Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.
Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they’ve been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.
Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?
It will take all of Mia’s courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?
My Review
I am amazed at how much Kelly Yang successfully weaves into this short novel. It’s under 300 pages, and the plot moves along at a reasonable pace. I felt like I got to know some of the motel residents, Mia’s family, and her friends from school.
During the story, Mia begins writing letters. She writes to someone’s potential employer. She writes to an employer who has been abusing his workers, demanding that he give back the passport and ID card to the worker. Her letters make a difference, even while Mia’s mom keeps reminding her that she wasn’t born in America, and that she’ll never speak “native English,” like the people who were. Mia’s letters prove that her voice matters, and her words have power, despite the other messages in her life.
Mia is also a first-class community builder. She connects with the motel residents, those there for a short while and those who stay much longer. She reaches out to the other business owners around the motel. Soon the Calivista is known up and down the coast.
Some parts of the book are sad. Her parents’ employer is cruel and takes advantage of them. Kids at school make fun of her for her clothes and her identity. She witnesses racial prejudice against a Black man who lives at the motel. Someone attacks another person, leaving them injured and bleeding. Mia is the first to find and help them.
But those sad moments only make Mia’s triumphs more impactful. They show the depth of her spirit and the strength of her heart. By the end of the book, I was cheering for her and her family. I definitely want to read more of this series.
One of the amazing things about the series is that the author drew inspiration for Mia’s story from her own experiences helping manage a motel with her parents when she was Mia’s age. This explains the story’s 1990s setting, too.
This is a great fit for readers looking for pre-2000s novels, especially middle grade books on the shorter side.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Two instances of mild profanity. A few instances of racist comments.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content A drunk man scares Mia. One scene shows someone who has been attacked by two people. (The attack happens off scene.) References to threats from loan sharks.
Drug Content A drunk man scares Mia. He’s quickly dealt with.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.
An intensely brave, beautifully honest, and wryly funny story about a gay Muslim teen who has to choose between being true to himself or his faith—and his realization that maybe they aren’t as separate as he thought.
Ramin Abbas has spent his whole life obeying his parents, his Imam, and, of course, Allah—no questions asked. But when he starts crushing on the ridiculously handsome captain of the soccer team, so many things he’d always been so sure about are becoming questions:
1. Music is haram. But what if the Wicked soundtrack is the only thing keeping you sane because you’re being forced to play on the soccer team? With Captain Handsome?!
2. A boy crush is double haram, and Ramin’s parents will never accept it. But can he really be the only Muslim on Earth who feels this way?
3. Allah is merciful and makes no mistakes. Then isn’t Ramin just the way Allah intended him to be?
And so why should living your truth but losing everything—or living a lie and losing yourself—have to be a choice?!
My Review
I really appreciate that authors are writing stories that boldly ask hard questions about the intersection of faith and identity. These kinds of questions aren’t easy to answer, no matter what age someone might be, and it’s easy to oversimplify or lean on easy answers when those answers don’t directly impact one personally.
I think it’s also brave to write a novel featuring a protagonist who still feels positively about his faith despite having questions. That’s a real experience that a lot of people are having, and to find that reverently reflected in literature is so important.
Ramin is a perfect protagonist for a story like this. His relationships with his family members are tense and complicated by grief. He attends a private school for Muslim students, which is an experience many readers may not be directly familiar with, but I thought the descriptions and situations would be easy for anyone familiar with other private religious institutions to understand.
In the course of the story, he joins a soccer team and finds a place among the players. This gives the story some additional structure and offers more experience that will resonate with readers.
I also really appreciate that through the course of the novel, Ramin encounters lots of different views on practicing Islam. Some views were more restrictive, while others challenged his thinking. Ramin began to examine different parts of his faith alongside one another. He began to question whether ideas that appeared contradictory were a paradox or evidence of a need to update his ideas. I love the sensitivity with which the author explored these topics.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Strong profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing. Vague reference to sex. Brief mention of masturbation in the context of asking if it’s permissible in Islam.
