Legendary Frybread Drive-In

 

Rating: 5 stars for time, space, community travel as well as accessible frybread made by elders

My Thoughts:

This book consists of short stories written by Native YA authors like Darcie Little Badger, Angeline Boulley and Cynthia Leitich Smith, who is also the editor. What makes this so interesting is that all of the short stories are connected by this mythical "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" that pops up in different areas, different times, different ways. Sandy June's is almost like the room of requirement. It just sort of is there, wherever Natives hangout and wherever it is needed. Run by elders, this is the place to gather for a game of DnD, a place to learn something you didn't know you needed to know, as well as a place to get some granny TLC.  I tried to figure out which one I liked, but the stories are so different. What keeps them together is the heartbreak of the Native experience, as well as the resilience that they find as they gather at the driv-in. With some of the stories, I was wondering if the authors shared their pieces as they were writing since it seems like some of the characters of one story are in the background of other stories. 

In the classroom, these stories can be used separately as model texts for different elements, like DMS as a vehicle to tell a story, or use the stories together to talk about the drive in as its own character or element that weaves throughout multiple stories. 

I need to read it multiple times, but I think this has the potential to be used in the secondary classroom. In addition, it ensures that teachers are able to bring in diverse voices to the English language arts classroom. Before  educators balk at the DEI, critical race pressures in schools to white wash our curriculum, know that the stance from the Department of Education in DC is that Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians are a protected community and that the government has a different relationship with these groups and do not plan to step in to dictate native Education.  This is our opportunity as educators to bring in more diversity through Indigenous writings.

There is a native Hawaiian poet in these short stories. It threw me off, but the Legendary Frybread Drive Inn shows up in Waimea with the Friday laulau plate special. This one is done as a short story in verse. The narrator has just lost her grandfather  and in the gusty, misty rains of Waimea, she has to go and get something for her mom before folks start coming over to their house after the funeral. Like all the rest of the stories, she magically finds herself at the Legendary Fry Bread Drive Inn. What makes this one so close to my heart is that who is dishing up the Friday laulau plate but her grandfather. That just put me in my feels. This one is special because it was definitely a mirror to my own desires as a little girl raised by my own grandparents, all of whom are now gone. 

From the Publisher:

Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter, love, Native pride, and the world’s best frybread.

The road to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread Drive-In slips through every rez and alongside every urban Native hangout. The menu offers a rotating feast, including traditional eats and tasty snacks. But Sandy June's serves up more than it hosts live music, movie nights, unexpected family reunions, love long lost, and love found again.

That big green-and-gold neon sign beckons to teens of every tribal Nation, often when they need it most.

Featuring stories and poems: Kaua Mahoe Adams, Marcella Bell, Angeline Boulley, K. A. Cobell, A. J. Eversole, Jen Ferguson, Eric Gansworth, Byron Graves, Kate Hart, Christine Hartman Derr, Karina Iceberg, Cheryl Isaacs, Darcie Little Badger, David A. Robertson, Andrea L. Rogers, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Brian Young.

Publication Information:

Editor: Cynthia Leitich Smith

Publisher: Heartdrum, an imprint of Harper Collin's Childrens Books (Aug 26, 2025)

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

 

Stars: 5 for being the kind of book that is a mirror and a sliding glass door.

My Thoughts:

This middle grade mixed voices, mixed form collection is definitely a mirror and a sliding glass door dedicated to the young people who had to shoulder the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in New York, but really across the United States.  In my own little bubble in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it was easy to be in my own bubble, but I was also watching my own students on Zoom disappearing behind shut cameras, closed doors, muted mics because they were also in charge of their younger siblings, etc. 

Although my husband and I had jobs, and mine was doable online and at home, our own adult children were having to make money delivering door dash and monitoring their own children's education at home. We were lucky that no one in our family got sick and/or died because my adult children have asthma or immuno-compromised diseases like lupus. Still this piece, taking place in a large, overcrowded city like New York where some young adults have lost both of their parents is chilling and heart breaking. This artwork of a novel brought all the feelings of helplessness and isolation back.  This historical fiction book (yes, they are middle grades, this is already historical for them) will remind readers to hold on tight to their friends, to their freedom to wander, as well as their freedom to gather together. The prose is lyrical and heart breaking. 

Pair this with other multi voiced middle grade books like the multi author anthology On the Block: Stories of Home edited by Ellen Oh,  and/or Recognize: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life edited by Wayde and Cheryl Wilson.

From the Publisher:

Grief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.

In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances:

• Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality.
• Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine.
• Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents.
• Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive.
• A social worker reflects on the ways the foster system fails their children.

From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publication Information:

Author: Mahogany L. Browne

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers (March 11, 2025)

Print length: 153 pages

On the Block: Stories of Home

 

My Thoughts:

Written by various YA and middle level writers, these short stories, tied together with the voices and foods and smells of mostly immigrant families will pull readers in, one story at a time. As readers, each story starts with the apartment number and then moves on to another floor, another apartment number, another family, another story. However, at the end, and especially at the potluck, it was so nice to see the families coming together. This was just a joyful book. It is a perfect summer read. It will also work as a chapter a day book for middle level readers. 

