The Tricky Thing about Short Stories...

is that sometimes they are uneven, especially when written by different authors.  I have to say that was NOT the case with Black Enough:  Stories of Being Young and Black in America.  It was edited by Ibi Zoboi and I have read two of her books and one of her short stories and I loved them all.  I also loved so many of these stories...like the guys growing up the south and falling in love.  This was just such a great collection of voices that not only need to be heard but man...the world is so much better when they are. 

Up Up Up!

On the Come Up is the second book by Angie Thomas who wrote the amazing Hate U Give.  I loved HUG a LOT but I loved OTCU even more.  What a great, honest, original book.

Not EVERYTHING

You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P.!  is a terrific book and very original, the only thing I think is a little odd is the title.  I mean it isn't a bad title, but for me the title just didn't click!  Tackles some important issues.  Just great.

Man...

Sharon M. Draper is one of the BEST.  Truly.  And Blended is just excellent.  I love all of the characters and I think this is a really, really good look at racism and divorce and identity and blended families and love.  And all done with that incredible Draper way.  Not preachy.  Just real.  Real.  Real.

Dogs and All

I am not a big dog fan.  I am not anti-dog, it's just that I am a much more a cat person and dogs do scare me.  Now I know this book was about MUCH more than dogs.  But the only reason why I didn't love this as much as the other books I have read by her.  Ward won the National Book Award for Salvage the Bones and it is one of those cases were an award committee gets it right!  It is set during Hurricane Katrina in Ward's fictional Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage on the Gulf Coast. 

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!

More about Malcolm

After reading Betty Before X, I was excited to read X by Ilyasah Shabazz, this one written with Kekla Magoon.  This one is written for more tween and teen than children's, I think, just because of some of the things that Malcolm X experienced in his teen life.  Excellent.  Excellent.  Such a great account of the coming-of-age of Malcolm X and it left me wanting to know even more and to read more from Shabazz.  Highly recommended.

I LOVE Jason Reynolds

And I really loved Patina.  I loved it so much that the ending made me so mad!!!!!  Great, great book!  Lots to think about here, especially the pressure that Patina puts on herself.  What a great kid.  I loved this book. 

I do love the Walgreens

Steve Pemberton is a Big Deal at Walgreens.  He also gave the Opening Keynote Address at the NAEYC Conference this year in Atlanta.  I was so fortunate to be there and to hear him speak.  Wow. After hearing him speak I had to read his book, A Chance in the World:  an Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past and How He Found a Place Called Home.  I loved his book so much I have recommended it to everyone and am using it for my Adult Non-Fiction Book Group in January.  I hope others will love it, too.  I am not really a big fan of the foster care system, and this book did nothing to help that opinion.  but what a story of hope and love and faith. 

A Disco Inferno

Once I saw the Burn Baby Burn was written by Meg Medina who wrote Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.  I bought it.  And I am so glad that I did.  I didn't know anything, really about 1977 in New York, and that is to my embarrassment.  There was the black out, and Son of Sam.
I knew about Son of Sam, but not that much.
Burn Baby Burn isn't about the Son of Sam or about the Black Out, per say, it is the story of a young girl, Nora, and her senior year in high school, her father who has a new family and seems to have forgotten is first family, except that he is sometimes on time with the rent check, even though he is very financially well off, her brother Hector who has serious anger issues and violent tendencies and now a drug dealing and drug using problem, and her first experience with love.
The ERA movement is also a back ground to Burn Baby Burn and while the 70s usually leave me a little cold, not sure why, this book was one I couldn't put down.  Medina is just such a great storyteller and Nora is so real.  Excellent.

Must Be Hard

It has to be hard for Gustavo Arellano to read some of the letters written to his syndicated column Ask a Mexican.  The book of the same name was painful to listen to for a lot of reasons- NONE of them related to Arellano. Wait.  I can't figure out if Ask a Mexican is still going on.  I mean, it is still going on, but I guess Arellano isn't do it?  I am so confused!
Anyway--people ask the dumbest, rudest questions.  And I know that it is great to see these stupid idiots ask these questions and then see Arellano really make fun of them and point out how stupid they are, even though they are probably too stupid to realize that he is making fun of them, because this guy is really funny and smart.  But still, I mean, should people this stupid be allowed to ask the stupid things that they ask?  Yes, of course.  We all have the right to be wrong.  But really.  Blah!

A Tale of Two Young Men

Anything that Nikki Grimes writes is going to be "Christian."

Even if it isn't cataloged as such, or published by Zondervan or the like.

That's because (I think- I mean, I don't know her and I haven't read anything about her faith) she is a Christian.

Being a Christian is in all that Christians do, right?  Like being Jewish is in all that Jews do, or being Hindi is in all that Hindus do.

This was the first Christian-labeled Nikki Grimes book I have read and I loved it just as much as I have loved her other books.

Christian or not, writing about God or not writing about God, Grimes is an incredible writer. Just so gifted and insightful and fresh and- blessed.

This is the story of two boys who grown into young men.  Two men of faith.  One you know, Ishmael of the Bible.  And one you don't know, but will love as soon as you meet him, Sam, whose father has fallen in love with another woman, has divorced Sam's mother and is marrying this new woman.

The parallels between Ishmael and Sam are clear.  Sam's father's new wife is white.  Ishmael's mother, Hagar, is black.  They both become old step-brothers.  They both feel (and are) left by their fathers.  And they both have amazing faith in their Father.  But very real faith, one that questions Him, and the great thing we know is, God is okay with that!

Fantastic book.

Third One, Still Fantastic

First came One Crazy Summer then P.S.:  Be Eleven and now Gone Crazy in Alabama and the third was just as "I want to read this all now!" as the first and the second.  Delphine and her sisters Fern and Vonetta are spending the summer in Alabama with their grandma, Big Ma and their great-grandma, Ma Charles.  This is so insightful.  There is a lot about sisters here,.  Delphine and hers and also Ma Charles and her sister.  There is a lot about racial identity and civil rights and there is a lot of love.  Wonderful, wonderful addition.  It was a Coretta Scott King winner, to me, it should have also been a Newbery Honor.  But that's 1954 for you.  Should be read by all ages, it's another one of those kind.  And it would be enjoyed by all ages as well.