Sharing the Wealth! Nia and the New Free Library by Ian Lendler

For as long as anyone could remember, the Littletown Library had been there. The people stopped paying attention to it. The librarian retired, and nobody noticed....

Finally a tornado passed through and took the old library away with it.

NO ONE QUITE KNEW WHAT TO DO WITH THE EMPTY SPACE.

Someone suggested a skyscraper. Another wanted a parking lot. Nia's idea was different.

"WE NEED TO REBUILD THE LIBRARY."

The mayor pooh-pooh her idea, saying that people just didn't read anymore. The banker thought it cost too much.

A DISTRACTED MOTHER SAID, "MY SON AND I GET EVERYTHING WE NEED ON LINE. I'M LEVEL 10!"

But Nia had a different idea. It took a while, but soon she had written a red wagon full of books. She asked the Grocer.

"THIS IS THE NEW FREE LIBRARY! "WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHECK OUT A BOOK?"

"HEY, YOU WROTE THIS WRONG?" SAID THE GROCER.

Everybody's a literary critic! Nia handed him a pencil and told him to fix the mistake, and he got busy.

"MY SON'S PHONE JUST DIED."SAID THE BUSY MOM. "COULD HE LOOK AT ONE OF YOUR BOOKS?"

A man complained that Nia's Where the Mild Things Are is not the right title.

And when the boy complained that the drawings were terrible, Nia gave him a pencil with a nice new eraser. Another person said Nia'a Sherlock story had the wrong ending, so she told him to write a new one. Everyone found out that writing and illustrating books is hard, but soon Nia has a conspicuous big pile of rewritten books. So the grocer gave her some empty crates for bookshelves. Others thought it would be good to have walls and a roof to keep the books dry. Everyone found some building materials and tool boxes to help.

"A GOOD LIBRARY HAS TO HAVE LIONS IN FRONT" SAID SOMEONE.

Somebody volunteered the lions from the facade of the bank.

"WAIT! WE NEED A LIBRARIAN!" SEVERAL SAID.

Many of them volunteered, a snazzy opening was scheduled, and soon the new library was filled with kids listening to stories and people checking out books and senior citizens learning to use computers.

A LIBRARY IS BUILT BY MANY HANDS!

And in Ian Lendler's just published Nia and the New Free Library (Chronicle Books, 2021), that's how Newtown soon had a fine new library. Artist Mark Pett's humorous caricatures of townspeople sets off wll Ian Lendler's deadpan rewriting of the classic folktale, Stone Soup. " "(A) charming, kid-friendly take on grassroots activism." says Shelf Awareness.

Here For Each Other: You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith

YOU HOLD ME UP WHEN YOU SHARE WITH ME.

Sharing is really the simplest form of caring. Whether it is an apple, a meal, a hug, a helping hand, advice, or approval, it is what makes for a social connection.

When you share a dance or a story and a song, a cuddle with a baby or some comforting touch, a laugh or a lesson, it means that someone belongs. It means acceptance, that someone belongs somewhere and with someone else.

WE HOLD EACH OTHER UP.

Monique Gray Smith's You Hold Me Up (Orca Books Publishing) takes a widening look at the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child" a bit further, by showing what it takes to make a village, a community in which members survive and thrive. Although the author has native American roots, what it takes to keep a family and a community alive are the same everywhere. Artist Danielle Daniels' charming gouache, pencil, and acrylic illustrations portray Indian families and yet convey an intimacy and trust that is universal, reaffirming that all humans need mutual support. A warm, heartfelt book, great for lapsit storytime and small group reading aloud.

Says Kirkus Reviews "...words and art offer a warm and positive message. Calming, positive, and serenely affirmative."

Independence Day! My Fourth of July by Jerry Spinelli

NOISE!I wake up! I rush to the window.
Parade! Drums! Cymbals!
It's the best day of all--
The Fourth of July!

The boy rushes downstairs, just as his mom takes a pie out of the oven, and races out the door in his pajamas to march along with the band. He gets to sprinkle paprika on the tray of deviled eggs and helps dad load his red wagon with their picnic goodies (and a surprise box of chocolate-covered strawberries).

"Don't forget the pie!"

(I'm in charge of not forgetting!)

Finally ... out the door!

At the town park they dance to the band, eat and eat, and the boy and a friend join in waving at a passing train decorated with bunting, fall giggling, flat on their faces in the sack race, sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in front of the band, and visit the monkeys at the zoo....

We cook our hot dogs on the grill in the gazebo. I like mine with black stripes.

