The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Nestor Lopez is sick of moving.  It's his tenth first day of school, and he's only in the 6th grade.  His dad is in the army, and they've always had to pack up and go every time the military says so.  This time is different, though.  It was his mom's choice to move this time.  New Haven, Texas, is his dad's hometown, and Nestor loves his Abuela, but he did not want to move again.  He doesn't even bother to unpack anymore.

New Haven is a tiny town, and Nestor is sure it will just be a blip in his life on the way to the next move.  Abuela's house does back up to the woods which is cool for Nestor since he has the ability to talk to animals.  He's never met anyone else with this talent, but it's easier to make friends with crows and deer than people sometimes.

Animals are disappearing in New Haven, and no one knows why.  There are rumors about a mysterious creature who lives in the woods.  When Nestor's grandmother is seen in the woods at night, she becomes the prime suspect, and Nestor decides to investigate and clear her name.  With help from his two new friends and the worst bully in the 6th grade, they begin searching for the real culprit.

The truth is worse than anything they could have imagined, and Nestor's special skills will be vital if Nestor and his friends want to save the animals and the town.

The new middle grade novel by Adrianna Cuevas is perfect for middle school and upper elementary readers.  It's got mystery, suspense, fantasy, action, humor, and a twist on Latin American folklore!  Readers with parents in the military will identify with Nestor's struggle of always being the new kid and missing his dad.  His animal friends all have fun personalities, including a crow who drops "white lightning" on Nestor's enemies.  Highly recommended!

Poisoned

Sophie's stepmother is a cruel queen who rules the land with an iron fist and spreads fear in the hearts of her subject.  She has always told Sophie she is too kind, too weak to rule, and now that Sophie has come of age to rule, she hopes to marry her off to a strong prince who will follow the queen's powerful lead.  

But the queen has an ill kept secret.  Everyone believes the magic mirror is about vanity, but the voice in the mirror is actually an advisor of sorts.  He's helped her survive this far, and she's not going to doubt him now.  When the King of Crows tells her Sophie is the greatest threat to her crown, she acts decisively.

Sophie isn't concerned when the huntsman leads her into the dark forest.  She has no reason to believe he would harm her, but his fear of the queen is greater than his love of the princess, and Sophie is left dying on the forest floor, her heart in box making it's way back to the castle.

At the last moment, seven mysterious men find her and build a clockwork heart to replace her flesh and blood one.  There are two problems.  The heart feels emotions too strongly.  If Sophie was too kind before, now she feels love for everyone and everything she sees.  Her compassion is completely overwhelming at times.  The other problem, a clockwork heart won't last forever.  

Despite warnings from the seven brothers, Sophie sets out on a quest to retrieve her stolen heart from it's hiding place in the dark castle of the King of Crows.   She will have help from a faithful hound and a young man with problems of his own, and this journey will reveal the true devastation of her stepmother's reign.  Sophie has always believed she was too weak to rule, but what if her compassion is actually her greatest strength?

So...I really wanted to love this book.  I absolutely adore Stepsister, and I was primed for more.  I just felt like it took too long for Sophie to grow a spine and take charge.  The first half of the book is slow paced with too much time hanging out with the seven brothers while the plot stagnates.  I absolutely loved the last third of the book when things start moving and the mythological elements are revealed.  One of the greatest strengths of Stepsister was the battle between Fate and Chance, and it took too long for their counterparts to be fully realized in Poisoned.  I really liked the King of Crow's sister, whose true identity isn't revealed until near the end of the story.  Pain portrayed as a withered, half-mad woman who continually says, "sometimes I help," is both disturbing and thought provoking.  I needed more of this in the story and a stronger Sophie who often comes across as whiney instead of kind.  I would still recommend it, and I would love to talk about it!

The True Definition of Neva Beane

Neva Beane's summer is not exactly shaping up the way she was hoping.  She's missing her musician parents who are on a European tour, and she loves her grandparents, but sometimes their ideas are just too old-fashioned.  Take the way they talk about Michelle, an older girl who moved in across the street.  She's beautiful and wears clothes to show off her figure.  Neva is mesmerized by Michelle's confidence, but her grandparents call the older girl fast and tell Neva's older brother to stay away from her.

