Middle Grade Pick: The Whispers

The Whispers
by Greg Howard
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Penguin Random House LLC
2019
229 pages
ISBN: 9780525517498

Heartfelt, beautiful, mesmerizing and a tale that will captivate readers!

The Whispers is this year's must read for young readers, teachers, parents, everyone! It is that middle grade book  readers will remember long after finishing it.

Riley is ten when his mother disappears. He misses her and sees her influence everywhere he looks. He tries to find her in the whispered voices he hears at twilight. He prays that the voices can tell him where she's gone or better yet, bring her back home. The whispers is a story Riley's mama used to tell him every night.

Riley's family doesn't mention Mama. Photos of her have been put away as if she never existed to anyone but Riley. His grandparents refer to his "condition." Riley has two conditions: his foggy memory on the day his mother went missing and his secret "condition"--the fact that he likes boys.  His family considers Riley quiet, weak and a "Mama's boy." He is introspective, creative and soft-spoken.

Riley has to meet with "Fat Bald Detective" many times. The man keeps asking him the same questions. What does he remember about the day Mama disappeared? Riley remembers she was lying on the couch and he touched her hand. Then, he went out to play and Mama went missing. Riley doesn't see why the cops aren't searching for whoever took Mama. Why do they keep questioning him? He didn't have anything to do with her disappearance, but he does have secrets.

Everyone deals with grief differently. Riley's father becomes a shell of himself hardly speaking to anyone and he won't make eye contact with Riley.  Riley remembers Mama and how they learned a word a day from a calendar. Mama would make him use the word in a sentence and Riley continues the practice. He turns to "the whispers" to find his Mama.

The Whispers has a favorite trope of all time: the unreliable narrator--ten, now eleven-year old, Riley. He has developed an alternative narrative where "...your head and your heart tell you a different story in order to protect you" (from the Author's Note). His memory loss is a break with reality and his coping method.

The Whispers is my early pick for Best Middle Grade Book of the Year and are you listening, Bluebonnets? I believe this book will be a Texas Bluebonnet pick and other states will step up to the plate. This is a must have for all collections and a must read. The Whispers would be a great book to read as a class and the discussions would help so many kids.

Highly, highly recommended and DO NOT MISS THIS ONE.
Grades 5 and up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book In Verse Pick: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings (A Memoir)

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings (A Memoir)
by Margarita Engle
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2015
189 pages
ISBN: 9781481435222


Enchanted, indeed! Readers will experience the sights and sounds of Cuba through Margarita Engle's triumphant YA book. Engle captivates and transcends decades and distance. Remembering back to her youth spent in Cuba before the Cold War, Engle describes an enchanted  island of sun, sea, horses, farms, fragrant flowers, bright colors, music and tropical fruit. The lime picked by her grandmother is the most fragrant lovely thing young Margarita has ever tasted.

When her family moves to smoggy Los Angeles, she is forced into a school where she's an outsider. As she looks at the other students, she realizes that she will never fit in. The girl longs for her other home, her island home. She misses her Abuelita and the enchanted air of Cuba.


April 1961 brings the Bay of Pigs, a failed U.S. attempt to control Cuba and Margarita is looked upon as the enemy by classmates. She is afraid that she may have to go to a war camp like Japanese Americans during World War II. The girl retreats into books where she can be free. 1962 is the beginning of the Cold War and American school children are taught to hide under their desks for nuclear drills. Grown ups whisper and people are visibly shaken. America is afraid of Cuba and the Soviet Union. America holds its breath as the President continues talks with Khrushchev. America closes its doors to Cuba.

Margarita's family may never see their relatives again.  Engle writes in the author's note, "While I was writing Enchanted Air, my hope was that normalization would begin before it went to press. That prayer has been answered....one of the closest neighbors of the United States is just beginning to be accessible to other American citizens."

Young Margarita lives for books and poetry, spending much of her time visiting the library. She writes, "Books become my refuge./Reading keeps me hopeful." How many readers  have escaped through books? The written word is powerful indeed, connecting a lonely child with a world outside her four walls and a country that does not welcome her. The "two wings" are the two countries: America and Cuba, her two lives so different yet both a part of her.

Readers will engage with the verse structure of the book. Easy and accessible to readers, even reluctant ones, Enchanted Air is a great addition to any multi-cultural studies collection or classroom.
Engle describes the historical incidents of the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs from a child's point of view. It is powerful and poignant.

Highly, highly recommended grade 6-up. This is one book that has many teaching opportunities: history, sociology, English, poetry, and teach it for the love of literature!

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)