Grand Theft Horse

Neri, G. Grand Theft Horse. 2018. 240p. ISBN 9781620148556. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Gail Ruffus was one of thirteen children. Her father was a military officer, and her mother managed the household. The family moved a lot due to her father's postings. As far back as she could remember, Gail loved horses, and when the family moved to Texas and purchased a ranch, her dream finally came true when her parents offered her Spice, a beautiful horse.

Unfortunately the stay was too short for Gail, and soon the family was uprooted to move to Spain, so that her father could manage a military base there. Gail was forced to sell Spice. While living in Europe, Gail took dressage lessons, and learned to manage and train horses. Returning to the United States, Gail eventually found herself training horses. When she met a horse called Urgent Envoy, she immediately knew he was a race winner. Soon, Gail and Clayton, her lawyer, become co-owners of Urgent Envoy, and Clayton agrees to let her train him until he is ready to race.

However, Clayton soon starts thinking that Gail is taking too long to get Urgent Envoy ready, and through legal maneuverings he takes the horse away from Gail, and bans her from the race track. Urgent Envoy is raced, and is injured. Despite the doctor requesting months of recuperation, Clayton plans on racing Urgent Envoy again, which could lead to an even more serious injury, and possibly even death. 

So, on Christmas eve, 2004, Gail broke into the race track, and she took Urgent Envoy. What followed became a legal and emotional rollercoaster, with Gail accused of stealing her own property, and brought in on charges of Grand Theft Horse, a statute that had not been prosecuted since the 1850s in California. Through heart-ache and dedication, Gail eventually triumphs over Clayton, but Urgent Envoy never races again.

A wonderful story, Grand Theft Horse tells the true story of Gail Rufus and Urgent Envoy, and explores the seedy side of horse racing. Beautifully illustrated and quick-paced, fans of graphic novels will appreciate this story of grit and resilience.

Sisters Matsumoto

 Gotanda, Philip Kan. Sisters Matsumoto. 2019. ISBN 9781682660850. 

The three Matsumoto sisters have always been close-knit. They grew up on a prosperous farm in California, but when the U.S. was Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, their world suddenly changed. Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast were ordered to report to train stations, where they were loaded in trains with blinds to prevent them seeing where they were heading. They soon found themselves in an internment camp. As the war rolled towards its conclusion, the Matsumoto family was released, and the sisters returned to California minus their father, who died in the camp.

Back home, they soon realize that life will not return to what it was before Pearl Harbor. For one, their father, worried about who would take care of the farm while they were gone, and needing money to support his family, sold the farm while they were in the camp, and never told his daughters. Their house still stands filled with memories, but it will soon be occupied by someone else. As the sisters pick up the pieces of their pre-war life, they begin contemplating what their future holds.

Pair this audiobook with We Hereby Refuse and Displacement for a well-rounded view of the Japanese-American war experience in the 1940s.

Cemetery Boys

Thomas, Aiden. Cemetery Boys. 2020. 352p. ISBN 9781250250469. Available at FIC THO on the library shelves.

Despite being born in a girl's body, Yadriel has always known he was a boy. He came out to his cousin and best friend, Maritza, when he turned fourteen, and she was anything but surprised. He came out to his mother, who accepted the change, but his father found it rather more difficult, because Yadriel revealed at the same time that he is gay. Yadriel's family is a family of brujos, witches who help the spirits of the newly deceased find the afterlife, and who protect the world from malevolent spirits. Brujos also connect with their deceased relatives during the Dias de los Muertos. 

At age 15, every member of the extended brujo family is welcomed into the fold with their powers, either as a brujo, armed with a dagger to sever the tie that holds spirits back to this world, or as a bruja, who specializes in healing. Yadriel's father refused to perform the initiating ceremony for brujos for Yadriel, instead offering him the bruja ceremony. Yadriel refused, and now he is like his uncle Patrice, powerless and not recognized as a full-fledged member of the brujo clans.

