A catch-up post:

Testing the Ice: A True Story about Jackie Robinson, by Sharon Robinson, with illustrations by Kadir Nelson

In this charming historical picture book, baseball great Jackie Robinson’s daughter, Sharon, shares her memories of growing up in Connecticut and ice skating on the pond by her house the first winter she lived there. Internationally acclaimed illustrator Kadir Nelson provides nostalgia-tinged drawings for the book that help to immerse you in the story. This was the Connecticut title on the NYPL’s Read Across America: Young Readers’ Edition list from this spring. And as I’d never known that Jackie Robinson had retired to Connecticut, the book served the dual purpose of amusing and informing.

Pages: 40. Library copy.

Brick by Brick, by Charles R. Smith, Jr., with illustrations by Flyod Cooper

Written in verse that gets a little sing-song-y, the picture book has beautiful illustrations demonstrating the who and how of the construction of the White House. I hadn’t known that slave labor had contributed to the building of the White House until a few years ago, so I recommend it to everyone so they aren’t equally surprised by this overlooked piece of information. This was the D.C. title on that Read Across America list.

Pages: 32. Library copy.

Goldie Vance: Vol. 1, by Hope Larson, with illustrations by Brittney Williams

In this historical fiction comic collection, savvy 16-year-old Goldie Vance lives in a Florida hotel with her father, who is its manager. While her job is technically to park the guests’ cars, she also spends a lot of time shadowing the in-house detective, hoping to find a case to crack. With the help of her best friends, Rob and Cheryl, and Diane, the girl from the record shop, on whom she has a crush, Goldie manages to get into plenty of hijinks, but also to solve some pretty outlandish 1960s crimes, including the case of the stolen necklace. A charming addition to the MG/YA teen sleuth genre featuring a diverse cast and an intersectional title character.

Pages: 112. Personal copy.

A Treacherous Curse, by Deanna Raybourn

In the third book in the Veronica Speedwell series, Veronica must solve the mystery of the disappearance of a wealthy Egyptologist’s lead archaeologist — who just happens to be Stoker’s ex-partner and the man who ran off with his wife, leaving him for dead, years ago. When the man goes missing from his dig with a valuable but “cursed” diadem, Stoker is the lead suspect, and Veronica will stop at nothing to clear her friend’s name — and to impress her estranged father. We know no man is a match for Veronica, but can she beat Anubis, who’s been sighted wandering the nighttime streets of London intent on exacting revenge for the diadem’s theft, to finding the man? A well-paced sleuthing series set in Victorian England, iconoclastic Veronica Speedwell is a joy to read.

Pages: 308. Library copy.

Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman

This collection of stories about the Norse gods and goddesses are original Gaiman takes on classic Scandinavian mythology. Covering their complete timeline, from origin stories to Ragnorak, when the time of the gods and goddesses in Asgard is said to come to an end, each story both stands on its own and interlocks with what has come before and what is yet to come. Thanks to the Marvel films, and supplemented by Gaiman’s accent reading his own work, listening to the book was an enjoyable experience, with the ability to envision many of the characters as portrayed by their cinematic counterparts. I didn’t know a lot about Norse mythology outside of what’s referenced in the Marvel films and didn’t fully follow all that’s included in the movies, so these tales felt both familiar and illuminating, which is exactly what one would hope for in a modern collection of mythology. Highly recommended.

Pages: 304. Library audiobook.

Total Pages for May: 796