The Dog Heist / Banned Together

The Dog Heist by Dani Jansen

Dani Jansen’s first book – The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life – made me laugh out loud. I promised myself to read her next book, which is The Dog Heist.

The Dog Heist is about more than stealing Lyra the dog: it is the intricate story of two tweens, Valery and Caleb, who navigate the complexities of life, friendship, social responsibility, and learn independence. It is also about realizing that sometimes the person you least expect to understand you become exactly the friend you need.

The strength of this book is that it captures the experience of Valery and Caleb who learn the skills necessary to communicate. It’s not easy to get across what you are thinking. We aren’t born brilliant communicators. Learning to communicate is sometimes an awkward process. In The Dog Heist, the parents and teachers in this story, are supportive and helpful mentors, without being didactic. And, oh. The whole, “going-outside-in-a-hurricane-and-finding-your-furious-frightened-parents-waiting-when-you-get-back” scene? Perfect.

Canadian Middle Grade Fiction: pr8591251

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Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights by Debbie Fong

Banned Together is a collection of personal essays, short stories, comics, poetry and interviews from 15 diverse authors exploring book bans through multiple perspectives.

Among the collected works is Robin Stevenson’s essay that unpacks her misrepresented book and the ensuing American Supreme Court case about access to 2SLGBTQ books – or the choice to opt out of occasions where 2SLGBTQ materials would be presented.

In another chapter, an author writes about her relationships with two male friends, who felt she overreacted, when she reported a misogynist “joke” that was serious enough to have the perpetrator expelled from university. It’s interesting to see how she associates that experience with the theme. There is a piece by Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir. One of the best aspects of this book is that it offers a list of banned authors and books to support, and other ways youth can protect their right to read. I wonder about using a book like this as the backbone of a book club. It’s humbling and inspiring to read about courage. Authors are amazing.

YA Fiction Anthology: pr7781981

This month’s Kids & YA review was written by Helen Wilding Cook, a Juvenile & YA Fiction Print Selection Specialist at Library Bound.