Walking with Miss Millie

Bundy, Tamara. Walking with Miss Millie. 2017. 227p. ISBN 978-0-399-54456-9. Available at FIC BUN on the library shelves.

It is 1968, and Alice and her family are moving to Rainbow, Georgia. Rainbow is a sleepy little town, and Alice, her younger brother Eddie and her mother. Her father has remained behind in Ohio, but they haven’t seen him for six months, ever since Christmas last year. Alice is upset that the family has to move down to her parents’ birthplace so they can help grandmother. After all, grandmother looked fine the last time she came to visit. Rainbow is small, it is hot, and it is in the middle of nowhere.

Straight upon arrival Alice notices that her grandmother is not well. The house smells, the garden is mostly dead, and she is wearing her nightgown outside in the afternoon. Alice’s hope for a reconsideration of their move is dashed. Then her brother Eddie runs in the neighbor’s yard. Eddie is deaf and sometimes does not pay attention to what he does. Alice goes get him, and she meets the next door neighbor, Miss Millie. Older even than her grandmother, Miss Millie seems stern. When the telephone rings, Alice picks up, forgetting that it is a party line. She eavesdrops on a conversation between Miss Millie and a friend. Told to apologize by her mother, she goes over there the next morning and is asked to walk Clarence, Miss Millie’s dog. Unfortunately, Clarence will not walk if Alice holds the leash, so Miss Millie goes with them.

Over the course of the summer, Alice gets to know Ms. Millie and her struggles as a black woman in a white neighborhood in the South. She learns of her family history, of segregation, and of the racism that still pervades the town. In turn she’s able to share with Miss Millie the pain and anxiety that comes from being rejected by her father, who neither calls nor writes.

As their friendship grows, Alice realizes that life in Rainbow might not be as bad as she thought it would be.

Tumble & Blue

Beasley, Cassie. Tumble & Blue. 2017. 390p. ISBN 978-0-525-42844-2. Available at FIC BEA on the library shelves.

Blue Montgomery is a loser. Not in the metaphorical way, in the real world way of losing at everything. Blue always manages to lose any game or activity he participates in, even if it is a one-player game. His father, by contrast, is a winner and never loses. A car racer by profession, Blue’s father is always on the move, looking for another race. This year, however, he decides to drop off Blue at his grandmother’s house in on the edge of the Okefenokee swamp in Georgia. Abandoned in Murky Branch (population 340), Blue discovers that the Montgomerys have been cursed. An ancestor decades ago entered the swamp on a red moon and made a pact with a strange golden alligator named Munch. But the wish went wrong. Half of the Montgomerys are blessed with abilities or talents that make them the envy of the world. The other half? Their talents are deadly, obnoxious, or, like Blue and losing, completely dangerous to their lives.

Now the red moon arises again, and Montgomerys from all over the world are congregating once again in the hopes of being the one to whom Munch will give a wish. Blue finds himself in the frenzy that plagues his grandmother’s house as more and more relatives arrive. Trying to escape them all, he runs into Tumble, a girl who has moved down the street. Her parents are renting a small cabin but Tumble has decided to continue living in their RV. Upon seeing Blue, Tumble makes the decision to save him from his curse. For, you see, Tumble herself follows Maximal Star’s advice to always be the hero. Let the heroing begin!

As they learn more about the curse, Tumble and Blue realize that it will not be as easy as they thought to rid Blue of his bad fate. Great-grandmother Myrtle Montgomery is the only one that knows exactly when the red moon will occur, and she’s making everyone entertain her before she tells her handpicked choice the time. With no hope of being picked, Blue must discover how he can transform himself from a loser to a winner without depending on a mythical golden alligator. But what if that alligator really did exist?

Lyrical and beautifully written, Blue and Tumble’s adventures through the small town of Murky Branch show that fate is never fixed and can always be altered, with a little help from friends and family.

