Tag Archives: Community

Review: Morning Sun in Wuhan by Ying Chang Compestine

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , , ,
Morning Sun in Wuhan by Ying Chang Compestine

Morning Sun in Wuhan
Ying Chang Compestine
Clarion Books
Published November 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Morning Sun in Wuhan

What was the pandemic of the century like at the start? This swift, gripping novel captures not only the uncertainty and panic when COVID first emerged in Wuhan, but also how a community banded together.

Weaving in the tastes and sounds of the historic city, Wuhan’s comforting and distinctive cuisine comes to life as the reader follows 13-year-old Mei who, through her love for cooking, makes a difference in her community. Written by an award-winning author originally from Wuhan.

Grieving the death of her mother and an outcast at school, thirteen-year-old Mei finds solace in cooking and computer games. When her friend’s grandmother falls ill, Mei seeks out her father, a doctor, for help, and discovers the hospital is overcrowded. As the virus spreads, Mei finds herself alone in a locked-down city trying to find a way to help.

Author Ying Chang Compestine draws on her own experiences growing up in Wuhan to illustrate that the darkest times can bring out the best in people, friendship can give one courage in frightening times, and most importantly, young people can make an impact on the world. Readers can follow Mei’s tantalizing recipes and cook them at home.

My Review

Not going to lie– I love that this book included recipes! I want to try all of them. The game Mei plays, Chop Chop also sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve played a game called Plate Up before which sounds way less sophisticated than how Chop Chop is described to be. Still, I had to laugh when different things happen with Mei and her team members in the game, because it reminded me of things that happened during my own kitchen/cooking game play experience. Haha!

I also really loved the community aspect of the story. I remember reading about the city of Wuhan being shut down during the pandemic, but I didn’t really have a grid for what that was actually like. We get to see the growing fear and uncertainty through Mei’s eyes, but we also get to see the way that she joins other community members to help those in need by delivering food and caring for her neighbors.

MORNING SUN IN WUHAN isn’t a super long book. I think it took me less than two hours to read altogether. The pacing is pretty smooth, and I loved Mei and her friends. It was easy to invest in their stories and hurt along with them and cheer for their victories.

All in all, I think this is a great book for kids who are curious about what the pandemic has been like in other places or are looking for a story about a young chef or gamer. I think readers who enjoyed HONESTLY, ELLIOT by Gillian McDunn will love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Characters are Chinese. Mei’s mother has recently passed away.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Mei witnesses people getting angry as they shop in the last few minutes before the city shuts down.

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 this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: A Taste of Magic by J. Elle

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,

A Taste of Magic
J. Elle
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published August 30, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Taste of Magic

NYT bestseller J. Elle makes her MG debut in the delightful story of a girl who bakes up a plan to save her inner-city magic school.
Twelve-year-old Kyana has just discovered she’s a witch! This means classes every Saturday at Park Row Magic Academy, a learning center hidden in the back of the local beauty shop, and Kyana can’t wait to learn spells to help out at home. The only downside is having to keep her magic a secret from her BFF, Nae. But when the magic school loses funding, the students must pay huge fees at the fancy school across town or lose their magic! Determined to help, Kyana enters a baking contest with a big cash prize. Will she be able to keep up her grades while preparing for the competition and without revealing her magic? What about when a taste of magic works its way into her cupcakes?
Exciting up-and-coming author J. Elle combines the perfect balance of real-world issues and magical mishaps to create real magic.

My Review

I think my favorite part of this book was the love shared between three generations of women in Kyana’s house: her, her Mama, and Memaw. I loved the scenes where they cooked or baked together. They were always making such amazing things.

I also enjoyed the way Kyana’s experience baking influenced her approach to her magic. As she got more comfortable with the idea that she could use and perform magic, she discovered instincts for making potions that she couldn’t explain. She also connected with new friends. I loved her friendship with her bestie, Nae, too.

