When Stars Are Scattered

Written by: Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

First line: For me, the first years are lost. 

Why you should read this book: This is an award-winning graphic novel memoir for children, and about children, and so full of tragedy and privation and heartache and loss and suffering and trauma that I personally was crying for about fifty percent of the book. Orphans Omar and his nonverbal brother Hassan have lived in a refugee camp for most of their lives, and the story follows Omar's trials and triumphs when he is persuaded to go to school. It's difficult to succeed academically in a refugee camp, and even if he finishes high school, there's no guarantee that he will ever be able to leave the camp or live a life with any sense of hope or possibility.

Why you should read this book: It does have a happy ending, but that doesn't mitigate the author's pain or make up for the childhood that was stolen from him. 

The War I Finally Won

Written by: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

First line: You can know things all you like, but that doesn't mean you believe them. 

Why you should read this book: Beginning very shortly after the end of The War That Saved My Life, this book begins with Ada about to have her clubfoot surgically corrected, after which she must heal, not just physically from the surgery, but emotionally, from a lifetime of abuse at her mother's hands. She, her brother, and their guardian Susan are offered a "little" house on the Thornton estate, which is soon filled when Lady Thornton decides to move in with them (there's a war on, after all) and Lord Thornton brings Ruth, a German-Jewish refugee to stay as well. Despite being very different people from very different circumstances and being suspicious of each other, this strange blended family come to share each other's pain and joy and to learn what it means to love.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It made me cry even more than the first one. 

The War That Saved My Life

Written by: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

First line: "Ada! Get back from that window!" Mam's voice, shouting. 

Why you should read this book: Born with a clubfoot to an abusive mother, Ada has only once in her life left her room, and was beaten for it, but she's been secretly teaching herself to walk, although it is painful and bloody. Thus, she is able to sneak out and join the other children being evacuated to the country from London at the beginning of World War II, to be cared for by a depressed woman mourning the death of her "best friend" (or, as we say today, "they were 'roommates'"). In the country, she learns a great deal about the world, and herself, and love; discovers crutches, and ponies, and the fact that she is capable of much more than her mother led her to believe; and finds possibility in life that she never could have imagined from her window at home. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's pretty sad, although the ending is hopeful. 

The Republic of Salt

Written by: Ariel Kaplan

First line: It was three nights until the New Year, and in the mountains north of Mazik Rimon, Naftaly Cresques was lying on the ground beside two old women and a Mazik who was mostly dead. 

Why you should read this book: The second novel in the Mirror Realm cycle, this doorstop of a fantasy novel picks up pretty much where the last one left off, with Naftaly and his crew in the Mazik land and Toba and the now-mortal Asmel back in the human world, and all of them knowing that if they can't stop Tarses from taking over both realms it's not going to go so well for anyone. Arduously, all the characters must travel to Zayit, outwitting enemies, finding surprising allies, eating lentils, and learning more about magic, especially as it pertains to part-mortal magicians. The pacing is good, so that the story keeps moving forward in a Lord of the Rings kind of way, even though it takes everyone a very long time to get where they're going. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Due to its structure and the way Naftaly's powers work, it's kind of obvious precisely how the book is going to end (hint: a cliffhanger). 

Love in the Library

Written by: Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Yas Imamura

Why you should read this book: Tama, like most of the Japanese-Americans interned in the Minidoka Incarceration Camp during World War II, is not happy with the circumstances of her life surrounded by desert dust, barbed wire, and guard towers. Every day she goes to work in the camp library, even though she knows nothing about being a librarian, and every day, George, a Japanese-American man her age comes to the library to read, check out books, and smile. Tama has nothing to smile about until George comforts her in a low moment and she realizes that the thing he has been smiling about the entire time is her, Tama; the story ends with them getting married and giving birth to the author’s uncle while still in the camp.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This book mentions truths about American history that some people would rather not deal with.