Determined to show everyone that he is a real brujo, Yadriel plans to perform his own initiation ceremony, and he and Maritza smuggle themselves into the cemetery church next to their house, where he performs the ceremony and is anointed by Lady Death herself. Unfortunately, at the same time all of the brujos feel the pang of pain as one of their own dies. Miguel, who was on guard in the cemetery, is missing and his body can't be found. Yadriel decides to help by attempting to recall Miguel's spirit to get more information about his death, but instead he summons Julian Diaz, a semi-homeless boy who evidently has also recently died. All Julian remembers is that he was trying to protect one of his friends in a park, then nothing.

As Yadriel, Maritza and Julian begin crusing Los Angeles trying to find out what happened to Julian and to Miguel, Yadriel begins to fall for Julian, but Julian's only got a few days left as a spirit before it's time to send him to the afterlife. Knowing there is a killer out there, can there be is an happily ever after between boy and ghost?

This is an excellent story featuring characters not usually present in young adult books. Yadriel is conflicted with his emotions and his transition to a boy. Julian is angry with life and his circumstances, and being dead doesn't help. Maritza refuses to accept the heritage of her family, and proudly stands up for what's right. All of them have deep motivations and issues with trust and acceptance, and as a group of misfits they belong together.

In Search of Us

Dellaira, Ava. In Search of Us. 2018. 384p. ISBN 9780374305314. Available at FIC DEL on the library shelves.

Living in New Mexico, Angela has never known her father, and Marilyn, her mother rarely mentions him. When she does, tears and a complete withdrawal usually shuts down the conversation. All Angie knows is that his name was James, and he died before she was born. Her discovery of old pictures trigger a quest to really connect with her father. Searches on Ancestry.com don't yield anything useful, but she does discover he has a brother named Justin who might live in Los Angeles. Her ex-boyfriend Sam drives to California every year to visit his cousin, so Angie begs him to take her with him so she can find Justin and get answers about her father.

Eighteen years earlier, Marylin and her mother are forced to move back into her brother-in-law's apartment after they run out of money. Marylin had a career as a child model but things have dried up since she went through puberty, and every audition leads to heartaches when she is rejected. Marylin doesn't really care, however. She wants to go to college, and has her eyes set on Columbia. Her mother will never let her go however, because Marylin represents her ticket out of poverty to a life in a large house with nice cars.

When she meets James, the neighbor in the downstairs apartment, she is immediately smitten by him. Marylin is tall and blonde, and James is African-American, but both of them share the loss of a parent and a desire to escape their present conditions by going to college. Over the course of a few months, their relationship grows into love, but ends tragically.

The relationships of three mothers and daughters move this story forward. Each character is well defined and possesses intrinsic motivations. Angie's fears of being one in a seven billion world are real, but she learns during her trip that her mother did everything she could to ensure that Angie would have as happy a childhood as possible. She also discovers truths that ultimately make her a better person, even if they hurt. Fans of realistic fictions will love this story, told in alternating chapters, and will cheer as Angie and Marylin reconcile with each other and with the world around them.

Esperanza Rising

Muñoz Ryan, Pam. Esperanza Rising. 2000. 262p. ISBN 0-439-12041-1. Available both as an audiobook from Overdrive and on the library shelves at FIC RYA.

Esperanza and her family live on a rolling ranch in Mexico. It is the late 1920s, early 1930s, and the economy is collapsing. Her father, a wealthy rancher, employs many servants and field hands, but when he dies after being ambushed by brigands, Esperanza's life of pretty dresses and parties ends abruptly as she and her mother are forced to flee the wreckage of their home, abandoning her grandmother behind in a convent.

Pursued by her father's brothers, powerful men who have wanted the estate for themselves for years, Esperanza and her mother make their way north to the United States with the help of Miguel and his family, former field hands going to California to find work in the fields there. The comfort of life that Esperanza experienced before suddenly become only memories, as she must earn her living just like the other immigrants, doing hard work harvesting different foods.

