Ways to Make Sunshine

Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ryan Hart loves to cook and experiment with unusual flavor combinations. She has a real talent for the culinary arts (too bad that's hard to translate to a Talent Show stage). However, Ryan's love of ice cream takes a beating when her favorite treat is used to soften the blow that her family will be moving to a new (old) house. On the plus side, she'll be at the same school where she's in the 4th grade, it's closer to her friend KiKi's house, and she'll have her own room. On the minus side, the house is smaller and decidedly NOT the only home she's ever known, the center of her memories. But her father's new job pays less than his old one with the post office, so they can't stay where they are.

My daughter and I absolutely LOVED this book. My son got bored because there weren't enough illustrations (he's only 4), so my daughter (age 7 1/2) & I read it on the nights my son fell asleep early. Ryan is a delightful character, and we couldn't wait to find out how she navigated the ups and downs of moving house, a mysterious keepsake tin, Easter Sunday recitation disasters, the school talent show, friendships, and birthday parties with jealous girls. My daughter identified with so many universal aspects of the story, but the scenes related to Ryan's hair were a revelation to my blond, straight-haired daughter, and it was the perfect way to introduce the concept of different hair types and reactions to water. Most of the characters are African-American, and some secondary characters are bi-racial or white.

One thing we especially loved were all the local references. The book is firmly and accurately set in Portland, Oregon, with mentions of so many real places ("I've been there, Mommy!"), it really added to the story for us. Probably more so for me than for my daughter, who is young enough not to remember going to a few of the places, particularly since we haven't gone *anywhere* since the pandemic began. But I think the only place I haven't been from all those referenced in the story was the North Portland Library, although I've been to several other branches. I certainly understood the nuances of Amanda's family moving to Lake Oswego to a huge house with an indoor pool--my husband and I used to live near some of those, and more recently we used to drive past some of them on the way to LOHS for the kids' swimming lessons.

We are looking forward to reading book #2 in the series, Ways to Grow Love, which we immediately put on hold at the library as soon as we finished book #1 last night.

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Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Evvie Drake's husband died as she was packing up to leave him, and a year later everyone still mistakes her trauma for grief. The truth is, their golden boy was actually emotionally abusive, and now that he's gone, she simply doesn't know what to do next. But no one, not even her best friend Andy, knows the truth. She's got baggage. And bills. Lots of them. So when Andy asks her to rent the apartment off the back of her kitchen to his friend Dean, who used to be a famous pitcher until he inexplicably lost the ability to throw a baseball where he wanted it to go, she agrees. Over the course of the next year, Evvie and Dean grow from acquaintances to friends to lovers, but they each have so much healing to do, can they move forward together?

I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this novel. I didn't want to put it down until Evvie got the therapy she needed and Dean figured out what direction he wanted his life to take now. I loved that the author didn't write easy, magical fixes, and that the romance was slow build. Since I would categorize this book as Relationship Fiction--Evvie's relationships of all kinds were important to the story--I was afraid for a while that Evvie and Dean would permanently go their separate ways.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. There are swear words sprinkled throughout and some alcohol consumption, but no violence, and the sex scenes are fade-to-black. Evvie is a survivor of emotional abuse (constant gaslighting and some social isolation), so that might be a trigger for some readers, though it's all in the past, as the perpetrator dies in the first chapter.

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Kill the Farm Boy

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

This is a fantasy novel that takes many of the usual tropes and turns them upside down: the Chosen One is not a innocent farm boy (saying who it *is* would be a spoiler); Fia, the warrior, hates the bikini chain mail she begins the story wearing; the Dark Lord isn't very dark; the rogue is both female and not very good at sneaking or questing; the witch isn't really wicked; the quest goes sideways constantly and for unusual reasons (both helpful and not); there are allusions to pop culture (Nardstromp's department store at the Goblin Market, artisan cheese and crackers), and so on. The authors were clearly having a great deal of fun writing the story, and it's very entertaining but not as riotously funny as I was expecting (which is not the authors' fault, just a fact of how other readers/reviewers had hyped the book). I am looking forward to the next books in the series, though!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. Characters have various skin tones/colors, although the fictional world of Pell and its surrounds doesn't map culturally to our own. There is some creative language throughout, especially from Argabella the bard, who likes to say words like "Shoutful," "Songful," and "Deadful." Argabella and Fia have a very sweet romance. There is quite a lot of violence, but it's not graphic--often more absurd than anything. A few main characters don't survive the quest.

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The Rabbit Listened

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When birds knock Taylor’s magnificent building block creation down, Taylor’s animal friends come by one at a time to offer comfort, but it isn’t until Rabbit snuggles up and sits quietly that Taylor feels ready to process the grief, going through all the stages and techniques suggested by the previous animals. “Through it all, the rabbit never left. And when the time was right, the rabbit listened to Taylor’s plan to build again.”

I hope I can be someone’s rabbit. 

This is one of the loveliest books about coping with grief that I've ever seen. 

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Gimme Shelter: Misadventures and Misinformation

Gimme Shelter: Misadventures and Misinformation by Doreen Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The squad is back, and this time they've got spoons. And brushes. And voluminous feathers. Soon their squabbles over digging a meteor-storm-prehistoric-unicorn-preserving shelter spread to the squirrels and the chipmunks, but all is forgiven and forgotten when a powerful wind starts blowing all of a sudden, and a mysterious furry-faced creature leads them to safety.

This book had my kids, especially my 7-year-old, shrieking with laughter. There were also plenty of opportunities to discuss what's real and what isn't, the dangers of jumping to conclusions based on inadequate information, what is and is not in the US Constitution, and how voting does and does not work, etc. We love this series!

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