Book of the Week: Star-Crossed

Star-Crossed

by Barbara Dee
Published by Aladdin, 2017
277 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7848-9
Ages 9-12

There’s drama on and off the stage in this middle-school romance in which shy 8th grader Mattie decides to try out for Romeo and Juliet. She’s thrilled to be cast as Paris. Although it’s a small part, it allows her to swoon over her secret crush, Gemma, who is playing Juliet. At 12, Mattie is just beginning to figure out her own sexuality and Barbara Dee perfectly captures the awkward passions of a first crush, made all the more challenging by Mattie’s uncertainty about how any advances she might make will be received, not just by Gemma but by all the other kids at school. The director, Mr. Torres, notices Mattie has an affinity for Shakespeare and asks her to run lines with dreamy Liam, the reluctant Romeo, who needs extra help. When Liam suddenly drops out of the play due to a hockey injury, Mattie is tapped to take his place since she already knows the part so well. Now she gets a rare chance to act on her feelings, at least on stage, playing Romeo to Gemma’s Juliet. The chance to kiss Gemma/Juliet? Excruciatingly thrilling, and it fills Mattie with so much anxiety that it’s all she can do to remember her lines. And will she ever be able to tell Gemma how she really feels? It all adds up to a surprisingly tender coming out story with subtle parallels to the original star-crossed lovers. (KTH)  ©2017 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Niko Draws a Feeling

Niko Draws a Feeling

by Bob Raczka
Illustrated by Simone Shin
Published by Carolrhoda, 2017
32 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4677-9843-3
Ages 4-7

Niko loves to draw. His pictures, inspired by what he observes, are abstract images of the in between—the feeling or action or intent—of a situation. He draws the “ring-a-ling” of the ice cream truck, not the truck or the ice cream; the hard work a mother bird building her nest, not the bird or nest. Friends and family don’t understand his pictures. Believing that no one will ever understand his art, Niko expresses how he feels in a picture he tapes to his door. When new neighbor Iris learns Nico draws she asks to see his pictures. Looking carefully at each one, she doesn’t ask what they are. When she gets to the one on his door she says, “It looks like how I feel. You know, sad because I had to move.” Niko knows he’s found someone who understands him: A new friend. A straightforward yet thoughtful narrative touches on abstract art, the complex experience of creative inspiration, and the emotions of being misunderstood. Mixed-media illustrations provide a winning accompaniment, conveying the concrete of Nico’s world, including his multiracial family, and his abstract art. (EMT) ©2017 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Out of wonder

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets

by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and
    Marjorie Wentworth
Illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Published by Candlewick Press, 2017
52 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8094-7
Ages 8-13

Twenty sparkling, original poems each celebrate a specific poet in a terrific collection that also serves as an introduction to the poets honored. The opening poem by Kwame Alexander, “How To Write a Poem,” celebrates Naomi Shihab Nye (“Let loose your heart— / raise your voice. … find / your way / to that one true word / (or two).” The final offering, also by Alexander, celebrates Maya Angelou (“Rise / into the wonder / of daybreak. … Know your beauty / is a thunder / your precious heart unsalable. ...Shine on honey! / Know you / are phenomenal.” In between are poems paying tribute to Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, Bashō, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Walter Dean Myers, Emily Dickinson, Terrance Hayes, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda, Judith Wright, Mary Oliver, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, William Carlos Williams, Okot p’Bitek, Chief Dan George, and Rumi. The poems, varied and wonderful, skillfully reflect their subjects thematically and stylistically. Additional information about each of the 20 poets is found at book’s end. A singular, beautifully composed illustration serves as a perfect accompaniment for each poem, complementing but never competing with words that will open eyes, and minds, and hearts to these writers. ©2017 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Vincent and Theo

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

by Deborah Heiligman
Published by Henry Holt, 2017
464 pages
ISBN: 978-0805093391
Age 14 and older

As a young man, Vincent Van Gogh worked at an art auction house but was neither happy nor successful. He turned to God and ministered to the poor with great humility and an unsettling passion for self-denial until he was asked to leave his post. At 27, he returned home and began to draw and paint with purpose, relentless in the desire to improve. His brother Theo, two years younger and a successful art dealer, was his greatest critic and staunchest supporter financially and emotionally. Excited by the new style called Impressionism, Theo encouraged Vincent to use more and more color in his work. There had been signs for years that Vincent could be unstable, sometimes subject to deep sadness and withdrawal, sometimes frenzied. Theo, too, battled despair. A narrative that quotes liberally from their prolific correspondence details their individual struggles, while the devotion between them is its heart and soul. This exquisite, remarkable book told in the present tense positions readers as intimate observers of Vincent and Theo’s lives. Two portraits emerge in rich detail: a deep-thinking, gifted artist who was a troubled, gentle, compassionate man; and an insightful critic who recognized his brother’s brilliant mind and work, devoting incredible energy and resources to nurturing and supporting him. Uplifting, poignant, and tragic by turns, the brothers' lives, so very human, unfold in a work of exceptional literary nonfiction weaving scholarly research (further detailed in ample end matter) into a vivid, immersive accounting. ©2017 Cooperative Children’s Book Center