“That self-same metal (the forge & fracture saga, book 1).” Williams, Brittany N. New York : ABRAMS, 2023.

Content Warning: Racism, Death.

This book was recommended to me because I really enjoy Rick Riordan’s books (both the ones he writes and the ones his imprint publishes). However, it also reminded me of Bloodmarked and Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. In short, this is a great book and a wonderful start to a new series!

Joan and James Sands work with the King’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting troupe. James is an apprentice actor and Joan is the fight coordinator, props person and all-around craftsperson for the group. Joan and James are part of a family that is blessed by the Orisha. Joan is a child of Ogun, the Orisha of iron, and is able to manipulate metal (making her the perfect person to take care of the blades used during Shakespeare’s plays, as she can fix any nicks and make them blunt or sharp). James is blessed by Oya, the Orisha of wind and death, and can produce a storm on cue and senses death. Their mother is a child of Elegua, the Orisha of crossroads and doorways, and can create doors to travel between far-away places. Their father is a child of Yenoja, the Orisha of the oceans and motherhood, and can control salt water and speed healing. Another gift of the Orisha is being able to tell who is Fae by a glow around them.

Joan and James’ parents tell them they are not spiritually mature enough yet to know certain things, but that doesn’t stop them from finding out that the Pact between human and Fae has expired, and the Fae are are spilling into the human world. Joan’s godfather, who was supposed to complete the ritual to renew the Pact, has been arrested, and no one knows where he is being kept. He, too, is a child of Ogun, and the only other child the god has claimed is Joan. But her parents don’t want her getting involved and completing the ritual.

However, when a Fae seduces Burbage and causes him and Shakespeare to try to kill each other during a sword practice, Joan uses her powers to wound the Fae, Auberon, with iron. She finds out one of the acting troupe is actually Fae and has shared his stories with Shakespeare, leading to him writing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But Auberon is a hundred times more scary than Oberon, and is now on a quest to get rid of Joan and take over the world. And he’s not the only Fae wreaking havoc in London and all over the world.

This book has romance, swordfighting, characters from history, and magic, but it also tackles more weighty subjects, such as racism. Joan and her family are Black, and are insulted in large and small ways every day. While this book is set in the 1600s, many of the things said and done to the Sands family happen to Black and Brown people still to this day.

If you have a child who is ready to move past Percy Jackson, but isn’t quite ready for serious romance yet, this series is a great stepping stone. While Joan has a crush on two different people (one male, one female), they do nothing more than kiss. This is the first of a series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

“Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life,” by Jonathan Van Ness. Copyright 2022, Harper One, New York (241 pages, $28.00).

Content Warning: Animal Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Eating Disorder, Addiction.

Similar to tone with Jonathan Van Ness’s first book Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, JVN’s second collection of essays combines humor and heartbreak in a genuine way. In Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life, JVN veers away from letting us in with their life and upbringing and instead tackles issues of identity and belonging, trauma, addictive tendencies, body image, racial injustices, and other issues that so many people can relate to and can learn from with JVN’s unique point-of-view.

Don’t worry, we do get some personal stories like JVN’s essay about grief and his cat – Bug the Second, but we also see JVN’s drive for learning and educating oneself about the deeper things that are below the surface and some steps on how one can stand up for those without a platform. For example, JVN explores the queer community in their hometown of Quincey, Illinois. A place that they never thought of as being a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ while they were growing up but learned that it was a haven all along with vintage drag queen William Kaufman (Irene West) and Carleen Orton creating safe spaces for the stigmatized community. In another essay, JVN goes through describing their white privilege and how wrong and biased the system can be and still is. JVN doesn’t shy away from the fact that they are not all knowing and that they are still learning. They also don’t shy away from the inequality that is lacking for ALL communities (not just LGBTQIA+) and how we, as a nation, are still marginalizing all minority groups. JVN understands that this is one of their biggest platforms to lend a voice to as much as they can and fame just now allows them to step up in a way that they couldn’t before.

