Middle-Grade Review: Not Quite a Ghost

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail last week that I read right away: Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu, a middle-grade spooky thriller with a twist from a favorite author and a virtual friend for over 15 years. She and I share the same chronic illness, ME/CFS, an immune disorder, and we each reached out to the other at various times, as I explain in this post on my chronic illness blog, Great Books from a CFS Author. I reviewed her first middle-grade novel, The Shadow Thieves, book one of The Cronus Chronicles, in which she cleverly worked her illness into the story of modern-day kids battling Greek gods. My son (a young teen at the time) and I both loved the action-packed, funny series. I later reviewed her middle-grade novel Breadcrumbs (and also reviewed it for Family Fun magazine), which features a ten-year-old girl dealing with real-life issues who meets fairy-tale characters in the snowy woods. I enjoyed it so much, I gave it to my niece for Christmas that year! I also enjoyed The Real Boy, about a young boy who works for a wizard and is dealing with his own challenges. I reached out to Anne recently to see how she was doing and how her health was, and she sent me a copy of her latest middle-grade novel, Not Quite a Ghost. I read it immediately and think it may be my favorite of her novels, which is saying a lot!

Eleven-year-old Violet is going through a lot of changes in her life. Her family has just moved out of their too-small house into an older house that needs some work. Violet's teen sister, Mia, is thrilled to finally have some privacy and gets her first choice of rooms, and their little brother needs to be near their parents. That leaves Violet up in the creepy attic bedroom with the ugly wallpaper all by herself. She's also starting middle school, where her closest friends suddenly seem to change and to want a bigger friend group. Then, in the first weeks of school, Violet gets sick ... and she doesn't get better. Sometimes she feels OK and tries to act normally, leading some friends to think she's faking, and other times, her body just won't work and she can't get out of bed. Spending a lot of time in the attic bedroom, Violet begins to see strange things in the weird wallpaper and suspect that she's not alone up there. She calls on her new friend, Will, who's been researching ghosts, to help her, but is there anything they can do? 

I loved this spooky, unique novel and never wanted it to end! Violet is eventually diagnosed with ME/CFS, the same illness that the author and I share. Both of my sons got it, as well (it has genetic roots), at ages 6 and 10, and it affects millions of other kids and teens all over the world--even more now since long-COVID often develops into ME/CFS. Ursu describes the disease perfectly, with all of its mysterious symptoms, seemingly random ups and downs, dismissive doctors and school personnel, and disbelieving family and friends (though Violet's family is very supportive). I felt seen. If all of that sounds like it might be depressing, it's not! 

Ursu brings her marvelous sense of humor to this novel, and I was often laughing out loud while reading it. And she writes kids so well; young readers will definitely see themselves in Violet and her friends. Plus, there is also that wonderfully creepy supernatural plotline throughout the novel. The suspense and tension crank up as the strange experiences in Violet's attic bedroom increase, and she and Will try to figure out what's happening. Ursu has created a clever parallel to what's happening in Violet's body with the house being unable to expel whatever has "invaded" it in the attic. It's a gripping, original story with a nail-biting climax that is perfect. Like I said, of all of her unique, magical, funny, suspenseful novels, this one is my new favorite.

288 pages, Walden Pond Press

HarperAudio

You can visit Anne's website for more information about her books. And to read about her inspiration for this book and her own illness experiences, see her blog post "On Hauntings" on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - October - Wicked Good Reads

Alphabet Soup Challenge - N

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes - Minnesota

RIP - Readers Imbibing Peril 
 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me  

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too, which showcases the humor in the story).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Fiction Reviews: House in the Cerulean Sea & Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Since its publication in 2020, I've heard nothing but rave reviews of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, but since I rarely read fantasy, I still hadn't read it (though I did enjoy Klune's Under the Whispering Door). When I heard that a sequel was being published, I quickly downloaded and listened to the audio of the original book and then listened to the new one, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. I was enchanted by both heartwarming books, with their original premises, thought-provoking topics, delightful humor, and a touch of suspense.

