Book Review: Himawari House / Harmoney Becker

It is a snow day so it is time to read a book. My 2023 Book Challenge contains themes of the month, and one of the themes in February was International Friendship - yes there is a day for that. And yes, this book exemplifies that. 

First things first, why would I add monthly themes to my 2023 Book Challenge? I am always looking for ways to push myself - to learn and experience new things. This book challenge offers me some topics to encourage me to read books about topics that I might not pick up otherwise. I am really enjoying this aspect of my challenge this year. 

Now on to Himawari House. This book is a graphic novel about a girl, Nao, who returns to Japan (during a gap year before college) after moving to the United States when she is a small child. In the US, she never feels like she really fits in. Her lunches are different from those around her, she looks different, and no one pronounces her name correctly. She believes that she will fit in perfectly in Japan. But is that the case after adopting so many American habits and practices? Has she lost too much Japanese, her first language?

This book really gave me some insight into how it feels to live between two cultures, between two languages. 

If you are someone who is interested in a gap year, or living abroad, or even Japanese culture and language - try this graphic novel. If you are interested in reading about friendship or love interests, read this book. What a great read on a snow day (or any day.) Happy reading!

 

Book Review: The DeVouring / Simon Holt

Happy December folks. Check out this totally different take on a holiday story - all centering around the Christmas Season.

You won't find visions sugar plums dancing in wee ones heads, but rather a nightmare dreamscape that features our most terrible imaginings.

If you like B- grade horror movies, this book will play that out in your head. This will keep your eyes moving across the page to see what unexpected horror comes next. 

 

Book Review: Guitar Note / Mary Amato

 

Tripp Broody is ALL about the guitar - it is his release, his art, his passion. His grades are crappy SO... his mom confiscated his guitar.

Lyla is an amazing cellist - blowing away the competition and playing in elite venues. She is an A student and a school star - but it is all getting overwhelming.

And then they start sharing a practice room - Tripp on odd days (on a borrowed, school guitar) and Lyla in even days (mostly staring at her cello). Lyla and Tripp begin leaving each other snippy notes in the strings of the guitar and this story is born.

And there is more - Mary Amato has created a webpage with the songs from Guitar Notes and a whole lot more. Check it out here: Guitar Notes Songs

Book Review: The Prey by Tom Isbell

This is one of the books that was offered to incoming Freshman just prior to summer vacation. 

Are you an action/adventure movie watcher? reader? game player? Well this might be a great book to pick up and read.

A quick description: Warring nations launch nuclear bombs at each other creating an event called Omega. The radiation and percussion of these bombs change the world and increasing the fractured politics with different factions dividing themselves from each other. Children and animals are born with birth defects or altered. Lawlessness becomes the norm.  Most devices that are electronic don't work. - This is the story of several teens - boys who are in a facility for "less thans" (and yes that is as terrible as it sounds) and the girls here were assigned to a facility for twins - where an evil doctor carries out horrific experiments on them. (yes there are overtones of Naziism.) How does one move on from those horrible circumstances? Read this book to find out.

Between these pages you will find bravery, leadership, uncertainty, evil, friendship, and even love. 

You can find this book in the hands of 9th graders, on the shelves on Nashua South, or check out the Online Catalog for Nashua Public Library.

 

Book Review: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

 

    Don't you just love this cover? Art plays a big role in this book and the cover completely fits with the story. 

    Felix Love is a transgender teen who wants to know what it is like to be in love. At the same time, he is struggling with identifying himself and questioning the "labels" that define him. He also wonders if he is worthy of love. When an anonymous person exposes his past and sends him trans-phobic messages, Felix sets up a plan to "catfish" the suspected culprit. But the results to the catfishing plan are not what he expects. Throw in anxiety about what the future holds and this story hits lots of things that many teenagers experience.

The heart of this story is about identity and self-discovery but it also includes the themes of relationships and privilege. Through a diverse cast of supporting characters, Felix's relationship with his friends and family also play a big role in how he evolves throughout the story. The author did a fantastic job of capturing the yearning for acceptance and the longing for love. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a glimpse into what it is like to be a trans-gender teen. Beyond that, I think anyone who enjoys stories about teen relationships - love, family and friends - would also enjoy this story.

Felix Ever After is available in the South library and with your Nashua Public Library card in audiobook and ebook format. It is also currently on the long list for the Flume Award - the NH teen reader's choice award.

