Tag Archive | survival

Quit school? Oh, no, no! UNEXPECTED LIVES OF ORDINARY GIRLS, by J. Anderson Coats (MG book review)

May13
A tween girl in braids wearing long dress and carrying a satchel looks up through elegant gates at a busy city street with horse-drawn carriages and book title The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls, by J. Anderson Coats, with embroidered flowers in lower corner.

School is a haven,
reading takes her everywhere…
someday she’ll really go!

In their Colorado mining town, girls from Slovene families grow up and have families – no other options even in 1910. Stanislava escapes by reading from the tiny “penny library” near their Bohunk Town neighborhood. Oh, this story of an immigrant girl who changes her name and is sponsored at a lovely college is the best book ever!

Older sister Stina had to quit school early to take care of newborn Stanislava and the babies who came after. When she leaves to marry (not another Catholic – scandalous), Stanislava is expected to do the same!

Papa come all this way to America for freedom 20 years ago, and now he won’t allow her the opportunity to keep going to school – no!

The tween sneaks aboard a boxcar and heads to Denver to find Stina and her new husband. But they’ve already left town, and a priest wants to send her home – can she find a school to help her?

Instead she encounters a magnificent library that welcomes all and decides to stay there in its warmth and security. In the newspaper room looking at help wanted ads, she sees that the library has a training course test very soon.

Visiting different parts of the library every day, introducing herself as Sylvia when a young Slovene mother needs help, hiding at closing time, waiting for the test day…

Can she stay hidden and safe?
What if she doesn’t pass the test?
Where else can she go?

Another strong young heroine from the author of
The Loss of the Burning Ground (recommended at https://booksyalove.com/?p=14937)
A Season Most Unfair – https://booksyalove.com/?p=14170
The Night Ride – https://booksyalove.com/?p=13684
R for Rebel – https://booksyalove.com/?p=9958
The Wicked and the Just – https://booksyalove.com/?p=91

Which library is your favorite?
**kmm

Book info: The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls / J. Anderson Coats. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2025. [author site https://www.jandersoncoats.com/the-unexpected-lives-of-ordinary-girls] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Unexpected-Lives-of-Ordinary-Girls/J-Anderson-Coats/9781665968614] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the author and publisher.

OF THE SUN: a Poem for the Land’s First Peoples, by Xelena Gonzales & Emily Kewageshig (Picturebook)

May5
In front of a bright sun, an indigenous person looks to the right where an eagle soars. Both are surrounded by branches of flowers and berries, with book title Of the Sun: a Poem for the Land's First Peoples, by Xelena Gonzales

“Child of the sun, you’ve been blessed since birth…”

So begins a poem celebrating the First Peoples of the Western hemisphere, from the Yamana at the far tip of South America to the Ben Za in Central America to the Inuit in North America’s Arctic regions.

The artist uses saturated colors and bold outlines with motifs from many Indigenous cultures of the Americas and Caribbean – eagle and bison, butterfly and dreamcatcher, Plains beaded embroidery, dancers and native produce.

“Child of the sun, on this land you are home.”

As you read along, listen to the poet recite this heartfelt work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzDjOnJGQJE

Includes notes on the Native peoples named in the poem, plus wonderful letters to the reader from the poet and the artist.

I live on lands of the Caddo and Kickapoo people, shows https://native-land.ca/
On whose land do you now live?
**kmm

Book info: Of the Sun: a Poem for the Land’s First Peoples / Xelena Gonzales; illustrated by Emily Kewageshig. Barefoot Books, 2025. [author site https://www.xelena.space/about] [artist site https://www.emily-kewageshig.com/] [publisher site https://www.barefootbooks.com/of-the-sun] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

May the Fourth be with you! Back to William Shakespeare Star Wars, by Ian Doescher (fiction book review)

May4
Large sketched image of Darth Vader in embellished armor is surrounded by smaller images of Star Wars tie fighter, X-wing craft, Luke with sword, and Princess Leia, above book title: William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, by Ian Doescher

Favorite holiday for that “galaxy far, far away” is today, so I celebrate the reissued books of Ian Doescher’s mashup series, retelling Star Wars tales in William Shakespeare’s style.

I recommended the original editions over a decade ago, beginning with William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, the story that started it all, completely and lovingly rendered in epic Shakespearean verse: https://booksyalove.com/?p=3298

Next was The Empire Striketh Back (Star Wars: Part the Fifth) which I introduced with several original verses in iambic pentameter; here we meet Yoda who speaks in haiku: https://booksyalove.com/?p=3307

Rounding out the series based on the original movie trilogy is The Jedi Doth Return (Star Wars Part the Sixth), which I recommended here with a bit more verse: https://booksyalove.com/?p=4219; it even has a book trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVp5XZEang4

Doescher thought that the original trilogy was the end of his collaboration with masters Shakespeare and Lucas, but nay, good friends, the saga continueth!

