This books is about your heart. (The little bit inside of you that makes you, you!) In simple words and evocative images, the message is conveyed that words have extraordinary power. They can heal or hurt, they can create or destroy. Words can spread love. Read this book and foster empathy and compassion in the youngest readers. "Today, somebody's world can be a better place because of you! Doesn't that make your heart feel good?" Pass it around. Tessa's Picks, K-1st grade, Picture books,
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Two star-crossed lovers from feuding clans meet; both families are traveling performers in California’s central valley. Lace’s Hispanic family, the Palomas, swim in mermaid exhibits in the river; all the women are marked with a pattern of scales. The French Corbeaus dance in the tallest trees clad in beautiful wings. Cluck has feathers growing from the nape of his neck and a clawed hand deformed by his sadistic brother. Lace has been warned that his kind are pure black magic and a touch from them can kill. When Cluck rescues Lace from a disastrous chemical explosion, his touch instead immerses her in his world and an enchanting relationship begins. This is magical realism at its best. The writing is heartbreakingly exquisite. An old feud, a new love, a long buried secret, a flash of mermaid tails, a flutter of fairy wings infuse this tender story with the power of fear, love and honesty. Tessa's Picks, 6-7th grade, Romance, Contemporary Fiction If you believe in faeries, you should read this book as everything you thought about truth and the fierce beauty of that in-between world will be confirmed. If you don’t believe, you should even more so read this book so that you can experience that twilight world where dreams can be real and faerie “makings” encompass everything from transfiguration to keys made of poems and dance. Clare is 14 and returned to Ireland and the domed underground house of her birth and the yew tree that grows within. She is the latest of the tree’s guardians; her dead mother and all those grandmothers before her are a legacy. Within the tree’s between place, she meets Finn, a boy part fairy, part human who she knew as a toddler. Together they embark on quest to save the two worlds from forever closing which would cut the human world off from the ability to dream and create and the fairies from the ability to love. Finn’s father Balor is a hideously fierce and unfeeling opponent to be faced and bound before he can destroy the gateway for ever. Here be true magic, both bright and dark. Gorgeous, haunting and wonderfully strange. Dare to enter this world. Tessa's Picks, 5th-8th grade, Fairy tales, Fantasy, Supernatural Jordan Sun is beginning her junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing arts and once again she does not get cast for the fall musical. Her low alto 2 voice is jeopardizing her whole life! A cappella is a real thing at this school; there is more than one group and they have elite status. Think Glee. Then she gets a mass email. The Sharpshooters have an opening in their group. Unfortunately it is an all-male group. Is this going to stop Jordan whose voice range is a perfect fit? No. She becomes Julian Zhang. The hair gets cut, baggy clothes bought, tips on how to walk and move from trans kids on-line and voila. Jordan-Julian gets the spot. The book focuses on Julian and how moving through the world as a male is a revelation to Jordan. Enter the Sharps. All seven of them become real people who you are invested in. They are such a diverse group. Jordan is bisexual and Chinese, and also represented are Japanese, queer, Sikh, Indian, learning disabled, and underrepresented body type. Jordan’s ethnicity and economic status have made her feel like an outsider on campus. Friendships are formed and Jordan feels part of a group for the first time. If the Sharps win the Holiday competition, they will be opening for an internationally known group and tour Europe over break. Family economic trouble looms and all may come crashing down. Jordan is an engaging character as she struggles to find out who she is and where she is going. You leave this book wanting to follow all the characters’ stories into the future. Tessa's Picks, 8th Summer 2018, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Friendship, People of color, School stories Maddie and her friends are excited to audition for the eighth grade play Romeo and Juliet. There is plenty of drama happening on the middle school stage already with crushes, mean girls, cliques and rivalries. New girl Gemma with her good looks, British accent, and kind, cheery personality is a shoe in for Juliet. Maddie likes her, a lot, maybe as more than a friend. When the boy playing Romeo drops out only weeks before opening night, there is only one person who the director sees as a possible replacement. Is this Maddie dream role or her worst nightmare? Sprinkled with the Bard’s words, as well as the fun to be had using Shakespearean insults, this story will appeal to theatre geeks everywhere. Tessa' Picks, 4th-7th grade, Character