In The House in the Cerulean Sea, a man named Linus Baker takes his job very seriously. He is a case worker for The Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) and travels around to various orphanages and schools run by the department, to assess whether the children in their charge are being well cared for. One day, his careful routine is upended when he is summoned by Extremely Upper Management. They give him a highly classified assignment: to travel to

Marsyas Island and assess an unusual home where six especially dangerous magical children reside. The managers are clearly concerned about the safety of the rest of the world, but Linus is focused on the well-being of the children, as he always is. He arrives on the very remote Marsyas Island to its usual beautiful, tropical weather and is met by the caretaker of the home and the children, Arthur Parnussus. He introduces Linus to the very unusual children: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentified green blob with eye stalks, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. As Linus stays with them over the course of a month, he gets to know each of them--and Arthur--very well. Though Arthur's methods seem unorthodox (and Linus can quote the DICOMY rules and regulations), he begins to realize what a special place Marsyas is and what a special family Arthur has created here.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea picks up right where the first novel ends (no spoilers!), carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the children, and Linus. A short prologue is included about Arthur's first arrival back on the island, before he created the home. In the present day, Arthur has been invited to give testimony to the Council of Utmost Importance about his own time as a child under DICOMY's "care" and the abuses he suffered. As you might expect, things do not go quite as Arthur had hoped they would. Nevertheless, he is also in the city to pick up a new child to join their family, a yeti named David. Soon, the unusual family on Marsyas Island is fighting to hold onto the happy, peaceful life they have made for themselves.

The new sequel is just as delightful as the original novel. There is a bit more tension and suspense here, as Arthur and the children face potential perils, but the warmth and marvelous sense of humor remain. If you read The House in the Cerulean Sea in print, I highly recommend you give the audio a try for the sequel. Both audio books are such an absolute pleasure to listen to! I was just about to tell you that they each feature a full cast of talented narrators, but I was shocked to just discover it's only one person, professional actor Daniel Henning. I can't believe he did it all by himself because he's given each of the children their own unique voice. Much of the humor in the novels comes from the things the children say and observe, and hearing them say these things on audio is so much fun! I often laughed out loud (while walking, cooking, brushing my teeth). At the same time, both books are warm and tender, featuring beautiful, loving relationships that embrace diversity. These novels are full of hope and joy, and I loved living in this world for a while.

[NOTE: If you have not yet read the first book, then avoid reading the description of the sequel online or on the jacket; it's full of spoilers of the first book!]

The House in the Cerulean Sea - 416 pages, Tor 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea - 416 pages, Tor

Macmillan Audio

These books fit in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

Disclosure: I received the sequel from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible:

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio samples here, too):

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Print and e-book from Amazon:

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Middle-Grade Review: Countdown

Back in 2015, I read Revolution by Deborah Wiles, which was book 2 in her Sixties Trilogy. I absolutely loved the novel (my review at the link), but it took me this long to finally read book 1, Countdown. I listened to it on audio and absolutely loved it. These books overlay the experience of a child against a historical backdrop, showing their perspective(s) of significant events in our history. The result is engrossing and fascinating.

Revolution took place in 1964 in Mississippi and was about the Freedom Summer. In Countdown, the setting is Maryland, near Washington, DC, in 1962, during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. As the novel opens, eleven-year-old Franny is in school. She's upset because her teacher never calls on her to read aloud during Social Studies and fumes while she calls on other kids all around her. The class goes out for recess, and Franny doesn't know what to do because she forgot to bring her Nancy Drew book, and her best friend Margie seems to have a new best friend, Gale. Their typical school day is interrupted by a shrill, shrieking sound: the town's air raid siren! They're supposed to hide under their desks when it goes off, but what do they do when they're outside? Their teachers call all the students together, and they crouch on the ground against the brick building and cover their heads in terror until the all-clear alarm when their principal calls out, "It's OK, kids, it's just a drill!" At dinner that night, Franny and her younger brother, Drew, tell their parents all about the frightening air raid drill. Also at the table are their older sister, Jo Ellen, who just started college, and Uncle Otts, who lives with them and sometimes thinks he is still fighting WWI. Tonight, the air raid siren set him off, and he was marching to all their neighbors' houses, wearing his helmet and passing out civil defense literature, much to Franny's embarrassment.