When her mother falls sick, it is now up to Esperanza to earn enough money to pay her medical bills and at the same time save enough to bring her abuela to the United States. Esperanza must adapt to a new reality where the divisions that existed between her and her servants are now gone, and everyone needs to help everyone in order to survive. Based on a true story, fans of realistic and historical fiction will appreciate Esperanza Rising. 

The Lovely and the Lost

Barnes, Jennifer Lynn. The Lovely and the Lost. 2019. 328p. 512 mins. ISBN 978-1-982596-26-2. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

As a young girl, Kira was found lost in the forest, where she had been fending for herself for days, if not weeks. Cady Bennett and her team of search-and-rescue dogs located her deep into the woods. Kira was never claimed, so Cady adopted her and raised her as her own daughter, forming a family of three with her own son, Jude. For Kira, it took years of therapy before she could trust other humans again, and even now she doesn't like to be cornered, has trouble interpreting subtle signals people send, and would much rather work with her dog than with others. Nevertheless, she managed to make friends with Free, a neighbor girl, who joined Kira and Jude as a now infamous trio, and all three of them have joined the search-and-rescue business, training dogs that are later purchased by various organizations. Kira's goal is to become a certified search-and-rescue dog trainer.

During a regular training session, Kira's dog finds a strange man on their property. He is Bales Bennett, Cady's father and someone Cady hasn't spoken to in years. Even Jude has never met him. He brings news that a young girl has walked away from her camp site in the Sierra Glades National Park, and has now been missing for two days. As this case is similar to Kira's own life, Cady accepts to participate in the search, and she brings Kira, Jude and Free along to gain valuable field experience. They meet Gabriel, a ward of Bales, with secrets of his own and, like Kira, hard to approach.

Able to draw from her own past, Kira and her dog quickly locate evidence that the child was still alive recently, but there's clear proof that she is with someone who is intimately familiar with the forest. The case transforms from a missing person's to a kidnapping. As the teens spend time in the forest and in the local villages, they realize many visitors have gone missing in the last year. In a race against time to find the missing child, secrets will be revealed, lives will change forever, and Kira will need to decide whether she can put her trust back in humanity.

Author of The Naturals and Every Other Day, Barnes successfully builds a psychological thriller with a unique premise of a human / animal partnership and an emotionally crippled main character. Fans will appreciate Kira's tenacity and dedication to make sure this girl does not become like her.

The Gold Rush

Shoup, Kate. The Gold Rush. Part of the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion. 2018. 64p. ISBN 978-1-5026-2640-0. Available at 979.4 SHO on the library shelves.

In the early 1800s, as the United States was expanding westward, Mexico was freeing itself from Spanish rule. Seeking to add population to sparsely developed territory in the country’s north, Mexico actively encouraged Americans to move in, provided they followed Mexican law. In practice , this influx of people who then demanded rights and civil society similar to those of the United States led first to the independence of Texas, then to the Mexican-American War. As a result of this war a large area of Mexico was added to the United States as the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, California, and parts of Nevada and Colorado in the peace settlement that followed.

However, nine days before the peace treaty was signed, and unknown to both signatories, gold had been discovered in California. The news spread like wildfire, and triggered a massive population shift from the eastern United States to California, with the population of the area growing a hundred-fold from about one thousand non-Native people in 1848 to over 100,000 in 1849. Traveling by boat to San Francisco from New York or Boston took six months. Crossing the continental United States by wagon was faster, but it was also more dangerous.

This speedy growth led to the state entering the Union as a free state, and ultimately led to the Civil War. Local Native populations were dislodged and decimated to allow for the exploration and exploitation of the land. The free-for-all of the first year was replaced by an organized process, but the depletion of the gold vein was so thorough that by 1855 no gold remained but an ecological mess had been created. Over 300,000 people moved to California during this period, seeking to strike it rich. Though most didn’t and many left when the gold ran out, the majority stayed behind and helped the state grow.

