Graphic novels that deal with tough issues

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Crumble by Meredith McClaren, illustrated by Andrea Bell (Little, Brown Ink, 208 pages, grades 3-7). Emily’s mother is often traveling to promote the family bakery, so Aunt Gina and Emily run the shop and keep things going back home. The two of them know how to infuse their baked goods with feelings, helping people to feel happier or more relaxed when they eat them. When Aunt Gina suddenly dies in a car accident, Emily and her mom are overwhelmed by grief. The only way Emily knows how to process her feelings is to bake, but baking while sad results in terrible-tasting pastries that somehow no one can stop eating. When Emily ends up making all of her classmates sick, she has to slow down and find new ways to deal with her feelings. She and her mom slowly create a new normal, and the last chapter shows them running a new baking school, while Emily has developed more empathy for people around her who are suffering.

This cheery graphic novel takes an unexpected twist when a panel showing Aunt Gina’s wrecked car changed everything for Emily. From there, the story does an excellent job showing how she processes her grief, feeling overwhelmed by it at first, then slowly finding a way to acknowledge her feelings and move on, even though things will never be the same. The reactions from the other kids–trying to cheer Emily up, asking too many questions about her aunt’s funeral–are helpful in showing readers what may or may not be helpful to those who are grieving.

Cassi and the House of Memories by Dean Stuart (Viking Books for Young Readers, 272 pages, grades 4-7). Cassi loves spending time with her grandparents, but sometimes Grandpa’s mind wanders. When he forgets who she is, Grandma reassures her that he is still there and that he loves her. One day, Cassi goes into the backyard with him, and he disappears into the woods. When she goes in search of him, she discovers a giant structure that looks like Grandpa’s head. Inside, she discovers all kinds of memories from Grandpa’s early life. Cassi is able to put herself into those memories, and in an exciting climax, to help change one of them from a traumatizing event to one that makes Grandpa into a hero. Eventually, she meets up with her present-day grandpa, and he leads her back home, where Grandma is waiting with dinner, not worried at all, just sure that the two of them have been having fun together. An author’s note tells of his experiences with his own father’s dementia and how he created this book for kids who may be dealing with someone in a similar situation.

I saw this book described as “melancholy” in a review, and that’s a perfect word for both the story and the artwork that creates an alternate world inside Grandpa’s head, where memories come and go. Cassi’s ability to change some of the memories demonstrate how selective and imperfect all of our memories are. A thought-provoking book that will help kids see those with dementia in a new way.

Tern around, bright eyes

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Sun Bird: The Amazing Journey of the Arctic Tern by Lindsay Moore (Greenwillow Books, 40 pages, ages 4-9). Baby Arctic terns begin life during the Arctic summer, their parents hunting for fish to feed their voracious appetites. The chicks grow and learn to fly as the Arctic days grow shorter. By late summer, they’re ready to begin their migration across the globe to Antarctica. By the time they reach their destination, it’s springtime there, and the terns spend the Antarctic summer resting and growing new feathers for their long journey back north to the Arctic. Includes additional information about the Arctic tern, which has the longest known migration of any animal on Earth and is believed to experience more hours of sunlight, as well as additional resources and a list of references.

Lindsay Moore, author and illustrator of Yoshi and the Ocean and Sea Bear has created another beautiful and fascinating animal book, this one about the Arctic tern. The predominantly blue and white watercolor illustration capture the graceful movements of the birds through the sky and sea, and the poetic text describes their journey with captivating details.

Meet the Mini-Mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Brian Lies (Beach Lane Books, 40 pages, ages 4-8). Which mammal is the smallest? After introducing readers to what a mammal is, the ferret museum docent takes them on a tour of an exhibit of ten small mammals, descending in size. Each one is shown in the same size exhibit box to allow for size comparison, and each is accompanied by a paragraph of information, a “tiny tidbit” that compares its weight to a common object, and another illustration showing the animal in action. Kitti’s hog-nosed bat is the tiniest, and after its introduction, the mini mammals are pictured together as they enter a mapparium showing where each one lives in the world. Includes statistics on each mammal and a list of sources.

