SATURDAY SMORGASBOARD: 2020 Cybils Awards

[I received an advanced reader copy of The Land of the Cranes and Show Me a Sign from the publisher for review purposes. Both will be passed on to a classroom teacher when life gets back to normal. The rest of the books were either ones I already read or ones I read from the library. All opinions are my own.]

The Process


Once again I had the privilege of serving on a committee for the Cybils Awards. This is the third year I served with the group choosing the winner in the Middle Grade Fiction category. You can see my posts about previous years’ work here.

Now that our committee work is done, I am able to talk about the finalists we read this year. These are my personal thoughts on each of these books and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the full committee who presided over this category.  Keep in mind that another committee determined what books we would be choosing from. These seven were not our personal best of 2020, but the ones chosen by another committee of readers based on nominations. Books here are listed in alphabetical order.

One summary note – of the 7 books in our list, I only read one of them on my own, long before the finalists were chosen. Two more hit my radar, and I posted about them in Book News. The rest were unfamiliar to me. These were not books I would have necessarily chosen for myself. Several of these are examples of books that are objectively good but also ones I did not personally enjoy reading. All of the nominees deal with some weighty issue(s), which – to me – can sometimes limit their appeal for readers. I believe the winner we chose was the best option of the seven both on its own merits and also to appeal to the widest circle of readers.

The Books


Echo Mountain – Ellie and her family move to Echo Mountain during the Great Depression, making due with what nature has to offer and the negotiations they can make with their neighbors. When Ellie’s father is injured and goes into a coma, she seeks out the mysterious “hag” who might be able to help him. This isn’t the sort of novel I would pick up on my own, but I enjoyed the characters in this one. There’s a magical element to Ellie’s instincts for medicine and healing that was interesting. ♥♥♥♥

 

 

 

Efrén Divided – Efrén’s parents are undocumented immigrants, and when his mother is deported, Efrén steps into more responsibilities to help his family. I liked the kids in the book, but the story is sad. I appreciated that the complications of the situation were reflected in the story – there are no simple solutions offered by the end. I think this could be a great story to introduce kids to contemporary issues on immigration, but it’s a heavy story which might keep some kids from giving it a try. ♥♥♥♥

 

 

 

Fighting Words – [TW: sexual abuse, sexual harassment, suicide] (Older Middle Grade) – When the older of two sisters who have been through a considerable amount of trauma tries to commit suicide, the younger sister thinks it might be time to make some noise about what they are going through. This is an excellent story – probably my second favorite from this list – but it is a *hard* read. This is definitely for older middle grade readers (10+), and even for that group, it’s a pretty weighty story. This is another book that could help readers feel seen and know they aren’t alone. But this is also a title that I believe will appeal to a subset of readers who are mature enough to handle the content. ♥♥♥♥½

 

 

From the Desk of Zoe Washington – A girl preparing for a baking challenge is secretly investigating the crime that put her father in prison – the one he says he didn’t commit. This was the one book from the list I had already read before receiving the list of nominees. I loved this book, and I’m thrilled that it was our team’s choice for the Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction. You can read my full review here. ♥♥♥♥½

 

 

 

King and the Dragonflies – Kingston, grieving the loss of his brother, is convinced his brother has become a dragonfly. Kingston has no one to talk to about his grief or this theory because just before he died, Kingston’s brother told him to stay away from his best friend, Sandy, because he is gay. Being Black is hard enough; Kingston doesn’t need people thinking he might be gay, too. This is another heavy story. The writing is terrific, but the story itself felt dark and sad to me – there’s racism, harassment over sexuality, grief/loss, and also child abuse. This is the sort of book that can help some readers feel seen, but not all kids are looking for such a hard-hitting story. ♥♥♥½

 

 

Land of the Cranes – This is a novel in verse, also about immigration. This time, though, the main character is the one who is detained, making the the story sit much closer to the reader than Efrén’s story. This was hard to read, and I didn’t enjoy it. It’s enlightening, but another difficult, serious subject. ♥♥♥

 

 

 

Show Me a Sign – An OwnVoices story about a Deaf community in Martha’s Vineyard in the 1800s. A young scientist comes to Mary’s village to figure out why there is such a large population of Deaf people in the community, but his personal biases lead him to make dire choices that impact the community as a whole and Mary directly. This was a fascinating story, although it, too, was dark. The things that happen to Mary in the story were awful, and as a reader, I could feel her panic at being trapped without a way to communicate her thoughts, feelings, and experience in order to get the help she needed. There’s a lot of infuriating injustice in this story. Not only does the story address Deaf culture and communication and community, but it also touches on land disputes with Native Americans and other racial issues of the time period. This was my third favorite of the seven books we read; there will be a sequel to this one, Set Me Free, later this year. ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: The Places We Sleep by Caroline Brooks DuBois

[I received a physical review copy of this book from Holiday House in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary


A novel in verse starring Abbey, a seventh grader in a new school in 2001. She’s trying to make friends, avoid the mean kids, and deal with her first period.

Abbey’s mom isn’t around to help her with her period. Planes flew into the twin towers in New York City and now her mom’s sister, Rose, is missing. Abbey’s mom has gone to help her brother-in-law with their kids while they wait for word on Rose.

