Anne W

The evolution of Calpurnia Tate

by Jacqueline Kelly

eBOOK
Kids

In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from the older three of her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather, the latter of which leads to an important discovery.

Calpurnia has to deal with breaking the mold for girls in her place and time and come to terms with growing up. The chapters are a series of vignettes in her life with six brothers in a small Texas town on the cusp of the 20th century. The writing is clever, funny, and beautiful. -Anne W

Anne of Green Gables

by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

eBOOK
Kids, Fiction

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Someone gifted me a box set of the Anne of the Green Gables books when I was ten or so, since plucky orphan Anne Shirley and I share a first name, and I never read them. They sat on my bookcase through the whole remainder of my childhood without ever being touched. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to reading Anne of Green Gables, I’m totally kicking myself for what I’ve been missing all these years. Who knew the humor in a book published in 1908 could hold up so well? I laughed out loud several times. Anne is a delightful character and her bold, dramatic dialogue is fun to read. To quote from the book itself, this book is one full of “tang and zest.” -Anne W

The mighty heart of Sunny St. James

by Ashley Herring Blake

eBOOK
Kids

"Twelve-year-old Sunny St. James must navigate heart surgery, reconnections with a lost mother, the betrayal of a former best friend, first kisses, and emerging feelings for another girl"--

This is a nuanced exploration of LGBT+ identity from an adolescent perspective, and Sunny wrestles with her feelings, sometimes helped or hindered by family, friends, and society, to find out who she really is. -Anne W

Betty before X

by Ilyasah Shabazz

eAUDIO
Kids

Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.

Hopeful, heartwarming, but honest about real hardships. -Anne W

The forgotten girl

by India Hill Brown

eBOOK
Kids

When eleven-year-old Iris sneaks out at night to make snow angels, she was not expecting to raise the ghost of Avery Moore, a girl her own age; but bringing to light the segregated and abandoned black cemetery seems like the perfect way to help Avery get the recognition she craves, and it will also be a good idea for the school project about the history of her small North Carolina town, where racial tensions are never far from the surface--only it seems that if Avery gets everything she wants Iris will join her as a ghost, best friends forever.

Can they figure out what the ghost wants, and what her story is, before it’s too late? This is a classic ghost story that also teaches readers about systemic racism in the past and present. -Anne W

Owl's Outstanding Donuts

by Robin Yardi

eBOOK
Kids

Warned by an owl, ten-year-old Mattie discovers that someone is secretly polluting the land near her aunt's Big Sur donut shop and sets out to stop them.

This is a fun, unique book that takes place in two of my favorite places: a campground and a donut shop. There’s an anthropomorphic owl who communicates with Mattie, the main character, giving her clues about the environmental crime leading to a mystery Mattie and her friends Sasha and Beanie are trying to solve. Each chapter opens with a mouth-watering description of an inventive, gourmet donut, which is a fun bonus! -Anne W

The Wednesday wars

by Gary D Schmidt

eBOOK
Kids

During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

The best book I’ve read so far this quarantine. Maybe even the best kids book I’ve read this year! It’s just about some basic events in an average suburban kid’s life, but BAM! It hits you over and over again with BEAUTIFUL WRITING that sums up THE REASONS LIFE IS WORTH LIVING, in a subtle and casual way (not heavy-handed or overbearing). -Anne W

Pie

by Sarah Weeks

eBOOK
Kids

After the death of Polly Portman, whose award-winning pies put the town of Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, on the map in the 1950s, her devoted niece Alice and Alice's friend Charlie investigate who is going to extremes to find Aunt Polly's secret pie crust recipe. Includes fourteen pie recipes.

In this historical mystery set in 1955, Alice’s beloved Aunt Polly dies suddenly, taking with her the secret recipe for her world-famous pie crust that has put tiny Ipswitch, Pennsylvania on the map and won her thirteen Blueberry Medals (for best pie in the nation) running. Polly operated PIE, a charming cafe where customers flock from near and far to partake in familiar favorites like buttermilk and apple pie as well as more creative concoctions like green tomato and Concord grape pie. After Polly’s death, Alice is told that Polly left the pie crust recipe to her cat, Lardo, and Lardo has been left to Alice. How does one leave a recipe to a cat? The whole town is desperate to uncover the recipe and win this year’s Blueberry Award - by any means necessary. It’s up to Alice and her new friend Charlie to piece together the mystery and keep their town intact. Bonus: there are twelve delectable pie recipes woven throughout, in case you feel inspired! -Anne W

The fourteenth goldfish

by Jennifer L Holm

eBOOK
Kids

Ellie's scientist grandfather has discovered a way to reverse aging, and consequently has turned into a teenager--which makes for complicated relationships when he moves in with Ellie and her mother, his daughter.

