ALAN Picks (May 2025)

ALAN Picks: Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month, Mental Health & Coming of Age

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature several books both middle grades and young adult by Asian and Asian American authors. There are also recently released books that tell stories of coming of age, social justice and mental health. Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrations by Lisa Sterle is a graphic novel about a girl trying to fit in with the popular girls, who also happen to be werewolves. Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa is a middle grade historical fiction, coming-of-age story set in Japan. Yolk by Mary H.K Choi examines the relationship between two sisters who used to be very close and are now estranged; it also addresses mental health and eating disorders. Song of Silver, Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao is a YA fantasy about colonialism,Chinese history and mythology and also has environmental elements. Scattergood by H. M. Bouwman is a middle grade coming-of-age novel set in rural Iowa during WWII. Shackled by Candy J. Cooper is a book based on a true story about corruption in the juvenile justice system in a Pennsylvania county. 

Looking For Teen Reviewers: If you know students who are interested in writing book reviews of recently published young adult and middle grade books, let them know they can write for ALAN Picks too! 

ALAN Picks Book Selections: ALAN Picks accepts reviews of books published from spring 2020 to present-day, including soon-to-be-released books. This gives ALAN members who are interested in reviewing books more great titles to choose from, as well as accommodate some great books released during the beginning of the pandemic that still deserve highlighting. If you have some books in mind that you would like to review, please reach out to me!

Let Us Know How You Use ALAN Picks! If you read an ALAN Picks review and end up using the book with your students, let us know! We want to hear all of your great stories and engaging ways you are using young adult and middle grades literature in your classrooms. Remember, ALAN Picks are book reviews by educators for educators! Click on the archives to see previous editions. 

Submit a Review: Would you like to submit a review? Check out ALAN Picks for submission guidelines and email ALAN Picks Editor, Richetta Tooley at richetta.tooley@gmail.com with the book title you are interested in reviewing. Rolling deadline.

–  Richetta Tooley, ALAN Picks Editor

---

Synopsis: Squad is a YA graphic novel written by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Lisa Sterle.  The main character, Becca, finds herself in a small, upper-class town after living in L.A. all of her life.  She quickly makes a good impression on the three most popular girls in her high school – who just happen to be a pack of werewolves.  Desperate to fit in and revel in the same popularity that they do, Becca joins them in their murderous ways with the condition that they only kill predatory high school boys…but as time passes, their hunger grows, and Becca finds herself in very morally grey territory.  This story reflects the internal battle many teens face when peer-pressured, and how quickly the consequences can spiral out of control.

Review:

I enjoyed diving into this easy-to-read and colorful graphic novel.  It represents a universal feeling of wanting to belong that everyone has felt at some point in their life, especially in their teenage years.  The graphics in this novel are truly stunning and interesting to look at, and bright colors create some really nice irony and juxtaposition to an otherwise, rather dark storyline.  The pacing is well-done and had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the resolution at the end of the book.  The story itself reads like a Mean Girls retelling with supernatural elements, which was very unique and intriguing.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Elements:  This graphic novel features many thematic elements that students could further analyze and relate to other works and media, as well as their own experiences and lives.

• Sexuality
• Feminism
• Rape Culture
• Misogyny 
• Belonging
• Peer Pressure
• Loyalty/Betrayal
• Ethics
• Parent/Child Relationships

Essential Questions

• How do our parents influence our perception of who we are and what our futures will hold?
• Why might some consider peer pressure to be a greater influence than the influence parents hold over us?
• Who gets to decide the consequences of an individual’s actions?  How is society shaped to handle/accept these decisions?  If the consequence is the same, does it matter who carries it out?
• We all know that peer pressure can lead to bad decision-making (particularly bad decision-making in this novel) – do you think real-life situations can ever spiral out of control to this degree? If you take the supernatural elements out of the story, are there still real-life consequences that could have the same effect?

