Don't They Know...

it's the end of the world?  That song always comes back to me.  The World Ends in April was quite good.  It was funny and it was real and it was the first book that didn't fall into the white default problem.  Every character was clearly described as white, black, Asian, etc.  And it wasn't clunky and it wasn't weird.  It was actually refreshing!

Being Brave

As Brave as You is an interesting title.  At first I didn't get why it was the title of the book (which is wonderful, by the way) but then I thought about it for a second and it is a great fit.  There are so many brave actions in this book.  From Genie to Ernie to Grandpop.  Great book about what scares us and what happens when we are brave or when someone is brave for us.  What other wonderful things can I saw about Jason Reynolds!

The Key that Swallowed Joey Pigza is the last chapter in the Joey Pigza series by the incredible Jack Gantos.  I have written a lot about him here.
This book was certainly dark, it brought me to tears several times.  It is so rich and incredible and Gantos makes Joey come alive in a way that just opens your heart to him.  There were times I was so angry with his parents.  Okay, well I was angry at his parents all of the time.  But not Joey.  Joey is just such a good, good, good person.  He makes me want to be a better person.  Gantos reads the audio book and I love hearing his voice.  And he has a special message at the end of the book, talking about how he was inspired to write the Joey books because of a boy he met on a school visit.  He encourages all of us to give the kid who is off the wall or spinning out of control a chance.  Wow.  This whole book is just incredible.

The Amazing Marcus

Sedgewick, I mean.  But if you have read midwinterblood or She is Not Invisible, you knew exactly which Marcus I meant. The audiobook download for She is Not Invisible wasn't available in the US when I wanted it, but I got it off amazing on CD and man, it was just excellent.  The narrator, Anna Cannings, read the book from Braille and there is a neat interview with her, conducted by Sedgewick at the end.  She has quite the impressive resume when it comes to voice work and man, you can see why.  She does an excellent, excellent job.  

It does help that what she is reading is such a good, good, good story.  

This is another one of those books that made me think, man, there are some super brilliant and gifted people out there and we're lucky when they take the time to share their gifts with us. 
The story is great.  And I learned a lot, too.  About Jung, Coincidence, the Pauli Effect.