Review to come, but just know I loved this one a whole lot. 

I received an e-copy through Net Galley via the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

Content warnings: Anxiety, Intrusive Thoughts, Medical Content (Trip to the Dentist), Bullying


This was a great debut middle grade graphic novel about a girl, Bree who moves to Florida from New York for her father's new job. We see a single Black father raising a Black girl and we learn about the history of Black people and swimming plus, how segregation affected who went to public swimming pools. Since Bree loves math and puzzles, there are many puzzle references, especially in the illustrations. When the Math Puzzles class is full, she is forced to take Swim 101 but she can't swim. Bree's anxiety and fear drive her to skip class until Ms. Etta, their neighbor and a swimming champion teaches her to swim. As a former swimmer, (I was not good lol) this brought back memories of my swimming days and I thought the way swimming was written and illustrated was very realistic, especially hitting on the note of how community-oriented the sport is.

I loved how the anxiety and intrusive thoughts were written into the story as Bree learns to knock the thoughts down. This is an important book about friendship and teamwork. Really enjoyed it!

However, please read reviews from Black reviewers when the book is released.

CW: Police brutality & George Floyd's murder

Jason Reynolds never disappoints but this was such an immersive read. I read it digitally but it's definitely a book I want to also read physically because of the illustrations. Reynolds poetry is always a delight to read, you can feel his pain and emotions through each verse. This is a beautiful read and such a unique book.

I really enjoyed this! It was super relatable as a kid who also felt like an outcast and had a hard time forming a close-knit friend group. I really liked Olive's Aunt Molly as a character and how great of an adult figure she was in Olive's life, giving her a shoulder to lean on when she was down about her friends not asking her to be in their groups for the variety show. However, I do wish we had gotten to see Olive's act because I was really interested in it! Looking forward to reading more in this series. 

CW: abandonment, animal/pet death, cheating, racism, and bullying

This was a spectacular memoir following Robin Ha's life from childhood to college as she learns more about her mother's reasoning for leaving Korea. This memoir tackles the topics of gender norms and stereotypes perpetuated onto Korean women, especially single mothers. I'm very glad Robin shared her story because it's an important and impactful one. This will resonate with a lot of immigrants as it talks about Ha's hardships and the depression + dark times she went through trying to fit in with her classmates when she first moved to America without speaking English and not having any ESL classes at her school. 

I really enjoyed this comic book + cook book. I love how you can see all of the illustrations and step by step directions plus the origins and history of each type of dish. The author wanted to show everyone how easy Korean food is to make and that message definitely comes across in this comic book. I've never read a comic book cook book but now I want every cook book to be a comic book. Such a cool concept and I really enjoyed it! However, it was a little slow of a read for me personally since there are actual recipes in here and info. You're given the ingredients and supposed to read it as a cookbook, I've never read a cookbook front to back! 

CW: death of a parent, mention of death to car accident, death of a grandparent, dementia, medical content (scenes at a hospital), vomiting

Wow. This was phenomenal. I devoured this in less than 24 hours and it will hold a special place in my heart. It's emotional for sure, but a great read about grief and family. The way Tae Keller wove storytelling and Korean folklore into this story was beautiful. The imagery was excellent as well, it's rare I get a story where I can picture everything and When You Trap a Tiger did that for me. I loved it so much. 

Really enjoyed this work poetry and the comparison of Black boys as butterflies. This does mention shootings and death and the trauma that comes with that in graphic detail. There are a lot of stanzas I really enjoyed and overall, I thought this was a great, short poetry collection that packed a punch. Concrete Kids is about being a Black woman in America from the perspective of someone who was in foster care. I'm really glad I decided to pick this one up. 

CW: alcohol, mentions of food, miscommunication, medical content, cancer, mention of car accident but not graphic,

I'm very disappointed in this book since I loved Jasmine Guillory's book, Party of Two. But, god Drew was so insufferable to read and the miscommunication is not romantic, it's infuriating to read. I loved the beginning of the book but like other reviews I've read, I have to agree - the middle really needs to be more fleshed out and there's barely any character development. What I liked about Party of Two is how the sex scenes were broken up but with The Wedding Date, there's a pattern of sex > fighting >  miscommunication between characters > they meet up again and the cycle continues. It felt like the plot was very much lacking the middle.

Also, just something I'm personally not okay with is using "depressed" in place of sad. Being depressed vs being sad about a situation are very different things. That's something I caught and it put a sour taste in my mouth.

This isn't one I'd recommend but I will be picking up Guillory's other works! However, if you like miscommunication, you might like this! This one was just not it for me. 

I was kindly sent a copy of this book for review from Mac Kids Books.

This was a delightful read! It follows a boy who has to do a presentation for school on a trailblazer woman and he picks Betty White!

A woman follows him around looking suspiciously like Betty to help him with his presentation while he learns about all of the great achievements and passions Betty had.

My favorite Betty fact I learned from this book is that Betty White starred in more than one hundred TV shows and movies. I knew of Betty White before reading but I really only knew about her role in Golden Girls. So, I appreciated reading this book and learning about her Emmy nominees and her love for animals.

There’s even a timeline at the back of the book that goes over Betty’s life and her achievements from 1922 to 2022, though she did pass in 2021 :(

I really enjoyed this book because it is a great introduction to Betty White’s life and will teach children about her. It celebrates her and keeps her legacy alive! Highly recommend picking it up.