Why We Broke Up

Recommended grades 7-12.  Why We Broke Up is the story of a boy and of a girl.  Min and Ed were a match made in... Shakespeare.  He is a jock and she is "arty."    Unlike Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Min and Ed escape the relationship with their lives, if not their pride, and with a box full of artifacts.  In order to get past the heartbreak, Min undertakes the project of returning the artifacts to Ed, along with a 200+ page letter tracing the roots of their breakup.  Author Daniel Handler (the man behind Lemony Snicket and his Series of Unfortunate Events) brings intelligence and tragedy in the voice of Min.  Female readers in particular will be able to empathize with the thrill of her first love and the devastation of the fall out.  Artist Maria Kalman contributes color paintings of each item as it appears in the letter.  The paintings bring the stories into life and out of abstraction.  The marriage of the text and the images forms a sentimental, heart-wrenching tale that almost all readers, tween, teen, and adult can relate to.  Highly recommended, ****

Max Celebrates Ramadan

Recommended Grades K-2.  In Max Celebrates Ramadan (Picture Window Books, 2009) developing readers can go with Max, a young boy with a round and smiling face, to his friend Omar's house to join in Eid-Al-Fitr ("Celebration of the end of fasting") feast.  Omar and his extended family teach Max the traditions of the Islamic month of Ramadan and share their celebration with him.  Illustrated by Mernie Gallagher-Cole in simple lines and bright hues, characters are represented with a variety of skin tones but with the commonality of round, laughing, smiling faces.  Author Adria F. Worsham works in new vocabulary having to do with the Islamic holiday within a repetitive structure designed for newly developing readers as part of their Read-it! Series.  This easy-reader is labeled under the Red Level, specially designed to "present familiar topics using common words and repeating sentence patterns," according to the Read-it! guide on the opening page.  Though sentences are simple and repeat in structure, struggling readers may trip over the non-familiar words that don't follow the phonetic structures they may be learning.  With the guidance of a mature reader, young readers can learn as much as Max about Islamic holidays and traditions.  Recommended, ***