It is, and will ever remain, a great mystery why this book didn’t win the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The Journey of LittlIt is, and will ever remain, a great mystery why this book didn’t win the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The Journey of Little Charlie reads like a middle-grade version of The Underground Railroad, as told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy forced to accompany a brutish slave catcher.
Due to advanced diction and an authentic first-person voice, would recommend this for book advanced readers or upper middle-graders (ages 10 to 14).
“You needs to be more like a bumbly bee, Charlie. Ain’t you never seent how them bees’ll burrow theyself into so many flowers that they very color change? They go from being yellow and black and common-looking to wearing balls of gold all o’er every square inch of theyselves. And there ain’t no mistaking neither that once them bees is wearing those robes of gold, they’s close to Jesus as they can get, they’s happy as anything living can be. They’ll sit on the edge of that flower just soaking it all in afore they starts buzzing their wings and celebrating that sound they makes. That’s where you need to be if you gonna learn how to work these fields; you need to quit thinking so much and listen to that buzz.”
The Poet X explores several important topics with a feather-touch: body shaming (Word!), the anti-feminist foundations of🚨 Unpopular opinion alert! 🚨
The Poet X explores several important topics with a feather-touch: body shaming (Word!), the anti-feminist foundations of organized religion (Yas, girl! Preach!), and the grueling lack of autonomy most people suffer in high school when adulthood is longed for but just out of reach (Omg, same!). Unfortunately, Xiomara's story is peripheral, hasty, and occasionally lacks a sense of synchronicity between its chapters.
In the opening pages, fifteen-year-old Xiomara laments the way men respond to her full-figured body. She resents being objectified, reduced to an object of lust, and is rightfully outraged that men touch her body without her permission. Shortly thereafter, she heads to the park where she delights in ogling the "half-naked ball players" because "They're FINE."
Running around in ball shorts, and no tees, their muscles sweaty, their skin flushed. I lean against the fence and watch them race up and down the court.
Xiomara's double standards about objectification of another person's body convolute an important message.
There's some sweetness here: first explorations of physical pleasure, the tenuous beginnings of young love.
And there's some pain: questioning one's faith, clashing with family, secrets that are painful to keep but would be more painful to vocalize.
The book's most notable grievance is its perfunctory verse. It lacks the lyricism and passion found in Blood Water Paint, written by fellow longlist nominee, Joy McCullough, the powerful economy of words demonstrated in Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, or the devastating emotional depth of One by Sarah Crosson.
By comparison, The Poet X is lukewarm, watered down, ineffectual. A blip. Here for a moment, fast to fade, easily forgotten....more
Aside from a few short bursts of insight on a Muslim girl suffering racists microaggressions a year after 9/11, A Very Large Expanse of Sea is your avAside from a few short bursts of insight on a Muslim girl suffering racists microaggressions a year after 9/11, A Very Large Expanse of Sea is your average, run-of-the-mill coming-of-age YA romance featuring a teenager who hates school, laments life, is awkward around boys, doesn't understand her feelings for the first guy who's kind to her, etc., etc., etc.
Lots of telling; crucial moments that hold vast potential for tension and emotional depth are glossed over in brief recap. One male character's physically violent outbursts are never addressed. The conclusion is realistic yet unsatisfying.
"You sound so sleepy."
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I don't know. I'm tired, but I feel so happy."
"You do?"
"Yeah," he whispered. "You make me so happy." He took a deep breath. Laughed a little. "You're like a happy drug."
Artful, passionate, harrowing. This book consumed me.
I've grown accustomed to the lack of light inside our studio. But from this angle of fatigue a ray
Artful, passionate, harrowing. This book consumed me.
I've grown accustomed to the lack of light inside our studio. But from this angle of fatigue a ray slants through the window to bounce across the surface of the foul, gelatinous potion I've just brewed.
Beneath the light, it's a golden sea, tranquil but for the slightest breeze. A place where magic hums beneath the surface, mermaids, water sprites, and queens of gleaming realms
It's not difficult to discern why Walliams is being compared to Roald Dahl. Awful Auntie is a humorous combination of flights of fancy and macabre bacIt's not difficult to discern why Walliams is being compared to Roald Dahl. Awful Auntie is a humorous combination of flights of fancy and macabre backstory, exaggerated villains, and an ill-treated child protagonist. On top of which, Tony Ross' illustrations are so like Quentin Blake's, it's uncanny.
