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.