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Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

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The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2023

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2023

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is a really great one– bookish goals for 2023!

Every year I intend to do a post about this, but most years I don’t manage it. This year I’m being smart(er): I’m not waiting until the holidays get underway to begin thinking about my goals for the new year. As I’m starting this post, it’s October. It will take several sittings to complete the whole post, but my goal is that I won’t be sitting down to a blank screen in January when it’s time to get this queued up to share.

Bookish Goals for 2023

Reading Goals

  • Read at least 150 books. Last year I read over 200, so this is probably a conservative goal, which doesn’t bother me. A lot of my other goals are more ambitious, so it balances out in the end.
  • Say no when my calendar is full. I’m having a really hard time managing my blog calendar lately. There are too many great books out there that I want to read and talk about. For a long time, using a Google Calendar worked to help keep me from overcommitting. I may need a new strategy this year.

Backlist Reading Goals

  • Read and review a 3-5 classics that either are very timely, (hello, FAHRENHEIT 451 and THE FIRE NEXT TIME!) are by BIPOC authors, or are frequently challenged/banned books.
  • Read and review 3-5 backlist nonfiction titles, specifically history/social commentary/relevant self-help books. STAMPED and RADIUM GIRLS are both on this list for me.
  • Read and review 10-12 fiction titles that have been sitting on my shelves for way too long!

Book List Post Goals

  • Participate in 3-4 Top Ten Tuesday posts each quarter. This is a bit of a challenge, since I really agonize over TTT posts and sometimes the topics are just too hard for me to figure out. (I’m horrible at coming up with a list of warm fuzzy bookish moments, for example. I try and my mind goes utterly blank.)
  • Continue posting seasonal most-anticipated lists and wrap-up lists with my favorites from my reading list. These posts are a lot of fun and actually help keep me organized. They also get more engagement than a review post, which makes them super fun.
  • Post reading lists for monthly celebrations like Black History, Women’s History, AAPI Heritage, Pride, etc. This also requires that I’m reading books in those categories. I don’t want to talk the talk without walking the walk.

Retail and Goodreads Reviews

  • Keep up with retail and Goodreads reviews this year. Amazon made this UNBELIEVABLY HARD for me this past year, and I ended up kind of just giving up, which stinks since I know those reviews really help authors.
  • Create a reliable system for posting retail/Goodreads reviews, including when to write those reviews. I work best when I have a set point in my day or week when it’s time to do a task like this.

Work on My Own Bookish Projects

  • Publish a second e-book for indie authors. Years ago I published a short e-book called “Reviews Wanted” with a goal of publishing two more books in the blogger/author relationship vein. This year, I want to complete the second e-book. I’ve already got it outlined and a couple sections written, so I hope to finish that by the end of February.
  • Finish writing a young adult contemporary novel of my own. There’s a project that I’ve left mid-process for a long time that I really want to finish and send out into the world. My goal is to get that done this year after my blogger e-book is done.

What are your bookish goals for 2023?

Do you have any bookish goals for this year or New Year’s resolutions that you’d like to share?

Leave a comment and let me know what goals or resolutions you’ve set for yourself. I’d love to hear about them.

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.

Review: The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby

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The Science of Being Angry
Nicole Melleby
Algonquin Young Readers
Published May 10, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Science of Being Angry

Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.

After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose?

My Review

THE SCIENCE OF BEING ANGRY is the third book by Nicole Melleby that I’ve read. Her books, so far, tend to address identity issues as well as some complex mental health challenges that kids face, and I love them for that. All three books point up how confusing it can be to have big feelings, whether anger, depression, or grief. They also show parents grappling with their own fears and worries without letting those things intrude into the story and take center stage.

Joey has a lot of big feelings and a really hard time articulating them. Even though no one specifically articulates what’s happening, I felt like, as a reader, watching her, I could start to see patterns in some of the things that set off her anger. I loved that those clues were there, even though the story isn’t specifically about discovering why she feels the way she feels. The story focuses on recognizing the ways in which her behavior is hurting others and also the journey she and her family face to deciding it’s time for professional support for Joey and her family.

In my own experiences with mental health, we often neglect to think about the part of the journey that THE SCIENCE OF BEING ANGRY brings into the light. We want quick fixes. Or we want to ignore an issue, hoping it will resolve on its own (sometimes they do, so that impulse isn’t always wrong). Someone’s parents can be trying as hard as they can to find the right path forward, and it can still be a messy and painful and confusing process. I feel like this book perfectly nails that experience.

And it also brings readers a lot of hope. Loving someone and continuing to look for solutions matters. Loving someone and continuing to build communication and trust matters. Without being preachy, the book points up a lot of those great strengths that a family can bring. It also addresses the importance of counseling and the positives that can come from that kind of help.

Over all, THE SCIENCE OF BEING ANGRY is another great book by an author I can’t get enough of. I’m so glad I had the chance to read it, and I hope it finds its way into the hands of all the readers who need the hope and encouragement it brings.

If you want to know more about Nicole Melleby’s books, check out my reviews of HURRICANE SEASON and HOW TO BECOME A PLANET.