The Haunted House Project

Clasen, Tricia. The Haunted House Project. 2017. 215p. ISBN 978-1-5107-0712-2. Available at FIC CLA on the library shelves.

A year ago, Andie’s mother was hit by a truck and was instantly killed. The tragedy has impacted her family life. Her father has lost his job and is gambling away the insurance settlement. Her older sister Paige now works full time on top of going to school, not so she can afford to go to college but so she can buy groceries for her family. And Andie still miss her mom terribly every day, and her friends have long lost any semblance of commiseration for her and are now just plain annoyed she is no longer the fun free spirited girl she used to be.

At school Andie sees a counselor during the week, sometimes in group sessions, sometimes one on one. Andie is scared that the school counselor will discover how bad her homelife is, and that she will be wrestled from her father, who hasn’t done much fathering in the last year. Still, what you know is better than what you don’t. When she and her partner Isaiah are assigned a project in science, they decide to investigate ghosts. Andie has always read ghost stories, and she often feels like her mother is right here with her. As they discuss the project, a brilliant idea occurs to Andie. What if their project involved faking ghostly communication? Could she pull off making it seem like her mother is talking to Paige and to her father? She could document their reactions and keep track of what happens next.

As Andie and Isaiah begin implementing their haunting project, Andie realizes that her mother truly was the glue that held the family together. She sprays her mother’s perfume on the couch. She moves a picture slightly so it is more visible. She changes the television channel and the radio station. All subtle signs, but they all seem to have an impact on her sister and father.

Meanwhile, her own social life is crumbling as her friends, led by beautiful Becky, snub Isaiah and make demands on Andie she can’t fulfill. Plus, what exactly is the nature of her relationship to Isaiah? As she brings back her mother’s memory from the grave, can Andie save herself as well? A well written story about broken family dynamics, readers will appreciate Andie’s efforts at restarting the pulse of her own family and ensuring that it has a future.

See You in the Cosmos

Cheng, Jack. See You in the Cosmos. 2017. 316p. ISBN 978-0-399-18637-0. Available at FIC CHE on the library shelves.

Alex Petroski is fascinated by space. He loves stars and rockets, and his an active participant on Rocketforum.org, where he knows all of the other participants. He loves his dog, named after the famed astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan. He loves his older brother, who works in Los Angeles as a sports agent, and his mother, who has good days and bad days, but mostly bad days. At eleven, Alex wants to do is to replicate Dr. Sagan’s exploit of creating a golden record containing all sort of information on Earth, then sending it to space on Voyager back in 1977. He’s built a rocket, and he plans on attending SHARF (Southwest High Altitude Rocket Festival) in New Mexico so he can fire it up in the sky, along with a golden iPod on which he has been recording his thoughts.

Accompanied by Carl Sagan, Alex leaves a bunch of ready to eat meals for his mother, who rarely comes out of her bedroom, and heads out to New Mexico on a train from his hometown in Colorado. He meets Zed, a man who has made a vow of silence and communicates with a chalkboard and who is also heading to SHARF. Since the train is late, Alex agrees to go with Zed and Steve to the festival site. There, Alex manages to fire his rocket in the C competition, but it doesn’t go very far. Steve and Zed do their best to comfort Alex, but he perks up when he discover that there is a match for his father in Las Vegas. Alex and Ronnie’s father died eight years ago, and no one really talk about him. When Alex did a family project in school, he used Ancestry.com and left some contact information if anyone else was looking around, and lo and behold there is someone with the same name, birthdate and deathdate a state away. Steve and Zed agree to take him to Vegas to find out more about his father. As Alex’s adventures continue, he will realize that sometimes what you are looking for is right at home.

Told through transcripted recordings, Alex has the responsibility level of a 13-year-old, as he likes to point out, but he’s also incredibly naive and talkative, often repeating himself. Though not addressed until the end, his mother’s sickness and his brother’s absence from his life overshadow everything that Alex does. The discovery of a half sister increased the size of his family, and the many contacts he makes during his trip turn into friends that help him grow and deal with his mother’s schizophrenia. Alex, who often thought he was alone, has a bigger family and way more friends than he ever thought.

Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel

Holt, Kimberly Willis. Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel. 2017. 325p. ISBN 978-1-62779-324-7. Available at FIC HOL on the library shelves.

Stevie and her parents live on a farm in New Mexico, and they sell plants and flowers for a living. She is very knowledgeable about gardens, and enjoys watching the plants grow. Unfortunately, when a car hits their farm stand both of her parents are killed. Stevie finds out while at school. The closest relative available to take her in is her mother’s father, someone she has had no contact with, and who lives in Texas.

Her grandfather is too busy to get her at the bus station, so she is welcomed by Arlo and Roy, her grandfather’s handyman and his middle-school aged son. Arriving at the Sunrise Motel, which her grandfather owns, she discovers that the place is rather dilapidated and run-down. He welcomes her stiffly, and takes her to her new bedroom, her mother’s old room. Roy is excited to meet her, and so is every other staffer and permanent residents at the motel. Winston, her grandfather, does not appear to be happy she’s here, however. Life at the motel is very quiet

Stevie’s parents never told her anything about their past, so Stevie is discovering for the first time bits and pieces of information about her mother and father’s journey through life. Sent to be homeschooled with Mrs. Crump, a very old teacher who also taught her mother, Stevie beings to reconstruct her parents’ lives. She uses her money to plant a garden next to the motel sign, and she looks forward to it blooming.

But when a sister of her father gets in touch with her and offers her to spend time in Louisiana, Stevie agrees to go visit. Now with two possible places to live, where will Stevie choose to go?

The Old Brown Suitcase

Boraks-Nemetz, Lillian. The Old Brown Suitcase. 2008. 202p. ISBN 9781553800576. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Slava leads a charmed life. She is loved at her house in Warsaw, Poland. She dances in music recitals. She has a younger sister. Her father is a prominent lawyer. But the Nazis have seized power in Germany, and war is threatening. When it finally breaks out, Slava and her parents soon find themselves in the Jewish ghetto, despite not being practicing Jews. As conditions worsen, her sister is smuggled out of the ghetto to a Christian family for safekeeping. Following Hitler’s decision to liquidate the ghetto, Slava herself is smuggled out of the ghetto and sent to the country to live with her grandmother, who married a Christian and is relatively safe. But Slava must pretend to be a niece, instead of a granddaughter.

Reunited after the war with her parents, Slava discovers that her sister did not survive. The family emigrates to Canada, and discovers that adapting to a new country is as hard, if not harder, than surviving the Nazi war machine. Not speaking the language, Slava becomes Elizabeth and enrolls in 9th grade, despite being the oldest student. She struggles with English, Math, and Science, but excels at Latin and French. Bullied for being different, and encountering anti semitism even in Canada, Slava eventually manages to catch up in her schooling. She meets a nice boy, and she discovers what her new life has to offer.

Slava’s story is told in alternating eras, her life in Canada as a teenager and her life in Poland as a child. Through it all she carries a brown suitcase, given to her by her father as a present. From her escape away from the ghetto to her arrival in Canada, Slava relies on the suitcase to carry her meager possessions until one day, she realizes she has outgrown it and no longer needs the security it provided.

Readers who like Holocaust stories will appreciate Slava’s drive to survive as a child and thrive as a teenager.

Lucky Broken Girl

Behar, Ruth. Lucky Broken Girl. 2017. 242p. ISBN 978-0-399-54644-0. Available at FIC BEH on the library shelves.

Recently immigrants from Communist Cuba, the Mizrahi family has escaped the regime with a bare minimum of possessions. Finding themselves living in New York City, the extended family is enjoying freedom but life can be difficult at time. Ruthie’s father works six days a week to put food on the table, while her mother works around the house to ensure that everyone eats well and is clothed properly.

