 Hi, I'm Pam from the Billie Jean King Main Library, and I'm Jeanine from the Mark Twain Library. Welcome to Chapter Chat, our monthly conversation highlighting new books from our elementary and middle school collections, airing the second Wednesday of every month. We will each talk about four new books that have arrived on our shelves within the last six months. So let's go ahead and begin, and we'll start with you, Pam. Go ahead and take it away. All right. Now, a lot of you may know Geronimo Stilton, but this is the newest of his adventures. And in this one, his cousin Trap talks Geronimo into going into the honey making business with him. Neither one of them knows that much about bees, but that doesn't stop them. There's competition from another local company called Bee Mine, but things go well and the honey is a hit until Geronimo is one day attacked by bees, which turn out to be drones. And they realize that someone is trying to stop them, but who could it be? So he calls in his friend, Hercule Poirette, to help investigate them and find out who's doing this. So along the way, we're trying to find out who the culprits are, but people will learn about bees and honey and even how to plant a seedling because a Geronimo and Trap are given a plant that makes a certain type of honey when the bees are there. So there's also a recipe for honey bee cookies. And as always in Geronimo Stilton, this is what I love about this series is the font is in different sizes, different colors, the pictures are very vibrant and fun, and it's just a wonderful series. This is probably, oh my gosh, I want to say it's close to 100 books in this series, but each one is different and each one is fun. And I know that you'll enjoy Geronimo Stilton. This one's called the sticky situation. Very cool. Very cool. I know I love the font and the text in those books. They're pretty fun. It's like illustrated but not and kind of like a comic but not. Yeah, it embellishes certain aspects in the text, so very cool. Very cool. And it just seems like they pick the words at random too. It's not like, oh, here's a vocabulary word that you need to know. Oh, no, here's just another fun word. Yeah. Or I think like the page that you turn to is just Z's like Yeah. Just sleeping. So funny. Okay. So I wanted to go ahead and highlight this book trying to make sure that it's not glare. Okay, so this one is called Everything Sad is Untrue, a true story by Daniel Nayeri. So this is in our middle school collection and the main character is actually a boy. And this book is actually an autobiography of the author here. So what it is, it's about a, I believe he's, he's in middle school. Yeah, this is so this is in our middle school collection. This actually just got to our shelves a couple days ago. And so what it's about is the story of the author, his childhood when he actually fled his home country in Iran. And then But in this story, he actually fled Iran with his family and ended up in Oklahoma. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, as you can tell, you know, as a refugee coming from another country and being in a foreign lands and then starting a middle school of all grades middle school, middle school is already rough as it is. Whether it's like school or it's like education or social social issues as well. So anyways, he's from Iran and he loves to story tell. And even if it's just folklore fairy tales, he also even embellishes a lot of actual history of Iran. So even though it may seem like it's a old, old ancient story, there is some truth to it. And so I think, and I read it also that they think that because he's so good at storytelling or his stories are a little bit out there. Like, obviously, these kids are not used to these types of stories because, you know, our, our country isn't as rich and ancient history, but to the kids here they're, they're thinking that he's a compulsive liar, because he's telling all these stories of Iran, even though they, there is some truth to them. And so it's hard for him to kind of embrace his culture, but also embrace a new culture that he's living in right now. And it's really hard and difficult, especially if the kids, you know, when you're in grade school, when you're in middle school, it's all about having friends and being immersed in having, you know, having that social connection. So it's a very, very, it seems like it's a very tough struggle. At least it was, it seems like it was for the author. I believe the author came to this country when he was eight, I think I read that. And so, and I guess he was a good storyteller and now he's a great writer. So, yeah, and I love the cover, the cover looks so pretty. So was there a tornado, because that's what it looks like? I know. I don't know much about the cover. I haven't read it, but I really want to pick this one up. It's really, it seems really interesting, especially since I want to, I really want to immerse myself in like the Iranian culture and understand a lot of the history of it. Yeah, definitely, I think I must read. Yeah. Well, I have another book in a series. This is Emily Winsnap and the Tides of Time. Some libraries have this in their middle school section, some have it in their regular children's fiction. This is the story of Emily, who is half human, half mermaid. And her mom is human. Her dad is a merman. And now she's, oh, I think she's probably in high school by now in this one. But she's very excited. She gets a wishing stone from her mother's friend, Millie, who's into fortune telling and all kinds of that kind of, kind of thing. So