Fans of history will appreciate how the gold rush shaped California and altered the history of the United States.

Books in the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series include Native American Resistance, Homesteading and Settling the Frontier, The Gold Rush, The Transcontinental Railroad, Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase, and Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War.

When Dimple Met Rishi

Menor, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi. 2017. 380p. ISBN 978-1-48147868-7. Available at FIC MEN on the library shelves.

Dimple Shah is looking forward to the rest of her life, despite her mother’s best efforts at marrying her off to a good Indian man. A recent high school graduate, she’s heading to Stanford in the fall to study web design. Before then, however, she’s hoping to attend a six weeks programming competition. Money is tight in her household, so it will be a problem paying the tuition for this short program. If she wins, Dimple will get to meet her idol, a star app creator. Surprisingly, talking her parents into paying for her participation turns out to be a lot easier than she expected. Generally, her mother would always try to convince her she needs to find a husband and she therefore needs to look pretty, but not this time. This time, she agrees to let her daughter go. Happy, Dimple is ready to compete.

Rishi Patel is heading to the same summer program with one goal in mind. To meet his future wife, Dimple. The Shahs and the Patels, who met each other eight years ago have arranged for Rishi to marry Dimple. Rishi has seen Dimple only in photos, but he already knows she’s the one for him. His parents couldn’t be wrong, could they? Rishi looks forward to courting Dimple and lavishing her with attention. He’s fine with an arranged marriage, because provides stability, honors an Indian tradition, and makes things easy for him. Only, when he first meets her and greets her with “Hello, my future wife,” she throws coffee in his face and wants nothing to do with it. Dimple, as it turns out, did not know her parents were setting her up with Rishi, and she wants him gone from this competition, especially since he’s not really into app design.

Unfortunately, it’s too late. Rishi requested Dimple as his partner, and since she did not express a preference they are now paired together, and they have to work as a team to complete an app. With Rishi being a hopeless romantic, and Dimple a complete cynic who’s mad at her parents for even trying to set this up, will the two of them be able to successfully compete this summer?

Saving Montgomery Sole

Tamaki, Mariko. Saving Montgomery Sole. 2016. 228p. ISBN 978-1-62672-271-2. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Montgomery Sole is interested in the strange and the weird, and finds paranormal mysteries fascinating. She co-created the Mystery Club at her high school with her best friend Thomas, and they were joined by quirky Naoki. They explore such topics as ESP and travel projection, and they spend an inordinate amount of time discussing movies. Mystery Club is the highlight of Montgomery’s high school experience. For her, high school is hard. Not so much academically, but rather because of her unique family. See, Montgomery and her younger sister have two moms, and they live in a small Californian town where not everyone is accepting of her parents’ “lifestyle choices.”

While researching information for the Mystery Club, she discovers a website selling the Eye of Know. Montgomery is immediately intrigued, and the cost, less than 10 dollars, is attractive enough that she purchases the Eye. When she gets it, she begins to wear it. Harassed at school by a boy named Matthew, Montgomery gets angry and wishes him dead. He collapses on the field right in front of her, and has to be taken to the hospital. People begin whispering about her. When she overhears teens mocking her parents at a soccer game, she wishes them harm, and the stands collapses, swallowing one of the girls. Is the Eye of Know giving her these powers?

As Montgomery struggles with what to do, the arrival of a controversial reverend and church increases her anxiety. Hoping to save the town from from sinners and misguided individuals like her parents, Montgomery decides to fight back. Kenneth, the reverend son, becomes the target of her ire. But as she becomes consumed with protecting her family from the reverend using the Eye of Know, Montgomery risks losing sight of what’s most important to her, her friends and her family.

Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War

Deibel, Zachary. Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War. Part of the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series. 2018. 64p. ISBN 978-1-5026-2643-1. Available at 973.62 DEI on the library shelves.