The story continues in that vein, focusing in on Franny's perspective, as she worries about school and friendships and is starting to notice boys (well, one boy), while the world seems to be in frightening chaos all around them. She tries to protect her little brother and her uncle, while her older sister is getting involved in protests at college with a new group of friends. Their father is in the air force, which makes the threats of nuclear attack, Communism, and potential war all the more frightening.

What makes the books in this series so special is that the author integrates real-life documentary-style media throughout: quotes from magazines, ads from the time, headlines and excerpts from newspapers, posters from schools featuring duck and cover drills, and excerpts from social studies textbooks of the time. In the print version, all of this is interspersed with the narrative, scrapbook-style. I worried I would miss some of that by listening to the audio, but the audio book is equally immersive, with real TV and radio ads, recordings of Walter Cronkite reading the news, radio programs, and even John F. Kennedy addressing the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis. This helps today's kids to better understand exactly what Franny and her family and friends are experiencing, and it provides a fascinating window to the past for us adults. Integrating all of those primary sources with the story narrative is very powerful, as Franny deals with both ordinary kid problems and extraordinary world events. Franny is a very likable and relatable narrator, and the other characters are equally interesting and realistic. I absolutely love these books and will definitely be reading book 3. And I hope that teachers are using these books in the classroom!

400 pages, Scholastic

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - C

Literary Escapes Challenge - Maryland

Big Book Summer

 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. In the sample, you can hear some of those historical audio clips

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too). This sample is from part of Franny's narration.

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   
  

Fiction Review: Lonesome Dove

Ever since I started my YouTube channel in 2021 and heard about the annual June on the Range reading event there, I've heard people raving about how amazing the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is. I remember all the hype over the TV mini-series in the 80's (though I didn't watch it), and lots of friends with similar reading tastes said the novel was excellent. But I'm not a huge fan of westerns generally, so I put off reading it. I decided this would be the year, and I read it in June for both June on the Range and my own Big Book Summer Challenge. Wow. Why did I wait? This beautifully written, moving novel blew me away and left me sobbing (three separate times!) and often laughing out loud. It was everything I'd heard and more.

In 1873, Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call are retired Texas Rangers, living a quiet life on the Texas/Mexico border along the Rio Grande, in the tiny, dusty town of Lonesome Dove. A couple of their ex-Ranger fellows, Pea Eye and a Black man named Deets, along with a teen boy named Newt make up the rest of their Hat Creek Cattle Company, which doesn't get a whole lot of business there in the desolate, tiny town. Both Call, often just called Captain, and Pea Eye are both reticent men, but Gus talks enough for the whole outfit. He can--and often does--talk about absolutely nothing for hours. The town mostly consists of a few meager farms and ranches, a general store, and a saloon, featuring a beautiful whore named Lorena. The few travelers that come to Lonesome Dove often come just for Lorena, though there is also a lot of drinking and card playing in the saloon, as a man named Lippy plays the piano. Into this quiet life on the edge of nowhere, another ex-Ranger named Jake stops by the Hat Creek outfit to visit his old friends. He regales them with tales of his recent trip to Montana, which is still a vast wilderness. He emphasizes that it is excellent cattle country (as opposed to Lonesome Dove, where grass for grazing is nearly non-existent), and Call is unusually moved from their typical routine to suggest a cattle drive all the way to Montana. First, they round up thousands of cattle from Mexico and a few more men, including a couple of experienced cowhands, two lost Irishmen they rescued from Mexico, and some teen boys from town. The expanded though ragtag Hat Creek outfit sets off, leaving behind their quiet existence, for the unknown wilderness ahead and untold dangers on the way, from Indians, horse thieves, and nature. Along the way, they meet many other people, whose paths they may cross for just a day or for much longer, following Call's unusual and emphatic need to drive their new herd of cattle all the way to the unknown territory of Montana.