she has wishes to make, but what should she wish for? Well, she sees a notice that says there's a company coming to town called the Midas Company, and they promised to turn everything into gold. And so she says, Oh, this is great. I, my first wish will be for my friend, Mandy, because Mandy's parents own an amusement park and it's not doing very well. So her first wish is that he would invest in her, the amusement park. And suddenly she's swept away in this current and it's almost like a Christmas Carol, where she sees what will happen if her wish comes true. And things don't go very well. They go for it well for part of the community. The other part, not so good. So then that dream and she makes another wish. This time she wishes the opposite. She wishes good things for shiprock, which is where her friend Shona and the mermaids live. And she wishes that all would be well for them. Well, she gets swept away by the current again. And what she learns in this is that the merfolk and the humans need to work together. And all the while she's having these wishes, making these wishes and having these dreams. Her school is doing a project and what they decide to do is focus on ocean pollution. And they learn that they need to work together and then both communities can be happy. So there's, there's a lot in this book. And it's one of the most serious ones. There's no romance or anything, but it's a really good, good story of people learning to work together to solve their problems. And you could actually read it without having to read, read the other books. Interesting. Very cool. Emily Wendt-Snapp and the Ties of Time and the author is Liz Kessler. Very cool. You know, I've got that whole series. It's, there's so many books in that series. There are. I can't believe like you mentioned she's in high school or something. Oh my goodness. I think so. I think so. That's interesting. And it's a, it's a, I always thought it was like one of those lighthearted types, but this one seems like it's covering some serious. It's like as they're growing up, as she's growing up, she and her friends, they get more serious and they go through more things, but it's just strange to think of if you had Merfolk living in the Long Beach Harbor. Yeah. Yeah, that seems kind of cool to them. All right. So I wanted to also, this is another middle school book. Oh, that's on my list of books to read. So I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. I love the cover too. But it's called a place at the table and it's actually written by two authors. Oh boy. I hope I don't butcher the name. Sariah Faruky and Laura Chauvin, Chauvin Chauvin. So this is a pretty cool book. I'm sure you know a lot about it. So this book is written in two perspectives, two sixth grade girls from completely different ethnic backgrounds. And they're both bound to encounter an unlikely friendship. Because most of her time is taken up by her mother's catering business. Pakistani American Sarah, my name is Sarah is tired of cooking, but is forced to attend her mother's South Asian after school cooking class at Poplar Springs Middle School. And this is the school that Sarah transfers from her beloved Islamic school that she's known and loved for such a long time. And she's, you know, she was happy there. But now she's at a, a, I think it's like a public public middle school, a totally different battleground. So, and then there's the second sixth grader her name is Elizabeth. And she is the complete opposite from Sarah because she loves cooking. This might be because her English immigrant mother, so they're from the UK, I believe, who suffers from depression. And her American born father was always traveling, never seems to find the time to make proper meals. So it's up to Elizabeth to go ahead and dabble in some cooking practice, a lot of cooking. So when Elizabeth is paired with Sarah in this cooking after school cooking class, the two of them form a friendship and a very creative cooking team. So as you can tell on the cover. Sarah is Pakistani. As I mentioned, but there are little hints here on what kind of background that Elizabeth is from. So you can see the star of David. Okay. Yeah. So, and then I think these are British charms right here. So you can obviously tell what kind of ethnic background she's coming from. So, and if some of you might know you might probably you I'm sure you know, you know, the, the religious like aspects of this, and you know the country, Pakistan, everything. There's always been a clash with Jewish community, and in the in the Pakistan, Pakistan is as well. It's just had such a interesting harsh hard religious history in that country so I think they this book will definitely touch upon that. They're going to. And obviously, these two we say unlikely friendship mainly because you don't normally see the pair of friends. And so I think they that the authors really wanted to touch on that and kind of understand like have the reader understand that, you know, these two are going to experience racism. They're going to have some there's some xenophobic people who are not comfortable with other cultures and, you know, all that stuff so they, they do run into a few challenges so this cooking team is the, I think it's it's very it's going to be a really healthy. It's something that they really both need. They both are able to find different. They're able to actually connect with each other because they find that they have a lot in common, both of their mothers are actually trying to go for the citizenship test. And get their citizenship. Yeah, so it's