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Category Archives: Verse

Six sensational books featuring Judaism

21 Jun

So often books with Jewish characters center around the atrocities of the Holocaust, but there are dynamic stories of contemporary Jewish life or folklore that deserve a post.

  1. Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar: Spanning generations, this one begins in 1492 with the Spanish Inquisition.
  2. The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum: A teen boy learning about the world having been cloistered for some time.
  3. The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero: A Jewish cemetery in Prague and a ghost in this atmospheric verse novel.
  4. Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder: Learning about bereavement in Judaism is second to Feder’s poignantly humorous take on losing a parent when you’re still young.
  5. The Boy In the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne: I still get chills thinking about the ending of his Holocaust novel featuring a nine-year-old protagonists view of the war.
  6. Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros: A golem created to get revenge- will she?
 
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Posted by on June 21, 2024 in Authors, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

Six sensational books with characters in prison

17 Jun

As with the list featuring characters dealing with sexual assault and violence, it’s hard to celebrate “six sensational” when it comes to being imprisoned, but again, it’s a necessary topic in literature.

  1. Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
  2. Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
  3. Juvie by Steve Watkins
  4. From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  5. Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman
  6. Hands by Torrey Maldonado
 
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Posted by on June 17, 2024 in Fiction, Middle grade, Verse, Young Adult

 

Six sensational books with dog companions

09 Jun

Dogs are the best. As mentioned in a previous post about books with animal companions, I promised I’d do a post specifically about dog companions because dogs are the best.

Pictured here is Baxter, our American Great Dane rescue who we’ve had for a little less than a year. Have I said it already? Dogs are the best.

Here are some favorites with dog companions.

  1. Spy X Family series by Tatsuya Endo: Bond was originally trained by a secret group as a weapon of mass destruction, now he’s the fourth family member with a special skill.
  2. Doomsday With My Dog series by Yu Ishihara: Haru keeps a girl company waxing philosophical about life at the end of time.
  3. Alone by Megan E. Freeman: George helps Maddie survive after being left behind.
  4. A Soft Place to Land by Janae Marks: Tank is Joy’s dog walking side hustle and neighborhood boop, bringing her comfort during hard times.
  5. And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps: Lucky, Lucky Dawg, and Lucky Duck beg the question– who rescued who as readers immerse themselves in Joe’s world. This book will gets its own blog post, but the dogs certainly fill a void after the death of Joe’s grandma.
  6. Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango: Sparrow is a dog learning to provide therapy which is exactly what Laura needs after her traumatic experience.
 
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Posted by on June 9, 2024 in Audiobooks, Authors, Fiction, Illustrators, Manga, Middle grade, Verse, Young Adult

 

Six sensational stories with unhealthy relationships

08 Jun

For the last few years, our high school library has had the opportunity to partner with a community outreach coordinator for our county who works with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. During the month of February, we partner during Teen Dating Violence Awareness month and look to read a book with a group of interested students and do activities that discuss the book, general resources, and talk about healthy relationships. It got me thinking about the books we’ve chosen and some of the best books that feature the unhealthy relationships to use as talking points for discussion.

  1. Dark Song by Gail Giles: Giles is the GOAT of short, quick propulsive stories and this one left me breathless.
  2. Road Home by Rex Ogle: Ogle’s stories feature hopefulness amid chaos and in this new book, the realization that he’s in a very toxic relationship with an older man.
  3. Fatima Tate Takes the Cake by Khadijah Vanbrakle: If you want a teen to understand gaslighting, they need to read this book.
  4. Nothing Burns as Bright As You by Ashley Woodfolk: A powerful queer tale that is literal fire.
  5. The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto: Readers can’t look away from the trap set in this book.
  6. Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios: Built off of her personal bad romance, Demetrios story rings true for so many teens.
 
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Posted by on June 8, 2024 in Authors, Fiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

Cheers near & far

24 Jan

Monday was the Youth Media Awards presentation in Baltimore, Maryland at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX (midwinter) conference. It is the yearly celebration of literature for children and teens. Committees work for a year or more to choose award winners in categories from the Sibert to Giesel to Odyssey to Alex. Don’t know what each of them is about? You can learn more on the website including watching the award ceremony or reading the press release for all of the honorees and winners.

I had the honor of being on the Alex Award through YALSA this year which meant we were reading loads of adult titles to find the best titles that have teen appeal. We create a top ten and will have a long list of an additional twenty titles. The long list will be published shortly. This meant that the ALA conference was extra special in being able to bond in person with most of the committee members (including sharing a meal while we made author calls followed by a champagne toast). Yet it’s also about learning. Over three days of programming, I learned a tremendous amount from librarians across the country whether it was in conversations, presentations, or in line. And there were the unique and inspiring speeches of the recipients of the I Love My Librarian award that kickstarted the event on Friday night amid a Baltimore surprise– snow!

While the librarian awards began the conference, the book awards ended the conference with the best bookends anyone could ask for. Sitting in the seats reserved for the committee, you’re surrounded by the other committees with their fun accessories (looking at you Odyssey with your matching white headphones) and cool slogans (read: “For the weird ones” on the back of the Printz tshirts) but I thought our Alex shirts, designed by a committee member and executed by another, were a cut above. Switching out the laurel for hot peppers, the tag line was “is this too spicy?” *chef’s kiss*

Whether watchers or listeners were in the room or across the country watching online, you could feels the vibrations of cheers near and far. It’s a special moment for the creators of these amazing stories. Without them, there would be no celebration. There’s a cacophony of excitement from their publishers and editors, their family, and anyone who read and loved their work.