With the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and its exploration complete, the United States turned to surveying and occupying this new land. The idea of Manifest Destiny, that Americans were destined to control the continent from sea to sea, became anchored in the popular imagination. Who else was better suited to rule this space than White Protestants English speakers? As it continued to grow, the country began to encroach on European colonies, and acquisitions by peace or by force were inevitable. The new country acquired Florida, and open revolt in Mexico led to the establishment of Texas as a Republic. The conflict simmered and led to the Mexican-American War, where the United States army defeated the Mexicans. In the resulting peace settlement, the United States acquired Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California.

Relations with Native American groups encountered during the western expansion were also negative, with Americans stealing land and forcing Native Americans to move under duress. Manifest Destiny also impacted foreign relations, with the United States announcing that no European powers could dabble in the affairs of the American continents.

This period of expansion led to the country being what it is today, but also caused untold heartaches and destruction as whole ways of lives were irremediably changed.

Books in the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series include Native American Resistance, Homesteading and Settling the Frontier, The Gold Rush, The Transcontinental Railroad, Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase, and Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War.

Future Threat

Briggs, Elizabeth. Future Threat. 2017. 266p. ISBN 978-0-8075-2684-2. Available as eBook on Overdrive.

Six months ago in Future Shock, Elena, Adam, Chris and two others travelled forward in time to a life thirty years in the future. Sent to collect and bring back new technologies, they were instructed not to look into their future selves to avoid a sickness called “Future Shock.” Of course they did, and Elena discovered that she died shortly after her return from the future. She was able to modify it and avoided the fate that was waiting for her.

Now Aether Corporation is back, and they want Elena, Adam and Chris’ help again. A group has recently travelled to the future, but one of them did not return. The trio agrees to perform this action one more time, but only if Aether leave them alone afterwards, a condition the company readily agrees to. Once again in the future, Elena realizes that it is a lot better than the last one. Adam and her are married, they have a child, and together with Chris they run a multinational corporation designed to improve humanity. Things immediately go awry, however, when the group separates. Kevin, the missing man, is found dead alongside Chris.

Crushed by Chris’ death and what it means for the future, Elena and Adam are determined to return to the future yet one more time to see if they can fix things. That third future looks very bleak. And as things continue to go wrong, more complications arise and more lives are lost. Should they risk one more trip to help those they love or is the future already mapped out for them?

What Light

Asher, Jay. What Light. 2017. 250p. ISBN 978-1-59514-551-2. Available at FIC ASH on the library shelves.

Every year, Sierra and her parents head down to California, south of San Francisco, to sell Christmas trees from their farm in Oregon. Sierra has never known a white Christmas at home, but she relishes the adventures that take place one month a year. Leaving Rachel and Elizabeth, her best friends from Oregon, behind, Sierra reconnects with Heather, her best friend from California. This year, however, promises to be bittersweet. Sierra overheard her parents talking, and it looks like it makes no financial sense to return to their lot another year. Her junior year in high school might be the last she spends Christmas time in Oregon.

This year, Heather is insistent that Sierra should find a temporary boyfriend so that they could double date, given that Heather finds her current boyfriend to be uninspiring and plans to dump him, but not before the holidays. Sierra wants none of this, however. Her parents are very strict about dating local boys, as her father and mother met on this very lot years ago when her father and her grandfather used to come down and sell their trees. They know it’s hard to make such a relationship work, and they only want the best for Sierra. And Sierra is not that interested anyway.

But when she meets Caleb, she is intrigued. First off, he has a nice dimple. Second, he seems very mysterious. Heather tells Sierra that rumor has it that Caleb attempted to stab his sister a few years ago inside their homes, and that this sister no longer lives here in California. Despite this warning that Caleb might be dangerous, Sierra finds herself falling for him hard. When she discovers that he uses his tips from the restaurant where he works to purchase Christmas trees for folks who can’t afford him, her opinion of Caleb increases. How could a boy who do such nice things do the unspeakable? The more time she spends with Caleb, however, the more time Sierra realizes that Caleb is not only capable of doing such an action, but that is has clouded his entire existence. Can true love help Caleb find the courage to finally conquer his demons and redeem his life?