interesting so they get to see is like how the perspectives you get to see the perspectives of both sides. And there's a lot of pretty cool things that are brought up in this book, and also because they are in this cooking class, they felt the best way to go about this cooking competition that they entered into is to do a Pakistani and English recipe. And in here, they actually have a recipe in the back. And I think I can find it. And I hope I pronounce it. Correctly. So it is hollow cup of tea. Oh, it's Earl Gray ice cream ice cream and chunks of, I think it's called dude. Wow. So it's a sweet, a sweet recipe. It seems like it's kind of like a kind of like an all the mode, in a way, because obviously the Earl Gray ice cream and then the hollow of the dude up to hollow is like a. It looks like kind of like a porridge or like an oatmeal type thing but so but it reminds me of like, like a, like a crumbly pie or something or. Okay, you know kind of like how. How apple pie is ice cream with it. So good. But I've been here. Yeah, I've been hearing a lot of reviews about it how people were getting hungry. Whenever they read this book. Oh, any, anything that has cooking and I know I love the cover just seems so like bright and really lighthearted and everything. Yeah, there are some deep dark issues that are interesting. Well, good. Well, it is on my list. Yeah, that's good. All right, well this is the book of fatal errors by dashka Slater, who wrote one of my all time favorite picture books called escargot story of a little snail, very fun. But this one is totally different. This is the story of Rufus, who all his life has made mistakes. Don't we all, but he calls his mistakes fatal errors because they seem to follow him through the years at school, especially when there's a bully who never forgets. He also has a cousin named Abigail and their grandfather lives at a place called Phelan which Rufus just loves he loves his grandpa but he loves Phelan because it's just huge lots of acreage and his grandfather is in danger of losing Phelan because he's gotten hurt I think he broke his arm and so his dad and his aunt are thinking of selling the place because grandpa just can't keep it up. But what they don't know is that Phelan is the home of Phelings, which are fairy like creatures. And there's some other magical creatures too. And they have been very angry for many years because Rufus is great grandmother. She stole the train that she got mad at them and she stole the train that they used to go back and forth from their home underground back up to Phelan and she hid the train cars. So now Rufus and his cousin Abigail are going to find the train cars. It seems like only certain people can see the Phelings others just see bugs or other other things but not what Rufus and Abigail see and hear and communicate with. So it's up to them to save grandpa, save Phelan and save the day and also save his father because his father is just very focused on having Rufus just do something serious this summer and have a turnaround summer. So there's a little conflict there and it's just a really good story and Rufus worries that if he makes the wrong choice, it might just be a fatal, fatal error. But it's very good. Each person, each creature has a unique personality, people, there's goblins, people are familiar with goblins, but there's some other magical creatures introduced also. So he just keeps going that Rufus and he doesn't give up. So this is a good book about persistence and magic. Very cool. Very cool. I like covers like that. Like there, I think the one of the books last month that you talked about it kind of had that type of a cover like that border and like, you know, a banner but kind of like a folklore fairy tale type thing and yeah, maybe the fact that he's having a book where you see some some things that are magical that you'll find out about in the story. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. Very cool. Okay. And now what I wanted to talk about is this book. That's a great cover. It's very fun. I love the manatee. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very cute. So this one's called the other half of happy by Rebecca Balcar, Balcar, Balcar. There's an accent over the A. Oh, yeah. So Balcar, Balcar, so yeah. Oh, I swear, I don't enjoy butchering names. Okay, so this book is centered around seventh grader, Kihanna, I think that's how you pronounce it, Q-U-I-J-A-N-A. She is half Guatemalan and half white and she lives in Texas. Now she feels happier identifying as Caucasian more than Latinx or Guatemalan, especially since she doesn't speak English. I mean Spanish, she doesn't speak Spanish. So she identifies herself more as Caucasian than the Guatemalan side. And of course, this doesn't really bother her too much, but she realizes that it is embarrassing to not be bilingual, especially when her Guatemalan cousins decide to move into town. And they're just kind of like, well, how can you not speak Spanish? I don't understand. You've got to go back to your roots and everything like that. And then on top of that, there are a number of things that are going on in her life as well. So not only are her cousins pressuring her, but her father is also pressuring her to, you know, go back to her Spanish roots and maybe learn and practice Spanish. She's also not fitting in with the Latinx kids at her junior high school. Of course, it's always a struggle when it comes to middle school. Her maternal grandmother is suffering from cancer and has to go through treatments and everything like that. And then on top