Suggested Teaching Strategies/Activities to Use:

• As table groups, have students pick out a panel from the graphic novel that they found intriguing or eye-catching.
  • Groups will analyze these panels through a literary and media lens: what are the physical attributes of the panel? How do they create literary meaning and symbolism?
  • Groups will take turns informally presenting their findings and inferences about the panel to the rest of the class while it is projected for all students to see on the board.
• Discuss the real-life consequences of peer pressure.
  • Create a list of activities/materials students are likely to indulge in as a result of peer pressure (nicotine products, sex, bullying, new clothing, drugs, alcohol, etc.)
  • Read some articles as a class about real-life examples of peer pressure having drastic consequences.
• Have students create body maps for the four girls in the story: Becca, RiRi, Amanda, and Marley.
  • What are these characters motivated by?
  • What are they still yearning for?
  • How do they identify? How does that influence how they are perceived by the other three girls and the rest of the school?

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative:

• As an extension of the group activity/presentation, have groups submit an annotated panel of the comic with their findings and inferences.
• Students are tasked with a homework assignment after reading half of the novel in which they will write about their first impressions and predictions as to what may follow in the last half’s chapters.

Summative:

• Using a somewhat similar illustration style to the novel, instruct students to create their own series of panels, enough for a page, that adds something to the original story.  Students can center these panels around an aspect of the story they may still have questions about. Perhaps a deeper exploration of Arianna’s training on how to be an Alpha? Or Becca’s past with her mom? 

Reviewed by Lillian Mantooth, a student at the University of South Florida 

---

Synopsis: Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa follows character Tomoko as she moves from living in Japan with her mother to her aunt’s extravagant house and lifestyle. The story is told through the eyes of Tomoko as she watches this family dynamic and how it quickly becomes part of her way of life as she lives with them. Tomoko, a 12-year-old Japanese girl lives with her asthmatic cousin Mina and her family for a few months while her mother is busy with her career and school during 1972. During her stay Tomoko enjoys school, learns to play volleyball, talk about boys, and maturing. 

Review

Through reading the characters’ perspectives, I really enjoyed the story. Author Yoko Ogawa expertly shares their heart warming, brilliant story. I enjoyed reading Tomoko’s experiences and memories.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes Connections:

In Mina’s Matchbox the novel explores themes such as: 

• Economic/Societal Classes
• Companionship
• Hardship 
• Tragedy and struggle

Possible Essential Questions:

• Why do you think Tomoko pretended to be reading the books Mina was using from the library to the librarian? 
• Do you think the specificity of the pigmy hippopotamus and its role in the story stood for deeper symbolism? What could the hippo represent? 

Possible Teaching Strategies and Activities:

• Discuss the different characters and how they affected the maturing of Tomoko 
• Discuss the Olympic events when watching the tournament and the tragic events that took place

Formative and Summative Assessment Suggestions:

Formative: Drawing: Students would spend time reading the book and prepare a list of different themes and create an illustration. Students will turn in a detail oriented and professional looking piece of art.

Summative: Literary Map: Students will create a literary map of the major events that took place within the novel Mina’s Matchbox – does not have to be in chronological order but must look well throughout and professional.

Reviewed by: Alexandria McLaughlin, Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Student at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

---

Synopsis: ayne and June Baek are estranged sisters both living in New York City whose relationship has suffered after moving away from their home state of Texas. Their lives are complicated; Jayne is in fashion school, living in a difficult roommate situation in a rundown apartment, with problems piling up higher and higher. June is a seemingly self-assured professional working in finance struggling to keep it all together while being faced with a monumental diagnosis. Their lives soon become entangled once again, and both sisters must learn to rely on one another. 