Spiritual Content References to some verses in the Quran. References to daily prayer practice. Ramin is a person of deep personal faith. He speaks with the Imam, asking questions about the intersection of faith and identity. He wrestles with questions about Allah’s love and judgment for sinners.
Violent Content References to harsh judgment for sinners, such as having boiling lead poured into their ears. Some homophobic comments and statements. A student threatens to out Ramin. In an angry outburst, Ramin kicks a soccer ball through a window.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
For fans of Race to the Sun and the Aru Shah series, this epic fantasy adventure inspired by Indigenous American mythology follows a band of misfit children who must pull off an impossible heist in order to save the world!
Thanks to a prophecy revealed when he was little, thirteen-year-old Kyta always knew that he was destined to save the world. But waiting for that moment has kept him on edge his whole childhood, preventing him from having fun like other kids in his tribe. So when the ground quakes and the trees whisper that something is wrong, Kyta leaps into action, desperate to fulfill his destiny.
He is horrified to find that the precious Egg of the World Turtle, on whose vast shell everyone and everything lives, has been stolen by invaders. The Turtle is angry and grief-stricken, threatening to upend the very land under their feet. The invaders refuse to heed the warning of the tribes and return the Egg . . . so Kyta comes up with a plan to steal it back!
It’s risky and dangerous . . . but abandoning the Egg is certain doom. Kyta assembles other kids who could sneak into the invaders’ fortress and pull off the heist, but getting four very different personalities to work together is harder than he thought. And when they discover that the Egg is being guarded by an evil collector, his savage ogres, and a beast so terrible that it defies description, their odds seem all but impossible! Will Kyta be able to fulfill his destiny, or did he set himself up to fail . . . and the world to fall?
Inspired by the Indigenous American folktales, this thrilling and heartwarming fantasy shows the importance of teamwork, respect for nature, and believing in yourself.
My Review
I love that the writing in this novel feels so much like folklore storytelling. The narrative offers just enough information about each character and anchors the story in a myth-saturated world, where anything feels possible.
The book reminded me a little bit of Eagle Drums by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson. It has a similar high-stakes mythical story that connects to spiritual beliefs about the world’s origins and ecological values.
In Mythspeaker, Kyta learns that he must not only trust the destiny he’s been given, but he must learn to also trust his team members, even when their ideas or talents are different than his. I thought the character development for the team members was nicely done. Each one contributed something specific, and it was easy to tell the characters apart because their personalities were so unique.
The story touches on some environmental themes about how the drive of greed to own or capture things causes far-reaching harm. While the lesson might be a bit blunt in its presentation, the fantastical elements and memorable characters make it easy to invest in the outcome.
I’m adding this story to my list of read-aloud possibilities to read with my eight-year-old. I think she will enjoy the different characters’ personalities, the high-stakes adventure, and the humorous moments.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Kyta encounters several supernatural beings he refers to as “living myths.” The story is inspired by Indigenous American mythology and spirituality.
Violent Content Situations of peril. A leader of a group of people wants to steal/own precious things, even if doing so kills them and endangers or ends the world.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday
I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle.
2019 Eisner Award Winner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material
Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit.
With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.
My Review
This is such a fun collection! The women featured in the book come from all over the world and include a diverse spectrum of accomplishments from science to the arts to politics. Some faces and stories will probably be familiar to readers if they’ve read much about women’s history before. Other faces and stories may be completely unfamiliar.
I enjoyed learning bits of history with Bagieu’s signature humor and quick wit. Some of the panels had me absolutely cracking up. In the story of Chinese Emperor Wu Zetian, one panel relates that she caught recognition for taming what was thought to be an untamable horse. The expression on the horse’s face in that panel had me in stitches.
This collection is perfect for celebrating women’s history. It could also serve as a great starting point for someone wanting to learn more about contributions women have made to the world. Bagieu’s smart illustrations and the clever narrative accompanying them are so engaging. I highly recommend it.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Profanity used very sparingly.