One Candle

Written by: Eve Bunting and K. Wendy Popp

First line: This Hanukkah is like every other one.

Why you should read this book: A little girl tells about her family's Hanukkah celebration, including the story of why her aunt has brought one potato that doesn't get made into latkes. The older relatives explain how, during World War II, they survived the winter at Buchenwald, pilfering a single potato, a little margarine, and a piece of string, in order to made a candle to celebrate Hanukkah. With the inclusion of the extra potato in their celebration, they can remember their family history and honor their ancestors. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're very hungry.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Written by: Bessel Van der Kolk, M.D.

First line: One does not have to be a combat soldier, or visit a refugee camp in Syria or the Congo to encounter trauma.

Why you should read this book: Written for a lay audience, this is the summation of thirty years of research, experimentation, theory, and work on the subject of trauma: what it is, what it does, and what we, as vulnerable humans can do to counteract its pernicious effects. Van der Kolk describes his introduction to working with traumatized Viet Nam veterans and how his experience led him to dig more deeply into the neurology of trauma and its potential treatments, as well as the important discussion of childhood trauma, and how it impacts untreated adults. Almost half of the book, however, details the various types of treatment that the author and his colleagues have found most effective, with impressive data demonstrating how appropriate treatment can turn around the life of an individual who has always suffered from the pain of the past, returning to them the possibility of a fulfilling life. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You yourself have never experienced anything unpleasant in life, and neither has anyone you've ever met.

Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel

Written by: Ruta Sepetys (adapted by Andrew Donkin and Dave Kopka)

First line: They took me in my nightgown.

Why you should read this book: This brutal and heart-rending story tells of the treatment of Lithuanian people by Russian invaders before and during World War II. I just grabbed it off the shelf without realizing it was a graphic novelization of a traditional novel, and such books often have to leave out a lot of details, but this work was terrifying enough to make me cry dozens of times in the brief span it took me to consume. Lina, her mother, and her younger brother are packed into livestock cars and shipped to Siberia, where they spend years being abused and nearly worked to death.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It is very, very hard to read: the bad things that happen are so awful, and the good things are so small and infrequent and don't seem to compensate for what Lina and her family and friends go through.

White Bird

Written by: RJ Palacio

First line: Julian, no more video games.

Why you should read this book: This is a graphic novelization of one of the sections of Palacio's Augie and Me: Three Wonder Stories, which stands alone as a one-off story (with a few additions), and is currently being made into a feature film. Julian's grandmother Sarah recounts the story of how she spent the latter days of World War II as a hidden child, confined to a barn and cared for by the family of an unpopular boy who had been universally bullied when they were in school together. Sarah recounts the terror and the tender moments, ending with an admonition to always stand up to injustice and remember to be kind.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There are plenty of nonfiction hidden child narratives that aren't actually publicity materials for upcoming films. 

Buy White Bird Now

Nisrin's Hijab

Written by: Priya Huq

First line: Alright, big hand for Nicole!

Why you should read this book: Following a sudden, gruesome, and apparently racially motivated act of violence, Bangladeshi-American teen Nisrin chooses to wear a headscarf, although her family is secular and their reactions to her decision range from confusion to anger. In school, her hijab elicits aggression from teachers and students, made even more complicated by the fact that she knows very little about Islam (the narrative makes it seem like her choice is motivated by PTSD rather than religious sentiment, which is then further complicated by her family's experience of violence prior to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971). By holding firm to ideas that she always feels but can't always express, Nisrim is able to find a new path forward while also repairing the relationships that suffered after her original ordeal. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I wonder how a reader who wore a hijab for religious reasons would feel about this story, in which the hijab symbolizes many things, but not a submission to God.

Buy Piece by Piece the Story of Nisrin's Hijab here

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Written by: Susanna Clarke

First line: Some years ago there was in York a society of magicians.