This is an offbeat science fiction story in which 11-year-old Ellie’s scientist grandfather, Melvin, discovers how to reverse aging and becomes, essentially, a cranky elderly man trapped in the body of the 13-year-old boy. Melvin begins living with Ellie and attending her middle school, and, despite the deep weirdness of the arrangement, she loves getting to spend time with her grandfather. Ultimately, he teaches her about how possibility, wonder, observation, discovery, and persistence are important in science and in life. But will she be able to stop him when she thinks he’s gone too far? -Anne W

My Jasper June

by Laurel Snyder

jFICTION Snyder Laurel
Fiction, Kids

The school year is over, and it is summer in Atlanta. The sky is blue, the sun is blazing, and the days brim with possibility. But Leah feels lost. She has been this way since one terrible afternoon a year ago when everything changed. Since that day, her parents have become distant, her friends have fallen away, and Leah's been adrift and alone. Then she meets Jasper, a girl unlike anyone she has ever known. There's something mysterious about Jasper, almost magical. And Jasper, Leah discovers, is also lost. Together, the two girls carve out a place for themselves, a hideaway in the overgrown spaces of Atlanta, away from their parents and their hardships, somewhere only they can find. But as the days of this magical June start to draw to a close, and the darker realities of their lives intrude once more, Leah and Jasper have to decide how real their friendship is, and whether it can be enough to save them both.--

A touching story of friendship and loss -Anne W

A place to belong

by Cynthia Kadohata

jFICTION Kadohata Cynthia
Fiction, Kids, Historical Fiction

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.

One Japanese-American family dealing with the aftermath of WWII and their time in an internment camp -Anne W

Genesis begins again

by Alicia Williams

jFICTION Williams Alicia
Fiction, Kids

Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is.

Heartbreaking, gritty story of a girl who struggles to feel at home in skin society and her own family tells her is too black (in ways both subtle and not) and find a place to belong when her family is frequently forced to move. -Anne W

New kid

by Jerry Craft

jGRAPHIC NOVEL Craft
Fiction, Kids, Graphic Novels

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds--and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

Funny graphic novel with something important to say about systemic racism, microaggressions, and school segregation. -Anne W

Other words for home

by Jasmine Warga

jFICTION Warga Jasmine
Fiction, Kids

Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian hometown is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the family members who were left behind as she adjusts to a new life with unexpected surprises.

A beautiful, timely book in verse that will help you understand the Syrian refugee crisis. -Anne W

Janesville : an American story

by Amy Goldstein

977.5 /Goldstein
Nonfiction

Learn what happens to the residents of a small Midwestern town when the GM plant closes at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, forcing thousands out of long-term, secure jobs and creating ripple effects throughout the region. Goldstein embeds herself with the residents for years, and Paul Ryan and Barack Obama make appearances. Extremely intimate and compelling portrait of a town in crisis! -Anne W

Easy to love, difficult to discipline : the seven basic skills for turning conflict into cooperation

by Rebecca Anne Bailey

649.64 /Bailey
Nonfiction, Self Help

My parenting Bible! This book will give you the tools manage your young child's behavior, striking the perfect balance between letting them walk all over you and being a hard-driving taskmaster. -Anne W

The unsettlers : in search of the good life in today's America

by Mark Sundeen

640 /Sundeen
Nonfiction, Nature

A work of immersive journalism steeped in a distinctively American social history and sparked by a personal quest, The Unsettlers traces the search for the simple life through the stories of three families of new pioneers and what inspired each of them to look for--or create--a better existence. Captivating and clear-eyed, it dares us to imagine what a sustainable, ethical, authentic future might actually look like.--

Are you FASCINATED by people who manage to live off the grid for long periods of time? Me, too! -Anne W

Behold the dreamers : a novel

by Imbolo Mbue

FICTION Mbue Imbolo
Fiction

This book is about the immigrant experience, the parenting experience, the newlywed experience, and the modern American experience. This book will make you angry and sad, but read it anyway because it's REALLY GOOD. -Anne W