I recommended William Shakespeare’s The Phantom of Menace (Star Wars, Part the First) here https://booksyalove.com/?p=5811 again penning my own iambic pentameter plot summary, but missed out on The Clone Army Attacketh (Star Wars, Part the Second) and Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge (Star Wars, Part the Third).

Past the original trilogy are William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh, Jedi the Last: Star Wars Part the Eighth, and The Merry Rise of Skywalker: Star Wars Part the Ninth (newer titles, different subtitle format…)

Sadly all were out of print until Insight Editions began reissuing the series last year; find the whole list at https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ian-Doescher/232868011 including new works featuring the Mandalorian and Ashoka (publishing Sept. 2026).

Darth Vader, a woman in pink blouse, Storm Trooper stand in front of Death Star backdrop, with caption "May the force of reading be with you - Abdo - TLA 2012 - Star Wars"

Look for them all at your local library https://search.worldcat.org/libraries or independent bookstore https://bookshop.org/!

Which is your favorite Star Wars episode?
**kmm

(thanks again to Abdo Publishing for this photo op and their long-time support of Texas readers, librarians, and the Texas Library Association)

V is for VERN: CUSTODIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, by Tyrell Waiters (YA Graphic Novel) #A2Z

Apr25
A young Tshirt-clad Black man holding a mop in bucket strides out of a billowing planet-studded cloud into a dark starry sky, toward book title Vern Custodian of the Universe, by Tyrell Waiters.

Mop and bucket,
always on call,
gotta save the multiverse?!

Burned out from fruitless job hunt in California, Vern heads to Florida where his grandmother has a position lined up for him… as janitor at a tech company seeking a new home for humanity before climate change destroys the planet.

The young Black man knows that Granny and his late Grandpa met at Quasar, but he’s not sure that cleaning up space goo filled with eyes or upside down rooms is for him.

Oops! Vern might have unplugged that old clunky computer, so he plugs it back in and is instantly transported to the furthest edge of the multiverse where The Void asks “What is the point?” and sends him back to Quasar to get the answer.

Except it’s not his Quasar and not his universe! He learns that whenever Quasar scientists on any of the Earths think they’ve found a suitable planet, The Void is there to stop them.

Now Vern has to jump through several universes and unplug each identical machine there like the one he accidentally activated on his Earth before the universes collide!

When will The Void summon Vern to answer the question?
How is Quasar really using their space technologies?
Why does Granny keep saying that Grandpa is always watching over Vern?

Every universe that Vern encounters has its own unique art style in this astronomically good graphic novel. Check out the first pages on the publisher’s website, for free: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714042/vern-custodian-of-the-universe-by-tyrell-waiters/

Where would you like to instantaneously travel to in space?
**kmm

Book info: Vern: Custodian of the Universe / Tyrell Waiters. Flying Eye Books, 2025. [author site https://www.tartwurk.com/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714042/vern-custodian-of-the-universe-by-tyrell-waiters/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

S is THE BLOSSOMING SUMMER, safe from war, finding herself, by Anna Rose Johnson (MG fiction book review) #A2Z

Apr22
A dark-haired young teen girl wearing a 1940s short-sleeved plaid dress stands on a windy hillside above a sparkling lake beneath a sunny blue sky with high white clouds as well as military airplanes. She holds a bouquet of flowers tightly against herself with her elbow as she looks left, into the wind.

Separation and reunion.
Travel amid war!
Secrets…big family secrets.

Fleeing the London blitz in 1940, Rosemary’s parents gather up the children from relatives’ homes across England and take them to America, to stay with the grandmother in Wisconsin they’ve never met. After three years apart, the 13 year old wants to be a good big sister, but isn’t sure how.

From rationing and blackout curtains to a gigantic house and gardens straight from her dreams! She’s relieved and happy, until she meets their snooty same-age cousin (not one pimple – how unfair) and is treated like a child by Aunt Ann.

Dad left this beautiful place on purpose, changed his last name – why didn’t he ever tell them that his family was French and Indian?!

Grandmother is determined to win the flower and vegetable show at the county fair – will local boy Jacob lose his gardener’s job if Rosemary and her brothers help out?

As they work in the gardens, Grandmother teaches Rosemary about traditional Objiwe plants and their names in Anishinaabemowin – could her family be transplanted here as easily as the tiny violet plant that she brought from her best friend’s garden in England?

Maybe Dad will help them in the garden and canoe with them on the lake and become happy here by county fair time… during this lovely summer, even as war’s shadows come closer.

By the Native American author of The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry, recommended here: https://booksyalove.com/?p=14384 .

