Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Fun graphic novel. This is also a Caudill nominee. Caudill is an Illinois book award that is voted on by kids and only kids. I like to read these each year to be ready to book talk to my students at the start of each year. I also like to book talk a few of them at the end of the year to encourage some summer reading! One thing I have noticed is that the Caudill books are often sad.
July Chen is able to see ghosts but her father tells her they are not real. So she spends her days pretending to not see them. But one day during Hungry Ghost Month (a time when the dangerous ghosts can run all over the living world), July saves a boy ghost from being eaten by a hungry ghost. But she soon realizes that William is not a ghost, he is sort of in between. He is still tethered to the living world. July and WIlliam set off to get William back to his body but they soon learn a horrible truth, in order for William to live, July has to die.
I was shocked by this! It was such a sweet middle grade graphic novel and then bam! Someone has to die? Wild.
There are a lot of really interesting things in this book as the two travel to the underworld. They end up at a market where all sorts of unique foods are being served. William wants to get some Forgetting Soup for his mom, so she won’t be sad when he is gone. But there is also food to make you dance or shapeshift. It is really weird. I really liked this one. It was sweet.
My favorite quote was, “A broken heart is a heart that has loved and been loved.” It’s so sweet.
Literary Coffee 