This particular book was not a huge hit for me - perhaps because of the inevitable comparison to Roald Dahl, who simply cannot be bested - but this will definitely appeal to young readers, and Awful Auntie won't be the last Walliams book I explore....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Set in Mississippi during the Great Depression, Roll of ThunClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Set in Mississippi during the Great Depression, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a searing portrait of family and self-worth. Every child deserves to know Taylor's firebrand protagonist, Cassie Logan, and experience her untiring battle against social injustices and racism....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Although occasionally repetitive, The Soul of an Octopus isClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Although occasionally repetitive, The Soul of an Octopus is a tearful, informative, and memorable love note to octopuses - those strange yet wondrous creatures, intelligent and brimming with personality, that captivate and terrify in equal measure. ...more
Nine children reside on Orphan Island. On the day of the Changing, a green boat arrives to deliver a new child and whisk the eldest child away – neverNine children reside on Orphan Island. On the day of the Changing, a green boat arrives to deliver a new child and whisk the eldest child away – never to be seen again. Jinny, now the eldest after her best friend’s departure, is tasked with raising the newest delivery, known as her Care. The next time the boat arrives, Jinny will have to leave the island forever. Can she teach her Care everything she needs to know in time? And when the boat arrives, will Jinny have the courage to face the unknown?
Nobody had any idea how the boat worked. It arrived at this same spot, through the thick mist. As if pulled by an invisible string. Then it left again, a few minutes later, the same way. The boat was as reliable as anything, as sure as the stars.
Recently longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, Orphan Island has garnered significant attention. Perhaps because it’s a middle-grade novel that caters more to adults than to its intended audience of children ages 8 to 12.
Observed simply as a story for children, Orphan Island doesn’t offer much. Nine children go about their lives on the island, wanting for little, facing no substantial dangers, and professing no significant unmet desires. For the most part, the children get along well, save for a few petty squabbles. And despite the absence of adults, the children are washed, fed, and well-slept, because they adhere to a set of rules and regimens that ensure their needs are met.
But Orphan Island has greater depths, a secret meaning that likely accounts for its popularity amongst adult readers. Simply stated: (view spoiler)[the island is a metaphor, on which birth is parodied, childhood is explored, and the first steps toward adulthood are embraced (hide spoiler)].
The island has secrets and offers small mysteries. Many reviewers have suggested too many of these mysteries are left unexplained and too few secrets are left unexplored. That problem persists when Orphan Island is read at face value. When examined as a metaphor, however, many loose ends are resolved.
The boat arriving from a mysterious place, for example, needn’t be explained when one thinks of it simply as (view spoiler)[a vehicle for depicting a child’s birth (hide spoiler)]. The same can be said for the elusive ending, which appears to frustrate many reviewers. At face value, the conclusion feels unexplained, but (view spoiler)[when viewed as a metaphor, Jinny’s boat ride from the island represents her departure from adolescence. The closing lines: “This only feels like an ending,” Jinny said to the wind and the distance. And once she’d said it, she knew it was true.” indicate that Jinny is comfortably transitioning, departing from childhood and taking her first brave steps into life as a teenager. (hide spoiler)]
The big payoff arrives with the book’s closing lines but, despite the resonance of its metaphorical depths, the impact of Orphan Island’s conclusion isn’t weighty enough to justify trudging through its uneventful narrative....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
A haunting cautionary tale delivered in verse, in which fiftClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
A haunting cautionary tale delivered in verse, in which fifteen-year-old Will is forced to consider the potential consequences of his actions as he, armed with a gun and seeking revenge, waits for the elevator in his building to reach the ground floor.
THEN THE YELLOW TAPE
that says DO NOT CROSS gets put up, and there's nothing left to do but go home.
That tape lets people know that this is a murder scene, as if we ain't already know that.
The crowd backs its way into buildings and down blocks until nothing is left but the tape.
Shawn was zipped into a bag and rolled away, his blood added to the pavement galaxy of
bubblegum stars. The tape framed it like it was art. And the next day, kids would play mummy with it....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Twelve-year-old Peter's greatest companion is his fox, Pax.Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Twelve-year-old Peter's greatest companion is his fox, Pax. When they are divided by necessity in preparation for impending war, Peter's need for his fox and his regret over the way they were separated is so great that he embarks on a difficult journey to be reunited with Pax. Meanwhile, Pax must learn to fend for himself in the wild, a new and foreign terrain he's entirely unfamiliar with. The destruction of war threatens his new habitat, and he struggles to survive long enough to see Peter again.
