Courtney Pyche
It's been a long time since I've read about the Logan family, and after reading this, I think I may go back to read the books that missed. This book is the story of Cassie and her family from WWII through the Civil Rights Movement. It is a testament to the strength of Black Americans and a well-written narrative that illustrates how widespread racism in America always has been and how the realities of WWII helped pushed the Civil Rights movement into being. It's a long book with many horrifying, terrifying, and saddening moments. But, it is also a book with love, success, and so many other wonderful movements throughout. This book is for all readers—historical fiction lovers, realistic fiction lovers, adults, and teens would especially love this one.
This was one of those books that I could just not put down. It's historical fiction about Fusia and her sister, Helena, but you'll learn that it's based on the true story of these people who still have family members today. Throughout this book, I was on the edge of my seat. The author does an incredible job of illustrating how the mundane things of life continue despite being starving, poor, and terrified of being murdered by the SS for doing the right thing or doing nothing. There are happy moments, sad moments, moments where you are just as terrified that the story is about to end, and overall, this was a great read. Fans of Ruta Sepetys and good quality historical fiction that is more narratives than focus on fact-telling will really enjoy this one. I highly recommend it!
I completed Ryan's complete training for librarians before I read this book, so a lot of the stories and tips were familiar to me.
Ryan is really great at putting into words the right way to serve and help others. His stories are very moving and easy to learn from. This book gets four stars because at times the way that he explains things makes me a little uncomfortable and I worry about his tendency to generalize and stereotype. Overall, this is a great book for anyone who serves the public in a third space—Starbucks employees, you may want to read this too
Dear Justyce is a sequel to Dear Martin, but it reads more like a companion novel. It follows the life of Quan from childhood to present day where he is awaiting trial for murdering a police officer. This time, the book flips back and forth from letters to Justyce and chronological story telling. At times, the book gets hard to read because the author uses big spaces to illustrate when Quan is feeling overwhelmed or having a panic attack, but it is a quick read.
Quan's story is one not often told in fiction. I love how this book centered around his thoughts of really, when did things change for him. Was it a moment? Or was it inevitable? The story is empowering, albeit it is obviously not we know these tragedies tend to go. But, I think Stone gives us an example of a different kind of story that we should be able to tell and should be our goal. If all children in juvenile detention centers had such a dedicate support group, maybe their stories would end more like Quan's. It's a good read, especially for fans of Jason Reynolds and all who appreciate YA Fiction with lots of character development.
“You can't change how other people think and act, but you're in full control of you. When it comes down to it, the only question that ever matters is this: If nothing in the world ever changes, what type of man are you gonna be?” –Doc, page 205 of the eBook version
Dear Martin is about a teenage boy in Atlanta who is begins to have a greater awareness of the racial tensions and violence in his community after he is wrongfully detained. He tries to make sense of these interactions through the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. He begins to write letters (hence: ‘Dear Martin') to help him reflect on his progress.
At times, the situations that Martin finds himself in seem too coincidental and too unrealistic; however, I think it was balanced well. The characters had depth and were believable. There is a side plot with Martin and a girl he has a crush on that was both a sweet distraction and another look at the effects of racism. The author seemed hesitant to explore this path further, and I hope that if Martin's story continues, she sees where this idea goes.
This book is really a short story in graphic novel. It is about Yummy, an eleven year old boy from Chicago who was lured into gang life, murdered a girl, and then was murdered by his own gang brothers when the police didn't drop the case. What a terrible, horrific true story. What is also terrible and horrific is that I hadn't heard this one yet, despite it being so widespread on the news not too long ago. How many more of these stories are untold? How many years of life have been lost to these circumstances? It is too awful to comprehend. This is a great read for fans of Jason Reynolds.
Wow! This book was not what I expected at all. The twists, the turns, and the final reveal all came off excellently. The story is extremely well written, and the characters are all likable. Elatsoe is a story that is worth a reread to catch all of the little details that lead up to the final mystery being solved. Absolutely worth the read!
It is such a shame that this book was released in the middle of the summer of the pandemic. I feel it hasn't gotten the attention that it deserves. “This Is My America” gets at the heart of the Equal Justice Initiative's mission in this fictional tale about the Beaumont family that feels all too real. Tracy has been the past seven years writing letters every week to Innocence X (an organization with a mission similar to EJI) to help her father get off of death row and be released from prison because he is not guilty. She shows early on that she is willing to do anything it takes to get attention on her father's case, but when her brother, Jamal, becomes caught up in a so-called police investigation, all of Tracy's willpower will be tested. What follows is both a mystery as Tracy tries to find the real murderer and an unraveling of the complex and historic racial tensions in her community. She's not alone, though, as she often has friends who are like family that come to her rescue along the way. Tracy shows courage, intellect, and a well-described growth trajectory as she further becomes one very keenly aware and of her surroundings and her ability to affect change. This is a must read for fans of Just Mercy, Dear Martin, and anyone else who is interested in the mission of the Equal Justice Initiative but prefers fiction to nonfiction. A great read.
When Stars are Scattered is a beautiful story about the life of Omar Mohamed in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya. Readers learn very early that his life revolves around: taking care of his brother, survival, and... waiting. It is difficult for him to see the value of an education at the refugee camp when half his brain is always wishing he were somewhere else and the other half is still looking for his mother.
With the support of mentors and friends, Omar learns to trust in his community and that, even when you're not sure you will be somewhere a long time, it is worth it to invest in your own growth and relationships. Omar is remarkably self-aware and his friends are very insightful. This is a very honest about refugee camps, the struggles that women face, the struggles of those with disabilities in these camps, friendship, and the power of a community to find meaning in life.
