Tag: families

Cartoon style art shows a boy being dragged by an overflowing buffet of Thanksgiving foods with adult faces behind the food.
Posted in PB, So Many Good Books

The Great Thanksgiving Escape

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Perfect Picture Book Friday

The Great Thanksgiving Escape (Candlewick, 2017) by Mark Fearing is so hilarious. (I can’t believe I’ve never posted about it before!)

Gavin expects a boring day, but when cousin Rhonda suggests they escape the toddlers to the swing set in the backyard, the hilarity ensues.

I love this view of a Thanksgiving gathering from the point of view of a kid. “Great wall of butts,” anyone?

Mark is an author/illustrator who sometimes illustrates others books and sometimes writes and illustrates his own. See his books here. See what else he does here and read about Mark here. He’s also a good speaker, so if you can, attend an event where he’s talking.

Girl standing on a hill with arms held out. She's facing fields and mountains. Her shadow looks like a bird. A dog stands next to her.
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Kestrel Takes Flight

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Kestrel Takes Flight* (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026) by Joy McCullough is such a good read. This novel is written in verse and can be read very quickly, but contains important truths.

It’s the middle of the night and Kestrel’s mom sneaks them out of the house where they live with Grandpa. The two fly from San Diego to Montana for the summer. Kestrel is puzzled over the secrecy and doesn’t understand why they didn’t say good-bye to Grandpa. Or why Mom didn’t tell her about the trip ahead of time. On the plane Mom explains she is going to work at a bear institute. Well, really a dog institute. And Kestrel hates dogs. If Karelian dogs hunt bears, what will they do to a girl?

Intersperses with the poems are letters Kestrel writers in her journal to her grandfather. She plans to show them to him when they get back. In them we see how she changes. (I did feel some of the initial changes happened too quickly.) I love how the first and last poems bookend the story, and how she shows Kestrel’s life experiences expanding. I want to say more, but don’t want to give anything away.

The book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

Read about Joy and see some of her books here. On this site you can check out her young adult books. Somehow I’ve only read one, Blood Water Paint, and it was fantastic.

*I received a copy for review from the publisher. Thoughts are my own.

cover of The Lost Year
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Lost Year

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Lost Year (Roaring Brook Press, 2023) by Katherine Marsh is a really good historical about the Holodomor (the Ukraine famine tragedy in the 1930s), and is also set at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. With Ukraine and Russia and immigration being in the news, this book is very timely. The story is told in multiple points of view.

It’s the pandemic and thirteen-year-old Matthew’s reporter father is in France and can’t come home. All Matthew can do is online school, help Mom with his great grandmother, and not see his friends or go anywhere. When Mom takes away his Switch, she makes him help GG sort out the boxes in her room. It’s not easy going, since GG periodically tells him to “get out,” but as he starts learning family history, secrets are revealed.

We meet three cousins: Nadiya, Mila, and Helen.

This book was inspired by Marsh’s own family history and is a National Book Award Finalist, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the 21st Century, Winner of the Jane Addams, Golden Kite and New York Historical Society Awards and on 28 state lists. I hope you get to read it.

Here’s a video about Katherine’s family. Read about the author here and see her other books here. I’ve read two of her books before and see others I need to read.

cover of Sea Change
Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Sea Change

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

I expected good things from Sea Change (Amulet Books, 2025) by Susan Fletcher, as I’ve read the author’s middle grade novels, and wasn’t disappointed. Besides a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” is intriguing in itself. And that cover!

Here’s the first line of the brief prologue: “Sixteen years after the first Mer baby was born, scientists tried to put the genie back in the bottle.”

In a world where illegal gene manipulation produced Mer people, Turtle saves a Normal from drowning. Despite their differences–she has working gills as well as lungs–Turtle is attracted to Kai and spends time on land with him. Now Turtle has a chance to be cured and become Normal. Not only can she then be with Kai, but it will mean she can spend time with the birth family she was taken from. But that will mean leaving her Mer family and friends. What will she choose?

You can see all of the author’s books here and read about Susan here. If interested, read my post about one of her other books.

cover of I, Cosmo
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

I, Cosmo

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Who says a dog can’t learn new tricks?

I, Cosmo (Nosy Crow, 2019) by Carlie Sorosiak is such a sweet story! And funny, too.

Cosmo is getting older, but he needs to help his boy, so the thirteen-year-old dog is willing to train to be in a dance contest with his master. Max is worried his parents will separate and he and Cosmo might be separated. He thinks a canine dance contest will remind his family of the good memories and they’ll stay together. But Charlie’s arthritis is getting worse. Will they succeed?

Told from the dog’s viewpoint, there are many things that confuse Cosmo, but he is strong in his love for Max. This story could be very helpful for middle grade readers experiencing the breakup of their own families. But any animal lover will enjoy the book.

Read about all of the animal-loving author’s other books here–she writes for children and young adults. Meet Carlie here.