In his latest novel, brilliant “Going Zero,” author Anthony McCarten goes to great lengths to scare the dickens out of us by exploring the issue of privacy—and the fact that any notion that it still exists is archaic—in this brave new world of technology which surrounds us almost everywhere we go. Billionaire tech mogul Cy Baxter has a brilliant idea for the future. His technology will enable the law enforcement agencies of our country to stop crime almost before it happens. The only downside? In order for it to work, the government, in concert with his tech company, will be able to monitor virtually our every move, every conversation, every action.
Three children’s books that would be fabulous additions to any school or home library are “I Am Temple Grandin” by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos, “The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World” by Temple Grandin, and “Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor” by Temple Grandin. The first book is engaging and explains how being different is not a bad thing, and actually can be very special. The other two books are for exploration and activities that kids might want to do. Not a bad choice with summer vacations coming up because they are filled with information and ideas for great projects!
While “The Seaside Library” is about the lengths to which friends will go to protect and support each other, it’s not basically about a library. The setting is Mariners Island, a fictional island author Brenda Novak imagines off the coast of New England where all three main characters grew up. Ivy, Ariana, and Cam were best friends, and when a tragedy occurred one summer, the teenagers lied to protect Cam. That lie grew and took on a life of its own in the next two decades.
Lauren Willig is known for historical fiction that delves deeply into little-known aspects of war and the women who have supported victims of war. In “Two Wars and a Wedding,” she presents Betsy Hayes, a valiant woman, who is based on a real figure. Betsy becomes a nurse and ultimately saves lives when those in charge of the war efforts would do otherwise.
Nonfiction picture books for children are a great way to introduce information to kids about the world around them in a very digestible manner with vocabulary that’s just right for them to understand. This group of nonfiction picture books about animals and plants is for a range of ages. Two books are a part of the “Meet Your World” series. One is “You Are a Honey Bee!” and the other is “You Are a Raccoon!” for young readers who will enjoy the book’s physical suggestions to move like those animals. “Stinkbird Has a Superpower” is about a hoatzin, an Amazon bird that lives in the rain forest. This picture book is filled with information but also with lots of humor that will engage young readers and cause them to want to read and reread this adorably illustrated book. “A Home for Every Plant: Wonders of the Botanical World” is a large, information-filled book about plants from all over the world. “Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-Floor Ecosystem,” begins with a sad event, the death of a seventy-year-old whale, but then we learn about how that death goes on to nourish other creatures for half a century. “Cicada Symphony” is all about the cicadas we see every summer, and this colorful book is chock-full of information. “We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration” is filled with stunning watercolor illustrations of the birds and the fantastic and beautiful shapes they make as they fly together, as the story is told in first person plural, the band of starlings to fly together so amazingly. And three books in the “Save the…” series are about blue whales, frogs, and giraffes, and would be great informational texts for a classroom.
Perhaps the threat of certain books being banned makes it even more important that those books be shared and read. Two books that certainly fit the bill are “That Flag” by Tameka Fryer Brown and Nikkolas Smith and “Love is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement” by Sandra Neil Wallace and Bryan Collier. While the books are very different—one is a very touching story about the Confederate flag and its effect on the friendship of two girls, while the other is a nonfiction account of a valiant woman whom few have heard of. Both are books about topics that would certainly damage the fragile sensibilities of those who cringe at any reference to our racist past and our often-uncomfortable current racist reality.
There’s a saying that no good deed goes unpunished, and in “Not So Perfect Strangers,” L. S. Stratton takes that adage to the max by showing how Tasha Jenkins suffers from the good deed she does late one night when she gives a stranger a ride. Tasha has been planning to leave her abusive husband, and she and her teenage son are staying in a hotel just prior to getting on a plane and going back South, where Tasha has family, to live. She is determined to leave D.C. and Kordell Jenkins, whose abusive tendencies have kept her basically a prisoner in her own home. To “punish” her, he took away Tasha’s car keys, her phone, her credit cards. And he hasn’t let her work. So when she finally makes plans to get away, she is shocked when her son disappears and she finds a note in their hotel room that he doesn’t want to leave his dad or his girlfriend.
In his second book in the Logan Foster series, “The Unforgettable Logan Foster and the Shadow of Doubt,” author Shawn Peters asks readers to consider the power of actual strength, as in super strength, versus the power of the mind. The main character, Logan Foster, starts his narrative by explaining that while he is “a twelve-year-old orphan living on the Westside of Lost Angeles,” he’s halfway through high school because he has an eidetic memory. He tells us, “I’ve retained every word, sound, and image that I’ve seen or heard since I was three.” He also makes it clear that he is writing this narrative for his younger brother, whom he is hoping to find and with whom he hopes to be reunited.
The question of love—is it something that hits like lightning at first sight or is it something that grows slowly, over time—is one of the issues that Sally Hepworth explores in her newest novel, “The Soulmate.” The other main issue is about trust and how much we can ever trust another person. As in many of her novels, Hepworth plays with the information she provides. The narrative is told from the perspectives of Amanda and Pippa, the two female main characters, with Amanda’s narrative providing “before” and “after” indicators and Pippa’s narrative shared with “now” and “then” labels.
While “Leeva at Last,” written by Sara Pennypacker and illustrated by Matthew Cordell, is written with plenty of hyperbole and shows exaggerated cruelty worthy of Roald Dahl’s “Matilda,” at heart this is a beautiful, thoughtful story of standing up for truth and doing the right thing. It’s also a story about the importance of books and reading, and as celebrated children’s author Gary Paulsen shared about his childhood, how books and reading can literally save the life of an abused and neglected child, as it did for him.
