House Arrest

Timothy is on probation for a year.  That means the only place he can go without his mom is school.  He's under house arrest for a year!  He also has to check in with his probation officer and his therapist every week and keep a stupid journal that's supposed to show how sorry he is.

But he's not sorry.  Why is Timothy on probation?  He baby brother is really sick, like he needs someone watching him 24/7 almost died right after he was born sick.  Timothy's dad didn't stick around for long after the baby was born, leaving his mom alone to work and take care of the family.  She's doing the best she can, but medicine and nurses are expensive, so Timothy didn't even hesitate when he saw the man's wallet on the counter.  He just took it and bought the medicine his baby brother needed.

Now he's just made everything worse because his mom has to worry about his probation on top of everything else. As things continue to get worse for his family, Timothy decides to do whatever it takes to get help for his little brother, even if that might not seem like a good idea to anyone else.

I really enjoyed K. A. Holt's new verse novel.  It's touching and funny, and everyone will be rooting for Timothy and his brave family!

Paper Hearts

Meg Wiviott's novel in verse is based on a true story of friendship and survival during the holocaust.

Fania and Zlotka find themselves at Auschwitz concentration camp.  There is no reason for the Nazis to hate them--except that they are Jews.  The girls never met before coming to the camp, but once there they form an instant bond of friendship.

Through the dehumanizing efforts of the Nazis, the young women find courage and strength from each other and their small group of friends.  In a place without hope, without love, without family, these young women dare to find all three.

Everything is illegal in Auschwitz but especially paper, pencils, and scissors, but Fania's 20th birthday is coming, and her friends want to do something special, something small, something dangerous.  They steal supplies to make a birthday card in the shape of a heart and bound with fabric taken from their own clothes.

This true story shows that it is possible to have hope and friendship even in the darkest of times.  Highly recommended.

Mountain Dog

When Tony's mother goes to prison for breeding and fighting pit bulls, he has nowhere to go.  Even though life with his mother was violent and scary, it was the only life he knew.

It's a surprise when his social worker tells him she's found a relative to be his foster parent, a great-uncle.  Tio lives in Sierra Nevada mountains and works as a ranger and rescuer with his dog Gabe.  Life with Tio and Gabe in the mountains couldn't be more different than life in inner city LA, but it doesn't take long before the knots in Tony's heart begin to loosen.

He loves the mountains, and he especially loves Gabe.  The chocolate lab is different from the angry and abused pit bulls Tony has always known, and Gabe seems to know how to heal Tony's broken spirit.

The best part of Tony's new life is learning how to help train rescue dogs and survive in the wilderness.  Tony loves being part of a team that can save people from almost certain death.

Life in the mountains may be the best thing that ever happened to Tony, but he still has the lingering fear that all this is temporary.  Tio's cabin is only his foster home.

I loved Margarita Engle's story of heartbreak and healing.  The verse novel is told in alternating chapters from Tony's and Gabe's points of view and is a story any animal lover will instinctively understand.  We may rescue our pets from shelters and bad environments, but in the end they are the ones who rescue us.  Highly recommended!

The Crossover

Josh's dad, and pretty much everyone else, calls him Filthy McNasty because of his skills on the basketball court.  Only two people can come close:  his twin brother JB and their dad.

But just as their team is poised to take the championship, things start to go wrong.  Josh and JB have always been best friends, but now JB has a crush on the new girl Alexis.  Miss Sweet Tea may be cute and a baller, but it's not easy for someone else to take the number one spot away from Josh.

Josh's dad used to be a professional player in the Euroleague until his hurt his knee.  His career could have continued if he's had knee surgery, but he has always been opposed to doctors.  The same is true now that he's had fainting spells and shortness of breath.  Heart problems run in the family, but "da man" can't be brought down  so easily.  The fried chicken and donuts don't help.
All of this is driving Josh a little crazy, and he lashes out at JB at a game.  Can these two brothers ever repair their relationship, or is this the end of a beautiful friendship?

I loved Kwame Alexander's story of basketball and family told in verse format.

Serafina's Promise

Serafina has a secret desire to become a doctor.  Ever since the day she met Antoinette Solaine, the doctor who tried to help her baby brother, Serafina has known she wanted to become a doctor, too.  But you have to go to school to become a doctor, and Serafina's life is full of chores.  Every day she takes the bucket to stream where she collects water for the family's needs.  Then she sweeps the dirt floor of their home, helps wash the clothes, and then helps Manman and Gogo prepare the rice for dinner.  Even if there were other children to help with the chores, Serafina knows there is no money for school.

But Serafina will do whatever it takes to go to school so she can help the people of Haiti one day just like Antoinette Solaine.  Her dream will have to overcome more than crippling poverty.  Serafina's family will face illness, hunger, floods, and eventually the earthquake that destroys most of the island.  Life only gets harder for Serafina and the people of Haiti, and she will see the truth of Manman's words, "The only unbreakable home is one made with love."

I LOVE Ann E. Burg's newest verse novel.  It is beautiful story about dreams and love in the face of extreme poverty and devastation.

