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Category Archives: Young Adult

#RiotGrams challenge complete

01 Jul

RiotGramsChallenge (1)

A few times a year, I participate in Book Riot’s RiotGrams challenge via Instagram (and occasionally using Twitter), in which book lovers unit to bookstagram based on prompts they put together. My challenge is always sharing them outside my group of friends because my Instagram account is private, which is why the good ones end up on Twitter hoping to be scooped up by Book Riot to feature on their Instagram page. Alas, none made it, but I do know a local book lover who did!

So of course, I’ll share my favorites along with the book recommendation!

 

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The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create The World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

This book was “read in one sitting” while spending a day in airports traveling to New Orleans, both because it was riveting and I couldn’t go or do anything else. Stewart’s voice is entertaining, humorous, and knowledgeable. I highlighted plenty of pages to go back and read as well as several drinks to try and plants to appreciate for their inclusion in alcoholic beverages. It’s a phenomenal purchase for your fellow drink lover, for sure.

The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding

The summer title for appropriate as it was the solstice so I couldn’t help but capturing a book with summer in the title and a perfect beach read featuring summer employment, fashion, burgers, and a budding romance.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

A contemporary classic (don’t even try to argue with me), I have pages photocopied for easy re-reading and have re-read over the years. It’s an endearing story of a girl in the afterlife watching as pieces fall apart for her living family. Couple it with Sebold’s own biography Lucky and it’s a win-win.

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

A middle grade that speaks to the immigrant experience, Mia has pluck and perseveres managing the front desk of the motel that her parents are employed at. This was my cheat #RiotGrams for taking my book on a date because I was sitting in the backyard, by a fire, and eating a s’more the night before. Shhhhh, don’t tell! 

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

I will be forever grateful to Madigan for bringing this debut into the world and have mentioned before that I’m sad that she passed away after only having published one follow up. I used it for a book that should have more readers (this and North of Beautiful by Chen are brother and sister books in this respect) as it features lyrical contemporary storytelling through motif (photography in the former, cartography in the latter).

 
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Posted by on July 1, 2018 in Authors, Blogging, Cover Love, Fiction, Middle grade, Young Adult

 

Five for Friday

08 Jun

Five for Friday

Last night was the last book group meeting of the year that I facilitate through a local cooperative. With the size of the group and timing, we can usually share 1-3 books each, but I realized I’ve read so many fantastic books lately that I had a hard time choosing. So, it’s perfect for a five for Friday (and the last Friday of the school year with only one more school day left)!

 

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Shamblers aka zombies are being made out of the Civil War dead in an alternative history where African Americans are still oppressed. Jane is at a combat school for African American girls where she will learn to use the tools of combat to keep people safe from shamblers. But her cheeky attitude to “remaining in her place” gets her into trouble with the powerful leaders and she’s sent away to a town out west that is off. It’s her job, along with a band of others, to discover the truth and take down these leaders while searching for answers about her mother and Red Jack. It’s an adventurous, action-oriented, imaginative story that is as intense as it is funny, ambitious, and unique.

Illegal by Eoin Colfer with Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano (illustrator)

The graphic novel format does justice to the story of a fictional boy, Ebo, who along with his brother leave their homeland to cross the desert and eventually the Mediterranean to find their sister and peace. Colfer and Donkin’s storytelling and Rigano’s artwork create an emotional platform for sharing an immigrant’s journey with several scenes eliciting the same response I had to several scenes in Don Brown’s Drowned City about Hurricane Katrina. Multiple copies on order for it’s future release.

Be Prepared by Vera Brogsol

So, quick story: I’m currently doing the Book Riot Riotgrams challenge for June and Thursday’s post needed to be “ice cream/sweet treat”. Literally the day before, I read and adored Brogsol’s new graphic memoir, Be Prepared, in which she includes the Stewart’s Shops sign as she’s driving to summer camp. Stewart’s is a community-minded convenience store in our area that has amazing ice cream. So, what was a librarian to do?