What’s your favorite garden plant?
**kmm

Book info: The Blossoming Summer / Anna Rose Johnson. Holiday House, 2025. [author site https://annarosejohnson.com/the-blossoming-summer/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777259/the-blossoming-summer-by-anna-rose-johnson/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

R is history repeating BARBED WIRE BETWEEN US, reverso poem by Wenjen & Encarnacion (Picturebook) #A2Z

Apr21
Two young girls, standing back to back, look at the viewer from behind a barbed wire fence. On the left is a short-haired Japanese-American girl, on the right a Latin American girl with long dark hair held by a patterned headband, on the book cover of Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen and Violeta Encarnacion.

Forced from home,
separated from family,
children now behind barbed wire!

A Japanese American girl scans the dusty internment camp where everyone in her community has been taken during World War II, hoping for better days when they’ll finally be able to go home.

Decades later, a Latin American immigrant girl escaping with her family from bad conditions is taken to the same dusty internment camp, her hopes of better days now dimmed.

This reverso poem tells the two girls’ different/similar stories with a single set of phrases, like going up a musical scale and then back down.

“In this land of promise, we hoped to find a place to belong.” The phrase that begins the first poem ends the second poem.

“Where darkness is, light will shine again. From behind barbed wire, new life will begin.” The phrase that starts the second poem is the final line of the first.

Muted colors evoke the dreary setting of the camp, children and parents often separated by barbed wire, far away from pleasant places.

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, has long been a prison camp for those considered different, from Geronimo and his Chiricahua Apaches in the 1880s to Japanese Americans during World War II to immigrant children since 2014.

What keeps you hopeful in the face of such things?
**kmm

Book info: Barbed Wire Between Us / Mia Wenjen; illustrated by Violeta Encarnacion. Red Comet Press, 2026. [author site https://miawenjen.com/barbed-wire-between-us/] [illustrator site illustrator site https://www.instagram.com/violeta.encarnacion/] [publisher site https://www.redcometpress.com/picturebooks/barbed] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

P is for THE PENCIL, precious in their iglu home, by Avingaq, Vsetula, and Chua (Picturebook) #A2Z

Apr18
Inside their iglu, a young Inuk girl wearing a traditional Indigenous Canadian parka holds a short pencil as her younger sister and brother look on eagerly, on book cover of The Pencil, by Susan Avingaq and Maren Vsetula; illustrated by Charlene Chua

The children and Ataata stay home in the iglu while their mother is away helping a neighbor.

How should they pass the time?

When the sun is out, the two big girls can trace their letters in the frost on the iglu’s ice window.

They play games with baby Peter, and their father tells them stories, and still Anaana isn’t back.

Is Ataatu really letting them use their mother’s one precious pencil and the last piece of paper to draw on?

What will Anaana say when she sees how short the pencil is now?

The author fondly remembered living in an Inuit iglu as a child in Nunavut, Canada, where they learned to use all things wisely, because the trading post was so very far away. Find learning resources in English and Inuktitut here https://inhabitmedia.com/2021/04/22/the-pencil-educators-resource/.

What special object have you saved because it’s the last one?
**kmm

Book info: The Pencil / Susan Avingaq and Maren Vsetula; illustrated by Charlene Chua. Inhabit Media, 2018. [illustrator site https://charlenechua.com/picture-books] [publisher site https://inhabitbooks.com/products/the-pencil?_pos=1&_sid=b3e677320&_ss=r] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

O is for OUTSIDE, where she may never go! But why? by Jennifer L. Holm (MG fiction book review) #A2Z

Apr17
Back view of a red-haired tween girl and 4 children in a dark place, looking toward a hole in the wall. The girl approaches the revealed trees, blue sky & flying birds shown below the book title - Outside, by Jennifer L. Holm.

Danger!
Stay hidden, stay alive.
But never see the sky…

After Ollie died when he went out on the Refuge’s roof, twelve-year-old Razzi is the oldest kid and tries to set a good example for the others.

The Great Poisoning a decade ago sent her family and a few others to this remote abandoned estate, escaping from a world filled with brain-poisoned humans and death and danger. Now they get their supplies when Rusty goes out raiding or the scary Dealer comes to trade with Papa.

But she dreams of going Outside and experiencing what the Refuge’s school-age kids only see in books and old videos.

Oh, dear! Razzi’s heart is failing! They replace it with a greyhound’s heart – thank you, Wind the dog and robo-surgery and anti-rejection drugs.

Weird. She used to hate ham; now she loves it. She dreams of running Outside…on dog’s paws.

Why does Bing’s new pet bunny think Razzi is an enemy? Why does Razzi want to chase it?

Razzi feels Wind’s memories in her dreams more and more, seeing a blue-eyed greyhound named Poppy who is in trouble!

