​This is a sweet summer story with depth and heart. Cat who is about to enter 6th grade, has always felt a strong sense of responsibility and love for her younger brother, Chicken, who is on the autism spectrum. Her mom illustrates children’s books and they are all grieving for the loss of her father.  Mom needs to work without distractions so the children are going to meet their grandparents for the first time and stay with them on their island home off the coast of North Carolina.  Over the summer Cat learns to love her grandparents and comes to understand the reason why her mom has kept them apart.  Her faith in her grandparents allows her to loosen up and let them help with her brother so that she can have time to be a kid herself.
There are a few moments where Cat and Chicken being bi-racial come up and are important in establishing their identity.  I found myself putting in markers to save the words of wisdom that I would come upon; “Being a parent is a kind of promise. A promise to stand by someone even if you think they’re making a mistake. To love who you get, not who you think you’re going to get.”
Along with all this growing, Cat makes some great friends, enters a fishing contest and learns that even someone you thought was an enemy has a mix of good with his bad.
A beautiful story about family and forgiveness with a wonderful cast of characters.

​Tessa's Picks, 5th summer 2019, Character driven, Friendship, Family, People of color

The Cake family:
Benjamin Lord Baltimore Cake, 12
Emma Alabama Lane Cake, 11
Jody Traditional Angel Food Cake, 10
Van Chocolate Lover Cake, 8
Roger Black Forest Cake, 7
Gordon Ridiculously Easy No-Knead Sticky Buns Cake, 4
Their Parents:
Leo Meyer Lemon Cake
Arlouin Humming-bird Spice Cake
And four dogs
 
Yes, those are their names and of you have not lost your appetite yet you may find this a sweet treat.
The Cakes are itinerant bakers…which means they move from town to town setting up bakeries for communities that “need them.”  Emma has said goodbye too many times and has a friendship map to track the ones left behind.  Her heart can’t take the ache again so she is determined to remain solitary in their new home in Aurora County, Mississippi.
Then she meets Ruby Lavender who is “not sweet” but becomes her new BFF (well maybe not forever). Delightful characters abound in this small town and all the children and dogs make them selves right at home.
The father Leo, whose memory is a little sketchy, has a funny feeling about the town and it only a matter of time before he will want to wander on. Can Emma and Ruby find a way to make this place Emma’s forever home.
Silly and sweet, these folks will capture your heart.
“Each day we begin again our quest to be safe, to be loved, to belong, and to find home.
And if we are lucky, there is cake.”

​Tessa's Picks, 3-4th grade, Family Life, Friendship, Humor

 Kate DiCamillo’s characters have a warmth and richness of language that I associate with the South. You will fall in love with Louisiana Eleffante, child of the tragically dead Flying Eleffantes circus performers. Her story begins:
”I am going to write it all down, so that what happened to me will be known, so that if someone were to stand at their window at night and look up at stars and think, My goodness, whatever happened to Louisiana Elefante? Where did she go? they will have an answer. They will know. 
“This is what happened.
“I will begin at the beginning.”
Granny, who is raising Louisiana, wakes her in the middle of the night raving about the curse which has hung over their heads for generations. They take off on a road trip leaving friends and home behind. Winding up in a small town in Georgia, Louisiana wakes to find Granny gone!   There she meets a Reverend, a grouchy motel-owner, and a boy with a pet crow.
I love Louisiana’s voice which manages to be funny and profound at the same time. She must find her own way and her path brings up big questions about her past and her identity.  Warm and generous hearts will help her along the way until she can find a place to call home. As the walrus-faced Reverend Obertask says,”‘I do think that, more often than not, love has a way of finding us,”
Indeed.

​Tessa's Picks, 3rd-5th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Friendship.

