Both Sides

On the Horizon is a beautiful book.  One that brought me to tears.  Lois Lowry really makes magic with her words.  She recalls her childhood in Hawaii and her time in Japan and recounts the stories of lives lost at Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. 
War.
What is it good for?
They even wrote a song asking that question.
The song's answer is "Absolutely nothing."
I pray one day we will learn from that answer.
Will there be a time, this side of heaven when we look at one another as children of God?  Only then will it happen. 

The List of Authors Everyone Loves

Rebecca Stead is on that list!  The List of Things that Will Not Change is her latest.  And I did like it.  But for some reason I just can't really get into Stead.  I loved the love.  I heart-broken about Mission.  I thought the relationship between the two main character and her soon to be sister was very real.  I just thought the whole cousin thing wasn't needed.  I am not sure why it just seemed so out of place for me.  But the big secret surrounding Bea and her cousin...it just didn't fit for me and really did a lot of take away from my experience with the book.  

No More Divisions

Efrén Divided was an excellent book that reminds all of us, especially those who are attempting to follow Christ, we are all one.  People matter.  When we put a name and face on those we might otherwise simply call "undocumented" or even, "illegal" it makes a difference.

More Complications

Aren't there always? Of course, Whatever After is not complicated for me!  I love this series and was thrilled to see the second Super Special Abby in Oz.  I see that it listed as Whatever after 13.5 on goodreads.  The first Super Special was Abby in Wonderland.  The Super Specials seem to be books, whereas the "regular" Whatever After books are fairy tale-based and while the regular WA books feature Abby and her brother traveling into a story, it seems that the Super Specials feature Abby heading into fiction with her friends.
That is not complicated for me either, I love both kinds!
BUT what is complicated is the whole Wizard of Oz thing...I know it is a book, but I am thinking of the movie.  And I know that because of TWOOZ, Judy will indeed, as Frank said, never be forgotten BUT she was so abused as a child actress.  Not just by her mother but also by that rotten Louie B. and so it is hard. 
I guess I am thankful for Oz because it can serve as a gateway to finding out more about Judy.  But it pains me to think of her time at MGM. 
So the book was great!  It is just Oz that is complicated. 

I wish I could share this with my mom...

My mother is spending her first Easter with Jesus face-to-face and I am really happy for her, but man, I miss her.  A LOT!  And I hope that in Heaven she was able to get maybe even an advanced copy of The Missing Half of Joey Pigza.  It is one of the audible-only releases, the third in the Hidden Files of Joey Pigza series, written and READ by the incredible Jack Gantos.  The Dented Head of Joey Pigza was the first one.  Next came Pain in the Pigza, which I read and loved but did not write up because last year was a super icky year and so I didn't write up a lot of my reads.
My mom and I listened to both of those books and enjoyed them so much.  She and I were so happy that these hidden files were discovered!  Joey is such a caring, loving young man.  My mother really didn't like his grandmother very much because she can be mean with her words.  But while she is gruff as usual, in this one, her true heart really comes through loud and clear.  A wonderful addition to Joey's story. 

Stand Up!

Jessica Kim wrote Stand Up, Yumi Chung! and I don't know if she has done stand up, but man she nailed it!  The whole "why" and the nervousness and the exhilaration.  I really appreciated learning more about Yumi's experience as a Korean-American, too.  And I love the grace that was demonstrated in Jasmine's reaction- especially since, while I know that Yumi should have said something right away,  Jasmine just to assumed that Yumi was Kay because she was Asian and well that was hopefully a teachable moment for Jasmine, too!
Great great book!

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. 

It's Not that Easy

Do you remember this song?  Man...that was a good one...Here in the Real World was an even better book.  Ah...the characters were so well crafted and the whole thing...just so well done.  I loved this one.  Endearing, without being shmaltzy.

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. 