2018-06-07 15.20.44

Go to Stewart’s, get a seasonal flavor (Mounds of Coconut) ice cream cone, and ask a Stewart’s employee to take a picture of me with the ice cream, Brogsol’s book, and the Stewart’s logo in the background. Mission accomplished (and the ice cream was delicious). But the book itself is everything that is right with sharing the universal experiences of tweendom. The awkwardness of making friends. The prospect of not having them and how we earn them, and who is worth our time, all while sharing pieces of her Russian culture as a Russian summer camp. The olive-toned colors bring out the story in a way that makes the expressive characters pop and readers enjoy the beauty of nature.

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka

Hearing him speak this past week about the experience of writing his life’s story and turning it into a graphic novel was powerful. And while I have yet to watch the TED talk that inspired the graphic novel, it details his upbringing with his grandparents after they took him from his heroin-addicted mother (he never knew his father until later) and how he became an artist with their often tumultuous support. Yet, my favorite scene is when he pays homage to Jack Gantos (who I adore and we had the pleasure of hosting in our schools) as an impetus for his own craft. It’s raw and really real.

Teen Trailblazers: 30 Fearless Girls Who Changed the World Before They Were 20 by Jennifer Calvert and Vesna Asanovic (illustrator)

Add this to the stack of new informational nonfiction that highlight the stories of women who have accomplished something great in their lives in order to recognize the value of women throughout history. While some of them are starting to blend together, Calvert’s focuses on women who accomplished this even before they turned twenty years old is themed. The easy-to-read format features little-known and well-known women that inspire the next generation of kids to take charge in changing the culture when and where it’s needed. And it’s currency cannot be neglected since one of the women featured is Emma Gonzalez from Parkland High School in the aftermath of the school shooting in her school just several months ago.

Which one are you picking up first?

 

 
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Posted by on June 8, 2018 in Authors, Childrens, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

Over the moon for To the Moon!

29 May

OvertheMoonforToTheMoon.jpg

IMG_0349While I absolutely enjoy my adult fiction and nonfiction as an adult reader, my teen audience is what I think about most when reading. And after enjoying the Memorial Day holiday with plenty of books and outdoor reading (an indoor reading due to the rain), I find myself appreciative of publishers who adapt adult novels for teen audiences who will eventually grow into readers of the adult novels too.

Though, I daresay that these young reader adaptations are done so phenomenally well that a reader may never need to read the adult version. This is true of Malala Yousafzai’s story, The Boys in the Boat, and Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. I’ll add one more to the list: To the Moon!: The True Story of the American Heroes on the Apollo 8 Spaceship by Jeffrey Kluger and Ruby Shamir whose adult novel by Jeffrey Kluger is Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon.

Favorite characters: Of course, they need to be the real-life astronauts who took the mission when preparing for a later mission that left them in space during Christmas 1968. Each astronaut: Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman all shined with their personalities through Kluger’s adept writing and research with a particularly telling scene at the end when Kluger describes an epilogue of sorts after Apollo 8 and what the men went on to do: Borman smacked the pod they had just returned to Earth in and walked away, never looking back while the two other men went on to continue in the space program.

Favorite scenes: Each scene where Kluger skillfully describes the mission control station or training facility. I was particularly struck when he explains how you can tell the success of the mission based on the smell, look, and temperature of the food sitting alongside the NASA employees during the missions. In contrast or relationship to their faces and conversation when things go right and when things go wrong. It is thrilling to feel like a reader is working on the mission too.

Earthrise_Anders_ToTheMoonRefFavorite quote image: I had to look it up because I knew that it wasn’t the “blue marble” image, but when Kluger explains Anders’ shot of Earthrise, I had to bring up the image to get the full scale of some of the captivating images that they would have seen and excitingly, captured for us earthlings to see. It demonstrates the importance of not only space travel but the undying power of an image to put us in our place– in history, geographically, emotionally.