Then as the sun sinks behind the trees' cool shadows, the boy finishes the last deviled egg and helps his parents clean up, and then they head for the baseball field for the best part of the day. He and his little dog almost fall asleep on the tablecloth in the red wagon as he waits, until--

A thump in the dark... a sudden umbrella of lights...
five thousand faces aglow...

FIREWORKS!

My eyes cannot hold the wonders I see.
My heart is cheering.

Newbery Award-winning Jerry Spinelli's My Fourth of July (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2019), is a series of literary snapshots, perfectly executed in the happy full-page illustrations of Larry Day, of an idyllic Independence Day celebration, a day with not a hint of sunburn, or upset stomachs, or cranky kids (or dads), in a portrayal of the holiday in a classic small town, with a bandstand with Dixieland music for dancing, a zoo with giraffes looking over the fence, a duck pond, tree-shaded fields with room for checked picnic cloths and folding chairs, and a grassy ballpark just right for watching fireworks lying on your back--just the way the Fourth should be celebrated. Not all July 4 observations share all these joys, but as a modern but nostalgically old fashioned Fourth, this lovely book makes a great read-aloud for sharing.

Group Soup! Thukpa for All by Praba Ram & Sheela Preuitt

GONGGGGG!

Tseering perks up and heads for home. Tikk Tiukkk... Tseering treks with his stick, sweeping it left and right.

Abi's noodle soup beckons. Hearty, chunky thukpa. Yummy, spicy thukpa.

His friend Rigzin calls hello and asks what is his hurry, and Tseering tells him his grandmother is making her special soup, the best in the village.

Would you like to join us? Tseering asks.

Who could resist? Apparently no one, because as Tseering's feet follow the pebbled path, first his uncle Tashi, whose lost lamb Tseering has returned, then Aunty, and then old Norboo, feeling poorly, happily accept his offer to share Abi's soup.

But back home, Tseering's recital of unexpected guests throws Abi into a tizzy:

"All of them! My dear boy! We need more water... hmmm...vegetables and noodles, too. Let me see what I can do!" Abi says, bustling around.

Tseering hurries to the pea patch to find some pods with peas, shells them out, and returns to the house, just in time to greet Rigzin arriving with cheese and some water. Neema Aunty brings apricot jam and freshly kneaded dough for noodles, Uncle brings buttered tea, and old Norboo brings spinach for the soup. Abi busies herself chopping onions and tomatoes and browning them up in her big soup pot when...the power goes out!

How can Abi finish preparing the soup in the dark?

"Lights on or off don't matter to me!" says Tseering. "I'll help you."

Tseering sniffs out just the right spices to season the vegetables and rolls out Aunty's dough for the noodles for the soup, and soon....

Abi's noodle soup is served.

And in Praba Ram and Sheela Preuitt's hearty and warm story, Thukpa for All (Consortium Books, 2018), everyone shares in the making and the eating of Abi's hot, spicy soup. With the colorful local illustrations of Shilpa Ranade, this story of cooperation and generosity is as warm as a big bowl of hearty, chunky thukpa. Just as in the European folk tale, Stone Soup, in this Asian version from the high mountains of India, all the unexpected guests bring along a little something for the dinner pot, a celebration of community that results in a plenitude of a unique potluck dinner. "An appealing introduction to a part of the world that’s underrepresented in picture books," adds School Library Journal."

Snow Time: Snow Globe by Erin Dealey

There's a big storm moving in. A powerful wind rips holiday decorations loose from the lampposts as snowflakes begin to fly.

Lost connections on phones, computers, Bundled, homeward-bound commuters. Traffic slows.

Roads disappear,
beneath the worst storm of the year.

The lights go out, so out come candles for the mantels. A fire in the fireplace warms the room as the family of four picnics on takeout on the floor.

Beside the Christmas tree, Dad builds a blanket tent, and by lantern light reads snow stories to the kids, the kitty, and their dog. One kid shakes their snow globe and wishes for, what else? More snow!

Snow globe wishes,
Snowplows rumble lullabies...

The snow is too deep for cars and school buses to make their way, so everyone has a magical snow day holiday. Snowmen and snowballs, sleds and snow forts, even the grownups get in on the fun. What more could they wish for? Well...

Peace on earth
throughout the year!

In a jolly rhyming snow story that every kid wishes for, Erin Dealey's Snow Globe Wishes (Sleeping Bear Press, 2019) is an idyllic story of a pre-Chistmas snow day where everyone gets an unforeseen but much appreciated holiday. Claire Shorrock adds merry illustrations that reflect good times among everyone in the neighborhood, a happy time-out for the sheer joy of a good snow. This one is an engaging account of a surprise snowstorm that brings holiday cheer and good will to all.