This novel surprised me so many times and in so many ways. Yes, it's a western adventure with plenty of action. But McMurtry has also created fully-drawn, three-dimensional characters that soon feel like old friends. I expected an all-male cast in this cowboy novel, but he's included many fascinating, well-developed female characters, too. The writing is beautiful, but the novel is also plot-driven, with so many unexpected twists and turns that I never for a moment got bored through its gripping 850 pages. I was also surprised by the emotional depth and intensity of this story that had me sobbing, hard, three different times and also often laughing out loud (the first, wonderful instance of this is in chapter 8, about the origins and details of the sign for the Hat Creek outfit that Gus created). Here's another fun moment, as two people ride into camp:

 "The most surprising thing was that [she] was wearing pants. So far as [Gus] could remember, he had never seen a woman in pants, and he considered himself a man of experience. Call had his back turned and hadn't seen them, but some of the cowboys had. The sight of a woman in pants scared them so bad they didn't know where to put their eyes. Most of them began to concentrate heavily on the beans in their plate. Dish Boggett turned white as a sheet, got up without a word to anybody, got his night horse and started for the herd, which was strung out up the valley."

There is violence and tragedy, yes, but also friendship, love, honor, and commitment. It's an epic story that kept me engrossed for a full month and then feeling like it ended too soon. I will definitely be reading its sequel, The Streets of Laredo (and there are also two prequels).

NOTE: Do NOT read the Preface, written by the author, as it contains spoilers--of this book and the sequel.

858 pages, Simon & Schuster

Phoenix Books, Inc (audio)

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - "Comedy Club" - while not strictly a comedy, it did make me laugh a lot!

Diversity Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. The sample sounds great - I bet it's excellent on audio.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   
  

Fiction Review: The Women

My first audio book for this year's Big Book Summer Challenge was The Women by Kristin Hannah. I always enjoy her novels and had heard good things about this one, but this book astounded me. It was an absolutely stunning novel that will stick with me for a long time.

Frances "Frankie"  McGrath is just twenty years old in 1965 when she graduates from nursing school and decides to follow in her brother's footsteps. He's in the Air Force and has been sent to Vietnam, so Frankie signs up for the Army Nurse Corps. Her father is always talking about their family's proud history of service to the country (he even has a family "hero wall" in their house), but when Frankie announces her decision, he's not proud of her; he's angry. Both of her parents feel that Frankie should stay home, get married, and have children like a respectable woman, but Frankie heads to boot camp. A year later, she is shipped out to Vietnam. Frankie has almost no nursing experience, and in boot camp, the nurses were mostly taught how to roll bandages and change bed pans. But this is real life and real war. Frankie meets her new roommates, Barb and Ethel, and that very first day, she's thrown into the deep end when helicopters with wounded soldiers begin to arrive. She's immediately surrounded by blood, missing limbs, and dying boys. Though ill-equipped at first, Frankie soon becomes a surgical nurse and is eventually one of the most skilled nurses there. 

The three women finally return home, with their minds filled with the horrors of war, and try to go back to their lives. They return to a changed America, where veterans are no longer revered but reviled, and war protestors scream terrible things at them. Frankie's father will barely speak to her, and her mother expects her to settle down and get married. But Frankie suffers from horrible nightmares and crippling flashbacks (what would later be known as PTSD). Worst of all, when she says she was in Vietnam--even at the VA--people tell her over and over that there were no women in Vietnam. Her life is a mess, and she doesn't know where to turn,. She, Barb, and Ethel have become lifelong friends, and they're the only ones who truly understand. Frankie's path to normalcy and health is a long, slow, twisting one, but by the time the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is dedicated in 1982, both she and the nation have begun to heal.

Where to start? Everything about this novel is completely engrossing and powerful. It's clear the author did a lot of research for this novel, including first-person accounts by women nurses who went to Vietnam and returned home, as well as details about the time periods. In an author's note, she explains that she's wanted to write this novel for a long time but felt she wasn't a good enough writer to do the story justice until now. It was worth the wait. The details--both during the war and of Frankie's experiences afterward--are vivid, horrifying, and realistic. I was very young during the war, but I remember my cousin and uncle being drafted and going to Vietnam, an experience that changed their lives forever. In fact, my uncle died from cancer (and suffered lots of other health problems) caused by Agent Orange. 

