Finish Line – 24-Hour Book Blitz, February 2023

48-Hour Book Challenge 0

24 hours isn’t enough time!

But my final stats are:
9 hours, 10 minutes reading,
3 hours, 15 minutes listening,
1 hour, 25 minutes online with related stuff.
Total: 13 hours, 50 minutes. And I spent more than half the 24 hours actually on books.

I finished 3 books, and read or listened to parts of 16 books. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. I read a page or two of several books as part of my daily quiet time. I read a total of 810 pages.

Like I said, it’s not enough time. I’m in the middle of Sidney Taylor Award Winner and Printz Honor Book, When the Angels Left the Old Country, and it’s amazing! But that means I didn’t get going on Morris Award eligible books. However, I greatly narrowed down the list of award winners I’m going to try to read before I do a program a week from today. I hope to at least start a Morris book this week. And after that — No more excuses! If I don’t read two Morris eligible books in a given week, I’ll finish up on Sunday instead of going to my usual gaming group. That’s the plan, we’ll see if it works!

And meanwhile, how much fun was it to spend a day reading?

24-Hour Book Blitz – February 2023 – Starting Line

48-Hour Book Challenge 0

It’s time for a 24-Hour Book Blitz!

And yes, I’m using the 48-Hour Book Challenge logo that my friend Pam, who once posted at Mother Reader, created. This is a half-time challenge for President’s Day.

Here’s the thing: I’m on the Morris Committee this year!

The Morris Award is for the best young adult debut book of the year. The eligibility is well-defined — a book for teens published between November 1st and October 31st, and it must be the creator or creators’ first published book.

The number of books eligible is much, much smaller than the number of books that were eligible for the Newbery when I was on it in 2019. But the thing is — it’s still more books than one person can read. But since the task is finite, we’re going to try to have at least two people from the committee read every eligible book. And everybody read the books that are nominated by at least two people.

I already have a list of 95 eligible books, and this is just the beginning of the year.

And — because I was on the Cybils and Mathical committees at the end of last year — so far I have only read 3 books eligible for the Morris! So I am starting out way behind.

To make matters worse, except in a good way, I’m doing a program for other youth services staff in my library system on February 27 about this year’s award winners — and I very much want to read more of the winners before the program.

So during my Book Blitz, the first thing I’m going to do is try to narrow down the books I’m going to read for the Award Winners Program, and try to get started on Morris books.

The committee has agreed that we expect everyone to read two eligible books per week. And I have promised myself that I won’t go to my gaming group on Sundays unless I’ve read two Morris books that week. I’m hoping it will be a well-deserved reward!

But now, I’m starting my Book Blitz. The rules are: I’m going for time spent. For the next 24 hours (starting at 10 pm Sunday night), I’m going to record how much time I spend reading books, listening to books, blogging about books, or posting reviews.

I’m not planning to set my alarm – so staying up late may be counter-productive. But it’s time to get busy, and let’s see how I do. Time to read!

Review of The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

by Maya MacGregor

Astra Young Readers, 2022. 350 pages.
Review written December 9, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Sam is an eighteen-year-old nonbinary kid who’s moving with their dad from Minnesota to small-town Oregon after an episode of bullying that almost killed them. They’re comforted that in their new school, they find other queer kids and even start making friends.

But there are bullies everywhere. For years, Sam has been obsessed with the stories of kids who didn’t live to age nineteen. They’ve got a book about those half-lived lives. And as it happens, the house their family bought used to belong to one of those kids, named Billy. And Sam is now sleeping in the bedroom where Billy died thirty years ago.

The adults in town all seem to say the same words about Billy, “It was a tragic accident.” But was it? Sam starts thinking they sense Billy’s presence, and what’s up with that persistent smell of popcorn?

What really happened to Billy? Sam’s new friend Shep thinks they can learn the truth.

But someone doesn’t want them to mess around with the past. Or is it just another case of Sam being bullied for who they are? Sam can’t help but wonder if they will ever reach the age of nineteen or end up as another half-lived life.

This book tells a compelling mystery in a warm and loving story about a queer teen recovering from trauma and finding their people. There is danger as they come close to the solution of the mystery, and the book certainly touches on serious topics, but I was left uplifted and encouraged by a group of people trying their best and landing on the side of caring.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Attack of the Black Rectangles, by Amy Sarig King

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Attack of the Black Rectangles

by Amy Sarig King

Scholastic Press, September 6, 2022. 258 pages.
Review written August 8, 2022, from an advance review copy picked up at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

Attack of the Black Rectangles is a story of censorship in a sixth-grade classroom — and the kids who decide to protest.

Mac and his friends Marci and Denis are happy to be in the same lit circle in their new classroom, reading The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen. But then they discover two places where words have been blacked out with a sharpie — and it’s the same in all of the books. What are the words someone didn’t want them to read?

