Just Couldn't...

I really have enjoyed Siobhan Vivian's book.  I just think that during this time of pandemic it is hard for me to keep focused and unless a book REALLY grabs me I don't respond to it as I normally would. I think that is the case for We Are the Wildcats and maybe I will revisit it when life seems more normal.  For this one I REALLY stress that this is NOT a book review blog.  It is just my own reflections on the books I read.  So don't pass this one by, I think it is important and I think it is well done and I think that people will be able to relate to it. 

3 and 1/2

All Your Twisted Secrets was a full four before the end for me...it just seemed to get a little text book with the Amber's thoughts at the end...but again, just me.  Kept my attention throughout though!  A good one for keeping ones mind off of the current state of the world and a really important message about bullying and social media...just a little too preachy I thought...at the end. 

A Rare and Beautiful Bird

Birdie author, J.M.M. Nuanez is proof that writers just seem to have a certain something that others don't...besides the ability to write, I mean!  I have read some really great books this year.  Ones with characters who don't fall into "normal" places and spaces.  Books written a while ago, like Stripped, that were far ahead of their time.  And brand new books like Three Things I Know are True that have address real problems and issues with care and subtlety.  Oh and The Best at It.  Just some great, great stuff. 
Birdie is just beautiful.  I like the way in which the little goodread blurb refers to Birdie as being "gender creative."  Ah how I wish the world would try to be just a little more Jack-like.  Excellent, excellent book.

Bees

A lot of people are afraid of bees.  I get it.  I have been stung by a bee.  I have also been stung by a yellowjacket and a wasp and many, those guys hurt a LOT worse than a bee!  But still, getting stung is not fun.  It is super painful.  At first it doesn't seem SO bad but then whoa...whoa...it hurts more after a few seconds!  A LOT more! 
Anyway, The Queen Bee and Me is a story that shows that people can hurt each other a lot more than a bee or a yellow jacket or a wasp and a hornet.  Well, actually yellowjackets and hornets are wasps (I didn't know this until today!), but you know what I mean!   I think, anyway.  Relationships can be painful.  Especially among middle schoolers.  I really loved this book.  It was so well done, right to the end. 

And Now for Something Completely Different

Left Out is totally different from Serafina.  But I loved it just as much.   I love Tim Green.  I really do.  I had a lot of questions while reading this.  There were just a couple of things that made me wonder.  It got me thinking a lot about the cochlear implant that Landon has and the varied ways in which the implant is viewed by members of the deaf community.  I know that the book would have been way too long to go into all of that, but it did get me thinking about it.  Also Landon use any form of sign language (though I did get a little hint, but maybe I was reading into it, that his dad and he probably would have used it if the mom wasn't so set on not using it.)
I looked around a little and found that members of the CI community really praised the book, just wondered what others in the D/deaf community think. 

Forgotten

The Land of Forgotten Girls came out before Hello Universe, which won the Newbery last year.  Last year Kelly published You Go First which I actually liked better than Universe.  I also really liked TLOFG more than HU, but still these three are really great books.  This one was good even though I really didn't like the main character.  I could understand why she was so unlikable, having had a really raw deal all of her young life, but wow, she was just super not likable, which made her more real. 

This is My Story, This is My Song

This is Our Story has more to do with this than this.  Although it is MUCH more macabre.  Again, I put 4 stars instead of 5 on a book by Ashley Elston and I just can't put my finger on why.  Probably just the length.  Because the book is written so well.  And I did buy this on audible and I will buy another!  Maybe I think that Elston is such a great writer, I just wish her editor were better.  Or she just wrote short books for losers like me!  Really good book though.  Really good.

The Nations Will Be Judged

Nowhere Boy is something else.  What a book.  What a really accessible book.  It's set in 2015-2016 and tells the story of a young refugee from Syria.  Set in Belgium, the other main character is an American boy whose parents have moved him to Belgium because of his father's job.  Very real and well drawn characters.  One of the best books I have read.

Not Me!

It Wasn't Me was such a good book!  From the characters and their stories to the author's note, I appreciated all of this!  Even though I am not a fan of The Breakfast Club (simply because I am not a fan of the 80s in general) I loved it!  It will be easy to recommend to guys and gals!  I also thought it was neat that this was the second book this week that talked about restorative justice.  Something of which I was sadly and and ashamedly unaware prior to reading about it in one of Anne Lamott's books. 

Timely

Probably books like Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish are timely at any time.  It's just that "these days" (the years the locusts ate, it seems) MVDSS seems especially meaningful.  Pablo Cartaya is also the author of The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora which I absolutely loved. 

