April Read Harder update

Whoa, a quarter of the way through the year! Wait, a third! I'm very good at math. 

Finding Me was very emotional and, frankly, an indictment of the lack of social supports in the United States. Reading about Viola Davis and her family's experiences, I just kept thinking about all the kids growing up like Viola did, hoping that someone will look their way or some miracle will come along and change things for them, and how as a society we're still failing them as badly as we were then.  

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts was also emotional. The artwork was incredible, and Rebecca Hall not only uncovered overlooked historical events, she shone a light on how truth is erased from history ("you think you are reading an accurate chronicle written at the time...but if who we are and what we care about are deemed irrelevant, it won't be in there..."). This is a must-read.

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Now it's time for May challenges, baby! We've got #9, read an independently published book by a BIPOC author, and #10, read a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover. Easy choices! (Just kidding, they weren't.)

#9. Read an independently published book by a BIPOC author: I ended up googling recommendations from public libraries for this one and settled on Cupid Calling by Viano Oniomoh. Queer romance! Reality show! What more could one ask for?

#10. Read a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover: So at first I was like uhh this is hard to narrow down. I mean, I am a librarian. I work around books, I buy books for my school's collection, I subscribe to publisher updates...I see so many book covers, and it has been well established that I love a good book cover! So then I was like okay, think logically. Easiest way to narrow this down? Go to a bookstore! Browse! Buy the first book I see with a cover that makes me go "ooooooooh, intriguing" and read that. And then I realized that this plan was a meme.

Fortunately, I went to a bookstore in January to shop for my school collection, and while I was there I did a little personally shopping as well, purchasing a duology based solely on the covers! So for this challenge, I'll be reading Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko. I'll add to my TBR pile later. 

Rez Dogs - Joseph Bruchac

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

From the cover:

"Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation. She's there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There's a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration. Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn't go out to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian's family knows that he'll protect them too. Told in verse inspired by oral storytelling, this novel about the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the ways in which Indigenous nations and communities cared for one another through plagues of the past, and how they keep caring for one another today."

Can I get a round of applause for this children's book that clocks in at under 200 pages? Glorious! It's such a rarity, and this book being written in verse makes it even more approachable for kids. Each chapter is a small, almost self-contained story, and the whole thing moves at a good pace. I think it would be a quick read for kids who love reading and a good challenge for kids who need a little practice to strengthen their reading skills. It is also super relevant and approachable for kids who went to school online during the pandemic, particularly those who are still going to school online and may be struggling with feeling discouraged or disconnected.

I particularly loved the way Malian's experiences were paired with stories from her grandparents and how seriously she took listening to those stories. At least once, she even remarks that although she has heard this story before, she loves hearing them multiple times because she always gets something out of it. It was really beautiful to see this silver lining come out of living through COVID, Malian getting to build a deeper connection with her grandparents, their stories, and where she came from.

The Grace of Wild Things - Heather Fawcett

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

From the cover:

"Grace has never been good at anything except magic - not that anyone believes her. While other children are adopted from the orphanage, nobody wants Grace. So she decides to make a home for herself by running away and offering herself as an apprentice to the witch in the nearby woods. After all, who better to teach Grace to use her magic? Surely the witch can't be that bad.

But the witch is that bad - she steals souls for spells and gobbles up hearts. So Grace offers a deal: If she can learn all 100 1/2 spells in the witch's grimoire, the witch will make Grace her apprentice. But if Grace fails, the witch can take her magic. The witch agrees, and soon an unexpected bond develops between them. But the spells are much harder than Grace expected, and when a monster from the witch's past threatens the home Grace has built, she may have to sacrifice more than her magic to save it."

 

This book made me want to read Anne of Green Gables again because 1. I love it and 2. I didn't really get how this was "inspired" by that story...aside from the main character being an orphan, I guess? Maybe that's all it was.

Anyway, it's a very fun story. Grace is so whimsical and imaginative, it's entertaining seeing her get into strange and sometimes dangerous situations and pretty unironically be like "hmm, how would a heroine in a novel react to this?" I loved her dedication to becoming the witch's apprentice, even when the witch was so openly hostile to her. I loved seeing her make friends at school, open up to Rum, and come to understand how deserving of love she is. It is loooooong, 360 pages, but very whimsical and lighthearted, even when things aren't going Grace's way. Overall, a delightful read!

Queen of the Tiles - Hanna Alkaf

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

From the cover:

"When Najwa Bakri walks into her first Scrabble competition since her best friend's death, it's with the intention to heal. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to choose the very same competition where said best friend, Trina Low, died. It's macabre, but Najwa finds meaning in the gesture, because she's not ready to give up Trina just yet.

But the same can't be said for all the other competitors. With former Scrabble Queen Trina gone, her friends are eager to take the throne. All's fair in love and Scrabble, but all bets are off when Trina's formerly inactive Instagram starts posting again, with cryptic messages suggesting that maybe Trina's death wasn't as straightforward as everyone thought. And maybe someone at the competition had something to do with it.

As secrets are revealed and the true colors of her friends are shown, it's up to Najwa to find out who's behind these mysterious posts - not just to save Trina's memory, but to save herself."

 Mystery, love triangles, word nerdery...this book has everything. I was excited to read this after I loved The Weight of Our Sky so much, and Hanna Alkaf knocked it out of the park again. Clues unraveled at just the right pace to make the book impossible to put down, and I loved the way that Najwa's assumptions about each character influenced - and sometimes hindered - her investigation. And there were so many perfectly-placed red herrings that I kept thinking I had it figured out only to have the rug pulled out from under me.

I don't want to get into details about the book because I don't want to accidentally spoil anything, but this is probably the most excited book set at a Scrabble tournament that you will ever read. Also, she would destroy me, but I would love to play Scrabble with Najwa and talk about the definitions of each word. I'm firmly on her side as far as word meaning - I don't understand how anyone could memorize a bunch of words for Scrabble and not want to know what they mean.

Amari and the Night Brothers - B.B. Alston

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

From the cover:

"Amari Peters knows three things.

Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it.
His mysterious job holds the secret …

So when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon.

Amari must compete against kids who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent – one that the Bureau views as dangerous.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton."

This book was nominated for a 2024 Grand Canyon Reader award, and since I book talk all the nominees with my students and have them vote, I decide that I'm going to try to read all of next year's nominees. I think this is my first nominee that I hadn't already been planning on reading, and it did not disappoint. It starts off intense - not only has Amari's brother gone missing, with no leads on what could have happened to him, but Amari is about to get her scholarship revoked and essentially be kicked out of school. Not great.

Then a stranger shows up with intriguing information, they claim from her brother. Amari agrees to accept a package from this mysterious stranger and learns that her brother was a member of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs - not just a member, in fact, but one of their best agents - and that he, along with his partner, went missing in action while investigating something top secret. Before he disappeared, Quinton sponsored Amari, so now she gets to attend the Bureau's summer program, where she can not only train as an agent just like her brother, but also investigate his disappearance. Will Amari find her missing brother? Or will she vanish along with him, leaving her mother alone? Amari isn't sure, but what she does know is that she has to try.