A Grimes Book is ALWAYS a Perfect Choice

Gravey's Choice is a beautiful book. And as my post title says, any book from Nikki Grimes.  This brilliant work, written in tanka  addresses young Garey (named for Marcus Garvey and I think it is cool that it is brought up in the book because I don't know if kids learn about Garvey in school) is coming of age, deciding who he is and how to be who he is in light of who is dad is, who is mom is, who his friends are.  Fantastic book. 

Novels in Verse

Already have a leg up for me.  And I really liked House Arrest.  I need to listen to the second one, that came out last year.  Great story.  Really heart-felt and honest.  A good one for reluctant readers, too, I think. 

Mr. Alexander

has done it again with Swing.  And I think that this one deserves a Newbery or a Printz.  As always, incredible story full of heart and truth and one that needs to be read, by everyone.  Are there "adult" books that are written so well?  This is also co-written with the poet Mary Rand Hess, like Solo.  Very funny and touching and heart-breaking.  It will appeal to well, everyone.  Baseball fans, poetry fans, people who grieve, people who fall in love.  People of every age. 

Discovering Poetry

When a character in a book discovers the beauty of poetry, it is a really, for lack of a better word, beautiful thing.  When a person in real life discovers the beauty of poetry, it is also a really beautiful thing.  I wonder if I am projecting, but I think that people who don't like poetry maybe are afraid of it?  Or had to read poetry at the wrong time in school?  I mean, I know this was my situation.  Or maybe they just have found the right poet for them.  Langston finds his poet, who happens to be the poet after whom he was named.  Langston Hughes.  Who was an amazing poet.  Loved this book.  Not just about poetry.  Finding Langston is not just about Langston finding Hughes by Langston finding himself, too. 

The Title Gets it Right

For Everyone by Jason Reynolds is, indeed, for everyone.  However, I think that every Jason Reynolds book I have read should be read by everyone.  That's just how good Reynolds is.  The thing is, this is the time of year when people buy all kinds of gift books.  You know the type, those little mini books with a word or picture on each page, that people mean well by giving and are usually an add on, impulse buy at a book or card store.  And then there is Oh, the Places You'll Go!  I feel bad mentioning that because Dr. Seuss was such a nice dude. 
But this is the PERFECT gift for a graduate.  Or a non-graduate or anyone.  What a fantastic, fantastic, thoughtful and powerful, meaningful book. 

Prequels, Prequels!

When Kwame Alexander writes a prequel, I have no reason to debate whether or not it is just a money tool.  He is amazing.  And Rebound is amazing and I didn't even realize it was .5 until I had finished it and see the .5 on goodreads.com.  This was excellent.  It is the prequel to The Crossover. 

The X Factor

When I first saw the book The Poet X I thought maybe it was about Betty X or Malcolm X and that is why I put it on hold, but it isn't.  But I am so glad I did!  What a wonderfully written book.  Elizabeth Acevado is an incredible writer.

Keep It Between the Lines

was a great song.  Between the Lines was a great book.  I can't even describe how good except to point out that the author is Nikki Grimes.  So  yeah, you know it is going to be excellent.  It was one of those books for which I found myself replaying and replaying some chapters just to make sure I "got it all."  Great stuff.

Jason Reynolds

is truly amazing.  He drew me into a Spider-Man book!  Nothing personal against Spider-Man, I am just SO NOT a superhero person.  So not.  But this whole idea of a "new" Spider-Man, and the personality and the backstory and Miles's best friend and his family, and well, I loved it.  I don't think I will read any more of them, as they are not by Jason Reynolds and so I wouldn't be giving them a fair turn, I bet.  But Jason Reynolds's Miles Morales Spider-Man is awesome!  Actually now that I look closer, the other Miles ones are comic books, so yeah, I won't be doing those.  But I respect them!

Walter Dean

Solo by Kwame Alexander solidified a suspicion I had about Alexander. Alexander is the new Walter Dean Myers, the new Sherman Alexie, the new Gary Paulsen.  He is the new amazing.  And while it might seem cool to put him up there with those big names, I want to make sure that it is clear that I don't mean it in a "good job, dude, you are getting there, you made the big time!" kinda way, because Alexander probably always was this good.  And when I say good I mean masterful.  So I mean no, "good going kid" by that at all.  I simply think he is one of the best.

Oh, Freedom

Freedom Over Me:  Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan was a Newbery Honor book this year and also a Coretta Scott King Honor.  This is a short book, a book shorter than those I would count on goodreads, but this book was SO powerful that it needed to be counted, regardless of length.  Beautiful. Important.
Especially after what I heard and saw last month.  At one of the places where I work a father and daughter came in with a list of books from which the daughter had to pick.  The father told me that "she doesn't like books about black people, Chinese people or Indians (sic, she meant Native Americans)."  Unreal.  This girl who looked like Hitler's poster child is growing up in a family (and going to a charter school, go figure) where differences are not accepted, let alone welcomed.  I will pray for that family, but to be honest, I was sickened.  Sickened.  So I need to pray for me, too.  So that my heart can be open to praying for this family.  Because wow.  What a sad, sad and hateful way to be.
I hate to have this story tainted this post about this incredible book.  But we still have a LONG way to go in this country.  The next time someone tells me we don't need Affirmative Action any more, or that racism doesn't exist.  Well, I will do what I always do and say, "You're so terribly wrong. More wrong that you know."