Ten-year-old Ruthie and her brother enjoy their lives in Queens, but she also misses many aspects of Cuba including the food and some of the customs. Living in a cosmopolitan building filled with recent immigrants, Ruthie shares her time with her brother and with friends, including Danielle, from Belgium, and Ravi, from India. First placed in the dumb class at school, she is soon promoted to the smart class once her English gets better.

Unfortunately for her, the Sunday before her move to her new class, the family visits an aunt and uncle on Staten Island in her father’s new car, but a tragic car accident that costs the lives of several teenagers sends her to the hospital with a broken leg. The doctor soon informs her that she will need to spend at least six months in a body cast stretching from her ankles to her chest. She will not be able to seat, move, or even go to the bathroom without help. Her mother now becomes her full-time care giver.

Stuck in bed with nothing to do, Ruthie suddenly has nothing but time on her hands. With a teacher coming to visit every other day, Ruthie soon catches up to her studies and improves her reading skills. But with no chance to experience life outside the four walls of her bedroom, Ruthie’s shrinking world forces her to develop a resilience she did not expect, and she realizes that friends and family are always there for her, even in the worst of times of one’s life.

For another story of Cuban children fleeing their island and integrating into life in the United States, take a look at The Red Umbrella, a story of adaptation in the face of adversity.

Beyond the Bright Sea

Wolk, Lauren. Beyond the Bright Sea. 2017. 283p. ISBN 978-1-101-99-485-6. Available at FIC WOL on the library shelves.

Placed in a boat shortly after her birth, the baby girl was cast at sea. When found by a solitary man living on a small island off the larger island of Cuttyhunk, which is part of the Elizabeth chain of islands, the girl was named Crow. She not only survived in Osh’s gentle hands, but thrived and became an inquisitive girl.

At 12, Crow has spent her entire life on their island, living in a makeshift house but not wanting for anything. Everyone on Cuttyhunk assumes she came from Pekinese, Massachusett’s only leper colony, and treat her as a leper even though she has no symptoms. Crow has always been curious about where she came from, but both Osh and her other friend, Miss Maggie, who lives across the sandbar from them, has told her not to look into her past too closely as surely nothing good will come of it.

When Crow begins digging, however, she comes upon a dangerous mystery that involves a treasure left behind by the famous pirate Captain Kidd. Others are also searching the treasure, however, and as Crow seeks to unravel her past it throws the present into turmoil, with Osh, the father who is not her father, concerned that their relationship might change if she discovers who she truly is. But as she explores the dangerous past of the leper colony, Crow realizes that home and family are what you make of it, and not what others tell you they ought to be.

Beautifully written, Crow’s story will be appreciated by readers who enjoy a light mystery and those who like historical fiction.

When My Sister Started Kissing

Frost, Helen. When My Sister Started Kissing. 2017. 193p. ISBN 978-0-374-30303-7. Available at FIC FRO on the library shelves.

When Claire and Abigail’s mother died, the family was heartbroken. Spending every summer at a cabin on the lake, the sisters saw comforting reminders of their mother everywhere. Now that it is summer again, they dread returning to the lake. Their father has remarried, and his new wife is pregnant with their half-brother. Worse, all signs of their mother, from her old easel to her favorite chair to the board games and her books have disappeared from the cabin.

For Claire, however, all of these changes are nothing compared to what is happening with her sister Abigail, who insists on being called Abi. This summer, Abi is boy crazy, and her secrets mean that Claire must cover for her. Unsure of herself, Claire can’t help but wonder why Abi would act this way. As the summer progresses, and as Abi’s affections seem to be divided between two different boys, Claire decides she can’t make excuses for her anymore. But as their family seems to be drifting apart, the lake imparts lessons that just because things are changing doesn’t mean that they will not remain meaningful.

