TREE. TABLE. BOOK. by Lois Lowry and CLEVER CROW by Chris Butterworth

We had a great meeting on Sept.18. We discussed our novel, Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry first. We all agreed that Lois Lowry, who has published more than 40 books for young readers, still 'has it' and knows how to create a good story and keep readers engaged. However, a few readers were bored by the beginning and felt that this book started too slowly, and they were not really interested in knowing so many of the details of middle-schooler Sophia's life in small town-New Hampshire. Others of us thought Sophia's voice was perfect, and knowing all these details about her enhanced our understanding of her relationship with her 88-year-old neighbor Sophie who liked many of the same things she did, and shared an offbeat sense of humor...even as she was entering the early stages of dementia. But we all agreed that Sophie's stories, as she was being put through various memory tests by her information-gathering young friend, were the most engaging part of the book, and that she was actually the star of the story. We also appreciated the depth of Sophie's memories as she told of her early life during what was obviously the beginning of the Holocaust -- prompted by three words: Tree. Table. Book. We also liked the depiction of the relationship between young Sophia and her best friend Ralphie, and the way they dealt with another little boy, Oliver, who was brilliant, quite eccentric, and appeared to be on the Autism syndrome -- although it was never necessary to mention that by name. We loved that the kids were very sensitive to him and to his needs, and were protective without trying to change him. The only thing we all felt could have been left out was a whole section about an abandoned house that Sophia imagined they could smuggle Sophie into when her son wanted to move her to an assisted living facility. We talked about several more of the details from this story, but to add them here would make this Recap almost as long as the book. We agreed that the ending was plausible, and probably the best outcome for all. Some readers wondered about the target age group for this book, since they felt that kids that age wouldn't know anything about the Holocaust or Autism. But others of us thought that didn't really matter, since it was the understanding,  humanity, sensitivity, and love between these two almost identically-named females -- one young, one old -- that were the strength of this engaging story.

Our discussion of our picture book, Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth was significantly shorter! We all liked the mostly-shades-of-grey-and-black illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill, which -- though very accurate --were not actually photographic. But many of us felt that they would have been even better with more color. Our main problem was with the text, which didn't flow in any meaningful way, and merely contained random facts presented in a dully-written manner. We couldn't really figure out why various parts of the text were presented in differently sized fonts -- from 'normal' for the 10"x10" large page size to larger to huge. However, we did feel that this book could be useful in a school setting for any primary class studies of different types of birds. We especially liked the end papers: the front ones showed pictures and relative sizes of various crows' family eggs; the rear ones showed very accurate depictions of the various birds in the crow family. Many of us had not been aware of most of them! And the short 'lesson' for using an Index shown at the very end of the book could also be very helpful in a classroom.

ONCE UPON A BOOK by Grace Lin and Kate Messner and THE TENTH MISTAKE OF HANK HOOPERMAN by Gennifer Choldenko

We were all glad that we had two winners for May! We began with our picture book, Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin & Kate Messner. We loved the illustrations and the story of a little girl, Alice (!!) who is bored on a rainy day and is beckoned by a white rabbit to join him inside the pages of a book, where she is invited to 'turn the page and come in' by a variety of animals (and some clouds) who share their humid, rainy, hot, wet, airy, stormy habitats with her. Each page turn leads to another experience in another place, ending up in the sky, close to the moon, but when she has had enough, Alice is invited to a place of coziness and warmth -- home! -- and a loving family and a bowl of dumplings is there waiting for her. We loved how the white rabbit was shown on ever page, as well as the other details in the very brightly-colored gouache paintings.  A couple of readers thought the text wasn't so interesting, but others felt that young readers/listeners would enjoy the repetition and would soon 'join in' as the story progressed. We also felt there were many details in the illustrations that lent themselves to further discussion. This book was seemingly an homage to Alice in Wonderland and Where the Wild Things Are, and we were sure that young readers would enjoy it.

