I almost didn’t do a booktalk for this one because I have never seen a single episode of Buffy. So I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about this picture book version, except that I really love Kim Smith’s illustrations. And looking at her website, it looks like she’s done artwork for picture books of both The X-Files and E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. 

Anyhoo, in this book, eight-year-old Buffy Summers has a problem with mysterious horrible noises coming from her closet every night. Her friends, Willow and Xander, come to her house for a sleepover and they too, are scared pantsless by whatever horrors lie within. So they seek help from their favorite librarian, Giles, who’s advice is basically, “Suck it up and open the door”. Naturally, this leads to another sleepover with a big surprise at the end. (What’s in the closet? Spoilers, that’s what!)

As a person who has never seen this show, I decided to pretend this was a stand-alone kids’ book with no mythos behind it. This would be a great bedtime story for young children: cute and funny.

For Buffy fans wanting to know more, I have asked a person who has seen the show for an opinion. His response: “Canon is completely knackered, but it’s charming.” 

Martin Rising: Requiem For a King is a series of verse vignettes about the final months of MLK’s life, by wife/husband team Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney. I had the privilege of hearing Andrea talk about this book at the Creative Nonfiction for Children panel and purchased a copy from Scholastic shortly after.

The book is equally gorgeous on the inside.

As I said, the whole book is in verse. (I want to say “free verse”, but I don’t know enough about poetry to be sure.) Andrea uses carefully chosen words and strategic text placement to create a very moving, musical cadence. It feels like the book is demanding to be read out loud, either solo or as part of a group.

Brian’s artwork is absolutely stunning. Lines and colors flow effortlessly across the page, creating a sense of mood and movement. He uses striking visual metaphors to enhance the text.

One of my favorite images in the book shows Martin as a comet, a trail of people following his lead. At the same time, the text emphasizes the idea of Martin as the North Star, a beacon in the darkness lighting the way to equality.

So I spent most of last week in Dallas at the annual Texas Library Association Conference, which is the largest library conference in the country. Think Comic-Con for librarians. Huge! It’s a great opportunity for networking, picking up new skills, checking out demos of new products, and of course- books. 

Books for sale, books that people give away, books that you can win... Last year I ended up with about 100 books, but this year our district librarian told me to rein myself in, so I collected about 60-ish. Usually, I read all the books and then give them away to kids and teachers at school, but this year I thought it’d be good to do booktalks on most of them first. (Which, I suppose, is kind of the point of publishers giving out preview copies.)

What I ended up with were mostly middle grade and upper elementary books, with the odd adult title. (My students range from an emergent to a 6th grade reading level) I only pick up picture books if they’re fully bound, as most picture book galleys are given out unbound and it’s tricky to keep them all together on the drive back. 

I had a few specific goals for the school library, and I asked sales reps for recommendations for graphic novels/comics and diverse material. My goals for this series of booktalks is mainly to keep track of my thoughts for when I’m purchasing in the fall, and to recommend books for anyone who might be interested.

The Colors of the Rain by R.L. Toalson Ages: 10-14 Pages: 432

Told entirely in verse, this is a nicely emotional story about frustration and loss. 

Paulie’s father killed a man and died in a car crash. Mom’s not coping well at all, so Paulie and his sister move in with their Aunt Bee until their mother is able to take care of them. Also, it’s the early 1970s, and they are in Houston. Which, at the time, was going through desegregation.

Yeah...this leads to many more issues. 

I thought this book was going to go in an entirely different direction, but nope. Paulie finds out that his dad died defending a black man, which is why Paulie’s old friends have shunned him. So he starts picking on a black boy at his new school. He’s not even sure why he’s doing it; maybe because he’s angry that he doesn’t have a dad anymore? Because this boy has a mother at home and Paulie no longer does?

And the more the adults in his life try to help him, the more family secrets he starts to discover. Why does Aunt Bee hide her love of painting from the art teacher? Why was Paulie’s dad willing to die to defend another man? 

Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielson Ages: 8-12 Pages: 400

I was excited to see Jennifer A. Nielsen has another book coming out. I’ve read two of her other novels, A Night Divided and The Scourge , which I also recommend. 

Resistance takes place in Nazi-occupied Poland, where Chaya Lindner’s family has been torn apart by the invaders. Her little sister was sent to the death camps, her younger brother disappeared, and her parents have given up and accepted their fate. It’s a horrific period in history and the book does not shy away from it.

Chaya is now a courier, a person who sneaks in and out of the ghettos, smuggling goods, papers, people, anything to help her people and make trouble for the Nazis. She’s also joined a resistance cell and runs raids on German supplies. And she’s good at it. She has to be; it’s literally ‘be good at avoiding suspicion’ or ‘horrible death’.

A new girl joins the cell- Esther, who Chaya believes is not cut out for this sort of thing. She’s timid. She keeps making mistakes that cost others. But Esther insists on helping.

When a mission goes wrong, the resistance cell is shattered and Chaya is on her own. At least, until she gets a message from another resistance group sending her on a mission...and her partner is Esther.

Their task? Go to the Warsaw Ghetto.