This award-winning team has created an appealing picture book filled with cute mammals and interesting information about each one. The illustrations are outstanding, and the museum presentation showing the animals in descending order of size is clever and keeps the interest high. Personally, I find mini mammals kind of creepy and rat-like, but putting my biases aside, I must concede that this is an excellent nonfiction picture book.

The Boston Women’s Memorial

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Last weekend–on International Women’s Day, no less–I made my way into Boston to take a look at the Boston Women’s Memorial, a set of three statues on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley are the subjects, three Massachusetts women who were also influential writers. The three are at street level, having stepped off of their pedestals, using those pedestals as writing desks (Wheatley and Stone) or for support (Adams).

In an uncanny bit of good timing, I was able to get my hands on a new book called Where Are the Women? The Girl Scouts’ Campaign for the First Statue of Women in Central Park by Janice Hechter (Red Chair Press Books for Young Readers) that details the seven-year campaign that the New York City Girl Scouts and a group called Monumental Women waged to get statues of real women (as opposed to, say, Alice in Wonderland) in Central Park. In 2020, a statue of Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was unveiled in the park, created by Meredith Bergmann, the same sculptor who made the Boston Women’s Memorial.

Lucy Stone
Phillis Wheatley

As with the Central Park story, the Boston Women’s Memorial took over a decade to bring to fruition, from the first discussions in 1992 to the unveiling on October 25, 2003. Before this memorial, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall had the same number of statues of real women as Central Park did: zero. There was some criticism at the time of its opening that three women were grouped together instead of having individual statues like the men do. While I understand this, I really like the memorial as it is. I felt like it led me to contemplate the connections between the women. The choice of these three seemed a little random to me at first, but as I read the quotations that are engraved on each of their pedestals, I saw their common quests for equality and justice, not only for women, but for all people.

If you’d like to learn more about these women, look for the new book One Girl’s Voice: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land, as well as Leave It to Abigail! The Revolutionary Life of Abigail Adams by Barb Rosenstock (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2020). I wish I knew of a good book about Phillis Wheatley, but the ones I found about her are mostly older and from educational publishers, not trade. I did find one middle grade historical fiction book that looks interesting: My Name Is Phillis Wheatley by Afua Cooper (Kids Can Press, 2023), in which Wheatley narrates her own story.

Abigail Adams

If this memorial inspires you to seek out more women’s history in Boston, check out the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail website, which is not just one trail, but an organization with a number of tours all around Boston. The Women’s Memorial is part of the Ladies Walk, which I guess is a nod to Abigail Adams’s exhortation to her husband to “remember the ladies.” For the twentieth anniversary of the memorial, in 2023, this organization recorded three contemporary women reading excerpts from each of the women in the memorial: Mayor Michelle Wu read Lucy Stone’s, Attorney General Andrea Campbell read Abigail Adams’s, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley recorded Phillis Wheatley’s. There’s a QR code on Stone’s statue that allows you to hear them.

Novels in verse by award-winning authors

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It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House Readers, 272 pages, grades 4-8). Vale is trying to get back to fencing after a serious motorbike accident that damaged one of her legs, possibly permanently. Despite the pain and weakness, Vale is driven to return to the one thing she feels like she is good at. Her quest to be the best before the accident was fueled by her parents and cost her at least one friendship, but now she feels alone and uncertain about what her parents really want for her. When she finally does get back to fencing class, she discovers that she’s been unseated by a new girl named Myrka. Despite Vale’s anger at Myrka for being a better fencer, she can’t help noticing she admires and likes Myrka in a way that may be more than just as a friend. When a hard-won victory over her rival results in intense physical pain, Vale has to come to terms with the fact that she is not the same person she was before the accident. By the end of the book, she has opened up honest communication with her parents and started to lean more on the people who care about her.