Written in verse, this short book features three points of view, that of Claire, Abi, and of the lake itself observing the sisters. A coming of age novel, readers interested in family relationships will appreciate the dynamics that are at play between two sisters struggling with new feelings and emotions.

Between Shades of Gray

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. 2011. 344p. ISBN 0-399-25412-9. Available at FIC SEP on the library shelves.

It is 1941, and Lithuania has just fallen into the Soviet sphere. When Eastern Europe was divided between Hitler and Stalin, the Russian dictator acquired all of the Baltic Republics and quickly invaded them. Now Communist rule has been imposed, and enemies of the State are disappearing.

Lina is an average teenager. At fifteen, she loves to draw and paint, and she has enough talent that a long career as an artist awaits her. Except that her father works at the University, and he is both educated and middle-class, two things that the Soviets hate. In the middle of one night, Soviet NKVD officers barge into their house and order Lina, her brother and her mother to pack up their things and be ready in 20 minutes. Her father has already disappeared a few days ago, and Lina is worried about what happened to him.

Put into cattle trains, they leave Lithuania under cramped and dangerous conditions and make their way east, to Siberia. With Hitler violating the pact he made with Stalin and the Germans attacking the Soviet Union, the country finds itself at war and yet is able to spare resources to insure that its enemies remain imprisoned. Lina and her family spend a winter at a makeshift camp. Through it all, Lina hangs to her art and draws information on handkerchiefs, hoping that they will eventually get to her father.

Refusing to sign a confession, they are soon transferred to another camp, this time north of the Arctic Circle. Facing horrible conditions, Lina is forced to decide how far she is willing to go to survive.

All’s Faire in Middle School

Jamieson, Victoria. All’s Faire in Middle School. 2017. 217p. ISBN 978-0-525-42998-2. Available in the Graphics Novels section of the library.

Imogene’s family is rather unique. Both her mother and father live for the Florida Renaissance Faire, and they work there throughout the year, she as one of the shop owners, and he as Sir Hugo, Lord of the Dragon and the villain of the story. Imogene has grown up among the Renaissance Faire folks her entire life, and she has been homeschooled. This year, she decides she wants to go to middle school with other normal kids instead of pursuing her education with the Faire people. Simultaneously, Impy has been promoted at the Faire to the role of Squire to Sir Hugo.

Impy now finds herself in uncharted waters. Middle school is not what she expected. The kids are mean and vindictive. They bully each other. As the outsider, Impy does not fit in any cliques but manages to acquire some friends. At the Faire, being a squire is hard work and she has trouble adjusting to her new role. Anita, a student at her school, is bullied because she is smart and doesn’t hide it, but at the Faire she dresses as a princess. Impy feels she can connect with her there, but not at school where Anita is treated as a pariah. Trying to fit in with odd clothes and odder manners, Impy does everything she can to ingratiates herself to her crowd, even if it means drawing mean pictures of teachers and students, including one of Anita. But when that picture spreads around school, following the knight’s code of chivalry, honesty and bravery proves harder than she thought, both at school and at the Faire.

Beautifully illustrated, Imogene’s tale of woes and redemption when joining middle school will entertain readers experiencing similar adaptation to a new environment as well as those who lived through those awkward years.

The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo!

Bramucci, Stephen. The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo! 2017. 378p. ISBN 978-1-61963-692-7. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

Eleven-year-old Ronald Zupan’s parents are adventurers who have travelled the world in search of artefacts and other precious items. On their long trips away, they entrust Ronald’s wellbeing to Thomas Halladay, their butler, whom Ronald calls Jeeves because all good butlers should bear that name. They have always promised to be back for his birthday, however, no matter where in the world or how busy they are. But today, on his twelfth birthday, Ronald discovers with stupefaction that his parents are, in fact, not here. Something bad must have befallen them.

When the doorbell rings and men from the FIB, the Foreign Item Battalion, begin securing the premises, Ronald knows something bad has happened for sure, for the FIB works for the Liars’ Club, the most cutthroat and outlandish group of villains ever to exist. Led by Zeetan Z, the worst of the worst, this group must be involved with his parents’ disappearance.