The appeal for middle level male and female readers is that the kids "on the block" sound like them. They have similar issues, and similar interests. It is a feel good book on diverse families, diverse cultures and using kindness as the answer to racism and hatred.  In a world full of misunderstanding and fear toward people that are "different," this book shows us compassion and appreciation for the power of difference in making this country a better place. 

This is a 5-star, buy this and use it in your classroom kind of book for upper elementary and middle school readers. 

From the Publisher:

2 Families. 12 Cultures. 1 Building.

Welcome to the Entrada, home to these everyday Americans, including

• the new kid on the block, who is both homesick and curious
• a Popsicle-bridge builder, a ghost hunter, and a lion dancer
• their families, friends, and neighbors from all around the world!

Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this anthology features award-winning authors Tracey Baptiste, David Bowles, Adrianna Cuevas, Sayantani DasGupta, Debbi Michiko Florence, Adam Gidwitz, Erin Entrada Kelly, Minh Lê, Ellen Oh, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Andrea Wang, and Jasmine Warga. These inspiring stories celebrate family, friendship, culture, and American immigrant life today.

Publication Information:

Editor: Ellen Oh

Authors: various (see above)

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 22, 2024)

Hardcover: 208 pages

ISBN 13: 978-0593648445

Grade level: 3-7

Man Made Monsters

 

My Thoughts:

This is not my genre. I think I just said this a couple of weeks ago for She is a Haunting, but this collection of tales through an extended family of Cherokees is a terrifying romp through America. Although this is not my genre, this is my publishing house and I trust the diverse taste that the editors at Levine Querido provide, so I quickly picked this up.

This collection gave me Something Wicked This Way Comes vibes. The Ray Bradbury classic about a circus that comes to town, the seduction and promise with a pulse of horror is mirrored by this collection by Cherokee YA author Andrea Rogers in her debut that will be a classic. 

This book was so terrifying that I also borrowed the audiobook just to hear the pronunciation of the Cherokee language in my ear as I was listening and reading. It also has one of the best lines I have read in a long time:

Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls.

The above quote is from the first story, "An Old-Fashioned Girl," about Ama Wilson. The German haunts me still.  With these types of books, I appreciate a good genealogy chart like this one, as well as language without translation. 

Some of the other stories that I am still thinking about include: "Maria Most Likely," "Amaʻs Boys," "Deer Women," "I Come From the Water," and the final story "The Zombies Attack the Drive-Inn!"

I gave away my advanced copy I picked up from NCTE, but I will definitely order more. 

From the Publishers:

Making her YA debut, Cherokee writer Andrea L. Rogers takes her place as one of the most striking voices of the horror renaissance that has swept the last decade.

Horror fans will get their thrills in this collection – from werewolves to vampires to zombies – all the time-worn horror baddies are there. But so are predators of a distinctly American variety – the horrors of empire, of intimate partner violence, of dispossession. And so too the monsters of Rogers’ imagination, that draw upon long-told Cherokee stories – of Deer Woman, fantastical sea creatures, and more.

Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe’s homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period that will leave readers longing for more.

Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers haunting illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary.

But don’t just take it from us – award-winning writer of The Only Good Indians and Mongrels Stephen Graham Jones says that "Andrea Rogers writes like the house is on fire and her words are the only thing that can put it out."

Man-Made Monsters is a masterful, heartfelt, haunting collection ripe for crossover appeal – just don’t blame us if you start hearing things that go bump in the night.

Publication Information:

Author: Andrea Rogers

Illustrator: Jeff Edwards

Publisher: Levine Querido (October 4, 2022)

Print length: 306 pages

Up All Night: 13 Stories Between Sunset and Sunrise

 

My Thoughts:

These short stories by YA authors are the perfect book 99 out of 100 for the year because they are from trusted YA authors and the stories are just twisty enough to enjoy the short story genre. If at the end of the story I am left saying WHAT???!!! that's a good sign. 

The short stories are as diverse in genre and character, but they all have a little bit of weird, which is expected in the wee hours of the night and early morning. Everything happens on one night so although we sometimes get a back story, the pacing is very dynamic.

Like chefs that have a distinct taste profile, many of these authors stick with their genres, but there are some surprises.  I was sure Maureen Goo would write a romance,  but she wrote a short story about three friends who lost their relationship along the way and one of the friends goes through a lot of trouble to conjure the past in "Like Before." It is not her usual romance, but it is still sweet and sad. 

From the Publisher:

When everyone else goes to bed, the ones who stay up feel like they’re the only people in the world. As the hours tick by deeper into the night, the familiar drops away and the unfamiliar beckons. Adults are asleep, and a hush falls over the hum of daily life. Anything is possible.

It’s a time for romance and adventure. For prom night and ghost hunts. It’s a time for breaking up, for falling in love—for finding yourself.

Stay up all night with these thirteen short stories from bestselling and award-winning YA authors like Karen McManus, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nina LaCour, and Brandy Colbert, as they take readers deep into these rarely seen, magical hours.

Full contributor list: Brandy Colbert, Kathleen Glasgow, Maurene Goo, Tiffany D. Jackson, Amanda Joy, Nina LaCour, Karen M. McManus, Anna Meriano, Marieke Nijkamp, Laura Silverman, Kayla Whaley, Julian Winters, Francesca Zappia.