'Quinn McAvoy is a freshman in a new school and loves sports and skateboarding.  And she is completely bald, having lost her hair due to alopecia, an autoimmune disorder.  Bullied and shunned by her friends, she is hoping to start over when her parents move to Massachusetts so that her younger brother can attend a special school for his autism.  She decides to keep her baldness a secret, struggles with wig issues and finds herself popular!
When Quinn first encounters Nick Strout in his wheelchair, his bitterness and bad temper are off putting. Eventually they become friends and Quinn learns that he is a double amputee due to a snow-boarding accident caused by his big brother who was drunk at the time.  Tommy is a star football player as was Nick before the accident.  Tommy is doing his best to support his brother but winning forgiveness is a long way away. 
Quinn and Nick become close and their honest support of each other is heartwarming. Quinn is not afraid of being real and Nick responds with humor.
“I know this is weird, but I don’t feel like explaining it right now. Can you just roll with it?”
“Oh, I can roll with it. You’ve seen me roll.”
“Are you making a wheelchair joke?”
“Maybe.”
The author handles issues of disability in a very real and empathetic way.  I have a relative with alopecia who has recently decided to stop wearing wigs and I applaud how Quinn works through her own way of dealing with this issue.  Nick’s acceptance of Quinn’s encouragement helps him move on in his journey to walk and to finding forgiveness.
This story about courage, connection and love will not disappoint.

​Tessa's Picks, 6-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Friendship, Issues fiction, romance.

Applegate, (author of The One and Only Ivan) creates a world with humans and a few other creatures we know and goes on to populate it with beings like Byx who is doglike, walks on two legs, and can talk. Her kind, dairnes,  has been hunted to near extinction because of their unique ability to detect lies. This power in the hands of those who want ultimate control of the kingdoms would convey supremacy.
Believing that she may be an Endling, the last of her species, Byx sets off to find a sentient island that may be a haven for other dairnes.  Along the way, she is joined by Tobble, a small bunny-like wobbyk, Khara, a human of mysterious origins, Renzo, an honorable thief and Gambler, a fierce tiger-like felivet.
This is a fellowship-like adventure in a Tolkien-like world. Each of our heroes brings their own brand of courage, heart and wisdom.  Honor, friendship, power, evil and above all truth play into the story.
"Why don't they believe you?" "The same reason they don't want to believe you exist, dairne. There are many scholars, but few seekers after truth. Humans believe the things that make them feel safe. They care little for difficult facts."
A top tier fantasy!

Tessa's picks

4th-7th grade, Adventure, Fast paced. Friendship, Fantasy, 

​
​

When Frederick Frederickson (really that’s his name) finds himself racing down the creek in a boat without a paddle, he never imagined that he would run ashore at a camp for troubled boys and get mistaken for a boy with a Big Bad reputation.
 Frederick has a food-chain theory of life. There are lions like the school bully and there are Gazelles, the target of the lions.Then there are meerkats and the fleas that live on the butts of meerkats. Frederick is a flea.  But maybe that can change.
 His fellow troop mates—Nosebleed, Specs, The Professor, and little-yet-lethal Ant Bite are as scary and definitely not fleas!  Activities and pranks lead to a tenuous friendship when Frederick's cover is blown.  Enter a hurricane! The camp is evacuated but Frederick and Ant-bite are trapped alone in its midst.

Courage and friendship shine through this hilarious adventure.

Tessa's Picks
​
4th-5th grade, Character driven,Adventure, Friendship, Humor

This is a powerful , touching story about discovering who you are, finding your place in the world and learning to love who you turn out to be.  It deals with a lot of heavy issues: rape, sexual abuse, sexuality, gender identity and victim-blaming in such a sensitive and meaningful way.
 The main character Mara is trying to recover from a trauma she has never shared with anyone not even her twin brother Owen with whom she is so close.  When Owen is accused of raping his girlfriend, her best friend Hannah, what is she to believe? 
All the characters in this book are so deeply crafted you feel you know them.  Hannah is not a girl who would make this up so why is she being blamed by her classmates?  How could Mara’s beloved brother have done such a horrible thing?
But Mara knows the truth and her support of Hannah is strong and real. Hannah is not ruled by what has happened and she faces the world with strength and resilience.  These girls are powerful.
Mara’s ex-girlfriend Charlie is genderqueer and struggling to find the courage to express who she really is. They were also best friends and grieve over being apart. Together they struggle to evolve their relationship while dealing with their emerging identities.
I loved this book and the power that each character finds in themselves and in their friendships.  This is a beautiful and stunning book that will touch you and make you wiser.
​
“Sweetie, this will blow over. It’s a misunderstanding. You know your brother”.
“You keep saying that”.
“Saying what?”.
“That it’s a misunderstanding. That I know Owen. But...Mom, I know Hannah, too”.

