Nonfiction

Strangers in strange lands

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How to Say Goodbye in Cuban by Daniel Miyares (Anne Schwartz Books, 240 pages, grades 4-8). Daniel Miyares tells the story of his father, Carlos, a young boy living in the Cuban countryside in 1956. When his father wins the lottery, he decides to pursue his dream of opening a furniture store, moving the family to the big city. Carlos is heartbroken to leave his friends and grandparents, but things take a darker turn as the political landscape in Cuba changes dramatically. The beginning of each chapter shows Castro’s slow rise to power, as he gathers enough supporters to overthrow Batista and takes over the country. Carlos’s parents aren’t particularly political, but that doesn’t protect them from the state taking his dad’s business. Carlos secretly watches Papi and some other men work every night building a boat, and shortly after that, his dad disappears. When life gets more dangerous in the city, the family returns to their grandparents’ farm, where Papi reunites with them and tells them they’re going to America. Carlos is heartbroken all over again, but his father convinces him it’s their only chance for a better life. After a dangerous nighttime journey, they arrive in Florida, ready to begin that life. Includes a four-page author’s note with additional information about Carlos and how his son Daniel came to write this book, along with several photos.

I was surprised to learn that Daniel Miyares has never won a Caldecott, and this graphic novel could easily remedy that situation–or win him a Newbery. The story and gorgeous artwork capture both the beauty of Cuba and the tension, confusion, and danger of the early days of Fidel Castro’s regime. The last part of the book, covering the family’s escape is both suspenseful and moving, and readers familiar with today’s immigration situation will be surprised at the welcome the Cubans get from the American military.

The Experiment by Rebecca Stead (Feiwel and Friends, 288 pages, grades 4-7). Despite his normal New York City upbringing, Nathan has always know that he’s different from other kids. He brushes his teeth five times a day with special pink toothpaste, his mother carefully records every calorie he eats, and…he and his family are aliens. Known as the Kast, his parents have raised Daniel on tales of how they traveled from their home planet as children to begin an experiment living on Earth. Nathan meets each month on Zoom with other Kast children, and he’s begun secretly texting one of them, a girl named Izzy. But recently a few of the kids, including Izzy, haven’t been on the calls, and when Nathan discovers that he’s growing a tail, he suspects he’ll be the next to disappear. He’s not wrong, and he and his parents are summoned to the mother ship, which sits in a parking lot outside a Pennsylvania mall, disguised as a storage container. As Nathan learns more about the ship and his parents’ past, he begins to suspect that it’s all a deception, and that he and the others might be human after all.

This science fiction story is hard to put down once you get through the first few chapters, and the last half has plenty of twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very end. It reminded me a little bit of a Margaret Peterson Haddix story and would make a great introduction to the sci-fi genre.

Rewriting the history books

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White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War and Rewrote History by Ann Bausum (Roaring Brook Press, 368 pages, grades 9 and up). Beginning with a list of the 20 lies covered in this book from “Slavery was a compassionate institution” to “We erase history when we remove symbols of the Confederacy,” the book goes on to debunk these lies in four sections. The first covers American history leading up to and including the Civil War, the second is how the myth of Lost Cause was constructed and spread after the war and reconstruction ended. Part three discusses how this propaganda was spread through the country via monuments, Hollywood films, and children’s education, and the final section brings us up to the present in which steps to remedy the lies and propaganda are being met with a powerful backlash. The “Gallery of the Lost Cause” throughout the book shows various statues and monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders, including information on the cost, history, and current status of each one. Includes a note from the author on the evolution of her own thinking from her Virginia public school education in the mid twentieth century to the present, a timeline, and extensive source notes, bibliography, and index.

This is a fascinating and relevant book about how slavery, racism, the Civil War, and the lies surrounding the Confederacy and its history have seeped into the American consciousness, largely through very deliberate efforts to infiltrate textbooks, public history, and Hollywood. Although I didn’t grow up in the South, I still absorbed much of this misinformation through my own education and consumption of popular culture. The final part of the book does an excellent job of showing how we are still living with the consequences of this propaganda today. I do wish this book were more accessible for middle school and high school readers. I’m a medium-fast adult reader, but even with daily reading it took me weeks to get through the text-dense pages unbroken by any sort of graphics or sidebars. It’s hard for me to imagine many teenagers sticking with this book all the way through, and that’s a shame. Educators might want to consider using excerpts from it in history classes as a way of bringing its valuable content to more readers.