But this novel isn't just about the horrors of war. The reader experiences everything along with Frankie: the comradery among the troops, the need to let go and have fun once in a while even in the midst of war, the fierce friendships formed, and even the passion and love that develop between people put in such pressure-cooker situations. The audio was very well done, narrated by the talented Julia Whelan, and completely immersive; I couldn't bring myself to start another audio for a week after finishing it because it was still living in my head. This was an amazing, epic novel I won't forget that brings to light the contributions (and heavy price paid) of these brave women whose role and impact was mostly overlooked. It's a stunning, powerful story and so important to tell.

480 pages, St. Martin's Press

Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Vietnam

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

Big Book Summer Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from an early chapter, at Frankie's brother's going-away party.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     
  

Fiction Review: Sipsworth

A popular favorite book from this year's Booktopia was Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. Simon is a prolific author who's written almost a dozen novels, but this was my first experience reading one of his books, and it didn't disappoint. It's the joyful, uplifting story of an elderly woman who finds community and a reason to live through an unexpected source.

Helen lived in Australia for decades, but after her husband and son both die, she decides to return to the small English village where she grew up. At eighty-three years old, she lives alone in a small cottage, sticks to the same routine week after week, rarely interacting with another human, and is mostly just waiting to die. One cold, wet night, Helen looks out her window and sees a neighbor carry a strange box out to the curb for trash pick-up the next day. Bored and curious, Helen puts on her robe and slippers and goes out to investigate; sometimes people throw away interesting things. The box turns out to be a large glass fish tank with a bunch of smaller boxes inside it. Then Helen spots a colorful piece of plastic inside: a deep sea diver. Her son had one exactly like it. He'd picked it out at the pet store on his 13th birthday, and it came in a set for his new aquarium. Is this one part of a set, too? Wracked with memories both painful and comforting and without really thinking about what she's doing, Helen carries the fish tank filled with boxes into her own house. The next day, she'll go through the boxes to see what treasures are inside. But the tank includes something Helen hadn't expected that she won't notice until tomorrow: a small mouse. Though she initially tries to get rid of it (with hilarious results), the mouse ultimately changes Helen's life and helps her to connect with other people in her community.

That seems like a tall order for a little mouse, doesn't it? But this is a very special mouse that comes into Helen's life just when she needs something (someone) to care for. They need each other. This is a warm, gentle story, though there are plenty of unexpected plot twists and funny moments to move the narrative along. Van Booy has created a wonderful main character and a fabulously compassionate, engaging story. As much as I enjoyed the novel, I loved it even more after listening to the author speak at Booktopia. He was an incredibly entertaining speaker who had us all laughing throughout his session, but what really moved me was his explanation of the things in his own life that inspired the story. After all, how can a relatively young man write convincingly about an isolated old woman who has given up on life? Well, he volunteers both as an EMT and in elderly care homes, where he has bonded with some of the residents. And he experienced that kind of loneliness and isolation when many of us did, during the lock-down period at the start of the pandemic. He alleviated some of his isolation with a pet mouse, and his respect and love for the intelligent little creatures comes through on the page as Helen discovers the attributes of her own mouse. This is a beautiful story of love, community, and healing that will put a smile on your face. I want to read some of Van Booy's backlist now!

NOTE: I considered including some of the many quotes I highlighted in this novel, to show you its warmth and humor, but I didn't want to deprive potential readers of the delight in coming across these gems themselves.

240 pages, David R. Godine

HighBridge, division of Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - S

Travel the World with Books - UK
 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the beginning of the novel, as Helen discovers the discarded aquarium.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

3 Great Middle-Grade Audio Books - Mini Reviews

In March, I participated in Middle-Grade March and the Fierce Reads event for International Women's Month. I listened to three excellent middle-grade novels on audio, all by women authors and featuring fierce female characters (and with great female narrators). The first was historical fiction, and the other two were modern-day realistic fiction. My brief reviews are below, and you can also check out my review of The Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang, a middle-grade graphic novel I also read in March.

