The Book Search

 School started this week and I'm a little behind the power curve on the SSYRA books this year.  I blame the shortened summer-we started late last year and so we ended three weeks late -three weeks less vacation.  Uh, gosh, that sounds like a first world problem, doesn't it?  Let's get to the book reviews, shall we? The first one is a terrific speculative fiction title called The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas.  It's about Nestor, who has just moved to New Haven.  His dad is in the Army and they've moved often.  His dad is currently deployed in Afghanistan and Nestor misses him a LOT.  Nestor and his mom have moved in with Nestor's Abuela-his dad's mom, so there are lots of pieces of his dad around, like his dad's old baseball glove and the animal encyclopedia his dad made when he was a kid.  Nestor is very interested in animals too, and he can talk to them .  To his surprise, Nestor finds school to be ok.  He finds new friends almost r

 I LOVE the SSYRA (Sunshine State Young Reader Award) list.  In case you've never heard of it, librarians from across the state of Florida choose 15 books and kids from across the state read them and the kids get to vote on which one is best.  The books sometimes are ones that lots of people are talking about, and often are ones that haven't been on my radar, which makes it really fun.  They are always wonderful stories so it's a treat to get to read them!   I just finished "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks.  It's about Zoe, who is an aspiring baker and almost middle school student.  One of her best friends has moved away, her other best friend is away for summer vacation and Zoe's really mad at her next-door neighbor best friend, because he didn't stand up for her when he was talking to some of his basketball buddies.  When Zoe comes home from her birthday party, there's a kind of surprise in the mail-a card from her dad, who is in