I was a little put off at first by Vale, who comes across as somewhat unlikable, pushing away the people who are trying to help her and focusing only on her return to fencing and her quest to be the best. But as the story went on, I started to sympathize more with what she was going through, not only the painful recovery from a serious accident, but grieving that she is no longer the same person and wondering if she’s now disabled. Kudos to Andrea Beatriz Arango for creating such a real and memorable character for whom you will be cheering by the end as she comes to terms with the new person she is becoming.

All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 208 pages, grades 5-8). Sage is dealing with the intense grief of losing her best friend in a hit-and-run accident on her birthday. She’s back at school, trying to cope with the help of a support group, but each day presents new challenges as she navigates feelings of sadness, guilt, and anger. Sometimes she lashes out at those who are trying to help her, and she has to figure out ways to make amends during calmer moments. One element of grief that surprises her is that there is still room for joy and laughter, and Sage finds herself making new friends and slowly moving toward her first romance. For most of the story, she refers to the deceased as “my best friend,” but by the end of the story, she is able to say her name, Angel Rodriguez, and she creates a poster with that name to put at a makeshift memorial that’s been created in the place where Angel died. An author’s note tells of her own experiences with grief, losing fifteen loved ones from 2020 to 2022, and how those experiences and the Covid pandemic led to her writing this book.

As I read the list of Renée Watson’s books on the back flap, I realized what a truly gifted writer she is who has given us an amazing collection of works in all different genres for both children and young adults. This book is no exception, tracing Sage’s experiences with grief in a very realistic yet beautifully written way that will help other kids who are dealing with the emotions of loss.

Intergenerational fun

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Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim by Kobina Commeh, illustrated by Bárbara Quintino (Barefoot Books, 32 pages, grades K-3). Kwesi wants to swim with his friends, but he’s afraid of the water. When Nana Ruby comes for a visit, he confides his fears to her. She tells him that when she moved to the U.S. from Ghana, many pools were closed to Black people, and she never learned to swim either. They make a deal to learn together, and Nana Ruby tells Kwesi about Mami Wati, a half-woman, half-fish creature from Ghanaian mythology, who will protect them. Their new teacher resembles Mami Wati (except for the fish tail), and she proves to be an excellent instructor. Before long, Kwesi is swimming in the lake with his friends and encouraging Nana Ruby to join them. Includes a glossary, additional information about the Akan people of Ghana, and notes from the author and illustrator about how they both learned to swim as adults.

The history of Black people historically being barred from learning to swim is woven into this story seamlessly, with the uplifting message that it’s never to late to try new things. The illustrations are beautiful, especially those in the water, and Mami Wati is spectacular. The story, from a first-time author, would have benefited from a little more editing to tighten it up a bit.

Little Big Man by Varian Johnson, illustrated by Reggie Brown (Orchard Books, 40 pages, ages 4-8). Elijah is disappointed when his father has to work the day he wanted to fly kites together, but Dad tells him, “A new baby means extra work for everyone.” Elijah’s job is to stay quiet around the baby, but he sometimes has trouble remembering. He strengthens his resolve the next day when Dad leaves for work. Their days parallel each other, as they plan, work hard, help others, and clean up after themselves. By the time Dad returns, Elijah has made a beautiful kite and convinces the whole family to play outside for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks to Orchard Books for providing this review copy; the book will be released in May.

This sweet story would make a nice sibling gift, showing various family dynamics and how both kids and adults have to work together to find a balance between work and play. There are lots of action words in a big bold font, and it’s fun to see Elijah and his dad in the illustrations as they perform similar tasks throughout their day. Having said all that, Varian Johnson is one of my favorite middle grade authors, and I hope he gets back to the genre to create more books like Twins and The Parker Inheritance.

Susan B. Anthony

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For the second week of Women’s History Month, I headed west to the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum in Adams, Massachusetts, where abolitionist and suffragist Anthony was born in 1820. Guided tours are available on the weekends, but I opted to walk through on my own. There are exhibits about Anthony’s childhood, as well as her work on temperance, abolition, and most famously, women’s suffrage, which sadly was not granted until almost fifteen years after her death.

