by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares

The first book in what will eventually be a series, Westfallen follows six teens – 3 in 1944 and 3 in modern day. They all live in the same neighborhood, even homes, years apart. Both find old radios that strangely link them together in an old shed. As seemingly innocent information is shared, the butterfly effect comes into play and huge changes are wrought in the world beyond 1944. Fixing the problems just leads to more problems, the biggest is finding that the modern teens no longer live in the United States but in the Nazi-ruled Westfallen. The ending is clearly a cliffhanger for a yet-to-be written/published sequel. I normally prefer to read first books AFTER the next book has come out. I get impatient to know what comes next. I hope we do not have to wait long!  I also sense that there were some teasers of further secrets in the beginning, though I can’t quite see how they will play out yet. I did enjoy the reminder that even the littlest things that we do can have huge consequences on the future. It’s always a good reminder to live thoughtfully. Like the 3 teens from the modern day in the book – Henry, Frances, and Lukas- the world run by a prejudiced dictator did not feel like a world I would want to live in. The story moves along with lots of twists and turns in this not-really time travel story of characters who can communicate over time, but are unable to move through time. How they manage that communication is part of the challenge throughout the book. Hopefully we won’t have long to wait for the next part of the story! (Side note, be sure to read the author bios on the flaps of the book. Ann and Ben are siblings & each had funny blurbs about each other from their own childhoods.)

by Jared Cohen, illustrations by Vivian Shih

From George Washington to Joe Biden and every president in between, this book presents a famous saying from each president, but more importantly, explains about the world during the time of their presidency. For each famous phrase, the authors also put the words in perspective with their intended purpose and the power they had on their times. Finally, each two page spread includes a “Did You Know?” box with a fun factoid about the president featured on those pages. The book also features a timeline of U.S. history and the time each president was in office, tips for aspiring speech writers and future presidents, and a really interesting section of speeches presidents never gave. What if three things had happened in history? How would the presidents have responded? Speeches were actually written but never given because history took a different turn. History buffs will find this fascinating reading as the reader gets a quick paragraph look at what was happening in the world over the last 200+ years. Illustrations are bright drawings that enhance the information. This book would be a nice addition to non-fiction history sections (though the dewey puts it in books about famous speeches.)

by Robin Stevenson

This illustrated nonfiction alphabet book is meant for middle to upper grades. Perfectly appropriate for 6th graders and up. The author follows alphabet-book style by having 1-2 pages per letter covering famous LGBTQ+ people, events and famous locations. Each letter includes lovely stylized images and text giving a blurb about each topic. It’s highly readable, fast paced, and could be read by bouncing around or cover to cover. It also includes additional information in a more condensed form at the back of the book, a 100 year timeline, a glossary, and an index. So much of this book is positive and joyful with lots of smiling people of all diversities, while still dealing with some of the challenging times (R – raids and riots). I like that it defines topics in clear language. The F – Flag page was helpful in showing all of the iterations of flags in the LGBTQ+ community. While it shows kissing & hugging, there is nothing more salacious in the images, again, making it perfectly appropriate for middle school audiences interested in this topic.