This is a book I would have lovvvved to have read in high school myself but I'm so happy it'll be out in the world for teens to read now! Extremely #relatable book about theater kids, and I really appreciated the ~journey of Kate realizing that life isn't actually jocks vs nerds and some people who play sports are still like, humans. Also just the codependency of the friend group and the INTENSE PARALYZING anguish of being perceived.....exquisitely rendered. Also very funny and good musical theater references.

This was really cute! A nice wish fulfillment kind of vibe for musically-inclined teens. It was pretty tropey/predictable, which isn't necessarily bad, but there wasn't too much time for actual character development. I did love seeing Jenni deciding NOT to diet and just to embrace her body at the size it was, but also that journey was literally one day. I think this whole book takes place over a week and yet we see characters have pretty major growth arcs? Which, like, good for them. This is a breezy read and I appreciated seeing the diversity of the characters, but it's not something where these characters are going to stick with me longterm or anything.

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also lol it bugged me that at the end of the book they're speeding to get to the concert on time, get pulled over, bribe the cop with concert tickets, and then call the cop a hero and call his daughter on stage and give a little pro-police speech?! calm down. A minor point but one that irritated me, especially given the racial diversity of the band! tho to be fair the white boy was driving but STILL

I'm a big fan of portal fantasy books so when I saw that David Levithan had written a portal fantasy, I was like, sign me up! But this was a really interesting take on it because it's actually not a portal fantasy, it's just the aftermath of a portal fantasy. Like [b:Every Heart a Doorway|25526296|Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1)|Seanan McGuire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431438555l/25526296._SX50_.jpg|45313140] by Seanan McGuire but for tweens. But with the extra twist of the "as told to his brother" so the reader isn't even 100% sure if there is a portal fantasy or if Aidan is lying/had some kind of psychotic break.

So I saw some reviews being disappointed about that but I thought it was really interesting, and I think for some young readers who grew up with Narnia etc they will also find this concept interesting--the details of having to talk to the police after you come back, of the town reaction to this missing boy suddenly returning, the way that Aidan is depressed because he misses his fantasy world but can't really explain it...I really loved that, and I think more thoughtful tweens will too. Readers looking for a Narnia-style adventure will be disappointed tho. Also lovely to see that the family has a casually beloved trans aunt, and that

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Aidan is also queer and his new boyfriend ends up being what kind of ties him back to the real world. It's also so interesting that this is NOT from Aidan's POV but you as the reader wonder, did he go to Aveinieu because he was struggling with his sexuality? Is it a closet metaphor? But his brother the narrator doesn't wonder about this at all so it doesn't have to be part of the story...just something for a reader to think about and engage with as they wish.

This book was a fucking WILD ride and I truly enjoyed it! I really wasn't sure what to expect, I'm not like a Matthew McConaughey superfan or anything but this book has CHILL VIBES and some really great travel stories. It's low on celebrity gossip and Hollywood stuff and more about the sincerely bonkers shit he's done with his life other than acting. Iconic, I now stan.

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-171-greenlights/

SO CUTE...peak romance......love this for everyone, including the teachers...

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did feel a BIT like Charlie's eating disorder (?!) was resolved very quickly but perhaps that will come back in the next volume or perhaps it is simply not that kind of comic...

Compelling and unfortunately timely! A few months ago I saw a twitter poll asking if readers had heard of Vincent Chin, and TBH the only reason I had was because I'd seen reviews of this (then-upcoming) book. It's unfortunately safe to assume a lot of teen readers won't have learned about this story in school, either. Anyway, Yoo does a great job of unpacking the sort of messy details of the legal case(s) involved but the heart of the story is the Asian American civil rights movement responding to the case. A great read for teens (or underinformed adults!) interested in history/social justice (I saw some reviews listing this as "true crime" which I guess...technically....it is....but the murder itself isn't exactly the focus of the story. So if you just want to read about murder this probably isn't your best bet.) There's a short afterword talking about the ongoing anti-AAPI racism of the COVID era, which is grim but helpful for readers who might not have been able to connect the dots.

