hockey girl loves drama boy

In a moment of reading serendipity, a friend recently recommended to me a book that I already had on my to-read list (and better yet, had already bought!). That book was Faith Erin Hicks’ 2023 young adult graphic novel Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy. I was sold at hockey + rom-com, but with a friend’s genuine excitement in play, it moved up to the top of the pile, and I finished it – and loved it – earlier this month, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

It should have been a night of triumph for Alix’s hockey team. But her mean teammate Lindsay decided to start up with her usual rude comments and today Alix, who usually tries to control her anger, let it finally run free. Alix lashes out and before she knows it, her coach is dragging her off Lindsay, and the invitation to the Canada National Women’s U18 Team’s summer camp is on the line.

She needs to learn how to control this anger, and she is sure Ezra, the popular and poised theater kid from her grade is the answer. So she asks for his help. But as they hang out and start get closer, Alix learns that there is more to Ezra than the cool front he puts on. And that maybe this friendship could become something more...

Alix loves hockey and hockey loves her back. However, her team captain Lindsey has been slowly breaking down that passion with bullying, and one day Alix snaps and responds with physical aggression. In an effort to learn how to control and move past her anger, Alix reaches out to well-liked, poised drama geek Ezra. With Ezra’s help, Alix hopes to prove to her coach that she deserves a spot at a prestigious hockey camp. Somewhere in the midst of hanging out at his family’s second hand store, going to a public ice skate (peak Canadian!), and helping to put together the school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors, Alix and Ezra start to crush on each other. However, Ezra’s best friend is upset that he's hanging out with Alix, and Alix’s mom (a Canadian-famous artist) isn’t a fan of hockey for her own reasons… among other impediments. Will it all turn out in the end? Spoiler alert: there’s a rom-com worthy happy ending!

Author-illustrator Hicks’ characters are the highlight of this story. Quiet, stoic-seeming Aliz is learning to deal with an excess of emotion all of a sudden, and navigating complex and fraught family relationships as well as a romantic relationship for the first time. It’s enough to stress anyone out, but Alix’s drive to improve in hockey fuels changes in other areas of her life as well. Alix is open to new experiences, and so she grows! Other main character Ezra seems like he has his life together, but he too is struggling – with trust, and to be a good person – to not take advantage of those who love him. Together, they’re a delightful bundle of hormones, issues, and identity crises. How does Hicks turn this into a viable rom-com after all??! 

First, with character revelations, like the fact that Ezra is still figuring out his sexual identity, but he can fight homophobic bullies in the meantime! And then a road trip complete with pancakes and a car breakdown, and finally, with a hockey game and boba tea. Throw it all together, and you get a graphic novel that is, at times, too cute for words!

Hicks’ illustrations feature black ink linework on a white background, with some spots of sky blue as highlights, and really focus on details that move the plot along. There’s a lot of movement and emotion in Hicks’ drawings, which for this book were drawn first digitally, and then inked on paper with a watercolor brush. Some of my favorite scenes were ones that included hockey play, but my absolute favorite panels were two where Alix is thinking about Ezra and has a bunch of little hearts floating around her head, and then they “pop!” like bubbles as she convinces herself that there’s no way that Ezra could return her feelings. All that to say, the story would be great regardless, but the illustrations add wonderful layers of enjoyment and meaning. 

In all, Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy is a satisfying young adult romance with LGBTQ+ representation, excellent swoon factor, and art that will knock your socks off. 

Recommended for: fans of young adult romances and hockey, and anyone looking for an authentic and heartwarming story!

a place to hang the moon

There are lots of excellent books for children out in the world. I would define "excellent" in a couple of different ways, but to really earn the title, a book should be interesting, funny, heartwarming (or in general make you feel some true emotion deeply). And a book needn't have all of the above, but it should have SOME of these elements. Kate Albus' middle grade novel A Place to Hang the Moon got just about the highest recommendation I could think of a few years ago from a trusted source (a fellow Cybils judge) online, so I immediately bought it. It then sat unread on my shelf for three years. *crying emoji* Luckily, a young person I know and love just turned ten and is a voracious reader, just like the characters in this book, so I picked up off the shelf and finally read it... so that we could have a wonderful chat about it when she does. And now that I know personally how lovely it is, I can't wait to see what she thinks.

