Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen. 276 p. Wendy Lamb Books/ Random House Children's Books, September 11, 2018. 9781524768348. (Review from arc courtesy of the publisher.)

We know immediately that something huge has happened to twelve-year-old Felix Knuttson because he's asking a police officer if he's going to be interrogated. He's seen the procedure on t.v. and wonders if his mother, Astrid is being interrogated in another room. He's assured they are not. He's also outraged because they didn't commit any crimes, the criminals got away and Felix and his mom are at the police station.

Once Felix realizes this sympathetic police officer knows the secret he was sworn to keep, Felix explains how their temporary housing crisis came to be. Felix and Astrid were not always between addresses. For the first part of Felix's fatherless life, the two lived with Mormor, his Swedish grandmother, in Astrid's childhood home. Readers learn, through Felix's matter-of-fact, earnest and endearing narrative about how he developed his love for a trivia game show,  Who, What, Where, When, thanks to Mormor, who also made his tomte, a gnome-like creature from Swedish folklore (p.8) that Felix carries everywhere. 

After Felix's mormor died, Astrid sold the home and purchased a condo. Astrid lost both her jobs and the building began to sink because it was built on a riverbank. Astrid could  not afford the cost of repair and so the condo was sold at a loss. And so, the family downsized again and again, each place a bit danker than the last, until they found themselves evicted and an abusive ex-boyfriend's van was the only option.

It was temporary, Astrid said. It was even fun, until the Vancouver summer turned to fall. Astrid managed to get Felix enrolled in a French immersion school. There, he reunited with an old friend and made a new one. He was happy there but their secret was getting harder and harder to keep what with the availability of showers and clean laundry limited. But Astrid's warning that he would be taken away from her and put in a foster home compelled Felix to stay silent. It was easier to lose friends than to lose Astrid. 

Though there is plenty of heartbreak here, Felix is resilient and loves his mom fiercely. He buys into her lies and supports her unconditionally. Until he can't and makes a life-changing decision. Felix is a winning narrator and the reader's heart will break for him again and again; but there's humor and hope to balance things out. 

Give No Fixed Address to readers who enjoy humor in their sad books or to fans of How to Steal a Dog or Crenshaw or fans of Nielsen's We are All Made of Molecules and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen. Readers will laugh, cry and perhaps examine their assumptions about the homeless. No Fixed Address is a first-purchase. I can't wait to hand this to my students come fall. 

ETA: I forgot to mention that I adore this cover! 

Fact Friday: Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: a Navajo Code Talker's story by Joseph Bruchac

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: a Navajo Code Talker's story by Joseph Bruchac. Illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes. Albert Whitman & Company, April, 2018. 9780807500071. (Review from finished copy courtesy of publisher/ ALAAC18.)

In 2005, Joseph Bruchac published a historical fiction novel called Code Talkers: a novel about the Navajo Marines of WWII. I featured it yesterday on #tbt. Now we have a picture book biography of one of the original Navajo men who were chosen to create an unbreakable code. 

The biography starts in 1929 when eight-year-old Betoli was sent to boarding school. There, his long hair was cut off; he was given a new name, Chester; and he was told to speak English only. When he was caught speaking Navajo, his mouth was washed out with soap. Each summer, Chester returned to his family and Navajo ways. But Chester understood that learning English would give him an advantage. He adopted the Catholic religion and became an altar boy but he also stayed faithful to the Navajo language and culture. 

In December of 1941, Chester was in tenth grade when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They were also expert code breakers and the U. S. Marines were having trouble finding a code the Japanese couldn't break. A former army soldier, who happened to be a missionary's son and who once lived on a reservation suggested using Navajo. So Marine recruiters visited the reservation seeking English/ Navajo speakers. Twenty-nine young Navajo men were chosen to become Platoon 382. They were charged with creating an unbreakable code. One that could be used faster than the machine they were currently using. They were also sworn to secrecy. After thirteen weeks of training, two men stayed behind to teach the next round of Navajo recruits and the rest were dispatched to the Pacific where they transmitted messages in the heat of battle. They saw men die. Chester worked while ill and exhausted. 

When he was sent home in January of 1945, he couldn't tell friends or family about the work he did because he was still sworn to secrecy. He was probably suffering from PTSD so his family arranged for a four-day healing ceremony called an Enemy Way. Eight months after Chester returned home, the war ended. In all four hundred Navajos had served as code talkers. The language that had nearly been beaten out of them as children had help the U.S. to win the war.

