MADreads Reviews

All young Owl has ever hoped and dreamed of is becoming a knight, but it was just a dream until suddenly knights begin disappearing from the castle. Taking advantage of this staffing shortage, Owl applies to Knight School and to everyone's surprise, he is accepted! He studies and works hard - even a small shield is tough for him to hold - and after graduating with honor, he is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. Other knights usually fell asleep during these long shifts, but Owl is very good at it. Until one night he hears a strange whooshing sound... 

It is summer and it is HOT in the city. In this incredibly illustrated new picture book by Doug Salati, you can feel the summer heat, sweltering pavement, and oppressive crowds. Past the fire engines, construction crews, and chaotic skateboarders mom and her little dog walk until her hot dog has had ENOUGH. “THAT’S IT!” And lays down in the middle of the crosswalk. Throughout the illustrations, readers will notice little dog’s mom growing grumpier and grumpier as errands progress and doggy drags his feet. 

Caldecott medalist Michaela Goade's new picture book is a gorgeously illustrated tale of family and land that warmed my heart and felt so cozy. 

On an island at the edge of the sea, a young girl learns from her grandmother how to live on the land, picking berries of all kinds from the forest:

"First Dat sailed on a boat, then flew on a plane..." and now Dat is starting a new school where everyone speaks gibberish and he can't understand a word. Feeling lost and alone, Dat soon makes a friend - after all, play is a universal language! Slowly Dat starts to learn new words and begins to feel at home in his new environment. This book shines in the illustrations - all the gibberish is represented by speech bubbles filled with symbols, and while Dat is illustrated in color, his surroundings start out as black and white cartoons.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you saw something suspicious? Best friends, Abbi and Skylar, think they’re having an adventure à la Nancy Drew spying on two strangers meeting under their tree fort. So when a woman is later found dead in the woods, they realize they may hold the key! As much about relationships as it is about solving a crime, this fast-paced thriller is sure to grab the attention of school age through middle school readers. Do they decide to keep a secret? Or expose a life-altering truth?

I was looking for some graphic novels to read over the holidays and placed a hold on this book, but even as I did I wondered if it would be too horse-y for me. I never really went through a horse phase as a kid beyond a couple trail rides at summer camp, but I shouldn't have worried. Yes, this book is about horses, but it's really about evolving friendships, growing up, changing interests - and fandoms!

These two books have teen LGBTQ+ representation and you get to experience other worlds, but things aren’t always easygoing. 

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

It’s the day that many dream about, the culmination of a job well done:  retirement. It’s no different for the quartet of Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice and Helen, whose employer has generously gifted a Caribbean cruise to bid them adieu after decades of service for The Museum. It’s a lavish gift, and one that might be a trip of a lifetime—or the end of life. But it’s hardly surprising, as this group of sexagenarians are highly trained hit women, and they know it can only be their former employer gunning for them. The Museum, nominally devoted to erasing deserving baddies from the earth, has s

Gorgeous lyrics by Academy Award-winning Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie are accompanied by absolutely stunning illustrations by Cree-Métis author, illustrator, and artist Julie Flett. The book is based on a song of the same name and celebrates nature, changing seasons, and Indigenous traditions. The author and illustrator notes, addressed to "readers and listeners," are also beautiful and full of love, and the sheet music is included at the end of the book so you can sing along. 

As with many of the books that land on my hold shelf or in the digital queue on my phone, I'm not sure where I heard about this charming, heartwarming, a little heartbreaking, gem of a book. Wherever it was or whoever it was who suggested it? Thank you.

It’s a grisly scene that police photographer Rita Todacheene is called to late one night outside of Albuquerque. Bits of the woman’s body are strewn over the interstate, the victim of an apparent suicide from an overpass. But the voice of a furious Erma—whose remains Rita is so diligently documenting—insists it was murder, and Erma won’t stop haunting Rita until she gets vengeance. But Rita’s secret—her ability to see and speak to the dead—is a terrible secret she can neither escape nor even acknowledge to anyone living, a curse that makes her taboo in her Diné (Navajo) community.

Do you wonder about art imitating life when it comes to writers and fiction? Popular audiobook narrator and actress Julia Whelan's new novel is about a famous audiobook narrator and actress named Sewanee Chester whose next project pairs her with another famous audiobook narrator named Brock McNight and all of it feels very real. Things start out with an industry convention in Las Vegas that is almost identical to a library or book industry conference. The author panels, the publisher booths and exhibit hall are exactly the same. I can attest to that.

October was LGBTQ+ history month, and it's not too late to celebrate by brushing up on your LGBTQ+ history with Stella Caldwell’s Pride: An Inspirational History of the LGBTQ+ Movement? Beginning thousands of years ago with LGBTQ+ figures from Ancient Greece, China, and Japan, Caldwell provides a comprehensive and accessible history of LGBTQ+ people, culture, and struggle for rights from ancient times all the way up to the present.

Tummy Time Friends is a delightfully interactive board book, full of beautiful baby faces and simple, gentle text. It is extra special because it unfolds, accordion-style, in a floor-standing arc and can be set up around a baby during tummy time. The photographs of baby faces will encourage babies to lift their heads to see. And toddlers will love to look at the faces even after they’ve outgrown tummy time!

Micaela Vargas is a police officer in Stockholm. She struggles to gain respect from her mostly white, male colleagues. First because she's a woman, second because she's a Chilean immigrant whose family came to Sweden as political refugees, and third because she grew up in the projects and has a brother who is operating on the other side of the law. None of that stops her from trying. She's determined to move up in the ranks and thus is happy to be assigned to the team investigating the death of an Afghani asylum-seeker who had become a popular youth soccer coach.

I picked up this book expecting something of a ghost story - which it is not. It is a story of trauma, grief, and overcoming loss with the support of community and friends.

In 1952 San Francisco, police detective Evander "Andy" Mills has been able to keep his sexual orientation, as a gay man, under wraps, until now. A raid on a gay nightclub has caught him in its web and he's lost his job and every "friend" he thought he had on the force. At a loss as to what comes next, he's contemplating a very bad decision while half-tanked in a bar, when he's approached by a glamorous woman named Pearl. She offers a deal he can't pass up. Pearl tells him that her wife, soap magnate, Irene Lamontaine has died and Pearl thinks her death was murder.

Juna has a big imagination, and it runs wild, even while she's helping her Appa (father) at his dry cleaning business on Saturdays. While searching for one of her Appa's clients' lost jackets, her imagination takes her on a journey through nature where she meets animals who are also fathers that are spending time with their children.