Tumble by Celia C. Pérez; Kokila, 368 pages ($17.99) Ages 9 to 12.

A 12-year-old girl begins a quest to learn about her biological father – after learning her stepfather wants to officially adopt her – in this heartwarming novel set against the colorful backdrop of the Mexican luchadore tradition of professional wrestling. 

Adela "Addie" Ramirez lives with her mother, a museum fossil preparator, and her stepfather, who runs a wrestling-themed diner in Esperanza, N.M. Her mother has never discussed Addie's father, so Addie does her own investigating and discovers the father pictured in an old family photo is Manny Bravo, a member of the legendary Bravo wrestling family.

Although her father fails to show up for their first meeting, Addie finds herself warmly welcomed by the rest of the Bravos: her grandparents, Rosa and Pancho, who met in their youth on the wrestling circuit; twin cousins Maggie and Eva, who are learning wrestling; and her Uncle Mateo, who has given up wrestling to sew costumes and masks.  

As Addie gets to know her relatives and tries to understand her father and his emotional distance, she is also navigating middle school  including coming up with a surprise theme for the annual 7th grade production of "The Nutcracker" and redirecting a prank involving stolen earthworms from the biology lab.

As her blended family – minus Manny – poses in Christmas sweaters for the annual family photo, Addie muses: "Anyone who saw us taking our photos would think we were a family, and we were. Long-lost family, stepfamily, blood family, chosen family...We were all those things."

Celia Pérez, author of "The First Rule of Punk" and "Strange Birds," says she "filled diaries with recaps of televised wrestling matches" while in middle school.

Nana, Nenek & Nina by Liza Ferneyhough, Dial Books for Young Readers, 32 pages ($17.99)

This charming picture book, of a little girl and her love for her two grandmas who live on opposite sides of the world, is the debut picture book of author-illustrator Liza Ferneyhough, who was born in Kuala Lumpur. 

Nina, who lives in the U.S., loves visiting her grandmothers, in Malaysia and England. Or as Ferneyhough writes: "Nana lives across the sea and Nenek lives across the other sea. Nina is somewhere in between them."

Children will love the marvelous side-by-side depictions of the Malaysian and English experience, a sort of "spot-the-differences" game. There's Nenek's home on stilts, a motorbike parked underneath and chickens pecking in the yard. Nana in a raincoat with umbrella stands in front of her stone house, her little dog at her side. Nana's garden has roses and hedgehogs, Nenek's has monkeys. 

There is Nina scowling at having to put on "woolly things" because it's damp and chilly and pictures of what she wears in England: mac, wellies, dungarees, cardigan, pinny. At Nenek's, she slips on flip-flops or "selipar" in the Malay language. There are different games, snacks, visits to the seaside, trips to the grocery. One fun page offers contrasting food items: in England, beans are for breakfast, in Malaysia, beans are for dessert.

How You Grow Wings by Rimma Onoseta; Algonquin Young Readers, 333 pages ($18.99) Ages 14 to 18.

This extraordinary debut novel from Nigerian writer Rimma Onoseta is the tale of two sisters seeking to escape their abusive home in modern-day Nigeria. It unfolds amid the toxic legacy of colonialism, the oppression of women and the ravages of racism, mental illness, family trauma and poverty.

The nonlinear narrative alternates between Zam, a shy girl who  avoids confrontation and is prone to panic attacks, and feisty older sister Cheta, who bears the scars of their mother's violent temper. The sisters share a room, but do not get along. (Zam, on Cheta: "the most prominent emotion she expressed was disapproval. It oozed off of her in waves. Her presence was so intense, being around her was oppressive.") Their mother, bullied in her youth for her dark skin, is resentful that her husband is not rich like his older brother and obsessively tries to lighten her skin, with nightly applications of damaging bleaching agents.

The novel begins with Zam arriving home on the last day of school to discover her parents, other relatives and the local priest in the living room watching her Uncle Festus beat his daughter bloody with a leather belt. No one present seems to question that the female should be the one punished for sexual transgression until beautiful Aunt Sophie arrives, berates the group and insists on taking the girl to the hospital. Uncle Emeke (who is the richest man in the village) and Sophie then take Zam into their home in Abuja, leaving a resentful Cheta to deal with their mother's violence alone. 

Cheta escapes to live with a friend in Benin City but struggles to find work and to fend off the drug dealers and predatory men who seem to be her only option. While they are set on separate paths, a brighter future beckons both sisters.

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Reviewer of children's books for the Buffalo News and retired after 36 years at The News, working as a copy editor, assistant city editor, feature writer, youth section editor and digital content editor.

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In the 72-year history of the National Book Awards, there have been 79 winners in the fiction category. Only 19 have been women.

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