In the author's note, readers learn a bit more about Chester and the fact that it wasn't until 1968 that the code was declassified. It wasn't until 1982 that the code talkers were officially recognized. In December of 2000, then President Bill Clinton bestowed gold medals to the original twenty-nine code talkers. Two pages of the code follows and a timeline ends the book.

There is no note as to the media used to create the emotionally powerful illustrations that convey both the terror of the boarding school and the horror of war. It looks like pastel, but I'm no artist. The full and double-page spreads catch the eye and invite lingering. The accessible, engaging text pulls no punches. Great harm was done to native people by the U.S. government yet, these men bravely served. 

This is a first-purchase for any kind of library. I am honored to add it to mine. Thanks to Albert Whitman for this copy.

#tbt: Code Talkers: a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II by Joseph Bruchac

Code Talkers: a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II by Joseph Bruchac. Dial Books/ Penguin Young Readers Group, March, 2005. 9780803729216. (Own.)

From the age of six, sixteen year old Ned attended an Indian boarding school where he was taught English and beaten whenever he spoke Navajo. He was taught to be ashamed of his language and his culture. When WWII broke out and the Japanese were cracking every code the American Armed Forces could come up with, the Marine brass turned to Ned and other Navajo volunteers to come up with an unbreakable code using their language. They did so and were sworn to secrecy. For more than twenty-five years, the code talkers went unrecognized for their contribution to America winning her war against Japan. Bruchac's careful, measured writing conveys the sacrifice and danger of Ned and the code talkers in a gripping story of World War II.

Waiting on Wednesday (and Review!): Saving Winslow by Sharon Creech

Saving Winslow by Sharon Creech. 165 p. Joanna Cotler Books/ HarperCollins, September 11, 2018. 9780062570703. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

A new book by Sharon Creech is an automatic purchase for me. I heard about Saving Winslow a while back and thought I'd feature it in a "Waiting on Wednesday" post. Then I was able to grab the last arc on the table at the HarperCollins booth at ALAAC18! Lucky me. I started reading it at my last breakfast in New Orleans. Beignets on the Riverwalk!

I finished it later that day, at the airport and posted this comment to FB and Twitter:

And, it IS perfect! From it's first lines, 

In the laundry basket on the kitchen floor was a lump
     "Another dead thing?" Louis asked.
     "Not yet," his father said.

which reminded me of another fantastic and memorable first line, "Where's papa going with that ax?", to the final, goosebumps-inducing lines, which I will leave for you to discover. Along the way are short chapters featuring endearing characters and small moments that are brilliantly written. 

Louie lives with his parents in town. Uncle Pete, Louie's father's friend lives on a small farm outside of town. Somehow Louie's father ends up disposing of small tragedies from the farm. This little lump of a mini-donkey isn't dead though and Louie decides he's going to make sure that this trembling, pitiful thing doesn't die. Louie does not have the best of luck saving animals; but he decides that this time will be different. He recalls how he himself was born small and needed care in an incubator while he grew strong.

Louie is a thoughtful, gentle soul. He misses his brother, Gus, greatly and looks forward to Gus' short letters home. Gus is serving overseas in the Army. He has a best friend in Mack, who is a year or two older than Louis and whose father owns the feedstore. New neighbors move nearby and the two meet sister, Nora and Claudine. Mack falls instantly in love with Claudine. It takes Louie a little longer to warm up to Nora, who is a bit of a downer.

In 165 pages, Sharon Creech has created a setting and characters so vivid, I feel I should be able to walk to town and sit on Louie's porch. Saving Winslow will have wide appeal, from fans of Sharon Creech to reluctant readers, who will be treated to accessible literary gold. If you're like me, you've pre-ordered Saving Winslow the moment you heard of it. If not, drop it into your shopping cart now. It's a first purchase.

It's perfect.

Teen Tuesday and Review: What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee

What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee. 200 p. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum/ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May, 2018. 9781481476560. (Review from finished copy courtesy of publisher)

I am intrigued by books written under unusual constraints, like Chris Crowe's Death Coming Up the Hill. This slim novel is told in one hundred, hundred-word chapters. It is the story of sixteen-year-old Will who grieves his father's suicide. He tries to get through each day as best he can. He walks the neighborhood day and night; but avoids certain areas. He observes. He enjoys watching "Little Dude" who has an obsession with butterflies. He has a job in a dollar store where he buoys his boss, the socially inept owner. He tries to replicate his father's cornbread and gives his failures to Superman, the local homeless man. He also feels guilty for the sexual assault of his good friend, Playa. He left the party where it happened early. Had he only stayed, perhaps... 