Book Review: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

 

"Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions." This is a sentiment that Mr. Wyatt shares with Maverick in this novel. 

And yes, Maverick is both a rose and living in difficult conditions. His father is in jail, presumably for gang-related activity (he was the "crown".) His mom can barely pay the bills. He is in a gang and selling drugs. AND then one day he is asked to join a girl at the hospital where a DNA test is being run on her 3 month old son. That is the day he is thrown into the life of fatherhood when the girl leaves the hospital without the baby. Maverick is thrown into a life of sleepless nights, exploding diapers, and of forehead kisses. This new responsibility brings up all kinds of questions, such as how is a 17 year old boy supposed to support a son.

No, life for Maverick doesn't get easier from here. And this is not a novel that is tidy. Maverick struggles with decisions that will impact his family for years. Sometimes there are no easy answers. 

This is a story of fatherhood, of family, and of friendship. It is a story of responsibility, and consequences for actions, and struggling to figure out what the next steps in life. This is also the prequel to The Hate You Give.

As far as I am concerned, this is a five star novel.

Find it on the shelves at South or the Nashua Public Library. NPL also has both audio and ebook copies through Libby. 

Book Review: What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

What an amazingly beautiful cover and a great story. 

Muiriel was born into the foster system when she was abandoned at birth. The nurses in the John Muir named her after the John Muir Medical Center where she was taken as a foundling. And this was the beginning of her strength.

The story opens as she leaves another foster placement. Her social worker, Joellen, is taking her to an island outside of Seattle where she will live with a foster mom who decided to take one last foster placement - a teen (though prior to this she has only fostered little ones). Muir takes pride in "packing lightly" and depending on no one but herself. But this island and the community there challenges her beliefs about herself and about her world. 

Jennifer Longo wrote this book (as stated in the Author's Note at the end of the story) because her daughter, who was born into the foster system, noted that she often doesn't find herself represented in books. Longo listened to a number of kids who live or lived in the foster system and this story came out of those voices. 

Longo states: "Voices of adults, well intended or not, overwhelmingly drive the myopic, adult-centric false narrative of foster care and adoption in America, talking over those of the kids in foster care who are screaming and no one is listening."

At the end of this story there are several resources listed for more information. One of these resources is Aging Out Institute. There are others listed in the book.

You can find a copy of this book on the Nashua South shelves (as soon as I donate this copy!) 

Thanks for the recommendation from Valerie a guidance counselor from Londonderry.

 

Book Review: Early Departures / Justin A. Reynolds

First of all let me just state that my ancient ereader is the best. No back light, a tiny keyboard, and it is a beast. Yay for that.

Now for the book.

• This was a fast read - the book just grabs you and holds you
• It will make you think about honesty and death
• There is humor rolled into this book (though it didn't really make me LOL)
• The character development is good - all the way through

Early in this story you learn that there are moments that divide your life into before and after. Like March 13, 2020 - when this pandemic sent us home from school. None of us are the same as we were before that date. Some change is good, some bad - but we have all been impacted. Think of before. Think of after. For Jamal that moment was 11:43 - when Jamal's parents were killed in a car accident. After that moment - nothing is the same as before and now Jamal is just sliding through life without taking anything seriously - not his schooling, not his girlfriend, not his best friend. 

And then... there is a party, and a drowning, and again nothing is the same. 

 

Book Review: Words We Don't Say / K. J. Reilly

Joel just doesn't fit into school very well - he is more interested in cars than math (at least the way they teach it at school.) He goes to school, he does what he has to, he gets by. This is his story in his unfiltered internal dialog (along with his filtered external voice) and a bunch of unsent text messages. (Can you really save these to draft?)

Anyway, Joel must participate in community service as a graduation requirement and volunteers at the soup kitchen each Wednesday night. Luckily Eli also volunteers then and he has an incredible crush on her. At the soup kitchen he meets a bunch of characters, some who are willing to share their insights and others who remain silent. Many are veterans and many have mental illness.

Why would I recommend this book? The characters are flawed but  well formed and interesting. There is a very big difference between Joel's internal voice (lots of swearing) and his external voice (which is pretty polite.) There is some insight into mental illness and trauma. And a real value placed on intelligence that isn't of the Advanced Placement variety.  Finally, I found myself LOLing at multiple points in the story even though many of the topics in this book are heavy ones. 