How the Word Is Passed: Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America by Clint Smith, adapted for young readers by Sonja Cherry-Paul (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 336 pages, grades 7 and up). Based on the 2021 book, this version for young readers tells of Clint Smith’s travels across America and to Africa looking for how the story of slavery is told. He starts his journey in at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, then continues to the Whitney Plantation and Angola Prison in Louisiana, Blandford Cemetery in Virginia, various sites in New York City, Galveston Island, Texas, and Gorée Island, off the coast of Senegal. His reports on what he sees and the people he speaks with show how the history of slavery has been taught, how that is (sometimes) changing, and how people react to those changes. Includes a glossary and a list of selected sources.

I read the original version of this book when I took a trip down south in 2023, and it really made me look at the museums I visited there differently. The writing is so engaging, with each section told as a personal sojourn to the various places that includes of a fascinating variety of voices. Smith writes in the epilogue about interviews with his own grandparents, which could serve as inspiration for kids to learn history by having conversations with older relatives. While this does not go nearly as deeply into the history as White Lies, it was a much quicker read and would be a useful book to read before going on historical field trips.

Learning from the past

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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Yas Imamura (Random House, 304 pages, grades 5-8). As he did in The Mona Lisa Vanishes, Nicholas Day connects a work of art with the historical events around it. Here, the story starts in 1815 with the catastrophic eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora. The enormous amount of ash and smoke caused changes in the global climate that resulted in droughts, floods, crop failures, and famine in the United States and Europe. The work of art in question is Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, which was published in 1818, and which Day makes a compelling case for having been created from this dark time. Another byproduct of the time was a more scientific study of weather and climate, which is how we know that the climate is changing today. Throughout the narrative, Day pointedly addresses readers, making sure they are paying attention to the parallels of this tragic story with what is going on in our world right now. Includes extensive bibliography, notes, and index.

Since The Mona Lisa Vanishes was one of my favorite nonfiction books ever, I was thrilled to see that Nicholas Day has a new book out, and I was not disappointed.  Okay, I was a little disappointed, not because it wasn’t engaging, well-researched, and fascinating, but because any story that draws my attention to climate change fills me with existential dread in a way that a fun story about the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Louvre could never do. I would love to see this get some Sibert recognition.

Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson (Peachtree, 2025, grades 6 and up). The Electoral College, lame duck presidents, gerrymandering, unequal representation: despite the best intentions of the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution contains some serious flaws that affect the country today. The authors look at eight different issues, beginning each chapter with an episode from history that reveals the fault line, then going back to the origin of that section of the Constitution, and concluding with a look at how other states and countries deal with those issues differently. In the last part, they grade different parts of the Constitution (spoiler alert: overall, it’s a C-), then debate whether it would be better to call another Constitutional Convention to revisit the entire document or to work on amending it. Includes a timeline, bibliography, notes, and an index.

This is the third edition of the book originally published in 2017, with two new chapters and recent updates (there’s also a graphic novel version). I’m honestly shocked that this didn’t win any awards when it was first published, especially Sibert. The format makes the material engaging and relevant, and it really opened up my eyes to how flaws in the Constitution are causing so many of the problems we see today with voting and Congressional gridlock, among other things. It also made me think about how this makes sense, given how much the country and the world have changed in the last 250 years. This would make a great textbook for middle school and high school civics classes, as well as important reading for any U.S. citizen.

Interlink Publishing and books about Palestine

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Last weekend, I headed into Northampton, Massachusetts for the Read and Resist Fest at Interlink Publishing. Described as a “social justice and literary festival dedicated to collective liberation,” this event featured booths from vendors and organizations around the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts as well as teach-ins and kids’ activities, including a storytime with Hannah Moushabeck reading Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine.

Turns out Hannah Moushabeck is one of the owners of Interlink, along with her two sisters and brother-in-law. The publishing company was founded by her father, Michel Moushabeck back in 1987. After emigrating to the U.S. from Lebanon, he couldn’t find a publisher for a book he had written, so he decided to start his own company.  Since then, Interlink has become known for publishing translated literature as well as cookbooks, travel guides, and children’s books.

