Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Review: Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell

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Josephine by Patricia Hruby Powell

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker
Patricia Hruby Powell
Illustrated by Christian Robinson
Chronicle Books
Published December 1, 2013

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker

In exuberant verse and stirring pictures, Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson create an extraordinary portrait for young people of the passionate performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker, the woman who worked her way from the slums of St. Louis to the grandest stages in the world. Meticulously researched by both author and artist, Josephine’s powerful story of struggle and triumph is an inspiration and a spectacle, just like the legend herself.

My Review

I must have purchased this book when it was on sale a while ago and then forgotten that I had it until today when I was searching through a list of nonfiction e-books that I own. I’m sure I bought it because of having read and really enjoyed Patricia Hruby Powell’s book LOVING VS. VIRGINIA, which is about a couple involved in the civil rights case to legalize interracial marriage.

Since I’d read that book, I knew I loved Powell’s emotive storytelling, so I was really excited when I saw that she’d written another book, this one a biography.

When I started reading, I intended to kind of just skim the first few pages and get a feel for the book so I could put it in my blogging calendar… but I couldn’t stop reading. I fell headfirst into the incredible story of the bright, indomitable spirit of Josephine Baker and didn’t surface until the last page. She’s amazing. The stories of her performances, her daring, her ability to make audiences roar with laughter captivated me. And THEN.

Y’all.

World War II happens, and she becomes a spy for the Allies. She writes messages in invisible ink on her music sheets. I was blown away, but honestly, I shouldn’t have been, because that’s exactly the kind of courage and boldness that run throughout her entire story. What a truly amazing person.

At any rate, I loved this book. It’s a pretty quick read, but between the beautiful illustrations and the strong, spare storytelling, this is a book that demands to be read. I can’t even say how much I loved it. And now I only want to know more about Josephine Baker! I had no idea who she was before picking up this book, and I’m only sorry it took me until now to learn about her.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
This book tells the life story of Black dancer, actor, and performer, Josephine Baker. The story shows her feelings in response to segregation and racist/colorist behavior around her.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief mentions of her marriage.

Spiritual Content
Josephine adopted twelve children from various countries and brought them up with the spirituality of their cultures. She wanted to show that people of different races and religious values could grow up side by side and love one another like brothers.

Violent Content
Brief mentions of war.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Top 10 Books for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Friday, January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On that date in 1945, the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. Some of the stories listed here share the lives of some of those who were imprisoned there. Some were imprisoned at other camps. Still others fled their homes in Europe in an attempt to escape the Nazis.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “freebie”, so I’ve chosen to share some of the books I’ve read or that are still on my reading list that feature stories based on historical events or family history. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which bloggers share their top ten book choices. Here are mine for this week.

10 Books to Read for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers by Jeremy Dronfield

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: The true story of two Austrian-Jewish brothers in WWII. One escapes to America. The other goes with his father into concentration camps, first Buchenwald and then Auschwitz.

Release Date: January 24, 2023

Boy From Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor by Robbie Waisman with Susan McClelland

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: How the author and 472 other boys (including Elie Wiesel) survived imprisonment in Buchenwald and found hope when Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter brought them to a home for rehabilitation.

Release Date: May 11, 2021

Hedy’s Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust by Michelle Bisson

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: The story of the author’s mother and her journey through WWII Germany to escape to America.

Release Date: August 1, 2017

The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel by Antonio Iturbe, Salva Rubio, and Loreto Aroca

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: Based on the true story of a fourteen-year-old girl imprisoned in Auschwitz becomes the guardian of 8 books slipped past the guards. I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot and thought of Dita when reading another book that mentioned books in Auschwitz.

Release Date: January 3, 2023

MAUS:

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | Reviews: Book 1 . Book 2

What you need to know: A man navigates a challenging relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, who tells the tale of his experiences.

Release Date: November 19, 1996

28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: Ruthie and her family board the St. Louis to escape from Germany and the concentration camps. When they’re denied entrance to Havana, Ruthie is determined to help find a place she and her family will be safe. A novel in verse based on real historical events.

