Happy
BOOK Birthday,
MARKED Arnold Lobel!
‘The Best At It’
By Maulik Pancholy
Rahul’s grandfather tells him the way
to survive middle school is to pick one
thing and be the best at it. But Rahul, an
Indian-American in a mostly white town
who is also struggling with his sexuality
and possibly OCD, just can’t figure out
what that special thing is.

YOUNG ADULT
‘There’s Something About
Sweetie’ By Sandhya Menon
After being dumped by his girlfriend,
17-year-old Ashish Patel gives into
his parents’ attempts at matchmak-
ing. They choose Sweetie, a smart but
overweight high school track star, but
Sweetie’s mother doesn’t think she’s
worthy of Ashish and rebuffs their
advances. Tired her mother’s criticism,
Sweetie accepts anyway in this delight-
ful rom-com.

‘Dragon Hoops’
By Gene Luen Yang
Rumor has it, this is the year the Dragons
are going to take the state championship. In
this nonfiction documentary-style graphic
novel, Yang, a teacher at the school,
follows the men’s varsity basketball
team and its players for an unforgettable
season. Each month we celebrate a
birthday of literary significance.

Arnold Lobel was born
on May 22, 1933. Growing
up in Schenectady, New
York, Lobel was often
bullied at school, but he
used his drawings and
stories to connect with his
classmates. Lobel’s hobby blossomed into a
successful career as a children’s book
author and illustrator. In 1961, six years after
graduating from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn
with a degree in fine arts, Lobel illustrated
his first book, “Red Tag Comes Back.” The
following year he wrote and illustrated “A
Zoo for Mister Muster” about the Prospect
Park Zoo in Brooklyn near the apartment he
shared with his wife, Anita, who also wrote
and illustrated children’s books, and their
two children.

During his lifetime, Lobel illustrated
almost 100 children’s books, many of which
he also wrote. An animal lover, he liked to
use them as characters to teach important
lessons. “Frog and Toad Are Friends,” which
was published in 1970 and catapulted Lobel
into the spotlight, was reportedly inspired
by the amphibians he used to keep as pets
during his childhood summers in Vermont.

The four-book “Frog and Toad” series
about friendship earned Lobel a Caldecott
Honor and a Newbery Honor in the 1970s.

He was awarded a Caldecott Medal in 1981
for his book of 20 original animal tales,
“Fables.” Lobel died in 1987. “He was only 54,” his
daughter, Adrianne, told the New Yorker.

“Think of all the stories we missed.”
‘The Epic Crush of Genie Lo’
By FC Yee
Genie’s not pleased when she learns the
weird new boy at her high school is really
the Monkey King and needs her help to
round up 108 demons that have escaped
from hell. Now Genie must divert her
attention from acing the SATs and
getting into Harvard to saving the world,
but first she needs a crash course in
Chinese mythology. n
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struggles to balance the competing
expectations of his Chinese and Jewish
grandparents as he prepares for his Bar
Mitzvah. He’s also worried about the
Cold War and digging a fallout shelter
with a friend—but who does David like
enough to share it with?