So while I can’t put my finger on one thing that made this story great, it was a confluence of all of the pieces of great storytelling. Narrative nonfiction chronicling the space race, astronauts and the sacrifices they and their families make, the inherent danger, the dreams we all have to be bigger than ourselves, but told in a way that the everyday person can understand it and be along for the ride. Who wouldn’t want (as Marilyn Lovell knows) to be gifted with a Christmas Day present from “the man in the moon”?

And in closing, back to my appreciation for young readers editions, here are a few others I’d like to see adapted for a younger audience: Jane Goodall’s In the Shadow of Man, Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Bill Schutt’s Cannibalism, and Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus.

 
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Posted by on May 29, 2018 in Authors, Cover Love, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Research, Young Adult

 

#PresentationMode

18 May

PresentationMode

Yesterday was a good day. An early morning run, then a walk with the dog. A new dress for a presentation with a group of fabulous ladies: two school library system directors, one reading specialist and professor, and two school librarians (me included). It was a day designed to discuss books and empowering our readers at every level.

With a keynote that shared how our varying perspectives of how we interpret what we read and what we seek out is usually a very conscious decision. We bring an experience to any book we read that is different from the person sitting next to us and we should be conscious of that and respect the reader. And the message of her keynote led perfectly into my presentation that went next about young adult books since I chose to focus on names: who we are as individuals and striking up a conversation simply by getting to know someone by asking their name.

I covered names of my author crushes (James L. Swanson, Caitlin Doughty, Rae Carson to name a few), fabulous names for books (The Hate U Give, Dumplin’, Puddin’), moms (Allegedly, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter), dads (The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, My Brother’s Husband), girls (The Nowhere Girls, What Girls Are Made Of), boys (The Prince and the Dressmaker, Words on Bathroom Walls), and a whole lot of series, niche student readers, and popular titles with my students. Could I have talked the whole day away? Of course, but there were wonderful conversations interspersed in my my presentation about topics and challenges presented in books, getting books in the hands of readers using their subtopics as a way to diversify their options, and why series books are magic. You can find my presentation and the booklist here.

And once I was finished, the day was just warming up because then it moved on to middle grade titles and then elementary titles. But I’m at the high school, why would I need to hear about middle grade and elementary titles? Librarians should always know what’s new, popular, and discuss-able at every level in part because librarianship means finding the right book for the right reader or the reader’s needs. It might be a teenager wanting a book to read with their cousin, it could be a teacher wanting to use a picture book in their middle school classroom, and any host of possibilities in between.

It’s no secret that readers advisory is my favorite part of librarianship so a day like yesterday was just as good as spending the day booktalking. The next opportunity to share about books to professionals will be with the effervescent Stacey Rattner, my partner-in-crime aka The Leaping Librarian, in July and our theme is #getbooked.

 
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Posted by on May 18, 2018 in Authors, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Story, Verse, Young Adult

 

Are you ready for this conversation?

14 May

AreYouReady

 

2017-02-14 15.14.12-2There is no greater purpose for me than when someone, anyone, approaches me to ask for a book recommendation. Be it a student, a faculty member, or my own mother. Multiply this love by one thousand when I’m asked to present to others about books and reading.

This week I’ll be presenting with some of my favorite people: people who love books and spread the love and their appreciation for what books can do. Specifically children. But where do you begin to organize a presentation about them? You most certainly need a thread. A theme. A focus. Because without it I’d literally be a rambling, excitable mess spewing sunshine and rainbows for the printed page and those that write them.

Sometimes the theme is a given, like the hottest books of the year (or yet to come), sometimes like in past presentations they were about books that can inspire activism or that celebrate the vibrancy of people’s life experiences. This one didn’t necessarily have a theme other than to give librarians a chance to hear about books, whether they’ll be adding them to their collection, reading them, recommending them, or sharing them with content teachers. It’s also about celebrating what books can be for us.