As Kyana’s plan to save her magic school begins to unravel, she has a choice between trying to get her rescue mission back on track alone, or reaching out to her new magic community and asking for help. I loved the way this became a story about community and the way a group offers so much more than an individual in terms of problem-solving ability.

All in all, A TASTE OF MAGIC is a fun, sweet story celebrating family and community and the magic of delicious food bringing people together. Readers who enjoyed A COMB OF WISHES by Lisa Stringfellow will love the heart and magic in this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Kyana is Black. Most characters are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Kyana learns she has the ability to do magic. Other characters have magical ability, too.

Violent Content
None.

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 A TASTE OF MAGIC in exchange for my honest review.

Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

At the End of Everything
Marieke Nijkamp
Sourcebooks Fire
Published on January 25, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About At the End of Everything

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.

Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day…they don’t show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There’s a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they’re stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all.

As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place.

My Review

I requested this book because both of the other books by Marieke Nijkamp (THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS and BEFORE I LET GO) have been powerfully told stories and really well written– and this one is no exception. I wish I had been in a different place when I picked up this book to read it. Like, I loved the characters, and it’s such a heart-wrenching story. I wish I’d had more emotional bandwidth as I was reading the book, which isn’t the author’s fault at all. I think I just happened to read it when my emotional gas tank was almost empty.

But. All that aside.

So the story follows three points of view: Logan, who communicates via a sign language she and her twin sister developed between them; Emerson, a new resident of Hope who’s also nonbinary; and Grace, a girl with some big anger issues who winds up reluctantly in charge of the group.

I loved the balance of those three points of view. They all have different feelings and ideas about what’s happening and how to go forward in the best way. Each of them contribute critical things to the survival of the group, but in really different ways. I think the whole story could have been told from any one of those perspectives, but I think choosing all three added so much to the depth and breadth of the book.

The plot is pretty simple– a deadly plague disrupts every aspect of life as they know it– but it brings really high stakes. The characters literally face life and death decisions at every turn. I read this book in two days, and I couldn’t not do that. I was absolutely drawn into AT THE END OF EVERYTHING and what would happen to each of the characters in it.

Conclusion

Something about the book reminded me of AWAY WAY WE GO by Emile Ostrovski. It’s a bit darker than that one is, but I guess it has a similar feel in terms of this small, collapsing world inside a culture faced with a global pandemic. I think fans of edgy fiction will like AT THE END OF EVERYTHING.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white. One is mute. Another is Ace. The other is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
One character was raised as a Catholic, but when they came out as nonbinary, they were rejected from their church. They have a lot of (understandable) feelings of anger and hurt, but at one point they express longing to have the certainty of faith in their life again. Sometimes they pray or ask St. Jude to pray for them.

Violent Content – trigger warning for sexual assault, transphobia, and ableism.
A group of kids surround another kid and beat them up. Soldiers shoot and kill a boy who does not follow their commands. A girl sees a boy sexually assaulting another girl and beats him up. Two girls light a warehouse on fire that they thought was empty and nearly kill someone in the fire.

Emerson (the nonbinary character) faces situations in which they’re misgendered or harmed for their identity. Their parents threw them out and their friends abandoned them when they came out as nonbinary.

Several other characters belittle or talk down to Logan because she communicates with sign language and they assume she’s less intelligent or less capable than they are. Those behaviors are clearly addressed and called out as wrong and harmful.

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 AT THE END OF EVERYTHING in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Storm Keeper’s Battle by Catherine Doyle

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , , ,

Storm Keeper’s Battle (Storm Keeper #3)
Catherine Doyle
Bloomsbury
Published December 28, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Storm Keeper’s Battle

Fionn Boyle, Storm Keeper of Arranmore, is facing the fight of his life. The terrifying all- powerful sorceress Morrigan has been raised from the dead and has sealed off the island from all help.

