When you're feeling overwhelmed, what do you do?

Remember when I talked about all the reading I had to do at the end of July for one of the award subcommittees I'm on? I had to hustle to get a bunch of work done on a deadline I didn't know existed...and then I started back at work right after that and found out two days before school started that I was going to be teaching a second class for kindergarten through third grade, so I've been scrambling since then to pull together a curriculum for that...so surely I wouldn't agree to take on MORE work, right?

Wellllll...

The opportunity presented itself to take over our entire state book award committee, as in chair the whole thing, and y'all, I love our state book award program so much. How could I say no? I mean...I guess I could have, and maybe I should have, but I know they've been kind of passively looking for someone to take it over from the current chair for a couple of years, and truthfully I was a bit worried that if I didn't take it over no one would and then the current chair would officially retire and our state book awards would be no more. Is that a logical fear? I have no idea. But here we are!

So hey, this isn't a book review, it isn't really anything. It's just me, talking about how bad I am at saying no to things. It's book-related, though, so it counts? 

I know agreeing to take this on was probably not the most responsible thing to do to myself, but I'm actually very excited. I think it'll be fun! And hey, I just finished writing up curriculum for the first quarter of school for my new class, which means I'm on my way to getting the second quarter's curriculum done, which means I'm ahead of schedule, which means...I'll be fine. Right?

Don't Be Scared - Saadia Faruqi

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Riz Choudhry lives for two things: movies and anything spooky. His dad? Not so much. While Riz dreams of filmmaking and jump scares, his father dreams of Riz going to med school or law school—and neither one includes ghosts.

But the film club is Riz’s safe haven, a place where other supernatural-obsessed first-gen kids swap scary stories from their cultures. So, when the group decides to film a documentary about the creepy old mansion in town, Riz is all in. But there’s a problem. His dad wants Riz to quit the club. AND the building is about to be demolished. Now Riz and his friends must use the power of filmmaking to save the mansion…before it vanishes forever."

The Trouble with Heroes - Kate Messner

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"One summer. Forty-six mountain peaks. A second chance to make things right.

Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn's about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines...until now.

Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he's in big trouble for kicking down some dead old lady's headstone. But it turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual deal: climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks with her dead mother's dog, and they can call it even.

In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn begins to find his way on the trails. At the top of each peak, he can see for miles and slowly begins to understand more about himself and his dad. But the mountains don't care about any of that, and as the clock ticks down to September, they have more surprises in store. Finn's final summit challenge may be more than even a hero can face." 

Reading Hard gets harder when you're under a surprise deadline

While I started strong on my July challenge reading, as the title of this post suggests I then found myself under a surprise deadline for another reading project (state book award committee) and ended up having to hustle to read many, many children's chapter books, which took a lot of time. I thought I had until the end of September, but noooooo.

I did still manage to make SOME progress - primarily finishing my To All the Boys I've Loved Before reread and reading Where You'll Find Us, which drug in the middle but had a beautiful ending. I'm still working away on Uncommon Grounds, which is proving to be very interesting. For example, did you know that the inventor of Grape Nuts, who also sold a coffee substitute that he made wild health claims about, advertised that Grape Nuts could cure appendicitis and then in his 50s ended up getting appendicitis, for which he had to have surgery? He died by suicide shortly after, and many believe he did so because he couldn't get past the humiliation of having to have surgery for something he claimed his products could cure.

I'm also about a third of the way through The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue, which is so beautiful and emotional and infuriating and heartbreaking. I've been reading it before bed, but I finally had to break down and bring it downstairs because I want to read more than a chapter at a time.

Books I've not yet started but will, at some point: Warrior Girl Unearthed (still, yeesh. I'll get there!), Worst-Case Scenario, and Wild Beauty. I've got them all sitting in my immediate TBR pile, ready to go as soon as I have time.

Mystery Book Review - How to Raise an Anti-Racist

I'm not doing a typical review for this one, because it always feels weird to review a book like this, where it's partially a biography and partially advice. Who am I to review someone's lived experience? Especially, in this case, because I ended up needing to hustle to finish reading a bunch of books being considered for our state book awards and haven't had time to finish this one...but that's neither here nor there. 

Thus far, I'm really enjoying the book. It's very insightful, giving so many new ways to think about things and consider how attitudes are shaped from a very young age. So many things get treated as "normal" or as something small that doesn't matter as a result of US culture being shaped from inception by white supremacy, and this book reexamines things that are treated as default or that just straight up are not paid attention to and reminds us to be vigilant about what kids are learning as they observe the world around them and interact with the trusted adults in their lives. 

One of the thing that stands out the most so far in my reading is being aware of whether the things we are choosing to address or not to address with the kids in our lives are because we truly think it's the best for them or if it's because we're uncomfortable with it. I for sure don't always have the perfect answer when I encounter certain situations, but I don't want to ever bail on having a talk that a child in my life needs because I'm uncomfortable with it or don't know exactly the right thing to say.

If you have kids, niblings, work with kids, etc I highly recommend checking this out. It's giving me a lot to think about, for sure.

A Suitcase Full - Maryam Kia

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When a young girl's family is forced to flee, Iran, there isn't time to make a plan. With only one suitcase, Kimia is forced to leave behind many cherished possessions as well as say goodbye to her beloved grandmother, Nana-joon. As years pass, the family lives in vibrant cities like London and Paris, but are never able to stay for long. After traveling halfway around the world, they finally find a new place to call home on the island of O'ahu. When Kimia's new teacher assigns the class a special project - bringing a suitcase filled with meaningful objects - Kimia finds a way to weave her past into her present, celebrating both her roots and her growth."

Mystery Book Review - A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she's had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad - Emrys Myrddin's epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him - is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin's family announces a contest to redesign the late author's estate, Effy feels certain it's her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Heloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin's legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them - and the truth may bring them both to ruin."