 

It is 1940 and William, 12, Edmund, 11, and Anna, 9, aren’t terribly upset by the death of the not-so-grandmotherly grandmother who has taken care of them since their parents died.

But the children do need a guardian, and in the dark days of World War II London, those are in short supply, especially if they hope to stay together. Could the mass wartime evacuation of children from London to the countryside be the answer?

It’s a preposterous plan, but off they go– keeping their predicament a secret, and hoping to be placed in a temporary home that ends up lasting forever. Moving from one billet to another, the children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets and the hollowness of empty stomachs.

But at least they find comfort in the village lending library– a cozy shelter from the harshness of everyday life, filled with favorite stories and the quiet company of Nora Müller, the kind librarian.  The children wonder if Nora could be the family they’ve been searching for... But the shadow of the war, and the unknown whereabouts of Nora’s German husband complicate matters. 

A Place to Hang the Moon is a story about the importance of family: the one you’re given, and the one you choose.

Anna, Edmund, and William (listed in order from youngest to oldest, and William at a lofty 12-years-old!) are siblings growing up in the midst of London during World War II. They've been sheltered while living at their grandmother's house (because they are orphans), but now she's dead as well and they don't have a guardian. Never mind the bombs being dropped by German planes! So, they join a troop of kids from a nearby school and are evacuated to the countryside. An unlikely goal also resides in their hearts – to find a forever home in their billet, with a family who thinks "hang the moon," as their dead parents used to say. Of course, wanting something and making it happen are two different things.

Although Albus doesn't describe the countryside sparsely, per se, she saves her description mostly for interior scenes (with a few notable exceptions – rat-catching, for one!), and so most of the book indoor activities and interpersonal interactions. It is through these interactions that the reader really takes the measure of the siblings. William, responsible, solid, and a little bit anxious – made into a parent for his younger siblings and feeling the strain. Edmund, irrepressible and without filter, and with a strong sense of justice (and injustice). Anna still with some little girl softness and optimism that William especially doesn't want to crush. These children are thrust into life as evacuees, with no backup plan, and so they make the best of it – experiencing sometimes wonderful and at times awful things in search of a forever home.

 

One thing the author does particularly well is to incorporate books and a love of reading (and there are different flavors of this in each of the children) into the book in general. Allusions to the books that would have been popular in the 1940s are woven throughout the story and suffuse the book with a warmth and sense of time that makes it feel, as much as a modern book can, of that era. I told a friend of mine that it has Narnia vibes. There isn't a magic wardrobe, but the sibling adventures (and squabbles, of course) as well as the countryside away from the bombing and without parents – these things align. The mentions of A Little Princess throughout mirrored the wish-fulfillment that the children experienced, and heightened the emotional weight of the story. Albus knows how to turn on the waterworks. Also, I want to assure you, dear reader, that yes, there is a happy ending!

Something I am always thinking of, as an IB teacher, is who the intended audience of a text is, and how that may change its meaning. As an adult, I am not the intended audience for this story, but I found it extremely charming, cozy, and heartwarming. I believe its intended audience will find it an adventure and a half – American youngsters typically won't have experience (or even generational knowledge of) with gas masks, evacuations, rat-catching, victory gardens, and more. But with such a lovely story attached, they may become curious about these foreign objects and activities and end up enamored with the time period and/or historical fiction in general. 

In all, A Place to Hang the Moon is a cozy, heart-wrenching gem of a story that calls back to the classics of the middle grade genre. 

