The first one up is a picture book. It's beautiful and poignant.
WHEN SPRING COMES TO THE DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee
This story has so many levels and layers of relationships. There's the grandfather and his grandson and the many times they visit the DMZ in the different seasons and you feel the longing in the grandfather and what he's showing his grandson. Where he came from, how different it is now, how much he misses his family in North Korea. Freedom has a high cost. The separation between the grandfather and his brother is painful.
The DMZ, the land between the Korea's, has flourished when left alone. It came back to life and hosts so many birds and creatures. It offers hope, a chance that maybe someday, the North and South can be united again.
The illustrations are beautiful and the story so well told and deep. You will see something new with each reading.
Here is the blurb by Lynn Becker at https://lynnbeckerbooks.blogspot.com/
For more wonderful books reviews by Lynn, please click on the link above.
In WHEN SPRING COMES TO THE DMZ, Uk-Bae Lee cycles through the seasons of this singular place, contrasting the innocence and beauty of the natural world with the sadness of the “razor wire fence,” and the "warships from South Korea and North Korea [that] face off in the sea near the island.” A boy and his grandpa visit throughout the year, and Grandpa gazes across the land, wishing he could just go home.
From the publisher:
Korea’s
demilitarized zone has become an amazing accidental nature preserve that gives
hope for a brighter future for a divided land.
This unique picture book invites young readers into the natural beauty of the DMZ, where salmon, spotted seals, and mountain goats freely follow the seasons and raise their families in this 2.5-mile-wide, 150-mile-long corridor where no human may tread. But the vivid seasonal flora and fauna are framed by ever-present rusty razor wire, warning signs, and locked gates―and regularly interrupted by military exercises that continue decades after a 1953 ceasefire in the Korean War established the DMZ.
Creator Uk-Bae Lee’s lively paintings juxtapose these realities, planting in children the dream of a peaceful world without war and barriers, where separated families meet again and live together happily in harmony with their environment. Lee shows the DMZ through the eyes of a grandfather who returns each year to look out over his beloved former lands, waiting for the day when he can return. In a surprise foldout panorama at the end of the book the grandfather, tired of waiting, dreams of taking his grandson by the hand, flinging back the locked gates, and walking again on the land he loves to find his long-lost friends.
When Spring Comes to the DMZ helps introduce children to the unfinished history of the Korean Peninsula playing out on the nightly news, and may well spark discussions about other walls, from Texas to Gaza.
This unique picture book invites young readers into the natural beauty of the DMZ, where salmon, spotted seals, and mountain goats freely follow the seasons and raise their families in this 2.5-mile-wide, 150-mile-long corridor where no human may tread. But the vivid seasonal flora and fauna are framed by ever-present rusty razor wire, warning signs, and locked gates―and regularly interrupted by military exercises that continue decades after a 1953 ceasefire in the Korean War established the DMZ.
Creator Uk-Bae Lee’s lively paintings juxtapose these realities, planting in children the dream of a peaceful world without war and barriers, where separated families meet again and live together happily in harmony with their environment. Lee shows the DMZ through the eyes of a grandfather who returns each year to look out over his beloved former lands, waiting for the day when he can return. In a surprise foldout panorama at the end of the book the grandfather, tired of waiting, dreams of taking his grandson by the hand, flinging back the locked gates, and walking again on the land he loves to find his long-lost friends.
When Spring Comes to the DMZ helps introduce children to the unfinished history of the Korean Peninsula playing out on the nightly news, and may well spark discussions about other walls, from Texas to Gaza.
Next up is GLITCH by Sarah Graley
This is a great graphic novel for gamers and reluctant readers. I know because I gave it to one and he immediately said, I want the sequel. I think there are themes that might be for older readers but it appealed to an 11 year old boy and that is hugely satisfying. This also has 14 year old main characters, which is an area in the market not well represented. I consider it a middle grade book but it has a foot in younger young adult as well.
Here's the info from the publisher:
Izzy has an incredible secret -- she can enter the world of her new video game! She meets Rae, a robot who says Izzy is destined to save Dungeon City from the Big Boss. How is this possible?! And how can she fight for this virtual world when she's got a whole real life to keep up with: her family (though she could do without her mom's annoying cat), and her best friend, Eric.
Things get even weirder when Izzy loses a life while in the game, and she starts to worry about what might happen if she gets a Game Over for good.
Meanwhile, Eric has been super upset with Izzy since she's been keeping secrets and bailing on their plans.
Can Izzy survive Dungeon City and save their friendship?
And now for two young adult books that are so relevant and important.
THE QUIET YOU CARRY by Nikki Barthelmess
This is a remarkable debut and well done in so many ways. You're drawn right in to the characters' lives and you like them even when they're not that nice. They are layered and revealed so well. The tension is held throughout the novel with great pacing. And the setting is real and so easy to see and put yourself in each scene. It deals with painful and hard topics: abuse in many forms, manipulation, and foster care. But it also has love, friendship and growing up.
From the publisher:
Victoria
Parker knew her dad's behavior toward her was a little unusual, but she
convinced herself everything was fine until she found herself locked out of the
house at 3:00 a.m., surrounded by flashing police lights. Now, dumped into a
crowded, chaotic foster home, Victoria has to tiptoe around her domineering
foster mother, get through senior year at a new school, and somehow salvage her
college dreams . . . all while keeping her past hidden. But some secrets won't
stay buried especially when unwanted memories make Victoria freeze up at random
moments and nightmares disrupt her sleep. Even worse, she can't stop worrying
about her stepsister Sarah, left behind with her father. All she wants is to
move forward, but how do you focus on the future when the past won't leave you
alone?
The last book is A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti, A Printz Honor Book
A
masterclass in weaving an incredible story. Dotted throughout the book is the
flashbacks of what transpired, making Annabelle snap, and in this day of all
kinds of shootings, it hits a nerve that, unfortunately, so many young people
know. It takes the rest of us inside what that PTSD could look like. Being a
woman, it was easy for me to identify with so many of her feelings, thoughts
and decisions. The ping pong that goes on inside when navigating growing up,
until someone changes that course forever.
From the publisher:
When everything has been
taken from you, what else is there to do but run?
So that’s what Annabelle does—she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how—muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t outrun the tragedy from the past year, or the person—The Taker—that haunts her.
Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and two friends (her self-appointed publicity team), Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to the trauma from her past. Her cross-country run gains media attention and she is cheered on as she crosses state borders, and is even thrown a block party and given gifts. The support would be nice, if Annabelle could escape the guilt and the shame from what happened back home. They say it isn’t her fault, but she can’t feel the truth of that.
Through welcome and unwelcome distractions, she just keeps running, to the destination that awaits her. There, she’ll finally face what lies behind her—the miles and love and loss…and what is to come.
So that’s what Annabelle does—she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how—muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t outrun the tragedy from the past year, or the person—The Taker—that haunts her.
Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and two friends (her self-appointed publicity team), Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to the trauma from her past. Her cross-country run gains media attention and she is cheered on as she crosses state borders, and is even thrown a block party and given gifts. The support would be nice, if Annabelle could escape the guilt and the shame from what happened back home. They say it isn’t her fault, but she can’t feel the truth of that.
Through welcome and unwelcome distractions, she just keeps running, to the destination that awaits her. There, she’ll finally face what lies behind her—the miles and love and loss…and what is to come.
