The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, $16.99
From 1960 to 1962, as Fidel Castro’s new regime changed Cuba, more than 14,000 Cuban children reluctantly left their parents for what was perceived as a safer life in the United States.
Author Gonzalez is the child of those immigrants, and tells the story of a Cuban girl and her brother who find a foster home in Nebraska. The story focuses on how the two forge a bond with their well-meaning (and ultimately beloved) foster parents, and sustain a connection with the family and friends they left behind.
It’s an insightful window into the aspect of recent history known as Pedro Pan. Ages 9 and up.
Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, $17.99
Ben Tomlin, 13, is unhappy when his parents, both academic researchers, decide to raise an infant chimpanzee as a social experiment. But in time, Ben sees little Zan as the baby brother he never had.
As Zan learns American Sign Language and communicates with him, Ben finds himself increasingly disturbed by his father’s coldly clinical view of Zan. As Project Zan progresses, so does Ben’s conflict with his father, and Ben’s protectiveness of Zan.
What’s best for a primate that shares 96 percent of human DNA? And how wide is the gulf created by the 4 percent difference? Ages 13 and up.
Readers intrigued by this book should also check out Douglas J. Preston’s novel “Jenny,” and look up the online article “Meshie: The Child of a Chimpanzee (A Creature of the African Jungle Emigrates to America”), by Harry Raven. Ages 11 and up.Brains for Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku by K.A. Holt, illustrated by Gahan Wilson, $15.99
This lively novel is fresh and funny from the beginning: “Brains for lunch again”/ “Stop moaning and just eat it.”/ “Lunch lady humor.”
At this school, when a students rolls his eyes, another catches the eyeball and hands it back. There’s new meaning to giving someone “the finger.” And dating raises the question of whether “just the girl for you” refers to being a friend or on the menu for dinner:
“Then I take a bite/ Juicy part of the left lobe/ It’s my favorite.” Ages 9 and up.
Kindergarten Diary, by Antoinette Portis, $12.99
At first, Annalina doesn’t want to make the transition from preschool to kindergarten because it is intimidating. Especially if she can’t wear her rainbow swimsuit, ballet skirt and cowboy boots (without socks)?
But then she learns that big kids aren’t allowed on the kindergarten playground, and that her new friend, David M., can whistle. And that she’s braver than Zoe, who won’t touch snails, although “maybe if snails were pink and sparkly, she would like them.” Ages 4 to 8
Don’t Touch That Toad! by Catherine Rondina, illustrated by Kevin Sylvester $14.95
Here’s a book for young “Mythbusters” fans, and students searching for possible science fair topics.
Is your mom right when she warns that cracking your knuckles will result in arthritis? Or when she says that eating raw cookie dough might make you sick?
Is it true that someone with an average life span eats 2 gallons of dirt by the time he dies? Does the “five second rule” mean you can safely consume a swiftly rescued morsel? Do elephants ever forget? Ages 8 and up.
I’ll Get There. It Better be Worth the Trip, by John Donovan, $9.95
This is the 40th-anniversary printing of a groundbreaking novel about a teenager struggling with his feelings for another boy. Davy Ross, 13, has an alcoholic mother and a dachshund upon which he dotes. His life is fairly lonely when he becomes friends, and then something perhaps more, with a classmate.
Their relationship, by today’s standards, is naive: “There’s nothing wrong with Altschuler and me, is there? I know it’s not like making out with a girl. It’s just something that happened. It’s not dirty, or anything like that. It’s all right, isn’t it?” Ages 13 and up.