Serendipity and Me

Sara loves cats.  She has cat posters, cat slippers, stuffed animal cats, everything  but an actual cat.  Her dad's answer is always no.

They are both struggling with grief over her mother's death when Sara gets the flu.  She is home feeling sick and alone when a kitten appears at their front door.  Sara just knows she can convince her dad to fall in love with this sweet little kitten named Serendipity, but her dad doesn't want to budge.

Sara and her dad feel separated from the world and each other by their grief, and Serendipity is warm and soft.  The kitten comforts Sara in a ways she hasn't felt for a long time.  It will rip her heart out all over again if she has to give Serendipity up.

In her quest to find a way to keep Serendipity, Sara discovers some truths about her parents' past and the reason her dad refuses to get a cat.  Maybe Serendipity can help both of them to begin to heal after all these years.

Judith L. Roth's new book is a bittersweet little verse novel about the debilitating and isolating power of grief and the love and companionship we can find with our pets.

May B.

If you've ever been a fan of Little House on the Prairie, you'll enjoy this book, and if you enjoy May B, you should check out Little House on the Prairie.  We have the books in the library, and you can get the TV show from Netflix.

May feels useless.  Her struggles in reading mean her chances of returning to school are slim, and she's not a boy, so she can't help out on the farm like her brother, Hiram.  Her parents have decided to hire her out to Mr. Oblinger and his new wife; they need the money and it's only until Christmas, just five months.  But for May, five months might as well be forever, and the fifteen miles to Oblinger's farm might as well be a hundred.

Soon after she arrives at the lonely sod house, things go wrong, and May will have to find a way to survive on her own.  During these lonely hours she will also work out old frustrations and fears.  It is so tempting to just give in to depression.  Will May B. find a way to gather her strength?  Maybe she will; maybe she won't.

Read Caroline Starr Rose's new book, and you'll be transported back to another time when May's survival is a day to day matter, but many of her struggles are the same ones children face today.  The format of this verse novel contributes to the starkness and loneliness of May's life on the prairie.

Under the Mesquite

For Lupita, family is everything.  Her mother is the driving force that keeps everything together from Lupita's young childhood in Mexico to life now in los Estados Unidos.  Mami can make everything work from squabbling little brothers and sisters to fresh tortillas to a yard full of beautiful rosebushes.  As the oldest, Lupita has always helped out, but she doesn't really mind the extra time those chores give her with Mami.  Papi spends most of his time working to provide for his family and save for the future, so Mami counts on Lupita to help with the little kids.

When Lupita is 14, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes forever.  There are moments of lightness and occasional trips to Mexico to visit family and friends there, but most of the family's energy and all of their prayers are devoted helping Mami get better.

Even with the stress about Mami and her responsibilities at home, Lupita finds time to take drama at school, and she's pretty good.  But as Mami's cancer gets worse, Lupita feels overwhelmed with responsibility, and her efforts to improve herself, could pull her away from family and friends.

The verse novel is a beautiful story of heartbreak and triumph and the struggle of balancing who you were with who you want to be.  I highly recommend Guadalupe Garcia McCall's novel.  Plus, she is San Antonio middle school teacher who used her own immigration experiences to inform Lupita's story.

Inside Out and Back Again

Ha has always lived in Saigon with her mother and three older brothers.  Her father went off to war with the Navy so long ago that she can barely remember him, but the family hasn't given up hope yet.  Even though things are getting worse in Saigon and the communist army is getting closer, Ha doesn't want to leave her home.

When the time comes, Ha's family will flee Vietnam with more people than she can count headed for an uncertain future.  A series of spur of the moment decisions leads them Alabama.

Her new small American town is so different from Saigon, and it seems almost impossible to find a way to fit in especially when so many people don't even want to bother with their new Vietnamese neighbors.  And in the Alabama of 1975, the law may say segregation is other, but Ha feels lost somewhere in the middle.

This beautiful novel written in verse takes the reader through a child's journey, forced to immigrate by war and thrown into a new and confusing world.  Be sure to read the author's note at the end to learn how Thanhha Lai based many of the events on her own experiences.

Hidden

Wren Abbott was hiding in the back seat of her mother's minivan the day it was stolen from a gas station parking lot.

Darra Monson's father is the man who stole that minivan.

As eight year old girls, these two met without meeting in an experience that would change both of them forever.

Now it is six years later, and each girl has her own memory and interpretation of that time together.  Wren is headed off to summer camp like she does every year, but as she is reconnecting with old friends, she hears a voice, sees a face from the past that paralyzes her with an old long buried anxiety.

Darra doesn't want to go to some summer camp for rich kids with perfect lives.  She feels there stares and hears their whispers as she and her mom pull up in their rusted out car.  Then she sees someone she never thought she'd see again.  Wren looks the same, older, but the same.

Now these two girls are caught up in a web of emotions and secrets that may not allow them to see the truth about who they are now or about what happened all those year's ago.

Helen Frost's new novel is written in verse, so it is a quick but intense read.  Be sure to read the author's note at the end, so you can go back into the story for something extra!