Naturally, they go to get an uncensored copy of the book. The first passage is in a scene where girls in a concentration camp are naked in front of the Nazis. The words blacked out are “hands over her breasts.”

The kids feel insulted. As Marci points out, in sixth grade, they’re old enough to have breasts, but they can’t say the word? However, when they talk to the principal, she doesn’t seem concerned.

So they decide to take their message to more people. But at the same time they’re fighting censorship, Mac’s dad is causing their family some problems that have Mac torn up inside. And he wonders about his feelings for Marci. And there’s a kid at school who gives him a hard time.

Something I like about this book is that the author shows that even the teacher who censored the book isn’t all bad. As Mac says at the start, “No one is ever just one thing.” I like how the kids take on the challenge and show that in many ways, censorship is a matter of disrespect.

This book is, of course, very timely. And sadly, it’s based on something that actually happened to the author’s son. When she brought up the issue with the principal, they treated it like a big joke. After all, the books weren’t banned.

I appreciate that this book takes on an issue that adults may want to dismiss and shows kids it’s important. They’ll feel empowered to speak up if censorship ever happens to them.

as-king.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All That’s Left in the World

by Erik J. Brown
read by Barrett Leddy and Andrew Gibson

HarperAudio, 2022. 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Teen Fiction

All That’s Left in the World is about two teenage boys trying to figure out how to go on in a post-apocalyptic world after everyone they loved died in a superflu epidemic.

The author’s note says that he signed the contract for this book in March 2020 — so he had no idea how realistic it would feel. But the illness in this book is much, much worse than Covid-19, and civilization in America has completely broken down.

At the start of the book, Jamison is in a mountain cabin that has its own electricity and well water. Andrew is in the woods in big trouble because he stepped into a bear trap. He needs help. When he sees the cabin, he tries the door, expecting anyone who lived there to be dead. Jamie almost shoots him, but instead ends up giving him antibiotics and helping him recover.

But after they’re settling into life in the cabin and getting used to each other and Andrew’s leg is much better, a group comes and steals their food, trying to get them to join their settlement. Andrew takes off to where he was going before — following rumors that the European Union is going to bring help to Reagan National Airport. He tries to sneak away so Jamie won’t stop him — and Jamie ends up coming after him.

What follows is a road trip novel with lots of danger. Some of the people they meet along the way are helpful and kind, but most are the opposite. (I wish I didn’t believe there’d be so many guns in post-apocalyptic America!) Just when I’d think they had things in a good place, some new danger would find them.

So there’s lots of tension, and there’s also romance. It’s the kind I like best, very slow and gradual, and you can understand why they like each other. Andrew knows he’s gay from the start, but Jamie has had only girlfriends in the past, and is confused by his developing feelings for Andrew. But it’s all handled really well, and the reader just hopes against hope they’ll be able to make it to somewhere safe.

I read a novel in late 2020 where the whole population caught a bug, and knowing so much about pandemics by then, I thought it was completely unrealistic. (Viruses don’t spread instantly, for example.) With this one, which took place after most people had died, I wish I didn’t feel like it was believable, but unfortunately it very much seems like it could happen like that.

Of course, there are things I would have done differently if I were writing a post-apocalyptic novel, but this author had me believing the story all along, and worrying about how the boys would survive and figure out they loved each other.

For something as disturbing as this scenario, this was an awfully satisfying novel.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Zero Zebras, by Bruce Goldstone, illustrated by Julien Chung

Delightfully Silly, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Zero Zebras

A Counting Book about What’s Not There

by Bruce Goldstone
illustrated by Julien Chung

Orchard Books (Scholastic), 2022. 36 pages.
Review written January 8, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Silly Fun Picture Books

I love this book in so many ways! In fact, many more than zero ways!

Here’s how the book begins:

I see one wallaby . . .
. . . and zero zebras.

Two tuna splish
and splash
and splosh . . .
. . . with zero zebras.

You get the idea!

As things progress with various jazzy animals, there’s wordplay and visual play:

Ten tigers tiptoe —
that’s how many.

What about zebras?
There aren’t any.

Eleven llamas
like to spit.

It’s zero zebras
that they hit.

But the fun really begins after we pass twelve turtles on the page.

What’s next? What’s here?
What do you see
perching in this tree?
Why, look at that!
By now you’ve guessed.
Zero zebras — obviously.

But that’s not all that isn’t here!
Do you see zero eagles?
You’ll find them next to zero pigs
and zero barking beagles.

Then we’ve got two more spreads with rhymes about all the things pictured that they are zero of.

The finishing thought is this:

So when you want to count a lot,
don’t count what’s there. Count what’s not.