As the only Palestinian-owned publisher in the United States, Interlink has published a number of books about Palestine for children and young adults under the imprint Crocodile Books. As near as I can tell, there were almost no children’s books about Palestine or Palestinians until just a few years ago, so the book list I’ve put together on the subject is pretty short. Thankfully, Interlink is leading the way in producing high-quality books to help kids learn about the country of Palestine and to empathize with those affected by the injustices and genocide that of course continues today. Here are a few of their recent books for different ages.

A Is for Arab by Aya Mobaydeen (Crocodile Books, 2025, 16 pages, ages 0-3). From Arab to Zeitoun, this alphabet book offers words and pictures from the Arab world. Most of the pages contain a few words, but P is for Palestine, at the center of the book, stands alone. There were quite a few words I wasn’t familiar with, so this could also serve as a good starting point for non Arabs to learn more about Arab culture.

Everything Grows in Jiddo’s Garden by Jenan A. Matari, illustrated by Aya Ghanameh (Crocodile Books, 2025, 32 pages, ages 4-8). In rhyming text, the narrator learns about her family’s home in Palestine through Jiddo’s (grandfather’s) garden. Sometimes Jiddo gets sad remembering his home and his family’s forced departure, but the garden reminds them all of the hope and love they have. Includes an author’s note about her own grandparents and how her Jiddo’s garden saved the family when they were under siege in Jordan.

Young Palestinians Speak: Living Under Occupation by Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young (Interlink Books, 2024 (updated edition), 118 pages, grades 5 and up). I’ve only seen the original 2017 version of this book, but it should be required reading for all Americans, starting with Congress. The authors interviewed young people living in both Gaza and the West Bank about their dreams, fears, and the difficulties of living in an occupied country. Gaza is described repeatedly as “a prison” by the children living there, yet despite their bleak lives, the kids interviewed try to hang onto their hopes and dreams. Equally poignant are the conversations with adults trying to help the kids deal with the many stresses of occupation to preserve some semblance of a childhood.

Courageous women of World War II

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The Spy in the Museum: How Rose Valland Saved Art from the Nazis by Erin McGuire (Beach Lane Books, 40 pages, grades 2-5). Rose Valland loved art. As curator of Paris’s Jeu de Paume Museum, she appreciated all kinds of art: ancient, classical, or modern. Adolf Hitler hated modern art. When Nazis took over Rose’s museum, they fired all the staff except Rose, who was kept on as manager. As they started to steal the art, selling it to fund the war, Rose secretly listened to their conversations and made notes about where the art was going. The soldiers didn’t know she spoke German, but they still became suspicious of her, which put her in grave danger. Towards the end of the war, as the Nazis fled Paris, Rose worked with the French Resistance to stop their final train, loaded with valuable artworks, from leaving the country. For much of the rest of her life, she used her notes to help restore the stolen artworks from around the world. Includes additional information about Rose Valland and the art she worked to save, as well as a list of sources.

This inspiring story is supplemented with interesting and timely questions in the author’s note: why does protecting art matter, and why did the Nazis want to destroy it? The illustrations, many including famous artworks, add to the story and the conversation.

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout (First Second, 256 pages, grades 8 and up). The narrative of this graphic novel alternates between 2011 and 1943 Amsterdam. In 2011, Annick is trying to find help for her Oma’s leukemia. When bone marrow tests reveal she was adopted, the two turn to a set of prints from her childhood, each signed by “Emma B.” to try to learn more about her past. Emma is the 1943 protagonist, an artist and student whose education is interrupted by the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. She uses her talents to aid the Resistance, helping to create false documents and working to rescue children whose parents are being sent to concentration camps. A blackbird that represents art and creativity narrates, showing how his gifts help those in the darkest of circumstances. The two stories eventually meet, and the reader learns the fate of all the characters in a moving epilogue. Includes extensive back matter about the buildings pictured in Oma’s prints and the real-life people on whom Maria van Lieshout based her story.

I learned about this book when the National Book Award Longlist was announced a couple of weeks ago, and it absolutely blew me away. I truly can’t imagine creating this impeccably researched historical fiction, with its two riveting narratives, each one portrayed in its own color palette. Usually I’m rooting for a middle grade win over YA, but this is a compelling choice for sure. Although both books take place over 80 years ago, their stories speak to the timeless power of art and will surely inspire those fighting to create a brighter world.