The Guy

with whom I pastor has a daughter who did her undergrad at Greenville University in Greenville, IL where The Best at It is set.  She then went on to Princeton Theological Seminary and is now an ordained American Baptist pastor, serving as chaplain at the Vandalia Correctional Facility.  You can read a cool interview with her here.
Thing is, Erika is 18 years younger than I am.  I was the Associate Pastor at the church in which she was raised.  I don't know what kind of impact I had on her life, but I can tell you she has made a huge impact on mine.
First of all, when she was going through the process of being ordained, she was firm in her commitment to our siblings in Christ who are members of the LBGTQ community.  She fought for her right to say proudly and with assurance that gay people are no different from straight people when it comes to being children of God and therefore their rights, marriage and otherwise, she upholds and affirms.  In this corner of the world, there are still people who don't seem to get this.  And there was push back, but Erika stood firm.
I did not.  Back when I was ordained in the mid-90s, I stood before my ordination council and said what they wanted to hear, not what I really believed and not what is true in God's eyes.  I was asked if marriage should only be between a man and a woman.  And I said yes.  How wrong I was and how I regret that.  But here was Erika, probably the same age that I was (mid to late 20s) and standing proudly for with God on her side, promoting God's word, not the word of the world.  Proclaiming love, not the hate and fear and ignorance of people who are still struggling to hear the loving, inclusive word of God.
On Sunday I was preaching at a nursing home in the South Hills of Pittsburgh and her mom and her grandmother (who is a resident there) were in attendance.  I was honored to be able to tell Erika's grandmother what an example the Rev. Erika Spring is to me.
Oh I do go on, don't I?
Let me get back to the book, and thank you for letting me share about one of my heroes in the faith!
The Best at It is a beautiful story about young Indian-American boy coming of age and discovering that he is gay.  The book isn't just a preachy "this is a story about a gay kid" kinda book, the characters are real and racism is addressed and bullying and all that kids and we deal with in the world.
Funny in places and it will make you laugh and cry. I highly recommend The Best at It.  The author, Maulik Pancholy can certainly say that he is doing what he loves and we readers are all the better for it!

Controversy

I go to this website a lot, put together by Dr. Debbie Reese.  It is a wonderful resource, especially for someone like me who doesn't know a lot, but tries to do the right thing.  When I read about Race to the Sun, a part of the Rick Riodran Presents imprint, I thought I would not read RTTS, because I really respect Dr. Reese and recommendations.   But after I dug a little deeper, I found that there might be more to RTTS than what Dr. Reese recommends.  I still deeply value her insight.  I do.  But I wanted to read this first.  That is because I had posed the question of what to do about it to the women with whom I work. 
I am posting an email I got from one of my brilliant co-workers.  She is also a published author, but I won't include her name until I okay it with her.  I think what she says makes a lot of sense.

And then I read RTTS and I really, really enjoyed it.  And I also thought that the author's note at the end was heartfelt, informed and important. 

Huh, I hadn't seen all of this, I guess it was buried under all of the American Dirt controversy on my timeline --

We do own this book (standing order probably) but I see that CLP and branches have chosen to to purchase it.

Oh, no I ordered it back in October; I've been ordering all of the Rick Riordan Presents titles.

What do you think?  Withdraw?  Or keep?

Personally I think we keep it?

I mean, it does get tricky with fiction, and fiction for children makes it more complicated. But...

There are a ton of books on our shelves that have iffy representation or outright racist depictions. We keep Little House ("the only good Indian is a dead Indian," the father participating in minstrel shows), Scott O'Dell books (award-winning historical fiction that has since been called out for a ton of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of indigenous cultures), Harry Potter books (Jewish stereotypes, bad Asian representation, fat shaming of villains, and JKR is saying transphobic things all over twitter).To name just a few -- but the above are all white authors. (Wonder has also been called out for bad disability representation and using a disabled character's story to inspire able-bodied people)

So it doesn't sit right with me that the only one we're looking at pulling from our shelves is by a black & Pueblo author. And one who, while she did recently hit the NYT list, is not famous enough to cause much notice or complaint if we didn't carry her books. It's the "easy" pull, basically.

(I also see this as a bit different to the issue of, say, Thanksgiving books -- which are pretending to give facts about the past but sweep aside actual genocide for a fake happy story and inaccurate caricatures that inspire teachers to dress children up in appropriative costumes)

And things I read while looking this up:

Debbie Reese commenting: https://twitter.com/debreese/status/1217966469960687617

Rebecca Roanhorse commenting (part of her comments are about how there's a lot of anti-blackness in the NDN communities, which I don't know enough to comment on -- but I used to know someone who is half Cherokee and was cut off from the Cherokee side of the family because their mom is white and they and their sibling both looked too white; it's a complicated problem, so while I don't want to dismiss people's critiques, I also don't want to dismiss people's experiences of racism among their communities): https://twitter.com/RoanhorseBex/status/1220751798711046144

https://www.tor.com/2018/07/20/rebecca-roanhorse-reddit-ama-trail-of-lightning-dine-culture/

Very Cool

The third installment of The Perfect Score series, The Perfect Star was really, really good.  Again, Buyea took on important issues without it feeling forced or preachy.  Made it really real and again, the characters are really real.  Great, great series. 