All JVN wants is to create a legacy of joy and continue educating themselves and those around them so we can all have a better, kinder future.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

“Aquicorn Cove,” by K. O’Neill. Copyright 2018, Oni Press Publication (90 pages, $13.00).

Content Warning: Death of parent, Grief, Death.

This graphic novel about a young girl, Lana, and her return to her hometown with her father to help clean up the town after a storm is a lovely, touching, heartfelt story about protecting one’s own happiness. Without giving too much away, Lana befriends the magical Aquicorns while exploring the town and the reef and realizes that the decline of the Aquicorns and the fate of the town are intertwined.

Lana has a lot going on now though. Not only is she learning new things about her home town and how to save it but she is still processing the grief of her mother’s passing. I really like that O’Neill illustrates this and that the grief and darkness can coexist side-by-side with the prospect of new things and finding one’s happiness. O’Neill also illustrates how important it is for a young person to grow into their own guardian and advocate when those older than us fall short sometimes.

O’Neill’s illustrative style is so lovely; they’re able to showcase mood, movement, and the importance of the environment though their story, lines, and color pallets. It’s a “natural-pastel” like dreamscape that the reader is going to want to fall right into.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

The renaissance of Gwen Hathaway : a novel / Ashley Schumacher. New York : Wednesday Books, 2023.

Content Warnings:  Grief, Fatphobia, Death of Parent.

I adored this book. It is such a sweet romance, but it also deals with some heavy topics.

Maddie has spent her life on the road with her parents at Renaissance Faires. She does online school and helps her parents make jewelry and leather journals to sell. But this summer is different, because her mom died last year. She and her dad are coping, barely at times, but Maddie is seeing a therapist (virtually) and using a journal to note occurrences so she won’t forget. When she has to make a decision, she flips a family heirloom, a coin that supposedly tells you what to do. Her family has always said they rely on the coin to make big decisions – but if she doesn’t believe in the coin’s magic, can she believe that what her parents had was fate?

They arrive at her mom’s favorite faire, Stormsworth, and everything is different. The new owners have built a real castle, paved the paths and made everything nicer. Maddie isn’t sure if she likes the changes (she doesn’t like any changes right now), but she can still see some of what her mother loved there. The security guard is ready to throw her out when she’s exploring at night. But the owners’ son, Arthur, saves the day. When he asks her to meet with his dads the next day and become the princess of the faire, she reluctantly agrees. She also agrees to go on day trips with Arthur during the week, but she tries to resist actually becoming his friend. He calls her Gwen, and makes it his mission to make her summer a great one. She WANTS to open up and experience more, but will her grief let her do it?

As I said, there are some heavy topics. Maddie is, of course, still grieving. She is coping with her grief with a regimented schedule and an avoidance of people – she thinks if she doesn’t let anyone in, they can’t hurt her.

She also feels uncomfortable in her body because she is not model skinny. Like many teenagers, she’s hard on herself, and being homeschooled, especially with the traveling aspect of her schooling, doesn’t help. She has one good friend who used to be on the circuit with her family, but they dropped out and now have a permanent home. While she and Fatima text and talk regularly, it’s not the same as having a friend your age to spend time with regularly.

And she thinks Arthur is still pining after Bre, one of his friends from school, and she’s just a fill-in for the person he really wanted to be the princess. She definitely has some self-confidence issues. But it is fun to watch Maddie grow in confidence over the summer. If you are looking for a slow burn romance that is sweet and rated G, this is a great choice!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

“A door in the dark” Reintgen, Scott. New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2023].

Content Warnings:  Major Character Death, Murder, Torture, Fantasy Drug Use, Grief, Death of a Parent, Body Horror, and Gore

Ren’s father was murdered.  Now she competes against the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful families who killed him at Balmerick, the prestigious magic school that hovers above her city.  She has spent four years working four times harder with four times fewer resources to be at the top of her class.  Still, all this will be for nothing if she does not catch at least one powerful family’s eye.  And Ren is running out of time.

