This book is so much fun! There’s a monster looking for a new monster friend.  They don’t see any monsters they just see humans, but do you have it in you to be a monster? This book will help you find out. This book would be so much fun to read in a story time group. The kids would get active, they get a laugh and have a great time. So, whether reading it for bedtime or reading it to a class or any other group. This would be one book that goes on frequent rotation. 

 Five star read. This book needs to be read aloud to truly love. The cadence and the pattern to the story are just as important as the story itself and I love that this is not a typical cadence. We have a student who is trying to find out what the blue Bagoo is. The rumor around town is it’s big and hairy. It’s nasty it’s mean. But sometimes a rumor is just a rumor and people or baggees are not the horrible thing they’ve been made out to be. This book is a reminder to find information for yourself, and not just believe what everyone else is telling you. It’s a child first book on miss information and it’s absolutely fabulous. 

 This is a historically band picture book. This book is a product of 1958 and when it first came out, it pissed people off. This simple book is of a black rabbit and a white rabbit that like to play together. The black rabbit has small bouts of depression when they feel sad. But the white rabbits is always able to play with them and make them happy again. It turns out that the black rabbit wishes they could be with the white rabbit forever and the white rabbit says I do too. They get married, surrounded by friends and live happily ever after. Want to take a guess on why this book was hated in 1958? If you guessed racism, you are correct! At the time this book was written interracial marriage was rare, extremely frowned upon, and illegal in many states. This book saying that it’s okay for two to marry, and it even brings about a happy ending. This book is not currently in print and you have to find it in an library to read a copy, but our modern issues in 2023 are the same issues. We have been fighting the same things for 70+ years. This book was lovely, not just for the time it was written, but for now as well. This book should be a classic. It shouldn’t be banned, but as with many things in our society today. it is. 

 Briar Cliff prep is a historically black boarding school. It’s a prep school that leads out to HBCUs. For our main character, she has looked forward to her time at Briarcliff all her life. It’s a family tradition and she’s going to meet her sister there. Her sister is on her last year and is ready to graduate. But not everything is fun and exciting at Briarcliff. You see her sister is in an abusive relationship. Avielle watches her sister, seeing the signs of abuse. Seeing the signs of violence. Trying to understand why her sister stays in abusive relationship. This book really gets into the feels. It starts out really slowly, but I did enjoy the look at an HBBS. Because the conversations they had on the things that they get to study or look into if things are banned incurrent society in certain states like Florida. So that made this book. Interesting enough to keep turning the pages. I won’t lie the only reason I finished the book was to see if the sister lived. That is the entire really long reason to finish a book, but it is a story of domestic violence. I’m not going to tell you if it if she lives, but one of the things this book does extremely well is the aftermath. The aftermath of a girl saying he’s abusive. This book gets into the sisters arguing over why the abuse sister doesn’t want to make it public.  She says it won’t matter what he did it’ll be how classmates see it. She will be a lesser person for being abused and he’ll maintain his status quo, even though he’s an abuser. And she’s right! We see how modern teenage lives play out on social media and how an accusation like this would absolutely play out in a high school. There are not enough YA books that talk about domestic violence in high school, but we know what happened. I found this book was real. There are some a little out there events, but the real way things were happened, the real conversations of why you don’t leave, or how hard it is to leave, the real thoughts of a sister going why is my older sister staying? Why is why does this person stay with their abuser? Very real and at the end the book was worth it!  One just has to get through a lot of prep, and a lot of beauty pageant talk in the beginning. 

 There is nothing wrong with being a nerd unless, if you’re introverted and keep to yourself and are quiet and meek.  Then you’re invisible. But some people they really come alive at ComiCon. That’s the case with our main character. She has a ComiCon character she’s completely invented for herself, which is a Victorian steampunk ask character named Rel. As Rel she can do anything and be anyone. She has the confidence to leave an illustration and a poem with an email address in the locker of the boy that she likes. However, her everyday persona of Ramona is the mild meek and quiet nerdy girl. Most of the family, be it mom and dad or the cousins, don’t understand her nerdiness, and there is even a part of the story that shows how separate Ramona feels from her family. Her extended cousins don’t think of her as “black” enough because she’s a nerd. Overall, this was a really fun, cute, lighthearted, love story. It does date itself. It’s brand new but many of the pop-culture references are already a year or two at a date and that’s just going to continue as this book ages. So, while I did think it was fun, it’s fun for right now. It will not become a classic, but it doesn’t have to. They’ll be some nerdy black girl who will see this and go” This is the story I need. This is me. And I feel seen.” 

 This book was a little slow, but that’s very reminiscent of the title it’s based off of. This book is a retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde except it’s Gabriel, who is a young black man who goes to medical school in London and his dear friend, Henry. Henry is Henry Jekyll, the son of Dr. Jekyll. These two meet at medical school and become involved. They write romantic letters back-and-forth to each other over the summer and considering this is the 1880s it’s very frowned upon. Their love is illicit and considered immoral buy some. It gets both of them thrown out of school, and Harry experimented on by his father. What is unique about this story is the reason for the experimentation. In this version of the story, his father Henry’s father is experimenting on him to make the gay go away. It’s how we get Jekyll and Hyde. And in the book Hyde is not as violent as he’s made out to be and other versions. He is still deadly and there are there is an incident, but mostly the reader roots for him.  Overall I really enjoyed this different take. There was a reason to the experimentation that our current society would understand (but hate). One of the things I really like about this book is that why it is a “black trauma book”. It’s the trauma of being gay felt by outsiders, not by Henry and Gabriel are both fine with their love. But they still find each other and find a way to make everything work. Just two black boys in London trying to make a better life for themselves and others. 

 This book is entirely too long. The rhyme and the cadence are nice, but it seems like this boat is rolling across the Atlantic instead of rolling across the lake. What saves the story are the illustrations of the animals both child and parent. They are soft and cuddly and make you want to pet them. For me the book doesn’t work but for some families it well. 

 This is a simple board book for kids around Halloween. Technically it works, but this is not a book I would be buy. One line in a book with less than 30 word says “looking thin friendly skeleton”. This may seem like it’s nothing, but to me this is setting up children to start worrying about their size way too early. There could have been other things about a skeleton to say hi to other then the fact that it was thin. It just does not work at all and for that I will not buy nor recommend this book for anyone. 

 This book perfectly illustrates its title. It uses the picture book format to go through a variety of different pets that someone could have in a home and a bit of interesting information about them. One thing I particularly love is how in the beginning it says the best place to get a pet is the shelter. If more books would do that it would be very helpful to the shelters in all neighborhoods.
 
 

 This beautifully illustrated book is a little odd. Little rabbit is awake in the day and little owl awake at night. One full moon the two meet and become fast friends. Later on, they witnessed a shooting star, and both make a wish to be able to play together with each other more, and they are granted the shadow of the other animal. This ensures that they have a playmate until the next full moon. It’s odd with the shadows changing shape, etc. but quite lovely.