Notorious

I have always been a fan of Biggie Smalls.  I love him, but I am more a Tupac girl if I had to pick.  Notorious RBG, well I didn't know much about her except that I liked her decisions, so reading Who Is Ruth Bader Ginsberg?  was a great idea and I like her even more!  May she stay on the bench for MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH longer!  Again I find these Who/What/Where/Is/Was books to be just excellent.  I am still hoping for a Judy one though!

Happiness is

I remember this little Peanuts book that we had at our house when I was little. I loved that book!  It was one of the first books I read on my own!  The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel is just outstanding.  Finding a book like this is happiness.  Just. Excellent. 

Here's What Happened...

one summer at work we had this Summer of Wonder.  And it featured the book Wonder.  Now I have loved this book ever since I read the ARC.  Fell in love with it right away.  LOVED it.  But then the Summer of Wonder just killed it for me.  It was just...I don't know...the way we did it...ah...it is complicated.  But this doesn't take a way from what a great book it really is.  So when I saw White Bird, well I was still thinking of the Summer of Wonder and I really didn't want to read it.  No interest at all.  But man, man, man I am so glad I did.  I listened to it and I know it is a graphic novel and so I will read it, but man the audio was just powerful.  Especially Palacio's author's comments at the end.  IMPORTANT.  Please, please, please let us never forget.  It is happening again.  It is.  Please.  Speak up.  Please.  Love and love and love again.  And do not be afraid.  Do not let others prey on fear and turn us into people who devalue and dehumanize others.  We are all diversely created children of God.  Please, please do not be frightened into hardening your hearts.  Please do not be frightened into thinking that rights for all mean less rights for some.  That is how it begins.

Since I Fell for Buyea

I have been a loyal fan and a very happy reader (listener) when Robert Buyea comes out with a new book.  I was super glad to see a second book with the characters from The Perfect Score and I hope there is another yet to come because The Perfect Secret was another great one, with real kids in real situations.  And this one addressed very timely issues.  Now that Andrew Clements has gone to his reward, it is even more important to have writers like Buyea who can preach without preaching and develop middle school characters who speak with authenticity. 

Not My Side

Shadow on the Mountain has nothing to do with My Side of the Mountain, which I couldn't get through to save my life.  SOTM was super good.  It is set in Norway after the Nazi occupation and it really asks some good questions and doesn't answer them, which is just what a great book with do, because there are no answers for some questions.  At least not easy ones.  I had forgotten Snow Treasure also takes place in Norway during the same time and I just read my adult take on that and I liked SOTM so much more. It was interesting to me to get some insight into why/how someone could side with the Nazis.  It still blows my mind.  The horror of it all.  But, for example, Aksel became a Nazi sympathizer because he was attempting to right the wrong of his father's death at the hands of the Russians.  So his hatred for the Russians led him to more hate and so on and so on.  It shows that hate begets hate and violence begets violence.  Ah and it is just awful because it still happens today.  SOTM was based on the real story of Erling Storrusten.

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. 

Serafinas

There are a couple of books about a gal named Serafina.  The one I read for work was Serafina and the Black Cloak.  It's the first in a series.  There's also a Dragon Born Serafina.  I didn't read any in that series.  And then there is this Serafina.  And I haven't read any of those.
For a few years now I have been told by friends, "Have you read Serafina? It is so good!  You have to read it!" and these friends are friends who read YA and Children's lit and so now I have no idea if they meant any of these Serafinas or another Serafina altogether. 
All I can say is, I really liked Serafina and the Black Cloak.  I loved the Vanderbilt stuff, I loved the animal stuff, I loved the whole temptation of the Black Cloak and the question that Serafina asked herself.  She was wondering if she was "good" or "bad" and did the "bad" people even know that they were doing bad things, did all "bad" people think they were doing "good."
Anyway, I will read the next one!