Romance/Sexual Content References to marriage and romantic partnership. Reference to a woman speaking plainly about her sexual experiences and feelings. Reference to a girl in danger of being abused by a stepparent.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Situations of peril.
Drug Content Reference to drinking alcohol.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.
I don’t post many author interviews these days, but I enjoy them. It’s rare that I have a chance to ask questions of an author as widely known as this one. His latest book, I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This, is as haunting as it is relevant.
I read I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This last year, around the end of the summer. It left me thinking about the choices we face as individuals and how we each play a role in a larger story. When I wrote these questions back in November, I had no idea how differently I’d view them after what’s happened in the last two months. I’m grateful for his perspective and willingness to share his hard-won wisdom so frankly.
Note: This post contains affiliate links.
Q&A with Eugene Yelchin
1. In the opening scenes of I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This, you share how your engagement with one of your favorite novels, War and Peace, evolved as you grew up. Has that evolution continued for you? Are there components of Tolstoy’s novel that stand out to you more now than they did before you left Russia?
I still read Tolstoy, but I read him differently than when I was young. Tolstoy’s study of the human nature still fascinates me, but his psychological insights, which guided me in my youth, now serve a different purpose. I’m less interested in “what” than in “how”. Often, Tolstoy creates a dramatic situation and allows us to view it through several points of view simultaneously. Each point of view is unique, and the characters’ reactions to the situation — expectations, assumptions, illusions, disappointments, etc.— reveal those characters’ psyche. There’s much to learn from Tolstoy, and every time I go back to his work, I learn something new.
2. How was writing I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This different than your memoir of your earlier childhood?
The Genius Under the Table wrote itself. It was the easiest and the most pleasurable experience I have ever had writing. The book is about my family, who despite the constant state of terror, vigilance, and doom managed to fill me with so much of their nutty and noisy Jewish love that it will outlast me and will go on and on in my children and hopefully, their children too. By contrast, I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This was the most difficult project that I have ever attempted exactly because that constant state of terror, vigilance, and doom is also alive and present in me. As a result, reinhabiting the times and the places that I have been trying to forget for years was extremely challenging. But on the brighter side, probably because it was the most difficult book I have ever made, it might also be my best, at least judging by the reaction it receives.
3. Despite the terror and hardship your memoir captures, the story has a lot of humor in it. How did your sense of humor help you through your experiences?
I realize that there is a common belief that humor is helpful in difficult times, and maybe it is, I am not sure. In the case of I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This, humor serves mostly to ease the American readers into the dramatic situations, which (so far) are not familiar to them. At the time and the place described in the book — the Soviet Union of the early 1980s — the humor was much, much darker than I use in the book. The Soviet humor of that period was the humor of a condemned man, the humor of a nihilist. The book is written for the American teens, and I had to be very careful keeping a grip on the sense of despair and hopelessness I had felt back then so that the young American readers will keep reading the book now.
4. When you look at events unfolding in the United States today, do you spot parallels between the government of the Soviet Union and the government of the US? Do you have any advice for young people today who are concerned about the current state of the US and global political climate?
In 2017, the brilliant American thinker, Timothy Snyder, wrote in his pamphlet on tyranny, “When the men with guns who have claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” It is inspiring to know that even an expert like Snyder could have underestimated American people. The peaceful resistance in Minnesota had proved to us that the end is nowhere in sight. My advice for young people is no different than they have already heard from so many others — join in the peaceful protests (the numbers matter!) and under no circumstances cooperate with the tyrannical regime. Even if it means walking out on the job or out of the classroom, loss of money, comfort, loss of things that we take for granted. Do it now, and that loss will be temporary. Do nothing, and the loss of life itself will not be out of the question in the future.
5. Is there something you wish you had known as a young man that you want to pass on to this new generation?
First and foremost, trust your instincts. We live in the culture, which is loud, pervasive, highly consumerist. This culture forces us to become not who we are but whom it wants us to be. It wants us to be consumers, not citizens. Resist it. Slow down. Question everything and everyone. Do not act emotionally; even if you feel something, it doesn’t mean that it’s true. To learn how to trust your instincts, read real literature.
