This is a lovely gem of a middle grades story about Meilan, a Chinese-American girl living in Boston who then moves with her family to a small town in Ohio. It is woven through with Chinese legends and language since she and her family have kept their heritage alive and she is bilingual. Moving is hard, always, but especially so when she is thrust into a town that is very White and very small town – a switch from living in Chinatown in a big city. The family is still coping with the loss of the family matriarch, her grandma, and now must cope with new jobs, an increasing need to use English, new people at school, lack of access to the familiar foods they used to buy in Chinatown… so many changes. One of the worst for Meilan is that her new school wants to call her Melanie, and she feels like she’s losing her identity. The book weaves Chinese myth and and family legend into the realistic narrative in a meaningful way. I loved the explanation of Meilan learning to write in Mandarin/Pinyin and the multiple meanings & characters for similar sounding words, as well as including idiomatic expressions in both English and Chinese. Students who enjoyed Front Desk by Kelly Yang will love this book, as will anyone who can empathize with the struggles of being different in a new place. I highly recommend this book.

I was prepared to really like this book. I enjoyed Mbalia’s Tristan Strong books and assumed I would also like this one. While I grew to like it more than the beginning, it was not my favorite read. The story is about young Yared competing in a virtual/real world competition to locate an obelisk that turns into a desperate battle with a  warring alien race. I struggled at the beginning of the book with the skimpy world-building needed to understand the setting of the story. Many invented words are thrown at the reader so quickly that it’s hard to get a sense of the story. Once I got far enough into the action-packed plot, the story picked up & moved through many action scenes with thrills & plot twists. While I enjoyed the action, I wonder how many readers will stick with it long enough to get there. The afterword was interesting when it was revealed that this sci-fi world and battle are actually based on real Ethiopian history.

This non-fiction book puts the recent events of history concerning the Black Lives Matter movement in the larger context by showing it as a continuing part of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. The author approaches the subject from many angles. She shows how #BlackLivesMatter took off & became a huge rallying cry reaching its peak in June of 2020. She shares the stories of many lives cut short by police violence, but also tells us about the people who fought back by marching, speaking out, and getting involved at the local level. The story looks at social media and its influence on the current movement – as well as how it was different during the Civil Rights movement. There is a section with the art and music that came out of the protests. It looks at politics and the small things people have done and can do to continue moving forward to a more just society. Even having lived through the recent events, I found it helpful to have it all condensed and shared in such a comprehensive way. I liked the comparisons and contrasts to the earlier movement for social justice. It is definitely approachable for middle and high school students with a nice balance of images, captions, and text. The timeline section was a clear way to review historic and recent events. The book also includes suggestions for further reading, a bibliography, and an index. This would be an excellent addition to secondary libraries.

Long distance friendships are always a challenge. When Vega moves away from her best friend in Portland, Oregon to face new challenges in Seattle, Washington her fathers try to ease the transition with a bit of time at a summer camp with the purpose of helping people find new friends. Camp life is awkward at times and mysterious at others. Not all appears to be what it claims to be at this unusual camp.  I found this to be a fun, surprising graphic novel. I like the author’s use of clues to some of the mysteries embedded in the illustrations. The reader really needs to pay attention to the images, not just the text in order to uncover what is REALLY going on at this odd summer camp. Eyes play an important role in hinting at secrets the characters are hiding. The artwork is crisp & bright. Students who like Raina Telgemeier’s style will enjoy this. The plot twists from a fairly standard realistic fiction story to one with sci-fi elements by the end. Even though parts of the book are fantastic & unrealistic, the larger message of the challenges of finding new friends will resonate with middle and high school readers.