of that, her parents just announced that they want to spend the winter break in Guatemala. So of course, you know, she has an emotional attachment to her maternal grandmother and her grandmother unfortunately was in Florida and she's in Texas. But traveling to a Spanish speaking country is the last thing that she wants to do. So she wants to try and spend time with her grandmother. So she's going to try, she's plotting to actually run away and not join her family on their vacation and try to make it to Florida so that she can spend time with her grandmother. This is a really great book for those that are biracial young readers. They're going to definitely connect and feel the connection with the main character. It's always that, you know, there's always that issue of when you're biracial, which side do I go with which side am I accepted and which side do I feel I identify myself with. So it's a really good book so that, you know, you're not the only one, you're not the only one that understands that it is hard to be biracial. And you have to figure out how to keep the culture that you are, you know, your ethnic background and the culture that, you know, that's the, but you know, if you're, let's say, like you're half white, half Guatemalan, it's like which side do I choose. I want to keep my Guatemalan background and culture, but at the same time, you know, you feel you're American as well. And if you're half white, you know, it's, yeah, it's just nice. It's a, this is a good book to definitely pick up. It also won the pure, pure, pure bill pre. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a good recommendation then. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So this is on our middle school shelves as well. And this came in September, so not too long ago, but it's a pretty good one. Okay. Well, my last book is Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park. I really, really liked this book. And it is also, it's on the contender list for the Newberry Award. And this is a story of 14 year old Hannah and her dad. And they moved to the Dakota territory in 1880. He's going to open a dress goods store. And she hopes to go to school, but it won't be easy because her mother was Chinese and her mother has passed away. And now Hannah has to deal with prejudice from not only the adults, but also the kids. And she does get to go to school, but it was not too long before most of the kids are kept at home by their parents because Hannah is part Chinese. And they just have a hard time accepting her. But her teacher is courageous and she has one courageous friend who helps her out. And Hannah also hopes to be a dress, not only a dress designer, but address, she will sew the dresses. And that's how she hopes to make her mark in the world. She has a real talent for that. And so she remembers throughout the book, a lot of the things that her mother used to say when things were hard. And she brings those to mind and that helps her keep going. And it's just how she makes her own way. And she doesn't let what people think deter her from her dream of creating beautiful dresses for the girls her age and for the women of the town. And this story had a special connection to the author because when she was little, she loved the Little House on the Prairie books. And she dreamed that she was Laura's best friend and growing up next to her and that they would be friends, but then she realized when she read the books. Excuse me as an adult. And she realized that Laura's mom would not have liked Linda Sue because Linda Sue is Korean. This is a picture of her. So she realized that mom would not have accepted her and she would not have allowed her to be Laura's friend. So that was kind of heartbreaking. And in the Prairie Lotus, there's a lot of incidents that reflect Linda Sue's experiences through the years dealing with prejudice and stereotyping and such. And so she also wanted to be a tribute to the Little House books, but to kind of add that element, a different element. So it's it's very poignant in places. And there are characters that make you that kind of remind you of the characters in the Little House books. And it's just a really excellent book. A lot of people are dealing today with some of the racial things that occur in the Little House books. And so they recommend this as an alternative to the books. Excuse me. And I think that this is my favorite of Linda Sue Parks books. And I really, really recommend Prairie Lotus to all readers. That's pretty cool. You know, when you showed the cover kind of reminded me a Little House on the Prairie. Yeah. Oh, and then the fact that it's a Prairie title. And she's got her bonnet there. And the first day of school, she, she doesn't take her bonnet off. She puts it forward so people can't see her face. And they don't know that she is Chinese. So they can't. And, and then the second day it all goes away, but people realize that she has one good day at school. But things get better because her teachers is really a really courageous book. Yeah. Oh, very cool. Very cool. Yeah. All right, now my last book, this one is I think a pretty heavy read is called how to be a girl in the world by Kayla. Yeah. I think we might, I think Mark Twain is the only one that has this book, but in our system, but you can find it on our middle school shelves. This is one of the books along with the, the, the was everything said is untrue book it came in the same time. So just a couple of days ago. And this one is very, very interesting. So this is about a girl, 11 year old Emma who is biracial. She's