Violet is a young woman growing up in the southern part of Sudan, a part of the world that is currently at war. This book chronicles her experiences there and her eventual move to Portland, Maine. A good overview of the current immigrant experience, I think this will be especially relevant to Maine students as they seek to understand their peers in the oldest and one of the whitest states in the nation.

I loved this one. Pup is a member of a big family. Two years ago his brother died, and although everyone seems to be moving on just fine, there's a lot of stuff bubbling beneath the surface. Additionally, his best friend, Izzy, seems to be changing before his eyes as she dates the detestable Brody. He's even failing studio art, a class many think would be impossible to fail. However, one excellent picture starts to shake everything up, and will change the lives of the Flanagan family forever.

I really really enjoyed this one. Foley does a great job of showing a family struggling with grief but not wanting to admit it, and the horrifying effects that alcohol can have on a family. I will be thinking about Pup for a while.

Really powerful. Stories of resistance in Germany during World War II are one of my favorites to read. It's a good reminder that something isn't good or bad, but there are so many shades of grey in between. I think the verse format makes it easier for lots of ages to access the work. I also liked the going back and forth in time. It heightened the suspense for me.

So many delicious sounding dumplings, but why do many spelling errors?

Unicorns, bright colors and cheer -- what's not to love?

I requested this book because we had pages falling out of ours and I wanted to make sure they were going in the right spot. Then I just kept reading. A little technical for me and I didn't like the bugged-out eye style of drawing, but it has definitely found an audience at my library.

By far her best cookbook. Love the stories, and it actually seems like meals you could make, rather than just fancy snacks for a gathering.

I'll be honest: I wasn't excited about reading this book. Although I first loved "Wonder" when it came out, after reading the opinions of different people with various forms of disabilities, I came to feel that the story wasn't as good as I originally thought, that Auggie was more of a prop for people to react to than an actual character. Seeing a "Wonder" sticker on the front of this book didn't make me excited for it.

The story is okay. I have a hard time with all the miraculous animal saving that happens. The art was definitely not my favorite, and I felt like the older Julien character again goes into tropes of miraculously good and kind.

Obviously the Sydney Taylor committee really liked this book, since they gave it an award. I found this tweet thread to cover a bit more of my opinions: https://twitter.com/MagpieLibrarian/status/1222231205791371265

One of my favorite storytime books.

I loved this one. Will definitely be one I purchase for myself.