Narration

Dude, I am so so sorry that there wasn't a different narrator for the audio version of Everlasting Nora.  I REALLY didn't like listening to this book, but the book was SO good.  The book takes place in Manila and opened my eyes to the cemeteries that have so many people living in them.  I believe this is Marie Miranda Cruz's first published book and I will be eager to read another by her and I hope it will be soon!

Life is Complicated

Just Under the Clouds is one of those books that reminds me that life is not easy.  This is a very real book in that Cora doesn't just have one complication in her life, she has many.  Like we all do.  As if being a middle schooler isn't hard enough when one's family is stable and intact, Cora is dealing with the death of her father, her family's homelessness, her mom's issues and her sister's exceptional abilities.  Each one of these topics is handled so beautifully and so well.  This was an amazing book.  It is Melissa Sarno's first and I can't wait until her next. 

Greed

There are many, many people who do not have homes in our country.  There are many, many people who do have homes but they are not safe.  There are many, many people who have homes but they don't have enough food to eat.  There are so many, many people living at or below or just above the poverty line.  And it is frustrating to see how much greed there is in our country, in the world, in myself.
My brother and I were talking today about our country's current president.  And wondering how he was elected, with no experience, with such a vulgar history.  And we think it all comes down to greed.  To people wanting more than what they have currently at the expense of others.  People are willing to overlook all kinds of behavior, are willing to overlook character completely, to say nothing of experience, if it means that they might have a chance of keeping what is they see as theirs, or making sure that someone else isn't getting something they don't "deserve."  Money.  The dollar sign.  And our current president is a very rich man.  He got his money the old fashioned way, he inherited it.  And so maybe those who support him thought he knew a thing or two about making money.  Truth is, he didn't really do all that well with the money he inherited.  Compounding interest would happen to anyone.  Yes, he worked hard, but yes, he really didn't make a grand splash and he never could have done any of it without his inheritance and his father backing up his loans.  So yes, he is hard working man.  But no, he isn't an overly smart businessman.  So yeah.
But anyway...we need to care more about one another and less about what we want for ourselves. I include myself in that, too.  Even thought I didn't vote for President Trump, I could have done more to see that he was not elected.  But does greed always win the day?  In this life is seems so.
But I digress.
Paper Things is a novel about homelessness.  It is a terrific novel.  It is a novel about families.  It is a novel about friendship and love and complications, it is a novel about life that ripped my heart out and probably will rip yours out as well.  Jennifer Richard Jacobson is a new-to-me author.  I am so thankful for her words and I am sorry that this book wasn't on my radar before now.  Excellent.

This One

This has to be the Newbery this year.  I loved Towers Falling.  A 9-11 story, but more than a 9-11 story.  Set 15 years after 9-11 in a Brooklyn school where teachers are beginning to talk about the horror of 9-11 as history to middle school students.  But more than that, though because the characters are so real and so good and so engaging.  Recommended for the Newbery. Wow.  Wow. Wow.   There were so many cheesy traps that the author, Jewell Parker Rhodes could have been sucked into but she didn't at all and it was just so so good to read about characters who acted like real people.  I see she has written many more books!  I must read them now!!!!!!

ABC

I am not a HUGE Michael Jackson fan.  I like his music, I do.  I just am not nuts over him the way I am say, Judy or Tupac.  I'll Be There, the book, gets its name from the Jackson Five song, I'll Be There.    It is by Holly Goldberg Sloan who wrote one of my most favorite books, Counting by 7s.  This is a story of a very mental ill father who has stolen his sons away and caused them to live a basically homeless life with no schooling, no clothing, no food.  They have had to fend for themselves and live in fear their whole lives.  Sam is an older teen who attends churches on Sunday for the music.  He hears a girl sing and instantly feels drawn to her.  She is a pretty bad singer and throws up, outside the church, right after her solo where he comforts her.  The two get to know each other and fall in love.  The sequel, Just Call My Name is also a very good book and totally different from Counting by 7s.  Very intense books.  I really did like it though.  A lot.  

Wow this book...

Crenshaw is a heart-melter of a book without being sappy.  It is lovely.  Just lovely.  It is written by Katherine Applegate who wrote The One and Only Ivan, which did win the Newbery, but was actually great!  That was another heart-melty book that wasn't sappy.   She wrote the Animorphs series.  I wonder what it was like changing from Animorphs to these books.  I have never read the Animorphs, so they might be awesome, too, though!  oooh...I just found that she wrote this one, too.  That looks good!  At least the cover looks good and the description seems interesting!  I think Crenshaw is certainly a Newbery contender.  It was recommended to me by a young patron, actually, who told me that everyone in her class was reading it on their own and loving it and recommending it.

What if...

you had one day left to live?  What would you do?  What regrets would you have?  That is a question that we probably all have thought about, more than once.  In All We Have is Now, two teens know that they are most likely going to die in 24 hours.  An asteroid is set to wipe out North America and Emerson and Vince are two late-teen street kids who are trying to figure out how to make the most of their last hours.
Really, really good, even though it is set in Portland, OR!

Overheard...

It was interesting.  I was walking from the Washington Convention Center, the site of this year's NAEYC Annual Conference.  Educators gather to learn more about serving their children and families. There were two women beside me, attendees of the conference and one said to the other, "Those people don't use that money for food.  They are going to buy drugs."  She went on to say how gross it was that this man came up to her and asked her for money for food.
I was astonished that an educator would say something like this.  That someone who has the responsibility of caring and educating children would say something full of ignorance and hate.
Then as we walked along, I continued to eavesdrop, I realized that the woman was actually a girl of 17.  Then I felt guilty.  Because this girl is just a child and she doesn't know any better.  Why?  Because people like me, if I am to think of myself as an educator, failed to help her understand, failed to give her information about homelessness and addiction and caring for others.
So maybe the people I gave money to on this trip went out and bought booze or drugs.  That's not my business.  I am just trying to be about my Father's business.
So I will pray for forgiveness and I will try to be a better educator.  One who promotes empathy and compassion and knowledge and understanding.

About a Million Years Ago...

When I was in school at Duquesne, I happened upon a book at work called Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol.  It was one of those life-changing books for me and it was good to read his latest book, Fire in the Ashes:  twenty-five years among the poorest children in America.  Kozol and Alex Kotlowitz have done an important job.  Using language that we can understand they have shed light on the lives of people right here in our own country who struggle every day to survive.  They have exposed the greed and neglect of all of us.  I think that everyone should read their books.  In Fire, Kozol brings us up to date, lets us know what some of those kids he introduced us to in Amazing Grace and Rachel and Her Children are doing now.  Great, great book.