The Book Search

It seems an appropriate time to talk about facing big challenges, since this whole virus-stay at home-school online thing is pretty challenging!  Thinking about different kinds of  challenges is kind of a nice diversion.  These books were certainly that. The first one is called "Like Nothing Ever Amazing Happened" by Emily Blejwas.  It's about Justin, a middle schooler who is struggling to adapt to a new normal.  His dad died awhile back and part of the problem with his dad's death is that there were a lot of unanswered questions.  Justin's dad was a Vietnam War vet that struggled with PTSD.  He didn't talk much about it and was careful with the words he did speak.  His dad was killed by a trolley and one of the things that Justin wonders is if his death was a suicide or just an accident.  His mom and older brother are doing the best they can to try to hold things together.  His brother is a talented athlete but has taken to working at...

One of the trends in libraries and the literary world over the past few years, is to offer readers different view points.  Traditionally, literature has been full of white people.  People of color or other religions or sexual orientations were relegated to best friend roles or were minor characters.   So to have a number of stories, where the main character is a person of color and isn't a stereotype (like  African Americans only portrayed as slaves or in stories about the Civil Rights movement, or Hispanic characters only portrayed as migrants), is to offer a wider variety of people the opportunity to see their own stories in print.  It also offers an opportunity to people like me (a middle aged white lady) to see stories that are different from my own.  Here are two brand new stories that offer voices that are fresh, charismatic, AND happen to be told by and are about people of color. The first one is by author Renee Watson.  I read her book "Pieci...

I've been rooting around in Netgalley for something good to read and I have been rewarded for my patience!  I found some really great YA books that will be published soon.  Check these out... The first one is called "Shooter" by Caroline Pignat.  It's told from the point of view of 5 very different high schools students.  Isabelle, or Izzy,  is the class president but worries about not being enough.  Hogan is a former football player who has some big issues surrounding his temper.  Xander is a photographer who struggles with social skills (the author never names his diagnosis but you could assume it was Asperger's or possibly high functioning autism).  Noah is definitely autistic and has limited self control.  Alice is his sister who worries about him and tries as much as she can to protect him.  They all end up in a boys bathroom at the school during a lockdown, which the kids initially assume is a drill, but it turns out, it's a real...