Review

Mary H.K. Choi gives Jayne such presence and emotion, the words seem to melt away to reveal the hard truths of Jayne’s inner self. The angst of emerging into adulthood while carrying the baggage of your past is palpable in Choi’s writing, the heartbeat of the characters reflected in the rhythm of the pages. Though Jayne and June’s relationship is fraught with anxiety and confusion, it is easy for readers to feel the protectiveness and the love each sister has for one another. Their relationships with one another reflect the ways that both sisters must learn to look after and take care of themselves. This is a story about family, love, mental health, and the grief and joy that comes from being alive. Through the creation of such a rich internal world, we are able to experience these emotions for ourselves all over again. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Essential Questions:

• What role does culture, community, and family have in the lives of an individual?
• How do societal and cultural expectations impact mental health?
• How does race impact the way an individual moves about the world? 
• How does immigration, culture, race, and community intersect?

Thematic Connections:

• Value of family/community
• Impact of culture
• Race and racism
• Mental and physical health, including eating disorders
• Immigration status, inside and outside of the United States

Activity

Community is a very important aspect of Yolk, about what it means to have it, and what it means to be separated from it. 

Sample questions: What does community look like for you? How is it important? How is this relevant to the text? Do you relate to the characters’ search for community?

Instructions: Students will be put into small groups of no more than four where they will discuss as a group their responses to the questions listed above. This small group activity will allow for shared ideas and also strengthen classroom community. Their goal is to brainstorm about the impact the community has, as well as the ways in which the community fits into their individual lives. This will take about 7 minutes.

The second part will be done individually. Each student will write a letter to someone that is important to them in their community. This can be anyone: a family member, friend, teacher, coach, etc. They will write about the ways in which that individual shows community as well as why they are important in the student’s life. 

Formative and Summative Assessments:

Formative: Students will respond in their readers notebook to daily prompts at the beginning of the class regarding the novel. These responses will be a tool for the teacher to get a gauge of student learning, and also learn more about individual students. The prompts will ask students to write their thoughts and questions on the text, as well as ways in which the text relates (or doesn’t relate) to them in their lives through windows and doors. 

Summative: At the end of the unit, students will utilize what they have learned over the course of the unit to create a personalized project that places the novel within a larger societal context. This summative assessment project is designed to be very individualized and allows for a lot of student choice. Students will draw on their previous knowledge, including but not limited to previous formative assessments and activities, as a jumping pad for further research. The goal of this assessment is to allow students the opportunity to explore aspects of the novel and world they find important, relatable, or interesting.  

Examples: Website demonstrating beauty standards throughout decades in America in contrast with Korea as well and a select other countries. Utilizing evidence from Yolk to discuss how beauty standards impact people today and have for centuries. 

Fictional diary entries that detail the impact of migration on the writer. Use Yolk textual evidence to help the writer relate to the experiences of the characters within. 

Reviewed by: Payton Parker, Secondary English Education major at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. 

---

Synopsis: Song of Silver, Flame like Night follows two teenagers as they attempt to stop imperial invaders from finding their four ancient demon gods. Set in the fictional land of Haak’gong, the narrative follows Lan, a song girl with a scar on her wrist in the shape of a scroll she can’t identify, that only she can see. Her world gets turned upside down when she meets Zen. Zen, a powerful practitioner, can perform fabled magic said to have been lost many years ago. When Lan demonstrates great power in a moment of intense emotion Zen recognizes that she is no usual song girl and they start out on a journey that takes them across the nation searching for the answer to Lan’s scar, power, and past. Little do they know that this journey will have them facing questions about what they are willing to lose in order to learn the truth. 

