Middle schooler Joe Oak has a list of things he wishes he didn’t have to know. For example, he knows how much his grandmum makes cleaning houses durinMiddle schooler Joe Oak has a list of things he wishes he didn’t have to know. For example, he knows how much his grandmum makes cleaning houses during the day and office buildings at night; he knows exactly how much money is loaded onto his family’s SNAP card each month; he knows what items he and his grandmum can use SNAP to purchase at the grocery store and, more importantly, he knows what items the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program won’t pay for. Things like...
“… soap, shampoo, deodorant, detergent, toothpaste and toilet paper — anything you need to get and stay clean.”
Joe is good at math, finding comfort in the consistency of numbers. Indeed, Joe’s gift for calculations is at least part of the reason why he knows when the prices of items they need begin to rise. However, no matter how hard Joe tries to make sure they can afford everything they put into the grocery cart, sometimes those numbers just don’t add up.
“I know the humiliation of a grocery store clerk telling you your total, and you don’t have enough, so you have to choose what food to put back — all while everyone waiting in line watches.”
Both Joe and his grandmother are experts at trying to stretch what little they have into just enough for them to survive. Although they rarely make it to the end of the month without a trip to the local soup kitchen, they have each other, which makes things like constant hunger, home insecurity and Joe’s mother’s abandonment a bit more bearable. However, if there’s one thing Joe knows better than anyone, it’s that...
“Every story boils down to and-thens and BOOMS!'
And-thens and BOOMS! are all about the moments when something happens that changes everything.”
Joe’s mother, who has never been reliable, blows back into town.
And-then, BOOM!
“The Mess With Mom” leaves Joe and his grandmum unhoused and living in their car.
Joe’s friend, Nick, tells him about a trailer for rent in same the mobile home park Nick calls home. And while the trailer is so rusted and lopsided Joe nicknames it “the overripe banana,” the park is managed by Uncle Frankie, who spends his days bartering and trading for resources to help the people who live on his property.
And-then, BOOM!
Joe is suddenly left to fend for himself, without his beloved grandmum or the confidence to tell anyone that he needs help. Just when it seems things can’t get any worse…
And-then, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
While Joe’s story is often dominated by the devastating effects of poverty, in the end, Lisa Fipps's sophomore novel-in-verse is a book about love and the kinds of storms that can only be weathered together. It’s only with the help of his “super hero” teacher, Ms. Swan, who works to make sure kids dealing with food, home or other resource insecurities can find the support they need without being “outed” as poor, that Joe is able to access additional food and clothing that grandmum just isn’t able to provide. It’s only with the help of the creative and generous Uncle Frankie, who finds a way for Joe and his grandmother to accept help while also maintaining their dignity, that they are able to begin the work of starting over. And it’s only with the help of his two best friends, Nick and Hakeem, who are constantly looking for ways to support their friend without ever taking away Joe’s ability to choose what happens to him, that Joe is able to finally use his own voice to ask for help.
“When you’re so used to doing everything for yourself, you forget that others will help. if you let them."
On a personal note, as someone whose own childhood was remarkably similar to Joe’s, the thing I loved most about And Then, Boom! was the thread of community running throughout. Poverty is not heroic. It's not romantic. And for every person who manages to break that cycle, there are countless others who don’t. What’s more, there’s no shortage of (perhaps well meaning, perhaps not) people who, having never experienced poverty themselves, feel empowered to offer advice to those trying to break free from its choke-hold. In my experience, however, the narrative of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” falls apart when you don’t actually have boots. Working hard, doing the “right things” are just part of the equation. The other part is community. Not only do Fipps’s descriptions of crushing poverty ring true, (raise your hand if your family ate “bad beef stew,” too!) but her choice to craft this as a story about the strength of community sends a message that makes this book a must read for kids and adults alike.
"I didn’t change my path, but I changed who joined me on it, and that changed everything.”
Full review with links can be found at librarygirl.net
--- ISBN: 9780593406328 Publication: May 4, 2024 Audience: grades 5+ CW: home insecurity, food insecurity, starvation, poverty, death of a grandparent, parental abandonment, foster care, natural disaster
Merged review:
Middle schooler Joe Oak has a list of things he wishes he didn’t have to know. For example, he knows how much his grandmum makes cleaning houses during the day and office buildings at night; he knows exactly how much money is loaded onto his family’s SNAP card each month; he knows what items he and his grandmum can use SNAP to purchase at the grocery store and, more importantly, he knows what items the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program won’t pay for. Things like...
“… soap, shampoo, deodorant, detergent, toothpaste and toilet paper — anything you need to get and stay clean.”