Escaping the Zupan mansion with Jeeves and with Charlie, his pet king cobra, who is fond of biting Jeeves, Ronald makes his way to the only ally he can think of recruiting for a daring-do adventure of rescuing his parents at the last scene where they were spotted, Borneo. He goes to Julianne Sato’s house. She is the sword fighter who defeated him at the last sword tournament, preventing him from acquiring his third annual trophy in a row. She readily agrees to help him rescue his parents, though with the condition that she is a full partner in this adventure and not a sidekick like Jeeves and Charlie.

The four of them soon find themselves on a Zupan plane heading to Borneo, where they will face untold adventures, all with the hope that Ronald’s parents are still alive. Can this merry band manage to evade the obstacles and enemies in their path before it is too late?

Talk to Me

Ellis, Sonia. Talk to Me. 2016. 164p. ISBN 978-1-943431-23-6. Available at FIC ELL on the library shelves.

Fourteen-year-old Sadina Reyes loves her sister, but seven-year-old Maddie suffers from selective mutism,  which results in her not talking very much to her own family members, and never to a stranger. This causes problems for Maddie at school, and Sadina’s friends know her as the girl who doesn’t speak. Sadina would really love to help her sister, but she’s not sure what she can do.

Sadina loses Maddie at the mall after she and Rio, her best friend, go into a computer store, and it takes forever to find her at the pet store. Worse, that night someone breaks into Sadina’s house and steals something out of her mother’s office desk, and Maddie is the only one who notices the robber. The event traumatizes her and now she can’t even talk to her family. Her mother, who is an engineer working on a brand new battery for cellphones, reveals that the only thing that has been stolen is her coworker’s phone, who had left it at the house after dinner the previous night. On that phone was the only evidence that Flynn has been embezzling money from the lab where they both work, and now Sabina’s mother is about to take the rap for the missing money.

Meanwhile, expensive software has disappeared from the school’s computer lab, and Rio is the prime suspect. It doesn’t help when Sabina remembers that Rio had been eyeing this software with envy at the computer store, and her suspicious increase when she discovers that he has installed the same software on his computer at home.

Now she’s got to help her mother by proving that Maddie has seen that the thief was Flynn, and that Rio did in fact not steal the software. Working with the computer club at school, Sadina hopes that they can reprogram Maddie’s cat robot, named Bella, into a cat that can actually talk to her through artificial intelligence and record her answer. If Maddie won’t speak to humans, maybe she’ll speak to Bella! At least, that’s what Sadina hopes...

A Month of Mondays

Anthony, Joëlle. A Month of Mondays. 2017. 336p. ISBN 978-1-77260-026-1. Available at FIC ANT on the library shelves.

At 13, Suze Tamaki’s life is nothing special. A middle school student relegated to regular English classes with the burnouts and the lazies, Suze lives with her father and her seventeen-year-old hockey-loving sister Tracie in a dingy and small apartment in a nondescript building. Suze’s mother, Caroline, left them and moved to Vancouver when Suze was three, and she has had no contact with her since, aside from a monthly child support check that doesn’t even cover the basic expenses.

Imagine her surprise, then, when she is contacted by Caroline, who has just moved back to Victoria for her work and who wishes to establish a relationship with her daughters, after more than ten years away. Tracie is deadly set against even meeting with her mother for reasons of her own, and is mad at Suze for even contemplating this possibility. Her father is also lukewarm to the idea, while her aunt Jean, who has acted more as Suze’s mother than Caroline ever did, is not happy that Caroline has returned in her nieces’ lives. Only uncle Bill takes Caroline’s side and agrees that Suze should give her a chance.