My first middle-grade audio was Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen. I'm a longtime fan of Nielsen's middle-grade historical fiction (like Lines of Courage and A Night Divided), and as you might guess from the title, this one is about the Titanic. Twelve-year-old Hazel is on a mission to save her family after her father's death. Her mother has sent her to the docks to board the Titanic for New York, where Hazel's aunt has promised her a job in a garment factory, so she can send money home to keep her siblings from starving. But when Hazel tries to buy a ticket, she finds that all of her family's savings isn't enough for the fare for even a third-class ticket. She finds a way on board as a stowaway. Luckily, she makes some friends on board, including Charlie, a boy working as a porter, and Sylvia, a girl her age in First Class. With a dream of becoming a journalist one day, Hazel begins to hear rumors about the ship that make the reporter in her interested--and wary--so she sets out to investigate and learn more. We all know how the Titanic's story ends, so there is plenty of suspense here, as well as fascinating historical details. It was an excellent novel with a wonderful main character (and yes, don't worry--she survives).

 352 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Monthly Motif Challenge - "Thrill Me" - this was a historical thriller

Travel the World in Books - UK (and Atlantic Ocean!)

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

_______________

Next, I listened to Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy, my first novel from this very popular YA author (this is her first middle-grade novel). Twelve-year-old Sweet Pea feels torn apart by her parents' divorce, despite their efforts to keep everything "normal." She splits her time between her mom's house and her dad's, which are identical homes two doors down from each other! They've divorced because her father has come out as gay. She's also still grieving the loss of her first-ever best friend, Kiera, who's found prettier, thinner, more popular girls to hang out with. Luckily, Sweet Pea has Oscar, her new best (only) friend and her cat, Cheese. Her strange elderly neighbor asks Sweet Pea to help out while she travels to stay with her ill sister, and Sweet Pea makes some pretty big mistakes but also learns and grows. I enjoyed this warm, funny novel, focusing on several common adolescent issue--like divorce, life changes, and secrets--between Sweet Pea, Kiera, and Oscar and what it means to be a friend.

288 pages, Balzer + Bray

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - D

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Texas

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

_______________

My last middle-grade audio book in March was Home Away from Home by Cynthia Lord, an author I have enjoyed in the past. Mia and her mom always visit her grandma in Maine every summer, but this year, Mia's there alone. Her mom and her boyfriend are working to sell their old house and find a new one, for "a fresh start." Mia wishes everything would stay the same, but she loves visiting her grandma in the small, seaside town. Things are different there this year, though, too. Mia meets grandma's neighbor, Cayman, who's her age and seems to have made himself at home at grandma's house! The two kids spot an unusual white bird of prey when they go to check on the baby eaglets the town is known for, and Mia launches an investigation. This was a wonderful middle-grade novel that deals with lots of typical adolescent issues, including divorce and friendship, as well as the perils of social media, with a hefty dose of nature added in (which I loved).

224 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Literary Escapes - Maine

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buythe book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Memoir Review: The Invisible Girls

A few years ago, I downloaded The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge from the SYNC annual summer audio book program and finally began listening to this beautiful, moving memoir that I finished reading in print.

Sarah, twenty-seven, was riding the train into downtown Portland, Oregon, one day when she met two adorable little girls and their exhausted-looking mother. Sarah was kind and played with the girls (one of whom fell asleep in her lap) and began talking to the mother, Hadhi. That was the start of a unique friendship that enriched the lives of all involved. Hadhi was a Somali refugee and had five little girls under twelve at home (the older three were in school when they first met). She invited Sarah to their apartment, where Sarah soon understood that the family was barely surviving. There was no food in the house, no furniture, and Hadhi had no means of support. Her abusive husband had recently left them, after a particularly violent episode, and Family Services had moved the family for safety to a new subsidized apartment. But Hadhi was lost in this country and culture that was completely unfamiliar to her, and she knew little English. The older girls were learning English in school, but they also felt out of place in their new country and had been placed in grades well below their age-levels due to the language barrier. All five of the little girls, though, were full of joy and adored Sarah (and Justin Bieber!). Sarah began helping the family in any way she could, though she didn't have much herself. She had recently moved to Portland from the East Coast after a horrific, harrowing years-long experience with breast cancer that had left her physically and emotionally damaged. As Sarah got to know the family and helped them adjust to life in the U.S., she found that their love and friendship helped to heal her.

