Year in Review

Overall, 66 is the smallest number of books I have in any year since I started blogging books 14 years ago. Blame it on 2020. In fact I read a decent number of novels but hardly reviewed any picture books. And I didn't read much of anything else except kids' novels. I mean, the library was close for a lot of it. 

I actually read way more books than this, but I only review ones I haven't reviewed before, and I ended up rereading a bunch of things in my own collection, along with reading a bunch of books I've been carrying around for years and never read (like the VALIS trilogy, which I bought when I was 15 because someone told me it was a book that smart people read. Me of 1990 couldn't make heads or tails of the first chapter and gave up, but 2020 me, with 30 years of accumulated knowledge and wisdom, got it just fine) and it only took a pandemic to get me there.  

Dragon's Library Year in Review, 2020

Picture books:            3 

Middle grade/YA:     25 

Nonfiction:                 2 

Graphic Novels:        16 

Memoir:                     4 

Novels:                      14 

Plays:                         1 

Poetry:                       1 

Total:                         66

Grand Theft Horse

Written by: Corban Wilkin 

First line: I can't believe I'm about to do this. 

Why you should read this book: I adored this deep but endearing nonfiction graphic novel about the author's cousin, the first person to be charged with "Grand Theft Horse" in a hundred fifty years. Gail Ruffu, who has devoted her life to the love of horses, defies a group of powerful and unscrupulous lawyers to save a racehorse called Urgent Envoy, but she sacrifices everything else in the process. Just a tremendously enjoyable story about a remarkable person demonstrating tenacious devotion in pursuit of doing the right thing. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would kill to commit insurance fraud.

Ciel

Written by: Sophie Labelle 

First line: You might not believe me if I tell you, but I have a special power. 

Why you should read this book: Ciel, a non-binary trans teen, is comfortable with who they are, but starting high school is stressful enough for gender conforming kids, and now that Ciel's boyfriend, Eiríkur has moved to Iceland, and their best friend, Stephie, decides that she doesn't want to be out as a trans kid in high school, Ciel isn't always sure where to turn. Stephie has an entirely new set of fun, cis friends, Ciel has a new crush that develops in Eiríkur's absence (it doesn't help that Eiríkur is a terrible penpal), and when they accidentally make a viral video about the difficulties of being non-binary, they find themselves targeted by bigots and online bullying. Ciel has to decide how to ask for the treatment they want, and how to present themselves to a world that isn't always careful with a young teen's delicate sense of self. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: While the story it tells is a good and important one, the voice (or possible the translation—I think this book was originally written in French?) feels amateur and the writing is overloaded with unnecessary and distracting exposition that doesn't advance the story or the characterization.

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 Altered History of Willow Sparks

Written by: Tara O'Connor 

First line: Samuel? What are you...? 

Why you should read this book: When Willow Sparks stumbles upon a secret library housed within the public library, she is astonished to learn that everyone in town has a novel of their life shelved in alphabetical order, and that she can change the particulars of her life by writing revisions into the book. Suddenly, her skin is clear, her wardrobe is cool, she doesn't suck at dodgeball, the hot guy wants to walk her home, and the mean girls aren't quite so mean. But, of course, there are side effects to such potent magic, including the fact that Willow's best friend Georgia can't follow where Willow's headed, and in pursuing popularity, she could lose Georgia for Good. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's not a ton at stake and it's not exactly a brand new conceit for a fantasy story.

The Undertaking of Lily Chen

Written by: Danica Novgorodoff 

First line: Get the hell out of here— 

Why you should read this book: Deshi's older brother Wei suffers an accidental death while the two young men are fighting, so their parents blame Deshi for the loss of their golden child and direct him to obtain a woman's corpse before Wei's funeral in order to conduct a ghost marriage and ensure their boy has pleasant companionship in the afterlife. Unfortunately, while Deshi's parent's beliefs have their foundations in ancient traditions, they live in a modern world, and obtaining the appropriate body proves nearly impossible. Enter Lily Chen, young, beautiful, headstrong, curious, talkative and very much alive, but that situation could change quickly, and Deshi is under a lot of familial pressure to succeed in his mission. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Almost everything that happens before the last few pages is kind of bleak.

You Brought Me the Ocean

Written by: Alex Sanchez and Deron Bennett

First line: For as long as I can remember, I've dreamed of another world.

Why you should read this book: I guess we're at the point where it's cliché and meaningless to say this is "a different kind of superhero origin story," because all the superhero origin stories being written these days are a different kind, but this touching book about a boy named Jake Hyde coming to terms with who he is and where he came from and where he's going doesn't really read like a superhero story, despite being firmly entrenched in the DC Universe (Superman makes a brief cameo, faster than a speeding bullet, on page fifteen). Jake doesn't even learn he has powers until well into the story, by which time we know that his real dilemmas are about acknowledging his own sexuality and lying to his best friend, Maria Mendez about his plans for after high school. This coming-of-age story explores the trouble with, and the rewards of complete honesty, even when the truth is hard to swallow or might hurt someone else. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Fear of drowning.

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Written by: Karen Lord

First line: He always set aside twelve days of his annual retreat to finish reports and studies, and that left twelve more for everything else.

Why you should read this book: This provocative far-future speculative fiction novel sees a low-level civil servant scientist, Grace Delarua, thrust onto a deeply meaningful year-long diplomatic mission to help displaced people, including the reserved, always-appropriate Dllenahkh, survey the human resources of their new home. Following the destruction of their own planet, where most Sadiri women lived, the survivors settle on Cygnus Beta, and must determine how best to preserve their genetic and cultural heritage; specifically they need to start getting married to non-Sadiris and popping out the babies before they get testosterone poisoning and stop behaving appropriately, but since they're basically Vulcans, this is easier said than done. Meanwhile, Grace, Dllenahkh, and their team are about to come face to face with numerous hidden truths about Cygnus Beta, the nature of reality, and the meaning of love. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's so much world building and so many characters and so many plot points that I couldn't always keep score, and it seemed to me that not every question was answered by the end of the book.