As if this is not already life changing, Suze gets transferred to Mr. Baker’s Honors English class so she can work with her friend Amanda on a presentation to the school board regarding the elimination of the school custodians’ positions and their replacement by cheaper subcontractors. Already known to be a troublemaker at school, Suze’s new project runs afoul of Principal Farbinger and leads to more scrutiny. Somehow, Suze’s normal life has become more like a month of consecutive Mondays.

Suze has never cared before, neither for school nor for her mother, but now she finds herself intrigued by the possibilities. With best friends Leah, Jessica and Amanda at her side, Suze is ready to take the plunge and see if she can trust her mother not to abandon her again while reaching excellence in her English class.

Bent Not Broken: Madeline & Justin

Schultz Nicholson, Lorna. Bent Not Broken: Madeline & Justin. Part of the One 2 One series. 2017. 218p. ISBN 9781988347035. Available at FIC SCH on the library shelves.

When they were eight, identical twins Becky and Madeline went on a bike ride. Even though they were wearing both wearing helmets at the time, Madeline fell on her head. She doesn’t remember any of the accident. For her, it’s the before and after. Having suffered a traumatic brain injury, Madeline has spent the last seven years of her life slowly regaining abilities she once took for granted. Walking can be difficult, and she often has to remind herself to put one foot in front of the other. She often loses her cool when the pressure builds inside her head and she will slam her head with her hands. Her speech pattern is slurred and slow. She’s not dumb. She knows exactly what she wants to say, but her brain can’t communicate it fast enough to her mouth. What hurts the most, though, is that she and Becky have drifted apart. They did everything together, dressed the same, talked the same, but now Madeline can only follow Becky, and sometimes not even then. Her parents are divorced, and Becky has new friends who smoke and drink.

Part of a Best Buddies at school, Madeline spends time with Justin, a senior who’s helping her with activities and social skills. They play cards, participate in gym activities with the other differently abled students at school, and sometimes share feelings. For Justin has also suffered a loss when his younger sister Faith, an autistic child who starved herself to death following a bout with anorexia and bullying at school. Justin and his parents have never quite recovered from her death a year ago.

Madeline spends a lot of time every week with therapy horses, especially Willow, a miniature horse. Madeline takes care of Willow and help the other kids attending the stable therapy programs. Willow does not judge, and moreover she loves the attention. When she invites Justin to come with her to the therapy stable, Justin thinks it’s too soon. His sister used to attend a similar program. But being Best Buddies president, he agrees. On his first day there, he realizes that this is what he’s been needing, and soon he gets his mother, who is suffering from a major depression, to also participate. The family healing begins.

Everything is going wrong for Becky, however. She sneaks out at night, hangs with the wrong crowd, and is picking fights with her mother and with Madeline. Madeline feels left behind and begins questioning the bonds that tie her and her sister. Becky harbor a dark secret, however, and it will take a crisis to finally reveal it. Will Madeline be there for her and help her reconnect with her family when the time comes?

Nathan

Ouriou, Susan. Nathan. 2017. 151p. ISBN 978-0-88995-547-9. Available at FIC OUR on the library shelves.

Nathan’s life is changing. Grampa lost his wife last year to a heart attack, and his Alzheimer’s has progressed enough that he can’t live on his own anymore. Adam, the local bully, keeps on trying to hurt Nathan, and even steals his basketball. And, at ten, Nathan is once again heading back to school in the fall without a friend.

Despite his Alzheimer’s, Grampa brings to Nathan a connection to a heritage he didn’t know he had: Grampa’s mother was a member of the First Nations, but as an orphan she was placed in the Canadian residential school system where her culture and language were systematically eliminated. Kids’ heads were shaved, they couldn’t speak their language, and they were transported hundreds of miles away from home so they could never see their families. Nathan didn’t know any of this, and is happy to begin discovering where he came from.

Nathan also makes a new friend, who has just moved in the neighborhood. Max and Nathan have many things in common, one of which is being bullied by Adam who immediately begins chasing Max the first time he sees him. Max is also Jewish, and his people experienced the Holocaust. In a sense, both Nathan and Max’s ancestors suffered at the hands of people bent on exterminating them.