Each of the "chapters" are numbered in Chinese and McGhee makes the most of her hundred words. Each chapter is a thumbnail sketch of a moment in Will's day. The writing is precise and incisive. Though the reader may yearn to know more, we are given what are given. In some ways this replicates Will's need to know why his father chose to end his life. He was given what he was given.

YA readers who love thoughtful and sad books will appreciate gentle Will's journey.

Middle Grade Monday and arc review: Nate Expectations by Tim Federle

Nate Expectations by Tim Federle. 192 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, September 18, 2018. 9781481404129.

Poor Nate Foster! When E.T.: the musical fails to receive a single Tony nomination, it closes. Nate is devastated; because unlike Jordan, who has landed a television show role, Nate is heading back to Jankburg, PA and high school. Luckily, he still has his bff, Libby. Still, he's not looking forward to being on the receiving end of cruel comments and trying to maintain a long-distance "relationship" with Jordan. 

When his English teacher assigns Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and wants his students to create a memorable project, Nate decides to launch a musical production of the classic. His teacher is skeptical; but with his sort of newfound fame and Libby by his side as his producer, he just might pull it off.

Readers of the first two Nate books are in for a treat. Nate Expectations was the perfect (sob) ending to the trilogy. Nate is a great character. He maintains a positive attitude but expects the worst. These books are his first-person narration and he is hilariously funny. I read this in the airport waiting room and on my flight to New Orleans a little over a week ago and was just laughing out loud. A lot. Some people might have moved away from me. I know my seat-mates on the plane wanted to.

Nate is a theater kid and his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Broadway is impressive and instructive. He even slips in a bit about the sadly short-lived musical, Tuck Everlasting, whose libretto Tim Federle co-wrote. Nate's homecoming could've gone so many ways. His parents aren't the best and they've been having some trouble in their marriage. His brother was a legend at his high school. How can Nate measure up? I will leave it to readers to discover. It was sublime. 

I've read the two earlier Nate books, Better Nate Than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate! both with my eyes and then with my ears. I plan on doing so with Nate Expectations as well. Federle is a superb narrator. This trilogy is a love letter to theater kids and a must-purchase for all kinds of libraries. 

Taking Stock: June, 2018

Well, 2018 is half over! Honestly!

Total Books: 16/ 163
Total Posts: 31
Total Reviews: 10

Challenges:
Debut: 0/ 5
Audio: 6/ 37

Picture Books: 2/ 53

The Good: I spent a brilliant six days in New Orleans attending ALAAC 18 and returned well-fed and laden with books.

The Bad: Blogger disappointed. I keep drafts of my various reading lists and logged on one day to discover that my 2018 reading list disappeared. I wondered how I managed to delete it since you have to confirm deletion; but assumed it was my mistake. However, I made no such assumption a couple of weeks later when, not only had my painstakingly reconstructed 2018 reading list disappeared, but my 2018 audiobook list triplicated! I sent a message to blogger and never received a response. I sent a second message to blogger. I tweeted blogger about it. No response. I created a google doc of my reading and am sorely disappointed at the lack of response on blogger's part. Not only that, but I noticed that I no longer receive emails when someone makes a comment on the blog! Grr!

The List:

June

146. Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (6/1)

147. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (6/2)

148. Girling Up: How to be Strong, Smart and Spectacular by Mayim Bialik (6/3)

149. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (6/6)

150. First Flight around the World by Tim Grove (6/7)

151. A Higher Loyalty by James Comey (6/7)

152. The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan (6/9)

153. Boying Up by Mayim Bialik (6/10)

154. Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist (6/13)

155. Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki (6/18)

156. Nate Expectations by Tim Federle (6/21)*

157. Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh (6/24)*(SLJ)

158. Jazz Owls: a novel of the Zoot Suit riots by Margarita Engle (6/25)

159. Saving Winslow by Sharon Creech (6/26)*

160. What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee (6/26)*

161. Grandad Mandela by Zazi Siwelene and Zindzi Mandela (6/29)

162. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (6/30)*

163. Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (6/30)*