Through a series of autobiographical poems, Jacqueline revisits her childhood in Brown Girl Dreaming. Yes, it’s a peek into the civil rights moment, but even more, a celebration of family and beginnings and cherished things and stories. Beautiful. The Poet’s Dog is a short story about two lost children who are led to safety by a dog. And Inside Out & Back Again is the story of a Vietnamese family who leaves behind their war-torn home in Saigon. Poetic snippets give us glimpses of the home Ha loses, the fear and uncertainty, the hunger and grief, the desperation and frustration … and everything else that comes with the total displacement that allowed her, her mother, and her three brothers to survive.

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Rules was impossible for me to put down. It’s a sibling story & a friendship story. (Two of my favorite things!) Catherine makes a new friend in the waiting room at the office where her little brother David (who is autistic) goes for occupational therapy. Jason can’t talk, but Catherine steadily adds words to his vocabulary. In The Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is pretty sure that his teacher hates his guts. Especially when she decides to introduce him to Shakespeare. (Set during the Vietnam War.) And Mission Typhoon will prepare young readers for the rigors of surviving in the jungle during a typhoon. (Umm, do not make the mistake of reading this while eating. My bowl of rice coincided with the ant larva scene and … eww.)

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The Jacket turns a simple misunderstanding into one boy’s wrestling with his understanding of race, equality, and bigotry. The Cat Who Went to Heaven is a picturesque historical piece about a Japanese artist. It includes many simplified versions of stories about the life (and reincarnations) of Buddha. Drizzle is a delightful save-the-farm story that includes a magical rhubarb patch and regularly scheduled rainstorms.

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In Buried Fire, the new minister at the church on the hill revels in the discovery of an ancient cross buried on their grounds. Meanwhile, a boy on a sleepy hillside is trapped and changed by a malicious thought that rises up from the Pit. In The Gravedigger’s Son, Ian is destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, watching over the dead. The only problem is, he’d really rather be a healer. And Night of the Howling Dogs is a survival story about a scout troop camping in Hawaii when an earthquake hits.

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