I got 11 pages in and, mystified by the emotional manipulation of the opening pages, as well as the nationalist and propagandist language of “That is the way we fight wars. We don’t go looking for battles. We don’t conquer other nations; we don’t occupy other lands. Indeed, the only foreign soil our nation has ever claimed have been tiny spots such as this, where we seek a quiet pasture to bury our dead.” 

NO THANK YOU. A quick google of the author shows that he is also a staunch supporter of D*nald Tr*mp. Saw that coming from a mile away. 

Its horror seems to only derive from violence - not really my cup of tea.

I was surprised by how much I liked this, but really I shouldn’t be. It was recommended by a college professor who I didn’t like that much, and only recently did I realize it was written by Patricia Engel, who has slowly become one of my favorite poets (and even won one of my class’s National Poetry Month Madness). I normally don’t like “slice of life” books about a protagonist’s random experiences and romances, but I devoured this book in two days. Something about it was so compelling - it’s fiction, but I can’t help but imagine that Patricia Engel poured so much of herself into it (both she and the protagonist lived in New Jersey as the daughter of Colombian parents). 

The book is described as following, out-of-order, events in the life of Sabina as she navigates love, family, and her identity. What struck me most is that each chapter is really about someone else - or Sabina, in relation to other people, whether it be a lover, a family member, or a family friend. For the most part, it’s a sad book, and not always in a way I could easily pinpoint, perhaps because the experiences are so raw and human, and for that reason I have to believe that Engel was inspired by real life events. When I finished, I had an inkling that I really didn’t understand everything, and I’m going to keep this on my desk for a while so I can go back to a chapter every now and then and maybe get something new out of it. 

Based on reviews on G*odreads and StoryGraph, this book doesn’t seem too popular. People are sleeping on this! Loved this book a ton. 

This is the sequel to Touching Spirit Bear, which I gave a 5-star rating earlier in the year. After a conversation with a teacher about possible cultural appropriation in the book Walk Two Moons, I did a bit of research on the author and how accurately he did his own research on Tlingit culture, which he relies on in the book. The author claims he talked to a First Nation leader about the idea of exile as a substitute for the juvenile jailing, ancestor rocks, totem carving, etc. Based on a cursory glances about appropriation in TSB, responses seem mixed, with slightly more criticism aimed at Mikaelsen for not correctly representing Tlingit culture. 

This book is less steeped in the lore and culture of the Tlingit people, but the idea left a bad taste in my mouth anyways. All that aside though, if you shear the first book of all its potential appropriation and tropes, it’s one of the best exploration of toxic masculine aggression in young people that I have ever read, and I’m sad it’s muddied by poor research and work on the author’s part. All that aside, however, the second book falls short of all my expectations. 

The premise is simple: having solved the anger and violence in himself, and having made amends for permanently injuring another kid in a violent attack, Cole must return to school, a place wracked by bullying, drugs, and gangs. I liked that premise, as it took the internal conflict of the first book and had a chance to make it an external conflict that perhaps people could apply to their own school. But the characters in this book were so shallow compared to the first that it felt difficult to get invested at all. 

In addition, whereas the emotional climax of TSB was “Can Cole control his violence and make amends for his attack?”, the emotional climax of GOSB is, “Can they change the mascot of their school from a bulldog to a Spirit Bear?” The topic of mascot appropriation aside, this is such a weaker narrative question than the first book. I found myself rolling my eyes often, because while I agree that mascots are symbolically important, it just didn’t feel as sincere and life-changing as the first book forcing Cole to make amends, very slowly, for his past mistakes. 

I’m disappointed that the sequel set up such an interesting premise and just didn’t deliver. I will continue to discuss the first book and to what extent it appropriates Tlingit, and to what extent we can extract useful themes and messages from a book despite that knowledge. 

I’ve seen this book floating around some classroom libraries and decided to give it a go - in terms of its content, it’s a unique verse novel that offers an interesting take on the fall of Saigon and a Vietnamese immigrant’s experience in the United States. For that alone, the book is worth a read. However, I think I’m beginning to be more critical of verse novels when it, well, doesn’t feel like verse. This was something I encountered when I was reading Booked - I just didn’t feel like I was reading poetry. I know that anything can be a poem, but I feel like poetry should also be hallmarked by powerful imagery, interesting word choice, intentional literary devices, and I feel like Booked and this book kind of lack that - some of the time. I’ve read (much) worse verse novels, but if I read a verse novel, I want to feel lost in the poetry, I want to feel struck down by powerful language, and this book didn’t always do it for me. There were definitely some memorable poems, and it’s definitely going into my classroom library, but I don’t know if I can count this among my favorite verse novels. 

It give it 4 stars, but it feels like a must-read to me. While the book is fairly predictable, while it falls into many of the same eye-rolly YA tropes that so many books do nowadays, while I don’t feel hard-pressed to jump into the sequel, the book still feels fresh to me. I have to imagine it’s because it’s a contemporary fantasy story that does not borrow its setting and culture from European inspiration. While I love Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Mistborn, and the Kingkiller Chronicles with all my heart, it’s nice to read something new and refreshing! Similar to The Poppy War series, this is a great alternative to traditional European-inspired fantasy. 

The magic was the coolest part of this book, and it succeeded where a book like Shadow and Bone failed. The magic here, especially that of the protagonist Zelie, felt interesting and original. I find some faults with character dynamics and relationships that felt incredibly forced and, while the setting was very engaging, due to the nature of the book being a quest novel, I felt like we didn’t spend enough time in each location for me to properly appreciate them. I felt that, when the characters moved to a new place, I wanted to stay back. I contrast this with a book like Eye of the World in the Wheel of Time series, where the settings in this quest novel are familiar enough if you’ve read Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out when the characters moved on. 

I loved that the book was split among three competing POVs - I felt like it enhanced the story, with the exception of Amari’s fixation on her friend Binta, who dies in the opening pages of the book (not really a spoiler, as it’s not too important). It’s not a true example of fridging, but the death of a character who we really didn’t know comes up over and over again to the point where I got a bit annoyed. 

There’s definitely some eye-rolly tropes in here, but I feel like it’s worth the read anyways, with the ability to skip out before you read the sequels, which I didn’t feel was too necessary. 

I was such a fan of The Crossover, and that might be why I felt a little let down by Booked. I use interviews with Kwame Alexander in my classes and always recommend The Crossover, but this was honestly just okay. I thought it missed a lot of the heart that The Crossover had, and it was even missing some of the fun playfulness with the typeface and poem formats that enamored me to Alexander in the first place. I hate that I can’t stop myself from comparing this book to The Crossover, but it’s so similar in theme and form, that it’s impossible not to. It’s still going to have a place in my classroom library, I just won’t jump to recommend it like I will his other books. 

This book rocked! I was such a fan of Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, which I read twice earlier this year. Similarly, Ghost is a fast-paced book with a complicated protagonist. This book is much less serious than Long Way Down, and better suited for a younger audience. Ghost has its funny moments, but it all revolves around the character of Ghost learning self-confidence as he navigates school and sports. This is a great book to have in the classroom, and it will easily become a book that I recommend frequently to students (although many students seem to already know about it! It’s a popular one). I was a big fan of the character of Coach. I won’t read the sequels right away, but they’re definitely on my list.