 Hi, everyone. I'm Pam Carlson. I'm one of the children's librarians here at the BJK main library and I want to welcome you to chapter chat along with my friend Janine. Yes. Hi, I'm Janine Sakakura from the Mark Twain library. And 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 begin and we will start with you Pam take it away. Okay, and I just wanted to mention our background here is a salute to February because it's library lovers month. This is my first book. This is Alice's farm by Mary Rose Wood. And this is the story of Carl who lives in the city is very happy to be a city boy and so are his parents but it's getting a little more crowded and when his mother is out one day with his baby sister, a wrap runs across in front of her stroller and that's kind of the last straw that they're just going to buy a farm and they're just going to leave city life, even though they have no idea how they're going to make a living, how to farm what to do. But they pack up everything and they leave. And when they move into this really nice place. The first person who shows up just about is an evil land developer who knows that they're, they have no idea what they're doing and he wants to buy the land from them. But little by little his parents figured out, and they have a huge garden area. So they decide that's where they really can make some money. But they don't know that there are a lot of others living on the land rabbits and rabbits, especially. And so the rabbits decide that they're going to help save this land because they know that if the land developer gets it, it'll be torn down, there'll be stores and, and all sorts of things built there and they won't have a home anymore. So they are led by a very clever rabbit named Alice. And she makes alliances with the chipmunks to share their seeds with a fox to help carry them across to the garden every night, even with Carl's dog, and with his toddler sister who can actually understand what the animals are saying. And so they start this, this garden and everybody cannot figure out how this garden is just amazing. And the plants are growing the veggies are growing. Everything is doing great, and they all think that Carl's doing it. The Carl isn't. And he does realize, finally, that the rabbits are doing the work and somehow they figure out a way to communicate, especially since his dog is also involved. And they do end up making a success. It's just a really great story of learning to adapt to a whole new way of life. If you like Charlotte's web and if you like animal stories where the animals are the heroes. There's even a bald eagle. Who's, who's kind of is really instrumental in helping save the farm too. So this is Alice's farm, and it's a great read. Wow, it's pretty cool. It's kind of like, kind of like has like a community vibe to like, yes, or has its own community, they adapt. That's pretty cool. So cute. When you mentioned the bald eagle and like, oh my God. Oh no. They're all little, they're all little rodents and you know bald eagles love those. And somehow they just all, all look out for each other. So cool. You know, how adorable. Yeah, it gives you a new respect for toddlers too. Oh, yeah. So cute. Alrighty, so my first book is this one letters from Cuba, and this one you can find on our children's fiction shelves. And it just arrived at our branch this month. This is a historical fiction novel. And it's based on also it's letters from Cuba by Ruth. Behar, I think is how you pronounce it Behar. And it's actually based on Ruth's family history. When her Jewish grandparents left Poland and Turkey to Cuba during World War two, in search for a better life. This book is mostly about a Polish girl named Esther, whose father had fled during the years leading up to the Holocaust. Now Esther's father has been able to raise enough money to only send one family member to Cuba. And of course that family member is Esther. So, not only is it hard to be separated form from your family, it takes a lot of courage to go on this long journey alone by herself. Once arriving in Cuba, Esther is reunited with her father and becomes so well immersed in Cuban culture and enjoys the kindness of Cuban people. And Esther has learned everything about everything in the in the cute in the country. She, unfortunately, though, Esther comes to the realization that Nazism kind of has found a foothold in the country, and somehow followed her there. Absolutely. So, but from the start of her journey to Cuba, Esther promises her little sister that she would go ahead her little sister, Malka that she would write about everything that happens every day. So, as you go from chapter to chapter every chapter starts with dear Malka or dear my, my dearest sister Malka. And so it's kind of written in a like a letter format. Maybe almost like a diary types type format as well. So, it's, it's pretty interesting. It's really cool. So if you're really interested in historical fiction, Cuban culture. The Holocaust obviously like escaping the Holocaust. This is a really good read. I highly recommend it. Yeah, that in regular children's fiction or middle school. Yeah, yeah, regular children's fiction. Okay. Yeah, good because I think we need more historical fiction. And that is my next book is historical fiction. We Dream of Space by Aaron and Trada Kelly. And this story is set in 1986. It's a story of Bird and her two brothers, Cash and Fitch. And they're all in the seventh grade, even though Cash is older, he was left back. So they're all in the same grade. And they're all excited because it is space month leading up to the launch of the Challenger at the end of the month. And Bird is especially excited because she wants to be the first female space shuttle commander. So she's really into it. And her brother, Cash is, he's afraid that he's going to be held back again. And he really is worried because he doesn't have much motivation to keep his grades up. It feels like he's not good at anything. So why should even try. And Fitch is the other brother. He has a temper that he just can't, he has a hard time controlling it. And he lives for the time after school and he can go to the arcade and play his favorite game. And their parents, their parents