To Dance by Siena Cherson Siegel & Illus by Mark Siegel

This is a lush and elegant look at the world of dance from a teen ballerina's perspective. 

Siena Cherson Siegel was part of the New York City Ballet and her husband is an artist. So together, they created something to charm anyone who dreams of ballet or who loves a well crafted graphic novel. 

Running on the beaches of Puerto Rico where she was born. 

The endpapers at the front. Which come full circle to the endpapers at the end. Which is so nice and symmetrical. 

Siena was a dancing child, loving movement and rhythm. However, doctors said that with her flat feet there was really no point in her taking dance lessons. However, her mum was no dummy and let her take dance classes anyway. 

After seeing a performance of The Swan, Siena was completely captivated. It was all she could talk about, how the ballerina entered so completely into the performance that she was the swan, dying unwillingly. 

With that performance spurring her onward, she dove into ballet with all her energy. 

Her passion and talent began to be noticed. Finally she was offered an audition to train with the New York City Ballet.

Intimidation in the form of Madame Tumkovsky. 

In the rarefied world of ballet, all the important people were Russian. And wore black. 

Ballet took even more of her life now. But there were rewards. Like finally getting her first pair of toe shoes. 

Oh the delight of those toe shoes! 

So much to do and so much to learn. Like how to wear Japanese robes while wandering around backstage. 

Loving ballet as she did, she would stand backstage to watch the dancers even when she wasn't dancing, learning as she watched how to be the principal ballerina. 

Across the stage, also standing in the wings, was Mr. B, George Balanchine, the director of the NYC Ballet. 

Life went on, with a few speed bumps in the form of arguing parents and friendships. 

But always, always ballet.

Being seeped in ballet so much helped her see ballet all around her. Even in football games in Florida with her father. 

But there were times of normalcy, being a teenagers in the 1980's in New York City. 

After an ankle accident at eighteen, her ballet career was chopped short. She had to shift her life focus completely, but eventually she began to dance again, not professionally, but because dancing "...fills a space in me." 

And then the endpapers at the back, as she is dancing across the beaches again with her baby and husband in tow. 

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

So this just won the Newbery. WOAH. 

For once, I have actually read both the winner of the Newbery and the winner of the Caldecott. To be honest, I was quite surprised that Hello, Lighthouse won. I was expecting Dreamers or Drawn together. But they didn't even get honors. Which just goes to show you how much I know about judging the Caldecott. But I LOVE Hello, Lighthouse and I LOVE Merci Suárez. And Dreamers and Drawn Together both won in different categories, so they will not be medal-less. 

All is well in my world. 

So Merci. Merci is a great heroine. There is a time and place for the weak main character that finds their strength after a series of plot points, but in a refreshing difference, Merci is strong from the beginning. That doesn't mean she always gets the better of the mean, popular girl who decides to hate Merci for no real reason, but it means she doesn't cower in a corner for three quarters of the book.  

Merci's strength is partly due to being a scholarship student at a private school in Florida. Living next door to her boisterous extended Hispanic family, helping out with her father's painting company, and babysitting her little cousin is in stark contrast to her classmate's luxurious lives. Being different can either make you bitter and fearful or independent minded and strong. Fortunately for us, Merci chose the latter option. Being different is always there as a part of her, but she is not ashamed of her life necessarily. She adores soccer and loves her extended family and brilliant brother. Her life has a rhythm that makes sense to her and gives her life parameters. 

Merci's rhythmic life is interrupted when her beloved grandfather starts acting differently and the popular girl at school decides to make Merci's life miserable because Merci is a Sunshine Buddy to the new, cute guy. 

As Merci deals with meanness at school, disappointment in soccer, and the change in her home life, she begins to resent all this upheaval in her life. But Merci soon finds herself up to the challenge. Because what else can you do when life changes but improvise right along with it?

I love Merci and her love for her family and her confusion about growing up. Her situations and worries and concerns will be as recognizable and relatable to middle graders as her eventual triumph.

Life is never perfect, but Merci finds a way to make it okay.  

