I just love everything this author does!

I read this for fun and I think I'm going to get it for the library. It was so cute!

This was very cute. My rabbit loving assistant wasn't as much of a fan, but I really liked it.

A moving story about someone who has traveled a long way to another country, and the way the people treat them when they get there and fall asleep. Good for starting conversations.

So I had always assumed that the Korean War happened and North Korea immediately became a dictatorship and South Korea a democracy. I am very long. This book shows the ways that the country was fed misinformation and the brave students who stood up to them. Timely for our young adults today, especially as it emphasizes that the struggle is long. (Heck, I need that message.)

I love this. I also squirmed in my seat a lot while driving. There are some brutal scenes in it. Wilderness survival is not always my thing, but McGinnis made me believe in Ashley Hawkins and Davey Beat and how one would survive in the wilderness. I think teens will be on the edge of their seats the whole time.

Honestly, if I hadn't read the description, I wouldn't have known this was a novel-in-verse. It's not something you can really tell from the audiobook. I felt really bad for Bobby (who I'm refusing to call Junk or Slug--what horrible nicknames!) Rachel is complicated. I have some feelings about the fact that Bobby and the priest

Spoiler

decided not to talk about the suicide attempt. I'm not sure that's a great decision. I also thought that Bobby's dad came around way too quickly after being neglectful and angry and potentially abusive for years.

Excellent list of resources at the end.

There are things to really like about this book: there are definitely frank discussions of anxiety and depression that feel really weird to me. On the other hand, I had a really hard time with it being called "matter" without a descriptor. I also dislike the term "artner." Also, this book had no listed resources at the end for what to do if you feel these feelings and need something beyond the self-care worksheet (which is helpful! Don't get me wrong. But there was nothing about how to contact a therapist in your area.) I did enjoy the art in black and white with splashes of yellow.

Laz is an excellent baseball player on a bad team in Jet City, a part of Seattle where most people live in poverty. His brother also plays baseball, but doesn't have the same love for that as he does for the things he cannot have. This book examines the options that people in poverty have.

I found this one to be very powerful. I read it almost in one sitting. Tracy has been writing letters to Innocence X, a fictional version of something like the Equal Justice Initiative, hoping that they will take her father's case to exonerate him. Otherwise, he will die in 275 days. She's balancing the normal problems and microaggressions in Galveston, Texas, but when her brother is accused of the murder of a white classmate, Tracy springs into action to find out what really happened.

This book shows the little things that beat down on Black people every day, the fear that violence will happen because you stepped a little out of line. One of the more powerful lines for me states that a white person with a gun has more rights than a Black kid with Skittles, which is sadly true in America.