August 5, 2022

The Faraway Paladin: The Torch Port Ensemble

 4/5   Author: Kanata Yanagino Publisher: J-Novel Club  Genres: young adult, fiction, fantasy, action, adventure  After returning from the battle at the Rust Mountains, what awaited Will was not a fairy-tale ending or another terrifying threat, but the commonplace events of his everyday life. Also, his friendship and a fierce battle with his dependable ally, the swordsman Reystov. An adventure in a snow-filled forest with the troubadour Bee. A battle with an ancient indomitable giant. And prayers and conversation with the god of the flame. Penned by the Paladin, these are the stories of a single winter.  This adventure is […]
August 5, 2022

Taproot: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost

 4/5 Author: Keezy Young Publisher: Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC Genres: young adult, fiction, graphic novel, LGBTQ+, romance “It’s a pleasure to lose yourself in the beautiful artwork, and one of the loveliest queer romances I’ve ever read.” — K. O’Neil, author of The Tea Dragon Society  Blue has been living as a ghost for a year when he meets Hamal, a beautiful and sweet gardener who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Together, their friendship develops into something more, but being a ghost, Blue can never truly be connected with Hamal.  When Blue realizes Hamal’s […]
August 5, 2022

Dogs of the Deadlands

 4/5 Author: Anthony McGowan Publisher: Rock the Boat Genres: middle school/young adult, historical fiction, adventure, animals A tale of courage, companionship, and hope… Chernobyl, 1986. The world is coming to an end. Dragged from her bed in the middle of the night, Natasha is forced to leave her beloved puppy behind and has no idea if she’ll ever return home. Growing up in the shadow of the ruined nuclear power plant, pups Misha and Bratan need to learn how to live wild—and fast. Creatures with sharp teeth, claws and yellow eyes lurk in the overgrown woods. And they’re watching […]
August 5, 2022
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Us-Shane-Peacock/dp/1770866558/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FREARGXHK68K&keywords=the+book+of+us+Shane+Peacock&qid=1659571812&s=books&sprefix=the+book+of+us+shane+peacock%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C151&sr=1-1

The Book of Us

Author: Shane Peacock Publisher: DCB Young Readers/Cormorant Books It’s the summer before grade twelve, and sixteen-tear-old Noah Greene is in a relationship of a lifetime with his brilliant and book-smart girlfriend, Miranda Owens. But when Miranda overhears his private conversation with another girl, what he says destroys everything they’ve built, shattering Noah’s world. Determined to make amends, Noah sets out to truly understand the harm his words have caused and maybe become worthy enough for Miranda in time for prom. Along the way, he’s been turning his journey into a manuscript called The Book of Us and wants to give […]
June 30, 2022

Lucas on the Line

Dive into this revealing portrait of Stranger Things fan favorite Lucas Sinclair and get to know Lucas like never before. The thrilling adventure of Stranger Things continues where season three left off, with fan favorite Lucas Sinclair finally telling his own story in his own words.

Lucas has been in the fight against the evil forces in his town since the beginning, but he is tired of feeling like an outsider. When the start of high school presents Lucas with options beyond D&D and being bullied, he wonders if he can be more than invisible. After connecting with one of the few other Black students at school, Lucas starts to learn more about himself apart from his friend group. And he begins to understand himself as a Black teen in Hawkins, which feels unlike anything—in this world or any other—he’s ever experienced.

Stuck in the closet and scared to pursue his own dreams, Gabi sees his parents’ shop as his future. Stuck under the weight of his parents’ expectations, Theo’s best shot at leaving Vermont means first ensuring his parents’ livelihood is secure.

From Suyi Davies Okungbowa, contributor to the New York Times bestselling Black Boy Joy, comes an exploration of love and identity within the beloved Stranger Things universe, through the eyes of Lucas Sinclair.

A good read – and that’s coming from a huge fan of the series itself. It is nice to dive into the mind of one of the main but inconspicuous characters of the story, Lucas. And also, to read about the others since I used to watch them on Netflix.

June 30, 2022

Dead Flip

Growing up, Cori, Maz and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?

These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubble-gum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen — Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all.

Award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine and Here to Stay, Sara Farizan delivers edge-of-your-seat terror as well as her trademark referential humor, witty narration and insightful characters.

June 30, 2022

Unequal: A Story of America

The true story of racial inequality—and resistance to it—is the prologue to our present. You can see it in where we live, where we go to school, where we work, in our laws and in our leadership. Unequal presents a gripping account of the struggles that shaped America and the insidiousness of racism, and demonstrates how inequality persists. As readers meet some of the many African American people who dared to fight for a more equal future, they will also discover a framework for addressing racial injustice in their own lives.

This book is banned in Texas. And Florida. And wherever else school boards think kids are too fragile to learn the truth. Are they right?

Slavery ended a long time ago, they say. And Martin Luther King Jr. took care of any racism left over, they say. Let’s move on, they say.

And then they’ll ban this book, and books like it, which tell you the truth: that the effects of slavery, Jim Crow, red-lining, voter suppression, mass incarceration, environmental racism and unconscious biases have created a United States that is, in fact, Unequal.