When Rusty promises to look for Poppy on his next raid, Razzi hides in his old truck to help and gets Outside, with room to finally run like Wind!

Can she and Wind avoid the Poisoned?
Can they find Poppy?
Can they get home to the Refuge alive?

Compelling post-apocalyptic story with a real twist!

What animal’s thoughts would you like to hear?
**kmm

Book info: Outside / Jennifer L. Holm. Scholastic Press, 2025. [author site https://www.jenniferholm.com/new-page-99] [publisher site https://clubs.scholastic.com/outside/9798225024673-rco-us.html] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

N is NEFARIOUS NIGHTS OF WILLOWWEEP MANOR! by Shaenon K. Garrity & Christopher Baldwin (YA Graphic Novel book review) #A2Z

Apr16
Magnifying glass in hand, a determined young Black woman in gothic dress approaches the body lying in foreground. She's followed by a startled young man juggling a stack of books, a frantically flying chicken, and a big dog with its tongue flapping. Behind them a grim mansion rises into the dark sky, emblazoned with book title - The Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor, by Shaenon K. Garrity & Christopher Baldwin.

Thunder! Lightning!
Romance!
Murder?

As protector of a tiny gasket universe, Haley expects her school break away at Willowweep Manor to be broodingly romantic with Montague, as always.

But the Black teen arrives as refugees from another gasket universe in peril pop through a portal – not characters from a gothic romance at all!

New rooms suddenly appear in the Manor, the new dog is goofy, Miss Meadowsweet keeps talking about odd things that happened in her village, and the Colonel is stabbed – they’re from the murder mystery genre!!

No police in the Manor so the Willowweepers must learn the rules of murder mysteries and investigate, not quite trusting any of the newcomers.

Someone goes missing, while others barely escape “accidents” with their lives!

Who is the killer – the capable young lady? The village spinster? The eccentric young man? The butler? Surely not the dog?

Can our plucky heroine reinvent herself in time to save Willowweep Manor once again?

You can enjoy Nefarious Nights without having read The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor (I recommend! https://booksyalove.com/?p=12249), but knowing the origin story makes this madcap adventure even more fun.

Find both Willowweep Manor volumes at your local library https://search.worldcat.org/libraries or independent bookstore https://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder.

What book genre would you like to live in?
**kmm

Book info: The Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor / Shaenon K. Garrity; illustrated by Christopher Baldwin. Margaret McElderry Books, 2025. [author site https://www.shaenon.com/] [artist site www.BaldwinPage.com ][publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nefarious-Nights-of-Willowweep-Manor/Shaenon-K-Garrity/Willowweep-Manor/9781665930161] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

L is LOVE AT SECOND SIGHT & supernatural danger! by F.T. Lukens (YA fiction) #A2Z

Apr14
In front of school lockers, a pale teen boy with growing-out dyed blond hair whispers to a taller dark-haired teen boy with claw-like fingernails, on book cover of Love at Second Sight, by F. T. Lukens

A vision in moonlight,
a muddy field,
a murder about to happen!

Human teen among paranormal classmates, Cam is glad that he and best friend Al (witch) will be back together at the new high school, nervous about seeing his crush Mateo (werewolf), still sad that big brother Aiden purposely vanished a few months ago.

Caught in a sprite vs. werewolf melee, the sophomore crashes headfirst into lockers and is pulled from the pile-up by a girl whose touch throws him into a vision – of a wounded girl being attacked with a knife!

Not telling his anti-paranormal parents about his glimpse of the future, Cam asks Al to quietly find out more and agrees with them to carefully test his clairvoyant abilities.

There’s no escaping his new truth: he can indeed see the future, and he goes to school with a murderer!

A viral video of Cam’s next vision being proven true catches his parents’ attention; he hears them whispering about what went wrong with his big brother…

Now all the paranormal factions in town are eager to ally with Cam, the first seer in a century – so many feuds between them…

Ooh, invited to a cookout at Mateo’s! < swoon >

Will he have to always wear gloves to prevent unwanted visions?
How does Cam decide which faction to join?
Can he and his new friends stop that girl’s murder?

Fantasy-mystery-paranormal-romance releases in paperback today! (April 14, 2026)

By the author of magical, adventurous, affirming tales In Deeper Waters (my recommendation https://booksyalove.com/?p=12378), So This is Ever After (https://booksyalove.com/?p=12989), Spell Bound (https://booksyalove.com/?p=13689), and Otherworldly (https://booksyalove.com/?p=14421).

Which paranormal neighbor would you like to have?
**kmm

Book info: Love at Second Sight / F. T. Lukens. Margaret McElderry Books, hardcover 2025, paperback 2026. [author site https://www.ft-lukens.com/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Love-at-Second-Sight/F-T-Lukens/9781665950947] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.