For Some Reason

I didn't look carefully at the cover of Booked.  I wish I had.  I thought that Booked was a sequel to The Crossover which I loved, loved, loved, so I thought "a sequel, hmm...how can it be as good?" and so I wasn't too excited to read it.  I mean, I knew I would read it, but I was going to wait until I could get it from the library, one of those things.  Then I actually read what it was about and then I looked closely at the cover and I had to have it!  And so I bought it on audible.  And it was well worth it. Well worth it.  So good.  A soccer story time time, but no more a "soccer story" than The Crossover was just a "basketball story."  Mr. Alexander has done it again.  Incredible.

Dreamers

Nikki Grimes is one of my most favorite authors.  Words with Wings was a wonderful book, written in poetry, from the POV of a young girl who lets words take her away.
I was talking recently with a kindred spirit, a friend who, even more than I, appreciates the power and wonder of words.  She does incredible work with middle schoolers, especially boys and believes in the empowering power of words.
Words with Wings is a book that these middle school boys probably wouldn't like!  But boy, this book is for anyone who has been called a daydreamer, for anyone who can appreciate and fall in love with words.  

Another Surprise!

I was so blessed to be in Chicago at ALA Midwinter when the Youth Media Awards were announced.  The room was filled with excitement.  As I mentioned before, I was just thrilled that The Crossover won the Newbery.
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces won the Morris Award.  After reading it, and being so cynical about awards since 1954, I was so surprised to find that it won!  This book is awesome.  It just awesome.  Gabi is a girl that you just love right from the start.  And there is so much in here.  Body issues, sexuality, race, drug abuse, rape, hope, love, tradition.  All just done so, so well.  Gabi feels like a real person.

Masquerade

I don't know why, but I don't like the word masquerade.  I did like the book Bronx Masquerade very much though.  I love Nikki Grimes and so I am always opening one of her books with the expectation that I will love it.  And I always do.  This book is another multi-POV story.  Eighteen students in an urban school, a class in which the teacher has started a poetry unit.  On Fridays the students are invited to share their original work with the class.
Each chapter is first a student sharing their thoughts and that is followed by their poem.  Excellent and realistic.  As always.  

You Gotta Have Hop

this is a terrible, terrible song.  But Hope is a Ferris Wheel is a really, really good book.  This is Robin Herrera's first book.  I bet she just gets better and better.  I liked all of the characters in the book....well, not the dead-beat dads.  But we don't have much contact with them.
Star is ten she tells the story here.  She and her mom and her sister, Winter move from Oregon to a trailer park Northern California.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, but it is all blended together so well.  The book is so well written that it just flows like really life.  Winter and Star are the kind of sisters that make me wish I had a sister.  Very realistic, very good.

This is the One

This is it.  This is the Newbery winner.  It should win.  For sure.  I just can't see how it could not win, except for the whole 1954 thing.  Caminar is an incredible book, written in verse and set during the Guatemalan Civil War, specifically in the 1980s.
This story is told from the POV of Carlos who is trying to figure out how to be a man, how to survive in a war-torn country, how to deal with so much loss.  Incredible, incredible, incredible.  This must win. Skila Brown has created a beautiful masterpiece.

You May Say I'm a Dreamer

This is a terrible song.  I know I am probably the only person who thinks that, but I do.  The Dreamer is an incredible book.  A fictionalized account of the childhood of Pablo Neruda.  As I mentioned when I wrote about Becoming Naomi León, I quickly took on this one and I am so glad I did.  I listened to it, but I will have to go back and look at the pictures, as it was illustrated by Peter Sis.  What a story.  It was great to hear Ryan's thoughts at the end, too.

The Poetry of Baseball

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is also a baseball story.  And a story of loss.  And a story of growing up.  And self-discovery.  And it is yet another great book from Ron Koertge.  Told in poetry, it is the story of  a young teen who loves baseball and is quite the star.  When mono keeps him off of the field for many weeks, he turns to poetry out of boredom.  But it turns out, poetry isn't quite so bad! Through his poetry he talks about the loss of his mother, his relationship with his father (who seems like a really nice dude) and a new love interest.  Great stuff and I can't wait to read the second one.  I wish that I could have read it all in one sitting, but life was a bit crazy, so I had to break it up a bit, even though it is super short and makes you want to keep reading and reading.  I would imagine that it is even more powerful if read all at once, so try to carve out an hour, uninterrupted to read this little, powerful book.

Ahhhh...with a big, big smile

Brown Girl Dreaming is a lovely, beautiful, eloquent, eye-opening, heart-opening memoir.  I hope that Jacqueline Woodson will do as Roald Dahl and Gary Paulsen have done and continue on with autobiographical works.  There are many, many reasons why I hope that she does this.  In no particular order:  anything and everything she writes is beautiful.  She has an unique story to tell.  Woodson is one of the most important writers of our time.  We can all learn about history through her rich experiences.  BGD is Woodson's story of growing up in Columbus, where she was born, Greenville, South Carolina and Bushwick.  It is written beautifully in a free verse that is like music.  Her words make her feelings come alive in a way that a very, very few writers can do.  With every book Woodson proves that she is one of the greats.