Hopeful books for difficult times

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A Change Is Gonna Come words and music by Sam Cooke, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith (little bee books, 32 pages, all ages). Nikkolas Smith provides an illustrated version of the classic Sam Cooke song, with images of famous people and places from the civil rights movement. In the first few pages a boy, identified in the back matter as photographer Gordon Parks, finds a camera, which he later uses to photograph history. The pictures capture the song’s juxtaposition of despair and hope, with portrayals of Jim Crow laws in action and Medgar Evans’ funeral alongside those showing the March on Washington and the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Includes notes from the estate of Sam Cooke and from Nikkolas Smith, two pages of additional information about the people and events pictured, and a QR code that allows readers to hear the song.

Just like the song, this book packs a powerful punch, and made me think of Smith’s book The Artivist in which the narrator says, “I want to hold up a mirror to the world and show everyone what isn’t working right.” You’ll need multiple readings, including the back matter, to really get the full impact of this book, which I hope will be considered for both Caldecott and Coretta Scott King recognition. 

Braided Roots by Pasha Westbrook, illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight (Orchard Books, released November 4, 40 pages, ages 4-8). As her father braids her hair, a girl reflects on her family’s heritage, comparing the strands of her braid to DNA. Her ancestors include both enslaved people and those who walked the Trail of Tears. As Daddy finishes the braid, he tells her to be careful, because with such a strong braid, “You just might change the world.” Includes an author’s note about her inspirations from her own family, which included ancestors who were enslaved, mixed-race Black, Chicksaw, and Choctaw, and her single father who raised her and her three brothers, as well as an illustrator’s note.

This lovely family story reminded me of Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, which also features a father doing his daughter’s hair and My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom, which explores the belief of Indigenous Americans that hair is a source of strength and memories. Kids may need some additional information to understand part of the story about the narrator’s ancestors, but this would be a good book to read to inspire them to investigate their own heritages.

Christmas fact and Christmas fiction

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The Giving Flower: The Story of the Poinsettia by Alda P. Dobbs, illustrated by Emily Mendoza (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 40 pages, grades K-3, published simultaneously in Spanish as La flor generosa: la historia de la flor de nochebuena). Did you know that the red parts of the poinsettia plant are actually leaves, with the tiny yellow flowers nestled in the center? Read on to learn other interesting facts about this plant that we often associate with the Christmas season. Indigenous Mexican people used it for medicines and dyes. Spanish friars made up a story about a poor girl named Pepita bringing the flower known in Mexico as la flor de nochebuena as a gift to baby Jesus. In the 19th century, amateur botanist and ambassador to the newly independent Mexico Joel Roberts Poinsett brought the flower to the U.S. where it got a new name inspired by Poinsett. 100 years later, a man named Paul Ecke figured out how to make the plants hardier and smaller. Ecke’s son started a marketing campaign to get pots of poinsettias on TV shows and into the White House, and by the mid 20th century, they started to be known as the Christmas flower, a tradition that continues today. Includes a history and timeline of the poinsettia.

This is a fascinating history of the poinsettia plant, which weaves in a lot of the history of Mexico as well.  I had no idea that those big red flowers aren’t flowers at all, and I also didn’t realize that the connection with Christmas was so recent, nor did I know that it was the result of a well-orchestrated marketing campaign! This would make a great read-aloud and a nice way to fit a little nonfiction into the holiday book offerings.

The 13th Day of Christmas by Adam Rex (Neal Porter Books, 48 pages, grades K-4).  The narrator’s feeling lonely at Christmas because his true love is visiting her parents. So he’s happy when she sends him a pear tree. He’s not as thrilled with the partridge that comes with it, though, and when another pear tree with three more birds appears the next day, he’s even less excited. Before long his house is crammed with drummers, pipers, maids, cows, and lots of birds. He visits his mom to see if she has any advice (she doesn’t), and on the way home an impromptu parade forms with all his new friends. When a kid watching the parade mentions that his school could use some new books, everyone springs into action the next day and puts together a bake sale (there’s no shortage of milk and eggs).  The man enjoys helping the school so much, he begins to suspect his true love, Trudy, wanted him to learn the joy of giving to others. When she finally gets home, it turns out that the whole thing was an Internet glitch in Trudy’s pear tree order. Trudy proposes marriage, and the new friends go home, leaving the couple as happy as two turtledoves.