Why you should read this book: Seventeen years ago, Neil Gaiman called it, "unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years," and, as usual, I don't think I can improve upon Gaiman; this is truly a perfect book, the sort of book about which the only honest criticism could be that, eventually, it ends (although at 782 pages, it does its best to avoid that failing for as long as it can). While much studied by learned gentlemen in the early nineteenth century, English magic has fallen into disuse until revived by the prickly, prejudiced, and pompous Mr Norrell, a man as enamored with his own beliefs about magic as he is by magic itself, a man willing to take a critically hypocritical misstep to promote his own worldview. His only match is his talented pupil, truest friend, and occasional enemy, Jonathan Strange, a very different kind of magician with very different perspectives on thaumaturgical practice, one that holds the entirety of English magic, along with the fate of England, in the balance. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You never read the footnotes.

 

Man's Search for Meaning

Written by: Viktor E. Frankl 

First line: This book does not claim to be an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again. 

Why you should read this book: One of the most impactful books of the twentieth century, Frankl's narrative is an exceptional source for all seekers of meaning, a philosophy to carry any troubled soul over the waves of existential crisis, an inspirational work highly recommended for all troubling times. While it is, in part, the author's Holocaust memoir and a terrible tale of human suffering under the most horrifying conditions, this is also, and primarily, the foundational work logotherapy, a psychological system that assures us that we can create meaning even in the midst of the most extreme suffering and tragedy. Ideas formulated before the war and refined in the dread crucible of four death camps offer hope in the form of a simple system that transforms hopeless and despair into a viable path forward through meaning. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You totally have it all together and have never questioned the point of your existence.

Children of Blood and Bone

Written by: Tomi Adeyemi 

First line: I try not to think of her. 

Why you should read this book: It's been over a decade since magic was eradicated from Orisha, over a decade since the powerful maji like Zélie's mother were brutally, publicly murdered, and young maji like Zélie, whose powers had not yet manifest, were branded "maggots" by the royal government and persecuted with unpayable taxes, indentured servitude, and death. A seemingly chance meeting binds Zélie and the princess Amari together as they embark on an dangerous and seemingly impossible mission to collect three powerful artifacts and return magic to Orisha with the help of Zélie's brother, Tzain. Meanwhile, Amari's brother, Prince Inan is hot on their trail, intent on winning his father's love by killing Zélie, and anyone who comes between and his goal, even his own sister. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is a young adult novel; as an older adult, I found myself shaking my head and screaming helplessly at the characters' obvious bad decisions.

The Cay

Written by: Theodore Taylor 

First line: Like silent, hungry sharks that swim in the darkness of the sea, the German submarines arrived in the middle of the night. 

Why you should read this book: When war comes to the island of Curaçao, Phillip's mother insists on returning to America for safety, but it turns out that Philip's father, who thought it would be safer to stay put, was right, and Phillip finds himself drifting through the ocean in a lifeboat with a concussion, a cat, and a very old sailor called Timothy. Phillip's head injury resolves itself into blindness and although the ship washes up on a tiny and uninhabited cay, he must confront the reality of the prejudices his mother instilled in him regarding Black people, and the reality of being shipwrecked, and blind, and needing to learn from Timothy all the skills necessary to survive on a desert island. Both a cracking good adventure story and a classic resource for unlearning racism. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is one of those books that everyone should read, and it's probably weird that I just read it for the first time this week.

Praise Song for My Children

Written by: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley  

First line: Some of us are made of steel. 

Why you should read this book: This collection of new and selected poems offers a stunning journey through the author's work, the central thesis of which goes something like—the world is very hard and painful but women, by necessity, are tough and good at survival. Wesley's voice carries the reader through the war in Liberia and its aftermath, love and marriage and motherhood, the refugee experience, her fight with cancer, her life in America. Each poem stands as its own microcosm, a perfectly formed bubble of reality and experience, into which the reader can enter and be immersed. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It took me two months to finish, because I had to put it down every time it made me cry, and it made me cry a *lot*.  