Content Notes for The Science of Being Angry

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Joey has two moms and likes girls romantically.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Two girls kiss. Some descriptions of affection between Joey’s moms.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Joey pushes, shoves, and sometimes hits other kids, and her Mama.

A boy shoves a girl, hits her in the face with a piece of pizza, and calls her a rude nickname.

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 SCIENCE OF BEING ANGRY in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Breakup From Hell by Ann Davila Cardinal

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Breakup From Hell
Ann Davila Cardinal
HarperTeen
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Breakup From Hell

Miguela Angeles is tired. Tired of her abuela keeping secrets, especially about her heritage. Tired of her small Vermont town and hanging out at the same places with the same friends she’s known forever. So when another boring Sunday trip to church turns into a run-in with Sam, a mysterious hottie in town on vacation, Mica seizes the opportunity to get closer to him.

It’s not long before she is under Sam’s spell and doing things she’s never done before, like winning all her martial arts sparring matches—and lying to her favorite people. The more time Mica spends with Sam, the more weird things start to happen, too. Like terrifying-visions-of-the-world-ending weird.

Mica’s gut instincts keep telling her something is off, yet Sam is the most exciting guy she’s ever met. But when Mica discovers his family’s roots, she realizes that instead of being in the typical high school relationship, she’s living in a horror novel.

She has to leave Sam, but will ending their relationship also bring an end to everything she knows and everyone she loves?

Clever, hilarious, and steeped in supernatural suspense, BREAKUP FROM HELL will keep you hooked until the last page.

My Review

This was a fun book to read. It’s got some suspense– the world may literally end if Mica and her friends can’t figure out how to stop it. But it’s also got a lot of fun banter between friends, a best friends to lovers thread, and a powerful main character with a strong connection to her mom and grandmother.

BREAKUP FROM HELL is set in a small Vermont town, which I also really liked. It feels very much like a small New England place, with a small downtown area filled with interesting shops and some surrounding farmland. I liked the way the story used the landscape at different points. It was kind of funny to see this quaint little town erupt with apocalyptic events.

I really liked the relationships between Mica and her friends, especially Zee and Rage. They were a loyal friend group with a very can-do approach to things. They stuck together and needed each other in order to piece everything together. I also loved Mica’s relationship with Abuela. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but they both loved each other so much, and ultimately wanted the best for one another. I thought Abuela’s notes on the fridge were fantastic.

All in all, I thought BREAKUP FROM HELL was a fun read, perfect for fans of paranormal books like BITTERWINE OATH by Hannah West.

Content Notes for Breakup From Hell

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Mica is Puerto Rican.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Mica learns that the boy she’s been dating has dark powers and dark spiritual connections. Some characters have supernatural abilities. Some items also have supernatural abilities. Evil creatures can’t come onto the sacred ground of a church or chapel. Mica and her friend witness an evil sacrifice.

Violent Content
Mica and her friend witness an evil sacrifice of a deer. Situations of peril. Brief battle violence. A powerful weapon vanquishes an evil character, turning them to ash.

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 BREAKUP FROM HELL in exchange for my honest review.

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

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The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel
Antonio Iturbe
Illustrated by Loreto Aroca
Translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites
Adapted by Salva Rubio
Godwin Books/MacMillan
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel

Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this graphic novel tells the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.

Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.

My Review

From the very beginning, Dita is a brave, strong character. Her love for books runs from the first page to the last. She cares not only for the books during her time at Auschwitz, but also for her mother and her friends.

The illustrations in the book really bring the story to life. Several scenes got me all teared up. It was easy to feel Dita’s anguish over the death of her father and her friend. I also had chills as she acted quickly to hide books from Nazi soldiers during an inspection, an act that saved everyone in her block.

After the story finishes, there are some sections that explain more of the history and give facts about some of the important characters. I enjoyed reading that as well.

All in all, this is an incredibly inspiring story that makes me want to know more about Dita Kraus and her life. I noticed on Amazon that there’s an autobiography of her life, so I’ll probably pick that up and add it to my reading list, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
The book is based on Dita Kraus, a Czechoslovakian Jewish woman who was imprisoned at Auschwitz as a teenager.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Nazi soldiers call a woman a slur.

Romance/Sexual Content
A couple panels show a crowd of people stripped naked waiting for showers. The images don’t really detail private areas. One panel shows a group of women (still naked from an inspection) hugging because their lives have been spared. A group of boys tease Dita and ask to touch her breasts.

Kiss between two men.

Spiritual Content
Inside Auschwitz, Dita and others celebrate Passover.

Violent Content
Some panels show soldiers abusing prisoners by hitting them. One soldier tattoos Dita’s arm with a series of numbers. Dita hears that nearly 4,000 prisoners, many of them children, are executed. Dita hears that a man she considered a friend has died by suicide. (She’s later told this isn’t true.)

Dita is forced to carry bodies of prisoners who’ve died. One panel shows her at a distance, standing next to a pit of the dead.

Drug Content
Dita hears rumors that a man overdosed on pills and died. Some people believed it was an accidental overdose from an addiction. Others believed he died by suicide.

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 LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL in exchange for my honest review.