Sojourner Truth’s story gave me a glimpse of the intersection of the temperance, abolition, and women’s suffrage movements, and I got a more in-depth look at this at Anthony’s home. Her Quaker faith informed her decisions on all three of these causes. The temperance movement was connected to the women’s movement because of the belief that alcohol often led to the abuse of women and children and to financial ruin that impacted them as well. Abolition was a huge cause for Anthony, as well as for others like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass, and the Civil War put much of the women’s movement on hold. The friendship between Anthony and Douglass is celebrated in Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass by Dean Robbins, and Harriet Tubman sits down with her friend Susan for tea and reminiscences in Chasing Freedom: the Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony Inspired by Historical Facts by Nikki Grimes.

After the Civil War, conflicts began to arise in the movements between those who prioritized suffrage for Black men, and those who advocated for women getting the right to vote. Anthony’s close friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton in particular expressed racism in her writing, but the women’s suffrage movement as a whole focused on white women’s rights. For a glimpse of how Black women were often treated by white suffragists, take a look at Ida B. Wells Marches for the Vote by Dinah Johnson.

The exhibit that surprised me the most was the one on Susan B. Anthony’s opposition to Restellism, an abortion practice performed by Ann Trow Lohman, a.k.a Madame Restell. I was not aware of the controversy surrounding this, with the modern pro-life movement claiming that Anthony opposed abortion, but the exhibit felt like it had a contemporary pro-life bias. Abortion in the 19th century was very different from procedures today, which may at least partially explain why 19th century suffragists might have opposed it (it was a much more dangerous procedure that often took away women’s agency over their own bodies). Although there’s more information in the exhibit, this summary from the museum’s website captures the essence of it: Restellism was a form of abortion, and Susan B. Anthony unequivocally opposed Restellism. I found a 2022 Smithsonian article that quotes Deborah L. Hughes, president of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House saying that Anthony was neither pro-choice or pro-life. Now I’m curious to travel to Rochester to see how this issue is portrayed there.

Feminism, past and present

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Tear This Down by Barbara Dee (Aladdin, 304 pages, grades 4-7). Freya has always liked asking lots of questions and having strong opinions, but as she’s gotten older, she’s learned to stay quiet rather than risk being made fun of. A school project leads her to the discovery that town founder Benjamin Wellstone, an outspoken abolitionist, opposed giving women the vote. Teaming up with new friend Callie, Freya embarks on a series of actions to tear down Wellstone’s statue and replace it with one of a local suffragist Octavia Padgett. After the girls sneak out of the house for some late-night statue vandalism before a big town festival, they are both grounded and forced to reconsider their tactics. Freya’s activist grandmother helps her to see that there’s room for both Benjamin and Octavia in town and leads her to come up with an idea of creating a quilt celebrating the suffragists that unites people rather than tearing them apart.

A good choice for Women’s History Month, the latest by Barbara Dee portrays an idealistic, outspoken protagonist who sometimes feels like her strong opinions need to be silenced. I always enjoy Dee’s books that tackle difficult issues with a light touch. Thanks to Aladdin Books for providing me with a free copy.

One Girl’s Vote: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land by Vivian Kirkfield, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Calkins Creek, 40 pages, grades 2-5). From an early age, Lucy Stone felt the unfairness of the ways she and other girls were treated as inferior to boys. Her teacher called on the boys before Lucy, even though Lucy’s hand was raised first, and her father dictated family policy, including the decision that Lucy would not attend college like her brothers. Lucy was determined, though, and earned enough money to pay her tuition at Oberlin College, the first American college to accept women. But even at Oberlin, there was inequality, and Lucy fought back, organizing a secret women’s debate society and striking for equal wages to men’s for her campus jobs. After graduation, she was hired by William Lloyd Garrison to work for the New England Anti-Slavery Society. She soon became well-known as a passionate speaker, and her work evolved to include women’s rights. The work and travel was exhausting, but Lucy Stone’s voice helped pass the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, and paved the way for women to get full voting rights 27 years after her death. Includes a timeline for Lucy Stone and the fight for women’s rights and equality for all, a couple photos, fun facts, and a bibliography.