Many of us felt that our novel, The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko, had a very slow start, and looking at the cover illustration we feared it might lead to the (now very common) trope of the travails of middle school. But! -- NO! We were all ultimately captured by this very compelling story of 11-year-old Hank and his 3-year-old sister, 'Boo', whose mother has left and after a week still hasn't returned. The kids are hungry and scared, and the remainder of the story centers around Hank's resourcefulness as he tries to find a way for both of them to be safe, and ultimately to have a good normal life. We thought all of the characters were well-drawn, and we loved the realistic voice that put us inside of Hank's head as his devotion to his little sister and his resilience led him to trust other adults throughout the twists and turns of the plot. A couple of the readers felt that some of he middle part of the story meandered, and perhaps could have been shortened. We thought young readers would stay engaged in this heart-warming, life-affirming story, and that it needed to be on every library shelf, because of its realistic treatment of a situation in which, sadly, many youngsters find themselves today.

GOOD NIGHT LITTLE BLUE TRUCK by Alice Schertle and THE LAST MAPMAKER by Christina Soontornvat

Because of an expected heavy rainstorm we decided to have our meeting on Zoom. (We were correct!) We began with our picture book, Good Night, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. All of us mostly liked this rhyming story of several animals rescued from a severe thunderstorm by Toad and his friend Little Blue Truck. (It was quite appropriate for the day we met!) We appreciated the feeling of safety it provided, the theme of animals helping one another, and the humorous, appealing illustrations which showed a lot of action, gave the feeling of a thunderstorm, and provided many humorous details. Animals in pajamas! A pig holding a teddy bear! A toad sleeping in 'his own bed' on the top of the cab of the truck! One reader was not thrilled with the rhymes, and felt that unnecessary words had been added just to create the rhymes. We had a bit of discussion about this, and most of us were not bothered by it. We all agreed that this was a good read-aloud, a sweet story for the intended audience, and definitely a good bedtime read.

We all felt that our novel, The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat, labeled as a fantasy because of a (good, well-meaning) dragon, presented a quite believable world with seemingly real characters. We entered life with Sai, a young girl who was an apprentice to the most famous mapmaker, Paiyoon, as she got the chance to travel with him on a very dangerous expedition by sea to explore and discover new lands. We appreciated how it showed the struggle of people in the lower classes of their society who tried to improve their lot in the world. We lived through their adventures on a stormy sea, through several 'page turners', some deceitful actions by various characters, and a happy ending which some felt was a bit 'too neat'. We thought the book was very well written and showed that the author had done a great deal of research. Some felt there were too many coincidences, and it was a bit unbelievable that all survived the ordeals that were described in the story. One reader who was unable to attend our Zoom meeting wasn't so thrilled with the book. She didn't really relate with Sai at all, and felt that her relationship with her father needed to be better developed, as did the class distinctions within their society. She also felt it needed some editing in various places. But we felt generally that it would be an exciting read for the target age group and that young readers would enjoy many of the suspenseful adventures.

DO YOU REMEMBER? by Sydney Smith and STELLA DIAZ HAS SOMETHING TO SAY by Angela Dominguez

At our November meeting we discussed our picture book first, Do You Remember? by Sydney Smith. We all liked so many things about this book: the contrast between 'then' and 'now' as a young boy and his mom go through various memories of their lives after -- as we learn later -- they are no longer living with the dad of the family. We thought the gentle structure of this spare story was perfect for its purpose -- the idea of reliving memories as a bedtime story activity. We agreed that it had quite deep meanings, and appreciated the difference between the mom's and the son's recollections of the same events. The fact that each of their voices was presented in a different color text was quite helpful, and the illustrations helped us to know exactly what each was remembering. A couple of readers experienced this book via YouTube, and it was obvious that it didn't come across as clearly as if one was reading the actual book, since the visual elements were very important to the story, even including the different colors of endpapers: light in the front and dark at the end. We appreciated that the reader was left with the idea that these twol, who now lived in a new place would be making new memories -- helped by many of the pictured articles brought with them from their previous life.