Joe is good at math, finding comfort in the consistency of numbers. Indeed, Joe’s gift for calculations is at least part of the reason why he knows when the prices of items they need begin to rise. However, no matter how hard Joe tries to make sure they can afford everything they put into the grocery cart, sometimes those numbers just don’t add up.
“I know the humiliation of a grocery store clerk telling you your total, and you don’t have enough, so you have to choose what food to put back — all while everyone waiting in line watches.”
Both Joe and his grandmother are experts at trying to stretch what little they have into just enough for them to survive. Although they rarely make it to the end of the month without a trip to the local soup kitchen, they have each other, which makes things like constant hunger, home insecurity and Joe’s mother’s abandonment a bit more bearable. However, if there’s one thing Joe knows better than anyone, it’s that...
“Every story boils down to and-thens and BOOMS!'
And-thens and BOOMS! are all about the moments when something happens that changes everything.”
Joe’s mother, who has never been reliable, blows back into town.
And-then, BOOM!
“The Mess With Mom” leaves Joe and his grandmum unhoused and living in their car.
Joe’s friend, Nick, tells him about a trailer for rent in same the mobile home park Nick calls home. And while the trailer is so rusted and lopsided Joe nicknames it “the overripe banana,” the park is managed by Uncle Frankie, who spends his days bartering and trading for resources to help the people who live on his property.
And-then, BOOM!
Joe is suddenly left to fend for himself, without his beloved grandmum or the confidence to tell anyone that he needs help. Just when it seems things can’t get any worse…
And-then, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
While Joe’s story is often dominated by the devastating effects of poverty, in the end, Lisa Fipps's sophomore novel-in-verse is a book about love and the kinds of storms that can only be weathered together. It’s only with the help of his “super hero” teacher, Ms. Swan, who works to make sure kids dealing with food, home or other resource insecurities can find the support they need without being “outed” as poor, that Joe is able to access additional food and clothing that grandmum just isn’t able to provide. It’s only with the help of the creative and generous Uncle Frankie, who finds a way for Joe and his grandmother to accept help while also maintaining their dignity, that they are able to begin the work of starting over. And it’s only with the help of his two best friends, Nick and Hakeem, who are constantly looking for ways to support their friend without ever taking away Joe’s ability to choose what happens to him, that Joe is able to finally use his own voice to ask for help.
“When you’re so used to doing everything for yourself, you forget that others will help. if you let them."
On a personal note, as someone whose own childhood was remarkably similar to Joe’s, the thing I loved most about And Then, Boom! was the thread of community running throughout. Poverty is not heroic. It's not romantic. And for every person who manages to break that cycle, there are countless others who don’t. What’s more, there’s no shortage of (perhaps well meaning, perhaps not) people who, having never experienced poverty themselves, feel empowered to offer advice to those trying to break free from its choke-hold. In my experience, however, the narrative of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” falls apart when you don’t actually have boots. Working hard, doing the “right things” are just part of the equation. The other part is community. Not only do Fipps’s descriptions of crushing poverty ring true, (raise your hand if your family ate “bad beef stew,” too!) but her choice to craft this as a story about the strength of community sends a message that makes this book a must read for kids and adults alike.
"I didn’t change my path, but I changed who joined me on it, and that changed everything.”
Full review with links can be found at librarygirl.net
--- ISBN: 9780593406328 Publication: May 4, 2024 Audience: grades 5+ CW: home insecurity, food insecurity, starvation, poverty, death of a grandparent, parental abandonment, foster care, natural disaster...more
When I was a kid, my mom was obsessed with the movie Somewhere In Time - a time travel infused romance starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour (plWhen I was a kid, my mom was obsessed with the movie Somewhere In Time - a time travel infused romance starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour (plus there's an extradorinaiy performance from Christopher Plummer as the villain). The film opens with playwright Richard Collier, (Reeve) celebrating at an opening night cast party, when an elderly woman makes her way through the crowd, takes Collier by the hands and earnestly whispers, “come back to me.” Years later, despondent and suffering from writer’s block, Collier hops in his convertible and hits the road, eventually finding himself at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan. There he becomes fascinated by a photo of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), a now deceased, turn-of-the-century stage actress, who Collier can’t help but feel like he’s met before. Several time traveling twists and turns later, and… boom! you guessed it! Not only is Elise McKenna, indeed, the woman who crashed Richard Collier’s cast party 8 years prior, but she and Collier are actually star-crossed lovers who have been separated by almost a century thanks to the cruel whims of time.