have no clue what's going on with their children. It's, they could barely be called a family because they end the day, they start the day with arguments. And then they basically ignore their kids. They don't even eat together. Everybody eats in their rooms or in the living room or they don't, they don't spend, they're just barely a family. The month passes and bird is just getting more and more excited because the teacher has them divide into groups and they're studying different parts of the shuttle and the, and what's going to happen. And we all know that the day, the month does not end well, it's a tragedy. But what happens that's actually kind of good is that her brothers, they, they know how important this is to bird. And so they decide that they, the three of them are going to learn to take care of each other. And so it's just a really good story of this girl that has a dream. She even has imaginary conversations with Judith Resnick and and their emotions are just always out there, the three of them. And then they learn how to enter each other's orbit at the end. There's a lot that goes on in the story and and if you want to know more, there's a little note at the end about the challenger. And it's just, it was actually a new very honor book so my brain side of is really good enough to win an award so that's very exciting. So this is we dream of space. And they recommended. Yeah, it sounds like a really good story. It's a little long, but it's a very fast read because it goes, it's almost, it switches between the three siblings chap chapters are each. That's good. Yeah, because they all have such different personalities. It's nice. Yes. Yeah, it's amazing that this, how did this, how did these people even become a family. There's a lot of there's a lot of dysfunctional families out there too. Yeah, so it's, it's inevitable sometimes you'll, you'll see it somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, very cool very cool. That's a good historical one too because it's a slightly more contemporary than the one that I mentioned so that's Yeah, yeah. All righty so my next one is on on the edge. AJ SAS. Yeah, so this is a pretty cool book it's found on our children's fiction shelves and just came in this month and as you can see it's got a little LGBTQ genre label on it too. This book is about 12 year old on a Murray gin, a dedicated figure skater who had recently won the title of the US juvenile girls championship in figure skating. You can kind of tell on the cover to Now she's ready for the big leagues. Well more like bigger little league psychist you could say which means she's ready to start a new season and compete at a higher level. This also means she is going to start commuting most days from San Francisco to Oakland. And with skating at a new rank, and he's, she's going to be in the new league and have a new choreographer who strictly enforces all female skaters to wear skirts, even to practice. Donna starts to notice a lot of female gender specific things happening about around her like being forced to wear sparkly sequence costumes, and being called miss Anna Marie are starting that starting to make her feel a little uncomfortable. So, these types of things never bothered her before. So why, why does it bother her now. Well, she starts to find answers to that question after meeting Hayden a transgender figure skating student who mistakes her for a boy. The interesting thing is, is she doesn't correct Hayden. Anna begins to question her gender identity, and not only is Anna going through this she's also constantly reminding herself not to burden her mother with this journey that she's embarking on because she knows her mother who's a single parent Jewish Chinese American is struggling to pay for honest figure skating fees and whatever else that she needs in order to go on to the next level is in figure skating. So, this is a while going through the struggle to find her identity on her own and testing the waters as a non binary individual. She, the reader is reminded that there is no one way to identify as non binary. It's a little difficult once you, you know, try and make that decision and kind of identify yourself as non binary. It's hard to explain to people what pronouns to use, how to address certain like, you know, binary or non binary individuals, but this book really helps readers understand what kids are going through when questions about gender identity arise. So, I highly recommend this book especially if you're interested in the figure skating world, what it takes to become a figure skater and and also seeking self identity. Definitely wanted to pick up on our children's fiction shows. Well, I decided I needed a fun book to read. So this is the infamous rats those camp out by Carol a room, and it's illustrated by Matt Myers, it's in the beginning chapter book. So it's, it's a very fun, quickly. So this is the story of the big city scouts who are going on their very first camp out and they all are excited about earning badges. And their scout master is grandpa ratso and he reminds them of the scout out there's part of it says no matter the problem we'll solve it ourselves. We know we can fix it without any help. So just like that, the older scouts decide they don't need any help from the younger scouts. They don't need to read the handbook. They don't need to work together. They can do it themselves. But it rains that night. Dinner. They say where's the food. Oh no, we'll we'll get it ourselves. They get one tiny fish for all of them. And there's also a case of poison Ivy. So they change their minds but fortunately, help is on the way. So this is a lot of fun. There are black and white illustrations throughout the book. See if I can find one here. This is after the rainy night, their tents are flooded. It's just a miserable experience. So this might, if you're a camper, you're gonna love this book. You're going to be reminded of some of your camping memories. Good or bad. And this is also part of a series about the infamous ratso's. So very fun. Very cool. Very cool. I'm not a camper. So I, yeah. But I enjoyed this book. Yeah. It's kind of like also like a survival story in a way. How are we going to find food? One