Recommended for: young people ages 8 and up who like sibling stories, adventures, and who understand the joy of reading a good book. Would be an excellent bedtime read aloud as well, for children ages 7 and up.

like so

How do you discover new picture books? I used to go into libraries and physical bookstores, but these days teaching takes up much more of my free time, and browsing in person feels increasingly indulgent and rare. School Library Journal’s free summertime digital event, Picture Book Palooza, has been a great resource for me these past few years – publishers highlight their latest releases all in one place, and I’m able to spend as much or as little time as I have on discovery. All of that to say, Picture Book Palooza introduced me to poet Ruth Forman and illustrator Raissa Figueroa's Like So, a beautiful picture book I am sure I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.

From bestselling author Ruth Forman and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honoree Raissa Figueroa comes a lyrical and vibrant picture book honoring the love and bond that exists between family and child even in complicated times.

Told from Nana’s point of view, this simple, affirming, and comforting read-aloud shows how every family’s love is natural and connected to the world around us. Just as the sun loves the day, the moon loves the waves, and the night sky loves the star glow…so is our love for each other: innate, wondrous, and infinite.

Ruth Forman’s narrative in Like So is about the love between a grandmother (or perhaps even a great-grandmother!) and granddaughter. That love spans time and place, and illustrates how love is felt in different contexts. Forman’s story begins with kisses and hugs exchanged in a domestic environment and then moves out into nature. Nature is used to compare how big their love is – with the titular repeated “like so.” Their love for each other is as big as butterflies on a sunny day, the moon and waves at night, days, trees, chickadees, and more. No matter where or when, the love between them is as big as the universe.

 

Neither grandmother nor grandchild are named or given those specific titles or relationship within the story, so it is possible that it could be about elders and children in general, or a great aunt and a great-niece, for instance. Through extended similes the text assures younger readers (or listeners!) that they are safe, loved, and secure. Overall, the word choices throughout are spare, simple, and poetic – with just a few words or a sentence at most on each page, and full phrases sometimes set over several page spreads, such as this excerpt:

 

“I got love like you

you got love like me

we got love

like so.”

 

Raissa Figueroa’s expressive and expansive art combines with the brief text for a picture book experience that seems at first almost entirely visual. The sky is a huge focus in the outdoor illustrations – appearing in ombre pinks, purples, and blues of daylight, sunset, and deep night, depending on the page. The paired figures of granddaughter and grandmother appear together both throughout the seasons and on every page until the last few, when they appear together only in the stars – indicating perhaps that the grandmother figure has passed away, but her love is still present. Little smears of white, which at first seems to be flour from working on a project together in the kitchen, and then maybe the glittering of butterfly wings, and then perhaps snow – connect each of the different scenes together, until it becomes the starlit love up in the sky.

 

In all, Like So is a beautiful marriage of both text and images that celebrates intergenerational relationships and love. It’s brief enough read to appeal to very young readers and their adults as well. There’s an excellent read aloud by the author available on YouTube, if you don’t have time to go out and get a copy right away!

 

Recommended for: read alouds for young ones ages two to five, and their adults, and anyone looking for stories that beautifully illustrate the relationships between elders and the very young.

 

Fine print: I received an advanced digital copy of the text from the publisher at Picture Book Palooza. I did not receive any compensation for this post.

the night mother, volume one

Middle grade fantasy graphic novel The Night Mother, Volume One by Jeremy Lambert, illustrated by Alexa Sharpe, and with additional design by Becca Carey was one of the titles on my 2024 book gift guide as a great pick for slightly older elementary school kids (ages 8-12), and I’d like to expand on that recommendation a little bit today. As I mentioned in the guide, this slim volume is “a full-color, gorgeously-illustrated series-starter of a graphic novel…that brings together: clocks, a girl who can hear the dead, and a ripping adventure story.”

Endless night befalls a sleepy seaside town, leaving it to young Madeline Tock to save her community from a threat known only as the Night Mother...