In order for this film to work, (and this movie is a masterpiece, y’all. I don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes says), viewers have to believe that love is strong enough to thwart the ever marching tick of time. What’s more, we have to see, in our two lovers, a connection so strong and so true that it confounds the laws of nature. Somewhere In Time works, because we want love to be stronger than the one thing we can’t stop from moving forward. It works, because the filmmakers created characters who feel strong and true enough to disrupt time itself. Elise McKenna and Richard Collier are those characters.
And so are Evan Taft and Shosh Bell from David Arnold’s I Loved You In Another Life.
Following his father’s abandonment and his mother’s cancer diagnosis, Evan Taft finds himself paralyzed by panic attacks - which he refers to as storms. Chatting with his therapist, Evan put it this way:
"...panic felt too feeble a word, and attack felt too familiar... It shouldn't be called what it is, it should be called what it feels like. When Maya asked what it felt like, I said the only word I could think of that came close to describing the vast uncontrollable nature of what was happening inside my body: 'storms.'"
As his hope for the future begins to atrophy, Evan convinces himself that he must give up on his dream of a gap year in Alaska, and a future as an artist, in order to protect his family - particularly his younger brother, Will, (who presents as potentially autistic). Evan and Will share a bond that revolves, in part, around another star-crossed love story of sorts: the Steven Spielberg 80s classic: E.T.. Every Tuesday since their father left, Will and Evan share “bubba nights,” where they order pizza and watch E.T.. The film, and so many of its lessons, become a poetic and important thread throughout the book, offering wisdom to both its characters and its readers.
"Their hearts light up. Bright red. It's part of how they communicate, E.T. and the other aliens. First time we watched it, Will said it reminded him of us. We were on the floor, back against the couch, an open box of pizza on the coffee table. When the little alien hearts lit up, Will didn't miss a beat. 'It's like us,' he said. 'My heart glows to you. And yours glows to me.'"
Across town, recent high school graduate Shosh Bell is equally lost. Following the death of her older sister, and best friend, Stevie, Shosh finds comfort in alcohol and increasingly outrageous/dangerous behavior. After planning their lives together, the loss of Stevie makes everything, from pursuing her acceptance to a prestigious acting program at USC, to simply facing the world without a drink in her hand, feel impossible. For years, Shosh and Stevie planned to get sister tattoos: one featuring Frog and the other Toad, with the phrase, “alone together” beneath their favorite childhood book characters.
"'I always pictured us getting them together. Our chairs next to each other, so we could see the progress.' Shosh looked down at her tattoo. 'They were two close friends sitting alone together.' Our favorite line from our favorite story. Those two words --- 'alone together' --- they were supposed to go here.'"
After Stevie’s death, however, Shosh feels unprepared to face a world in which she is simply alone. Her one tether to a life outside the bottle lies in her former Drama teacher, Ms. Clark, whose support keeps Shosh from completely drowning in grief.
"Shosh felt the cold metal of the flask in her coat pocket and wondered how long before she could drain what was left. I could just leave, she thought, drink the day away, but then Ms. Clark''s arm was around her, and Shosh was leaning her head onto her teacher's shoulder. Tucked in the safety of the swan's wing."
For much of the book, Evan and Shosh are strangers connected only by tragedy, trauma and a shared home town - until, one day, they both begin hearing mysterious and haunting music that no one else can hear. Slowly, the lyrics to each song begin to reveal instructions and locations that, eventually, bring them together. Just as the two characters are discovering one another, interstitial chapters unspool the possibility that Evan and Shosh have been looking for one another for centuries and across historical eras and continents - each vignette ending in tragedy as the two lovers are pulled from one another again and again.
"Come back to me." - Elise McKenna "I'll find you." - Evan Taft
If you've read any of David Arnold's other books, Mosquitoland, Kids of Appetite, The Electric Kingdom or The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, then perhaps it goes without saying that this book is as beautiful as it is surprising. Arnold's prose are moving and poignant. The story, unexpected and entirely captivating. To be clear, I Loved You In Another Life will break your heart, but it will do it in the same way that Somewhere In Time and E.T. break it. Rather than denying the cruel, inevitability of time, these stories affirm our hope in the one thing that is stronger: love.
Bonus Content: if you haven’t read David Arnold’s essay about I Loved You In Another Life for SLJ, go do that now. But, fair warning, you’re gonna need some tissues!
