The 2020 Booker Prize Shortlist

September 16, 2020

The 2020 Booker Prize Shortlist   The 2020 shortlist is: The New Wilderness by Diane Cook (Oneworld Publications) This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Faber & Faber) Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews

Aquicorn Cove, by Katie O’Neil, 2018

August 29, 2020

A sweet fantasy about a young girl and her aunt who are shown how fishing with plastic nets is damaging the coral reef in Aquacorn Cove and how the reef has protected their small village . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Graphic Novels, Reviews Juvenile Books

New Kid, by Jerry Craft, 2010

August 29, 2020

This book was so much fun! I hope it’s ok to say that. Much of it is told through a sketch book journal. Main character and budding cartoonist, Jordan faces the usual challenges of being . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Graphic Novels, Reviews Juvenile Books

A Home For Goddesses and Dogs, by Leslie Connor, 2020

August 29, 2020

A down to earth story with lots of sweetness, depth and heart. I wanted to stay in it; and live there for awhile with the women who are all about healing stray creatures. At 13, . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Juvenile Books

Symphony for the City of the Dead Dimitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

August 29, 2020

by M. T. Anderson 2015 This biography is stunning; it is so compellingly told that I couldn’t put it down.The story will stay with me for a long time. I’m finding it hard to start . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Young Adult Books

Praire Lotus by Linda Sue Parks 2020

August 29, 2020

I feel lucky to have been guided to these books about the Asian American experience. Downstairs Girl, A Place to Belong, When you Trap A Tiger, and Prairie Lotus, all chronicle the abuse, prejudice, virtual . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Juvenile Books

When You Trap a Tiger

August 29, 2020

by Tae Keller 2020 A quick enchanting read that manages to tackle the pain of growing up in a another culture and the loss of the family matriarch. The Korean grandmother has told her granddaughters . . . read more »

Category: Reviews Juvenile Books

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World by Amy Reed 2019

August 29, 2020

The setting is the near future in a downtrodden small town suffering the effects of global warming and economic  disaster following the loss of the surrounding forests. It’s intentionally ugly and depressing with surreal fantasy . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Young Adult Books

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee 2019

July 29, 2020

Although it is written with a light touch, this book hit me hard.   I had not remembered that the southern suffragettes did not include formerly enslaved black women and certainly not Chinese women.They were not even . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Young Adult Books

With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo 2019

July 29, 2020

I loved this book about a feisty young woman who succeeds against so many odds. She is an Afro Latinx senior in high school, living in racially challenging Philadelphia with her  3 yr old daughter and . . . read more »

Category: Book Reviews - Kids, Reviews Young Adult Books