driven, Contemporary Fiction, Friendship, LGBTQ, Romance Aven likes to tell people that she lost her arms alligator wrestling in the Everglades or in a freak roller coaster accident or a skydiving trip gone wrong. The truth is that she was born without them. When her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to explain herself over and over again. There she meets Connor, a solitary boy who is dealing with his own disability. They become friends and discover a mystery with big secrets having to do with Aven's past (she is adopted). Aven is feisty, hilarious, and she can do it all...even without arms. If you loved Wonder, you will adore this book. youtu.be/s2usmrzHi5s Toetalks. Click for an interview with the author and two women who inspire her. Tessa's Picks, 4th-6th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Friendship, Humor, Issues fiction. Harlem is home to three multi-ethnic kids. Jen watches life from the window of her family’s bodega. Alex wants to help the needy but keeps herself closed. An attack on Elvin’s grandfather has left him surviving on the streets alone. They come together to find out the truth about the grandfather’s attack. Their sleuthing leads them to a mysterious artist whose missing paintings are worth a fortune. A fortune that could save the neighborhood from development by an unscrupulous politician who wants to turn Harlem into a theme park. This exciting mystery explores what defines community, how art has the power to show truth and how we need to protect history and home. Tessa Picks, 4th-7th grade, People of Color, Mystery, Fast paced, Friendship A six seater plane is flying over the Amazon toward the city of Manaus. Fred has been watching the movements of the pilot’s hands on the fuel gauge, throttle, and joystick. Behind Fred are a girl and her brother. They have the same brown skin and long eyelashes. Lila is protective of her little brother Max who is trying to eat the seat belt. In the next row is a pale girl with blond hair down to her waist. Con’s ruffled collar is clearly bothering her and she stares out the window avoiding contact. Suddenly the pilot begins to belch repeatedly, his hand gives a violent jerk and the plane dips and lurches away from the river and down towards the canopy. The children emerge from the crash but the pilot is dead. Suspicious of each other and low on survival skills, the children try to find food and shelter. The discovery of a map leads them to head for Manaus. On the way they fall into an ancient city and meet the Explorer, a man with a mysterious past and keen survival skills who teaches them to eat tarantula eggs among other lore. As his heart softens to the children, he must balance his need to protect the city and forest with his desire to lead them to safety. “And all of you - do not forget that, lost out here, you were brave even in your sleep. Do not forget to take risks. Standing ovations await your bravery,' Con swallowed. 'But I'm afraid,' she whispered. The Explorer nodded, scarred and dusty and matter-of-fact. 'You are right to be afraid. Be brave anyway.” Do yourself a favor and embark on this amazing adventure in this wise and wonderful survival story. Tessa's Picks, 4th-7th grade, Adventure, Survival, People of Color Three different kids. Three times and places in the world. One mission in common. Escape Osef is a Jewish boy living in 1930”s Nazi Germany. With their traumatized father recently released from a camp, the family sets sail bound for Cuba. The fate of that ship is a fact of history and a heart wrenching story of the choices that people must make in war times. Isabel is a Cuban girl living during the riots and government repression of 1994. With her pregnant mother and family, they join another family on a leaky raft, hoping to find safety in America. Facing drowning and sharks, they brave stormy seas. Mamoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. His homeland is torn apart by violence and when the family’s apartment is bombed, they flee. They face military violence, betrayal, near drowning and separation as they make their way to Europe. All these families faced unimaginable dangers as well as hope for a better life. Although separated by decades and geography, unbelievable connections will tie their stories together. This is an action-packed moving story that puts you in the heart of three actual happenings in the past and present. The topics are both timely and timeless: courage, survival and the journey to find home. Tessa's Picks, 5th-8th grade, Historical Fiction, Adventure, People of Color, Issues fiction, Social justice This novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations, the book explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship and the inheritance of culture for better or worse. From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, this award winning author weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity. Tessa's Picks, 7th-8th grade, People of Color, Contemporary fiction, Romance, Family life, Character driven |
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