You Matter by Christian Robinson

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As Christian Robinson portrays a circular path of interconnection, he reminds us that we all matter. Starting and ending with little stuff too small to see, Robinson’s text and illustrations remind us that our place in the world, how we are perceived by others, or our successes or failures cannot change the fact that at the most basic level, each part of our world matters. Even compared the magnitude of space and the breadth of time we matter. The powerful words interspersed with the refrain “you matter’ circles back to the small stuff.

A must have for all libraries and an excellent tool to support Social Emotional Learning lessons.

Lubaya’s Quiet Roar by Marilyn Nelson

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Lubaya is a quiet child who appears to sit on the sideline whether it’s at school, with friends or home with family.  Yet, while not engaged as you would expect from a child, she takes the world around her and merges it with her imagination.  This imagination finds an outlet on the back of old protest posters. Upsetting news on the TV has her family reclaiming the protest posters for another march.  In this way, Lubaya’s truth and dreams in artistic form become part of the message of the protest. The beauty of this message is Lubaya’s quiet roar.

In a time when protests are regularly on the news, Lubaya’s Quiet Roar reminds us that the loudest voices don’t necessarily have the most to say. We all have the potential to listen, look, dream and illustrate a different, better world.

Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt

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Set in 1968, following the death of her best friend, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls. Here she struggles to fit in with her wealthy, tight-knit classmates, with grief heavy on her heart. With pressure from her instructors to work toward’s their “Accomplishment” for the year. Feeling inferior in all things, Meryl Lee can’t imagine what her Accomplishment will be.

In a sub-plot, Matt Coffin, seemingly family-less, is on the run from thugs and needs a friend, too. Their lives intertwine as they both search for meaning in their lives in this coming-of-age story, rich with lyrical writing, references to literary works and humor, this book would make a great read-aloud.

The Project

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Awful, infuriating, disgusting. Maybe, because I grew up in UT with the constant reminder of Warren Jeffs and his brainwashing of “his people” that I just did not enjoy this book. It is just a reminder of the evil and corruptness that comes from people who pray on the sick, weak, lost. 

Snow Birds, by Kirsten Hall and illustrated by Jenni Desmond

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With a jacket cover beautiful enough to hang on a wall, Jenni Desmond’s illustrations are a delight. There is little wonder that she is a multiple award winning illustrator as her pictures are the crowning touch in this poetry book about birds. We experience poems about Great Gray Owls, Buntings, Chickadees, Snow Geese, and many others, with each page donning a different format to keep our readers engaged and anticipating the next page. Every poem written for each bird includes the sound/noise that the bird makes–it’s song–as interpreted by Kirsten Hall. A lovely, repetitive phrase for each bird.

This book is a lovely addition for an elementary school or children in this age bracket.

The Collectors, by Alice Feagan

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What a wonderful story idea with two young girls, who happen to be from differing cultural backgrounds, come together to explore the forest through the lense of a young scientist. Our book even pictures and lists the items they take with them, such as: compass, binoculars and trowels. The young scientist have a magnificent collection of butterflies, leaves, beattles, seeds, ect.

There is some patterning in the story as the young protagonists find items which are too BIG, too DEEP, tooHIGH, to reach. But they never give up and move onto what is left to discover. Until, they get chased by a bear. (This is the only part of the story that I would make a change as my personal experiences leaves to to believe most bears are harmless and the less we fear them the more we will protect them). Luckily, the girls returned unharmed but worried they had failed their mission. Until, they look back at their journals and realize they had catalogued a rare bird species, mapped the forest and watched baby birds hatch. A lovely book of discovery!

Supertato, by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnett

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Everyone loves a superhero book featuring an ordinary russet potato! The Large size book with large sized illustrations will make this a fun read aloud to a younger audience. In the supermarket, produce section, a frozen pea makes a get away.Who would have thought that such a small guy could be so strong? He can push shopping carts, lift a potato masher and chase our superhero down the aisle. Luckily our potato hero was able to trick the pea into falling in jello. At the end of the story, the author asks the reader to check their freezer for frozen peas. Just in case, one happens to escape!

The Leading Edge of Now

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“Trigger Warnings”: sexual assault, alcoholism, drug abuse, foster care, and grief.

The Leading Edge of Now tells the sad story of a teenaged girl, Grace, who is grieving the death of her father, and going to live with her uncle, her only living relative, who finally has claimed her from foster care where she has spent the past two years. Thankful to be out of foster care, she is nonetheless nervous about returning to New Harbor. So many memories that remind her of all she has lost: her best friend, her boyfriend, and memories of what happened that night two years ago at her uncle’s house when she was passed out on Ambien. “Memories are like land mines that I step on everywhere I turn.“

The characters are well developed with detailed backstories. I enjoyed this novel in spite of the very heavy subject matter.

Your Destination is on the Left

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In this coming of age novel, we meet Dessa Rhodes, a teen whose family live a nomadic life-style traveling in a caravan of RVs with a communal group of friends. One of the friends is a teenaged boy, Cyprus, who Dessa has had a crush on for a long time. She’s worried about what a romance could do to their families’ relationship if the romance did not work out.

Dessa is an inspiring and talented artist who wants to leave the road behind and instead attend art school. But she can’t get accepted anywhere. And if she ever did, how would she pay for it?

An unexpected opportunity presents itself and she has to decide if she is going to leave the road, her family, and Cyrus, to pursue her dreams of becoming an artist, or stay with the ones she loves.

 

Learning to Breathe

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*Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault*

A victim of rape, sixteen-year-old Indira struggles to conceal her pregnancy from her family, even though it was her cousin who assaulted her.

Indy has tried to do what her grandmother encouraged: to do well in school, to not let boys take advantage of her. So that she doesn’t end up like her mother, who was also sexually assaulted resulting in Indy’s birth.

Having been sent to live with relatives in Nassau, Indy feels that she cannot escape from  her mother’s past. And how long can she hide her pregnancy from her aunt?

Indy tries to find a place where she will be safe. And she struggles with pressure to have an abortion. She is conflicted.

This is difficult story to read because of the graphic description of rape and assault. But I recommend it to readers interested in the #MeToo movement. Also, those who enjoy realistic fiction such as American Street.