Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 130
January 16, 2018
Just Girls
“Jess Tucker sticks her neck out for a stranger—the buzz is someone in the dorm is a trans girl. So Tucker says it’s her, even though it’s not, to stop the finger pointing. She was an out lesbian in high school, and she figures she can stare down whatever gets thrown her way in college. It can’t be that bad.
Ella Ramsey is making new friends at Freytag University, playing with on-campus gamers and enjoying her first year, but she’s rocked by the sight of a slur painted on someone else’s door....
Being Emily
“They say that whoever you are it’s okay, you were born that way. Those words don’t comfort Emily, because she was born Christopher and her insides know that her outsides are all wrong.
They say that it gets better, be who are you and it’ll be fine. For Emily, telling her parents who she really is means a therapist who insists Christopher is normal and Emily is sick. Telling her girlfriend means lectures about how God doesn’t make that kind of mistake.
Emily desperately wants high school in h...
Fangirl
By Rainbow Rowell
In Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has...
January 6, 2018
Carry On
By Rainbow Rowell
A #1 New York Times-bestseller
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.
That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.
Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day wit...
January 5, 2018
Take Me With You
“Andrea Gibson explores themes of love, gender, politics, sexuality, family, and forgiveness with stunning imagery and a fierce willingness to delve into the exploration of what it means to heal and to be different in this strange age. Take Me With You, illustrated throughout with evocative line drawings by Sarah J. Coleman, is small enough to fit in your bag, with messages that are big enough to wake even the sleepiest heart. Divided into three sections (love, the world, and becoming) of one...
Tournament Fugee
“A talented thirteen-year-old goalkeeper, Victor Bayazid, is asked to join and captain a soccer team, the GTA Gazelles, to compete in the “Thank You, Canada” tournament. The tournament brings together teams of Syrian refugees from across the country to play in Vancouver. But Victor is haunted by memories of losing his grandfather during their escape from war-torn Syria. And he has to leave his younger brother Gabriel at home, sick with pneumonia. Filled with worry about his family which is af...
Team Fugee
“When Ozzie’s parents disappeared from their home in Nigeria, he and his sister Rebecca were taken to an orphanage. Two years later, they have been adopted by Canadian parents and live in ethnically diverse Scarborough. With no soccer program in their school, Ozzie and the other Nigerian kids compete with a team of Syrian refugees — led by Victor — for time on the field. Ozzie has come to hate change, but an exhibition match between Ozzie United and Victor United has Ozzie taking charge of hi...
January 4, 2018
Golden Game
“A junior high soccer team in Vancouver, with mostly refugee and immigrant teen players, is sponsored to play in a big tournament in Toronto. Abbas Wassef, a recent arrival from Syria and a striker on the team, is looking forward to playing the top team in Ontario where he will reconnect with a buddy from Syria.
Abbas has a big problem. He has witnessed a bad traffic accident that has given him flashbacks to the strife in Syria, and triggered a fear of airplanes and flying. But Abbas finds a...
January 3, 2018
Golden Goal
“Thirteen-year-old Dylan’s whole life changes when his father dies. Not only do he and his mom have to move to a poor part of Vancouver, where he misses their nice home and his old school. But then he’s also forced to join his new school’s soccer team — a group of immigrant and refugee students who play on a rough, gravel field.
Angry and lonely, Dylan gets into a fight at school. As a punishment, he has to join the soccer team — the last thing he wants to do, because it reminds him of his ol...
Snow Soccer
“Sarimah has played soccer in both her home in Syria and then in a Turkish refugee camp, honing her skills there with an old soccer ball on a sandy field with any kids she could find. But when her family suddenly moves to Canada, Sarimah is too busy learning English and getting used to the cold Saskatoon winter to think about her favourite game. She is surprised to find that the kids at her school play soccer in the snow, but she feels clumsy and slow in her winter coat and boots. And she doe...
