March Read Harder update

This month, not very exciting. Nothing really to update on...except that I accidentally came across a webcomic to read whilst searching for book recommendations for my niece - Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner. Very good!

Next month, whew. Challenges seven and eight, such tough decisions!

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Challenge 7: Read an audiobook written by and read by a person of color

This is SO BROAD, how do you even narrow it down?! Well, I narrowed it down by opening my online TBR list (just shy of 1,000 books) and scrolling down until a title jumped out at me and I looked into it more to decide if a. it met the brief and b. I was feeling it for April. The book I landed on? Finding Me by Viola Davis. Viola Davis's memoir, read by Viola Davis? Yes, please! I'm excited! And I'll be honest with you, I'm actually writing this blog post at the very beginning of March, and I will probably read this immediately, so...pretend I haven't read it yet when this is actually posted.

Challenge 8: Read a graphic novel, comic, or manga; if you read these formats already, read one of a different genre than those you normally read

Yuuurgh jeez, again so broad! I don't even know how to narrow this one down, I don't know how many graphic novels, comics, or manga I have on my TBR. I suppose it's time to find out. (Okay, answer: 27. This is going to be a difficult choice.)

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts...

Gender Queer...

Borders...

Ahhhhhh, I can't choose! I don't know how I even narrowed it down to these three, there are so many great options. Maybe I'll read all three of these. Maybe I'll read my WHOLE LIST of graphic novels, comics, and manga TBR. Someone help me choose!

We Deserve Monuments - Jas Hammonds

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When her family moves to Bardell, Georgia, on the cusp of her senior year, Avery Anderson is uprooted from DC and thrust into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery's mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and reveals a decades-old conflict they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she's turned away, leaving her desperate to unearth the secrets that divide her family. 

While tempers flare at home, Avert finds friendship in unexpected places: with Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, a member of the town's most prominent family, whose mother's murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer - and Avery and Simone's friendship blossoms into romance - the sharp-edged opinions of their small Southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. Avery soon discovers her family's roots are deeply entwined with Bardell's racist past. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built - or if some things are left buried."

WOW, this book is incredible, in so many ways. I don't even know where to begin, there are so many layers woven together to create this amazing story. I suppose we start with the title and the cover.

I don't know how anyone looks at this cover and doesn't get chills. I got it in my Melanin in YA book subscription box and added it to the "for real, read these right now" book pile that I keep separate from my regular TBR shelves. Which you would think would mean I read it immediately, but "read these right now" really means "read this in the next six months or so, hopefully." I mean, show me a person who sticks to their TBR plans and...I don't know, maybe they're telling the truth and maybe they're not, but either way I don't trust them. Anyway, fortunately my sister read it and was like "hey, you have to read this" so I was like "okay, let's read it right now, FOR REAL!" And I'm so glad I did.

Avery's family has to move from Washington DC to a tiny town in Georgia partway through her senior year of high school after they learn her grandma has terminal cancer. She's disappointed to be uprooted and unsure about living in this small, clearly racist town after spending so long in DC pushing toward her college and career goals and being surrounded by people who are much more accepting than most of the people she'll encounter in Bardell. What's more, she doesn't know her grandma, Mama Letty, at all, and she's not sure how to react to the surly older woman who doesn't seem to like her and clearly does not want them there.

Then Avery starts getting to know her grandma and learns that there's a whole lot more going on with Mama Letty than she could ever have realized. And she becomes friends with Simone and Jade and realizes the history of the town, and her growing relationship with her new friends, are much more complicated and tangled than it would have been possible to predict. As it all twines together, this multifaceted, beautiful story coming together in ways that had me tearing up almost every chapter. 

The present day story is interspersed with short flashback chapters, pulling back the veil on Mama Letty's history with the town and reminding the reader that the past is not as distant as many of us try to convince ourselves. The heartbreaking moments in the story are buoyed up by shining moments of hope and joy. Like I said before, there are so many pieces of this story, and they are woven together so beautifully. I'll read anything by Jas Hammonds, their storytelling is masterful.

The Breakaways - Cathy G. Johnson

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Quiet, sensitive Faith starts middle school already worrying about how she will fit in. To her surprise, Amanda, a popular eighth grader, convinces her to join the school soccer team, the Bloodhounds. Having never played soccer in her life, Faith ends up on the C team, a ragtag group that's way better at drama than at teamwork. Although they are awful at soccer, Faith and her teammates soon form a bond both on and off the soccer field that challenges their notions of loyalty, identity, friendship, and unity."

**Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers!**

Oooooookay. I'm going to preface this by saying that I do not read very many graphic novels. That said, I have read some, and they all seemed to tell a pretty cohesive story. This, on the other hand, felt a bit like I got a copy that was missing pages. The characters were relatable, but the story jumped from one moment to another with nothing to connect them. Frequently, something would happen that left me going "wait...why...how..." Very disjointed and jarring, and while the illustrations tell some of the story, I thought the overall narrative could have been rounded out better.

Next up, there are...three chapters in this book? I mean...can we get some more regular story breaks in there? This is a small gripe in the grand scheme of things, but good lord, chapters should not be 70 pages long, especially for a middle grade book.

Third and last gripe: The book synopsis is pretty misleading, y'all. I kept waiting for some actual friendship, but the C team (which, incidentally, I'm not sure was actually named as "The Bloodhounds" until the end of the book) is super cliquey and awful to each other until the very end of the book, at which point, mid-game, Faith is like "HEY, guys, we may suck at soccer, but we should all be friends!" and then spontaneously they all decide that yes, they SHOULD be friends, walk off the field, and go get pizza.

All that said, this book features a great cast of characters. It also jumps through different POVs, so you get to see multiple sides to some of the conflict happening between teammates, which I thought was a nice touch. And while the storytelling could have used some development, I thought the artwork was top-notch and carried a large amount of the storytelling. All in, it's a solidly okay book. I debated a bit but did end up adding it to my school library.

Fast Pitch - Nic Stone

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. Nothing can stop her from leading her team to the U12 fast-pitch softball regional championship. But life has thrown some curveballs her way.

Strike one: As the sole team of all-brown faces on the field, Shenice and the Firebirds have to work twice as hard to prove that Black girls belong at bat.

Strike two: Shenice's focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending - and family-name-ruining - crime may have been a setup...

Strike three: Broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice's teammates are beginning to wonder if she's captain-qualified.

It's up to Shenice to discover the truth about her family's past - and fast - before secrets take the Firebirds out of the game forever."

Girls' sports, a team making history, a mystery long unsolved...this book has everything. Plus, Nic Stone? On my auto-read list. This book has been on my list for a very long time, and when it was nominated for the 2024 Grand Canyon Reader awards, that was the push I needed to finally read it. I thought Shenice was awesome - determined, focused, and tenacious - and loved how well her whole team and their coaches were developed. So often with a whole group of characters, they're kept kind of generic, so I really appreciated the effort taken to make each one of them unique and real. I also thought her family was lovely, and it was great how much her parents and brother were also incorporated into the story. They were so supportive and sweet with each other, I loved it.

The mystery element was pretty good, and I thought the balance between furthering the story of her softball journey and furthering her progress looking into what Jack had told her was solid. My one wish would have been that she started actually digging into what he told her a bit sooner so there would have been more time for the wrap-up at the end of the book. Still, though, excellent and compelling storytelling. Also, shout out to Nic Stone for telling such a well-developed and enjoyable story in fewer than two hundred pages! I'm looking forward to recommending this book to students.