After mulling it over, I settled on approaching my talk of young adult books with the theme of names, as in “what’s in a name?” Fabulous titles and authors, the books of my favorite students, books for a specific type of student all inspired by the fact that in a lineup that includes covering elementary, middle school, and high school…. I’m going first! If you’ll be at the presentation on Thursday, you’ll hear more about why I’ve decided to take this approach, but until then, keep reading! And if you won’t be at the presentation, keep reading! And then read my follow up post later this week with some of the titles I shared.

 
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Posted by on May 14, 2018 in Authors, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Poetry, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

Sweet success

22 Apr

Sweet Success

Our high school hosted its first author visit in 2011. I’ll never forget it both as a first for the school and a first for my librarian career. It was also Ellen Hopkins (go big or go home, right?) And it just seemed to stick. I can honestly say that it is a part of our school culture now. It’s not if we have an author visit, it is when.

Jeff Zentner was our second author visit of this school year, with our first being Nic Stone as part of a partnership with The New York State Writer’s Institute. Zentner visited this past Thursday and resoundingly captivated our student and staff attendees with his stories from music, publishing, and law. It’s one thing to write for teens and it’s another to know what kind of stories they’ll be engaged in during school visits. Zentner certainly knew our teenagers, regaling them with snapshots of cases he’s tried, a few chords on a guitar, and a no-flash-photography cover reveal for his upcoming book Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. In return, our students shared their concerns with writing their own stories, played their music for him, and queried him on politics. He spoke Portuguese with a student, signed posters inspired by his books, and sat “between two ferns” interview-style in a conversation about leading a creative life.

I took notes on inspiring messages he shared, teared up watching our students show off their sound recording studio and music, and smiled from ear to ear at another successful author event when I sipped my tea after the day was done in the darkness of my living room viewing pictures taken by our school’s communications staff.

Days before the visit, an art teacher shared a few images on her social media account with a group of students touring an art museum on a field trip. She quoted her colleague who said “this is why I became an art teacher” as she watched her students enjoying themselves at the museum. I had commented that we all need days like these. And not more than two days later, that day was again knocking at my door because nothing can beat the connection that students make with authors: it could be from reading their books. It could be the motivational messages imparted by them. It could be validating our teenagers’ struggles. Zentner’s words struck a chord when he mentioned that Toni Morrison was 39 when she published her first book, and she is a pillar in the literary world– writing knows no age. Readers want mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Everyone has a story to share.

Are author visits stressful? Absolutely. No matter how many we do, they’re still nerve-wracking. Are they worth it? Every last moment spent on them because I get to talk to the students for days and years after the visit about what we learned from their visit. I still reference Jason Reynolds’ message from his with us two years ago. Plus, I feel more connected to my colleague as we support each other in our efforts to build the best library program we can for our school because they deserve it.

As I close, I’ll share several of my favorite pictures courtesy of our communications person, Jake. And, a picture of a sweet treat I made to celebrate the sweet success of the visit.

 
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Posted by on April 22, 2018 in Authors, Events, Young Adult

 

Whatcha been reading?

18 Mar

WhatchaBeenReading

March is a month of uncertainty– between weather in upstate New York (a fourth Nor’easter possible next week?!) to party schedules with numerous birthdays (including my own two sons’) and things to plan and schedule. Yet no matter what, I manage to squeeze in some reading. This is certainly not a “six sensational” list nor a glowing review of a five-star book I recently read, instead a snapshot of what I’ve been reading just in case you were about to ask.

 