Abbey’s dad is career-military. As the country tries to recover from the unthinkable, he’s preparing for deployment.

When the world seems changed forever, Abbey is trying to negotiate middle school while her family deals with the unimaginable changes in their day to day lives.

Review


This is a new-kid-in-school story, told in verse, and set with 9/11 as the backdrop. September 11th is an inciting incident. It changes the dynamics in Abbey’s home and in the world around her. It pulls her mom away and pushes Abbey to deal with her first period on her own. And it is why her father later gets deployed. There are threads on grief and war protests and racism against Muslims. But those aren’t the main focus of the story.

The focus is Abbey. It’s on her adjustment to a new school and to puberty. She considers questions of identity when it comes to her art. And she grows in her confidence to stand up when others are teased or harassed.

I have read other novels in verseThe Crossover (♥♥♥♥), Garvey’s Choice, Inside Out and Back Again (♥♥♥♥♥), Long Way Down (♥♥♥♥), Solo – and my reaction has been mixed. Some I love and others haven’t clicked. For me, I think it’s about how much I connect with the story being told and how the format enhances that story. And this one was fine, but didn’t grab me. I liked Abbey, and I cared about what happened with her family. But I wanted more. I think I wanted to go deeper on the emotions of Abbey’s story with 9/11. That just wasn’t the story the author chose to tell.

If you are building a collection of novels in verse, or you are looking for middle grade coming-of-age stories, be sure to check this one out. Abbey is a lovely character, and I think kids will like her. If you are looking for more stories that talk honestly with readers about menstruation, this could be a good choice. Abbey’s period really weaves through the whole book rather than just being a one-off incident. (Content Warning: 9/11, grief, deployment)

Rating: ♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥=Good/fine/solid

REVIEW: Slay by Brittney Morris

Summary


Kiera Johnson may seem like a typical teen – high school senior, math tutor, gamer. But she’s also the creator of the video game SLAY. After a lifetime of experiences of being in the minority, including being one of four Black kids at her high school, Kiera wanted a place where she didn’t feel like an outsider. So she built the game.

She doesn’t want anyone to know she is the developer. She’s always on her guard, hiding the game from her family and friends. If he knew, her boyfriend would probably dissect SLAY to see if it is authentic enough, and that’s only if he could get past the idea that gaming is a distraction to keep Blacks from achieving all they can in the world. Her sister would probably antagonize everyone in the game with her questions and opinions about every little thing. In a way, even in the world she created to celebrate Blackness, Kiera can’t just be completely herself when it comes to SLAY.

Then a kid is killed over something that happened in the game. The whole world learns about SLAY. Kiera, as her character Emerald, is under fire as the developer for creating this “violent” place with “gangs” and other misconceptions from outsiders, both White and Black. Reporters are debating the “racist” nature of SLAY because only Blacks are invited to join. And Kiera’s being harassed inside her own game by a new player who wants to tear down everything she has built. How does a 17-year-old high school student stand up under a firestorm like this?

Review


“All I ever wanted to do was escape into this magical world where for once I don’t have to act a certain way because I’m Black, and where I don’t have to answer certain questions because I’m the Black authority in the room, and where if I do something that’s not stereotypically Black, I’m different…. I think I love SLAY so much because we’re a mutually empathetic collective. As we duel, as we chat, there’s an understanding that ‘your Black is not my Black,’ and ‘your weird is not my weird,’ and ‘your beautiful is not my beautiful,’ and that’s okay.” pg 108-109, e-book

Oh my goodness, I loved this book!! I decided to share these quotes because I thought only Kiera’s words would do when talking about why she built SLAY and what it meant to her. I adored Kiera. And I felt her longing for a place where being Black was celebrated and not debated, where she could shed the tightly controlled facade she maintained in ALL her face-to-face relationships. My favorite thread of this whole book is this idea of finding (or in Kiera’s case, creating) and defending a space where you can be yourself. And I think that became extra special because I loved Kiera and wanted that space to be safe for her.

The gaming pieces of this are cool! Nothing too technical for a non-coder or non-gamer like me. I loved how the uninitiated adults discovered the richness of Black history Kiera built into the game. The dueling style was also fantastic. I have no clue if a dueling-style VR game exists now, but I enjoyed the fictional game play. But really, the game is just a vehicle for telling a richer, deeper story.

While tragic, the murder that pulls SLAY into the public eye isn’t the main story either. Kiera wrestles with her responsibility as the game developer, but ultimately those questions take a back seat to the racial and discrimination questions that are more central to the story.

The obvious question at the center of Slay is is it racist for Black gamers to have their own game, their own forum, where White folks aren’t allowed? And I was happy to see there weren’t any easy answers offered to this question. Readers will have to wrestle with that on their own. But there were just as many hard, nuanced questions about the Black community from within their own ranks. And that was part of the magic of this book for me. It showed me questions I couldn’t possibly know to ask as a white person. And it let me learn and question and wrestle as I read. And I loved every minute of it. This was engrossing and engaging and something I won’t soon forget! (Language)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥+++