Review

Song of Silver, Flame like Night seamlessly balances fantasy worldbuilding with colonial allusions and commentary in order to create a world which deals with difficult questions of identity under imperial rule. Deeply imaginative, Amelie Wen Zhao creates a magical landscape that is rich and intricate, making readers wish they too could learn the art of practitioning. She weaves Chinese mythology and history within the landscape of the story, creating a world which both reckons with colonialism and recognizes its own beauty and mythology. Never a dull moment, the characters travel through bamboo forests, mountains, and across long terrains throughout their journey. The characters are heartfelt and flawed and the story contains compelling twists which will have you at the edge of your seat and rooting for them till the very last page. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections Analysis:

• Colonialism
• Environmentalism
• Power and Responsibility
• Balance and Harmony

Essential Questions:

• How can fantasy elements work to reframe historical narratives? 
• How is environmentalism written into text to make it more interesting to the modern reader? 
• How can we integrate ancient lore into modern stories?
• How can we write about colonialism in a way that is accessible to teenagers?
• What does the diversity of the characters add to the text?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

In the world of Song like Silver, Flame like Night, everything in existence has qi. Qi is energy which can be either negative or positive, with most things having a balance of both negative and positive energy. People called practitioners have the ability to channel this qi. An assignment for this book could be having students go outside or pick a location and write down if they think the objects around them would have negative or positive energy. This would help students be more aware of their environment and their relationship with nature. It could also serve as a grounding technique for kids who struggle with anxiety. 

Another activity the kids could do would be to pick an element from the book they were interested in that was unfamiliar to them and have them do research about it and present that research to their peers.

Formative and Summative Assessments:

Formative: Have students research Chinese folktale and lore and see if they see any connections between the stories they found and the book. Teachers can then help facilitate a conversation about how folklore informs the story and the characters. 

Summative: Because this book left on a cliffhanger, and there is no sequel (yet), teachers could have kids write an outline for a possible sequel. They could outline what will happen to each character in the sequel and why this would be positive for their character development. Creating a full outline for a sequel would help the kids learn about character development as well as story structure. 

Reviewed by: Gracie Neirynck, senior at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. 

---

Synopsis: In June of 1941, the United States had not yet entered WWII, though the War and its effects are evident in twelve-year-old Peggy’s hometown of West Branch, Iowa. Through the newspaper and radio, she learns about events in other parts of the world, but it is not until she meets a Jewish refugee at Scattergood Hostel that the reality of the war comes into focus. All at once her typical farm life is turned upside down by the appearance of this young man as well as the leukemia diagnosis of her cousin. Peggy makes it her job to save her cousin, turning to science and then religion for answers. Ultimately, she realizes that life is not like the mathematical equations which come easily to her, instead it can be messy and void of straightforward answers. 

Review

Bouwman weaves together a rich story about family, grief, and coming-of-age. The small American town is an unlikely setting for a WWII story, but one that works well to illustrate another side of the effects of war. With a subtle hand, Bouwman introduces readers to farm life in the United States as well as key events and figures in world history. 

While young readers can relate to Peggy’s coming-of-age story, they will also glean what it was like to live without modern medicine or technology and the struggles and triumphs of such a life. Even Peggy’s parents send her mixed signals regarding where she can go and what she can do with her life. Her mother is content in West Branch, but a young female volunteer at Scattergood Hostel opens Peggy’s eyes to opportunities beyond her family’s farm.

Bouwman wastes no time diving into Peggy’s story. The first page establishes the obstacles Peggy is up against, and by the conclusion of the first chapter readers are acquainted with the characters, setting, and the stakes. The first-person narration and the fluid prose enable the story to flow easily while keeping readers engaged. Peggy’s thoughts allow readers to fully immerse themselves in her daily life and the time period.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Topics:

War, Grief, Coming-of-age, Religion, Medicine, Gender Norms

Preliminary Activity:

1. In pairs or individually, students will visit a library and ask for assistance with research on one of the topics below. They will report to the rest of the class not only on their topic, but also on the research process and the tools and techniques they used to gather information. This is also an opportunity to introduce or further develop students’ knowledge of documentation styles, such as MLA.

