The Secret of Goldenrod by Jane O'Reilly 370 pages

This book made the preliminary nominees for the Mark Twain award, but didn't make the cut to final nominee.  It gave the impression that it was going to be a ghost story, but certainly never followed that track.  I'm still not sure what the explanation for the odd...very odd happenings would be, if not haunting, but it was made very clear throughout the book that this was not the solution.  Most of the children who have read it tell me they absolutely love it, so I'm going to go with their review.  It was a sweet story about a lonely girl finding her place in a new setting, but it never really wowed me.  That being said, there were some very nice touches to the book, so it's worth placing in the hands of kids 3rd grade and up. 

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman, 324 pages

Britt-Marie first turned up in another Fredrik Backman book "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry."  She was the fussy neighbor who never had anything nice to say and was not very likeable.

Fredrik Backman specializes in writing about curmudgeonly people with a heart of gold.  These folks might not have family that consists of relatives, but by the end of the book, they have family that consists of people who love and appreciate them. 

Britt-Marie had to leave home to find her place and that family, but she does so with satisfying results.  Verdict: heartwarming, sweet and uplifting; another winner from Swedish author Fredrik Backman. 

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin 343 pages

This book was so amazing.  I try to read a few chapters of all our new books, just so I can speak knowledgeably about them to our young patrons.  I couldn't put this one down.  The story is about a girl, Suzy, who is just in the first part of seventh grade who decided to stop speaking.  She states that small talk amounts to nothing, so she may as well say nothing to begin with.  Suzy notices that she becomes nearly invisible, a fact she thinks very interesting...do we see more with our ears than our eyes, she wonders?  The main part of the story, though is her moving through a heavy guilt and grief.  You don't find out until near the middle of the book why she feels guilty, but the grief is due to her best friend drowning while on vacation.  Suzy hates that because of something she did the last image she has of her friend was Franny walking away in tears.  Suzy doesn't want to be the bad guy in this story and becomes fixated with finding out if perhaps a jellyfish sting is really responsible for the drowning.  There were several points in this story where I felt for this kid so much, I was crying.  The author did an excellent job of giving this character a believable voice and a realistic story.  No one was over the top mean, or precocious, or exuberant.  It was a very believable story, which was why it was so moving.  I highly recommend this to all ages, but probably 5th grade and up will appreciate it the most.