It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
I just read a zombie book, and then I read a Last Man On Earth type of book, and I also read one about the Klan. This one came available in my library holds, so I checked it out and then I realized on page 1 that this was ALSO an apocalypse book and I was like, ugh, I don’t really want another apocalypse book right now, I kind of want a change of tone like maybe a romance? But I read it anyway. This […]
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
Who says all the fantasies with sword- wielding heroes and heroines have to be in Middle-earth, Westeros, or even our dreams of Africa past—what the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen reminisced as “copper sun or scarlet sea”?…Fantasy stories often feature characters in medieval settings taking on monsters. I figured a young Black woman in 1920s Georgia could be that character too. Even gave her her own sword. The monsters she has to fight are plucked right out of our own history—perhaps made more terrifying because […]
Once There Was a Town: The Memory Books of a Lost Jewish World by Jane Ziegelman
Matzah Ball Blues by Jennifer Wilck
I did not mean to make it a Jewish double feature, but I just happened to read these books around the same time, and it was interesting to see the same traditions discussed in a historical context and then in an average middle-class family from New Jersey. Once There Was a Town by Jane Ziegelman – 3 stars After the Holocaust, since entire shtetls had been reduced to just a handful of survivors, people across continents came together to put together yizkor books to record […]
Widow-Maker by Paul Doiron
Unlike the previous Mike Bowditch, game warden series, this book focuses on a particular moral dilemma. A couple of teens are attending an elite ski boarding school near the Widow-maker Ski Resort in central Maine. The girl, about a year younger, is from a wealthy connected family and is clearly being groomed to be a champion. The boy, a scholarship kid, has a more uncertain future, but he is putting his best effort into it. But things don’t go well, and the boy, who has […]
I'm Sorry for the Bagel Burps: A Yom Kippur Apology by Jacob Sager Weinstein and Jason Kirschner
Finally a realistic story about siblings that is saying, “Are you really being that naughty?” and “That is kinda funny.” I’m Sorry for the Bagel Burps: A Yom Kippur Apology by Jacob Sager Weinstein and Jason Kirschner (illustrations by) might not be out until September 2026, but you can appreciate this review (or at least I hope). Benji and his older brother Aaron, have the perfect sibling relationship: they obviously love each other. Love to tease each other that is. And when Yom Kippur rolls […]
Ghoulia volume 1 by Barbara Cantini
Yes, Ghoulia volume 1 is a Halloween book, and maybe it is because I love Halloween, but I would read this book by Barbara Cantini all year round. It has humor and is low-key spooky. Most ages can appreciate it, however, the only thing that might be a smidgen much for the younger or sensitive reader is the fact that the “Halloween Candy Bag” our friend Ghoulia carries, is the actual head of her uncle and she will remove her own head near the end […]