Topics for Further Exploration:

• Society of Friends
• Rabbi Nachman
• Scattergood Hostel
• Dr. E. C. MacDowell
• The Stock Market Crash
• Robert Losey
• Medicine in 1940s
• United States USS Kearny
• John Keats
• Benjamin Franklin
• Siege of Leningrad
• Farming in 1940s United States
• Westerbork

Discussion Questions: 

1. How did your research process, tools, and techniques differ from those Peggy used in the novel? Which would you prefer to use?
2. Provide examples of scenes when Peggy’s gender and/or age prohibit her in some way. Provide examples of situations when her age and/or gender work to her benefit or disappear altogether.
3. Chapter thirty-two is entitled “I lied to Delia.” Discuss the lie and whether you agree or disagree with it. Much of the novel swirls around lies, near lies, or omissions of truth. Do you believe there is a time and place for lies, and do you agree or disagree with the examples in the book?
4. List ways in which your life is similar and different to Peggy’s life. What would you like and dislike about living in Iowa in 1941?

Creative Exercise:

1. Choose a character and write their next chapter(s). While remaining historically accurate, write about the character’s life in the months or years following the last chapter of the novel. 

Reviewed by: Stephanie Terrill, visiting assistant professor, Massachusetts. 

---

Synopsis: Reporter Candy J. Cooper sheds light on the irreparable damage two judges wrought on the youth of their Pennsylvania community. Through her extensive research, Cooper walks readers through the history of corruption in Luzerne County, from the mining days of the late 1950s and child labor to when corruption snaked its way into the juvenile courtroom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Cooper describes how judges Mark Ciavarella and Mike Conahan used their power and privilege to contrive a diabolical plan to fatten their pockets at the expense of impoverished youth and their families in Luzerne County- open juvenile detention centers and make a profit off of every bed they filled with a juvenile offender, no matter how minor the offenses.  

Review:  

Though a very short book, this story is incredibly compelling. Through court statements, interviews, images, and incriminating documents, readers learn exactly how far people are willing to go to use their power and influence to gain more power and money, regardless of who is harmed along the way. Cooper also points out how negative perceptions of teens, such as the “super predator” of the 1990s, cemented the misguided belief that old-school discipline was an effective way to hold kids and teens accountable for bad choices and typical misconduct. This misguided belief is exactly what led judges Mark Ciaverella and Mike Conahan to commit countless crimes against children, by breaking the laws of the judicial system to make a profit off filling detention centers. Readers learn through Cooper’s interviews with the youth, now adults, how their illegal imprisonment and charges often led to years of mental health crises and addiction that was caused by the trauma of being separated from family and sent to juvenile detention centers or therapy adventure camps. What is most alarming is how fear and silence are weaved throughout this story of the Luzerne County victims. So many adults witnessed the crimes these judges were committing- lawyers, detention center placement officers, etc.- but no one spoke up or advocated for the kids. These judges were in powerful roles and would bully anyone who tried standing in their way into silence. And so, their abominable crime schemes continued for years.  

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes for Analysis:

• Class difference
• Class systems
• Social injustice
• Complicity
• Juvenile justice systems
• Adolescent trauma
• Family separation

Essential Questions:

• Does justice always prevail?
• Do punishments always fit the crime? 
• How dangerous can silence and complicity be in the face of injustice?
• Do laws always serve to protect?
• Are all laws effective?

Teaching Strategies and Activities: 

 Pre-reading Journal Question: Describe ways young people break rules and what consequences they deem fair for breaking those rules.  

Formative Assessment 

• Listen to the podcast The Kids of Rutherford County. Compare the experience of adolescents in Luzerne County to those in Rutherford County. Discuss similarities in both cases- crimes children committed, ages of defendants, presiding judges, consequences.  
• Create one-pagers about the people in both the book and podcast who uncovered corruption in their local judicial systems and finally stood up to injustice.  

Summative Assessment: Create brief research presentations about programs that serve as better alternatives to juvenile detention centers and include information about how these alternative programs have served juvenile offenders in more positive ways.  

Reviewed by: Leslie Brenner, School Library Media Specialist at St. Joseph High School, Indiana