Review: Noggin by John Corey Whaley

| Tasha

noggin

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Travis died five years ago.  Now he’s alive again.  But not the same and nothing else is the same either.  Travis’ head is now attached to a different body, a healthy body, one not dying of cancer.  You see, when Travis was dying of cancer, he and his parents took a huge risk and had his head severed from his body and frozen.  Now Travis is one of two survivors of the cryogenic procedure and he has returned to the same home, the same parents, the same friends, but not the same life.  His girlfriend is now engaged to someone else.  His best friend who had admitted he was gay just before Travis died is now dating a girl and about to move in with her.  His mother can’t look at him without crying.  And Travis’ room which used to be his haven now is sterile and hotel-like.  But Travis is the same except for his body.  It was as if he closed his eyes and reopened them.  So what is a guy to do?  Well, he still has to finish high school, get his driver’s license and of course try to regain the girl.  But nothing is simple when you are on a completely different timeframe than everyone else!

Whaley blends immense amounts of humor into his novel.  Though Travis’ experience is unique, it also speaks to the universal experience of being a teen, of not fitting in, of making bad decisions, and yet of being vitally alive at the same time.  Whaley also cleverly turns the trend of books about dying teens on its head (pun intended).  This is a book about life but also deeply about loss, grief and death and how funny it can all be. 

What is most surprising about this book is the honesty it has and that through its humor there are deep truths revealed.  Whaley deals with the emotions of Travis’ return beautifully like in this scene on page 40 when he sees his best friend for the first time:

He let go for a second and wiped his face with the back of one sleeve before holding me by each shoulder and sort of just staring at me for a while with this expression that I’m still convinced no other person has ever had, a combination of shock, joy, pain, and terror.  It was like I could see all his memories of me projected into the air between us, rushing and swirling around and enveloping us both in a nostalgic haze.

This book has tremendous heart and a strong sense of its absurdity.  It has depth, humor and cool scars too.  Pure teen reading perfection.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Review: Where’s Mommy by Beverly Donofrio

| Tasha

wheres mommy

Where’s Mommy? by Beverly Donofrio, illustrated by Barbara McClintock

Released March 11, 2014.

I am so pleased to see a follow-up story to Mary and the Mouse, The Mouse and Mary!  This new book focuses on the daughters of Mary and Mouse.  Maria is a little girl who has a mouse for a best friend named Mouse Mouse.  The two of them never reveal to anyone else that they know one another because otherwise the mice would either be driven off or have to move.  The two girls live parallel lives, getting ready for bed in the same way and both calling for their mothers at the same time.  But both mothers are nowhere to be found!  The search is on by both girl and mouse to figure out where their mothers have gone.  They both look all over their homes, check with their fathers, and ask their siblings.  Nothing.  Then they notice a light on in the shed and both head directly for it.  And if you read the first book, you will know exactly who they will find in the shed. 

Donofrio has written a clever parallel story that reveals the lives of two friends.  The upstairs downstairs aspect of the book has incredible appeal as does the wee details of mouse life.  There are little touches throughout the book that make the text charming and lovely.  Her pacing is also adept and keeps the entire book moving along and yet completely appropriate for bedtime reading. 

So much charm and style comes from the illustrations.  I particularly enjoy looking closely at the world of the mice created from borrowed items from the human home.  These little touches truly create a world under the floor that any reader would love to discover or live in themselves.  The illustrations are rich with color and details, worthy of lingering over when you aren’t quite ready for lights out.

Beautifully written and lovingly illustrated, this book is a suitable companion to the first.  They both stand alone fully on their own, but I’d think that anyone finding out there was another in the series would want to read them both, probably back to back.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from ARC received from Schwartz & Wade.

Review: Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle

| Tasha

five six seven nate

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle

This sequel to the award-winning Better Nate Than Ever is one of the strongest second books in a series I have read.  After getting cast as ET in the upcoming ET: The Musical, Nate is now living in New York City with his aunt who is also an actress.  But Broadway isn’t everything that Nate has dreamed it would be.  There seems to be a feud between the video-game creator who is their director and the choreographer.  Nate is an understudy and a member of the chorus but he can’t tap dance and is put into extra classes to improve.  But there are also high points.  Nate has a secret admirer who leaves notes and gifts, and he certain he knows who it is.  Nate is also secretly helping another of the ET actors with her lines and they become close friends over manicures.  Like any great Broadway story there are twists and turns and some romance too.  It’s one hell of a second act.

Federle writes in a way that is so easy to read and creates books that are impossible to put down until the final curtain falls.  This ease of reading though is because he is really writing directly for children in a way that is open, honest and speaks to all children whether they are actors or not.  Add in Nate’s questioning his sexual identity and you have a book with plenty of depth.

What Federle does best is to create characters who surprise and delight.  Nate himself captures this.  Nate could come off as a stereotypical actor, but instead because the book is in first person, Nate reveals all of his inner dialogue.  Much of which is screamingly funny.  But Nate is not the only deep character here.  Even tertiary characters are interesting and offer glimpses of how unique they are.  Among the secondary characters, there are many who would make great books all on their own.  Federle is a master of creating characters and making us care for them.

