There have been a slew of good middle grade books published in recent years about children who face learning or behavioral challenges and that’s wonderful. So many children are moving through real life facing these, and other, challenges. To be able to see themselves in the pages of a book has got to be a comfort. For children who don’t face these challenges, the chance to learn about those who do is a critical lesson in empathy.

I confess that I began Ann Martin’s new book RAIN REIGN (Feiwel & Sons 2014) with a slight feeling of trepidation. The jacket said it was about a twelve-year-old girl in the fifth grade who functions at the high end of autism and who’s obsessed with homonyms. From the title, alone, I thought I knew what to expect: page after page of having to wade through homonyms, long after the point had been made. Of course, I was wrong. Ann Martin is a wonderful writer and this book is full of genuine heart and understanding and, yes, sadness, but most of all – courage. Rose Howard is courageous in many ways: in the way she works every day to correct her “annoying” social tendencies because her classmates make fun of her and they make her single father angry; in the way that, after her father gives her a stray dog who she names Rain (a double homonym opportunity!) and who runs away during a hurricane, Rose discovers that Rain’s original owners are looking for him, too, and is determined to give him back even though she knows it will break her heart. It will break the readers’ heart, too, (it did this one’s), but it will also make them cheer because Rose is so brave and we see how hard it is for her to do what she has to. Thankfully, Rose has a wonderful uncle who encourages her collection of alike-sounding words and loves everything about her. She tells her own story, too, in a voice so steady and firm that we know she’ll be fine, whatever happens. Rose Howard is a girl to admire and root for. I can’t think of a better reason to read a book than that.

It’s 1952, the year Charlotte’s Web was published and the year of the horrific polio outbreak. Francine Katzenback is a victim of the dreaded virus and is confined to a wheelchair. The public is panicked, consumed in fear of the contagious virus, leaving Frannie isolated and lonely. She is befriended by a flea. That’s right. A well-read, intelligent, magical flea named Fleabrain who adores Frannie. Together they challenge the boundaries of reality, fantasy, truthfulness, and authentic friendship.

Fleabrain Loves Frannie (Amulet Books, 2014)  is soundly rooted in the history of the day. In it, the reader meets Dr. Salk, the researcher who invented the polio vaccine; learns about the historical community effort to defeat the disease; and comes to understand the inner tenacity it takes to believe in oneself when all one possesses is the everlasting love of a flea (or a spider, in Wilbur’s case).

Bravo, Joanne Rocklin! You are one amazing writer!

The ReaderKidZ are back, sending best wishes for the New Year with lots of time set aside to enjoy many of your favorite books! This month we’re reviewing a small collection of our own “Old and New Favorites.” Share some of your own, won’t you? We’d love to hear from you!

WINTER BEES & OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen

Exquisite poetry. Stunning illustrations. Fascinating details in short bits of nonfiction sidebar text. Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen have done it again in this, the second book by the award-winning duo of DARK EMPEROR AND OTHER POEMS OF THE NIGHT.

Each page is a magical snapshot of a piece of winter’s landscape – a rascally moose “with a tough, shaggy hide” that kicks and prances, mama moose by his side; the “tiny chickadee, weighing less than a handful of paperclips” that fluffs and preens each downy feather, is “quick and bold and brave and clever”; and even the odd skunk cabbage, which “peeks up through the snow… rears its speckled hood… the first flower in the wood.”

This beautiful book would be a lovely addition to a home or library collection, but makes an especially nice offering for teachers looking for ways to integrate writing into the classroom. The pairing of poetry and nonfiction informational text could easily springboard into a writing lesson. An Educator’s Guide created by Sylvia Vardell, a professor at Texas Woman’s University and the author of Poetry Aloud Here! offers suggestions for using WINTER BEES in the classroom.

Once upon a northern night by Jean E. Pendziwol, pictures by Isabelle Arsenault

Publisher’s Weekly describes this book as “A reverent ode to the magic and wonder of an icy winter night.” A lyrical winter lullaby – “…one tiny flake, perfect and beautiful and special, just like you…” this book will take your breath away. Watch the trailer for a sneak peek and you’ll see what I mean.