FINISHED:
Donoghue, Emma. (2017). The Lotterys Plus One. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[The Lotterys are far from your typical family, formed when a gay male couple and a lesbian couple won the lottery, bought a giant house in Toronto, and adopted seven multiracial kids together.  Domestic (often chaotic) bliss is disrupted, however, when one of the dad’s estranged fathers comes to live with the Lotterys after recovering from a fire that he accidentally set as a symptom of developing dementia.  Best known for Room (Little Brown, 2010), Donoghue’s first novel for children is written largely from the point of view of 9-year-old Sumac, who has to vacate the room that she’s had since birth to accommodate her grandfather’s stay, directly reflecting the experiences and emotions of the primary reading audience who may relate to feeling put out and ignored themselves.  Her voice and role in the large family, as well as her transition from finding a way to get rid of their grandfather to being the one to convince him to stick around, are center stage here.  Spot art throughout, including a much appreciated – and necessary – labeled family portrait at the front of the book, helps to keep everyone and all of their varied experiences clear.  Filled with rapid-fire dialogue and tons of wordplay (the children are all named after types of trees, the taller mother is nicknamed MaxiMum, and many other family in-jokes) those who have worked their way through the Penderwicks series (Knopf, 2005) will find kinship here and look forward to more adventures with the Lotterys to come.]

STARTED:
Anderson, John David. (2017). Posted. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

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FINISHED:
Eagar, Lindsay. (2016). Hour of the Bees. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[(SPOILER!)  Not bad...  Tuck Everlasting is just one of the most ABSOLUTE classics in my eyes, so anything approaching this territory is under heavy scrutiny.  To me, it's just such a fantastic question to hit kids with:  if you could live forever, would you?  It's the kind of dilemma that can bring up so many fascinating discussions.  This one mines some of the same territory, but comes at it from a much more direct (ok, I haven't read Tuck Everlasting in awhile... so I'm kind of guessing here) message of "live in the now, not for the future".  Since this one takes place in modern day, there are questions surrounding how no one - especially those at the nursing home who surely would've given Grandpa a thorough medical check-up before admitting him - can tell that there are folks in this town that seem to be living a lot longer than usual.  Quibbles aside, this really could end up being one of the better novels of the year.]

STARTED:
Tyler, Anne. (2015). A Spool of Blue Thread. New York: Knofp/Random House.

[I love me some Anne Tyler, and normally I read new ones immediately upon their release.  BUT, last year was my Newbery year so anything beyond what was eligible for consideration of the award had to wait.]

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FINISHED:
Lord, Cynthia. (2014). Half a chance. New York: Scholastic.

[Lucy, her mother, and well-known nature photographer father move to a small town where the twelve-year old joins forces with a neighbor boy, Nate, to document loons living on an island in the lake on which they live.  Lucy, an avid photographer herself, begins taking pictures in order to win a photo scavenger hunt contest, but must find a way to enter anonymously as her father will be the judge.  Lord cleverly has her protagonist discover and explore her new surroundings through the lens of a camera, and along the way Lucy has experiences that will be all-too-familiar to tween/young adult readers. Including dealing with subconscious feelings of jealousy when Nate hangs out with another girl, Lucy also ends up pondering the ethics of submitting her photos under Nate’s name and using a photo that he has asked her not to enter; and beginning to get a taste of some of life’s harshest realities like the impermanence of life (unlike photographs which can capture something forever) and dealing with Nate’s grandmother as she begins to display signs of dementia.  With a pace that never lags, a believable and relatable lead character, and a tone that never becomes saccharine, Lord’s coming-of-age novel hits the right notes.]


STARTED:
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2014). The Madman of Piney Woods. New York: Scholastic.

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