Bravo!  This is a smash production filled with humor and delight.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Review: Peek-a-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice

| Tasha

peek a book bunny

Peek-a-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice

Bunny and his friends are playing their favorite game, Hide-and-Seek!  Bunny gets to seek first and all of his friends hide.  He counts to ten.  Then he bounces and rushes around, moving way too fast to notice the others hiding.  As Bunny races from one page to the next, another friend is revealed in their hiding place on each page, making it a real game of hide-and-seek for the reader.  Eventually, Bunny does slow down, but he still can’t find the hidden animals.  Bunny sits down under a tree, saddened by not finding any of his friends.  But don’t worry, they can find him!

A jolly picture book where the game is made real for the reader, Surplice infuses her book with humor but also with a gentleness toward Bunny too.  The story itself is simple and linear, offering space for the illustrations to carry the full story for the reader.

The illustrations are lovely.  They offer collages of cut paper grasses and flowers in a rainbow of colors that pop against the pastel backgrounds.  Bunny and his friends all pop out as well with their firm lines dark against the flowing colors of the forest. 

A sparkling spring pick, this book is great for preschoolers and toddlers.  I could see it making a great board book too.  Appropriate for ages 1-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage

| Tasha

ghosts of tupelo landing

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage

Return to the world of the Newbery Honor book Three Times Lucky in this follow-up novel.  Mo and Dale continue to run their Desperado Detective Agency but the mysteries have gotten smaller.  Then an old inn goes up for sale and Miss Lana, Mo’s guardian, accidentally purchases it.  That’s when it is discovered that that inn comes with a resident ghost.  Now it is up to Dale and Mo to figure out why the ghost is haunting the inn, something they also manage to make into a homework assignment to do double duty.  But the mystery of the ghost is tied up in other secrets in Tupelo Landing, secrets that have been kept for decades but that must be revealed to solve this mystery.

Returning to Tupelo Landing was immediately like being reunited with friends.  There was catching up to do, but it was easy and warm right from the beginning.  Turnage’s writing is rich and layered.  She excels at descriptions, creating analogies that are surprising and constantly original.  Here in Mo’s voice is a description of Lavender, the boy she plans to marry eventually:

Lavender has eyes blue as October’s sky and hair like just-mown wheat.  He’s wiry and tall, and flows like a lullaby.

All of your favorite characters from the first book are back again.  There are the Colonel and Miss Lana, continuing to figure out their relationship while running a restaurants whose theme changes every night.  There is Grandmother Miss Lacy whose funding saves Miss Lana and the inn, but who may be dealing with secrets of her own.  There is even the scary Red Baker who may be closer to the ghost than anyone else.  There is even one complex new character who takes time to learn about because his secrets are held very close.  And then of course there are Mo and Dale, the two detectives at the heart of the story and who give the story its heart.

Funny, heartfelt and memorable, this sequel is just as good as the award-winning original.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Group.

Review: Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb

| Tasha

paul meets bernadette

Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb

Paul is a fish who just circles his bowl, over and over again in different patterns.  But his life changes when Bernadette joins him in his bowl.  She shows him the world beyond his bowl.  They can see boats, forests filled with colorful trees, a cactus, and even an elephant with babies.  Of course, what they are thinking they see isn’t really what is there.  The objects are far more mundane: bananas, flowers, a clock and a teapot and cups.  Paul’s entire world expanded and made room for the outside world but most especially for Bernadette.

Lamb’s book combines a gentle humor with a warm charm.  It is a story about the power of one person to open the other’s vision and imagination.  It is about transformation but also being able to transform while staying right where you are.  Lamb’s illustrations are done in paint, daubed thick enough at times to add plenty of texture to the images.  The colors are subtle, the globe the fish live in almost bubble-like as it floats on the page. 

This delightful picture book will have young readers wondering what Paul and Bernadette would see in their room too.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

| Tasha

counting by 7s

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Willow Chance didn’t fit in well at her elementary school, so she is attending a middle school across town which none of her previous classmates will be attending.  But Willow is just not made to fit in with others.  She does fine with her adoptive parents who are accepting of her obsession with gardening and medical conditions as long as she doesn’t tell them everything since that would make them worry.  And one of the things she doesn’t tell them is that the middle school thinks that she cheated on a major standardized test because she got a perfect score.  So she is sent to counseling though Dell, the school counselor has no idea what to do to help her.  Two siblings who also go to see Dell have their own ideas though and that is how Willow comes to be out driving with Dell and the others when she finds out that her parents have been killed in a car accident.  Now Willow has lost her parents, her home, her garden and her will to explore.  This is a story that is about community, building your family one person at a time, and the wonder of what having people in your life that care can do.  It is the story of the amazing Willow Chase.

Sloan’s writing verges on verse at times with its short lines, lined up neatly and speaking profoundly and honestly.  It is writing that examines and explores but also moves the story forward at speed.  It is imminently readable with plenty of white space and few if any dense paragraphs of text.  Rather it has a wonderful lightness about it, even when describing tragedy.  And this book is filled with loss and grief that is handled with a gentle depth.  Yet it is also a book filled with joy and overcoming odds and inspiration. 

Sloan creates not just one incredible character in this novel but an entire group of them.  At first the book seems disjointed with the various perspectives shown, since we get to see things not only from Willow’s point of view, from the other teens, but also from the adults as well.  But those disparate parts come together in a way that a book from just Willow’s point of view never could have.  They add an understanding of Willow’s appeal to others that would not have been possible without it.

This is a tragic story with an indomitable heroine that will leave you smiling through the tears.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.