We had differing opinions of our novel, Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez. We all agreed that it was too long, and could have used better editing. After that, our discussion boiled down to this:

Pros: It was a nicely done story (even tho' too long); parts of it were interesting and the characters seemed real; it provided good insight into one particular family while at the same time being a universal story of a timid young girl gaining confidence as the experiences of her life in school and at home and with friends helped her learn more about being in the world and finally feel free to speak her mind.

Cons: The writing felt somewhat tepid and flat -- one reader felt it was boring; another felt the story was not engaging and contained "no engine" and "turgid pacing"; some wondered why this book had received an award for Humor, since they didn't find much funny in it at all.

This discussion was a perfect example of the joy of our book group...the fact that each reader brings something different to the experience, therefore producing different reactions after reading a book. The same is true of young readers, and we felt that some young readers might really like and relate to this book while others would become bored and put it down. ...and so goes the world!

HEROES by Alan Gratz and AT THE DROP OF A CAT by Elise Fontenaille

We began with a discussion of our novel, Heroes by Alan Gratz. We had mixed feelings about this story set in Hawaii before, during, and after the December 7, 1941 attack by the Japanese Air Force on Peal Harbor. We all agreed that this was not a highly 'literary' piece of fiction, and some felt that it was more plot-driven than character-driven, and was written to basically cover the points that the author wanted young readers to know about this moment in history. Some readers were not thrilled with the result, while others felt that it was an excellent action-packed story, easily accessible to its target audience. They felt the fact that it seemed almost like a video game or a comic book was entirely appropriate, since the two main characters, Frank and Stanley, were obsessed with creating their own superhero, nicknamed 'The Arsenal of Democracy'. Those who weren't thrilled with the story felt it wasn't realistic, and questioned some of the plot points, including the fact that Frank, who was always scared, suddenly felt like a superhero during the bombing, and other details in the story that just didn't make sense. Others felt it was OK to ignore those details, suspend disbelief, and relate more to the action of the story, the loyalty between the two friends, Frank's ability to finally feel brave, and the satisfying ending. We all agreed that it treated this event in our country's WWII history well, including the prejudice that arose against Japanese-Americans who lived in Hawaii at the time (which included Stanley, whose mother was Japanese and whose dad was White), and other details of what actually happened at the time. We also appreciated all of the author's notes at the end which included these and several other important facts about this period, as well as a very clear map showing locations mentioned in the story. We felt that young readers, especially those who liked a lot of action would be very engaged in this book, and would probably love the comic strip created by Frank and Stanley when they grew up, which was shown at the very end.

We all had various issues with our picture book, At the Drop of a Cat by Élise Fontenaille, illustrated by Violeta Lópiz. We didn't feel like young children would be particularly engaged in this story of a 6-year-old boy's observations of and love for his grandfather -- partially due to the sometimes confusing illustrations which were created by a lot of overlaid images, few of which showed anything clearly. One reader felt that the depiction of the grandpa was even quite scary. We felt that the proposed wordplay in the story didn't really work, and other than the boy's obvious love for his grandpa, not much else happened. There was no story arc, no excitement, nothing showing what the little boy ever actually did, no cat! -- the title notwithstanding -- and no real ending...the supposed story. just. stopped. When we realized that this book had been translated from the French, we figured that maybe something had been lost in the translation, and that perhaps there is a cultural difference in the expectations of what a picture book should accomplish for children. In our perception, even though the book was very positively reviewed in the French world, in our world it basically fell flat.

THE LIST OF THINGS THAT WILL NOT CHANGE by Rebecca Stead and FARMHOUSE by Sophie Blackall

We started with our novel, The List of Things That Will Not Change, by Rebecca Stead. We had mixed reactions to this book. A couple of readers liked it a lot -- mostly because of the true-sounding voice of ten-year-old Bea who had many issues to deal with: her parents' divorce, living in two homes, her dad's impending marriage to a man, which would entail a new sister, and also the usual problems that seem huge to kids of that age. We thought all of the different events were described realistically, and liked the fact that even though a gay marriage was involved, this wasn't an "issue book" per se. We liked the co-parenting of her mom and dad, and the other adults in her life who were helpful to her. Other readers felt differently: it was too long; it had too many things to deal with; they could not relate to Bea at all. We felt that many young readers would probably become involved in the story, and that it was a pleasant and comfortable read for them.