Giant Days Extra Credit Volume One

Written by: John Allison 

First line: At the very edge of the boundless sweep of space is where you will find me, Day-zee. 

Why you should read this book: I saw a couple panels of Giant Days on somebody's social media and thought it would be a nice series to read straight through, so I looked online and reserved this book at the public library, thinking it was the first in the series. In fact, it is a bonus book intended to be read after you've read the entire series, beginning with a "what if" story depicting a world in which the first book never happened, and is probably much more meaningful and enjoyable if you were already vested in that world, rather than beginning in the alternate one. I still enjoyed these little one-off comics about an unlikely group of girls attending their freshman year of college in the UK. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It is definitely not the first one in the series. 

Never Grow Up

Written by: Jackie Chan with Zhu Mo 

First line: In 2016, I received an honorary Academy Award for my lifetime achievement in film. 

Why you should read this book: Smart but uncomplicated, fun but meaningful, this is the autobiography of Jackie Chan, martial artist, stuntman, actor, comedian, singer, kidult, everyman, and all around decent human being doing his absolute best and usually succeeding. Arguably the greatest stunt man of his time, almost certainly the most well-known, Chan shares the highlights of his life from his early years at home, through his decade in a strict martial arts boarding school, and following the highs and lows of his career and his personal life, including his hopes, fears, and most dangerous feats. While casting his story in an uplifting light, Chan manages to share both his strengths along with his flaws, pass judgement on mistakes he made as a younger man, and spread his overwhelmingly positive worldview and character with his fans and readers in an eminently readable and enjoyable format. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Chan is forthcoming about his own foibles, including sexual mishaps, alcohol-fueled mistakes, and other youthful indiscretions. 

The Old Drift

Written by: Namwali Serpell First line: Zt. Zzt. ZZZzzzZZZzzzzZZZzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzZZZzzzzzZZZzzzzo'ona. 

Why you should read this book: A multi-generational epic steeped in history, tinted with magical realism and afrofuturism, narrated by mosquitoes (maybe), and framed by the lifespan of the Kariba Dam, The Old Drift covers more than a century of struggle, following the lives of three families in Zambia. Characters are born, grow, rebel against their parents' mistakes, make similar mistakes to the ones their parents made, have children, and the cycle repeats, but time keeps thrusting them away from the past and into the future. Beautifully written, bursting with revelation, and peopled with compelling characters, this is a book that you can fall into and devour with gusto. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Occasionally, I found some of the ways it jumped around in time as characters appears in each others' arcs a little frustrating, but that's probably on me.

Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite

Written by: Barry Deutsch 

First line: Being grounded left Mirka with too much time and pent-up energy. 

Why you should read this book: After just barely outwitting a troll in her first adventure, Mirka is eager to continue a life of adventure, but her second encounter with the troll doesn't go quite as well. Through a bizarre series of events, Mirka finds herself plagued by an underhanded doppelganger who seems to be better at living Mirka's life than Mirka is herself, and who is preventing Mirka from getting anything to eat to boot. Will Mirka have to give up her family, her home, and her identity, or will she be able to outwit a more clever version of herself? 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Its grasp of astrophysics is sketchy.

 

Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories

Written by: RJ Palacio

First line: Okay, okay, okay.

Why you should read this book: A companion to the popular novel Wonder, this books tells the parallel stories of Julian, Christopher, and Charlotte, three kids whose lives were impacted by Auggie's. We learn that Auggie's bully, Julian, suffers from nightmares, and that his response to Auggie is born of shame and fear; Christopher learns the importance of sticking by friends through his own relationship with Auggie; and Charlotte learns to see the world and the idea of popularity through a new lens.Written with wisdom and compassion, Palacio's stories show kids' real inner worlds.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Although these stories all stand alone, it probably makes more sense to read the first book first. 

Hold Fast

Written by: Blue Balliett

First line: It was the bitterest, meanest, darkest, coldest winter in anyone's memory, even in one of the forgotten neighborhoods of Chicago.

Why you should read this book: Early's idyllic family life is shattered when her kind, smart, beloved father disappears under mysterious circumstances and strangers invade and rob her home, and the police don't seem to care. Now she, her mother, and her brother are broke, homeless, and desperately adapting to a new way of living, but Early is determined to use every resource available to find her father and make her family whole again. A smart story about love and family, which is also a clever mystery. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Kids will likely identify with Early's determined optimism, but as an adult, I couldn't help but put myself in her mother's shoes, terrified that her husband has been murdered and that she won't be able to protect of care for her children as their world gets bleaker and bleaker, and this book wrecked me.

The Sign of the Beaver

 Written by: Elizabeth George Speare

First line: Matt stood at the edge of the clearing for some time after his father had gone out of sight among the trees.

Why you should read this book: Matt and his father have spent all spring and summer preparing a new home in Maine in 1769, but when Matt's father leaves him to protect their claim while he retrieves his wife and daughter from Massachusetts, a series of unfortunate events makes it difficult for Matt to feed and protect himself. Befriended by an Indian chief, he finds himself the tutor of the chief's unwilling grandson, Attean whose interest in learning to read is almost nonexistent and who is much less impressed with Matt than his grandfather. In time, the two boys become friends and Matt realizes he has much more to learn from Attean than Attean has to learn from him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This book has received some criticism for its stereotypical depiction of American Indians.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Written by: Scott O'Dell 

First line: I remember the day the Aleut ship came to our island.

Why you should read this book: Life on Karana's island becomes dangerous when the Aleut otter hunters arrive, bringing lies and death for Karana's people, who decide it would be safer to trust in white people who will carry them to a safer land. When her brother, Ramo misses the boat, Karana chases after him and the two end up stranded in their abandoned home. Karana must battle the elements, wild dogs, devil fish, and dozens of other threats in order to survive on her own.