Fionn is the only thing that stands between her and a dark future. He’s got to find a way to defeat her. But there are some terrible choices in store for Fionn as the dark sorcerer begins to take his nearest and dearest for her own. With only two candles left to burn, will Fionn master his powers in time to stop her?

In the thrilling conclusion to the acclaimed Storm Keeper’s Island series, evil sorceress Morrigan rises, and Fionn and his friends must use their wits to save Arranmore Island’s future.

“Fans of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson can add Fionn Boyle as a generous and brave hero from the Emerald Isle.” –SCHOOL LIBRARY CONNECTION on THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND.

My Review

Confession: I learned that THE STORM KEEPER’S BATTLE came out in the UK in March, so I ordered a copy and read it long before the US release date. This is something I’ve never done before, but I seriously could not wait to read this book all the way until October. So technically I read the UK release of the book, but I waited to post my review until close to the release date here in the US.

I have too many favorite things about this book. The friendships between Fionn, Shelby and Sam. The way it again ties together all these moments in the island’s past and Fionn’s role in those events. The memories of and presence of Fionn’s grandfather. I may have sobbed through a couple of scenes.

At the beginning of the book, I’ll admit I was a little nervous that it would be tons of chapters of Fionn and friends stumbling around looking for clues and killing time until the final battle with Morrigan. But as the trail of breadcrumbs began to take shape pretty quickly and the stakes continued to go up higher and higher, I felt like I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I got completely lost in the story and couldn’t stop reading until I reached the very last page.

This is one of my favorite series ever. I want to have ten children so that I can read these books aloud to each one of them. I love the story of courage, family, friendships, and community. And I love the magic and the candles and the way that love speaks across time. It’s so, so good.

If this is the first you’ve heard of the Storm Keeper books, please check out my review of THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND, the first book in the series as you’ll definitely want to read that one first.

If you liked THE RAVEN HEIR by Stephanie Burgis, definitely check out the Storm Keeper series!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Characters are Irish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used twice.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
An evil sorcerer gathers the souls of others to her, making a cape from them and controlling their bodies, commanding them like an army. Fionn also has some magical abilities. He has candles from his grandfather which allow him to visit other times in the island’s history.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and battle violence. Fionn and his allies must battle a sorceress and her powerful, Titan-like brothers.

Drug Content
Fionn’s uncles drink wine and share stories with the family.

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

Review: The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe by Tricia Springstubb

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe
Tricia Springstubb
Margaret Ferguson Books
Published June 1, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe by Tricia Springstubb

Eleven-year-old Loah Londonderry is definitely a homebody. While her mother, a noted ornithologist, works to save the endangered birds of the shrinking Arctic tundra, Loah anxiously counts the days till her return home. But then, to Loah’s surprise and dismay, Dr. Londonderry decides to set off on a perilous solo quest to find the Loah bird, long believed extinct. Does her mother care more deeply about Loah the bird than Loah her daughter?

Things get worse yet when Loah’s elderly caretakers fall ill and she finds herself all alone except for her friend Ellis. Ellis has big problems of her own, but she believes in Loah. She’s certain Loah has strengths that are hidden yet wonderful, like the golden feather tucked away on her namesake bird’s wing. When Dr. Londonderry’s expedition goes terribly wrong, Loah needs to discover for herself whether she has the courage and heart to find help for her mother, lost at the top of the world.

Beautifully written, THE MOST PERFECT THING IN THE UNIVERSE is about expeditions big and small, about creatures who defy gravity and those of us who are bound by it.

For fans of SHOUTING AT THE RAIN by Lynda Mullaly and THE ADVENTURES OF A GIRL CALLED BICYCLE by Christina Uss, a novel about one unadventurous girl who discovers she is anything but.

My Review

I want to say all the things about this book at the same time, which could be my coffee kicking in. This book is odd in all the best possible ways. It has super quirky characters. A mysterious home deep in the woods. I love stories that feature the importance of community and found family, and THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE UNIVERSE absolutely does that so well.

