Holiday Book Recommendations 2021: Best Books For Young Readers
It’s that time of year. Time to think about your holiday gifts. We asked our Master Instructors and Whale Rock Staff to share their top book picks from 2021 in three categories. For the next three weeks, we’ll introduce a new category for you to explore. Here are their recommendations for books to buy for a young reader.
Wishing you a lovely holiday season!
Instructors Picks
The book I would buy for a child / middle-grade reader or teen this year would be: A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers because through sparse prose, a young boy on the spectrum reveals heart and wisdom as he brings his family together.
Kathy Erskine’s latest books are Lily’s Promise and All of Us.
The book I would buy for a teen this year would be Code Name Badass by Whale Rock’s own Heather Demetrios. This novel tells the true story of Virginia Hall, a spy for the Allies during World War II. While many wrote her off for being female and disabled (she used a prosthetic leg), she helped train French Resistance fighters and organize sabotage missions to take down Hitler. Meticulously researched, it reads like a Jason Bourne novel.
Lisa Papademetriou is a former editor, the author of over 20 novels, and the founder of Bookflow.
Anne Ursu’s The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy would make a fabulous gift for a middle grade or teen reader.
It is a powerful and compelling fantasy with a deeply satisfying conclusion about a kingdom where every boy has the potential to wield magic to protect the country but every troublesome girl is sent off to Dragomir Academy.
Phyllis Root is the author of over 50 books including, most recently, Begin With A Bee in collaboration with Liza Ketchum and Jackie Briggs Martin.
Randy Ribay's Patron Saints of Nothing is a YA novel that centers around Jay Regeuro, who lives in Michigan and travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder during Duterte's war on drugs in that country. It's a compelling, complex, and searing read.
Gary D. Schmidt is the author, most recently, of the novel Just Like That and the picture book, One Smart Sheep.
Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh/This Is How I Know by Brittany Luby and Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley because the illustrations are bold enough to engage a very young child, but still contain telling details and convey lots of emotion. It’s a bilingual book about the passing of the seasons. The English text is poetic and spare. You can listen to the Anishinaabemowin text on YouTube. Beautiful enough that you’ll want to pin the dust jacket on your wall; interesting and evocative enough that readers of any age will pick it up again and again. (P.S. This is how you say the title: Mee-MAN-dah AY-zhee ge-ke-END-mah.)
Shelley Tanaka is the longtime fiction editor at Groundwood Books, where she has edited more than a dozen Governor General’s Award-winning titles. She is the author of thirty books for young readers.
Whale Rock Staff
Yara's Spring by Jamal Saeed & Sharon E. McKay is a hard-hitting look at life during the Syrian War through the eyes of a young girl. The novel fiercely refuses to shy away from the brutality, senselessness and issues of a revolution that killed so many innocent victims. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, the novel captures a country in turmoil in striking detail as Yara grows from age 10 at the start of war to age 16 when she awaits her fate at Jordan's Azraq Refugee Camp.
Heather Camlot
Whale Rock Workshops’ Editor & Workshop Host.
Heather is the author of The Other Side and What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows? amongst others.
The book I would buy for a teen this year would be Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma as it whisks you right into a world where you can find new (or rekindled) passions and talents. It reminds you that you can grow as a person, conquer fears and anxiety, and find what really brings you joy.
Sarah Cassell
Whale Rock Workshops, Social Media Manager