The Unstoppable Sharon G. Flake

I could not wait until I got my hands on an ARC of The Unstoppable Octobia May.  I heard about this book when I met Ms. Flake on February 27.  This was an incredible moment for me, as I have long loved Ms. Flake's work.  From Money Hungry to Pinned, and everything in between.
I looked everywhere for an eARC, I checked netgalley and edelweiss literally every day.
Then it came.
Ms. Flake sent it to me, a real, live ARC-ARC!
The bummer was I was heading right in to a preaching stint up at Bradford Wood Community Church, so I couldn't start a book, especially one that I was so looking forward to, until that was completed.  Preaching God's Holy Word is a daunting task.  I love it, but it is frightening.  I give all of my all to it.
Before I began Octobia, I must admit that I was concerned about how much I was looking forward to this book, because, as a pessimist, I was worried that I wouldn't LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  I thought, on no.  what if it doesn't blow me away?  What if it just doesn't pull at me, the way that Ms. Flake's other works have?  What would I say to Ms. Flake herself?  What would I write here?
Well.
There was no need for any of that worry.
And I should have realized that.  Just like Madeleine L'Engle, Robert B. Parker, Christopher Paul Curtis, Jacqueline Woodson, and Grace Lin, Sharon G. Flake can do no wrong.  Well, L'Engle and Parker are gone from us, but you know what I mean!
What a character this Octobia May is.  My friend, Emily is on the Amelia Bloomer Project Committee for ALA this year and I really believe that Octobia would be a perfect addition to this list.
What a wonderful, wonderful book.  It is deep where it needs to be, truly entertaining and moving.  There are many quotable lines here, so many passages that will stick with me.
good and bad live side by side on the piano or organ keyboard - Octobia wonders if this is true.  I think that it is.  This is a smart, smart girl.  All of the characters are incredibly well-drawn.
And well, unstoppable.  Just like Ms. Flake.

Queens and Kings

I think this is the second time I have linked to this great song by NAS.  I was reminded of this song all the way through The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street.  This is another great offering from Sharon G. Flake, who really knows what it is like to be a kid and to right so real that you forget that Queen and Broken Bike Boy are ficticious characters.  Queen isn't very likable, but you understand her.  Great story on how to be a friend and have a friend.  How to be yourself but not be too full of yourself.  And to remember always, that you, indeed, royal and precious. 

Sharon Flake Can Do No Wrong!

Wow.  I love Sharon Flake, not just because she is from Pittsburgh, like me, but that is cool, but because she is just such an excellent writer.  I couldn't wait to read Pinned and I was not disappointed.  What a wonderful, inspiring, at times, heart-breaking novel.  
Autumn and Adonis are very different, but alike in many ways.  They both have a disability to live with:  Adonis was born without legs and Autumn has extreme difficulty with reading and math.  Autumn is in love with Adonis, but Adonis is stoic, a brave face, not needing anyone or anything but himself.  The thing is, they both need each other.  Autumn is a wrestler and a darn good one and so high school wrestling plays a big and important, interesting role in the book as well.  I recall watching a female wrestler at Hampton many years ago and can't imagine the strength it takes to be a wrestler, let alone a female one.
The main characters are so real, it reads like a real diary.  The secondary characters are interesting and important.  There's a lot going on in this little book.   
Fantastic book.  Will recommend to all and purchase for our library.  Can't wait until it is released so that I can book talk it.   

Mixed Bag

Hmm. I love Sharon Flake. Money Hungry, Begging for Change, Who Am I Without Him, You Don't Even Know Me. L-O-V-E her! So I feel terrible about not liking Bang! The thing is, Bang! is a really good book. I just hated it. It was so upsetting. It made me so angry. It was just so sad. Now sometimes I can give a book a rave review anyway, when I agree that it is wonderfully written but it upset me. This time it just upset me so much that I just can't give it a glowing review.

Mann is a young teen growing up in a neighborhood where death is all around him. His seven year old brother was shot and killed in the crossfire of an argument between two strangers. Guns are everywhere. His parents are still grieving the loss of their son and basically his dad has flipped out totally. Mann's father comes up with a ridiculous plan to make a man out of Mann, to somehow toughen him up so that he won't be killed, like his little brother was. The grief in this book was just too much. I know that this is real. It was just so so harsh and I'm not brave enough to handle it. I'm ashamed of myself and I feel helpless when I know that there are folks out there who have to live like this every day. How long, O Lord, until You come again? Your people are suffering. Hear our prayer.

Amazing...but what a shame!

As I said in the review of You Don't Even Know Me, Sharon G. Flake's short stories are disappointing.  Each one grabs you and won't let go.  Her characters are so real she makes them care SO much about them, that it just isn't fair that we can't read more about them!

Who am I Without Him? is painful, beautiful, fresh, honest, pure Sharon G. Flake.  I saw myself in some of these stories.  I saw my friends, my mom, my grandmother.  Boys and girls should read both You Don't and Who Am I.  It might make for better and stronger relationships.  If not, it will certainly make for a little more understanding between the sexes. 

Oh Rapsberry

One of the best and most memorable teen books I read this year was Money Hungry so I am not sure why it took me so long to get to the sequel, Begging for Change. This is my third Sharon Flake book of the year and I want to read everything that she's done before the year is out. Being that she lives in Pittsburgh, I hope that I'll get to meet her someday. I wonder if she is as cool in person as she seems to be via her books and website. I bet she is.
Begging continues the story of Raspberry, her momma and her friends. Rapsberry's drug addicted dad shows up in this book and the reader, like Raspberry, will want him to go away...yet feel for him as well.
Flake's books are quick reads but not because they are simple. They are quick reads because you fall in love with the characters and you want to find out what happens to them. Indeed, her books aren't simple at all. Raspberry still has her obsession with money, which leads her to theft and then guilt, and well, just read it and find out, but read Money Hungry first.

The Downside to a Short Story by Sharon Flake

is that you wish that nearly ever short story was a full novel. That's the thing...Sharon Flake creates these really, really interesting, believable, unique characters and you want to know more and more and more about them! You Don't Even Know Me is a collection of poems and short stories about boys. I don't think of myself as a poem person, but man...these poems are terrific. They are all the things I never think poems are-- they make sense and they mean something. I find most poems to be really pretentious but when I find an author who writes poems that are beautiful and mean something, then I REALLY like that poet. Take Nikki Giovanni for example- AWESOME poet. Maya Angelou. FANTASTIC. If you haven't seen this, you need to watch it. It makes me cry. Beautiful. Anyway...I think I am off on another tangent.
Back to the way cool and brilliant Sharon Flake. The poems are so cool. Listen to a bunch of teens perform one here.
Like I said, the short stories...so intriguing that you will wish that you could keep reading about them. I guess it goes without saying that this book is a fast and fabulous read!

Money Makes the World Go Around

This is from Sharon Flake's website:

I write about hope in hard places, about young people who encounter challenges but through perseverance, the help of good friends and the love of family and caring adults, learn just how wonderfully gifted, determined and capable they are.

That's why she's the writer and I'm not! No way I could have put that into words as beautifully as she did. Man. She is just so brilliant. Money Hungry is the painful but indeed, hopeful story of a thirteen-year-old girl named Raspberry who lives in the projects with her mother. Raspberry believes that the only way she can feel safe in life is to amass as much money as she can. She realizes though that no matter how much money she has, it is never enough. This book is heartbreaking and so real. This is a very quick read that will stay with me for a long, long, long time.