Greg is an average kid. He doesn't have a whole lot of friends, except the kid across the street who he spends a lot of time with but generally doesn't consider as cool as him. He gets along okay with the other kids in school (but the girls don't seem to like him—even though he was never one of those boys who thought girls were gross). He has an older brother and a younger brother that both set out to make his life a little harder in their own way. His parents don't let him play video games all day. Oh, and he's somehow managed to avoid The Cheese Touch.
This book chronicles Greg's life in middle school. He's on a quest to be noticed—and he tried lots of different ways: the school play, running for class treasurer, becoming a safety patrol, applying to be the school comic writer, and more. But he keeps being held back by his friend Rowley, who seems to get everything Greg wants. Will Greg get noticed this year? Will his friendship with Rowley survive it? Will he get....the Cheese Touch?
Dogman is part Cop, part Dog. In this book, he faces the Cat, who is actually responsible for him becoming Dogman. From revolutionary weenies to dictator mayors, this book is a quick read with some hilarious jokes that will have you laughing like the kid this is meant for.
At the end, there are even guides for you to learn how to write your own Dogman comics.
Many of the kids coming to the library have loved these books, and I hadn't been able to read them until recently.
This story happens in a world ruled by seven tribes of dragons, who have been at war since the murder of the queen. A prophecy was made that five dragonets, hatched on the same day, would end the war and get to choose who was the queen.
Enter in Clay, a Mudwing, who is uncertain of who he is and where he belongs. The only thing that's certain for him is that this prophecy has dictated his whole life and given him a small family of unlikely dragons whom he feels he needs to protect. When a shadow descends upon his family, his life begins to unravel and secrets are revealed that he never imagined. From battle scenes to what friendship really means, this story has it all. I'm excited to try the graphic novel version as well.
Caden Bosch is your average fifteen year old. He is likable, has friends, and can generally get on with his classes and his peers without an issue. The book starts at the beginning of his first psychotic episode, but Caden doesn't know it. Shusterman expertly navigates us from reality to the way that Caden is perceiving reality in each chapter. Readers follow Caden's descent into episode very slowly. It starts with his inability to interact with his friends to paranioa about his peers to wandering around the city pacing to the final moment that his family realizes they are unable to help him. Anyone who has loved someone or experienced mental illness can relate to this slow decline and then immediate rush into danger. The highs and lows are painfully, accurately portrayed.
Caden jumps back and forth between knowing that he is in a mental rehabililtation center to believing that he is a crewmate on a ship of misfits led by a one-eye Captain and his talking parrot. As the story goes on, you begin to realize that the people on the ship are representative of real people in Caden's life. There is a content warning for suicide in this book as Caden struggles with his own ideas of suicide as do other characters in the story.
This story is punctated by the author's note that his writing was informed by his experience with his son who suffers from a mental disorder. The pictures drawn in the book are by his son and many of Caden's friend's phrases are from his son's poetry. This is a deeply personal and powerful book.
Overall, Challenger Deep has been praised as an accurate portrayal of experiencing a mental illness. It covers topics from how the medications make him feel and work to complexities of group therapy to the relationships he has with his family and friends. As Caden reminds us his greatest fear, “Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.” Readers intimately see his struggles and you cannot help but cheer for him to put that piece of blue sky back in the puzzle.
The writing of this book is very simple and easy to understand, but the life of Abu Bakr is unimaginable. His and his family's stories of struggle, war, death, happiness, and a sort of rebirth are harrowing and haunting. The reader is not experiencing it, but the emotions are tangible—this sort of strange life goes on, but there are people dying and going missing every day is absolutely unnerving. A worthwhile read for all.
I've been trying to make a point to diversify my reading habits, and one of those additions is more books about finances. This one came recommended from either Twitter or a blog (cannot remember), but it was decent! It started out with a long discussion of high school jobs, saving, paying for college, and student loans. It gave me some good ideas for blog posts at work for our teens. The book is pretty much the life story of the writer centered around different lessons in money that she learned. This is an easy read; however, it should come with the note that the author is very liberal in her ideas of government spending—this didn't deter me but may deter other readers. That said, I believe all political party members could learn something from her book about the millennial experience with money.
Liz doesn't fit in her small-town midwestern school, there's no doubt about it. She is black, queer, poor, and at the top of her class of a ultra-rich, elite high school. When her plan to get a scholarship for college of her dreams doesn't work out, she bravely decides to run for prom queen to win the $10,000 scholarship it comes with. She and her friends hatch a strategy (complete with data analytics) to get her to the top. Complete with a homophobic mean girl, best friends who betray you, old friends reunited, and first love—this is a great story for teens. The writing has that corny, cringey teen movie vibe, but, let's be honest, that's what we want from these kind of books.
I've read a few books by now on productivity. This one did not make any particularly nuanced points, but I did leave convinced that deep work is a key to expert success. David Allen's “Getting Things Done” and, by a different author, “The Power of Habit” are some good books to read either after or before this one. They all pretty much say the same thing—habit is crucial to success and we must manage our actions in regards to all types of projects in our lives.
I wasn't able to finish this one–but I did get some nice tips from the the pages that I did read. The two minute rule has really helped me with my email anxiety. The rule is that if you can do it in two minutes, do it now. I also appreciated the whole idea of the value of writing things down to get it out of your cognitive load. It's helped my various projects feel more doable and improved my relaxation times.