In my experience, Lucy Stone is lesser known than fellow suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, so I’m happy to see this delightful picture book that emphasizes Lucy’s early days but gives a nod to her tireless work for abolition and women’s rights. The timeline offers quite a few milestones in women’s history. I did not know that Lucy Stone was married to Elizabeth Blackwell’s brother, and that women who kept their maiden names, as Lucy did, were sometimes called Lucy Stoners.

Kids navigating two worlds

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The Interpreter/La Intérprete by Olivia Abtahi, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo (Kokila, 40 pages, ages 5-8). “Some kids had one job: to be a kid. Cecilia worked two.” Cecilia’s second job is the family interpreter, translating English to Spanish for her immigrant parents. This job takes her to places most kids don’t go, like the DMV, the bank, and the car mechanic. Cecilia used to have a partner, but her older brother “got promoted” by going away to college. At a parent-teacher conference, her teacher asks her how she’s doing. Cecilia starts to translate the question, then realizes it’s directed at her…and that she’s not doing great. She finally explodes, and her parents realize she’s under too much pressure. After a family meeting, they get some back-up: her brother comes home for a weekend, and her aunt offers to do some interpreting. Cecilia still loves to help her family, but now they work together to make sure she gets the time she needs to be a kid as well.

I’m so grateful for this book, which I can’t wait to share with my classes of international students, for whom I’m sure it will resonate. I love the illustrations that portray Cecilia in a business suit for her interpreter duties and use cartoon bubbles in blue for English and yellow for Spanish. There’s plenty of humor, but also good advice for kids to take breaks and get support from family members and other adults. The author and illustrator information on the back flap reveals that both of them served as kid interpreters for their own immigrant families.

Home Is a Wish by Julia Kuo (Roaring Brook Press, 32 pages, ages 4-8). A girl lives with her mother and grandmother. Sometimes, she and Mama or Amah go out, but they always come back home again. One day, though, they leave for good, and as they fly across the ocean, the girl wonders if there will ever be a place that feels like home again. The new place feels strange at first, but slowly, the family begins to go out and come back, until it starts to feel like home. There are new friends and newly familiar places, and she realizes that there are different homes for different times: “a home from before, a home for now, even a home for later.”

The immigrant experience is beautifully captured here with brief text and lovely illustrations of both home countries. The pictures and use of the word Amah suggest that the first home might be in Taiwan or China, while the later illustrations could portray Julia Kuo’s current home state of Washington, but the ambiguity makes this a more universal story. It would have been interesting to have an author’s note to learn how much, if any, of this story is based on her own childhood.

Skywalkers, buffalo hunters, and ribbon dancers: three books about Indigenous Americans

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To Walk the Sky: How Iroquois Steelworkers Helped Build Towering Cities by Patricia Morris Buckley, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Heartdrum, 40 pages, grades 1-5). For more than a century, members of the Mohawk tribe from Canada’s Caughnawaga reserve have worked construction as “skywalkers,” balancing on beams high above the ground. Many of them were working on a bridge across the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City that collapsed in August, 1907, killing 75, including 33 from Caughnawaga. Beginning in the 1920’s, Mohawk skywalkers from New York and Canada traveled to New York City to build skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center. After the towers’ destruction on September 11, 2001, skywalkers helped dismantle broken beams and later were an important part of building One World Trade Center. Today, skywalkers continue their work across North America, including Native women who have entered the profession. Includes an author’s note about her family’s connection to the story, additional information about the Quebec bridge collapse and the Kahnawà:ke reserve (formerly Caughnawaga), a glossary, and a list of some of the buildings constructed by skywalkers.

