RI Mock Newbery 2022 - September Reading List

And so it begins. I read 15 of the 23 books on the list, and here's what I thought of them. And I am posting after our meeting, so I've include what others thought as well.

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I LOVED THIS. So whimsical yet with the real-world issue of anxiety written in a realistic way.

Things I especially loved and/or could related to:

• Jada yelling her ideas like Socrates: "Ice cream for breakfast!" 

• Marisol worrying about where in the world to go: "She imagines Paris, but all she knows about Paris is the Eiffel Tower, which is very tall. Much taller than Peppina. What if she fell off the top of the Eiffel Tower?" NOTE: I had a panic attack on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh because I thought I was going to slide through the wrought iron.

• Marisol worrying about waiting in the car: "What if her mom takes too long and the car door won't open and Marisol is trapped inside? What if a maniac steals the car with Marisol in the backseat? What if the brakes malfunction and Charlie rolls into traffic?" NOTE: I had these thoughts as a child. And nightmares about them happening. 

• Marisol being a "grumpy grandpa." NOTE: When I was 15, my 5-year-old brother kicked me out his play he was putting on in the basement because I was "being too grumpy." 

• Marisol having a pity party. NOTE: Obviously.

VERDICT: Adorable and good addition to the collection, but not a Newbery contender. Sniff.

Starfish by Lisa Fipps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure if this needed to be in "verse," but I stayed up and read it all in one sitting. Loved Ellie's voice. Loved that there were actual strategies shared by the therapist.

p. 31 - "It's unknown how many students' lives
librarians have saved
by welcoming loners at lunch."

p. 49 - "If I were an article, she'd put a giant X on me."

p. 59 - "Dr. Woodn't-You-Like-to-Know
shelves books based on color,
not alphabetically,
so I think she obviously can't be trusted."

p. 153 - "I saw bits and pieces of me
in the shards.
And it hit me.
That's how people see me,
as bits and pieces of fat.
Not as a person."

VERDICT: Keep on list

 

 

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good stuff. Harry Potter fans will gobble it up. The world-building is pretty even, and there are some SHOCKING twists. Will order for next year.

VERDICT: Keep on list

 

The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting, pretty fast-paced, and most of the questions I had were answered as the book went on. I would like to smack Sai, though. Moral of the story: Don't jump to conclusions.

p. 28 - "Just because everyone says something doesn't mean it's true."

VERDICT: Keep on list

 

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not really a ghost story, first of all. I mean, yeah, there is a ghost, but this isn't quite what the kids who ask for "scary" books are asking for. However, it is so well written; I'm giving it an extra star for the actual text. But I kind of want to take away a star for the whiplash I got between p. 115 and p. 154. Really? A ghost haircut made you pull a 180? It kind of made it seem like the right haircut is all one needs to find one's identity. Within minutes.

Finally, school is 45 minutes away? Gross.

p. 15 - "Smiling seems like it would hurt, like clay has dried on my cheeks and a twitch of my lips would crack it off."

p. 29 - "[G]etting good grades just felt like playing a game, and winning."

p. 46 - "Even reading on the porch sounds more interesting when I pretend to be a character in a book doing it. Reading A Book On The Porch, instead of just reading a book on the porch."

p. 49 - " ... I'm panting, then sobbing, my shoulders quake and my palms press against my face slippery with tears and snot and that narrator that's always murmuring in my head suggests that this is the part of the story where I cry over my uncle's death and maybe start to heal but I don't think that's what's happening but I don't know what's happening ..."

VERDICT: Keep on list

The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A kind of basic "kid has issues and meets an unlikely friend, and they hang out with a senior citizen" plot premise but with the not-so-basic addition of a pet elephant. Immensely readable: I finished in one sitting. I kind of knew there would be a happy ending when Mateo's mom mentioned that she was a lawyer.

VERDICT: Refreshing happy ending, but no longer on our list.

 

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I could have told you the ending by page 76, but still a nice read in the vein of lots of traditional British children's literature. Orphans, lice, ratkilling, bullies, suspected Nazi sympathizers ... you know, tradition.