more reason to say, no, not going camping. Yeah, exactly. Everything that could. I did have that happen where it rained. One of the few times I went camping and it was just like the most miserable. Oh my gosh. I'm not campers either. Yeah, but the whole series is, it's very, it's, it's, it's a great, it's a fun, fun series. Yeah, I think I've seen fun to read about rats when they're not mean rat rats. Not the kind that you see scurrying about in the alleyway. All right. So my next one is a middle school book. I did it in our middle school section. It came in recently this month as well. And it is called keep it together cake cake O Carter by Debbie Michiko Florence. And so I chose this particular book probably because the main characters part Japanese. And also because the author is third generation Japanese American born and raised in California. Basically similar to me. So in this book. Kegel Carter is super excited about starting seventh grade with her two best friends, Audrey and Jenna. As a group they needed to make quick decisions on whether on where they're going to eat lunch who they're going to include in their circle of friends, and who to bring to the fall ball. In middle school, these quick decisions will determine how your middle school years will be. So, you know, middle school, how it is. It's all about social circles, it's all about who you date, if what your friends are doing, you know what clubs to join such things like that. But what if one of your friends likes the same boy as you. I don't know. And that's exactly what Jenna and Audrey are going through her two friends. And of course cake O she tries to be the middle man and we're trying to be like in the middle ground just trying to resolve all these issues and she's caught between both of them. I believe some of the things that her friends are also doing like starting clubs without telling her and, you know, making decisions that she thought they would make decisions as a group. So, it's a little difficult obviously like you know when you have a social circle where I guess you don't realize but your friends have minds of their own. It just happens. You know, and as she's going through all this she's like also trying to figure out, you know, herself and what kind of a person she is and how she can try and stand up to her friends, while also supporting both of them. It's just a bunch. It's like, it's just like drama after drama, like things just keep happening and it's getting pretty difficult for her to balance not only school but also boys and finding a date for the fall ball. And it seems like a lot of pressure social pressure, and I believe it because it's middle school. So anyways, will she be able to stand up for herself and stand up to her friends and tell them like hey, you know, you can't be doing this, doing this to me and I like us to stop. Can't we just be friends again. So there's a lot of feuds, but you got to pick up the book and read it to find out. I like that cover to I know it's very middle school. I know right. And I'm just like wow, I feel like I might have looked like that when I was younger. Do you have the hair. Like that. I don't know about the buns but yeah. Try to be trendy as much as possible. That's right. That's right. My last book was written by this is take Keller. And she is the author of when you trap a tiger. This is this year's Newberry winner and Newberry award is given each year by a committee of librarians with the light American Library Association, they choose what they believe is the most distinguished work of literature for children. Each year, and it can be middle school elementary, there've been a couple of picture books even that have one. And so this is this year's winner. And this is the story of middle school or Lily. Lily is having a great time she lives in California. She's happy. Her life is fine, but then one day her mom says up, we're going up the coast we're leaving the state we've got to go take care of how money, which is their grandmother, because she's ill. And they don't know quite what's wrong with her but mom is pretty urgent if she's going to just uproot Lily and her older sister Sam. She's right there. And how money is a little surprised to see them there but happy to have them. And, but just before they get to her house, the driving rainstorm and Lily sees a tiger in the middle of the road. And so she calls to her mom to stop but of course, no one sees the tiger except for Lily. Tigers are very important because her how money has been telling them stories, all the time, when they were growing up stories from Korea about, and tigers were a big part of the stories. So she tells how money about it about the tiger and how money believes her immediately because she says, I stole something from the tigers, and now this tiger wants it back. So Lily thinks that she gives the tiger what how money stole that how money will be healed and everything will be fine again. So she makes a deal with the tiger she finds out what was stolen and she figures out how to give it back. But in the meantime, she meets a boy because the library is right across the street from them. So she goes there to research tigers and she meets this boy named Ricky, who's kind of an eccentric guy. He wears hats all the time and he's a little bit different, but he has his own issues. So she tells him about the tiger and he doesn't even question it, but he helps her make a tiger trap. And so she's all excited because she's going to heal how money, and she will no longer be a QG which is a quiet Asian girl. She'll be a hero. She'll be the superhero of the family. So does it work. Does her deal result and how money being healed. Does the tiger trap work. This is just a really good story of family traditions traditional stories, a belief in spirits at every meal they make what they call a COSA, which is a little meal for the spirits to eat before they do. Take Keller, as I said, won that award and she said this was a book that she knew she had to write. It helped her reconnect to the stories that her own grandmother told her sister when they were growing up. So this is when you trap a tiger by take Keller. Very cool. Very cool. Did you like it. I liked it. I, for