Aven Green Baking Machine (Aven Green #2) by Dusti Bowling and Gina Perry

Aven Green has fast become a favorite children's book character. In Aven Green Baking Machine by Dusti Bowling, Aven and her three friends have decided to enter a baking contest. Each of them has come up with a favorite recipe or altered one to make it their own. But, Aven is rude about the name of her friend Sujata's chosen dessert and refuses to even taste another friend's because it contains raisins, which she despises. By the end of their baking session, Aven has alienated everyone and her friends even decide to enter the contest without her. 

When a boy named Ren sits down to talk with her while she's sitting alone and sad on the playground, the next day, she finds out that his mother makes a delicious dessert containing bean paste. Once again, she is insensitive about a dessert that comes from another culture and makes a face, hurting Ren's feelings. But, then her grandmother teaches her a lesson in trying new things and being kind to friends. 

Aven apologizes to her friends and asks Ren if he'd like to join the baking contest with her. With the help of Ren and his mother, she discovers yet again that things that sound kind of awful can actually taste delicious. Who will win the baking contest? Will Aven be able to reconcile with her friends?

Highly recommended - A wonderful story about being kind and culturally sensitive and trying new things, which includes recipes, yay. I love books with recipes in the back. Because Aven is a child with no arms, there are always unique situations in the Aven Green books and while she was a little rude in this book for a time, Aven is a good person, very upbeat and quick to make friends. I always find myself smiling as I read the Aven Green books. A delightful middle grade read. 

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy! Aven Green Baking Machine is the second in a series but it stands alone fine. Here's my review of the first:

Aven Green Sleuthing Machine by Dusti Bowling

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Aven Green Sleuthing Machine by Dusti Bowling and Gina Perry

Aven Green is a girl with no arms who has decided to put her superior brain cells to use solving mysteries in Aven Green Sleuthing Machine by Dusti Bowling. At first, the mysteries are not all that mysterious. In some cases, she's the guilty party, which makes sleuthing very easy. But, some mysteries require more brain power. 

When a string of mysterious disappearances of food at the school along with gigantic messes happen, Aven is on the job. And, when she finds out her grandmother's dog is missing, crime solving becomes even more urgent. 

Working in sleuthing around her everyday life at home, at school, and with friends, Aven tracks down clues to the mysteries. But, will she be able to figure out what's going on at school and what's become of her grandmother's dog? Aven doesn't want her grandmother to be sad about her missing fur friend. 

Highly recommended - Hilarious and adorable middle grade fun; I smiled all the way through Aven Green Sleuthing Machine. I love the fact that Aven talks about her armlessness up front and then after that it's no big deal. You're reminded when she writes with her toes or picks up a fork with them, and when you see her in the illustrations. But nobody treats Aven like she's any different from them apart from helping her when she asks by doing things like holding a pen or flipping a button. One of my favorite scenes takes place when Aven has her friends over and they're karate-chopping pillows, which totally took me back to childhood sleepovers. 

Aven Green Sleuthing Machine is the second of the Aven Green books I've read and both serve as excellent lessons in not "othering" people who are a little different. Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus (link leads to my review) is a YA, while Aven Green Sleuthing Machine takes a step back in time to elementary school — third grade, as I recall. Aven is a great character, funny and delightful. I hope there will be a lot more books about her. I particularly loved the way she gave a title to every mystery, i.e. The Mystery of the Missing Donut (not from the book, just an example). 

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger

Ms. Graham teaches her 5th grade students to think for themselves, work together, and be aware of the ripples created by a single act. But when some of her students take an assignment too far, it's the teacher who ends up in hot water. What can they do to help save the best teacher they've ever had?

OK, that's a very simplified description, so a few more details. Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger is set in a California classroom with 31 students but the students are divided up into groups of four per table. Each table does projects, sometimes competing with the other tables, but the focus is on 8 students and the story is told through journal entries and letters. Each student has his or her own way of writing in the journal. Emily writes to a fake person named "Hope." Henry writes his entries as scripts because he wants to make movies, someday. Sharon writes her entries in verse. Blake is in remedial classes (the implication being that he's probably not great at reading and writing) and a talented artist, so he illustrates his.

In the beginning, the conflicts are mild. Emily is separated from her best friends. Sharon is lonely. Henry's sense of humor annoys Kayley. One of the children accidentally picks up another's journal and peeks, which leads to a discussion about privacy and how best to handle the issue. One of the students steals another group's project idea. But, then the children are assigned a project that requires more thought and they make the mistake of deciding to sneak out of their houses without telling anyone, to take notes for their project. Their hearts are in the right place but what they do is so dangerous that the parents become frantic, police are involved, and the teacher ends up getting blamed. One student, whose mother is an illegal immigrant, is put in a terrible position when attention is focused on the class. The complications and threads in this book are absolutely marvelous. It's amazing how many important topics Scheerger touches upon.

Oh, and there's a classroom frog (one of the children writes to the frog in his journal entries) who figures into bits of plot and gives the book and the final project their names.

Highly recommended - I love everything about this book. The characters are tremendously diverse and have vastly different home lives. They forge friendships, learn about privacy, gain courage (there are some inspiring Malala quotes included), show compassion, and figure out clever ways to solve problems together. There's a child with divorced parents: a traveling father and a depressed mother. One of the children loses his home. One is wealthy and privileged with parents who are used to swinging their weight around; she starts out a mean girl and ends up gradually softening. The illustrations are also a total delight. Because Blake's journal entries are illustrated and each journal entry or letter tells part of the story, portions are told through illustration.

Note: Gina Perry is not credited on the cover, but she is the illustrator and I think she certainly deserves mention. When the kids admired Blake's illustrations, I was nodding along. They were marvelous.

I received an Advance Reader's Copy of Operation Frog Effect from Random House in exchange for an unbiased review and I genuinely love this book. I laughed, I cried. Many thanks to Random House!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.