CCBC Weekly Book Reviews
Greymist Fair
Based on a number of lesser-known Grimm’s Tales as well as “Hansel & Gretl,” this atmospheric, immersive novel has a setting that feels old-world European, including most characters reading as white, while embracing 21st-century sensibility regarding love and identity.
June 5, 2023
Quiet Time with My Seeya
Sona and her Sri Lankan grandpa don’t speak the same language ... But Sona and Seeya are far more rambunctious than the title of this picture book suggests ...
May 29, 2023
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams
A boisterous yet tender tale set along the Silk Road in the late 11th century begins with an orphaned boy, Omar, rescued from attack by Samir, a merchant traveling as part of a small caravan.
May 22, 2023
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Sixteen-year-old Perry Firekeeper-Birch isn’t thrilled to be a summer Kinomaage program intern. Unlike her twin sister, Pauline, she doesn’t have big college dreams but does need to repay Aunt Daunis for car repairs.
May 15, 2023
Rabbit, Duck, and Big Bear
Rabbit, Duck, and Big Bear are forest friends who “do everything together,” relishing one another’s company. Their seasonal activities are full of delight, but never include venturing down one particular winding path in the woods; Duck and Big Bear always suggest reasons to avoid it.
May 8, 2023
Simon Sort of Says
The town of Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, is located in the National Quiet Zone, an area in which scientists listen for radio signals from outer space, and where interfering signals like internet, Wi-Fi, cell phones, radios, and microwave ovens are prohibited.
May 1, 2023
Enter the Body
Four of Shakespeare’s young female characters–Lavinia, Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet –have died countless times on stage and will do so countless more, because that is how their stories are written. Until now.
April 24, 2023
Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll
“Bold, audacious, in a word, bodacious … ” A joyful picture book biography introduces Sister Rosetta Tharpe and celebrates her singular musical talent, which was apparent from the time she was a child.
April 17, 2023
When Impossible Happens
Swara, almost 9, lives in apartment building in Bengaluru, India. When the pandemic lockdown begins, she especially misses her maternal grandmother, whom she calls Pitter Paati.
April 10, 2023
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
An experimental work blending science fiction and memoir recalls actual experiences as a transracial adoptee from Shannon Gibney’s childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as well as imagining what her life might have been like had she not been placed for adoption as an infant.
April 3, 2023
A First Time for Everything
After several painful experiences with middle school bullies, all Dan wants is to fly under the radar, to be quiet and unnoticed by his peers.
March 27, 2023
The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía
Vale’s dad is a folklorist and her mom a geoscientist. Although Vale, 12, enjoys Papi’s stories, trekking near their Colombian home with him and her younger brother, Julián, in search of a patasola, a one-legged woman who sucks her victims’ blood (“Kind of like a vampire, but cooler”) isn’t her idea of a good time even before an earthquake strikes and Papi is injured.
March 20, 2023
Just Like Grandma
“On the steps of a house at the end of the street … ” A patterned text begins with a series of vignettes in which Becca wants to be “just like Grandma.”
March 13, 2023
Stateless
Stella North, 17 (white), the only female contestant in Europe’s first air race for young people, represents Britain; she prefers no one know she escaped the Russian Revolution as a young child.
March 6, 2023
Evergreen
The list of things that frighten a young squirrel named Evergreen is long: “Afraid of loud noises. Afraid of meeting someone new. Afraid of heights, afraid of swimming, afraid of germs. And thunderstorms–her very worst fear was thunderstorms.”
February 27, 2023- More Books of the Week