Then, there is an accident.  Ren, three of her fellow scholarship students, and two scions of the city’s elite are caught in a portal gone wrong while heading home from Balmerick.  This leaves them stranded in the Dires, days away from the city and surrounded by untold dangers.  They need all of their combined skills and magic to survive.

One of the students, however, is already dead.  Another member of their group killed him during the original turmoil, but no one knows who.  Each of them has their own secrets, Ren included.  Who will they decide to trust as the road ahead of them gets darker and darker, especially as the group realizes they are being hunted down by something more sinister than they ever imagined?

A Door In The Dark was introduced to me as an addictive young adult fantasy novel for fans of The Hunger Games, I found it to be a horror story that happened to contain magic.  While it starts at a school for magic, this is not a novel for those expecting to attend countless classes and learn the art of spell-slinging.  A Door In The Dark is a story of survival, desperate choices, and how far people will go for revenge.

Ren was a bright spot in this plot for me.  A Door In The Dark is told from her point of view as we understand every hurt she endures, every burst of anger she pushes aside to work with the group, and every bit of guilt she feels over split-second decisions that make the difference between life and death for her and her companions.  She is a morally gray underdog, a bookworm constantly calculating possible outcomes, and a grieving child seething with anger over the injustices in her world.

My biggest concern is that the promised sequel to A Door In The Dark will never be able to live up to this first book.  Why?  It seems to lean more heavily into a romance which was the weakest part of this entry.  We understand why this romance feels stilted from Ren’s point of view, but I am afraid this will fall flat unless the series can show that her love interest is just as complex and multi-faceted.  Fans will have to wait and see how the characters grow.

A Door In The Dark is a new horror fantasy from dystopian author Scott Reintgen.  I recommend it for fans of The Hunger Games, Shadow and Bone, or those looking for a dark take on class differences and what it means to survive in a world that is against you.

Rebecca Mincher is the Children’s Librarian Assistant for Graham Public Library. She can be reached at rzimmerman@alamancelibraries.org.

“Silver Alert,” Lee Smith. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2023.

Content Warning: dementia, cancer, child trafficking and death.

I love Lee Smith’s writing – it is very Southern, in that on the surface, it seems happy and lighthearted, but beneath the surface lies deep waters. Being a Southerner, her writing invokes the smell of salty breezes, the feel of humid air surrounding you, and the warmth of the sun beating down as you drive through the Keys in a convertible.

Herb Atlas is old and crotchety sometimes, but he’s mourning his third wife, who has early-onset dementia, and he’s been sick for a while, and he is tired of his kids telling him he can no longer care for his wife when they’re doing just fine, thank you very much. He just hired a young woman to give his wife Susan a manicure and pedicure, and surprisingly, she knows just what to do to keep Susan calm and happy. His family wants to send him and Susan to a retirement community with a memory care center, but Herb wants to stay at home for as long as possible. His new friend, the manicurist, might just make that possible for a little while longer.

His family is complicated, with three wives and stepchildren and their spouses. He doesn’t differentiate between those kids that are biologically his and those he got through marriage; he loves them all (but perhaps not always their spouses). He’s closest in some ways to Ricky, who belongs to his second wife, Gloria, and it’s Ricky he trusts to drive him to the doctor when he notices blood in his urine.

The manicurist, Dee Dee, is using a fake name (Renee Martin) because she is on the run. She hasn’t had an easy life; she got involved with some bad people, and committed a crime. She recently left a treatment center with her best friend Tamika, and now they’re living in a pink trailer in Key West, Florida. Dee Dee has a heart of gold, and is a little naive. She’s dating Willie, who is on a break from graduate school and lives in the Tree House. Dee Dee has started to believe in herself and wants to leave her past behind, but it’s hard to do when your roommate is falling back into the life you’re trying to leave. Tamika has fallen back into bad habits, and is dating a not-so-great man, but Dee and Tamika still dream of going to Disney World one day and meeting the princesses.