If bad language bothers you - stop - don't read. If you don't enjoy visiting someone else's mind - stop. But if you like to jump into someone else's experience and see all of the richness that makes us human - jump right into this book with both your eyes and your mind wide open. 

 

Book Review: Code of Honor by Alan Gratz

Imagine being a senior in high school, a football player with a beautiful girlfriend - even the homecoming king and then...  And then a picture appears on TV of your brother  (An Army Ranger!) acting like a terrorist. Suddenly people are no longer friendly, your girlfriend turns her head, and you no longer know what to believe. Your world has shattered. AND THEN, the United States government abducts you.

Here is the story Code of Honor. For a fast paced, action packed story - that has honor at its core, read this story.

Look for this book on Hoopla through the Nashua Public Library!

Book Review: The Beast by Walter Dean Myers

"Spoon" grew up in Harlem, but due to his desire to attend an Ivy League college, he enrolled in a prep school. While there he works hard both in his academics and at his job. When he finally goes home for the first time, during Christmas vacation, he finds that the Harlem he knows is not the same. His friends have changed and not in the ways that he anticipated. Seeing these changes among his old friends, and the observing the lives of his predominately white prep school friends really highlights how the privilege that we have or do not have impacts each person's life.  This is a slow read, not a fast-paced plot driven book, but rather a quiet knitting together the beginning of a new kind of understanding.

Book Review: Guts by Raina Telgemeier

Fifth grade Raina becomes afraid of vomiting and it spirals out of control. Whenever she gets nervous her stomach hurts and then she becomes afraid of getting sick. She begins therapy and that also becomes a big secret.

Telgemeier wrote Sisters and Smile - books that will "transport" many students back to their earlier years when they read these books and others. This story is about themes that we all deal with - fear, friends, maybe even the fear of throwing up. Enjoy this "throw back" novel through Libby via the Nashua Public Library.

Book Review: With the Fire on High / Elizabeth Acevedo

Emoni gave birth during her freshman year of high school. Now in her senior year she has become a tough character, a good friend, a loving granddaughter, and a great mom. Now is the time for making decisions about her future, and while Emoni knows she wants to become a chef, she isn't sure how to get there especially while supporting her daughter. This book is so good that you can almost taste the food.

I love Emoni's character - she is no nonsense but under her tough exterior lies a compassionate soul. She struggles with how the world sees her and judges her, but doesn't let that stop her from moving forward.

Check out this video of Elizabeth Acevedo talking about With the Fire on High.

Book Review: We'll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss

Imagine living on death row. Imagine knowing what you did to get there was wrong, but not feeling sorry that you did it.

What would it take to be that person? In We'll Fly Away you will meet two teens. Luke, a wrestler, lives in a home where he is essentially the parent of his younger twin brothers. Toby lives with his father and experiences frequent beatings. Both boys dream of moving on to a safe place. This is their story. 

Why read this book? Growing up, my mom often used the words, "You need to walk in his (or her) shoes." Why did she say that? She thought it was important to understand other people's contexts. To try to see the world from their perspective. This book offers a chance to "experience" the life of someone without much - without much money, without much guidance, without much parenting, without much nurturing. Reading stories such as this builds a foundation on which you can understand the people you meet. 

You can find this book on Hoopla in both ebook and audiobook formats. 

No Sad Songs / Frank Morelli

Gabe desires a senior year full of his best friend, girls, and baseball, but finds himself caring for his grandfather and uncle after his parents both die in a car accident. His uncle is pretty useless (booze and a lot of couch surfing) and his grandfather's dementia often leaves him reliving his World War II days  - launching (sock) grenades and fighting imaginary foes making him combative and violent. Gabe promised his father to protect his grandfather's dignity by allowing him to live his final days at home, a task that is becoming increasingly difficult. BUT life has a habit of changing one's plans.

I really enjoyed this story. I love, love, love Morelli's language choices - he paints wonderful visual images. In a story that is filled with a heart-breaking topic - there is a TON of humor. You will find this book in the Nashua South Library collection.

Book Review: Not If I See You First / Ally Carter

Maddie’s best friend, Logan, is the president of the USA’s son. Maddie’s father was his secret service agent until the night when he was shot defending the first family. Suddenly, Maddie finds herself in Alaska disconnected from the world, her only companions are books and bears. She writes Logan everyday for two years before she stops sending her letters. And now he arrives at her cabin, a kind of punishment for him. And with him comes trouble! Check out this video about the book by Ally Carter, or this book trailer.