The novel was a quick read. There were some tough subjects addressed in the book, such as a Lebensborn, or maternity home for young girls who have become pregnant from Nazi men. It is a place where the Nazis hope to raise up a pure people. This concept is a bit much for the young reader. The writing, however, and the exciting plot elements felt appropriate for a younger reader. So although the main character is thirteen, it seems he is younger and the book reads easily, like it should be for younger readers. With the World War II setting seeming more appropriate for an older reader, I’m not sure who I’d recommend the book to.

With the help of Alice, a wealthy British girl hiding a horse in the barn, Lucas learns to accept that maybe he is brave. After all, being brave means doing things even while scared. A serious escape scene at the end of the book gives a delightful sense of peril and adventure. In the end, no one can doubt Lucas’ bravery, and this war story ends on a hopeful note.

Is it a stand-out book for the year? I’m not sure yet. I still question which audience The Lion’s Run is for.

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You Are Now Old Enough is about family secrets. When his Grandpa Henry dies, Roman realizes he has lost his chance to find out the secret to the mysterious Toe Beast, which is the story of Grandpa’s severed toe. How can he find out the truth of the story now that Grandpa is gone? He asks his parents with little success. He dare not ask his older brother, who treats him as an immature kid. Though a mysterious set of circumstances, Roman does learn the truth. Add in a bucket, an abandoned town, and a girl with some dogs, and you have a truly mysterious and bizarre story.

It’s hard to describe this book’s plot without giving up details, so I’ll turn to the writing. The novel is told through multiple perspectives. Roman’s story is told from his third person perspective. Then there is the writing in a notebook called “A Girl and Her Dogs,” and then the story is told from first person perspective for Roman, his mother, and a few other people. Somehow all the narrations fit together coherently. It makes sense! The writing is appropriate for a middle grade reader. Roman is twelve and although there is intrigue and bizarre story, nothing about the book is overly scary or written in a way to ostracize a young reader. Somehow, the author makes all the writing unique while still being equally accessible. He manages to give each voice a somewhat unique sound.

You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This is a fantasy novel. I don’t typically like fantasy, so I’ll be honest: As I began reading, I hoped it was realistic fiction and the “Toe Beast” could be explained. But that is not what this book it. Nevertheless, it read as a realistic fiction book. Despite the strangeness, the reader joined Roman in wondering did this really happen? Obviously, not. But it read as if it did. I really liked it, and that is saying something because it is so odd as a whole. Once a kid starts reading this, they won’t be able to stop, even if they, like me, find it quite strange.

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The best part is that each page has a slightly different illustration style. The child’s page looks like it’s been put together with a collage of different textures. Other pages are watercolor or paint. Many are illustration, pencil, markers, crayon, and oil pastel. It is well worthy of the Caldecott Honor.

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Some of the letters, such as I is for Indigenous and D is for Drum, represent a general concept for Native Americans, while other letters, like K is for Kachina and Kiva and U is Umiak, are related to a specific tradition. Overall, D Is for Drum works as either a read-aloud story or as a instructional book about the variety of Native American cultures today.

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Mariam wants so much to be recognized as good, and now that she is in a Catholic school, she wants to make sure she is also a good example of her religion. Everything seems destined to fail for her, though, since she does not know cursive and is behind in math. With the new school, she now finds herself questioning what is right for herself. She struggles with the images of Jesus, since Muslims are not okay with iconography. She longs to be a part of the class leadership but there is already a tradition. She wonders where she can shine in a school where she is different from everyone else by the biggest difference of all, it seems.

It is Mariam’s family that brings Mariam back to a place of peace and comfort as her school and family world’s combine. As happens in life, the things she was worried about subside to the background as other things happen that take higher priority. Love and friendship matter most, and those are the things that tie Mariam to her new friends and even more so to her family. I really liked Miriam’s story.