They Called Us Enemy

Written by: George Takei and Eisinger Scott Becker

First line: George! Henry! Get up at once!

Why you should read this book: In one of the more shameful chapters of American history, one hundred twenty thousand loyal Japanese-Americans were rounded up and locked in internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II; almost half of these citizens were children, and one of those children was beloved Star Trek actor and queer rights icon George Takei. This autobiographical retelling of the four years he and his family lived as prisoners of their own country is a smart, accessible, and sometimes heartbreaking story about family, identity, love, and betrayal. The book's narrative arc follows a logical course but also moves about in time, making it useful for younger readers who may lack some of the cultural and historical knowledge necessary to make sense of young George's horrifying experience.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Takei's story has also been transformed into a Broadway musical, Allegiance, so if you like singing and dancing you might enjoy that version more than this graphic novel.

Warriors 6: The Darkest Hour

Written by: Erin Hunter

First line: Rain fell steadily, drumming on the hard black Thunderpath that led between unending rows of stone Twoleg Nests.

Why you should read this book: If you've made it this far, you might as well go all the way to watch as Firestar takes his rightful place as head of Thunderclan and begins plotting to protect his warriors from the machinations of the evil psychopath Tigerstar. Except, it turns out that Tigerstar isn't even the worst cat in the forest. How will Firestar ever prevail?

Why you shouldn't read this book: I don't think there's really any suspense regarding whether Firestar will prevail.

Ancillary Justice

Written by: Ann Leckie

First line: The body lay naked and facedown, a deathly gray, spatters of blood staining the snow around in.

Why you should read this book: Breq has a secret: she is not human, but the last remnant of a massive, two thousand year old artificial intelligence once controlled by a colonialist space empire, and Breq has a bone to pick with that empire. She doesn't understand why she's wasting her time rescuing Seivarden Vendaai, an officer who's hit hard times after a thousand years in cryostorage, but together they make their way through a dangerous universe, with Breq's unwavering focus on her goal pushing her forward to the next danger. The plot jumps back and forth between Breq's present day (far future) journey and the events of the last thousand years that precipitated her disenchantment with the culture that created her.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The world-building is so complex that it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what was going on and to get into the story, and I'm still not one hundred percent sure what the author is trying to do with gender here, even though it's clearly significant.

Firefly: The Unification War Part I

Written by: Greg Pak, Dan McDaid, Marcelo Costa, and Joss Whedon

First line: "Hey, Wash...sorry to trouble you...but is that engine on fire?"

Why you should read this book: First off, you'd have to be a fan of the short-lived, ill-fated science fiction fan favorite, Firefly, and you'd have to know the series and the characters well enough to be dropped into a new episode of their (back) story without any further explanation. Captain Mal Reynolds and company find themselves in their typical situation: stuck on some backwater planet with a broken ship, no money, and a posse of extremely bad guys on their tail. This time, it's Mal and Zoë's past catching up with them, complicated by a bunch of murderous space cultists, and yeah, that engine was totally on fire.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You aren't already a fan of Firefly.

Everfair

Written by: Nisi Shawl

First line: Lisette Toutournier sighed.

Why you should read this book: What if indigenous Africans had technological superiority over Europeans at the turn of the last century, and what if this reality existed within a society that allowed open discussion of race and sexuality in the same time period? This vast, populous steampunk alternate-history narrative follows an unlikely cast of Fabians, missionaries, escaped slaves, and oppressed native peoples in their attempts to build a socialist paradise in the wake of Leopold II's colonization of the Congo. Beginning with young Lisette Tourournier's love affair with a bicycle in France, the story criss crosses continents and decades, proposes complex love polygons among people with multiple loyalties, and introduces fabulous technologies and solutions in a dense and nuanced story that operates as science fiction and social commentary and a few other things.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I guess this book is not for unabashed racists, but they probably don't read interesting steampunk novels anyway.