6. What do you most hope that readers take away from your memoir?
When I began work on the book about living under an oppressive regime, I envisioned it as a warning to those living in freedom. Democracy is rare and fragile; what would Americans do if they were at risk of losing it? It was a hypothetical question but soon after the book was released, Americans were on the streets protesting the rise of tyranny with No Kings marches. My hope is that my readers will not take democracy they had inherited for granted. That courage is required to defend it. Individually they may not have that courage, but united, they do.
7. What is one question about your memoir that readers often ask you?
In a stunning sequel to The Genius Under the Table, Eugene Yelchin’s graphic memoir depicts his harrowing journey from Leningrad’s underground art scene to a state-run Siberian asylum—and to eventual safety in the US.
No longer the creative little boy under his grandmother’s table, Yevgeny is now a young adult, pursuing his artistic dreams under the constant threat of the KGB’s stranglehold on Russia’s creative scene. When a chance encounter with an American woman opens him up to a world of romance and possibility, Yevgeny believes he has found his path to the future—and freedom overseas.
But the threat of being drafted into the military and sent to fight in Afghanistan changes everything in a terrible instant, and he takes drastic measures to decide his fate, leading to unthinkable consequences in a mental hospital.
With bold art bringing a vivid reality to life, National Book Award Finalist and Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin’s sequel to the acclaimed memoir The Genius Under the Table returns to Yevgeny’s saga, balancing the terror and oppression of Soviet Russia with the author’s signature charm and dark wit. I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This shines a stark spotlight on history while offering a poignant, nuanced, and powerfully resonant look at growing up in—and ultimately leaving—Cold War Russia in the early 1980s.
Eugene Yelchin is a National Book Award finalist for The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge co-authored with M. T. Anderson and the recipient of Newbery Honor for Breaking Stalin’s Nose. He received Sydney Taylor Award for The Genius Under the Table, Golden Kite Award for The Haunting of Falcon House, Crystal Kite Award for illustrating Won Ton, National Jewish Book Award for illustrating The Rooster Prince of Breslov, and Tomie DePaola Award from the Society of Children Books Writers and Illustrators. His books were named Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, People Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Amazon, NPR, Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Horn Book, School Library Journal, etc., and were translated in fourteen languages.
“Helpful and hopeful.” —John Green, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
A Better World Is Possible is a comprehensive and graphic novel guide on climate change and what you can do about it.
As climate change quickens—bringing with it extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and humanitarian crises—four teens help organize the world’s largest climate protest. Hundreds of thousands join them, taking to the streets of New York City and demanding answers. How did climate change get this bad? Who’s to blame? And most What can we do about it?
In their stunning graphic novel, New York Times best-selling illustrator Danica Novgorodoff and award-winning environmental journalist Meera Subramanian share experiences from their lives and those of the four youth activists. Through their stories, we learn the science behind our changing planet and explore solutions at hand. They show us that anyone can make meaningful change, because a better world is possible—and together, we can create it!
My Review
This book is partly a climate change primer and partly a collection of biographies of young activists. The biographies are written conversationally, as if the activists are relating the story of how they became involved in environmental activism, sometimes to one another, sometimes to the reader. At various intervals, the narrative pauses to define important terms or explain key ideas in separate sections.
The combination of those two elements makes the book very engaging and easy to read. The information is accessible to readers who don’t know much about climate change or who aren’t familiar with the leaders profiled in the book.
This would be a great book to read as part of an Arbor Day celebration, or perhaps for a group to read as they form an environmental club. The activists’ stories can’t help but inspire young readers and offer hope for the future, which is super important, since the truths about the changing climate and the frustrating refusal of those in power to make critical changes can leave people feeling hopeless.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content References to the harm pollution and climate change is causing the planet. Panels show people navigating flooding and storm-damaged areas.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
