Book of the Week: The Little Red Stroller

by Joshua Furst

Illustrated by Katy Wu 

Published by Dial, 2019
40 pages
ISBN: 978-0-735-22880-1

Ages 3-6

When Luna is a baby, her mommy gives her a red stroller. When Luna is bigger, she and her mommy encounter baby Ernie and his mommy and daddy. “We wish we had a little red stroller like yours,” they tell her. Luna, declaring herself too big for her stroller, gives it to them. Ernie eventually gives it to Gigi and her family, Gigi to Callie, Callie to Taj, Taj to Kavi, Kavi to Sula, and Sula to Selah. Selah and his family are sad when the now worn stroller falls apart outside a museum, but Ben and his mommy are passing by with a yellow stroller that Ben declares he has outgrown. This satisfying story is full of details wonderfully conveyed and embellished in illustrations showing diverse families and family structures, and marvelous scenes of each family’s outing, whether to a neighborhood park, a grandpa’s house, or a trip to the shore. And when Selah’s family meets Luna, now with her own baby, Isaiah, the story comes full circle as the yellow stroller gets a new home. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: The Promise of Change

This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality

by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy

Published by Bloomsbury, 2019
310 pages
ISBN: 978-1-68119-852-1

Age 11 and older

A compelling, present-tense narrative combines poems in teenage Jo Ann Allen’s voice with clippings from news stories and other contemporaneous documents from the 1956-57 school year, when she was one of the Clinton 12 who integrated the high school in Clinton, Tennessee. Clinton’s white leaders didn’t necessarily agree with integration but believed in upholding the law. The early days for Jo Ann and her classmates were tense but quiet, until outsiders arrived, fomenting protests and violence that racist whites in the community latched onto. The 12 Black students soon faced daily harassment; threats spilled over to the Black community in general. Soldiers arrived to keep the peace, but Jo Ann’s family and others faced difficult decisions as they weighed safety against the fight for equal education. Jo Ann’s voice in the poems is magnetic in its honesty. An afterword briefly documents what happened to each of the 12 students, and theorizes why the story of Clinton, the first school in the south to integrate, is not as famous as what happened in Little Rock the following year. A scrapbook of photographs, source information, notes on poetic forms, and authors’ notes round out this accessible, affecting work. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Heroine

by Mindy McGinnis

Published by Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins, 2019

432 pages

ISBN: 978-0-06-284719-5

Age 14 and older

Mickey, a talented catcher, finds her softball dreams derailed after a car accident puts her and her best friend, pitcher Carolina, in the hospital months before their senior season. When the OxyContin Mickey is prescribed runs out sooner than it should, she stumbles upon another source: Edith, who snags Oxy from the senior citizens she drives to doctors’ appointments. At Edith’s house, Mickey befriends Jodie, a brilliant high school student who uses Oxy recreationally. When Mickey and Jodie “graduate” to heroin, Mickey struggles to keep it a secret from her family, even as she steals from her mom and stepmom to buy the drugs, and even as her performance behind the plate slides. There is never a moment in this harrowing but compassionate account that feels either unbelievable or melodramatic as it illuminates the terrifying ease with which people from all walks of life can fall victim to opioid addiction. (MCT) ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: My Papi Has a Motorcycle

by Isabel Quintero

Illustrated by Zeke Peña

Published by Kokila, 2019
32 pages
ISBN: 978-0-525-55341-0

Ages 4-8

As Daisy rides with Papi on his motorcycle, she describes her neighborhood and city in a delightful, loving ode to present and past, family and community, joyfully evoking place and people and connections. They pass Abuelita’s church; Tortilleria la Estrella, where they “stop for stray cats crossing in front of us,” Joy’s Market, and Abuelito and Abuelita’s old yellow house, “the one with the lemon tree that grew from the seeds of the lemons Abuelito used to pick not far from here.” There is constancy but also change: their favorite place to stop for shaved ice has closed; they visit the place where Papi works building houses that are “replacing the last of the citrus groves.” The mixed-media art features a warmly colored palette on matte paper, cartoon-like energy, and singular details mined from a superbly crafted narrative that also quietly affirms the important (and often unacknowledged) contributions of immigrants past and present, including Daisy’s father, to their community. This English-language edition (it is also available in Spanish) incorporates Spanish dialogue in speech bubbles that are part of the art. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: The Storm Keeper's Island

