Sit

July 31, 2017
The image of a seated child—a factory laborer, a boy imprisoned for reasons unknown, among others—opens each of these 11 taut stories, which span countries and cultures but are gracefully linked by themes of hope, identity, and resilience. Ellis (The Cat at the Wall) nimbly slips into the minds of her memorable characters, who weigh their options in the face of significant challenges. Humiliated by her mother and banished to the “time-out chair,” seven-year-old Macie takes refuge in the “forest house” of her imagination. A deeper psychological quandary emerges in “The Question Chair,” about Gretchen, a contemporary German girl who, after a field trip to Auschwitz, agonizes over what stance she and her parents would have taken during the Nazi regime. Several especially hard-hitting stories introduce children (an evacuee in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, an Afghan refugee escaping the Taliban) whose brave actions place them in life-threatening situations. Ellis’s protagonists share the common goal of survival—be it emotional, physical, or both—and her thought-provoking collection should spark wide-ranging discussions about choice and injustice. Ages 10–13.

October 1, 2017

Gr 4-6-A collection of short stories comprised of 11 tales set in different countries. In each story, a child encounters some form of social injustice and overcomes it or finds a positive outcome through some action on their part, however small. Each chapter features and is named for a specific type of chair. In "The Singing Chair," Jafar, a child laborer in a chair factory, longs to go to school. He scratches a poem on the bottom of a chair being shipped out and feels emancipated ("With this chair, I am here."). In "The Questioning Chair," Gretchen visits the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum with her class. She sits on a hole in the middle of a long toilet and imagines what it must have been like for the prisoners of the concentration camp. She considers what her parents or grandparents might have done during the Holocaust. In "The Freedom Chair," Mike sits on the floor of his cell where he is serving time for a crime; he's in solitary confinement for 72 days. He relies on his own inner strength and the kindness of a stranger. Jed sits on a fence outside the Amish school where his sister was killed, Barry sits in a food court as his parents tell him they are separating, and Noosla sits in a crowded, stinking apartment in Uzbekistan, waiting for an unscrupulous smuggler to decide her fate. Every story is poignant and provocative. Ellis writes with deep compassion and intuitiveness. This book is ripe with discussable, debatable issues and thought-provoking questions. VERDICT An excellent addition for classrooms and libraries.-D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
A collection of short stories organized around the mental image of a sitting child.It begins with a young boy, Jafar, who works in a furniture factory under an abusive boss, secretly attending a school for working children. He attaches a short poem to one of the chairs that he's made to be shipped off into the world, leading right to the next story, about a little girl, Macie, who defiantly sits in a timeout chair. The stories progress from one character to the next, continuing the thread. In "The Question Chair," German student Gretchen ponders the Holocaust while seated on a communal toilet during a tour of a concentration camp. In another story, Jed, an Amish boy, sits on a schoolhouse fence, anxious about the task set before him: to help restore a school that was ambushed by a shooter. His little sister had been one of the fatalities. The apparent purpose of the book is to draw attention to traumatic events in the lives of children the world over, but Ellis' attempts to personalize these stories through the main characters often leave readers working to fill in the gaps. Without resolution, the stories provoke unease, and how readers respond to them may depend in large part on whether they have suffered trauma themselves. The book is dedicated "to all who just need a moment of peace," but it may leave readers feeling far from peaceful. (Short stories. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2017
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* A verb, a command, and organizing concept, Ellis' title gives readers something to think about as each of the included short stories obliquely or directly centers on a chair, bench, or space of rest. In this way, young people around the world are linked. In an impoverished unnamed country, Jafar marks a poem into the chair he is sanding in a dusty factory, the act of creativity bringing him a sense of joy. A tatami in an evacuation center in Japan is where Miyuki sits as she hatches a plan to rescue her missing mother's pet donkey from the danger zone of a nuclear power plant leak caused by a tsunami. Other places to sit include fences, mats, a downtown bench, a molded plastic chair at a mall, and a pink time-out chair. Each provides a place that inspires its occupant to transcend the often-grim circumstances they face. These places act as catalysts to action and thought, where the protagonists mature as they face the future, whether it involves parental divorce, the death of a sister in a school shooting, or the world of political refugees. Beautifully wrought, the collection will appeal to thoughtful readers who appreciate Ellis' other globally aware works, like her well-known Breadwinner series. An excellent choice for all collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
Whether confounding, mean-spirited, or occasionally kind, the actions of adults are the focus of these short stories that all begin with a child sitting down. Contemporary-set but diverse in people and place, each story finds a child contemplating various situations in which he or she must make an important choice independent of adults hitherto relied on. An emotional and thought-provoking read.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)