Charise Mericle Harper

Many children’s books are simply wasted on their target audience. The most obvious example is, of course, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, but children’s books with crossover appeal abound: The Book Thief, The Little Prince, The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Dumb Bunnies, Charlotte's Web, The Magic Thief, The Secret Garden.

Add to that list one more: Just Grace. Third-grader Grace Stewart doesn’t speak like an adult, as happens in so many show more children’s books. She sounds just like a real 9-year-old when she perseverates on how unfair her parents; her stern neighbor, Mrs. Luther; her teacher, Miss Lois, and life in general are. She is appalled by the nasty habits of boys — particularly the poop-obsessed and snotty-nosed Sammy Stringer, a boy with the social graces of a baboon — which is to say, like most 9-year-old boys. This book chronicles the first of what promises to be many adventures of the imaginative and kind Grace.

Grace doesn’t ask for too much. She doesn’t want to be a member of the Justice League; she just wishes to have a “teeny tiny superpower” like the Not So Super Heroes she draws in her own paneled cartoons. What is her “teeny tiny superpower”? Empathy, which Grace has in spades. That’s why, when Mrs. Luther breaks her leg, Grace hits on a wonderful plan to cheer her up. To say more would be to ruin this book. Let’s just say it involves cats and postcards.

Is Just Grace in the same league as the children’s classics I listed above? Not quite. There aren’t any passages that will make your heart flutter, and Grace’s conflict is of the minor sort that you’d expect from a girl who lives in real-life Morgan, N.J., a wealthy bedroom community of New York City. But this quick read will cheer any reader — child or adult — as they meet and fall in love with the big-hearted Grace. And isn’t that what Not So Super powers are for? show less

June is a quirky, happy-go-lucky girl who has one big plan - make a new friend who is Fun, Friendly, and will go on Fun Adventures. And believe that she can talk to her dog Sammy. When Mae moves in next door, June has high hopes of a new best friend, especially when June's grandmother sends her the Wonder Wheel with lots of fun activities and suggestions for making friends.

But things don't go quite the way June had expected, especially when it looks like Mae is going to be friends with mean show more girl April at school. Will the Wonder Wheel come through for June?

Spires' perky illustrations show two exuberant, imaginative girls and their family, friends, and enemies having fun in every day adventures.

This was cute and quirky and will easily join a long line of other female friendship books for this age group. I did have one quibble though - why is the girl with darker skin the friend? Why not the protagonist? While I am seeing more and more kids of color in children's books, it frustrates me that they are always relegated to sidekick status. Hopefully future titles in this series will bring Mae to the forefront - her name comes first after all - and let us hear from her directly, rather than have her feelings and thoughts interpreted to the reader through the lens of her white friend.

Verdict: A cross between Ivy + Bean and Dory Fantasmagory, this is sure to find happy readers in any library looking for more intermediate chapter books.

ISBN: 9780544630635; Published 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

Silliness ensues as a simple shape morphs into all sorts of possibilities to meet an expectation the characters can't even define themselves.

An unseen narrator begins the read with one, simple sentence on one page and a very simple shape on the next. While it might first appear to be a boring, gray bump, the entire book mountains with imaginative possibilities from there. Using the the shape, the narrator forms a cat, a horse, and a skateboard, which seems nice, but the horse wants a show more bicycle...sounds like a somewhat-doable task until misunderstandings and more lead into all sorts of unexpected directions. There's tons of wit, plenty imagination, and a ridiculous back and forth which promises more than a couple giggles and smiles.

Everything about this read steers toward the younger audience level. The text is simple, uses a large font, and stays concise, making it great even for beginner readers to start following along or as a read aloud in group settings. The illustrations concentrate on the two characters and whatever item is drawn at that moment. This helps readers to easily identify the shape's use in various ways and forms, and demonstrates how something so basic can be expanded into so much more. This also can lead to art/craft projects and does help exercise the imagination and creativity in a very enjoyable way.

It's a fun book with clever twists, builds creative skills, and will have listeners laughing, too. I received a complimentary copy and smiled the entire way through. show less

Inspired by her favorite show “Unlikely Heroes,” Grace (or “Just Grace,” her name in class because there are 3 other girls named Grace) comes up with an idea to cheer up her neighbor Mrs. Luther. Since Mrs. Luther broke her leg, her cat Crinkles has been gun-shy about the woman’s orange cast. Grace makes a photo-cardboard standup of Crinkle and takes pictures of it around town which she then makes into postcards to send to Mrs Luther from the cat. But her postcard mailings coincide show more with the disappearance of Crinkle and Mrs. Luther thinks the cat has been kidnapped by Grace’s classmate Sammy, a boy Grace can’t stand. Grace must ‘fess up to the project and she and Sammy work together to find Crinkle. Cheery, upbeat and funny. show less