Why you shouldn't read this book: A little sad.

Julie

Written by: Jean Craighead George

First line: A wolf howled.

Why you should read this book: It picks up where the award-winning classic left off, but Julie's teenage anger at finding her father adopting the ways of white people fades. Returning to the home he shares with his Julie's new Minnesotan stepmother, Julie resolves to be a good Inuit daughter, but when her father's new venture—ranching the arctic musk ox, or uminmack—is threatened by the presence of the wolves that saved Julie's life, she must choose. Can she protect her friends and respect her father's way of life?

Why you shouldn't read this book: Considering how the first book ended, it seemed unlikely that Julie would go back to her father's house.

Julie of the Wolves

Written by: Jean Craighead George 

 First line: Miyax pushed back the hood of her sealskin parka and looked at the Arctic sun. 

Why you should read this book: This intense classic survival story about a girl who lives alone in the artic tundra with only a family of wolves for companionship and protection is the latest of my COVID reads: books that I probably should have read in the '80s or '90s but, for whatever reason, never got to. Julie is a determined heroine, mourning what she's lost but intent on hanging on to her life, so she uses the knowledge passed down to her by her father to observe and befriend a pack of wolves who eventually accept her and help her to live another day. Beautifully written and full of accurate descriptions of the natural world. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a classic and you should read it, although George seems to favor the word "Eskimo," and uses it interchangably with Inuit, which may be insensitive to Inuits, and some people (the librarian who I discussed it with when I decided to read it) may take offense at the implication of rape in a children's novel (to which I say—kids are aware of horrible crimes, and those who have been the victims of them or are at risk of becoming victims probably need to see their lives reflected in literature, while other kids needs to know that these crimes exist and hurt people.) 

Penny from Heaven

Written by: Jennifer L. Holm

First line: Me-me says that Heaven is full of fluffy white clouds and angels.

Why you should read this book: Penny lives with her mother and her grandparents, who are quiet and normal and plain American, but she loves her late father's boisterous and noisy extended Italian family, who treat her like a princess even though the two sides of her family don't get along at all. But Penny has all kind of questions that no one really wants to answer, like why does her uncle live in his car, and why does her cousin Frankie have so many good ideas that turns out badly, and how did her father really die? This complex, moving story about a girl caught between two worlds in the 1950s is a quiet but gripping tale that draws the reader in to Penny's experience as she moves around the town she's always known, but is still discovering.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't believe in telling kids the truth about things that make you sad.

Rules

Written by: Cynthia Lord

First line: "Come on, David."

Why you should read this book: Like many siblings of special needs kids, Catherine wishes her autistic brother could just be normal, or at least quiet about his weirdness, and she's devoted a lot of her life to teaching him the rules that other people intuitively understand, like not taking your pants off in public and not throwing toys in the fish tank. When a new girl moved into her neighborhood, Catherine just hopes David won't drive off her cool new friend. Meanwhile, in the waiting room at David's occupational therapy, she becomes friends with an older boy who is completely non-verbal and wheelchair-bound, and what would the the other kids say if they knew who she was spending her time with?

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you want the alternate perspective from the point of view of the non-verbal kid stuck in the wheelchair, you might try Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.

Fortunately, the Milk

Written by: Neil Gaiman

First line: There was only orange juice in the fridge.

Why you should read this book: Oh, no! There's no milk for the breakfast cereal and Mom's going out of town and Dad is probably a bit scattered and not to be depended on, even though he does promise to get the milk. It just takes him an extraordinarily long time, and when the kids demand his excuse for the delay, it takes many, many pages for Dad to spin a ridiculous yarn featuring pirates, aliens, vampires, sentient, time-traveling dinosaurs, an angry volcano god, a hot air balloon, and numerous other outlandish obstacles to breakfast.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's incredibly silly.

 

Searching for David's Heart

Written by: Cherie Bennett

First line: "I don't see why Mrs. Pricher is making us give stupid speeches in front of the entire class," I groaned to my big brother, David, and my best friend, Sam Weiss. 

Why you should read this book: Darcy's brother David has always been her rock, especially since her dad has gotten all weird and depressed and racist, but when she and David have a fight that doesn't get resolved before David's untimely death, Darcy can't forgive herself, or face what's left of her life. Her only hope comes when she realizes that David was an organ donor, and as long as a person's heart is beating, they can't really be dead. With Sam in tow, Darcy sets out on an epic journey to meet the recipient of her brother's heart, and try to make peace with her own.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Oh, man what a tearjerker! I cried. 

The Cats of Roxville Station

 

Written by: Jean Craighead George 

First line: A lady in a fur coat threw a fighting, hissing cat off a bridge, got back into her car, and sped into the night. 

Why you should read this book: It illuminates the normally invisible lives of the feral cats that live all around us, in a narrative made vibrant and believable by the careful research and observation of a noted naturalist writer with a unique perspective on the behavior of humans and animals. Ratchet, a young cat with nothing but her instincts to fall back on, makes a new life for herself among a loose group of wild cats that live near an old railway station. With precise language and a keen eye, the story follows the cats through a year as they struggle to survive and thrive. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: George's opinions about human beings in relation to animals is no secret, and she depicts man's casual cruelty to cats, kids, and other creaturs with a deft hand; some readers may find descriptions of abuse upsetting, but that said, it has a happy ending.

Catherine, Called Birdy

Written by: Karen Cushman 

First line: I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family.

Why you should read this book: Catherine, called Birdy due to her love of birds, feels put upon by her life as the only daughter of a landed knight, her station too high to allow her to run wild and free, but too low to avoid onerous tasks and live a life of leisure. And now that she's coming of age, her father is doing his utmost to make a profit by marrying her to a wealthy man, and he doesn't seem to care which wealthy man it is, or that Birdy doesn't want to get married at all. Birdy has to work overtime to run off the line of unsuitable suitors, but a girl of her position cannot avoid the inevitable indefinitely, can she?