I was a bit surprised to see the publisher’s info recommended this for ages 8-12. I’m not sure the average eight-year-old has the reading level or knowledge of history to tackle this one, and some of the context might go right over their heads. Then again, I could be wrong- kids surprise me all the time.

It’s definitely worth the read, though. Full of suspense, and at times heartbreak, Nielson shows us the spirit of the Jewish resistance; people who were willing to do whatever it took to save as many people as possible, and to show the world that “not all sheep go like lambs to the slaughter”. People who risked their lives so that others might be spared from the extermination camps. 

One part that really stood out to me describes how ordinary people could let something like this happen. It starts with small acts of prejudice, and as those become normal it escalates until they can get away with shocking acts of hatred and nobody bats an eye. 

Another bit that really got to me were two lines of dialogue:

“Maybe when the world opens its eyes to what has been done to us, they will realize how destructive hate can be.” “Maybe. But they’ll forget again, in time. And when they forget, this will all start once more.”

Charlie and Me: 421 Miles From Home by Mark Lowery Ages: 10-14 Pages: 320

Remember in previous reviews how I noticed that kids are surprisingly good at breaking and entering? Well they’re also good at traveling cross-country without adult supervision.

Thirteen-year-old Martin taking his little brother Charlie on a fantastic weekend getaway 421 miles south to Cornwall, England, to see a dolphin! The catch: their parents don’t know. 

But it’s such a sweet premise! Especially considering that their family can’t often afford fancy holidays and lately Dad’s been working extra and Mum’s apparently depressed and not getting out of the house much. And it would mean so much to Charlie to see the dolphin again. Charlie was a preemie, born with lots of complications and asthma and a lazy eye. His whole life is hospital visits and “no you can’t do that, you’re not healthy enough”, so of course the dolphin would represent pure freedom to him. 

Martin’s an excellent big brother who loves Charlie and all his eccentricities and takes care of him, and he wants to do this one nice thing for him. Sadly, train tickets are expensive. So he can only buy one and keeps Charlie hidden from the conductors. 

Reading how the two of them interact is unavoidably heartwarming and Charlie quickly wins people over with his charm and sheer adorableness. The whole story is told in present tense, with short interludes from Martin’s poetry club notebook and flashbacks of their holiday at the beach last year. 

It’s all very whimsical and fun, and then reality kicks in and their parents have noticed the disappearance and have alerted the police. 

Luckily, thanks to Martin’s new friend, an older girl he met on the train, they’re able to avoid the police. (Side note- this girl’s introduction had me thinking “Did...did Ace from Doctor Who just wander into other media??”

And the bit that made this book go from ‘good’ to ‘great’...I’ll try to explain this without giving away too much...

There’s a Moment. A Moment that hit me so hard I nearly fell out of bed reading it. A Moment that I was not at all prepared for, right out of nowhere, but it was so carefully prepared and executed that it made perfect sense; pulled everything in to sharp focus...and then I cried so hard my cat started to worry.

The Phantom Tower by Kier Graff Ages: 8-12 Pages: 288

There’s a lot of things I miss out on as an only child- plotting wild adventures, teasing each other, pushing a sibling into an alternate dimension populated by ghosts because he made you look stupid in front of a cute girl...

Two years after the death of their father, Colm and Mal’s mother moves them to Chicago for her new job. The apartment, built in the early 20th century, is surprisingly luxurious and surprisingly low-rent. And surprisingly empty! Where is everyone? So far, apart from the doormen, the only other people the twins find in this 17-story building are the Princess, an eccentric aging cat lady, and Tamika, a girl about their age who likes to read.

School doesn’t start for two weeks, so Mal and Colm are left home by themselves. Mal wants to build a replica of Brunhild Tower in his Minecraft world, so naturally Colm convinces him to go breaking into other apartments to see what they look like. You know, like you do with your brother. 

Side note- why are all these fictional kids so good at breaking and entering? It seems to be a common trait in a lot of the books I’ve been reading.

Anyway, thanks to superstition, this apartment building has no thirteenth floor...except when it does. For an hour a day, a button for the thirteenth floor appears in the elevator and pressing it leads to a whole nonexistent tower. A ghost tower. A phantom tower, if you will. 

What is this tower and why is it so full of ghosts? Why does the Princess warn the brothers to stay away from the Professor, their mother’s new boss? What does the Professor know about all of this? Why was their apartment filled with other people’s furniture? And what is the ancient curse that keeps anyone from leaving Brunhild Tower...even after death?

Some things I loved about this book were the use of 1920′s slang (”You shread it, wheat!”) and the elaborate mystery that keeps those pages turning. Not to mention Mal and Colm themselves- identical twins with opposing personalities. Mal’s the smart one, Colm’s the...chaotic neutral one. But Colm’s still not over his father’s death, and hangs onto his dad’s old cell phone so he can imagine talking to him once again. He has a frank inner monologue about death and what lies beyond that’s very direct for a kids’ book, but it works. It also sets us up to sympathize with the antagonist. (Have I mentioned I hate antagonists who have no other motivation than “for the evulz”? Yeah, this book beautifully avoids that.)