The Storm Keeper's Island

by Catherine Doyle

U.S. edition: Bloomsbury, 2019
308 pages
ISBN: 978-1-68119959-7

Ages 8-12

Fionn and his older sister Tara are spending the summer on the island of Arranmore, just off the coast of western Ireland, while their mother is treated for depression. Fionn’s father drowned before he was born and Fionn is terrified of the sea. But he’s intrigued by the island, which sometimes shimmers and shifts before his eyes, and his grandfather, whose cottage is full of homemade candles, each labeled with a different date. Fionn discovers that each candle, when burned, allows travel to that time on Arranmore, and making them is the job of the Stormkeeper, currently his grandfather, whose health is beginning to fail. Fionn’s grandfather thinks Fionn is destined to be the next Stormkeeper and wants to prepare his grandson for the role. A family feud; an age-old battle between good and evil; a race to find a legendary, hidden cave; and the desire to understand his parents’ past all present complications, temptations, and motivations for Fionn in this captivating tale to be continued. An original premise, vividly realized setting, and well-drawn characters distinguish a story shot through with lively moments of humor in the dialogue. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Another

Another

by Christian Robinson

Published by Atheneum, 2019
48 pages
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2167-7

Ages 4-8

A young Black girl is asleep in her bed with her red-collared black cat when a blue-collared black cat appears through a porthole of light. The blue-collared cat absconds with the red-collared cat’s red mouse toy. The red-collared cat follows through the hole, as does the now awake little girl in her red planetary nightgown. She emerges (bottom of page spread) in a bright white space with her beaded hair rising from her head while her upside down cat (top of page spread) disappears through another hole. Her ongoing adventure offers one captivating surprise after another, from an Escher-like staircase to a lively cast of diverse children joyfully engaged in play, with one another and with their doppelgangers, whom they encounter as they move through various holes. The girl, too, discovers her multiverse “twin,” distinguished from her, as are the individual children in the other pairs, by elements of clothing color. What does it all mean? That’s up to readers to decide in this creative wordless outing with much to delight in, discover, and ponder. The mixed-media illustrations use simplified shapes and bright colors against (mostly) white or black backgrounds, with the masterful composition an essential part of how meaning can be made. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: A Place to Belong

by Cynthia Kadohata

Published by A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book / Atheneum, 2019
416 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4664-8

Ages 9-13

In 1946, Hanako, 12, and her family arrive in Japan with others who, like her parents, refused to sign a loyalty oath while imprisoned in U.S. internment camps during World War II. Their U.S. military ship lands near devastated Hiroshima. Her grandparents live in the country and are overjoyed to see their son and meet their daughter-in-law and grandchildren, but their spare survival is made more tenuous with Hana’s family to feed. Still, it’s hard for Hana to refuse hungry people who knock at the door asking for food, although the adults tell her she must—there is simply not enough to eat. A boy burned in the Hiroshima bombing and his little sister show up regularly. How can she say no to them? How can she deny her little brother, Akira, who remembers imprisonment as a time when there was always enough food? While the adults work long days, Hana begins attending the village school, longing to feel less like an outsider. Then she faces startling news related to efforts to restore the civil rights of deported Japanese Americans. Hana’s deep feelings and probing thoughts, and singular, memorable characters propel a story that seamlessly weaves history and culture into an aching, beautiful tale of family and refugees and survival, one that also reflects realities playing out for so many children today. An author’s note provides additional information about the history surrounding the story’s events. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center