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've been recently forced into a very unhappy arranged marriage.

A Taste of Colored Water

Written by: Matt Faulkner 

First line: It was Abby Finch who started it all. 

Why you should read this book: It's an introduction to the concepts of Jim Crow, segregation, racism, and the civil rights movement for very young readers. When small town kids Lulu and her cousin Jelly hear that the water fountains in the city dispense "colored water," they imagine rainbow streams of candy-flavored drinks, but when they finally finagle their way to the city, they receive a rude awakening; not only is colored water plain old water from an old fountain, racism, which apparently does not exist in their small town, creates a sad ending to their adventure. Includes a nice appendix in which the author discusses Jim Crow laws at greater length. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a decent book and I enjoyed it, but as much as I'm a huge fan of Matt Faulkner, there's a much better book called White Socks Only by Evelyn Coleman that covers this same territory from the perspective of a Black child and is slightly less circumspect and slightly more self aware. 

Horns and Wrinkles

Written by: Joseph Helgerson 

First line: My cousin Duke's troubles on the river started on the day he dangled me off the wagon wheel bridge. 

Why you should read this book: Claire's stretch of the Mississippi River has always been rumored to be a little strange (even the adults know about the mysterious goings-on, which is pretty rare in a children's book) but Claire doesn't realize how strange until her bully cousin Duke falls in with a trio of river trolls with a mission. Against her will, Claire is dragged into all kinds of troll nonsense involving humans being turned to stone, fairies in bright orange tennis shoes, compulsively lying crickets, shooting stars, rhinoceroses, missing fathers, and a tyrant rock troll with an army of slaves. Things are so crazy Claire begins to question her own humanity, but maybe she's just been hanging around with trolls a little too long. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: While it's engaging, inventive, and well-written, it's the sort of story that probably appeals more to younger readers.

Amina's Voice

Written by: Hena Khan 

First line: Something sharp pokes me in the rib. 

Why you should read this book: Amina is terrified of singing (or speaking) in public, even though she has a beautiful voice, and when her best friend Soojin wants to hang out with a popular white girl, Amina doesn't know what to say (and when she does say something, it turns out to be the exact wrong thing). Now she's afraid her best friend hates her, while at home she's terrified of upsetting her uncle and being pressured to participate in a Koran-recitation contest. Singing in public is the scariest thing she can imagine, until something that truly rocks the community gives Amina the courage to use her voice. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've never been afraid to speak up.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Written by: Jacqueline Kelly 

First line: By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. 

Why you should read this book: Callie Vee, intelligent, thoughtful, and curious, realizes that she wants to be a naturalist when she grows up, just around the time that Callie's mother announces that she wants Callie to be a debutante. Guided by her eccentric grandfather, Callie becomes comfortable with the scientific process, the pursuit of knowledge, and the reading of difficult and forbidden books, chief among them Darwin's Origin of the Species, while desperately trying to escape a future that includes being tied down to a house, a husband, or children. Just an all-around delightful novel. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You'd rather be a debutante than discover a new species.

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.

The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

Written by: John Bolton

First line: One attraction of being National Security Advisor is the sheer multiplicity and volume of challenges that confront you. 

Why you should read this book: Usually I don't review books that I didn't finish, but I did slog my way through over four hundred pages of this bloated testament to John Bolton's massive ego before accidentally deleting the file when I got a new phone, so I can tell you that the only reason to read this book is because you are interested in the tedious details and minutiae of foreign policy or the more tedious details and minutiae of Bolton's self-aggrandizing thought processes. I originally started it because I was interested in lurid revelations regarding the president's failures, which are remarked upon, but take a back seat to Bolton's repeatedly stated sense of his own importance and omniscience: he never misses an opportunity to quote, word for word, every single incidence of someone telling him he was right about something between April of 2018 and September of 2019; he never misses a chance to explain why something was Obama's fault, or Clinton's fault, or, occasionally, John Kerry's fault; he never misses a chance to make a snide remark about someone making a mistake ("mistake" being defined as "not doing the thing John Bolton thinks they should do;" he himself only admits to being wrong about anything once in the 400+ pages I read, even though it's abundantly apparent that taking the job of National Security Advisor was a huge mistake on his part); and, most egregiously, he makes it abundantly clear that he's only ever respected three people: Henry Kissinger, Vladmir Putin (!), and (sometimes, on some issues) George Bush Senior. In conclusion, John Bolton is a terrible human being. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have literally anything else going on in life. I'm not even going to post the link to the actual book, because I don't think Bolton should profit off this crap. I think he should pay the American people for what he's done. The retail price of this book being something like $20 for a hardcover, and having read at least 2/3 of its contents, I really feel like he owes me $13 and some change (in compensation for my pain and suffering; obviously, my copy was pirated because I wasn't going to buy anything that might benefit John Bolton).

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*.  

What If It's Us

Written by: Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera 

First line: I am not a New Yorker, and I want to go home. 

Why you should read this book: Arthur, who's never been kissed, is in town for a summer internship to beef up his college applications the summer before his senior year; Ben, who's mourning the loss of his first serious relationship, is in summer school so he'll be allowed to start his senior year. Following a chance encounter outside the post office, the two teens activate their in person and digital networks, and defying all odds, managed to find one another in the big city and intitiate a relationship, but Arthur's lack of experience and Ben's issues with his ex complicate the romance between two guys who don't have a whole lot in common aside from being awkward, self-conscious, and out. Will this summer romance blossom or whither on the vine? 

Why you shouldn't read this book: So one convention of romantic comedies is that there must always be some force keeping the potential lovers apart, and in this case, the "force" is the fact that they are teenagers who don't know anything about relationships; I think I was just too old for this one.