When I first read the synopsis, I worried this might be a sort of "white savior" type of story, but that's not it at all. It's a story about the power of kindness and connection to heal all kinds of trauma. While Sarah did buy some groceries and other necessities for the family (the girls were so excited to receive socks and underwear as gifts!), much of what she did for this family was from her heart, not her pocket. And in return, they helped her to recover from her own traumas. Sarah had almost completed a Master's degree in journalism when she got cancer, and she is a talented writer, bringing the reader along not only on this journey of friendship and belonging but on everything that came before it (she endured a lot). Brought up in a fundamentalist Christian family with a pastor father, she could relate to some of the challenges that Hadhi and the girls dealt with. She understood what kinds of support the girls needed to grow up to be strong, educated, independent women (which their mother very much wanted). It's a beautiful story of the bonds between two very different but damaged women, and the joyful little girls they both love.

(Note: The audio production was excellent, and I was very much enjoying it, but I only had about half of the audio book downloaded, which was likely my fault and not SYNC's. My son would say "I suspect user error, Mom!")

287 pages, Jericho Books

Hachette Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Memoir/Biography

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Oregon

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     
  

Fiction Review: Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions

Wow, I have read some really outstanding novels for Black History Month this year: Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe on audio, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi in print, and now Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. It is a novel told in interlocking stories, featuring four Nigerian women who meet as young girls in boarding school, following them throughout their lives.

At an all-girls boarding school in 1986, Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape, all eleven years old, are assigned to the same house. The four girls become inseparable friends, until a tragedy ends their happy experiences at school. Other stories in the interwoven collection both go back in time and forward in time, filling in each of the girls' pasts and childhoods, as well as following each of them through their adult lives, as they remain friends, bonded by what they experienced together. As a child, Nonso traveled extensively around Africa with her mother, experiencing the vastly different worlds of Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, as well as the stunning historical truths revealed at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana (which I'd just read about in Homegoing). After moving to the United States, Aisha attends college and then law school, and we see her in 2003, attending a friend's wedding in Poland. In 2004, Remi is living in New York, with a high-powered job at a bank. All of the women travel or move back to Nigeria at various times in their lives, always struggling to weave together family, traditions, and their modern lives. Other stories focus on or are narrated by secondary characters, like the opening story of Adaoma (1897-1931) in Nigeria  or a young man named Segun in 1991 New York, who's being hassled by the police. The focus, though, is on the friends, and the final story, set in 2050 with dystopian tones, brings them back together again.

I was entranced by this captivating set of characters and stories that was excellent on audio, narrated by Liz Femi and Korey Jackson. I ended up also borrowing the print book from the library because partway through, I realized that in struggling a bit with the unfamiliar Nigerian names, I was missing some of the connections. Being able to see the names in print helped to clarify things for me, and I began to see just how cleverly the whole story fits together. I didn't always know how a side character fit into the story until later, but this truly is a cohesive novel, though at the beginning I was listening to it more as short stories. The characters are fully-developed, and the writing is engaging. While having the print book helped, I'm glad that I listened to the audio because the narration, in the rich tones and cadence of Nigerian voices, made it even more immersive. These women face plenty of challenges throughout their lives, with sorrows and joys, but they are strong, independent women who have their families and each other to support them. This thoughtful, moving novel and its voices have really stuck with me. I think this is the author's first novel, and I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

233 pages, Amistad

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - J

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books Challenge - Nigeria

Literary Escapes Challenge - Mass.
 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the first chapter, about Adaoma.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too). This sample features an excerpt from Segun's chapter.

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!