Shelf Awareness--Curious Tides

YA Review: Curious Tides

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 544p., ages 13-up, 978166593927)

Complex world-building and original lunar lore help make this debut fantasy, the first in a planned duology, an impressive standout.

"Mousy" blonde-haired Emory Ainsleif, with "storm-colored" eyes, is a second-year student in House New Moon at Aldryn College for Lunar Magics. She is returning to school despite the horrific night last semester when she, best friend Romie, and seven other students went into the mystical sea cave called the "Belly of the Beast" to perform an arcane ritual. Emory--the sole survivor--washed ashore on the banks of the Aldersea with "a spiral burned in silver" on her wrist. Now, one of the eight students thought to have drowned that night four months ago washes back with the tide. As Emory calls on her Healer magic to help the nearly dead student, she accesses rare, new powers and enlists the aid of Romie's brother, Baz, to teach her how to control her magic. Eager to help is entitled, "dapper," chestnut-haired Keiren, a fellow student privy to surprising secrets. Emory, trying to understand the ritual and learn what killed her friend, is determined to find answers within Aldryn's secret, cult-like society.

Magic and an original mythology propel the engrossing dual narratives of Emory and Baz, each differently motivated but equally compelled to investigate Aldryn's dark underbelly. Ambition, power, magic for benevolent-vs.-selfish motives are all on display in this arresting and imaginative escape to a complex fictional world infused with tantalizing lunar magics. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

October's Book of the Month--A Walk in the Woods

October's Book of the Month is the luminous/transcendent/superlative picture book, A WALK IN THE WOODS, written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney.

“A week after the funeral,” a boy opens an envelope his dad left for him. Rather than “a letter, some special advice, a secret even,” he finds a “stupid” treasure map. The boy reluctantly laces up his boots and stomps into the woods. There, he is able to slow down, breathe deeply, and “drink in the quiet,” as “the hurt inside [his] heart pounds less, and less.” Eventually, he finds a box which holds drawings of wildlife his dad did years ago in these very woods, along with an “unfinished story scrawled beneath each sketch.” The story is shared with readers, as are the sketches, and they are all breathtaking. And the boy feels his dad’s “hand on [his] shoulder, light as leaves.”

Written in both prose and poetry, this book is seriously wonderful. Nikki Grimes and Jerry Pinkney wanted to do a book together, and decided on A WALK IN THE WOOD, based on the artist’s daily walks in the woods. Both had “noticed the rarity of children’s books that feature African American characters engaging with nature.” When Jerry died, his son Brian, another acclaimed picture book artist, was able to take his dad’s sketches, add his own paintings—“impressionistic swirls of color and form”—and the art was merged digitally. The result is sublime. Please read it!

--Lynn

Shelf Awareness--The Siren, the Song, and the Spy

YA Review: The Siren, the Song, and the Spy

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick, 320p., ages 12-up, 9781536218053)

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy is a welcome companion to Maggie Tokuda-Hall's ethereal The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, and brings to a head the long-simmering conflict between the Resistance and the greedy Nipran Empire.

Imperial operative Genevieve has not died. The pirate ship Dove exploded while under attack but, by the grace of the Sea, Genevieve has landed safely on the Red Shore. She was trained by "the Emperor's greatest spy," but in her weakened state she's taken prisoner by two warriors, brother and sister Koa and Kaia, whose mother rules the Wariuta people. Black-haired, sunburnt-pink Genevieve can speak many languages so, despite Kaia's hatred for her, Genevieve is considered useful. When Imperial Commander Callum comes with a proposal for peaceful occupation, Genevieve encourages the Wariuta to accept. But Callum's soldiers massacre the islanders, and Genevieve must reckon with her complicity in the Empire's brutal agenda. Though the various factions of this splintered world try to come together through shared hatred of the Emperor, it might take a mythical First Dragon from the deepest depths of the Sea to turn the tide.

Tokuda-Hall writes elegantly and uses numerous points of view, such as Genevieve's childhood voice (when she was called Thistle), and those of Koa, Kaia, and even the Sea. Magical prose flows smoothly and brings a sense of enchantment to the story. This strong offering about imperialist aggressions, rebels, and reprisal should effortlessly sweep readers into its realms as it makes a compelling plea for pacifism. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Shelf Awareness--My Grandfather's Song

PB Review: My Grandfather's Song

My Grandfather's Song by Phùng Nguyên Quang, illus. by Huỳnh Kim Liên (Make Me a World, 40p., ages 4-8, 9780593488614, October 17, 2023)

The satisfying and thoughtful My Grandfather's Song uses the lyrical voice of a grandchild to relate the story of how their forebear, an early "pioneer... to the south of Vietnam," learned to find the music in his new home and use it to coexist with nature. Back matter deepens the takeaways by elaborating on the story's relevance to Earth's current climate crisis.

The grandchild, spending the day working alongside Grandfather, describes how the man journeyed to a new land in a tiny boat across water that was "gentle as a lullaby." The looming jungle the pair visits early in the morning is home to unseen voices, which Grandfather calls a song that must be learned. Likewise, the bamboo they cut is "a melody we raise high as a roof"; the earth is an instrument that, with time, will provide "a harmony of plenty." Even when sounds are frightening--"a rustle, a creak, a slither through darkness"--finding the song eases the fear and a new song follows, one of fish and ocean and forest. Years pass and the now-grown grandchild has learned the "symphony of generations," which they share with new families, who add additional voices to the "chorus of our song."

The inspiring text is passionate and emotive, and the extended metaphor of nature speaking through music proves a powerful tool. Dynamic digital illustrations beautifully convey the wild landscape, their impact emphasized by the horizontal length of the book. Bright, bold colors and a surreal sensibility dramatically evoke the animal spirits--including a giant monkey and oversized turtle--who reside within the jungle and the pages. Water and sky also come alive in swirling, layered currents of color and texture.

In-depth back matter explains that Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huỳnh Kim Liên created this story as a tribute to "the very first pioneers" who lived in a land and time when "humans had to pay respect to Mother Nature and her creatures in order to settle there." Now, this same land is home to modern cities where nature remains both "generous and dangerous"--we should "be thankful for the things we have taken from the earth." My Grandfather's Song gently suggests the potential benefits humans may reap in rethinking our relationship to the earth, to the climate, to the world. Because when "we listen... the land responds with gifts." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.