We all loved the illustrations in our picture book, Farmhouse, by Sophie Blackwell. We appreciated the detailed depictions of almost everything that was mentioned in the text, as a large farm family (12 children!!) proceeded through the daily work and play on a farm in Upstate New York. We watched time pass as they all grew up and left the farm until only the youngest sibling, "now quite old" finally left. We watched the house and the things inside of it deteriorate, until it was finally 'rescued' by the teller of the story. Some readers felt it was an 'old-fashioned' picture book...with 'real' illustrations that bucked the seemingly current trend of more 'cartoon-like' depictions in books. We thought it would be a good book to share in a 1:1 situation between an adult and a child, where they could point out individual details in the family's possessions, and perhaps compare them with things they were familiar with in their own houses. A couple of readers were not so thrilled with the actual text, which attempted to be poetic, but sometimes wasn't, but we all agreed that the last lines of the story, "...twelve children...loved and grew quite old, where they'll live on, now, in this book that you hold, like your stories will, so long as they're told." This ending created a few lumps in throats. We appreciated the end papers, different in the front and back of the book, which gave the flavor of many of the details in the book, and included a full page AUTHOR'S NOTE in which Stead told all of the details of this farmhouse that she actually bought, researched, and refurbished. We had some discussion about the issue of younger people who grew up on family farms having no interest in continuing their parents' endeavors as farmers, as well as what the loss of these single family farms has done to the food chain of our country. We thought it was a good book, and we were glad we had read it.

A WORK IN PROGRESS by Jarrett Lerner and HOT DOG by Doug Salati

We had a great group and good discussions at our February meeting. We started with our novel, A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner. We all mostly had varying degrees of 'Like' for Will's first-person account of his agony that started with his first being called "FAT!" by a bully in fourth grade, and how it continued to affect him even in middle school where he tried to make drastic changes in his eating habits in order to 'fit in' and attract and keep friends. We all remembered the things that had been said to us when we were quite young that continued to bother us many years later. Initially we were all a bit daunted by the 362-page heft of this book, but the format of very short free verse text and many full-page drawings in a facsimile of Will's lined notebook made it a quite speedy read. We thought it was an important story that dealt with bullying, body-shaming, eating disorders, and self-acceptance, along with the usual middle-school angst. We wondered which kids would read it: overweight kids? kids with overweight friends? parents/teachers of overweight kids? We also wondered how an adult might comfortably place this book in the hands of a kid who might really benefit from reading it -- and who also might be able to learn, through the events in Will's story, how to best cope with their own situation and begin to accept themselves for who they really were. We agreed that perhaps presenting it to a whole class would encourage a variety of young readers to at least pick it up and look at it -- and perhaps read the whole thing, given its quick-read/multi-illustrated format. Upon learning more about the author, we were pleased to know that it was his own story, and not just some "...oh! I'll write a popular issue book" situation. We were sure that young readers who started it would definitely want to finish reading the whole book.

We had varying opinions on our picture book, Hot Dog by Doug Salati. One reader was expecting it to be about actual hot dogs, and was disappointed that it was merely about a dog in a big city (probably New York?) who hated the hot summer and the noise and confusion and was thrilled when his owner, who was tuned into his feelings when he plopped himself down in the middle of traffic and refused to budge, took him on a short cruise to a nearby island where he could enjoy the sea breeze, romp on the beach, and cool off in the water and gather pebble and shell treasures to take home. We liked the detailed illustrations, which told most of the story, where the dog himself was portrayed as short, reddish-brown, and yes, sort of 'hot dog-looking'! One reader was not so thrilled with the scant text, and felt that had the text alone been sent to a publisher perhaps it may have not even been published. But we felt it could be a fun read-aloud, and that anyone -- adult or young child -- who had ever spent a hot summer in a big, noisy city could empathize with this nameless hot dog and dream of a wonderful day at the beach.