Release Date: May 1, 2021

28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR

What you need to know: When she learns of plans to murder everyone living in the Warsaw Ghetto, sixteen-year-old Mira joins the resistance, holding the Ghetto for 28 days. Based on the author’s family history.

Release Date: March 14, 2014

Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR

What you need to know: After fleeing to Cuba with her father, Esther writes letters to her sister, who remains in Poland with the rest of the family. She records all her experiences as she waits, desperately hoping the rest of her family will be able to make their escape from the Nazis as well. Based on the author’s family history.

Release Date: August 25, 2020

Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR

What you need to know: In 1938 Italy, six-year-old Lia’s life is turned upside down by war. As danger grows, Lia and her sisters hide at a convent where she grows into a young teen, waiting for the day she can be “just a girl” again. A memoir adapted for young readers.

Release Date: January 1, 1994

The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR

What you need to know: Imani, an adopted girl, discovers her grandmother’s diary in her search for her birth parents. In it, she discovers the story of Anna, her great grandmother, a Jewish girl who fled Nazi-occupied Luxembourg to the US where she was adopted herself.

Release Date: May 1, 2018

Have you read any books on the Holocaust or World War II?

If you have, which ones stick with you the most? Have you read any of the books on my list of ten books for International Holocaust Remembrance Day? Let me know! I would love to add more books to my reading list.

Review: 37 Days at Sea: Aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939

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37 Days at Sea: Aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939
Barbara Krasner
Kar-Ben Publishing
Published May 1, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About 37 Days at Sea: Aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939

In May 1939, nearly one thousand German-Jewish passengers boarded the M.S. St. Louis luxury liner bound for Cuba. They hoped to escape the dangers of Nazi Germany and find safety in Cuba. In this novel in verse, twelve-year-old Ruthie Arons is one of the refugees, traveling with her parents.

Ruthie misses her grandmother, who had to stay behind in Breslau, and worries when her father keeps asking for his stomach pills. But when the ship is not allowed to dock in Havana as planned―and when she and her friend Wolfie discover a Nazi on board―Ruthie must take action. In the face of hopelessness, she and her fellow passengers refuse to give up on the chance for a new life.

My Review

I think I expected this story to be more focused on the fact that Ruthie and Wolfie discover a Nazi on board and figuring out how to get him removed or something. I didn’t feel like that was really a focus for the story, though. It was certainly a cause of tension, though.

The thing that sticks with me most about 37 DAYS AT SEA is the moment when the captain learns they will not be able to dock in Havana as they’d been told before. Wolfie’s dad is on shore in Cuba, waiting for him. His mother, who is on board the ship with Ruthie and Wolfie, becomes so distraught that she can’t get out of bed or stop crying. (This is one of the most intense scenes in the book.)

I think the author does a great job presenting truths about Ruthie’s situation and the events of the time while tempering them for a young audience. Because we stay within Ruthie’s point-of-view, we are a little bit shielded from some of the harsher realities.

On the whole, though, I loved that this book brings us a well-researched novel in verse about real events. I don’t know if there are other books for children on the M.S. St. Louis and her passengers, but I loved getting to read this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Ruthie and most other characters are Jewish refugees.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some reference to honoring religious practices.

Violent Content
Ruthie remembers the Night of Broken Glass, in which her home was ransacked. She remembers other threats against Jewish people, including the threat to send them all to concentration camps if they return to Germany.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books by New Authors I Read in 2022

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Top Ten Authors New to Me that I Read in 2022

2022 was a great year for me in terms of finding debut authors whose books I loved and finally trying books by authors that I’d had on my TBR for a while. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, I’m sharing the top ten best books by new authors (or new to me authors) I read in 2022.

Out of the 171 books that I agreed to review in 2022, 121 of them were authors who were new to me. That doesn’t include the backlist titles that I read, which I am not doing a good job keeping track of right now. I would guess that I’ve read a majority of new authors in backlist titles as well, including Dean Atta, Bethany C. Morris, and Alice Oseman.

So, apparently I read a lot of new authors! Of all those authors, here are the books I ranked as the best six young adult and best four middle grade titles I read in 2022 by authors new to me.