It’s a magical, magical event. If you have the chance to be there live, do it. Or, you can be like one of my favorite colleagues and rally your elementary school in the gymnasium with their socks, and shirts, and posters rooting on their favorites several states away. Either way, cheers were heard near and far.

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2024 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Illustrators, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Short Story, Style, Verse, Young Adult

 

Reading buddies

08 Jan

A trend I’ve noticed in my high school library over the last few months is buddy reading. Generally two girls, they come in looking for a book they can both read together. They might meander around the shelves picking up books and putting them down or asking for recommendations, but either way, they want the opportunity to connect with one another through literature.

This is easy to accomplish in our library. As a large high school, one of our collection development goals is to purchase multiple copies of many popular, well-written, and influential stories that could be used in the classroom, recommended during booktalks, and for times like these where friends are reading together. There’s nothing more frustrating during readers advisory to be talking up a book as we walk to the bookshelves, only to find it checked out. There are titles that always hit right with teens.

Book clubs are used for socialization more than deep literary conversation, so I have been excitedly encouraged by this newfound trend in our library. What better way to get to know your friend than reading and discussing literature?

Below are some of the favorites I recommend or have spotted friends reading together.

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2024 in Authors, Miscellaneous, Poetry, Reflections, Verse, Young Adult

 

This week

30 Dec

I love the week between Christmas and New Year not only because I have it off since I work in education, but because I get to read because it’s vacation. Plenty of audiobook listening when cleaning and organizing plus plenty of tea sipping print book time. So when I saw a blogger @epiblogue’s Instagram post:

I felt seen. It’s a fun series of ladies lounging and reading their books. This one was my favorite and yes, this is exactly what “that week between Christmas & NYE” looks like for me minus the extra thick frock and fan, however I do have a chaise and a book. Endless books. This week has included Duel by the Bagleys, Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Katwala, Ruptured by Rossmassler Fritz, Mascot by Waters and Sorrel, Crazy Food Truck by Ogaki, All the Fighting Parts by Sawyerr, Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up- and What We Make When We Make Dinner by Hauck, New Year’s Kiss by Matthews, The Shadow Prince by Durham, and 100 Unforgettable Dresses by Rubenstein.

 
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Posted by on December 30, 2023 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Fiction, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

Over this next year

24 Nov

The day before Thanksgiving I turned the page to chapter 40 (a bookish pun I couldn’t resist). Coming up on the day, I thought about the fun little things I could do to make it special because I was excited about moving to another age bracket. So I came up with a list of 40 books that I would reread this year– generally books I own because books I own are books that I had previously read and knew I needed to own.

But I admit that I rarely reread books. It’s either a committee assignment that forces a book reread, an upcoming author visit, or in the case of Saga, a comfort read during the pandemic. It’s still rare. Yet, I wanted to recapture the feelings I had years or decades ago with this retrospective over the course of this upcoming year.

These books have changed my thinking, warmed my soul, or hearken back to another time in my life. I’ll be updating my journey periodically on Instagram. Here were the books I settled on.

 
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Posted by on November 24, 2023 in Adult, Authors, Childrens, Comics, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Illustrators, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reflections, Style, Verse, Young Adult

 

Undiscovered readers

07 Nov

Tomorrow my colleague and I will be visiting classes in a separate building to begin a conversation about reading for self-identified non-readers. These are students who are in specialized classes in iterations of 15:1:1 and 8:1:1 setting whose teacher wants to encourage a connection to reading which has been largely absent from their academic pursuits.

Years back I attended a training that used the term undiscovered reader rather than reluctant reader or nonreader as it changes the mindset to an ownership for the adults in their lives who are just as important to the process of them discovering an appreciation for reading as the student themselves. It often only takes one book.

My first memory of a book that I wanted to read over and over and over again was Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. That was early enough on in my life that I was always a casual reader and could find books to read when I wanted. While I don’t have a specific person that I can point to that helped me appreciate reading, Mrs. Preston, my pint-sized Dr. Seuss loving elementary school librarian did love her job and I do remember that about her right down to her stereotypical outfits and glasses with the chain to hang around her neck when she pulled them off.

I’m hoping to channel a little of that energy tomorrow when we visit their classroom. Books can be friends, companions, portals to learning, a break from reality, entertainment, and so much more. We’ll break up the time with some booktalks, a book tasting, some bookmark coloring, and a tutorial on Sora. The goal is to provide a non-threatening environment to encourage exploration and possibly check out a book digitally or in print that they could spend time reading. No quizzes, no homework, no journaling. Just reading. I applaud the teacher for taking this step in breaking down the barriers to access and providing a safe place to books to exist.

Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to move a few of them from undiscovered readers to readers.

 
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Posted by on November 7, 2023 in Audiobooks, Comics, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reflections, Short Story, Verse, Young Adult

 

Top 10 of 2022: Young adult books edition

29 Dec

And rounding out the last four posts is my young adult top 10 because that’s who I spend the most amount of time reading and recommending for as a high school librarian. I’ve had the best time reviewing all of my reading this year to be able to pick out the top 10 of each target audience and from conferences to reader’s advisory, telling people to READ THESE BOOKS. So here they are!

I get chills just thinking about my reading memories with these titles which run the gamut of graphic to nonfiction, memoir and historical fiction with some of the best darn authors out there. I think in each one of these books there were lines and pages that I Post-it’ed to go back and reread and experiences that made me into a better human being. Plus, the best kinds of books lead you to other discoveries and I can say that each one of them led me to at least one other book or Google search.

Cheers to the book memories of 2022 and the new ones I’ll make in 2023!

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2022 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 
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