ꜟVamos! Let’s Go Eat!, Welcoming Elijah, and Miriam at the River all won 2021 ALA awards for outstanding illustration in their categories. ꜟVamos! Let’s Go Eat! by Raúl the Third, colors by Elaine Bay.  Versify (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2020, 38 pages. Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 0-4 Recommended for: ages 3-6 (ꜟVamos! Let’s Go Eat! was this year’s Pura Delpre award winner for illustration.) Little Lobo and his partner Kooky Dooky (a rooster) make food deliveries for special events in their town. Today, there’s a huge event: a Lucha Libre match featuring El Toro y sus Amigos (which even beginning Spanish learners will recognize as “the Bull and his friends.”…

Ida Mae Jones is a true “flygirl” in this engaging historical fiction read for teens that examines issues of race, coming-of-age, and learning to fly. Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith. Penguin, 2010. 304 pages. Reading Level: Young adult, ages 14-18 Recommended For: Ages 14-18 Ida Mae Jones, aka “Jonesy,” is 18, African American, and a wannabe pilot. She knows how to fly, but in the 1940’s, women rarely get their pilot licenses, African Americans (female or not) even more rarely. When the war comes along, poor strawberry farmers in Louisiana want to do their part; Ida Mae’s older brother enlists and heads off to fight. She’s left behind cleaning houses…

The Blossom and the Firefly, Hana and Taro, are brought together by music and war in this emotional historical fiction read for teens. The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith. Putnam’s, 2020. 340 pages. Reading Level: Teens/Young Adult, ages 15-18 Recommended For: Ages 15-18 Hana helps her classmates wash the sheets and hang them to dry. They’re waiting for the call that the next group of tokkō pilots will be leaving on their flight. Instead of farming, like Hana’s mother thinks, Hana’s Nadeshiko Unit from her school is performing a far more emotionally grueling role. The tokkō pilots are young Japanese pilots heading out on kamikaze missions during…

In The Lion of Mars, when the adults succumb to illness, the kids of the space colony must find a way to survive. The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm. Random House, 2021, 251 pages Reading Level: Middle grades, 8-10 Recommended for: ages 10-14 All the grownups in the U. S. Mars colony remember life on Earth, but the kids arrived as babies in the care of adult volunteers. Bell, age 11 in Earth years, is content with helping Phinneus tend the algae farm. In his spare time he hangs out with the kids watching old digi-files and playing games. But then, he’s the youngest. All the other kids…

Just Like That, Gary Schmidt’s latest book for teens, humorously and poignantly explores love and loss. Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion, 2021. 400 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12 and up Recommended For: Young Adult, ages 12 and up In September, Meryl Lee Kowalski arrives at St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls (in Harpswell, Maine), suitcases packed with regulation school uniforms. She would have a new start, her parents said. A whole new routine, her parents said. She would meet so many new friends. She would become so Accomplished. That’s what the headmistress had promised. ~p. 4 By Christmas, Meryl Lee still wasn’t sure what she…

This year’s Theodor S. Geisel Honor Books: The Bear in My Family, Ty’s Travels, What about Worms!?, and Where’s Baby? The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award (named for guess who?) is given by the ALA for “the most distinguished beginning reader book. Easy readers have come a long way from “See Spot run.” Today’s books feature outstanding art, less-than-strict adherence to leveled word lists, and lots of fun. Megan reported on the winner, See the Cat, on Thursday. Today we’re Johnny-on-the-spot with all four honor books (bless my local library for having all of them)! The Bear in My Family by Maya Tatsukawa. Dial, 2020, 32 pages. “I live with a…

Team Spotlight Hayley: Staff Writer, Admin Assistant, Newsletter Mastermind & Parrot Owner What does it look like behind the scenes at Redeemed Reader? We’re taking some time on Fridays to give you a glimpse behind the curtains. What happens when a bookworm grows up? In my case, I joined the Redeemed Reader team. I’m Hayley, staff writer and the face behind the newsletters as well as the mastermind of our newsletter’s weekly book trivia. I have a mascot (also known as a Goffin cockatoo) named Simon, and some of my favorite things include P. G. Wodehouse, coffee, Shirley Hughes, continual cups of tea, and pilot G-2 gel pens. I’m reading…

A dog on a rug is quite understandably aggravated by the narrative narrator through three very short stories for beginning readers. Brilliant, clever, and hilarious. See the Cat: Three stories about a dog by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka. Candlewick, 64 pages. Reading Level: Easy readers, ages 4-8 Recommended For: Ages 4-8 Last August, I invested in a good phonics-based reading curriculum to help my six-year-old son learn to read. His three older brothers had developed their skills naturally, but my fourth son needed a bit more help and encouragement. So we used tiles, cards, worksheets, and M&Ms for incentives, but the joy wasn’t there. His 4yo brother was…

An excellent new graphic novel translated into English, Catherine’s War tells the story of one Jewish girl’s life in occupied France, often through the lens of her rolodex. *Catherine’s War by Julia Billet. HarperAlley, 2020. 176 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, 8-12 Recommended For: Ages 8 – 15 Sophie Cohen loves life at her new school —it’s a modern one, finding and encouraging the students’ interests.  Sophie has discovered photography and loves taking pictures and teaching the other students. But nothing is certain in France in 1942.  Soon Sophie and the other Jewish students are sent away and so begins Sophie’s journey through France, with a new name and identity.  The…

Into the Clouds is the grueling saga of three expeditions that failed to summit the second-highest–but most dangerous–mountain in the world. Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Tod Olson. Scholastic Focus, 2020, 227 pages plus bibliography, notes, etc. Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12-up “The world’s most dangerous mountain” is the second highest mountain in the Himalayan chain. It has indigenous names, but is more conveniently called K-2. Though not higher than Everest, K-2 is more dangerous because it’s remote, subject to the elements, and strewn with sharp black boulders: “All rock and ice and storm and abyss.” As the…