Clay is another problem.  They used to be close, but now he's never home.  He's either working as a lifeguard at the pool or volunteering with community outreach.  Plus, he also saw Neva admiring her own new figure in the mirror, and she's just waiting for him to embarrass her.

Then there's her best friend Jamila who is upset about Neva's interest in Michelle.  Jamila should know she and Neva are best friends, so why is she acting like this?  When Neva finds out Jamila's family is going away for the summer she feels lonely and jealous.  

She decides to take an interest in community organizing and the upcoming March, but how much of that interest is real, and how much is about her new friendship with Michelle and her frustrations with Jamila?  This is definitely not the summer she had in mind.

This new book by Christine Kendall is about a girl on the cusp of growing up and seeing the world beyond her own little world.  Neva's obsession with the dictionary and her vocabulary words is fun, and she feels like a real person.  I just wish the book had started with something other than her obsession with Michelle's physical appearance and comparing herself to the older girl.  It's not really a big part of the story, but I think it could put off some readers.  It's a bit misleading as to the direction of the plot.  This is a good pick for upper elementary and middle school readers.

Show Me a Sign

Mary Lambert is one of many deaf residents of her village on Martha's Vinyard.  Her grandfather was the first English settler on the island, and many of his deaf friends in England soon joined him.  Now, most of the families are a mix of deaf and hearing and everyone on the island is fluent in their particular sign language.

Mary's family is still grieving her brother's sudden death when a stranger comes to the island.  Andrew Noble is a scientist who has come to study the deaf population and discover the cause.  Mary is immediately skeptical of Andrew who only addresses the hearing people in the room and treats the deaf members of the community as less intelligent.  

Her suspicions are confirmed when Andrew attacks and kidnaps Mary as a "live specimen" for his experiments.  In Boston, no one knows sign language, and Mary feels isolated.  How will she ever find her way home if she can't communicate the truth with anyone?

Ann Clare LeZotte's tale of a deaf girl from a real community that existed on Martha's Vinyard is interesting.  The author herself is deaf so this is a good addition to the small list of middle grade books with deaf protagonists.  The plotting is a little strange with the first half of the book plodding along until Mary is violently kidnapped.  Then once she is rescued, things drag out again.  There are a few too many chapters at the end, in my opinion.  I do feel like the author did a good job of handling the relationships in a real deaf community that existed on land that once belonged to the Wampanoag people.  While Mary and her father are sympathetic and friendly to freed black and Wampanoag characters, many of the other characters are not.  Mary's mother and best friend display casually racist attitudes.  LeZotte's focus is on deaf history, but she did a good job of showing the uncomfortable attitudes of the time period.  Some readers may struggle to stick with the story, but it's definitely worth adding to the collection for the representation of deaf characters.  

A Pho Love Story

Bao Nguyen is an average dependable guy.  He's not really a standout at anything; even at his parents' restaurant, he's only their fifth favorite employee.  It's his senior year, and his parents are worried about what he is going to with his life since he doesn't really have a plan for college.

Linh Mai is an artist with every ounce of her soul, but her parents want her to become an engineer.  She wants to tell them the truth, but she also can't bear the thought of her parents dashing her dreams.  Plus, she basically works full-time at the family restaurant when she's not at school.  They always just expect her to fill in when anyone else misses work.  She barely has time to do anything else.

The Nguyen and Mai families have been enemies forever as far as Bao and Linh know, and their parents both forbid any contact between the two.  This means that despite being part of a small and tight-knit Vietnamese community and working in restaurants across the street from each other, they've barely had any contact since they were toddlers.  

All that changes when Bao witnesses a moment of weakness from Linh and decides to step in and help.  It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but they can't seem to break their connection.  When they are paired on an assignment for the school paper, things change for both of them.  Bao may finally find something he's passionate about, and Linh may find a bigger outlet for her art.  Their creative work draws them together, and they can't deny their feelings for each other, but secrets from the past threaten to tear them apart.  Can they convince their families to reconcile, or is their relationship doomed from the start?