At the beginning of the story, Loah is isolated and fearful. She’s counting down the days until her mom comes home and life will be normal again. Not only does that not happen, but her mom extending her trip is only the first in a series of dominoes that change Loah’s carefully ordered small world. As she faces circumstances that challenge her, she finds a fierceness that she didn’t know she had. The girl who once felt as isolated as an endangered bird becomes the catalyst for bringing a group of unconnected people together as a community.

I love the characters in this book. Sweet, soft-spoken Theo who can always be counted on to slip Loah some gummy worms and pragmatic, no-nonsense Miss Rinker reminded me of Matthew and Marilla from ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. Loah’s neighbors, a keep-to-themselves, self-sufficient family also have strong personalities. At first they scare Loah, but they teach her a lot about resilience and family.

I haven’t read either of the two books mentioned in the book summary, but THE MOST PERFECT THING IN THE UNIVERSE reminded me of SIX FEET BELOW ZERO by Ena Jones or CHIRP by Kate Messner. I think readers who enjoyed either of those books or who just like stories featuring small, quirky towns with big characters will love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
One minor character is described as having dark skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some pieces fall from Loah’s roof, nearly injuring someone. A vulture vomits on someone.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The People We Choose by Katelyn Detweiler

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The People We Choose
Katelyn Detweiler
Margaret Ferguson Books
Published May 4, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The People We Choose

When Calliope Silversmith meets her new neighbor Max, their chemistry is instantaneous, but the revelation of her biological father’s identity throws her whole life into disarray.

Calliope Silversmith has always had just two friends in her small Pennsylvania town, Ginger and Noah, and she’s fine with that. She’s never wanted anything more than her best friends, her moms, their house in the woods, and their family-run yoga studio–except maybe knowing who her sperm donor is. Her curiosity has been building for years, and she can finally find out this summer when she turns eighteen.

But when Max and his family move into the sad old house across the woods from Calliope, she realizes it’s nice to get to know someone new, so nice that she decides to break her no dating rule. The stability of her longtime trio wavers as she and Max start to spend more and more time together.

When Calliope finally finds out who her sperm donor is, she learns a truth more shocking and unfathomable than she could have ever dreamed: her donor is Max’s father. How is this even possible? As she and Max struggle to redefine their friendship, Calliope realizes that she can turn a horrific situation into something positive by recognizing and accepting that family is both the one we are born into and the one we choose to make.

My Review

I love relationship books– and this is definitely a relationship book. Calliope has two lifelong best friends, one of whom is in love with her. She doesn’t return those feelings, though, and for a while, things go unsaid and unacknowledged. Max’s arrival and the obvious chemistry between Calliope and Max changes that, though.

I identified with that conflict so much– the complicated situation that a friendship where one person has greater feelings can become. I still have a lot of feelings of guilt and regret over a relationship in my own past, so it was both heartbreaking and cathartic to see that conflict on the page. I remember literally thinking some of the things Calliope thinks in wrestling with the relationship, so that felt real to me. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another book tackle that situation in such a real, frank way.

Another thing I liked is the fact that while the story has some romantic feelings in it, it doesn’t center around romance. It really explores what makes a family and how to redefine relationships in the face of difficult changes. I liked the way Calliope’s moms were protective and paying attention, but that they also gave her space to find her own way. I felt like their relationships had a great balance in that way.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading PEOPLE WE CHOOSE. I think people who enjoyed YOUR DESTINATION IS ON THE LEFT by Lauren Spieller or who like books exploring relationships will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Max is Black. Ginger is a lesbian. Calliope has two moms.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning for Incest
Brief descriptions of kissing between boy and girl (who turn out to be siblings and really grossed out about it later.)

Reference to a kiss between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of heated arguments between adults. Brief description of a woman’s accidental death.

Drug Content
One minor character is an alcoholic.

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