I'm Not Dying with You Tonight

Written by: Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal 

First line: "Waiting for Black in on your agenda, not mine," LaShunda barks as we leave the building. 

Why you should read this book: Lena, a stylish, popular Black girl with a best friend and an older boyfriend and big plans for her evening, and Campbell, the new kid in school, a white girl who's given up hope after being abandoned by her family and cut from the track team, find themselves unlikely allies when a high school football game erupts into violence. Running from the police at the football field, they head downtown, right into a bigger and much more violent riot, knowing they better stick together if they're going to survive the night. Told from two points of view, written by two different authors, this sadly realistic live-through-the-night narrative highlights issues of racial and socioeconomic inequality, family ties, young love, and the understanding that we each have to work at understanding other people's perspectives. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: A lot of violence, possibly senseless, but not gratuitous.

We Are Totally Normal

Written by: Rahul Kankia

First line: The music in the car was so loud that my teeth vibrated.

Why you should read this book: Nandan hangs out with the popular kids, even though he doesn't really like any of them except Avani, who he used to hook up with but doesn't anymore because sex is weird; right now, while his bro-friends are trying to get Nandan laid, Nandan is really focused on helping out his weird buddy Dave, who is totally adorable and knows less about girls than Nandan does. But Nandan's efforts to help Dave get a girlfriend lead to Nandan having drunken sex with Dave, and now he has to figure out whether he's actually gay or what, because he loves Dave, but he doesn't really love having sex with him, and he doesn't want people to think he's just being queer to get attention, or to get closer to Avani. This is a very inwardly-focused story, rife with Nandan's dissection of high school social dynamics, relationships, and, of course, sex, which covers honest ground about sex and queerness that doesn't often hit the page in YA novels.

Gone Crazy in Alabama

Written by: Rita Williams-Garcia

First line: Vonetta, Fern, and I didn't sleep well last night or the night before.

Why you should read this book: School's out and the Gaither girls are off again, this time headed to Alabama, where Big Ma has returned to live with her own mother. Alabama is even more different from New York than Oakland was, and Black people in the south still live by different rules that clash with the ideals they learned in California: how can they even be related to a sheriff who's white and in the KKK? Delphine, who has always taken care of her family, finds that she has to deal with all the same problems, plus a whole passel of new issues including a decades-old family feud, the clashing of the old and the new, unpleasant chores, the return of their once-beloved uncle, an amorous neighbor, overt racism, and really, really bad weather.

Why you shouldn't read this book: While it ends well, I felt this one was a bit sadder/scarier than the first two books in the trilogy.

P.S. Be Eleven

Written by: Rita Williams-Garcia

First line: You'd think that after flying six-odd hours from New York to Oakland, then flying six-odd hours back, Vonetta, Fern, and I would be world-class travelers, and those bumps and dips would be nothing.

Why you should read this book: Picking up where One Crazy Summer leaves off, this book follows Delphine and her sisters as they return to New York, much changed from the girls who went to visit their mother at the beginning of the summer, thanks to their new revolutionary mindset. But New York has changed too: their father has a girlfriend, their uncle is a different person since his return from Viet Nam, and while their grandmother has stayed the same, they can't help but see Big Ma in a different light after hanging out with the Black Panthers. While still trying to manage her sisters, Delphine has to navigate a new grade, a very new teacher, new boys, her very serious feelings about a new boy band called The Jackson Five, and a series of letters from her unusual mother, which don't feel very helpful now, but might be later on.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought it was a little disingenuous of the mother to constantly tell Delphine to "be eleven" when Delphine became the parentalized child solely because her mom didn't want to be a parent.

Native Son

Written by: Richard Wright

First line: BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNG!

Why you should read this book: In Chicago, in 1940, a young Black man, Bigger Thomas, is forced to take a job as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family in order to keep his mother and siblings fed and housed, but the Daltons are like no people he's ever encountered, and a lifetime of being forcibly othered by white people makes it difficult for Bigger to comprehend them, let along navigate their universe. Forced by their rebellious daughter Mary to associate with Communists and confront inequality, Bigger's fate seems sealed his first fateful day on the job, but suddenly, in the midst of chaos and despair, Bigger begins to come alive and starts thinking critically about the world and his place in it. There may be no justice for a Black man in Bigger's shoes, but with the help of a Jewish Communist layer, Mr. Max, he begins to see himself, his situation, and his country in a different light.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you're a Black person who is currently feeling traumatized by systemic racism and inequality, this might not be a happy journey for you.

Go with the Flow

Written by: Lily Williams and Karen Schneeman

First line: Wakey wakey eggs...and bakey!

Why you should read this book: On her first day at a new school, late-blooming sophomore Sasha gets her first period and everyone notices before she does, but, fortunately, she is swept up by a powerful friend squad who do their best to alleviate the stigma of menstruation for the new girl. But Sasha's dilemma reminds the girls of other time-of-the-month issues: Brit's undiagnosed condition (probably endometriosis) means that she's missing way too much school due to way too much pain, and Abby is incensed that the school sanitary pad dispensers are always empty, while Christine is just trying to navigate her own feelings and everyone else's. When Abby can't get satisfaction from the faculty, she takes her outrage to the internet, and she's about to find out what everybody else thinks about menstrual inequality.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're not ready for a frank discussion of menstruation.

From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

Written by: Gene Sharp

First line: One of my major concerns for many years has been how people could prevent and destroy dictatorships.

Why you should read this book: Based on a study of numerous countries that made a shift from dictatorship to democracy, Sharp outlines the process of employing proven tactics of nonviolent struggle to overthrow fascist regimes. His findings can be summarized in two words—solidarity and persistence—and the very short book does an excellent job of explaining how to employ these tactics, and why they work. The appendix comprises a list of 198 nonviolent actions that can be employed by the resistance to chip away at a regime's power, generate sympathy for the cause, and cause oppressive governments to crumble and cede power to the people.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You support a fascist dictator.