With Adam lurking and with Grampa getting worse, can Nathan learn enough about himself to develop the courage to stand up and be his own person?

One For Sorrow: A Ghost Story

Hahn, Mary Downing. One For Sorrow: A Ghost Story. 2017. 293p. ISBN 978-0-544-81809-5. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

In 1918, Annie is about to start 6th grade at a new school, and she is nervous. What will people think of her there? She will have to make new friends and learn how to survive in a brand new social structure. With the Great War in full swing, times are tenses and prejudices against German immigrants rampant. Annie is fortunate that both of her parents are employed. She has nice toys and wears new clothes. Others are not so lucky.

On her first day of school, Anne meets some of the other six graders, but before she’s able to introduce herself to a group of girls led by a redhead named Rosie, she is intercepted by Elsie, who immediately tries to make Anne her friend. Elsie is pushy and she makes sure that Annie does not play with the other kids during recess. She even invites herself over to Annie’s house, and wiggles an invitation for dinner out of Annie’s mother. Annie is frightened by Elsie, and she wishes she had never met her.

Unfortunately for Elsie, on top of being pushy, her father is German. Elsie is thus ridiculed at school for being slow and for being a Kaiser-lover. When Elsie becomes sick, Annie seizes the opportunity and begins hanging out with Rosie and her friends. Upon Elsie’s return, she attempts to get Annie to play with her, but Annie refuses, and she soons becomes another one of Elsie’s tormentors.

At about the same time, the Spanish Influenza begins to strike down residents indiscriminately. Soon families are quarantined and people die. Even the funeral parlors can’t keep up. When Annie and her friends come upon Elsie sitting alone on a swing in a park, they harass her and sing a mean song before ripping away her breathing mask. Elsie contracts the flu and dies. Annie is stricken with remorse. Following an sledding accident in the cemetery, Annie becomes haunted by Elsie, who swears to destroy Annie’s life. With a ghost only she can see affecting the real world, Annie soon finds herself in a psychiatric institute. Can Annie figure a way to make it up to Elsie before her own life is ruined?

Hahn serves another dose of spooky in this well-written tale partly inspired by stories her own mother told her of this time period. Fans of Closed for the Season and Deep, Dark and Dangerous will appreciate this new creepy tale.

Patricians in the Roman Empire

Jacobs, Denise. Patricians in the Roman Empire. Part of the Life in the Roman Empire series. 2017. 80p. ISBN 978-1-5026-2257-0. Available at 305.52 JAC on the library shelves.

Though Rome’s Imperial system placed a man at the head of the Empire, this individual could not effectively govern without significant contributions and support from the wealthiest members of Roman society, the Patricians. When the last of Rome’s seven kings was overthrown, he was replaced by a Republic, governed by a Senate. Members of the Senate came from wealthy families and were appointed for life. Following the death of Julius Caesar and the civil war that ensued, Augustus assumed control of the state but continued to rely on the Senate to pass laws and administer the state. Successive emperors whittled down the political power of the Senate until it became nothing more than a debating body.

Patrician men were born into their positions. They had private tutors as children and were taught how to read and write, basic mathematics, and the art of rhetoric and public speaking. They generally served in the military for a number of years before seeking more powerful offices such as Tribune or Consul. Patrician women were married young and were educated enough to run a large household made up of family members and slaves.

Life as a Patrician had its rewards. They were not worried about where their next meal came, and they threw lavish entertainment to keep themselves and the people pacified. Theirs was a life of luxury unequalled until the Renaissance. At the same time the political power plays that took place could quickly led to their downfall and even death. As the ruling class of Rome, the Patricians kept the state functioning, but as long as it benefited them.

Other titles in this series include The Countryside in the Roman Empire, The City in the Roman Empire, and Religion in the Roman Empire.