When You Wish Upon A Star.... Genuine Sweet by Faith Harkey

"So," said Jura, "when we look at the stars, the light we're seeing has been traveling for years, even centuries, to get to Earth, right?"

"Uh huh." I said.

"Based on Einstein's stuff, the further away the star, the older the starlight, right? So scientists can see so far back in time that they're actually looking at stars that were born when the universe began."

"Bring it back around to the barn, Jura," I said.

"So. Your star juice could be as infinite as the universe itself." Jura grabbed my hand.

"Genuine, you have the power of the entire space-time continuum at your command!"

I was starting to get it. And truth to tell, I was scared.

When twelve-year-old Genuine (pronounced Gen-u-wine) Sweet learns from her grandmother that she has a "shine," an inherited magical gift, to fetch wishes from captured liquid starlight--so long as it is for a good purpose--she is disappointed that wishes for her own family aren't allowed. Gram, Gen, and her jobless, town-drunk father are often hungry. Their old house is leaky and can't keep the cold out, and with winter coming on, the electric bill is overdue, Still, when Genuine meets a new girl in town, Jura Carver, self-proclaimed, "big-town middle school refugee," she can't help fetching her first solo wish for her new friend, a wish that her mom will find a job so they can stay in tiny Sass, Georgia. When an newspaper ad appears for a job that just suits Jura's mom, Gen realizes that she has the power to do much good with her shine.

But Jura is smart and she thinks big--like, for starters, ending world hunger.

A practical dreamer, Jura first comes up with a way for Genuine to fix her own problems without breaking the rules--a wish-and-barter scheme. So Gen offers to wish Handyman Joe's dead daddy's war medal will turn up in return for repairs on their old house and offers to wish-fetch Chicken Lady Snopes some replacement henhouses in return for all the eggs they can eat. Overnight, Joe's sister finds the lost medal under her sofa cushions, and Miz Snopes spots some cast-off henhouses beside the road. But Gen's third client looks to be harder to help:

Mrs. Trompe, mother of Gen's classmate, Travis, seventh-grade's only Goth guy and jerk, wishes for a good man for herself and a father for Travis in return for all the vegetables Gen's family needs for a year. It's a good deal, but Genuine feels she has to be honest with Travis' mom.

"Be patient, all right? I'm just figuring out how this works. It might take some time for the stars to arrange things like traffic detours and whatnot, to get your man here."

The electric company, however, turns out to be uninterested in wish bartering.

Dear Ms. Sweet:
Unfortunately we do not accept payment in the form of goods and/or services. For your convenience, you may pay your bill with cash, check, or credit card. Please note that your current bill is three days overdue.

Meanwhile, Genuine is overwhelmed with wishes from what seems like all 523 people in Sass, and Jura is busy setting up a website, EndWorldHunger.com, with the idea of connecting the world's needy with what she calls the international needs infrastructure. All Gen has to do, she insists, is fetch wishes for each needy person to connect to groups that have an oversupply of stuff or transport. The news of the magical wish fetcher in a tiny Georgia town goes viral, and Genuine is up all night capturing starlight and baking it into wish biscuits suitable for express shipping. Everything and everyone seems to be tangled with everything else, and the more she wishes to fix things, the more complicated things get. Between the town and the rest of the world, Gen's worn out and wished out.

Then Gram dies suddenly. Genuine is sure it is her fault. She's DEAD. she tells herself. She froze to death. The electric went out. The bill was overdue and you knew it. You were off, looking after folks who weren't even yours to care for, she thinks.

"Be careful what you wish for...," is but one of the themes in Faith Harkey's just-published Genuine Sweet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), and the song Gen hears the stars sing, "All will be well...," becomes hard for her to believe. In this novel of magical realism, there is a lot of hard-headed goodness and wisdom as well as the dazzling silver promise of the stars. Genuine Sweet is a remarkably real and resilient character who runs up against the inevitable unforeseen consequences of her powers and accepts the responsibility for making things happen the hard way. Vivid small town characters and humor fill this down-home story, right along with the endless mystery of human will, goodness, and power in the music of the universe.

"I remember what Gram said about finding your own way," says Gen.

"Good given away always comes back to you."

Fans of Lisa Graff's A Tangle of Knots and Ingrid Law's Newbery Honor book, Savvy, and sequels (see reviews here) or even Natalie Babbit's classic wish fulfillment novel Tuck Everlasting, will find Genuine Sweet a funny, unforgettable, and meaningfully magical novel, too.