Venus Plus X

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: "Charlie Johns," urgently cried Charlie Johns: "Charlie Johns, Charlie Johns!" for that was the absolute necessity—to know who Charlie Johns was, not to let go of that for a second, for anything, ever.

Why you should read this book: Charlie Johns, an average, twentieth century man,  wakes up to find he has been inexplicably summoned to a seemingly utopian, technologically advanced future where gender doesn't exist and all people therefore live in perfect harmony. The Ledom, presumptive inheritors of an Earth destroyed by careless homo sapiens, want Charlie to know them, their culture and customs, and to offer up his honest opinion of their civilization, so that they may better know themselves. With wide-eyed wonder tinged with a yearning for home, Charlie agrees to a complete tour of paradise, down to its greatest secrets, while a parallel story interspersed with Charlie's journey offers up a picture of flawed egalitarianism in a modern (1960) nuclear family.

Why you shouldn't read this book: While Sturgeon was, in so many ways, ahead of his time, he was also, like the rest of us, a product of his time; I'd like to believe that our understanding of sex, sexuality, and gender has advanced substantially in the last 60 years.

The Cosmic Rape

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: "I'll bus' your face, Al," said Gurlick.

Why you should read this book: Oh, god, it's brutal and necessary, uglier and more violent than I expect from science fiction of this era, laying bare the flaws of mankind while suggesting that what separates us and causes us pain is simply...ourselves. A hive-minded conqueror arrives from space, inhabits a most unlikely vessel, and sets to work attempting to unify humanity for the sole purpose of assimilating it. Not gonna lie—there is some hard to read stuff in here—but the payoff is so beautiful and uplifting that the reader can forgive the author for holding a mirror up to the worse we have to offer.

Why you shouldn't read this book: People kind of suck; we could be much better than we are, and this book kind of rubs it in your face. 



[Note: apparently this book is rare and difficult to acquire? And it's just been sitting on my shelf for 30 years!]

The Dreaming Jewels

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: They caught the kid doing something disgusting out under the bleachers at the high-school stadium, and he was sent home from the grammar school across the street.

Why you should read this book: It's pure old school science fiction, which posits an alien sort of life form living side by side with earthlings, interacting in surprising and unexpected ways with the inhabitants of our planet. In this story, we perceive them through their relationship with Horty Bluett, an unfortunate abused child who runs away from his extra-villainous adopted father and ends up being taken in by some loving circus freaks. Zena, a little person with undetectable but extraordinary abilities, knows more than she can say about Horty's enemies, and raises him to take revenge on his abuser, but Zena doesn't know everything, yet.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The villains are perhaps a bit one-dimensional; they're just so villainous.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Written by: Philip K. Dick

First line: Barefoot conducts his seminars on his houseboat in Sausalito.

Why you should read this book: In the third, and probably most accessible book of the VALIS trilogy, Angel Archer, a young, educated Berkeley woman watches with semi-rational perspective as her husband, Jeff; his father, the titular Timothy Archer, Bishop of California; and Tim's not-so-secret lover, Kirsten Lundgren, pursue knowledge and understanding into death. Angel loves and admire her father-in-law above all men, and experiences, with great distress, his descent into heresy and the occult, never believing Tim's revelations, but suffering along with him nonetheless. Tim walks into the desert searching for the truth about Christ, the host, and eternal life, and whether he dies there or walks out again in some transmigrated form is left to the reader to decide.

Why you shouldn't read this book: In the course of the novel, Timothy Archer is tried for heresy by the Episcopalians but ultimately outargues his detractors, and yet, pretty much every idea in this book would probably be considered heretical by most Christian standards of faith.

Death of a Salesman

Written by: Arthur Miller

First line: A melody is heard, played upon a flute.

Why you should read this book: Like most people, I read this classic play in high school, and I think maybe once or twice more as a very young adult, but this is definitely one of those stories that hits harder the older you get. Willy Loman is a salesman whose blustery confidence has always masked his failings as a father, as a husband, and as a salesman. In the twilight of his life, as the wages of lies, hypocrisy, and regrets are paid and his mind becomes unloosed in time, he begins to suspect that he is worth more dead than alive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have to move a hundred twenty thousand units this month.

 

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signs That Protect Us from Violence

Written by: Gavin de Becker

First line: He had probably been watching her for a while.

Why you should read this book: Published almost a quarter century ago, this is still the definitive work on the subject of protecting oneself from violence by learning to recognize indicators that a person intends to enact violence upon your person before you get hurt. With detailed explanations of how to assess and evaluate threats on the fly, anecdotal examples from de Becker's years as a security expert, and a clear writing style, he conveys the importance of understanding and trusting ones own instinct and prizing personal safety. An extremely important book, recommended to anyone with any experience of violence in their lives, which is likely the vast majority of the population.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're prone to violence but you don't want anyone to know.

 

The Divine Invasion

Written by: Philip K. Dick

First line: It came time to put Manny in school.

Why you should read this book: Herb Asher is having a weird existence, living as a colonist on a far-off planet where he's being guilt tripped into becoming the legal father of God and smuggling his new wife and their unborn fetus deity back to Earth; but also he's dead and in cryogenic stasis reliving his entire life over and over while being subjected to elevator music and awaiting a new spleen; but also he's living in an alternate reality where his actions will have a major impact on the eternal battle between good and evil. Emmanuel, Manny, also known as Yahweh, or Yah, has his own issues, trying to remember who he is and what he's forgotten over the last few thousand years, which he needs to do before the Adversary foils his plans. This second book in the VALIS trilogy, while not a true sequel, continues to examine Dick's late-in-life musings about the nature of reality, this time with a strong focus on Judeo-Christian mythology.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you need to know what is definitively real in a story and have it seem logical and rational, this isn't the book for you. People with no understanding of Torah and Kabbalah or no interest in Judeo-Christian mythology may have trouble keeping up.