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie & Illus by Ellen Forney

This is a book I have heard about for years, but didn't read. I was in a cozy read rut for several years and didn't think this would be a cozy read. Of course, it isn't. But it is so good. And for all the terrible things that happen and the difficulty of Junior's life, it is chockablock full of hope. 

(chockablock is such a useful term. I resolve to use it more frequently in life.)

Have you read this book? You should read it now if you haven't. Most everyone should read this book. It is a frequently challenged book because it is a very honest portrayal of being a teen aged boy--not the most PC and G rated species on the planet. But if don't let that bother you, SO GOOD. 

There are quite a few cartoon pictures. After all, Junior, the main character, is a cartoon artist. Ellen Forney hits all the right notes with her renderings of "Junior's" work. 

Junior's sister, Mary Runs Away

There is a lot of anger and horribleness in this book. But Junior refuses to yield to the darkness of life. He lives around the horribleness and somehow manages to keep hope alive when all the world (or at least the world around his Spokane, WA area Indian Reservation) did their level best to drown hope at its very outset. 

This is so well written. I mean, it is Sherman Alexie, so duh. Of course it is well written. But Junior is so real, so vivid. Probably because a lot of this book is auto-biographical for Alexie. 

Junior's struggle between seeking a better life and leaving the reservation is raw and funny at the same time. He has a clear understanding of what life would be like if he stayed on the reservation and also an understanding of what a complete betrayal it would be to his family, friends, and tribe  to leave the reservation. How to reconcile those two things? 

Oh the angst of being a teenager! The beginning of the individual vs. the collective--making choices that are about you and not for others.

Fisticuffs! So much humor mixed into the anguish and pain of life in this book. So well done! The humor is a little like Junior's coping mechanism. And you laugh even while you are hurting for all the hopelessness of reservation life. 

Junior's Grandmother wears basketball sneakers "because she's got mad skills."

I like how the drawings vacillate between cartoon and more intricate drawings. 

I feel ya, Junior, I feel ya. Being poor never really bothered me as a kid. But it was something you would rather people not know about you. Just.... because. 

As a teacher, I often think about this--the struggle student's have in even being awake, clothed, and present at school. 

Passing the Music Down by Sarah Sullivan & Illus by Barry Root

This is such a sweet book. 

(And I always forget how hard it is to take pictures of books outside... One of these days, I am totally going to learn how to take phenomenal pictures. You can say you knew me when... )

This book is a true story about a young violin player, Jake, meeting one of the greats of the Appalachian fiddlers, Melvin Wine.

Melvin sees talent in this young boy, so agrees to tutor him. 

Jake's family moves to live near Melvin so Jake can learn more from him. 

Melvin thinks it is important to do more than just play music though--he teaches Jake all about Appalachia through daily life and living. 

I love this so much! This old man giving his wisdom to Jake, passing it on to live after him.

They do find time to fiddle together though. Always time for fiddling.

On the porch...

By the fire..

...and at festivals. 

They play together everywhere.

Years pass, following the same pattern.

Eventually, Melvin teaches Jake about the ending of life. 

And finally, Jake is a grown man and playing at festivals on his own, as a world class fiddler.

And Jake never forgets the man or the place that helped him be everything he is today. 

I so love this! The passion for music, Jake's parent's commitment to his talent, the eventual success. 

I think one of the things I like the most is Melvin insisting that other things were important too. He didn't just tutor Jake on the fiddle and send him home, but taught him how to live life as well. 

Tom in the Middle by Berthe Amoss

This is another vintage little book. And vintage little books always get my attention. 

This one is all about siblings.

Tom is in the middle. 

His little brother John annoys him by following him everywhere and wanting to do whatever he does. 

Brothers!

He copies and stands in the way of the swing. 

And he flushes important pieces of games and sets down the toilet. 

John has spunk! 

So Tom left John in the dust and began to play with Mark. His older brother. Who is super cool. 

Except he calls Tom "stupid."

Tom decides that brothers are not worth the bother.

And has some alone time. 

However, alone time feels ever-so-much-more-so alone after dark. 

And brothers are okay to eat bread and butter with. 

Really, who else would you rather sleep in a blanket fort with than your brothers? 

Brothers have redeeming features. 

Berthe Amos (the authors) real life Mark, Tom and John.