a half black and half white. She lives with her 12 year cousin Lydia and her mother. And, and Emma's father is unfortunately not so much in the picture he's actually in rehab. So her parents are separated. She's in a broken home. You know, obviously like family wise. And, but not only is she family wise in a broken home, she, she feels like she actually is in an actual broken home because her mother decided to, and you can kind of tell based off the picture. They decided, she decided to buy the most rundown, disgusting looking house. It's dilapidated compared to the rest of the community. Yeah. So that's already embarrassing for a middle schooler. You know, she doesn't feel comfortable bringing around friends and having them see the house that she lives in. So anyway, so not only is she dealing with that. She's also dealing with a lot of unwanted attention, not just from the boys at her school, but also from her mother's current boyfriend, Jeremy. Yeah. So she started to notice that there were a lot of longer embraces from him. But yeah, so it gets pretty, pretty, pretty touchy, like no pun intended. But yeah, so it's a, so because of all this, the unwanted attention and being in this household that she's not comfortable in physically and you know, like mentally as well with the family. This makes Emma want to hide herself even more. So she starts to layer where layers and layers of clothes to basically hide herself, hide her body. She's middle school, so she's developing, you know, you go through that. And so she tries to hide herself and layers of clothes she retreats to like horror novels. She loves, she loves and she has an increased interest in magic and spells. So even though there seems to be like, you know, magic and spellbinding and everything like that. It's not a fantasy novel, unfortunately, but as you read it, I think a lot of readers are going to really hope that there really is such a thing as magic in this type of situation. You know, just, or anything, any hope to give to kind of help Emma protect herself from all this unwanted attention, all the different issues that she has to deal with right now. Yeah, it's really tough. Yeah, did you have anyone that she can talk to? Not that I know of it because she does have a cousin that lives with her. Her cousin is coming from a broken home as well, like her parents are the worst as well. So she's, it's not very, I don't know, it's not the greatest situation for both of them. Yeah. But, you know, she tries to confide in her, but at the same time, you know, for girls who deal with something like that, like sexual harassment, they shut down and just close the, close their, close like a wall. And they can't, you know, so even if she has somebody, it's kind of hard for her to even share what's going on. And I think, I think this is going to be, this is a really good book to pick up when it comes to, you know, really immersing yourself in what this type of situation is. Yeah. You know, it's a serious one, but I do want to read it. Yeah, yeah, you know, we had some, some serious topics this month. Yeah, I know I was, I was just looking at the list and I'm like, well, okay, this is some deep stuff. Yeah. But good. Yes, very good reads. And, and I think readers will identify with some of these. Definitely, there's a reason why, you know, authors are writing them. I mean, one of them is already an autobiography. So I'm like, well, Yeah, it happens. And every author kind of puts kind of their own experiences into the books. Exactly. I think more than others. Yeah, you know, the place at the table to I think I forgot to mention this book, the place of the one that's on your reading list. Yeah, I think the authors, I think they kind of based these characters off of them as well. It's not autobiography, but they kind of did the same thing like how the other authors do like they kind of put their own spin on it and they are able to relate to the character. Yeah. I think that that one is on, I'm not sure I think that one's on the Newberry contender list also. Oh good. That's good. Yeah. I think that one's on some recommended book list, but I think it was that one. So, yeah. Yeah, and Christina, you know, the, she also our branch liberal, she, she picked up this book to specifically because I think she heard about it through Apollo, the Asian Pacific American or yeah, the Asian, it's a committee for that on books that are that have characters focused on Asian characters. Yeah. Yeah. And so the, this one was one of those that are highlighted. So I think it's it might get quite a few like at least some honorary mentions so Yeah, yeah. And we can say we read it first. Yeah, I know. It's like the advanced readers copy. Yes. If you out there, read it. You can say you read it first. Yeah, for sure. And be like, Oh yeah, I totally know. Yeah, I got that one. Oh, too funny. Oh goodness. Well, that I guess brings us to the end of our chapter chat for this month. And as always, our books are found under chapter chat. They're tagged that way in our catalog. So if you just type in chapter chat 1220, you'll find the eight books that we talked about today and we hope that you would read them and as we said they're not necessarily light reading, but I think you'll learn a lot from them. And we hope that you pick them up and take a check them out. And I guess we'll see you next year. Yeah. And we'll see what what new books we have done for you. Very true. Okay. All right. All right, thanks for watching and happy reading. Okay, we'll see you soon. I'll see you next year, Pam. Yes. Bye.