“What do we do?” What’s going to happen to Owen? And Hannah... we can’t just not listen to her. You’ve always said that we have to listen to girls no matter—“
“He’s ours, Mara, Mom says, a kind of quiet fury edging her words. He’s my son. And we love him. That’s what we do”. 

 Tessa's Picks
​8th grade, Contemporary fiction,Character driven, Issues fiction, Friendship, LGBTQ

Success to Jade means living her neighborhood, taking every opportunity.  Like accepting a scholarship to a mostly white private school.  Like joining “Women to Women” a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Meaning black girls like her from a bad neighborhood. It feels wrong, especially when her mentor Maxine does not understand her. Maxine is black and successful and she grew up wealthy. This class division seems to be a road block in their relationship.
Jade describes herself as a bigger girl and you cringe when she is harassed because she doesn’t fit someone’s standard of beauty.
“And this makes me wonder if a black girl’s life is only about being stitched together and coming undone, being stitched together and coming undone. I wonder if there’s ever a way for a girl like me to feel whole. Wonder” 
“I don’t know what’s worse. Being mistreated because of the color of your skin, your size, or having to prove that it really happened.
Jade's powerful voice explores identity, friendships and self-worth in this compelling coming of age book.  
 
Tessa's Picks
 
6th-8th grade, Character driven, Friendship, Issues fiction, People of color
​

  There have always been secrets in Danny Cheng’s family.  When he finds a taped-up box in his father’s closet, it is more than old photos and letters; there is a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family.  A high school senior who has early acceptance to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Danny becomes obsessed with figuring out the past.  His parents immigrated to the states from China to Texas and then moved in the middle of the night without warning to California. And changed their last name. He experiences a new emptiness for the sister he never knew about who died young.  How do all these clues connect?
Danny’s friends who attends a mostly Asian-America high school in Cupertino, are all very real and memorable. Harry Wong is the perfect combination of nice, handsome, and smart and the two have a deep and meaningful friendship. Harry’s girlfriend Regina Chan has known Danny forever.  The book made me long for a sequel just to find out what the future will be for these young people.
As the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook this friend group approaches, Regina publishes the school newspaper as a memorial and lands them all in trouble.  Danny’s family begins to unravel as an accident brings them into the public eye. 
This story grabs you and just won’t let go as the pieces fall into place yet the unexpected still happens.  The ending literally made me gasp out loud. Themes of love, loyalty, family, immigration and friendship are beautifully woven in this moving book.

“Because if you're tangled up in someone else, if your futures are tied that way, if that's real and if you know when it happens - then it means you know who you belong to, and you know whose fates are tied to yours, whether you like it or planned it or not, whether they still exist in the same world with you or they don't, and I think that's where everything begins and ends. I think that's everything.” 
 
Tessa's Picks, 8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary Fiction, Family life, Issues Fiction, Friendship, People of color, Romance, LGBTQ
 

 iNelle has lived in Monroeville, Alabama her whole life, so she knows how people there expect her to behave. But she's never felt comfortable in the frills and dresses other girls wear and would much rather climb trees or play with her slingshot than stay clean indoors. Tru is staying with relatives when he comes to town. With his fancy, big city fashions and high voice he is instantly marked as an outsider. The impeccably dressed boy and tom-boy find something in common in their love of Sherlock Holmes. Before long their pretend game of Sherlock and Watson turns into a real investigation when someone is falsely accused of a crime.


This book, based on the real-life friendship of Truman Capote and Harper Lee, contains so many gems that it's hard for a brief description to do it justice. Tru and Nelle (as they were called as children) instantly bond over their outsider status. They investigate cases while pretending to be Sherlock and Watson, hang out at the court house, write stories, and put on a memorable Halloween party. The book doesn't gloss over anything and racial prejudices, the Klan, depression, and abuse are all mentioned. These details help create an authentic sense of place. The book takes its structure from Capote and consists of a novel with a set of related short stories afterwards. Even those unfamiliar with Capote and Lee will be drawn into this story and find them easy to relate to as outsiders.

Tue & Nelle by G. Neri

Erica's Picks
4th & up
​Tags: biography, character driven, family life, friendship, historical fiction, issues fiction, LGBTQ, mystery, social justice, summer vacation