Starred review from November 14, 2016
This short story collection, edited and introduced by We Need Diverse Books cofounder Oh, features 10 stories “for all of us” from authors who include Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Meg Medina, and Walter Dean Myers. Each story stands on its own, but the collection as a whole highlights the importance of perspective, perseverance, wonder, courage, and creativity during the middle school years. A thoughtful entry from Matt de la Peña, written in second person, centers on a Mexican-American teenager who does well at school but sees basketball as a “path to those tree-lined lives they always show on TV.” In Grace Lin’s delightful “The Difficult Path,” literacy proves an unexpected ticket to a life with pirates for a Chinese girl eager to escape an arranged marriage. And Jacqueline Woodson’s elegiac “Main Street” focuses on the relationship between an 11-year-old white girl and her “tall and brown and beautiful” best friend in a New Hampshire town where “the leaves were the only color.” Thought provoking and wide-ranging, this first anthology from WNDB should not be missed. Ages 8–12. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary.
Starred review from October 1, 2016
Edited by We Need Diverse Books co-founder Oh, a collection of short stories that embraces a wide cultural spectrum of authorship. Readers feel the angst that comes with getting to know the cool new California girl at a Pennsylvania school in Tim Federles Secret Samantha, narrated by gender-nonconforming Sam. Theyll thrill to Grace Lins The Difficult Path, the tale of a young Chinese servant girl who is captured by pirates, who save her from an arranged marriage to a horrible young boy from a wealthy family. Kwame Alexander contributes a short story in verse about a young Star Wars geek who is head over heels with the school's prettiest girl. Perhaps most poignantly, there is Sometimes a Dream Needs a Push, about a boy whose basketball-star father gives his wheelchair basketball team some crucial pointers, from Walter Dean Myers. These stories and othersfrom Matt de la Pea, Meg Medina, Kelly J. Baptist, Tim Tingle, Jacqueline Woodson, and Soman Chainaniably contain universal themes: friendship, sibling rivalry, parental embarrassment, first crushes, and the trials and challenges that school can bring. Thumbnail biographies of the contributors and an introduction to the genesis and work of We Need Diverse Books round out the volume. A natural for middle school classrooms and libraries, this strong collection should find eager readers. (Anthology. 8-12)
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Starred review from November 1, 2016
Gr 4-6-This anthology, published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, presents 10 short stories from a stellar list of authors: Kwame Alexander, Matt de la Pena, Jacqueline Woodson, Soman Chainani, Grace Lin, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Federle, Meg Medina, Tim Tingle, and Kelly Baptist. De la Pena's linguistically grooving basketball story will have readers swaying in their seats. Verbal roadblocks are hurled at the protagonist from the street-smart players inside the gym: he's too young, too skinny, too Mexican. His resolve yields multiple life lessons on and off the court. Woodson's haunting "Main Street" follows Celeste, the only girl of color in an all-white New Hampshire town, and her friendship with lifetime resident Treetop. Both are suffering from different losses: Treetop's mother has recently passed away, and Celeste isn't accepted in her new home. Their warm connection soothes their mutual pain and promises to last even after Celeste and her mother decide to return to familiar and welcoming New York. Each tale offers realistic and fully developed characters with whom a wide range of readers will identify. VERDICT Inclusive, authentic, and eminently readable, this collection of short stories is an excellent addition for libraries and classrooms.-Diane McCabe, John Muir Elementary, Santa Monica, CA
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from September 15, 2016
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* This collaboration with We Need Diverse Books has no single overarching theme. Instead, its 10 award-winning contributors bring their own diversity to individual, idiosyncratic stories that reflect a variety of themes and subjects. The book is dedicated to the late Walter Dean Myers, who is well represented in the collection with his satisfying story about a physically challenged boy, his father, and wheelchair basketball. Though the stories are roundly excellentauthors include Kelly J. Baptist, Grace Lin, Tim Tingle, and Meg Medinaa few do stand out. Matt de la Pena writes about a young Latino boy for whom basketball is a way out to a better life. Tim Federle tells a lighthearted story about Secret Santas and the gift of friendship. Then there is Jacqueline Woodson's beautiful offering about love, loss, and an interracial friendship; Soman Chainani's irresistible tale about a lonely American boy on vacation with his Auntie Mame of a grandmother; and Kwame Alexander's teasingly imaginative story in verse about a boy who acquires a magic poweror does he? No matter if he doesn't, for there's plenty of magic in this collection to go around.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
April 24, 2017
We Need Diverse Books cofounder Oh brings together some of juvenile fiction’s top stars with this collection of stories about young people of many races, cultures, and sexual orientations. All of the performances in the audio edition of this anthology are good, but two in particular are outstanding: Sunil Malhotra, a character actor with a string of high-profile narration credits, brings a nerdy vulnerability to the titular “Flying Lessons” by Soman Chainani. Portraying an uncertain Indian-American tween and his larger-than-life grandmother on a European vacation, Malhotra captures both characters’ deepest longings. In another terrific performance, author Kwame Alexander recites his own fast-talking poetry-as-prose contribution to the collection, “Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents,” about a boy who may or may not have mind-reading superpowers. While the audio format doesn’t allow listeners to witness the unusual structure of Alexander’s “novella in verse” with its brief lines, numerous parenthetical asides, and copious wordplay, it’s a whole lot of fun to hear as Alexander whips through one autobiographical poem after another in a grand musical rhythm. Honorable mention for this collection goes to voice actor Julia Whelan for her sensitive performance of “Secret Samantha” by Tim Federle. Ages 8–12. A Crown hardcover.
January 1, 2017
Edited by Oh, cofounder of We Need Diverse Books, ten stories by (mostly) well-known authors of diverse backgrounds present young protagonists dealing with common themes of growing up--love, family, friendship, dreams, fitting in, being excluded, and learning life lessons along the way. A line in Soman Chainani's title story suggests a unifying concept for the volume: "We're the same, Nani and I. Two caged birds, searching for a way out." In one way or another, most of the characters here are caged, trapped by circumstances and seeking an escape. "For people like you, ball is more than just ball. It's a way out," says Matt de la Pena's protagonist in "How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium," a beautifully subtle basketball story. In Kwame Alexander's story in verse "Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents," narrator Monk Oliver discovers he can read minds--including the mind of his crush Angel Torres. Jacqueline Woodson offers a tale on the difficulties of friendship in a New England Our Town of a community where the fall leaves are "the ONLY color in this town." Stories by Meg Medina, Grace Lin, Tim Federle, Kelly J. Baptist, Tim Tingle, and Walter Dean Myers round out an unusually strong collection. The volume concludes with brief biographical sketches of the authors. dean schneider
(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)