Try counting zeroes with your friends.
The list of zeroes never ends!

The final pages have thoughts from the author about zero and infinity.

So there you have it. A delightfully silly picture book that invites play and imagination and all kinds of fun — while getting kids thinking about the important mathematical concept of zero.

I did quote a lot of this book, but please let that invite you to see it for yourself, because a picture book is always best with the words and pictures together.

brucegoldstone.com
scholastic.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Bad Witch Burning, by Jessica Lewis

Paranormal, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bad Witch Burning

by Jessica Lewis

Delacorte Press, 2021. 340 pages.
Review written January 17, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2021 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Paranormal Teen Fiction

This book is so, so creepy!

I’m not usually a fan of creepy books, and if I hadn’t been reading it as a Cybils Finalist, I might have quit. I’m so glad I finished – this book is amazing.

The set-up is that sixteen-year-old Katrell has discovered she can help people communicate with their dead loved ones. All she has to do is write them a letter. The letter will catch on fire, and the loved one will appear. Okay, it gives Trell a headache, but she can make money that way. And she needs money, because her mother lost her job and her mother’s boyfriend Gerald likes to eat, and it’s up to Trell to pay the rent.

But then Gerald shoots Trell’s beloved dog Conrad – and in her anguish, Trell writes Conrad a letter, asking him to come back – and he does! Will this same thing work on humans? There’s a whole lot more money in resurrection than there was in simple communication with the dead.

No surprise, though – there are awful consequences to bringing people back to life.

This book is full of suspense and tension and horror – in the best possible way. Normally, when my time reading a book is full of mentally screaming to the main character, “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” – normally, I would think it was either unrealistic or the character is just stupid. In this case, although maybe Katrell didn’t exercise the best judgment, the author made me understand how strong her motivation was to continue. Never having had enough money makes money a pull, and being threatened by a powerful drug dealer is strong motivation, too.

I found myself completely caring for Katrell, and wanting her to get a break, to trust the people who care about her – and not be killed by the out-of-control Revenants she’d brought back from death.

Amazing that this is a debut novel. Can’t wait to read more from this author!

authorjessicalewis.com
GetUnderlined.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Answers in the Pages, by David Levithan

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Answers in the Pages

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 170 pages.
Review written September 15, 2022, from a book received at ALA Annual Conference and signed by the author.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Children’s Fiction

This is a children’s novel about censorship, and it’s very well done. Sadly, the author is among those with the most book challenges in America, so he knows what he’s talking about. This book looks at the issue of censorship from a kid’s viewpoint.

We get three stories in this book. One is a fictional book that a boy named Donovan is reading with his class. The book is called The Adventurers and we only get excerpts, but it’s a wild adventure of two boys named Rick and Oliver working together on a team with a girl named Melody to defeat a criminal mastermind, including escapes from alligators and a trap over a geyser and other frightening situations like those.

The problem comes from the last sentence in the book: “At that moment Rick knew just how deeply he loved Oliver, and Oliver knew just how deeply he loved Rick, and the understanding of this moment would lead them to much of the happiness and adventure that came next.”

When Donovan’s mother sees his book lying around and picks it up and reads that last sentence, she decides it’s a book promoting homosexuality and is not appropriate for fifth-graders. She gets the community involved and it all works toward a book challenge and a showdown at the school board meeting.

The other story being told is about a boy named Gideon in a different class than Donovan, reading the book Harriet the Spy in his class. There’s a new kid named Roberto who sits in front of him, and Gideon is happy as they start getting to know each other better.

I like the way the separate stories come together at the end.

But I also like the way different characters defend the book against the challenge. Here’s what the teacher says to the class when it’s first challenged:

“It doesn’t matter how you identify Rick or Oliver, or what you think their relationship is or ultimately will be. If we’re going to defend this book — and I promise you, I plan on defending this book — the proper line of defense is not ‘But they’re not gay!’ Because that implies that there would be a legitimate problem if they were gay. The proper defense is ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re gay. The characters can be whoever they are.’ And I know some of you might think I’m saying that because I myself am gay. But I am not saying this as a gay man, or as a gay teacher. I’m saying this as a human being who believes that all human beings should be treated with respect.”

I also like what Donovan says to his Mom:

“I don’t know what world you think we live in, Mom. There are plenty of gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary people on YouTube and TikTok and all the other things we watch. And other books I’ve read have had gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary characters. Kira in our class has two moms, and there are other kids in our school with two moms or two dads or two parents who just want to be called parents. Some kids have nonbinary older siblings. And there’s even a gay kid in my class.”