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The Cemetery of Untold Stories follows the lives of a few different people, but especially that of Filomena, the care-taker of the cemetery. She is practical but does what Alma asks and listens at the graves, where the voices of the characters buried now speak to her. So, as we learn about what Filomena’s life has been and now is, we also hear the stories of the buried, including Alma’s father, Manuel Cruz, and Bienvenida, the abandoned ex-wife of the former dictator of the Dominican Republic. Alma had started writing their stories, but had stopped: now, as voices from the ground, their stories weave together. Even Filomena’s life story finds connection into that of the others.

The fictional author, Alma Cruz, is a major character in the book, as she is the one who starts the cemetery, and she is the one who has written drafts that have now been burned and buried. And yet, she is also a hands-off presence. In a sense, since she has abandoned the stories under the ground, she is no longer needed. She is just a shadow, although a significant one. She is the one who has provided the funding for the future of the cemetery, which will become a park after she is gone. As well, she is the one who has returned from living in America to living back in the Dominican Republic. Thus, that sense of place is an essential part of the novel too. Manuel Cruz had had to flee political prosecution. Bienvenida too had to leave her home; now they can be at rest back in their home country. Alma has brought it all full-circle, as it needed to be.

So, although Alma had left her stories unfinished, it is in the unfinished state that they can weave together. They have been laid to rest, but in the magical way that these things happen, they now are unable to stay silent: Manuel’s story, Bienvenida’s story, Filomena, her sister, and Alma as well. Everyone’s stories may seem unique, and even though the separate characters don’t know how they are connected, we, looking on from outside, can see it. What a satisfying book. I would enjoy a reread.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance review copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Victory on the Walls is a satisfying retelling of the book of Nehemiah as well as an entertaining plot-driven story with a hint of peril. Bani, as the nephew of Nehemiah, gets to give an insightful perspective on the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. After reading this middle grade novel, I have a better understanding of why Nehemiah’s mission to Jerusalem was so important for Jewish history. The author did a great job of writing a novel that felt authentic. It feels like she did extensive research to make the novel as accurate to the times as possible. She managed to do so, however, without the novel feeling like a research report.

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Interspersed with the hints at which books he is reading — like Alice and Wonderland, Treasure Island, and others — are his own memories of the people and events that were shaping his life as he had first read those books. Thus reading the library books is like reliving his childhood. He wasn’t lonely because he had his books. The library and the books were his world, and Miss Adams the librarian was “Mrs. God.”

“And it was finished, all the books were placed, the outer ring of his selves and the inner ring of remembered faces, deathless, with summer and autumn names.”

“Exchange” is a reminder and testament that reading stories is a formative experience, one in which the reader’s life is changed and changing. We remember who we were when we read the story. The librarian and William decide that the Thomas Wolfe phrase “You Can’t Go Home Again” is wrong. William had felt he was in a foreign place in revisiting his home town. But no, William feels he’s come home again in visiting the books at the library. Books bring him home again, as they can all of us too.

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Garram must flee his village when he is suspected of manufacturing a plot against his father, the tribal chief. He flees to a city where he must learn their language and about their religion (Islam). He is able to build trust and positive reputation with the people of the town. When he returns to his village he is able to prove his loyalty as well as bravery from attacks by rival tribes. Through it all, Garram is a hero. It is the traitor, Menud, who must face the consequences. He has framed Garram and ultimately betrays the whole tribe.

I didn’t like this book at all. Although it was short, it dragged a lot. I didn’t like any of the things happening. I felt it was improperly drawing a stereotype of a foreign (to me) civilization. It was written by a white man for a white audience, that much was clear. The foreign-ness was apparent as the story was told. The author emphasized Garram’s black skin time and time again. In other places, the city’s belief in Islam did not feel respectfully portrayed. In fact, the people were afraid of a pig in one scene, which made the Muslim leaders seem ridiculous.

As a whole, the novel Garram the Hunter just gave me an icky feeling. It was a story of bravery but only as much as it illustrated a “foreign” world of tribes and poisoned arrows and warfare. Wikipedia suggests that the author wrote it as inspired by his time in pre-colonial Africa as a civil servant; it read as if it were meant to show the tribes and culture as foreign and uncivilized. Is this how Nigerians would have wanted to be portrayed 1930? Is this a portrayal of the past that Nigerians would accept as OK today?

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