Sometimes books that explore multiple different perspective and never return to any of those perspectives work. This one did not. The authors did not spend enough time with any of the individual characters to develop any engagement between the readers and the characters. Instead, they moved from character to character, from situation to situation, without bothering to pause and explore what the situation they just laid out
actually means. I’m glad this book was short because I could not have bothered to read any more of it.
Once again, a few days have passed, and I struggled to remember any details from this fairly basic book. I think that the author said some nice things about reading, but that’s all that I remember. Unfortunately, I do not recommend this book.
This YA novel in verse is absolutely brilliant. This book explores what it means to deal with a system of systemic oppression. The main character loves drama and belongs to be involved in more than just the supporting roles that her drama teacher always assigns. Additionally, she has an incredibly supportive teacher who teaches ethnic studies and sponsors a lot of the other black and brown students in their work as they want to
challenge the status quo and help him get back the books in his classroom that many other bigots in this Texas town deemed too controversial to be taught. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.
Holly Goldberg Sloan has a knack for tugging hard on your heart strings. In this story, the main character is living in a small coastal town with her mother and her brother and dealing with the death of her father, the grief that comes from that as well as the diminished financial circumstances. She ends up finding a dog, whom she names Lost, hence the title of the book. Caring for this dog, and all that comes from it ends up,
opening up the main character and all the connected characters to exploring how they are actually going to deal with their grief and what it means to move on.
The story explores an extremely complicated family relationship that has become incredibly fractured due to the never talked about early death of one of the siblings of the parents in the novel. This book has two main characters, cousins, who, along with their parents parents go to the family compound on an island that their parents have not visited for years after the death of their grandmother, the parents’ mother. They do this at the behest of another sibling, one who never married
and they find out has ALS. Throughout the course of this novel, the two main characters search for the truth of why their parents and aunts struggle so much getting along and why they do not want to deal with the island anymore. It’s a complicated messy family story with just enough intrigue that I think would keep middle grade readers engaged.
This mystery book, the start of a series, stars a main character with retinitis pigmentosa. I really appreciate how the author brought in this representation and had it be a compelling reason why opal wants so much to help solve all the different mysteries presented before her. Well, not groundbreaking, I think this mystery book could be the start to a well loved middle grade mystery series.
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