Such a fun cookbook. I need to own it so I can learn more about cooking without recipes and thinking about what I like. This also reminds me that I need to read/watch Salt Fat Acid Heat.

A great beginning chapter book about a kid who loves cars and his life with his family in rural Africa. (I can't remember the exact country--perhaps Nigeria like Anna Hibiscus?)

I'm not a huge "Three Musketeers" fan, so imagine my surprise when I loved this retelling of the story! Tania has a chronic illness that gives her dizzy spells (I believe it is POTS, and reading this book made me realize I get POTS and PCOS mixed up in my head often) but her father has trained her with the sword just the same. After her father dies (or gets murdered?) she gets accepted to a finishing school that is actually a spy ring. Tania has spent her whole life with her defenses up, so can she let potential new friends in? I really liked this story about a girl fighting for her father and country.

I wish I had been less hyped for this book. For me, it was one that didn't quite live up to the hype for me, and I'm not sure why. Shane is such a badass--look at the axe on her back on the cover! Fi looks like Indiana Jones! But for me, I found the story hard to get into. Something was missing for me, and I'm not sure what it is. I would still enthusiastically tell you to read it though, just in case I am very weird for not enjoying it!

Meera has been engaged to a boy from a neighboring town since she was a baby. The day before their wedding, the boy dies, and the other family expects Meera to follow their fringe religious beliefs and sacrifice herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. Instead, Meera runs away and becomes a servant for an official in the British East India Company. There, Meera learns how to stand up for herself, and how to stand up for her country. At times hard to read, but a good story about a time period we don’t hear about often (1857 India.)  

This is the story of John Lewis and Tybre Faw, a ten year old who wanted to meet his hero. The two became friends. This story weaves together both Lewis’ and Faw’s life, and explains what Lewis was fighting for. The author’s note at the end goes further and includes the poem Faw read at Lewis’s funeral. I especially liked how they traced Martin Luther King’s relationship to John Lewis to John Lewis’s relation to Tybre Faw. A good introduction to this aspect of the Civil Rights Movement.

Thank you to School Library Journal for sending me an ARC of this book.

Thank you to School Library Journal for sending me an ARC of this book. 

The book describes Colin Kaepernick’s childhood, where classmates asked him why he was a different color than the rest of his family. This book celebrates Kaepernick and people who look like him while also honoring his family. Good for starting conversations. An author’s note is in the back.

A look at how you can use loose parts with toddlers and infants, as well as the different skills they learn.

Najwa is attending her first competitive Scrabble tournament in over a year. She hasn't gone back since her best friend, Trina Low, (Queen of the Tiles) died at one of the events. Was her death due to natural causes, or was it something else? 

Overall I enjoyed the mystery of this one, and the Malaysian setting. I liked Najwa learning more about the other kids in the tournament outside of Trina's influence. A few things didn't entirely add up for me in the mystery part, but overall it's a fun look at something we don't often see in YA literature.