VALIS

Written by: Philip K Dick

First line: Horselover Fat's nervous breakdown began the day he got the phonecall from Gloria asking if he had an Nembutals.

Why you should read this book: It took me 30 years and a pandemic to finally get through the first book of this trilogy, in which we meet a depressed, suicidal addict called Horselover Fat (who is also Philip K Dick, who is a character in the story, the narrator of the story, and the author of the story) yanked from his downward spiral by the delivery of a blast of superconcentrated information in the form of a pink light. Despite knowing that it was a science fiction novel, my brain kept insisting that it was merely the narrative of a man's descent into schizophrenia, up until the moment that other characters started to affirm Horselover's "delusions." While it's an unconventional read that makes the reader work hard to follow the arc, the payoff of this story is tremendous.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Without a grounding in world history, world mythology, and psychology, along with a passing knowledge or alchemy, gnosticism, mysticism, and philosophy, it might be hard to follow this narrative.

The Last Black Unicorn

Written by: Tiffany Haddish

First line: School was hard for me, for lots of reasons.

Why you should read this book: Pretty much everything that happens in the first three-quarters of this memoir is truly heartbreaking, but Haddish's comedic tendencies have a way of glossing over most of the horror of her life and forcing you to laugh at the worst things that have ever happened to her. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are running themes in her story, and she still manages to report the events in such a way that the reader can't help but smile. From her mother's accident and subsequent brain injury, to her experience in foster care and her terrible relationship history, the story proceeds to build upon itself until Haddish's success as a professional comedian and actress seems not only well-deserved, but also inevitable.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've had sex with Tiffany Haddish.

A Broken Tree: How DNA Exposed a Family's Secrets

Written by: Stephen F. Anderson

First line: When I was a young boy, I loved watching Leave It to Beaver.

Why you should read this book: It's hard to discuss this memoir without massive spoilers, but, couched in the vaguest terms, the author and his siblings discover that neither of their parents were the people they thought they were. Since we already know the story hinges on DNA evidence, the reader will not find the revelations as terribly shocking as the author and his siblings did, but it's an interesting read nonetheless, full of complex emotional relationships and secrets and lies. A fast read, basically split into two parts, the first part being the actual story and the second part answering questions that many people had about how the author discovered and reacted to his story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: One thing the author declines to do is deeply examine the psychology of how his parents got to the point they got to—there's some discussion of it, but many readers will probably finish the book wishing they had a better understanding of why.

The Shape of Water

Written by: Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

First line: Richard Strickland reads the brief from General Hoyt.

Why you should read this book: I guess it's a novelization of the popular movie, written after the fact, perhaps to fill in details that couldn't fit in the film version. Basically, if you loved the movie about the mute janitor who falls in love with a kidnapped swamp creature so much that you need to know what every single character (including the swamp creature) is thinking as the narrative unfolds, this is the story for you. It's crisply and engagingly written with ample descriptions and layered, nuanced, believable characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The movie is better, so help me.

Henry Huggins

Written by: Beverly Cleary

First line: Henry Huggins was in the third grade.

Why you should read this book. Although it is over seventy years old, there is still much delight to be found in this quiet novel about a small boy who feels as if nothing interesting ever happened to him until the day he shared his ice cream cone with a skinny, medium-sized, mixed-breed dog. Of course, the ordinary world of any child who plays outside his house, takes the bus into town, and has a life that doesn't involve being tied to a screen tends to offer plenty of interesting moments, such as when Henry accidentally breeds hundreds of guppies in his bedroom or when he digs up twelve hundred worms to pay off a debt incurred when he accidentally throws a neighbor boy's football into a passing car. While some of the references, especially the monetary ones, are dated (Henry's allowance is a quarter a week and his ice cream costs a nickel), I love the idea of modern children reading about a time when kids inhabited their own, largely unsupervised world and moved through it with a sense of agency, and, as a bonus, Cleary's more popular and enduring characters, Beezus and Ramona, have some cameos.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't like dogs, fish, or worms.

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.

Q Road

Written by: Bonnie Jo Campbell

First line: At the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, autumn woolly bear caterpillars hump across Queer Road to get to the fields and windbreaks of George Harland's rich river valley land.

Why you should read this book: Everything is about to change in Kalamazoo one fateful autumn day when echoes of the past ripple through the present to reorient the future, and the people living around the oldest barn in the county find their relationships sundered, strengthened, reordered, and reexplained. Rachel, the foul-mouthed, gun-toting teenage bride of middle-aged farmer George Harland loves nothing the way she loves the brown earth of Harland's farm, except maybe young David Retakker, who loves George Harland's quiet, masculine strength as much as he hates his own perceived weakness. Meanwhile, the suburbs encroach on their prospects and their neighbors either want the farm gone or suffer through their own jealousy for everything George Harland represents.

Why you shouldn't read this book: OK, so this is the author's first novel, which takes place fifteen years after her second novel, and focuses on the daughter of the protagonist from the second book, who hasn't been born yet in the novel that could be considered the prequel to the first book, except it was written years later. Got it? No? Go read Once upon a River and then come back.

It

Written by: Stephen King

First line: The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years—if it ever did end—began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.

Why you should read this book: I first read it when I was twelve years old, which I mention by way of defense as I go on to explain that I just finished reading this enduring novel to my fourteen-year-old stepdaughter (by her request) (and also add that, prior to becoming fascinated with King's work at that age of twelve, I was afraid of everything, and this book and other novels of his I read that year, taught me to overcome, at least for the next twelve years, the free-floating terror of my existence). My stepdaughter said, "This is the longest novel we've ever read," to which I replied, "It's the longest novel most people have ever read," but the story of seven kids defeating an ancient evil that lives under their city, enjoys dressing like a clown, makes everyone a little crazy, and eats kids' fear (and other parts) continues to hold a prominent place in the collective conscious by virtue of its unrelenting examination of terror—virtually every trope of terror known to humans in the '80s manages to hit the page. There's something to scare everyone, whether or not you suffer from coulrophobia, including the truly terrifying concepts of racism, sexism and homophobia, in a gripping tale told from multiple points of view.