Really enjoyed reading this! Like many children of the 90s I feel like I know a lot about the Titanic experience but seeing it from the POV of a smart, class-shifting, biracial circus performer was definitely new. I appreciated the author's notes about the 8 known Chinese people who were on board the real Titanic, and I liked that this book didn't dwell too much on stuff most readers will already know about Titanic. Oh I loved the inclusion of a cool rich lesbian character! Always lovely to remind readers that LGBTQ+ people have always existed.

This is a great historical adventure story for Titanic fans (and who isn't a Titanic fan?)

Hmm so I know that I, a 35-year-old white woman, am not the target audience for this book. I appreciated reading it nevertheless--Coates writes beautifully, of course, and I enjoyed the rhythm of his writing even if I didn't fully understand the content. I'm not sure how much of the disconnect is based on my whiteness, my age, my geographical location...and thus I'm not sure how much of this will be understandable for a teen in 2021? Obv I'd assume Black teens will be better able to relate to some of what Coates writes about but I also felt like some of this was issues of specific Baltimore/Black/90s slang? I know this was adapted for young readers from [b:The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood|2784926|The Beautiful Struggle A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood|Ta-Nehisi Coates|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320488176l/2784926._SY75_.jpg|2810688], which I haven't read, and I suspect that elements of this story will work better for adult readers. But maybe in a classroom setting teens could work to unpack this memoir? I suspect they would find it rewarding. Or perhaps kids like Ta-Nehisi describes having been--struggling to complete coursework that didn't seem relevant to them, seeming to be a bad student, but devouring books of his (or his father's) choice that taught him more about his own history and culture--will appreciate this book.

Again I myself appreciated the flow of this and feel like I understood the book as a whole despite not fully understanding words/phrases used. I am curious to know how this was adapted for young readers since it doesn't seem to shy away from a lot of "adult" content and it doesn't seem to be adding a lot of context?

aaa I loved all of John Green's YA books (haters don't @ me) but I guess I didn't follow his career supes closely because I didn't know he had a podcast until this book came out? But I LOVED this book. Oh my god.

One of the complaints I hear about JG's YA books is that the teens are too deep/articulate/pretentious and I'm like yeah that's why I love them? But what I loved even more about this is that JG didn't even have to pretend to channel a teen he could just be his full deep/articulate/pretentious self.

Anyway I just love LOVED this book, and I'm aware that it's not for everyone but it's so extremely my jam.

It was interesting reading it so immediately after Hanif Abdurraqib's [b:A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance|49247757|A Little Devil in America Notes in Praise of Black Performance|Hanif Abdurraqib|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606110758l/49247757._SX50_.jpg|62219511] bc in some ways they are similar--both personal essays that are also sort of reviews of/analyses of a big variety of things (Little Devil is focused on "Black performance" which is still a big range, and Anthropocene Reviewed is obv even more broad). Hanif's book is big picture looking at structural racism and the strength & beauty that Black artists show despite it. JG's book is big picture looking at...the world itself, but it's really using the big picture to focus on the small picture of JG's anxiety and depression and how he personally carries on in spite of it. When I consider the two of them together (which I'm only doing because they came out around the same time and I read them around the same time), it would seem like JG's book should seem diminished in comparison but actually I really appreciate that JG knows his boundaries, I guess?

I guess lately I've been reading a lot of nonfiction that makes me Consider My White Privilege (which is not a new concept to me or anything but there have been a lot of great recent books that have had that effect) and this book isn't about that but instead it's making me Consider The Beauty Of Being Alive (Despite of Everything) which is also a valuable proposition imo.

Five stars.

uuuHHHH? I re-read a summary of [b:Call Down the Hawk|31373184|Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550860945l/31373184._SY75_.jpg|52062040] before starting this but I'm not sure if it helped? But it's also possible that following the plot of this book isn't really the point of this book. Anyway, the writing is beautiful and I especially loved the Boston-based shenanigans. I'll definitely read the next one.