I continue to be happy that Marvel (and DC) are putting out these prose novels with good, often #OwnVoices authors. This was a great fit, I loved the humor Nic Stone brought to Shuri as well as the brilliance + naivete as Shuri starts to contemplate the world outside Wakanda.

This is a middle grade novel--great for tween readers and some older tweens (and adults) who love the character. (I saw some reviews complaining about the "juvenile" humor and like..............yeah. It's for kids. Shuri's a kid. lol. If you want sophistication go read Ta-Nehisi Coates or Roxane Gay's Black Panther comics.)

DARIUS DOES DESERVE BETTER!!!!!!

I loved [b:Darius the Great Is Not Okay|37506437|Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius The Great, #1)|Adib Khorram|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1520460519l/37506437._SX50_.jpg|58014975] and I was so excited to get the e-arc of this that I dropped everything to read this. I love this character and his voice, I love his JOURNEY, I love that this is a book with a boy who's worried about his body image/weight and about not feeling ready for sex...I just hope a Darius book 3 is in the works because I want more!

I read this because both of my (older, white) parents read it and loved it and were so interested in this piece of history, and they wanted to talk to me about it. And I was like, oh yeah I watched HBO Watchmen, but, OK.

Anyway I think it is an interesting piece of history and where this book does its best is when it's talking about the climate leading up to the riot, as well as the lingering impact it's had on the survivors of that day. A lot of this history had been lost--literally burned. I was fascinated to read that the Oklahoma Historical Society offered a reward to anyone who could produce a copy of Richard Lloyd Jones' editorial that spurred on the riot. But apparently the text of that editorial is still lost to history.

Where this book faltered for me was its attempts to fill in lost history, with imagined dialogue from people who died or recreations of scenes that there obviously wasn't documentation for? Especially when he was recreating scenes from the POV of white folks who were using the n-word liberally. Like I mean, I'm sure they were, but then it was his choice to like...type the n-word into his book a bunch of times.

Still, clearly well-researched and did a great job of illuminating (so to speak) this moment in history. But you could probably just watch Watchmen instead tbh.

I knew that this was stylized similarly to [b:George|40948486|George|Alex Gino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532559186l/40948486._SX50_.jpg|44165520] but I didn't realize it was kind of a sequel, or like, in the George-iverse, anyway. I haven't read George (I know I heard it's great but I just haven't yet jeez there are a lot of books), but I grabbed this off the new books shelf. I could tell at least some of the places where it was alluding to the events of George, but it works just fine as a standalone. It reminded me of [b:A Good Kind of Trouble|38251243|A Good Kind of Trouble|Lisa Moore Ramee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529118640l/38251243._SY75_.jpg|59931991] in that it's very good at organically working big conversations about gender and sexuality into the story, in a realistic way that kids and adults might have these conversations and in a way that double as being informative and affirming for the reader without being too didactic. (In A Good Kind of Trouble the conversations are about racism and Black Lives Matter but it's a similar skill level of writing imo.)

I also LOVED that

Spoiler

This didn't end with them realizing that the bully is just a bully because his parents are mean and them befriending him again. Like there are defo hints that Jeff's parents, his dad especially, are not the best and that contributes to his behavior, but they don't let him off the hook for it. Like I think it is important to model empathy but also soo many books, esp middle grade, have this kind of bully-befriending ending and I just don't think it's always a realistic or safe thing to expect! Maybe like by junior high Jeff can get his shit together but for now he needs a time out IMO!

I was afraid this would be a little too capital-F fantasy for me to enjoy but I really dug it. It helped that it's more of a spy/heist kind of a story, and I am fond of like the X-Men style of magic where people have different classes of magical abilities. The world building hit the sweet spot for me personally of being engaging and different without being like, "here's 50 pages of my fake language and 7 maps." (Which I know some folks like but it's not for me!) Also nice to see a fantasy world that acknowledges that queer people exist and don't seem to be particularly oppressed, or at least, only if they happen to have the wrong kind of magic and not for their sexuality.

Spoiler

I did see the big twist coming before the protagonist did, which is rare for me tbh, but I kind of get that she was so shook by it and so involved with other things/her own memory problems that it didn't click for her.

I am eagerly looking forward to book 2!

I probably enjoyed this 4 stars but I'm awarding a bonus star in honor of the brilliant choice to name the protagonist Renata :)

ahh Brandy Colbert truly is the GOAT of YA contemporary! This is so funny and charming and perfectly in line with Gen Z's activism. Bonus star awarded for INSTAGRAM FAMOUS CAT DRAMA.

ok ok I think everyone has their THINGS in fiction that are hard to overlook...like for people who know more about actual science I imagine it's harder to accept comic book science, whereas I'm prepared to go "mm yes gamma radiation seems legit." however, "take a 17-year-old with no childcare experience, let her miss summer camp training, and immediately put her in solo charge of a group of kids"??? does NOT seem legit even in the 1990s in Canada. CMON that's CHAOS. at least the 13-year-old Babysitters Club members were only CITs when they went to camp.

but OKAY FINE I'll accept this absurd fantasy

also there are spirits or something but honestly that was more plausible to me than the childcare situation. I did kind of wish the spirit story was more fleshed out (so to speak)? but the characters and their relationships were fun and cute, and I enjoyed the 90sness of it all.

A perfectly cromulent book from Our Lady Nora; not my fav of her books but reliably entertaining. Showing its 2008 pub date slightly, and I wish it had more stuff about the Judy Garland-knockoff grandma, but as ever solidly likeable characters and a world with relatively low levels of conflict (aside from like, the mystery assailant, but whatever).

glad the horse boy was OK but what happened to the crime boy!!

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-151-the-black-stallion-revolts/

This was a quick, engaging read. Clemmons tells his compelling life story in straightforward prose. It's much more than the Mr. Rogers stuff (which is of course interesting--it sounds like they had a very special relationship despite the sadness about Fred insisting that Francois stay in the closet if he was going to be on the show) but also a memoir of being a queer Black person in the 60s and his involvement with the civil rights movement, a different POV than other civil rights memoirs. also includes some moderately spicy talk of his unconventional open-ish marriage.