I read this for class, although I've wanted to read it for a while. I quite enjoyed it, but agree that the ending felt a bit rushed.

Dave the Unicorn is a delightful series where children get to become best friends with unicorns and be at school! Dave is not your typical unicorn: he farts a lot, is lazy unless motivated by food, and generally causes a ruckus. Mira, his BFF, loves him the way he is though. The cast of characters is diverse. I also thought the way the friendships worked were really realistic for the age group they are in. The only downside to the series is that I started in book three, so I missed the set-up of finding out how the school works. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

For some reason, I went into this book thinking it was going to be about World War II. It is not, but instead about World War I in Russia, at a time just before the Bolsheviks took over. Katya works in a factory making grenades. Her father is away at the war, her brother was injured and sent home and has been gambling away money ever since. Katya is torn between seeing what is actually happening in Russia, and what her father tells her. She eventually joins the first female battalion but is war actually what she thinks it will be?

Lough crafts a story of a girl carving out her own life at a tumultuous time, which I'm sure many of us can relate to.

Abdi Nor Iftin explains his journey to Maine from Somalia, now adapted for a younger audience. For me, Iftin does a really good job of explaining what Somalia was like, and why he loved it, and how his parents grew up. I like how it explains the differences between Somalian culture and our culture. I also thought his tales of arriving in Maine and what that was like to be very realistic. Powerful.

This is a powerful book about one assignment that tears apart a school. The students in one history class are supposed to do a pro/con debate about the Nazi's final solution for the Jewish people. As horrifying as that sounds, assignments like this happen all over the country--debating slavery for example. Writing letters to your parents as if you are in a concentration camp. This book is mostly from the perspective of Cade and Logan, best friends who are both horrified by the assignment. You see how some students refuse to take it seriously, and the teacher dig in his heels. The inevitable fallout in the media and online happens. It's a powerful look at why assignments like these are wrong, and about standing up to power.

A cute collection of fluffy love-related short stories, all set in the time of COVID.

I'm so glad that people are starting to point out the unfairness of period taxes, always empty dispensers, and more. This is a great graphic novel about periods that is accessible to a wide audience. The friendships depicted are really accurate. I especially felt seen by the one that wants so badly for justice that she plows ahead without really thinking through the consequences.

This one had a lot of twists and turns that I didn't expect, which I always appreciate in a fantasy novel (look, when you read a lot, you tend to be able to predict things, and sometimes that can lower a story for you.) I really liked Tarisai, and the way she approaches her life and the circumstances that make it. Excellent.