Amber & Clay - Laura Amy Schlitz

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

From the cover:

"Hermes here. The Greek god - 

No. Don't put down the book - 

I'm talking to you.

I bring you a story that tells

of the quick and the dead:

the tale of a girl as precious as amber,

the tale of a boy as common as clay.

Rhaskos works in the stables. Worth less than a donkey, much less than a horse. But Rhaskos is clever and talented, and beloved of his mother - who has been forced away from her son but is willing to do anything for him.

Melisto is a girl. Wealthy, privileged, intended for a stifling marriage and dangerous childbirth. But first she is to spend a season serving Artemis, goddess of the hunt, as one of her little bears - a season from which she may or may not return.

From the exquisite pen of Laura Amy Schlitz comes a masterpiece of storytelling: the tale of a boy and a girl, told not just in their voices but also in the voices of gods and mothers and the philosopher Sokrates. It brings to vivid life a world two millennia gone and wraps its readers up in an improbable, indelible friendship that crosses the boundaries of class, of gender, and even of life and death.

There they are:

the girl as electric as amber,

and the boy, indestructible as clay."

📚📚📚 

This might be the hardest book review I've ever written, because even after I've finished the book, I just...it's hard to pin down. I don't know what to say about it. I don't know how to describe it. I guess we can start with the decision to market it as middle grade. I find that to be a curious decision, because aside from the main characters being kids at the start of the book and growing into teens, I see nothing middle grade about this. A lot of the language and content seemed pretty beyond the average middle grade reader, and even with parts of the book written in verse, it is LONG, and it's fairly dense. 

Obviously I know nothing about book marketing, but it feels to me like they went hmm this is a pretty niche book, how do we sell it? Ummmmm kids always liked those Percy Jackson books, right? This is also about Greek gods and stuff, so let's just call it middle grade and get in on the Rick Riordan crowd? That'll sell some copies. It's definitely why I bought it - I have a handful of older students who are really into mythology, and they've read everything we have in the library multiple times, so I saw this and was like oooh something new for them! Yeah...no. It's not a bad book, I actually quite enjoyed it, but I don't think any of my students would slog through it.

"Heather, you just said you quite enjoyed it, but you sure do seem to be complaining about it a lot for a book you liked!" Yeah, it just really bugs me when things get marketed for an age group that they aren't! I think this was a very unique type of storytelling and a beautiful work of historical fiction, but why not market it to adults? YA is already being targeted to adults instead of teenagers, are we going to start doing that with middle grade too? Yeesh.

Anyway, check this book out if you're a fan of ancient Greece, mythology, etc. It was an interesting read, and the further I got into it the more I liked it. If you do read it, let me know your thoughts about it being marketed as middle grade. I'm curious how other people feel about that.

Property of the Rebel Librarian - Allison Varnes

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

From the cover:

"Nobody would ever call June Harper a rebel...not until her parents discover an "inappropriate" library book and take strict parenting to a whole new level. Soon everything June loves about Dogwood Middle School - the librarian, the library, an author visit - is gone.

But June can't give up on books...and she realizes she doesn't have to, when she spies a Little Free Library. That gives June an idea: What if she starts a banned-book library of her own?

When June's classmates realize she has access to contraband, they begin a risky reading movement, one that could destroy June - or gain enough power to protect the thing she cares most about: freedom!"

📚📚📚

Sheesh, I tell you what, if you had told me "you're going to read a middle grade book about book banning in the span of a night and then that book is going to give you horrific nightmares about people hunting and killing librarians for sport" I would never have believed you. But that's what happened with this book! My brain is wild. And so is this book. 

The premise is pretty straightforward - June's parents get wildly angry about what seems to me like a pretty mild book and kick off a bunch of nonsense which others in town easily buy into, resulting in ludicrous book bans and kids being threatened with detention or even expulsion if they're caught reading unapproved literature at school. Even some of the students buy into it, forming a dumbass Student Club for Appropriate Reading like a bunch of squares. (For real, even mormon me was not this much of a stick in the mud, and that's really saying something.)

At times, the book reads a little melodramatic, especially because Allison Varnes kind of writes around the reasons most book bans these days are happening and focuses instead on older parent objections to things like characters being disrespectful to authority figures, "potty" humor, and portrayals of magic. The most egregious example of melodrama is probably when the guy crushing on June comes at her with a whispered "you're a liar" and then proceeds to tell her that he knows she's still reading. 

The soap opera vibes from that scene aside, though, and despite my wishing that the book tackled more books being banned for racial representation than just Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry or actually touched on bans for featuring 2SLGBTQIA characters, this book was kind of a downer of a read right up until the very end (and even kind of then) because despite the melodrama, it reflects the reality of SO much of the United States right now. Hence, my nightmare. And I don't even live in an area with serious book challenge issues, the way so many people do. 

Final thoughts: This book really captured the "how on Earth did we get here?" sentiment that washes over me on the regular. It's also a good length for its target readers, and I thought the pace moved quickly enough that it will keep young readers engaged without feeling rushed. Solid book.