Let’s be real, people. I read this about two months ago. I’ve had this review written and just sat on it. Time to play catch-up. There are a *LOT* of reviews coming. Jason Reynolds’ fiction focuses exclusively on middle-school boys and young men in or just out of high school. I didn’t love The Boy in the Black Suit, but I very much loved his co-authorship with Brendan Kiely in All American Boys. I was interested to see how As Brave As You, his middle-grade […]
Child Power!
Jacob Two-Two is the youngest child in his family. He has two older brothers and two older sisters. He is two plus two plus two years old. Unlike his older siblings, there are many things that Jacob can not do, like ride a two wheel bike, run errands for his parents, or cross the street alone. Because he was the smallest and youngest in his large and boisterous family, Jacob developed the habit of saying everything two times, since no one ever listened the first […]
Santa Spoiler Ahead, FYI
So this was originally supposed to be a holiday picture book roundup, like I do every year, but then my ten-old-niece and I had to have the “Is Santa real?” discussion in real life, and even looking at the rest of the Santa books is too much for today, so here you go, let’s talk about The Day Santa Stopped Believing In Harold. What a good, non-cynical twist on the “Is Santa real?” story; what if Santa stopped believing in one particular child, instead of […]
A Monster to Heal
The only thing I knew about this book when I picked it up was that there was a movie coming out (is already out?) based on it and I wanted to see said movie. So there I am, wasting time in the airport bookstore and I buy it on impulse because sometimes that is the only cure for cranky early morning flights. I then put it aside and mostly forgot about it for a week. I picked it up again last night and read it […]
20th Century Orphan Girls
I’m sure most of you are at least familiar with Pollyanna, if only from the 1960 Disney Movie staring Hayley Mills. Or if not from the movie then from the cultural icon that Pollyanna has become as the ever cheerful optimist. This is my second time through the novel, and while it isn’t a great novel it is comforting and a bit more complex then the archetype Pollyanna has become. Pollyanna is an orphan (and really what is it with early 20th century novels and […]
Ax brings the alien POV.
AX! This book was a lot more complicated than I remembered it being. Ax is so frequently the source of comic relief when the other Animorphs are the POV characters. (He was my FAVORITE when I was in middle school.) But here, in his own book for the first time, one of the first things that strikes you is how serious he is in his own mind. I wouldn’t say he’s *humorless*, but he’s very close. It’s the only thing that saves his ridiculous behavior […]