Full review with links can be found at librarygirl.net
------- ISBN: 9780593524787 Publication: Oct. 10, 2023 Audience: Evan and Shosh are high school seniors and recent graduates, respectively. I think this book is best suited for readers in grades 10 and above. ...more
Jake loves roller skating, Broadway musicals, spending time with his grandmother and dreaming of traveling the world… until The Voice takes over. ManyJake loves roller skating, Broadway musicals, spending time with his grandmother and dreaming of traveling the world… until The Voice takes over. Many readers will recognize The Voice and its all too familiar refrains - sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted, but always a reminder to Jake that he’s not worthy of the things or people he loves or of anything else that brings him joy or even of being loved at all. Through both in and outpatient therapy at “The Pines,” a treatment center for teens with disordered eating, Jake has to reckon with what The Voice really is: a way for him to take control of an unpredictable world; a way for him to protect himself from the hurtful words flung at him by middle school bullies, a way to cope with and understand his mother’s neglect and his father’s disappointment.
Through heartfelt free verse poems, hand written letters and various therapy tools, (like feelings charts and daily schedules), John Schu tells Jake’s story as only an author who deeply understands their characters can. Throughout Jake’s journey, we see Schu both pushing and protecting Jake, making his story a safe AND brave place for readers to truly feel Jake’s heart while also exploring and taking care of their own. One of the most powerful aspects of this book is the way Jake’s journey normalizes the tools of therapy in ways that also acknowledge their imperfection. Jake succeeds and thrives, but he also struggles and fails. Not all of the methods tried by his doctors and therapists work. But everyone devoted to his care keeps trying, because they (and we!) know that Jake is worth fighting for, until eventually, Jake realizes it, too.
Just as Jake’s grandmother encourages him to “take care of her boy,” in Louder Than Hunger, John Schu has created a space for readers to wrap themselves in Jake’s story and use it as a tool for taking care of themselves. While Jake’s story is one that centers disordered thinking, ultimately, this is a book about love and connection and how, when combined, those things are so much louder than the voices that try to convince us not to love ourselves. This book will open hearts, mend souls and save lives. The author's note and list of resources at the end of the book add to the support Louder Than Hunger offers its readers.
-------
I received an ARC of Louder Than Hunger from Candlewick Press, which did not influence my review.
ISBN: 9781536229097
Expected Publication: March 5, 2024
Audience: Jake's age ranges from 14 - 16. I think this book is best suited for readers in grades 6 and above. ...more
I’ve been holding onto this recommendation until closer to its release date but the wait is over!
Like all of Jeff Zentner’s books, In The Wild Light I’ve been holding onto this recommendation until closer to its release date but the wait is over!
Like all of Jeff Zentner’s books, In The Wild Light has a heart that beats in Tennessee. And although I’ve never lived in “the volunteer state,” I did call its neighbor to the east home for nearly 30 years - which may be part of the reason why I always feel as though I *know* the small towns that Zentner creates. I’ve been to places like Sawyer, Tennessee. But more importantly, I *know* the people who live and love and sometimes die in there, too.
For example, not only did I recognize pieces of Cash and Delaney: the two HS best friends that In The Wild Light swirls around, but I absolutely knew Cash’s papaw and mamaw - the grandparents who raised Cash after his mother died of a drug overdose and who nearly end up raising Delaney as her mother battles the same addiction. Like a lot of small, rural communities Sawyer, Tennessee is being devoured by drugs. The opioid crisis has swallowed both Cash and Delaney’s parents, and is threatening to destroy them as well, when suddenly, and remarkably, everything changes.
Here’s where I should probably mention that while I definitely taught a lot of kids like Cash, (bright, thoughtful, and loyal HS boys who are fiercely devoted to doing what’s right, but who lack confidence in themselves), I’ve never taught anyone quite like Delaney Doyle who is a bonafide, mega IQ super genius. Not only does she have a photographic memory, but she’s also incredibly curious about the world, which is what inspires her and Cash to explore the caves dotting the river that cuts through their mountain community; it’s in one of those caves that Delaney discovers a new strain of penicillin mold that has the potential to change the world, but is absolutely about to change their lives.
That change starts when Delaney is offered a full scholarship to a prestigious preparatory school in New Canaan, CT, which is thousands of miles (and about a million worlds!) away from Sawyer, Tennessee. The kicker though is that Delaney only agrees to go if Cash is offered the same deal, and while the school immediately agrees, it takes some convincing for Cash to decide it’s time to leave Sawyer: a place that has caused them both so much pain, but that is also the home of his beloved grandparents.
It’s when Cash decides to take a chance on himself, that the story shifts from one about two special kids trying to escape the poison in their small town, to one about those same kids realizing that it’s what’s inside them - their gifts and their love - that will not only be the things that end up saving them, but that might actually save their small town, too.
There’s something deeply earnest about In The Wild Light. We fall in love with Cash and Delaney not because they are lovable (although they are!) but because they need us to love them. Sawyer, Tennessee may be a pin in a fictional map, but its struggles and triumphs are very real. I’m excited for kids living in small, forgotten places like Sawyer to see themselves in this book....more
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