I won’t say more of how that discussion goes, but I thought it was portrayed well. And ultimately, the book showed that trying to keep kids from knowing about the world around them doesn’t do the job and it harms the kids who are in that group grown-ups are trying to pretend doesn’t exist. Because, as the characters point out, if you can’t know you’re gay in fifth grade, then how can you know you’re straight?

Besides telling about this all-too-relevant issue, the book tells a good story as well, about some kids being kids.

rhcbooks.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Year of the Reaper, by Makiia Lucier

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Year of the Reaper

by Makiia Lucier

Clarion Books, 2021. 324 pages.
Review written November 9, 2022, from a library book.
Starred Review

When I was more than halfway through this book, I looked at some ads for other books in the back and realized that this author also wrote The Isle of Blood and Stone, which I had enjoyed very much during my Newbery reading, but ended up being more Young Adult than Children’s. There’s something about her writing that captivates me. I’m going to look for more of her books.

This book takes place after war and plague have ravaged a medieval world. A prologue shows us a delegation from Brisa, including Princess Jehan and her maid Lady Mari. She is going to Olveras to marry the king — and stop a war that’s been going on for fifty-two years. But on the way, they left behind guards who came down with the plague, until finally the ambassador himself, Lady Mari’s father, succumbed. He sent her on with a small party. Because nothing is more important than stopping the war.

The main book starts a year later, featuring Cas, a nobleman coming back after three years in a Brisan prison. He didn’t get out because of the new peace. He got out because everyone in the prison caught the plague, and Cas survived. On his way home, we learn that Cas can see ghosts. He tries to pretend he can’t, so they won’t try to talk with him, but sometimes he gives himself away.

He has some adventures along the way, including a woman stealing his horse and then him needing to save her from a lynx with the plague. But when he arrives in his home city, he learns the king and his new queen are there, and it is their son’s naming day. But when Cas sees an assassin in a tower shoot an arrow at the prince’s nurse, Cas is the one who is quick enough to save the baby from the lake. But the assassin escapes.

The story that follows includes Cas trying to get used to living among people again, as well as trying to keep the royal family safe from whatever the assassin has planned.

I’ll admit that I saw a major twist coming right from the start — because a very similar twist happened in a book I’d recently read. But that was merely coincidence. I thought it wasn’t obvious if you hadn’t just read a similar book.

The characters in this book won me over — they’re flawed, and they’re dealing with tremendously difficult things. But you watch them, for the most part, making good choices and caring about people. It’s a story that won my heart.

makiialucier.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Open and Unafraid, by W. David O. Taylor

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Open and Unafraid

The Psalms as a Guide to Life

by W. David O. Taylor

Nelson Books (Thomas Nelson), 2020. 230 pages.
Review written December 15, 2022, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I’ll be honest, the reason I ordered this book was that I was looking for competitive titles to go with my own book that I’ve written about Psalms. And I was delighted with this one. I do believe that the two can go together, more complementary than competitive. They have different approaches, but someone who enjoys one book will also enjoy the other, because both books are focused on that amazing book in the center of the Bible, a book that engages your emotions and gives examples of people bringing their lives before God.

In the Introduction, the author tells us his hopes for the book:

I’ve written this book so readers would become excited to embrace a prayer book that has been deeply influential, not just for Jesus and the apostles and for monastic and cathedral practices of prayer but also for the hymns of the Reformation, the spirituals of African American slaves, and the songs of the global church. My hope is that church leaders and laypersons, and even seekers and “nones” (those claiming no religion), would understand that they are never alone in their sorrows, angers, doubts, joys, thanksgivings, or questions about life and death.

I love the title of the book, because it reflects the psalmists’ stance before God — Open and unafraid. The psalms are amazing in their honesty and the openness of their emotions before God. In fact, as David Taylor approaches the Psalms by looking at many different themes, he begins with the theme of “Honesty.”

What the psalms offer us is a powerful aid to un-hide: to stand honestly before God without fear, to face one another vulnerably without shame, and to encounter life in the world without any of the secrets that would demean and distort our humanity. The psalms, then, are for those who know that they spend much of their life hiding secrets; they are also for those who know that standing in the presence of God “is the one place where such secrets cannot and must not be hidden.”

The other themes the author takes up to look at the Book of Psalms are Community, History, Prayer, Poetry, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Enemies, Justice, Death, Life, Nations, and Creation. Every chapter includes Questions for Reflection and Exercises, all of which run deep, so this book would be wonderful material for a small group to work through together.

The psalms invite us to risk the love of God and neighbor and of the world that surrounds us with the reassurance that we do not venture this risk alone. We venture it together with an extraordinary company of fellow pilgrims across the ages.

Dive into the psalms with this book. Like the author, I hope it will encourage you to spend time reading the Book of Psalms again and again as you come to understand why they have been beloved by God’s people for thousands of years.

thomasnelson.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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