Also, a couple weeks ago I posted a list of the best books I read in 2022. Several of those were by authors who could have been on this list, but honestly I read so many great titles last year that I decided to make a fresh list without overlapping the titles I mentioned before.

Note: Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Best Books by New-to-Me Authors

It Looks Like Us by Allison Ames

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: Did I mention that I’m not usually into horror? I couldn’t get enough of the Antarctic setting. The tenuous friendships disrupted by an alien or infection. Also, there’s a wildly rich, rocket launching, electric car manufacturing guy named Anton Rusk. Lol.

The Darkening by Sunya Mara

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: A city surrounded by a powerful storm filled with magic and monsters. A reluctant prince. A failed revolutionary determined to save her people no matter the cost. I loved the writing and the story kept me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to read more.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: A robotics team superstar and guy who’s good at everything. A tinkerer who only joins the team under duress and isn’t impressed by him. This was such a fun story. I loved the banter and enemies to lovers elements of this one. Total win.

Year on Fire by Julie Buxbaum

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: This one definitely had WE WERE LIARS vibes for me. I got totally wrapped up in the characters and their connections to one another. Julie Buxbaum has other books out, and I cannot wait to read them all.

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: A girl with a bond to her queen who will do anything to protect the two princes. Until she learns a secret that causes her to question every loyalty she’s ever felt. I found the cover copy of this one confusing, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I devoured it in less than twenty-four hours. Loved it.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: I had heard really great things about the adult version of this book, so when I saw that there was a young adult version, I jumped at the chance to read and review it here. I loved the introspective questions, the history and ecology lessons woven together in perfect harmony.

Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: Another title longlisted for the National Book Award– and so deservedly! Lotus is vibrant and talented. I loved the way she heard music in everything. Great writing, and fabulous story.

Ghostcloud by Michael Mann

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: A kidnapped boy is forced to work in a power plant. Then he discovers a ghost who may be able to help him escape. Totally fresh, fascinating story. I loved the ghostly world and relationships between characters.

The Insiders by Mark Oshiro

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: Three friends connected by a mysterious room that appears when they most need an escape from school. I loved the characters and the way the room responded to their stories. Super great book for anyone experiencing bullying and needing an escape.

Set Me Free by Ann Clare LeZotte

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

What you need to know: A Deaf girl from Martha’s Vineyard is hired to teach a young girl who cannot speak. This one went straight to my heart. I loved Mary and walking with her as she processed her own trauma and found healing through helping another girl. Fantastic historical novel.

What are the best books by new authors you’ve read lately?

Do you read a lot of books by new authors, or do you tend to stick with tried-and-true authors you know? If you read new authors, which new authors or new-to-you authors are your current favorites?

Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think of them? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

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The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukranian Famine
Katherine Marsh
MacMillan
Published January 17, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Lost Year

From the author of Nowhere Boy – called “a resistance novel for our times” by The New York Times – comes a brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.

But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines that connect the present-day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, Katherine Marsh’s latest novel sheds fresh light on the Holodomor – the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, and which the Soviet government covered up for decades.

An incredibly timely, page-turning story of family, survival, and sacrifice, inspired by Marsh’s own family history, The Lost Year is perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray and Alan Gratz’s Refugee.

My Review

Stories with alternating timelines are hit or miss for me, but Katherine Marsh is an author whose books have been on my To Be Read list for a long time. That plus the Kyiv setting and rarely explored place/time in history made this book too good to pass up.

It took me a couple chapters to feel like I found my footing in the story. Matthew, our present-day main character, is chafing at the isolation and boredom of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because his family cares for his 100-year-old great grandmother, they stay isolated from the community.

He ends up tasked with helping his great grandmother (GG) sort through some old papers and files. Through this, he discovers a family history he’d known nothing about. Two point-of-view characters from the past, cousins Mila and Helen, reveal the story of the Holodomor, the terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine.

From there, I felt like the pacing of the story picked up, and the connections between the past and present helped to fuel the forward momentum of the story. Matthew’s dad is a journalist reporting on the pandemic from France. He and Matthew discuss the (awful) power of misinformation. They talk about how people can continue to believe falsehoods even as their friends and neighbors experience tragedy.