Hidden Brain

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl was a book I understood better because of the Hidden Brain and this podcast I heard last winter.  I really, really thought that TMOFG was really well done.  One of the reviewers remarked that it has really flown under the radar and was surprised that more people hadn't read it.  I am, too.  I loved the friendships in this book.  I loved them.  And I highly recommend it!

Something Else

Darius the Great Is Not Okay was a truly 5 star book.  I do think that this has great Printz potential.  Really, really good at showing insight into the Persian culture and Iran and how much alike we all are, no matter where we live or our DNA or our sexual preference or anything at all.  I loved this book.  This is the first book from Adib Khorram and already I can't wait for the next one.  I also learned a lot about tea!

REALLY good!

Middle grade fiction is SO good!  You Go First is SO good!  Erin Entrada Kelly won the Newbery for Hello, Universe which I really liked a lot, but I loved this one more!  Very realistic and heart-felt.  Great characters.  The article in the NY Times is what pointed me to it.  Good article.   I wasn't too excited about HU winning the Newbery.  I think last year there were so many better books, even though it was good.  But I am going to keep reading Kelly's books because this one was even better! 

Another Good One

Saving Montgomery Soul was good.  What I really loved about it was it is another example (and I am SO excited to see that there are more and more of these out there) where we hear from Christians who know that Jesus doesn't care WHO we love, He just wants us to LOVE. 
Yes, there are people who call themselves Christians like the Rev. White who chose to not follow Jesus on this issue.  And for them, we pray and pray and pray and pray.  Thank you, Mariko Tamaki, whatever your faith may or may not be, for not taking the easy, cheesy and unformed way out and making all "Christians" right-wing bigots who choose to follow someone other than Jesus Christ on this very important issue. 

People Like Us

People Like Us by Dominick Dunne is a book that I always wanted to read but never have.  And I still haven't.  People Like Us by Dana Mele is the book that I read!  I saw it on the shelf at the library and bought it after reading the reviews.  I am glad I did, but I know I only gave it four stars, just because I think it was a little too long for me.  But I can really recommend it.  I just wasn't SUPER wow'd by it.  But it is really good. 

Good Me, Bad Me was very good.  Very good and I would recommend it, for sure.  I sucked me right in and all along the way.  It is creepy and awful and real and horrifying.  The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that I was not surprised by the ending at all. But it was still really, really good. 

Are Hurricane Children a Thing?

I need to google that.  Hang on.  Not that I can see from a quick google.  But It is early/late and I am tired so I will look again another day. 
Hurricane Child was a beautiful book.  About all kinds of love.  It was a love story on so many levels.  Kheryn Callender is an author I need to learn more about because this book was beautiful. 

Way Beyond My Expectations. Great!

Ugly was one of those books for which I had LOW expectations.  SUPER LOW.  I was sure it was a rip off, written because of the success of Wonder. 
But no way.  First of all, this is a memoir.  And Robert Hoge has quite the story to tell and a very compelling way of telling it.  He has to be one of the most forgiving and understanding human beings in the world.  I was so upset listening to his mother's response to the physical deformities with which Robert was born.  But then I read this and it helped.   This is just a really well-written book.  Great book. 

Book By Its Cover

So many graphic novels have fabulous covers.  I mean, art is their thing, right?  So when I was at a middle school READATHON and I wanted to read a book instead of listen and this was sitting on the shelf in the middle school library, I grabbed this baby up!  All's Faire in Middle School has a great cover.  And Roller Girl was a great book so I was excited to get a chance to read this.  

This one didn't do it for me like RG did, though and that was through no fault of the book.  It was the whole Renaissance Fair aspect.  Renaissance Fairs are REALLY not my thing.  I think it might be because of the commercials that were played ENDLESSLY with some singer singing, "The Renaissance Festival is back in time!" And then there was the festival itself which I went to at a particularly hard time in my life with some people who were REALLY into it and even made their own costumes.  Good for them, man!  I mean if a Ren-Fest, as the kids call them, is something you enjoy, then great!  But it was NOT something I enjoyed.  At all.  So I probably should have paid more attention to  the fact that AFIMS was going to be all about a Ren-Fest.  So it wasn't a favorite of mine!  But I did appreciate the  clever way the "now" was woven in the "ren" part and I did appreciate the art, for sure.  It is really well drawn!  And middle school...well, while it might have been "faire" it really isn't fair at all.  So there is a lot of good in this book and I can and have and will continue now to recommend it, as long as someone doesn't mind the Ren Fest Factor!

That was some party...

The Party was a good, I-want-to-keep-reading book.  The characters were real in that they weren't all good or all bad.  I especially liked Jeff. 
I know this book is an adult book, but I also think it could be enjoyed by older teens.  It's a toughie.  It isn't a literary book, but it is a quick read.