Illustrated by Joanna Cacao 5 stars What a fantastic read! Though I typically am not drawn to realistic fiction, cheerleading is a topic I can’t resist. As I was reading this, I was pleasantly surprised that the book was about much more than cheerleading. Christina Soontornvat recounts her experiences in seventh grade, centered around the…
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4 stars An interesting look at the initial outbreak of Covid in Wuhan through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old. Mei loves cooking, improving her skill through an online cooking game. But when the pandemic spreads, Mei faces being separated from her family, a city-wide shutdown, food shortages, neighbors turning on each other, and those around…
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5 stars An absolutely beautiful time capsule of a book that captures both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments of lockdowns, quarantines, and the spread of Covid-19. Pham’s artwork perfectly captures the happiness, stress, hope, sorrow, and frustration of the time. Through empty streets, flourishing wildlife, and homebound scenes, Pham shows some of the changes to the…
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4 stars A nice graphic novel adaptation of I Survived the Attack of the Grizzlies, 1967. This story has been one of my favorites so far in the series (You can read my review here ). Nice balance of showing the dangers of grizzly bears, but also what humans can do to avoid dangerous interactions. There is a…
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5 stars A wonderful book with lush illustrations and a powerful message. Whether you have a name that’s deemed hard-to-pronounce by others or not, this is a great read and learning opportunity. At first, Mirha is excited for her first day of school. But when no one pronounces her name right, she feels unimportant. With…
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3 stars A powerful coming-of-age story. This novel-in-verse takes a young poet, a forbidden love interest, a strict, religious mother, an apathetic father, a secretive brother, a supportive best friend, and an encouraging teacher, mixes them together, and presents a story of hardship, hope, and healing. This book tackles so many issues such as mother/daughter…
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5 stars A fantastic follow-up to the first book. Wonderfully written with unforgettable characters. Same charm as the first book with additional characters (along with old favorites), new adventures, and new problems to solve. In this one, the Vanderbeekers forge new friendships, reunite with established friends, make some unexpected discoveries, and band together to beautify…
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4 stars Another fantastic volume featuring Charlie and Nick. I really enjoyed getting to see more of the side characters in this one. Of course, Darcy and Tara are adorable as always, and it was exciting to see Elle and Tao finally face their feelings. We also see a little more of Aled. Hoping to…
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3 stars An interesting story centered around the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. This is the first book that I’ve read in the Girls Survive series and overall I enjoyed it. The writing is pretty simple and lacks some finesse, but I think it does a good job of making history appealing to young readers….
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3 stars Hooray for the first girl lead in the series! Tarshis does address this in the backmatter but… Personally I wish Tarshis would stop hanging onto the explanation that she wanted to write books her sons would read and they weren’t interested in girl characters. I hate this excuse. Can we all just admit…
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