Why you shouldn't read this book: First, the racism, sexism, and homophobia is pretty extreme, and while King is clearly using it to denote bad characters with bad morality and bad motivations, if you don't personally remember the '80s, you will likely find yourself astonished at the casual use of now-taboo language. Second, like virtually all of King's work, it's ridiculously overwritten and would probably be a better novel with a couple hundred pages edited out.

Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts

Written by: Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose, Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey, Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santolouco, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, & Francesco Francavilla

First line: Ah, here you are, poor lost soul.

Why you should read this book: Fans of spooky manga and pre-code horror comics rejoice—here is a sumptuous anthology of creepy collected tales (using a frame with a frame device, even) loosely organized around food and eating, and honoring its multi-cultural source material along with the best conventions of the genres that inspired it. In addition to the eight comics presented here, you get five original recipes from the famous chef (food inspired by the tales) as well as an appendix of monsters. And if all of this is not terrifying enough for you, this project is apparently one of the last things Bourdain completed before he took his own life, so, you know, really quintessential horror genre stuff going on right here.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Monsters. Sex. Violence. These words do not fill your soul with thrill and anticipation.

Swing It, Sunny

Written by: Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

First line: She's just a regular girl in a regular world!

Why you should read this book: I guess I'm reading them out of order but from a stylistic perspective this spectacular book, told in a series of vignettes that come together to present a complete picture, is even better than the previous volume I reviewed. Despite living in a loving family, there is a conspicuous absence in Sunny's life: her big brother has been shipped off to boarding school for bad grades and bad behavior and who knows what else, and even when he's with the family, something is still missing. Sunny lives her life, develops new friends and new interests, and manages to find a way to reach out to her distant, angry brother so he can see some hope for the future.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't want any rainbows or rays of sunshine in your life.

Bad Gateway

Written by: Simon Hanselman

First line: This place seems cheap and is OK.

Why you should read this book: It will break your heart, in a good way. It's about a drug-addicted, welfare-cheating witch named Megg; her drug addicted, trust-fund hippie boyfriend cat named Mogg; and the assorted other creatures who flit in and out of their drug haze. Megg's life is bleak, and she is determined to hang on to the bleakness, seeming to put as much effort into staying in a bad place as it would take to get her to a better place, but the volume ends with her going back home to see her mother and, presumably, examine the path that brought her to this bleak place.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Sex, drugs, violence, often all at the same time.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume Three: Century

Written by: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

First line: Fraters and Sorors...beloved Frater and Sorors...we are gathered in the profess-house.

Why you should read this book: A magician who definitely isn't Aleister Crowley has a very drawn out plot to create a moon child and usher in the end of the world, something like that, and Mina, Alan, and Lando have to stop this, probably. It will take them an entire century to get to the bottom of things but they all have immortal youth and their opponent can acquire new bodies whenever he feels like it. There's a rock star who definitely isn't Mick Jagger and a guy who travels through time but not space and gives almost perfectly useless advice, and there's sex and drugs and nudity and all kinds of weirdness and of course, since it's Moore, ten million references that will make you feel smart if you get them and confused if you don't.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Still trying to track down a copy of the Black Dossier. Plus this book is kind of a literary mess, padded stylistically but without a lot of story.

George

Written by: Alex Gino

First line: George pulled a silver house key out of the smallest pocket of a large red backpack.

Why you should read this book: I adored this gentle, quiet story about a little trans girl who wants nothing more than to play Charlotte in her school's performance of Charlotte's Web but isn't quite ready to explain her motivations to the world. George is well aware of her own gender, but no one else knows her secret, which basically involves looking wistfully at teen magazines and pretending the girls in the photographs are her real friends. When she works up the courage to share her true identity with her best friend, an entire new world of possibility opens up and she begins to navigate the world according to an entirely new set of rules.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're a hateful, gender-essentialist bigot.

Stargazing

Written by: Jen Wang

First line: Christine, your collar was undone the whole time.

Why you should read this book: Christine wants to be a good daughter/member of the Asian American community, so she dutifully practices the violin, attends Chinese school once a week, and does her best to live up to her parents' expectations, but a big part of her admires Moon, who is Asian American as well, but in a different way: Buddhist, vegetarian, wearing nail polish, dancing to pop music, and sometimes punching people who frankly deserve it. At first Moon scares Christine, but she soon finds a new kind of freedom in their friendship, even if Moon still does and says things that she can't quite condone or comprehend. Maybe Moon is too cool for Christine, or maybe something else could steal her away, or maybe Christine's own insecurity can destroy this friendship without any outside help.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You do everything your parents expect of you and you like it that way.

 

Grandmother Fish: A Child's First Book of Evolution

Written by: Jonathan Tweet and Karen Lewish

First line: This is our Grandmother Fish. She lived a long long, long, long, long time ago.

Why you should read this book: A joyful and accessible explanation of evolution directed to the youngest readers, this book begins with a fish (not because life begin with a fish, but because children can comprehend the concept of "fish" better than they can "single celled organisms"), points out her evolutionary advantages (she can wiggle, swim fast, and chomp things), and then discusses some of the evolutionary branches that descended from this proto fish. The book goes on to draw a line from fish to reptiles, reptiles to mammals, mammals to apes, and apes to humans, using the type of poetic repetition and variations that draws children into stories. The supplementary material includes a partial family tree of all life on earth, and many notes for adult humans seeking to further illuminate these concepts for young humans. All around a wonderful reference for little kids just beginning to explore their world, science, and what it means to be alive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You know who you are and you can get the hell off my book blog. We believe in science around here.