some reason I, it sounded so strange that I originally thought I'll just pass on this one. But I like to read, read the award winners and when I read it. I thought, Oh, okay. Okay. Cool. It was a very good story. It's a good story for you. You've been still pride in your culture. Yeah, and your family, you know, your family. How money often did strange things and it was kind of an embarrassment to the girls, but they realized that being in a small town everybody knew her because she helped. She used herbs to heal people. And they didn't know she was magic or what. It helped her. It helped the family get a lot, lot closer. Cool. So be proud of those stories that, you know, have been passed down from generation to generation and, and take pride in your, your own cultural traditions. Is it take place in Korea or here in America or it seemed like it was either in Oregon or Washington because they, they said they went up the coast from California but out of state. Oh, I see. So I'm thinking Oregon, the coast of Oregon. Okay, very cool. Yeah. Yeah, and it's, it's a modern today. Okay. Nice. Okay, very cool. I might need to pick that up. Yeah. Yeah. And it has the best, you know, it has the best cover. Yeah. What's in the jar is what was stolen and you won't know until you read the book. Interesting. Very cool, very cool. Okay. So my last book is before the ever after by Jacqueline Jacqueline Woodson. This book is in our middle school section and very recently hit our shelves, I believe, last month. And I think this particular book is super important to highlight having it be the day before Super Bowl Sunday. And also highlighting the fact that this book won the Coretta Scott award. So somewhat fitting for Black History Month also, if you consider the author, she's a very notable African American author. So the story is about 12 year old ZJ Zachariah Johnson Jr. So his father's name is also Zachariah, whose father is one of the most famous titans in the NFL. He's so famous that he holds the record of most concussions in the NFL. It's not really a title that you want to have, but unfortunately that's what CJ's father has. Regardless, ZJ loves having his father back at home and has gotten used to the whole entire town idolizing his father. What the rest of the town doesn't understand is the real struggle that ZJ and his mother has to go through with what's going on with Zachariah and his injuries. He would have crazy mood swings and severe memory loss that at one point he stared at ZJ and asked him what his name was. It would be devastating to hear your father say that and ask you what your name is like. How do you forget me? That's, this is horrible. We have to hope that ZJ's friends, family and his creative songwriting can give him the support, love and relief that he needs to get through this very hard time in his life. He was set in the early 1990s when a lot of football players were experiencing serious symptoms related to injuries seen in boxers. So mood swings, headaches, aggression, lots of memory loss, severe memory loss. Well during this time doctors and scientists did not see that correlation and so you can imagine the incredible struggle that ZJ and his mother endure throughout the book. Many people seek help and answers from doctors thinking that there's a cure, but unfortunately there isn't. At this time there wasn't even anything close to an answer or reason. This book is also in verse. So it's perfect for those that are reluctant readers out there. I listened to the audio book for this and I cannot tell you how many emotions I had during listening to this book the entire time. It was just up and down up and down. I'm just like, wow, I can't imagine what ZJ is going through or any any of the kids that have football, have NFL football fathers, you know, playing in the NFL. And having a lot of concussions or concussion protocols. It's, it's pretty scary. What was hard for me with this book was that I am a pretty big NFL fan. I love football I love watching it. And knowing that this happens to players portrayed in this book it's, it's definitely even more scary. So, every time there's a tackle on the field now I'm going to be like, oh my goodness. And then they, and then they show those hits over and over. Yeah. I know in every angle, like a 360 and you're like, oh gosh, that looks worse than the last time you played it. Yeah, yeah. It's horrible. It is difficult, but they come, they come a long way and that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And you know they they go through the percussion protocols now they're a little bit more delicate about each tackle or each possible concussion so at least at least that you know they finally I think in the back of the book, the author mentioned that it wasn't until recently sometime within the last 10 years, maybe 15 years. When the NFL actually finally said okay, there's a correlation and they've accepted that. So we have to go through procedures now like. You gotta protect these guys. Yeah, because they're often so young when they retire and the whole life could be lost because of that. Yeah. And that's what it seemed like with the father in this book, Zachariah it seemed it was, he had hit after hit after hit to the point where the NFL actually said, you know what, maybe we should have you retire early or yeah, take it easy, but it's unlikely that you're going to come back, you know, and that's devastating to him as a player. Oh yeah, definitely play as long as you can. He loved the sport so much. He wanted to do it, but now it's very unfortunate. Yeah. Yeah. Well, those are those are our books for this month. And we hope that you've found a few that you want to read and if you want to find them in the library, you can go to our chapter chat 0221 and you'll find those books there. You can get them request them and then pick them up at the libraries that have the grab and go. And we hope that we'll see you in person very soon. But we're going to continue our chapter chats. We enjoy doing them and we hope you enjoy them too and that you enjoy the books. So I guess that's so long for now. Yeah. Alrighty, thank you everybody. Thank you for watching everyone enjoy the books. Bye Jeanine. Bye Pam.