Chapters alternate between Peter and Pax, charting their parallel adventures. Peter's chapters are occasionally difficult to believe; what he accomplishes as a twelve-year-old boy is quite a feat. The help he finds along the way makes for a touching story of friendship, recovery, and self-discovery. Pax's chapters shine. His view of the world is cleverly portrayed, playing on the use of his senses to perceive his surroundings. The author superlatively demonstrates Pax's limited understanding of Peter and his unfailing devotion:
The fox licked at the [boy's] tears and then grew more confused. There was no scent of blood. He squirmed out of the boy's arms to inspect his human more carefully, alarmed that he could have failed to notice an injury, although his sense of smell was never wrong.
Whatever his boy needed - protection, distraction, affection - he would have offered.
Because this is a middle grade novel, it bears mentioning that mature topics are explored. Pax makes mention of anxiety, PTSD, war and loss of bodily limbs. The book deals a lot with death, often portraying it graphically. While this book may help to nurture a young reader's sympathy and compassion for animals, the subject matter doesn't always seem suitable for its intended audience. Parents are well advised to first read Pax before handing it to their little ones.
What he sensed alarmed him. He tried to describe it: Air choked with death. Fire and smoke. Blood in a river, the river running red with it, the earth drowning in blood. Chaos.
Lessons include how thoughtless and destructive mankind can be, the challenges and triumphs of self-discovery, the search for truth, and the true cost of war.
"The plain truth can be the hardest thing to see when it's about yourself. If you don't want to know the truth, you'll do anything to disguise it."
How many kids this week, he wondered, had woken up to find their worlds changed that way, their parents gone off to war, maybe never coming home? [. . .] How many kids went hungry? How many had to move? How many pets had they had to leave behind to fend for themselves? And why didn't anyone count those things?
Despite the difficult subject matter, Pax is a tale of loyalty and responsibility, beautifully rendered for lasting impact.
The blackness had quivered with the rustle of night prowlers, and even the sounds of the trees themselves - leaves unfurling, sap coursing up new wood, the tiny cracklings of expanding bark - had startled him over and over as he waited for Peter to return.
Readers won't soon forget the story of Pax and his devoted boy, Peter....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Cora is a slave at a Georgia plantation in the antebellum SoClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Cora is a slave at a Georgia plantation in the antebellum South. When a fellow slave tells her about the Underground Railroad, she finds the courage to run for her freedom. Thus begins her odyssey as a runaway slave, where her adventures introduce her to unprecedented horrors and lead her to disheartening realizations.
The Underground Railroad rekindles the discussion and study of slavery. The harsh realities of those dark chapters in American history are presented with brute bluntness but remain eloquent in their presentation. It makes for a strange but savory contrast, to read about something so dreadful yet have it conferred with such sophistication:
The noxious air of the hold, the gloom of confinement, and the screams of those shackled to her contrived to drive [her] to madness. Because of her tender age, her captors did not immediately force their urges on her, but eventually some of the more seasoned mates dragged her from the hold six weeks into the passage.
Sometimes a slave will be lost in a brief eddy of liberation. In the sway of a sudden reverie among the furrows or while untangling the mysteries of an early-morning dream. In the middle of a song on a warm Sunday night. Then it comes, always - the overseer's cry, the call to work, the shadow of the master, the reminder that she is only a human being for a tiny moment across the eternity of her servitude.
Peppered throughout the book are short, engrossing chapters highlighting secondary or even tertiary characters, but the main point of focus is Cora, a sympathetic character if ever there was one. Cora only knows one life, and it is rife with degradation, abuse, and sorrow.
Cora didn't know what optimistic meant. She asked the other girls that night if they were familiar with the word. None of them had heard it before. She decided that it meant trying.
Every step of her journey forces Cora to question whether or not she is still chattel. Freedom - in the purest, truest sense of the word - seems to always remain just beyond her reach.
What a world this is, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your haven. [. . .] Freedom was a thing that shifted as you looked at it, the way a forest is dense with trees up close but from outside, from the empty meadow, you see its true limits. Being free had nothing to do with chains or how much space you had.
The author chose his timeline well and integrates other interesting and sickening moments in American history. In addition to slavery, The Underground Railroad touches on the surreptitiously induced sterilization of blacks; the secret studies of syphilis, conducted by white doctors on black patients without their knowledge; and the rise in the practice of autopsy and the subsequent need for corpses, which led to grave robbing and the irreverent disposal of deceased black peoples' bodies for scientific study.
The writing is superb throughout. Carefully selected word choices lend themselves to having harsh and long-standing impact on readers.
The stone vault above was white with splashes of red, like blood from a whipping that soaked through a shirt.
He wrung out every possible dollar. When black blood was money, the savvy business man knew to open every vein.
At the auction block they tallied the souls purchased at each auction, and on the plantations the overseers preserved the names of workers in rows of tight cursive. Every name an asset, breathing capitol, profit made flesh.
This book is an accessible read, breezy for the ease of its writing by weighty for the depth of its subject matter. It's no wonder The Underground Railroad won the 2016 National Book Award for fiction....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Jacqeuline Woodson recalls what life was like growing up inClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Jacqeuline Woodson recalls what life was like growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in this autobiographical middle grade novel. Written in verse, her account portrays a life divided between the North and the South, learning about the civil rights movement, and discovering a burgeoning passion for writing stories.
I am born as the South explodes, too many people too many years enslaved, then emancipated but not free, the people who look like me keep fighting and marching and getting killed so that today - February 12, 1963 and every day from this moment on, brown children like me can grow up free. Can grow up learning and voting and walking and riding wherever we want.
Woodson introduces young readers to important figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and author James Baldwin.
Not even three years have passed since a brown girl named Ruby Bridges walked into an all-white school. Armed guards surrounded her while hundreds of white people spat and called her names.
She was six years old.
Whether she was living in Brooklyn, New York or spending the summer with her grandparents in South Carolina, Woodson never felt she fit in but, no matter where she was, family was her anchor. Family was her shelter. The ways in which she portrays the sense of love and security found in even the simplest aspects of being with family - such as enjoying a warm meal - are sublime.
Autumn is coming. Outside, there's the sound of wind through the pine trees. But inside there are stories, there are biscuits and grits and eggs, the fire in the potbellied stove already filling the house with warmth.
She also paints a vivid portrayal of growing up at a time when race relations were strained to the point of breaking and learning to fight for one's rights and protect oneself in a violent society was as common as learning how to tie one's shoes.
This is the way brown people have to fight, my grandfather says. You can't just put your fist up. You have to insist on something gently. Walk toward a thing slowly.
They learn how to change the South without violence, how not to be moved by the evil actions of others, how to walk slowly but with deliberate steps. How to sit at counters and be cursed at without cursing back, have food and drink poured over them without standing up and hurting someone. Even the teenagers get trained to sit tall, not cry, swallow back fear.
Brown Girl Dreaming is a cadent portrait of a little girl cherishing her family and dreaming of a better world.
We all have the same dream, my grandmother says. To live equal in a country that's supposed to be the land of the free. She lets out a long breath, deep remembering....more
Natasha and her family are undocumented immigrants; they're being deported from the US in twelve hours, so she's headed to the United States CitizenshNatasha and her family are undocumented immigrants; they're being deported from the US in twelve hours, so she's headed to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building hoping to find a way to stay in America. Daniel is on the precipice of the prestigious future his parents have lined up for him whether he likes it or not, and he's on his way to a college admission interview with a Yale alum. When Natasha and Daniel meet for the first time in New York City, their paths align and their futures - once certain - spiral into infinite possible outcomes.
It's difficult to choose which is the more likable lead in The Sun is Also a Star. Both Natasha and Daniel have distinct personalities, a shared innocence, and uniquely different families who challenge them in varied ways. Natasha is Jamaican and Daniel is Korean, which further complicates their unanticipated attraction toward one another, particularly for Daniel whose parents want him to marry a Korean woman. Natasha and Daniel may be me more philosophical and wise than your average teenager, but they manage to come across as believable old souls.
People say these things to make sense of the world. Secretly in their heart of hearts, almost everyone believes that there's some meaning, some willfulness to life. Fairness. Basic decency. Good things happen to good people. Bad things only happen to bad people. No one wants to believe that life is random.
Growing up and seeing your parents' flaws is like losing your religion. I don't believe in God anymore. I don't believe in my father either.
Natasha is highly pragmatic with a scientific mind. Daniel is a hopeless romantic and dreamer who loves writing poetry. Despite their diametric personalities, their chemistry leaps off the page.
"When are we doing the stare-into-each-other's-eyes thing?" I ask. She rolls the very eyes that I want to stare into. "Later. After your interview," she says. "Don't be scared," I tease. "What's to be scared of? All you'll see is iris and pupil." "The eyes are the window to the soul," I counter. "Stuff and nonsense," she says.
Interspersed throughout the book are brief histories - backstories of secondary or tertiary characters - as well as chapters dedicated to scientific topics relevant to the story.
According to the multiverse theory, every version of our past and future histories exists, just as an alternate universe. For every event at the quantum level, the current universe splits into multiple universes. This means that for every choice you make, an infinite number of universes exist in which you made a different choice.