Just as in the past, Mila at first refuses to believe that her country is experiencing a preventable famine that has already killed thousands.

Conclusion

I thought the way Matthew’s relationship with GG develops and his budding interest in history and writing were really cool elements of the story. I loved that even in that, he shared a connection with Helen, his great-great-great-aunt(??) from the 1930s.

Altogether, I felt like the past and present timeline intersected at just the right moments. It shared themes that built on each other in powerful ways. I loved the introduction to a part of history that isn’t frequently explored, and the connection to the battle against misinformation we still face today.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Helen was born in America after her father emigrated here from Ukraine as a young man. Mila and Nadiya are Ukrainian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to celebrating Christian Orthodox holidays. Reference to the fact that religion has been outlawed in Soviet Ukraine.

Violent Content
Someone delivers a sealed envelope containing live lice to a family in an attempt to infect them with Typhus. Boys attack another boy on the playground. An older girl fights them off. Some descriptions of starvation and death. References to a man being shot.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE LOST YEAR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield

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The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers
Jeremy Dronfield
Quill Tree Books
Published January 17, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholster from Vienna, and his sixteen-year-old son Fritz are arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Germany. Imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, they miraculously survive the Nazis’ murderous brutality.

Then Gustav learns he is being sent to Auschwitz–and certain death.

For Fritz, letting his father go is unthinkable. Desperate to remain together, Fritz makes an incredible choice: he insists he must go too. To the Nazis, one death camp is the same as another, and so the boy is allowed to follow.

Throughout the six years of horror they witness and immeasurable suffering they endure as victims of the camps, one constant keeps them alive: their love and hope for the future.

Based on the secret diary that Gustav kept as well as meticulous archival research and interviews with members of the Kleinmann family, including Fritz’s younger brother Kurt, sent to the United States at age eleven to escape the war, THE BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS FATHER INTO AUSCHWITZ is Gustav and Fritz’s story–an extraordinary account of courage, loyalty, survival, and love that is unforgettable.

My Review

One of the things that caught my attention with this book is the way it follows the separate journeys of two brothers, Kurt and Fritz. The narrative stays with one brother for a few chapters and then switches to the other. Somehow putting those stories side by side made the whole even more moving than I think it would have been to tell them individually.

In any case, I got completely swept away by this book. Fritz’s father– oh my gosh. He seemed like such an incredible person. He kept hopeful in the face of some truly horrifying experiences. His relationship with Fritz was so cool, too. And Kurt, living in the US. I loved getting the window into his story, too.

Some wild things happened to those guys, too. I’ve read other stories about WWII before, so some things I was already a little bit familiar with, like Kristallnacht. (Familiarity did not lessen the heartbreak, though.) But other things, like what happened when the camp inspector demanded that no Jewish prisoners be in specialized positions in the camp, were things I’d never read about before.

The back of the book has a lot of additional resources for readers who want to know more. I loved reading through that timeline and looking at the other sources, too.

The only thing I’d say negatively about the book is that there are a few places where I feel like the author talks down to readers a little bit. It’s not often or overly much, so I think the great parts of the story far outweigh that issue, but I did notice it as I read.

On the whole, I think readers looking to learn more about what happened to Jewish families during World War II should check this one out. Readers who enjoyed THE BOY FROM BUCHENWALD by Robbie Waisman should add this one to their reading lists.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
The story follows Kurt and Fritz, two Austrian Jewish boys.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to marriage.

Spiritual Content
Kurt sings in the choir at his synagogue. His family celebrates Shabbos together. References to other Jewish holy days.

Violent Content
Mentions of terrorism and vandalism. People destroy Jewish businesses and places of worship. Nazis send Fritz and his father to a concentration camp. Mentions of many dying of disease or being overworked or put to death. References to and brief descriptions of soldiers treating prisoners cruelly. References to a resistance movement within the camp and their quest to acquire guns.

Drug Content
Prisoners trade cigarettes for food and favors.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS FATHER INTO AUSCHWITZ in exchange for my honest review.