  • Some true crime… The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century by Simon Baatz
    • Who doesn’t love true crime, honestly? Give me documentaries, podcasts, and books about real life crime dramas and I’m hooked!
  • Some middle grade… Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
    • Read this award-winner so that I can meet up with some librarians and eat some pizza and discuss some books #mykindofparty
  • Some re-tellings… The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice writing under her pen name A.N. Roquelaure
    • Ask me to tell you this story in person
  • Some nonfiction… Noah Webster: Man of Many Words by Catherine Reef
    • Who doesn’t love someone who loves words? And to know that many people disliked him made it even more fascinating
  • Some graphic novels… Speak illustrated by Emily Carroll based on Laurie Halse Anderson’s 2001 classic and another The Breadwinner: A Graphic Novel based on Deborah Ellis’ series of the same name adapted from the animated film available on Netflix that I literally watched a week before this book was shipping to our library through Junior Library Guild
    • I get that visual content appeals sometimes to a different audience, but I’d say both graphic adaptations captured the mood of the original books in a way that makes me adore them both.
  • Some feel-good humor and hijinks that never gets old… Lumberjanes: The Moon is Up by Mariko Tamaki
    • Three words: hecka heart eyes
  • Some more “love and madness”… Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge
    • I’ve already tweeted my adoration for the mashup of beautiful black and white images and the captivating story Judge shares about our favorite haunted woman who created a horror classic
  • Some women’s empowerment for Women’s History Month… What Would She Do?: 25 True Stories of Trailblazing Rebel Women by Kay Woodward
    • With a vivid cover and a unique voice, it stands above others being published in recent years focusing on women who made an impression

While these are just a handful, it’s a taste of the wide-ranging reading that I do daily because I follow my interests and passions, want to be sure I have books in my back pocket to recommend to my students, and heck, there’s just awesome books being published every day by awesome authors. If you want to follow every book I read, you can find me on Goodreads.

 

 
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Posted by on March 18, 2018 in Adult, Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Let me profess my love

02 Feb

Let me profess my love

So far, I have read “The President Has Been Shot!”: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer and now finished the newly published Chasing King’s Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassin. Yes, James L. Swanson has written adult novels about similar topics, but as a high school librarian I’m more interested in the young adult novels or adaptations, though have it on my list to read the adult ones. I can only imagine how engaging the adult content is if the young adult content is any indication.

ChasingKingsKillerImage

What do I mean? Swanson writes the real life dramas as if they were heart-stopping tragic adventure stories, not real life acts of terror and rampage. In the case of each of his books, the parallel stories of (at least) two men on a collision course with one another is riveting. It’s the engaging prose and pictures. Swanson does not distract readers with footnotes or text boxes, instead it is the essence of wonderful narrative nonfiction because it flows seamlessly, uses the elements of story with command, and connects with readers.

 

As I finished Chasing King’s Killer, I thought out loud to anyone who would listen how tragic this decade must have seemed and hopeless Americans felt: In the span of a handful of years, there were assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Anyone who was standing up for something was torn down by violence. And, like an encyclopedia, I repeated “did you know?” facts to anyone in earshot.

  • Did you know that James Earl Ray was actually a prison escapee when a year later he took Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life?
  • Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was stabbed with a letter opener at a book signing years before his assassination by a mentally unstable woman? He literally could have sneezed and died but in true calm fashion, he asked that the opener not be removed from his chest until he was at the hospital. Good thing because it was a hair away from nicking his aorta.
  • Did you know that James Earl Ray left the country (and went to more than one) before being apprehended?

I could go on. But it’s the presentation of the information in a balanced way that makes readers appreciate Swanson’s skill. You forget the history you know in order to be swept away by Swanson’s captivating storytelling.

Swanson is a much-recommended author in my high school library because of it’s content equal to it’s beauty. I hope to get a few minutes to meet him in less than a week at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference where he’ll be on stage with a panel of authors celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. But I’ll have to get back my already lent copy of the most recent book from the people I’ve shared it with because he’s one author I’d love a John Hancock from.

He’s unforgettable and makes his stories this way as well. Post-It count: high.

 
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Posted by on February 2, 2018 in Adult, Authors, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Covers to keep you warm or make you cold

05 Jan

CoverstoKeepyouWarmorMakeyouCold

Books covers to warm you up… 

AmericanPanda

Who doesn’t love hot chocolate with heaps of whipped cream?

American Panda by Gloria Chao

Patina

Running will certainly keep you warm.

Patina by Jason Reynolds

SunnySideUp

So will basking in the sun while sitting on a pool floatie like our title character, