There are tons of books I can’t wait to see in 2019. Every year, I love the steps publishing, especially small and independent publishers, take towards being more reflective of the reality of the current world we live in. We are not making near enough strides fast enough but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate…
I’m finally back from vacation and back on track now that school has started. PHEW is there any rush like the end of summer programs meeting the beginning of the school year? After all the delays and holidays I am finally returning to Lock & Mori which was released YESTERDAY – wheeeeee! You might remember my…
What a lovely marvel this book is. This is a picture book biography of John Roy Lynch, who was freed from slavery at 16 and within ten years was elected to the United States Congress. The book doesn’t try to cover Lynch’s entire life (though there’s great back matter including a timeline, suggestions for further…
I honestly can’t think of anyone in YA who does what Marcus Sedgwick does. Perhaps this is why I am so entranced by everything he’s ever written. Sedgwick won the Printz Award last year (that is the highest honor in young adult literature) for Midwinterblood, which remains one of the most atmospheric and overwhelming YA books…
I think there’s something primal about fairy tale re-tellings. I really do. And I think that they are a staple of YA because of this very thing, because they say to teen readers: you can pull the sword from the stone, you can evade the evil step-parent, you can save the day. And, yes, you…
A few weeks ago there was a longform article in the New York Times about scientific studies being done with the goal of proving that bisexuality exists. I suppose it was interesting enough, reading about the motivations of the researchers, hearing about the history behind studies like this. And yet. And yet at the same time…
“Give me some genuine emotion. Challenge yourself to be honest instead of merely clever.” I read Wise Young Fool for the first time months and months ago. I have read many and many books since now and then. And yet. And yet Wise Young Fool has stuck with me through all that. And yet Wise Young Fool is…
Where to begin? Where even to begin with a book this finely crafted, this breathtakingly realized, this clever, this full of love and aches and metaphors and, yes, magic? (but not the magic you’re thinking of – not the easy kind, not the kind that comes without consequences.) The Real Boy is the story of…
“What kids need and deserve is to feel respected – not just by their classmates, but also by teachers and school leaders who ought to have faith in young people’s ability to read, think, and decide.” – Meg Medina Yesterday, I wrote a short review of Meg Medina’s Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass…
Quick: how many books have you read where the main character has autism or autism spectrum disorder? Now: how many of those books were written by an author who openly speaks about their own autism spectrum disorder? For me, I realized that while I could come up with a few titles answering the former question,…