The Sun is Also a Star is a dazzling teen romance in which opposites attract and love is challenged to defy universal odds. ...more
The Thing About Jellyfish is the heartrending tale of Suzy Swanson, a little girl who just encountered the Worst Thing: death. To make sense of her grThe Thing About Jellyfish is the heartrending tale of Suzy Swanson, a little girl who just encountered the Worst Thing: death. To make sense of her grief, Suzy turns to the wonders of the universe and the dazzling expanse of her imagination.
Suzy's take on the world is both academic and poetic, despite her young age. She has one of the most romantic worldviews yet encountered in a children's book:
I liked the way patterns repeated themselves in this universe, the way a solar system could resemble an atom, or a mountain range seen from outer space could look just like a fern leaf covered with frost. I liked the thought that three billion bugs fly over my head in a single month in summer or that an inch of soil might contain millions of creatures from thousands of different species.
This book is targeted at a middle grade audience, yet it offers several profound life sentiments:
Sometimes you want things to change so badly, you can't even stand to be in the same room with the way things actually are.
In the end, Suzanne," [she] continued, "it's a gift to spend time with people we care about. Even if it's imperfect. Even if the time doesn't end when, or how, we expected. Even when that person leaves us."
Even Suzy's musings on people and social behavior give the reader something to think about:
If people were silent, they could hear the noise of their own lives better.
What my dad wanted, I suspect, was the thing everybody seems to want: small talk. I don't understand small talk. I don't even understand why it's called that - small talk - when it fills up so much space.
The Thing About Jellyfish is a beautifully crafted tale about beginnings stemming from pain and blooming into a life worth cherishing. ...more
When the Moon Was Ours is a tender romance woven from opulent prose.
Only rumors can account for Miel's origin, a strange girl with night-black hair aWhen the Moon Was Ours is a tender romance woven from opulent prose.
Only rumors can account for Miel's origin, a strange girl with night-black hair and roses budding from a wound on her wrist. Sam has a secret past and devotes his time to painting moons, which he hangs from the boughs of trees all over town. Bound by friendship and love, Miel and Sam share a mutual understanding to avoid the Bonner girls, four sisters said to be witches. But Miel has something the Bonner girls want, and when the Bonner girls want something, they get it.
The fantasy elements of When the Moon Was Ours are immediate yet subtle. It's the sumptuous prose that makes this book magical:
The pale, rose-colored light had made her expect to look out her window and find all the trees blooming. A million blushing petals against a midnight sky. Spring descended over fall in countless pink blooms.
Characters are introduced, and continually described, in ways that evoke the senses:
Aracely had hair as gold as late afternoon, her eyes the deep brown of a wet, fertile field. Miel's hair was dark as a starless autumn, a night made brown by fall leaves, and her eyes matched the gold of low twin moons.
She was the dark amber of beechwood honey, the caramel of sourwood, and the bitter aftertaste of heather and pine. She was every shade of blue between two midnights.
Sometimes the book reads as though the author discovered newfound ways to define love:
This girl who built with him each night a world so much softer and more beautiful than the one he woke to in the morning. She was the wild blossoms and dark sugar that spoke of what the world could be. She was the pale stars on her brown skin. She was the whole sky.
The soft and sweet means by which attraction is conveyed are, at times, more sensuous than a book that's intentionally erotic:
She had left [the gold foil stars] on [her skin] the whole day, while they let the sun heat their backs. When they ran, her perspiration made the foil shine damp, and it wore the edges of the adhesive, but the little stars stayed. And that night he had lifted each one off her, slowly, so they didn't pull at her skin. [. . .] He had mapped her body like a new sky.
The pacing is tepid but compelling. The characters are mysterious yet complex. When the Moon Was Ours is an evocative read in which love and secrets are the ultimate currency.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Anna-Marie McLemore for providing a free ARC in exchange for this honest review....more
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Ghost is a deeply moving book with several important messagesClick here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Ghost is a deeply moving book with several important messages for young readers.
Castle Crenshaw goes by the name Ghost, because he's a wicked fast runner. The first time he ran -- truly ran -- he was running for his life: running ain't nothing I ever had to practice. It's just something I knew how to do.
Now that he's older, Ghost puts his natural talent to work by running track. But he's not just running toward the finish line, he's running away from his past and the anger he's got buried inside.
"Trouble is, you can't run away from yourself." Coach snatched the towel from his shoulder, folded into a perfect square, and set it in the space between us. "Unfortunately," he said, "ain't nobody that fast."
Ghost must come to terms with what he's running from and decide where he's running to: "you can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be."
Jason Reynolds always manages to squeeze numerous topics into his books without making the narrative feel over crowded. Ghost touches on thievery, drug abuse, gun violence, bullying, honesty, family dynamics, friendship, and finding healthy ways to channel anger and hurt into positive action.
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend....more
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