Fans of Sarah Dessen’s Lock and Key, Saint Anything and The Moon and More will enjoy this story of hope, love, and redemption.

It All Comes Down to This

English, Karen. It All Comes Down to This. 2017. 368p. ISBN 978-0-544-83957-1. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

In 1965, the Civil Rights movement is in full swing in the United States. The Civil Rights Act was just passed the year before, but Jim Crow laws remain on the books in much of the country. California is more free than most states, but even there being African-American is to be part of the struggle for equal rights. For twelve-year-old Sophie, however, these issues are nothing but background noise.

As a member of the only African-American family in her neighborhood, she will be entering 9th grade along with her best friend Jennifer, who also happens to be twelve also as well as white. Her older sister Lily, meanwhile, will be moving to Atlanta to attend Spelman College, a black college. Sophie will find herself alone with her mother, who owns an art gallery, and her father, who is lawyer. Sophie dreads the countdown to August.

A trio of sisters down the road from Sophie have a pool, but she cannot swim there as their parents forbid colored people. Sophie is often reminded that she is African-American, but she doesn’t see what race has to do with it. Interested in writing and acting, Sophie and Jennifer seize the chance to audition for a community play, but she knows she will be the only African-American kid to audition. She plans on memorizing not only her part but all of the play, just to get a fighting chance.

With her parents’ marriage falling apart and a mistress in the picture, Sophie finds herself spending more time alone with Mrs. Baylor, the new housekeeper. Lily, meanwhile, finds herself attracted to Nathan, Mrs. Baylor’s son, who’s blacker than night while Lily could almost pass as white. This attraction is frowned upon by their mother, through the bias that lighter skin is better.

As Sophie experiences racism and as the summer days slowly drain away, the racial tensions in Los Angeles near the boiling point. Can Sophie learn to cope with the cards she’s been dealt? For a boy’s perspective on a similar theme, read Armstrong & Charlie, taking place a decade later in Los Angeles.

Armstrong & Charlie

Frank, Steven B. Armstrong & Charlie. 2017. 304p. ISBN 978-0-544-82608-3. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

The year is 1974, and Charlie is about to enter sixth grade at Wonderland Elementary, his neighborhood school. It’s a big deal, because by the end of sixth grade Charlie will be older than his older brother Andy, who died last year after an asthma attack that sent him to the hospital. This death has broken his family, and his mother rarely comes out of her shell anymore. On top of that, none of Charlie’s friends will be attending school with him. All have switched to other schools since Wonderland became a school participating in Los Angeles’ opportunity busing program. Students from a black neighborhood in central L.A. will be coming on the bus to attend Wonderland.

Armstrong is one of these kids, and he’s also not looking forward to sixth grade. Not only will he not attend his own school with his friends, but he will have to get up at 5:30 every day just so he can catch the big bus all the way up Laurel Canyon. The school won’t have any African-Americans aside from those being bused to Wonderland, so his opportunity to make friends will be small. Armstrong has five strong sisters and a stay-at-home father who lost a leg fighting for the U.S. military in Korea. His mother works hard as a nurse, and Armstrong has to be the man of the house, fixing things his father can’t.

The two of them meet on the first day of school at Wonderland when they are assigned seats next to each other, even though they are nowhere close in the alphabetical order. Armstrong is determined to exercise control and authority over the other kids through his prowess at sports and academics, but so is Charlie. What begins as an intense rivalry between the two boys slowly evolve as they realize that they share more in common than they thought …

A great friendship novel, Armstrong & Charlie allows the reader to see how two very unique individuals can look past their differences and resolve their conflicts in a humorous yet poignant tale. For a look at the issue of racism from a girl's perspective, take a look at It All Comes Down to This, which also takes place in Los Angeles, a decade earlier.