VERDICT: Reads like a classic, nice and all that, but no longer on our list.





Clues to the Universe by Christina Li
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Love the idea of the Next Big Step.

Do not love the idea of someone refusing to let their kid know who their other parent is.

Nicely executed story of loners finding friends in each other.

 

NOT DISCUSSED, saving for next time

  


Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another reviewer mentioned that this book is set FORTY YEARS AGO, and now I am feeling ancient. I had drop-waist dresses! I knew all the song titles on the mix tape! And the "alternative" bands! I watched The Wizard of Oz once a year on TV! Will these touchstones for me mean anything to today's kids, though?

Anyways, I thought LaRocca did a good job explaining the pressure that Reha felt. And there are many poetic lines. And I think the red and white in the title refers to blood cells? It was fine. But not a Newbery, which is what I read it for.

NOT DISCUSSED, saving for next time

Ways to Grow Love by Renée Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sorry, but I don't think there should be any Ramona comparisons being made ... except for the pickle chapter. Still, a solid younger MG entry that was blessedly devoid of any horrible trauma besides camp pranks and a jerky girl. No dead parents. I didn't love it, but I think it would benefit some of my students to see it on the shelf.

VERDICT: Sweet and important for representation, but not a Newbery contender.

 

The In-Between by Rebecca Ansari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Really liked the family stuff. And the vocab journal. But the kids made some crazy leaps of logic with their investigation, and then everything went off the rails. There was no explanation for why Elena and her sister were stuck in the In-Between. And the big reveal was infuriating.

Although I did like the line, "They weren't lies; they're stories I gathered about other kids at your school, invisible as I was. They are the lives of your classmates, some of whom feel as forgotten as you and I do. Find them. See them the way you saw me."

 NOT DISCUSSED, saving for next time

 

The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This started out so powerfully, but then got cuckoobananas. The realities of life in Haiti and discrimination in the U.S. were explored well, I thought. And I was ready to accept Lady Lydia because ... well, because she was offering allegorical solutions to Gabrielle's stresses. But then ... the talking rat? In an invisibility cloak? The librarian who never seems to be in the library and is always meting out consequences (or maybe I'm just jealous)?

Other things that bothered me:

- Gabrielle's power to have gone into her friend's mom's depression nightmare never seems to arise again. Besides as a potential reason Lady Lydia wants her. But if she was so sensitive, shouldn't Gabrielle have figured out Tianna's deal?

- The statement on p. 137 when Mrs. Adelman "tells me that she is a Holocaust survivor. I'm not sure what that means, and I ask her to explain. She tells her family's story with tears in her eyes." The author doesn't explain at all. Does she expect readers to look it up?

- Egg the pit bull and his owner play catch in Central Park at midnight?

- The family coming through the portal and acting completely normal.

- FEAR going from invisible to visible.

- Supertornado?

- THREE MONTHS OF FLYING AROUND? WHAT?

- There are references to 1985 pop culture, but I don't think the timing is ever explicitly mentioned.

Extra star for ... creativity.

NOT DISCUSSED, saving for next time

 

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids by Cynthia Leitich Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I still don't like short stories.

Also, I was hoping to learn a little more about reservation life. Even though the entire book took place mostly at one powwow in a high school gym.

But I recognize the importance of having more books portraying modern Native American life. And I want to try fry bread.

VERDICT: Important for representation, but not a Newbery contender.

 

Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Can someone tell Spinelli that it's ok to retire? I had so many problems with this one, from Worm not knowing any songs to Becca being so physical with him (sticking fingers up his nose, slapping his butt, kissing him) to the final WTF final scene.

This read like an adolescent fever dream that I don't think any adolescents of my acquaintance would want to read.

VERDICT: No longer on our list.

The Raconteur's Commonplace Book by Kate Milford
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I tried. I really did. But the stories were incredibly random, and I couldn't keep track of the characters. Too much foreshadowing and secrecy. Supposedly there is a payoff at the end ... I took a peek and evidently several of the people are magical creatures or something? Glad I stopped reading.

VERDICT: No longer on our list