Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery Newletter

Youth Yak

Page One Staff Picks Youth Yak Book Groups News



Jen				Linked Gordon Korman I’m listening to and LOVING this middle grade book on libro.fm. The fictional town of Chokecherry, Colorado has a problem. Swastikas keep appearing at the middle school. No one knows who did it or why. It also reminds the community of an ugly mark on the town’s history from the 1970s with a KKK incident. The book has seven narrators: Michael, leader of the art club; Link, the most popular boy/star athlete/chronic prankster of the school; Dana, the only Jewish girl in the school; Adam Tok, host of Reeltok on YouTube and pot-stirrer; Jordie, friend of Link’s and son of the town’s roofing company owner (suspicious since one of the swastikas was inked with roofing tar); Caroline, 7th grade president and overly-enthusiastic about student government; and “Pouncey,” a boy from a family with a racist reputation. If this sounds like a lot of narrators, believe me, these kids are so distinctive that it’s easy to keep them all straight. The initial reaction of the school to the swastikas is several weeks of tolerance education, which, as you can imagine, is not a big hit with the students. However, the students do learn about another school in which the students collected 6 million paper clips to have a physical idea of how many people died in the Holocaust, which leads them to do their own project as a protest against the person(s) responsible for the swastikas. While this is a middle grade novel, I think a lot of teachers and parents will enjoy this as well. The author captures the personality of each narrator expertly, and a very important piece of history is explored in a way that doesn’t feel like a book about a very important piece of history. Despite all the swastikas, the kids are still middle school kids. I’m going to recommend this to a friend of mine who leads a middle school book club, I think it’ll be a perfect read for the group.
				The Leaf Thief Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater This book is about a squirrel who thinks someone is stealing their leaves. The book starts off with squirrel sitting in their tree naming the color of each leaf until they realize that one of the leaves is missing. Squirrel starts looking everywhere for the missing leaf and asking all their friends if they have seen it or are using the leaf. The book is a quick read that is super fun and cute!


Pam				One Girl Andrea Beaty, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk This book reminds me of my travels to Haiti. We take an education for granted. Many countries do not give their children a free education. This book speaks of the power a child receives when they are taught to read and write. Beaty focuses on the education of girls. More than 130 million girls around the world are denied a basic education. I loved this story and the wonder it brings to being able to read. The illustrations remind us that books can take you anywhere.

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Page One Staff Picks Youth Yak Book Groups News

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