The narration of the book changes between Dee Dee and Herb, who both have really unique voices. This is a short book, but it carries great emotional weight. You can’t help but love Herb and Dee Dee, but I also commiserate with Herb’s family, who really just want the best for him. This is a book that might require a few Kleenexes, but will leave you feeling hopeful (and ready for a convertible ride in the Keys!).

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

“Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries,” by Heather Fawcett. Copyright 2023, Del Rey (317 pages, $28.00).

Content Warning: Blood, Kidnapping.

One of my new favorite genres when it comes to what I read is “cozy-fantasy”, a category that is not very large, but is certainly growing with new titles every day. It’s a nice way to reset my reading pallet in a low-stakes kind of way. Similar to how cozy mysteries aren’t as high stakes as mysteries/thrillers, the same can be said for cozy-mysteries versus high fantasy novels.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a wonderful light romance, magical inspiring atmosphere, low-stakes adventure that dives into the realm of the Fae by way of Emily’s diary and scholarly notes. We don’t have chapters, but dates, as we follow Emily Wilde (a professor from Cambridge who studies the different legends and lore surrounding magical beings) as she explores the village of Hrafnsvik and the stories of the Hidden Folk. Emily loves her work and what she does but does not seem to have a handle on people and how to interact with them; have to befriend a Brownie – no problem, have to figure out how you offended a whole town without knowing that you did and then fixing it – practically impossible for Emily until her work colleague/rival, Wendell, swans right in to “help her” with her research.

As Emily’s research progresses, and Wendell stays by her side as an annoyance, she begins to question what Wendell’s true motives are for being in Hrafnsvik. She begins to questions Wendell’s true intentions for being a scholar alongside her in this field of Faeries. She even begins to question herself at one point and her need for her scholarly pursuit.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a lovely read, like a day completely open from work and chores and a nice cup of tea on a cloudy day. Comforting, familiar, but full of possibilities.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

Children of the state : survival and hope in the juvenile justice system. Hobbs, Jeff; New York : Scribner, [2023].

Jeff Hobbs uses the stories of several children and adults involved with the juvenile justice system to illustrate the challenges the system faces, and the small, but significant, improvements that are being made.

Hobbs says that children everywhere make mistakes and do dumb things. But as police officers and prosecutors make the decisions on who to arrest, who to charge, and whether to send them home with probation or send them to a juvenile facility, their decisions often are influenced by systemic racism, familial/community support and money. In other words, kids in middle class and upper-class families are less likely to be arrested in the first place, and have the resources to hire lawyers to demonstrate that the child in question will be supported if put on probation. Poor families can’t do that, and so their kids end up in juvenile facilities.

Hobbs features two different facilities – one in Delaware and one in San Francisco – and one intensive non-profit program in New York City. He chooses to focus primarily on two kids, Josiah and Ian, and several staff members at the three facilities. Through these lenses, you are introduced to the juvenile justice system in three different areas of the country. While there are differences in how different states treat juveniles and where they are incarcerated, there are similarities, including the mandate to educate and rehabilitate children so they are less likely to commit crimes in the future. The adults featured in his book struggle with this mandate as they struggle through the COVID-19 outbreak, and general budgetary issues that all governmental agencies deal with. The kids are trying to figure out how to survive the experience of juvenile hall and how they can change their trajectories, even a little, to stay out of the penal system.

Hobbs has written a very compelling book that focuses on the good being done in the area of juvenile justice, but also doesn’t shy away from sharing what still isn’t working well. Hobbs doesn’t try to offer answers or really even commentary on what happens, but simply reports the stories as it was told to him.

If you are interested in the justice system in the U.S., you will find this book fascinating and informative.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

The Silmarillion. Tolkien, J. R. R. ; edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1977.