Loan Le's book is not the cute romance I was expecting.  Sure, there are cute dates and quirky characters, but family backstories delve into the traumas of their immigrant parents.  The story has a slower pace that may put off some readers, but it is full of food scenes that will leave you hungry for your local Vietnamese restaurant.  I would suggest this book for more mature readers because of profanity throughout including within the first few pages, but Bao and Linh's relationship never goes beyond kissing and holding hands.  

One Way or Another

Paige Collins is constantly paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong decision.  Sure, things could go well, but there are also a million ways they could go wrong, and her brain makes sure she shuffles through all those possible negative consequences for every decision.  Paige has also been in love with her best friend, Fitz for years, but she's too afraid to do anything about it.  Fitz always has a girlfriend.  Everyone is in love with him, and Paige totally understands why.  He's charming, thoughtful, and sweet.  That's why she loves him, but she also knows he's not in love with her.  

After his girlfriend breaks up with him, Fitz invites Paige to spend the week after Christmas at his family's cabin in the mountains.  She's never seen snow, and her mom always works extra shifts at the hospital around the holidays, so it seems like the perfect escape even if she's doubting her ability to keep her crush a secret in such tight quarters. 

Then her mom surprises her with tickets to New York for Christmas.  It's something they could never afford on her mom's nursing salary, but she won a drawing at work.  Paige has dreamed of traveling for as long as she can remember.  Her bedroom walls are plastered with photographs from travel magazines.  This seems like a dream come true, but what about Fitz?  Could she be missing out on an opportunity by going out of town when he's single?

Once again, Paige can't decide what to do.  All she can see are the possible negative consequences of each choice.  Then she slips on a wet floor at the grocery store and bumps her head, and both fates play out.  In one, she spends Christmas with Fitz and his family, and in the other, she flies to New York.  In both options, there are opportunities for romance and for Fitz to finally find out her true feelings for him, but which is the true reality?  

I have to be honest.  I did not enjoy this book.  I found Paige and her indecision to be tedious.  I am not trying to belittle people with anxiety, but her anxiety is cured in about five minutes in the end, so it's not really about anxiety in my opinion.  Also, if her lifelong dream is to travel, go to New York.  That seems like an easy decision to me.  She's in high school, and it's for one week.  It's not like the stakes are super high.  The main problem is that Paige doesn't really grow as a person in either timeline.  I'm a big fan of the movie Sliding Doors, and I was expecting something more along those lines where the character has the opportunity to grow and change in either timeline through positive or negative experiences, but this book never goes beyond the surface. 

City of the Plague God

Sik is closing up the family deli for the night when he is attacked by demons, absolutely not a normal occurrence for him.  Nergal, the god of plagues and war has become infested with flies and disease, and he is convinced Sik's family has the secret of eternal life.  Sik has no idea was the god is talking about.  As the demons begin trashing the family deli, Sik is pretty sure he's about to die.  Good thing a ninja shows up to save him.  Yeah, a girl dressed all in black with a killer sword.

That ninja turns out to be Belet, adopted daughter of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war.  It seems that all those characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh are real, including the gods.  Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations on earth, so these guys have been around for a long time.  

Sik's older brother Mo would have loved this.  He was obsessed with Gilgamesh and all his exploits.  It just makes Sik miss him even more.  He's been grieving his older brother since he died in a motorcycle accident.  Mo was always taking trips back to Iraq and sending cuttings and seeds from strange plants back to his family in New York.  

A strange disease is spreading across the city, and it seems like Sik's parents are the first victims.  Nargal is spreading a plague across the city, and Sik, Belet, and Ishtar are the only ones who can stop him with a little help from Gilgamesh himself.  

Oh, there's one other thing.  It turns out Sik is actually immortal.  He discovers this in a pretty unpleasant way.  This could come in handy while he's trying to outwit a vengeful god and a city full of demons!

This new offering from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint by Sarwat Chadda explores the stories of ancient Mesopotamia and the style and humor readers have come to expect from these books.  This book is interesting as it grapples with how a practicing Muslim can hold his faith and still accept the existence of mythological creatures and gods.  Sik's grief over his brother's death is also very grounded in reality while also side-stepping into the mythological world.  This is another strong offering from the imprint, and Rick Riordan fans won't be disappointed.  Perhaps it will even stir interest in the original stories about Gilgamesh who may not be as familiar to young readers.  Highly recommended.