Kids will be fascinated by the story of these skilled, courageous workers who have helped build some of the most famous structures in North America. The Mohawks originally worked as unskilled laborers in exchange for some of their reserve land, but soon proved their fearless skill as skywalkers and have continued the tradition for over a century. Look for YouTube clips to supplement the book with heart-pounding visuals.

The Gift of the Great Buffalo by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Aly McKnight (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 40 pages, grades K-3). Rose is excited to be at the semi-annual Métis buffalo hunt. Pa is a captain for the first time, in command of ten other hunters. After several days of scouting, no buffalo have been seen, and Rose hears Pa saying they’re scarce because of the settlers and their iron horse. Rose is sure she could find the herd, but Pa says she’s too young to help. But Rose is determined, and with the help of a wolf skin, she finds the buffalo, and the men hunt what they need for their people. At the end of the day, she tells Pa she wishes he would take her with him on the next hunt. “I just might,” he replies. Includes an author’s note relating how she enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder books but felt alienated by their portrayal of Native Americans as savages, and how that led her to write this story about the same time and place; also includes additional information about the buffalo hunt and a bibliography.

This is a fascinating parallel story to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Rose has Laura’s same independent spirit and desire to help her family, and she even calls her parents Ma and Pa. It’s a much-needed portrayal of the indigenous people of the plains who are often marginalized in the Little House books.

Raven’s Ribbons by Tasha Spillett, illustrated by Daniel Ramirez (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 32 pages, ages 4-8). Raven loves participating in round dances with his family and friends, and his favorite part is watching the ribbon skirts. His grandmother is famous for making these colorful garments that are created with just the right ribbons for each dancer. When Raven asks if he can have a ribbon skirt, Grandma says, “I’ve lived for a long time, Nosesim, and have never seen a boy in a ribbon skirt.” While Raven sleeps, however, she works late into the night, and by morning there is a beautiful ribbon skirt that looks just like a rainbow. “I’ve lived for a long time, Nosesim,” she tells him, “And I’m lucky to see beautiful things that I’ve never seen before.” Includes notes from the author and the illustrator with additional information about the Round Dance and Two-Spirit people.

This simple story celebrates Indigenous dancing as well as offering a gentle, empowering message about being yourself and affirming gender differences. I loved how Grandmother was able to acknowledge both that a boy wearing a ribbon skirt was new to her and that there can be beauty in doing things in a new way.

Sojourner Truth

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Sojourner Truth statue in Florence, Massachusetts

As you may have heard, March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate, I’m visiting women’s history sites here in my home state of Massachusetts. I’ll be posting about them each week in March, starting with a surprising one close to home that I discovered not long ago.

I’ve lived in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts for almost a decade now, but I only recently learned that Sojourner Truth spent 14 years in Northampton, about six miles from where I live. She moved there in 1843 to join the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, an abolitionist utopian community that she was a part of for the four years that it existed. In 1850, she bought a house in Florence, a village of Northampton, and lived there until she moved to Michigan in 1857.

Did you know Sojourner Truth never said “Ain’t I a woman?” in her most famous speech? She delivered that speech at the Akron, Ohio, Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, but a white abolitionist named Frances Dana Barker Gage published a very different version in 1863, giving it the voice of a southern Black woman. In fact, Sojourner Truth, originally named Isabella Baumfree, was born into slavery in Rifton, New York, and grew up speaking Dutch, maintaining a Dutch accent throughout her life.

Isabella escaped slavery with her infant daughter in 1826 but was forced to leave her other children behind. In 1828, she became the first Black person to win a court case against a white man when she obtained freedom for her son, who had been sold and sent to Alabama. Fifteen years later, Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Although women were often barred from leadership by male abolitionists, and Black women were marginalized in the suffrage movement, Sojourner Truth lived up to her chosen name, traveling around the country as a speaker and activist for both causes.

If you want to learn more, a good place to start is with So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom by Newbery Honor author Gary D. Schmidt and illustrated by Caldecott and Coretta Scott Honor winner Daniel Minter (Roaring Brook Press, 2018). And I’d love to learn about other women’s history sites, so share your favorites in the comments!