The moon is stuck like a broken clock in the midnight sky, the sun a distant memory. No one in this quiet seaside town can remember how long this unnatural darkness has lasted. No one, that is, except for the curious girl who lives in the graveyard, caring for the dead: twelve-year-old Madeline Tock. In gratitude, the departed whisper their worries to her, sounding just like her overprotective but loving father: beware this endless night and she who causes it.

Because there’s someone else who can hear the whispers, too...someone whose gown is a map of the cosmos, hair a tangled constellation, eyes like the lights of faraway stars. The Night Mother. Her elemental duty is to gather the souls of the dead in her lantern, then send them to their eternal rest as beautiful moonlight. But when her hunger for power drives her to take souls from the living, Madeline bravely stands up to defend her town and those she loves. Can Madeline help bring back the sun, or will she be lured by the starry promises of this mysterious woman?

 

Barnabus Tock is an inventor, clock-maker, astronomer, and gravedigger living on the edges of a small seaside town, and his passion (aside from studying the cosmos) is his daughter Madeline (or Maddy) Tock. The moon has stopped moving in the sky, and so it is forever night, and the lack of tides and cold mean that the world is in peril. Amid this upheaval, Maddy’s strange power, an ability to hear the dead, is causing her father extra stress. Is it related in some way to the legend of the mysterious Night Mother and the moon’s stationary position, and if so… is she in danger?

 

As a series starter, the focus of this brief volume (88 pages short!) is introducing the world the Tocks live in, setting up major character conflict, and moving the plot forward just enough to spark interest in the next entry in the series. And it succeeds at all three of these elements. Setting-wise, the Tock family’s abode is a church that has been converted into a scientist’s workshop, but Maddy prefers to roam as far as her overprotective father will let her – and so she hears the voices of the dead as they are floated down the river in coffins, and then helps her father bury them in their (grave)yard. Maddy’s strange upbringing is apparent right from the start of the story in the juxtaposition of vaulted arches, stained glass windows, and spooky voices emanating from closed coffins. From there, the plot develops as a stranger washes up in town during a storm, and Maddy begins to wonder who the Night Mother is, why she has stopped the moon, and what she might be hunting for.

 

As the protagonist, Maddy is the focus of the story, but there is enough time allotted on page to her father, the Night Mother, and the stranger dumped onto the town by a rogue wave (not to mention the voices of the dead!) that several characters feel fairly fleshed out. As a typical pre-teen, Maddy’s concerns are gaining independence, doing the right thing, and protecting her family. When her ideas and beliefs are challenged by the narrative, she is adaptive and brave – two excellent characteristics for a future heroine! There are lots of scene changes while running away, revelations and secrets, and magical powers used (and abused) enough for a whole series of stories. It’s an excellent adventure, and one that is sure to lure many readers in and leave them longing for volume 2.

 

While the story is inventive and engaging, Alexa Sharpe’s art is the absolute star of the show. The spooky graveyard, the vaguely ancient town architecture, the geometry of clocks and astronomical charts, lines of golden light emanating from lanterns… this is the stuff that makes for a rich visual text. There are layers of meaning and detail within the illustrations that will stand up to many rereads, and the movement and expression in the characters’ faces and bodies lends it a cinematic feel as well. Much of the palette is as it appears on the book cover – blues and greens, edging into yellow with splashes of light and violets and indigos in the shadows. The town is an exception, with the local inn’s interior depicted in warm, rusty firelight tones. All of this art is the medium for a story that will engage, entertain, and invite the reader into further escapades with Maddy and crew. 

 

In all, The Night Mother, Vol. 1 is a splendid start to an excellent adventure that spans space. Its spooky notes are balanced with non-stop action, sympathetic characters, and eccentric choices, and make for a delightful (and quick!) read.

 

Recommended for: readers ages 8 and up, and especially any who like Disney classic animated films.