It’s hard to really do justice to this hilarious book in a review, but trust me when I say that anyone familiar with The Twelve Days Of Christmas will find this a riot, both the story and the illustrations. To be honest, I think anyone would enjoy it, but knowing the song makes it that much better, not only seeing all the verses come to life, but also appreciating a few countdowns in the story that are riffs on the original.

Science and nature

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Sunflower Seeds by Ellen Heck (Levine Querido, 48 pages, ages 4-8). A boy tells of his adventures growing sunflowers, starting when his kindergarten teacher reads a book about them near the end of the year. Each student gets three seeds: one for the birds, one for the rain, and one to grow. On the last day of school the kids take their seedlings home in paper cups. The boy puts his cups outside, and sure enough, one gets knocked over in a rainstorm and never recovers. His parents help him plant the remaining two plants in the ground. One gets nibbled on by a deer, but the last one soars to a height over the heads of the tallest humans he knows. Everyone enjoys the big yellow flowers for a few weeks until they start to droop. The family cuts them off and counts the seeds inside–over 1,000! As the boy looks forward to sharing his sunflower stories in first grade, he visits the library, and opens a new book. What will he learn about next?

I’m putting this on my list of books to read to preschoolers and kindergartners in the spring. Not only is there a lot of information, told in a story that kids will connect with, but the oil paintings of sunflowers are amazingly detailed, as you can see from the cover. I also like the message that books are gateways into learning about all sorts of interesting things. I wish there had been a little back matter with some additional information about sunflowers.

Dear Acorn (Love, Oak) by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Clarion Books, 40 pages, grades 1-4). In eight pairs of poems, two objects address each other, showing their relationship to each other while highlighting each one’s unique perspective. There’s the acorn and oak pairing of the title, as well as bubble/sky, cloud/droplets, pebble/river, brick/school, button/coat, toes/child, and sea turtle/ocean. Each letter poem is pretty short–no more than a few stanzas of brief lines–and each is accompanied by a colorful collage drawing. The final pages includes simple, specific guidelines to help kids write their own letter poems.

Two masters of their crafts–Newbery honor winner Joyce Sidman and Caldecott honor winner Melissa Sweet–team up to create an engaging set of poems written in a format that invites kids to think about writing their own pairs of letters. The poems are simple and brief to read to primary grades yet interesting enough for older kids, and the beautiful collage illustrations could also be used as a starting point to encourage creativity.

Animals tell their stories

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The Camel Library: A True Story from Pakistan by Marzieh Abbas, illustrated by Anain Shaikh (Feiwel and Friends, 32 pages, grades K-3). Rashad the Camel narrates his story, beginning with his early days helping his human Murad work hard to support his family of ten. Their days are long and difficult, but when Covid hits, markets close and their work dries up. One day Murad gets a phone call that changes their lives. Before long, Roshan is wearing a beautiful crimson blanket filled with pockets, each one containing a book. They become a mobile library, traveling to four villages each week where kids can exchange their books. News media soon arrive, and Rohan feels like a star! But the best part of his new life is seeing the excitement of the children when they get their new books. Includes photos and additional information about camels and camel libraries in Pakistan.

Read this to library classes in the first few weeks to build excitement about the library. Kids will love Rohan, and you can show them some of the media coverage on YouTube.

I Am Ingrid: the Adventures of the World’s Greatest Guide Dog by Aria Mia Loberti, illustrated by Vivienne To (Scholastic, 48 pages, ages 4-8). Ingrid tells about her journey to becoming a guide dog. From the time she’s a puppy, she’s confident of her abilities, which is important in the work she learns to do but occasionally makes her an unreliable narrator (“I’ve never eaten anything I’m not supposed to,” she says, accompanied by an illustrator of her with her head in a peanut butter jar). For months, she trains to walk with a human, ignoring distractions and learning to alert the person if they are about to walk into a dangerous situation. Eventually, she meets Aria, the young woman she will guide, and they train together, working with other humans and dogs to perfect their partnership. Finally, Aria gets to take Ingrid home, and Ingrid experiences her first airplane ride. “I am part of a team now,” she says, “But I am still one of a kind.” Includes photos additional information about the real Ingrid and Aria, who starred in the Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See, and who has since regained much of her vision; also a list of guide dog FAQs.