As a huge Lord of the Rings fan (I even have a Gandalf tattoo to prove it!), one of my resolutions for this year was to take on The Silmarillion, which J.R.R. Tolkien considered the most important of his works. The Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, high fantasy series of all time and The Silmarillion sets the stage for this and all his other writings.

The Silmarillion is a fictional historical account that spans many years, covering Middle Earth’s beginning and history. For a historical narrative that covers so much, it was not as boring as I thought it might be! While I didn’t anticipate so many of the stories being so dark and sad, much more so than Lord of the Rings, there were plenty of beautiful, heroic moments too.

It starts out telling the story of the creation of Middle Earth and the creation of the elves by the “Valar” which are like angels or gods. Later on, it focuses more on the storyline of elves and men and how the precious gems called the Silmaril so easily corrupts their hearts. It’s interesting to note that it follows elves and men because they’re the ones who are powerful and would be deemed the most “significant” in Middle Earth. That just made the story of The Lord of the Rings more powerful to me because, in that instance, the world was saved by hobbits who historically would’ve been overlooked and deemed insignificant.

Tolkien’s writing is beautiful, hard to follow at times, yes, but worth the effort. I found the last half easier than the first. I think it took me that long to start understanding the different terms and who everyone was. That’s the hardest part. It was exciting towards the end to start reading about things that happen in the Rings of Power show and the lead up to Lord of the Rings series.

If you’re a big Lord of the Rings or Rings of Power fan, you should consider trying out The Silmarillion! I used the “Tea with Tolkien” free study guide and found it immensely helpful. I can’t wait to reread it someday because I know my second reading will be even more rich than the first.

Abby Van Wingerden is a Circulation Assistant at Mebane Public Library. She can be reached at avanwingerden@alamancelibraries.org.

Miss Benson’s beetle. Joyce, Rachel. New York : Dial Press, [2020].

Content Warnings: Miscarriage, Suicide, Stalking, Death of a Parent, Aftermath of War

Set in 1950, Miss Benson’s Beetle is the story of a 46-year-old domestic arts teacher who realizes that she hates the person she has become and the life she is living.  So, she sells all her belongings and travels around the world to find what she has always dreamed of—the New Caledonian Golden Beetle—an insect that may or may not exist.  As you have probably already guessed, this is not your standard story of mid-life crisis, let alone historical fiction, and quiet, nervously polite Margery Benson with an encyclopedic knowledge of bugs, but little interest in human interaction is not your standard protagonist.

The zaniness only continues when Miss Benson is joined by Mrs. Enid Pretty, a shockingly blonde woman in a pink suit who seems like Margery’s complete opposite, flirting her way out of almost every situation and talking continuously through the rest.  She latches on to Miss Benson’s journey as her assistant, despite having little interest in New Caledonia or the beetle they are chasing.  Instead, Enid shows shocking displays of strength and desperately guards her heart-shaped valise.

Miss Benson’s Beetle is an adventure into finding yourself, into deep female friendship, and into the pervasive effects of World War II as only Rachel Joyce, the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry could tell it.  The story gets more and more ridiculous as you continue to read it, adding a murder mystery, the story of a traumatized prisoner of war, a hurricane, and bickering high society politics.  However, it also becomes more human.  Margery looks in the mirror for the first time and likes what she sees.  She and Enid learn to appreciate each other for exactly who they are now, not what lies in their pasts.  They both find strength and kindness in the strangest places.

It is no wonder that Miss Benson’s Beetle is one of Graham’s Breakfast Book Club’s favorite reads from this year.  The book bursts with heart and, while it touches on dark, hard topics, it never stays with them long enough to make the reader feel hopeless, always bouncing back with humor and beauty and love.  This novel of historical discovery is a wild-ride worth going on.  Like Margery Benson, you will not be the same person at the end.

Rebecca Mincher is a Children’s Library Assistant at Graham Public Library.  She can be reached at rzimmerman@alamancelibraries.org.