This is a great introduction to guide dogs and the training they go through, all narrated by a funny and adorable black lab. The back matter adds a lot of interest, as well as giving important information about how to interact with guide dogs. Thanks to Scholastic for providing me with an advance copy of this book, which will be available October 21.

Science acclaim, a mouse’s name, and the G.O.A.T. of the game

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Jellyfish Scientist: Maude Delap and Her Mesmerizing Medusas by Michelle Cusolito, illustrated by Ellen Rooney (Charlesbridge, 32 pages, grades 1-5). Maude Delap never left home or went to school, but she became a scientist by studying the ocean life around her home on Valencia Island, Ireland. This story takes place from June, 1899 until September, 1900, a time when Maude made important discoveries about the compass jellyfish’s life cycle through careful observations in the Department, her name for her home lab. After unlocking the mysteries of this jellyfish, she’s shown on the last page scooping up a blue jellyfish, beginning the process all over again. Includes additional information about Maude, jellyfish (including an illustrated guide to their life cycle on the endpapers), notes from the author and illustrator, and some additional resources.

Told in the present tense, with dates shown on each page, this story conveys an air of you-are-there excitement about the scientific process. Maude had to overcome some very unfair obstacles to have a scientific career, but the main theme in the book is perseverance and the joy of new discoveries. The back matter reveals that she made significant contributions to marine science. The illustrations do a great job of capturing that joy, showing Maude with a young niece assisting her, her lab, and the jellyfish.

The Woman Behind the Magic: How Lillian B. Disney Shaped the Disney Legacy by Brittany Richman, illustrated by Joanie Stone (Beach Lane Books, 40 pages, grades 1-5). As the youngest of ten children, Lilly Bounds never had much, but she always enjoyed the magical moments that she shared with her warm, loving family. After her older siblings left home and her dad passed away, Lilly moved out to California to be near one of her sisters. She got a job at the fledgling Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where she inked and colored cartoons, eventually impressing her boss Walt enough that she became his secretary and then his wife. The studio almost went out of business a few times, but Lilly helped behind the scenes, most notably naming Mickey Mouse after Walt proposed the name Mortimer. From Snow White to the opening of Disneyland, Lilly gave her opinions and feedback that shaped the Disney empire. When Walt died shortly before the opening of Walt Disney World, Lilly pushed herself to step into the spotlight for the grand opening. Includes a three-page author’s note with additional information and a timeline of Lillian’s life.

It was fascinating to learn more about the early days of the Disney empire, particularly this quiet unassuming woman who liked to work behind the scenes, but who had a big impact on the Disney we know today and who saved us from Mortimer Mouse. This illustrations are charming, calling to mind some of the older animated Disney movies.

Messi’s Magic: How Lionel Messi Became the G.O.A.T. by Caroline L. Perry, illustrated by Luciano Lozano (Scholastic, 48 pages, grades 1-5). Lionel “Leo” Messi grew up in a loving, soccer-obsessed family in Argentina. From an early age, his talent was obvious, and his Grandma Celia was his biggest fan. As he got older, though, Leo faced obstacles to his soccer career. His grandma passed away, and he was diagnosed with a growth disorder. Without daily injections, he wouldn’t grow big enough to play professional soccer, but his family couldn’t afford the medicine. At the age of 13, he was signed to FC Barcelona, who also agreed to pay for his medical treatment. Leo struggled to fit in at Barcelona’s youth academy, but his soccer skills helped him find his place. He’s gone on to become one of the greatest soccer players of all times, and if you see him pointing to the sky when he makes a spectacular goal, you’ll know that he’s dedicating it to Grandma Celia. Includes a timeline, additional information about Messi, and notes from the author and illustrator.

Thanks to Scholastic for providing me with a copy of this book, which will be released September 2. I know it will be a huge hit in my library, where I have many football/soccer fans. Leo’s story is inspiring, as he never gave up his dreams despite some pretty difficult setbacks, and went on to succeed beyond the wildest of those dreams. The additional information about Messi’s family life and charity work portray him an excellent role model.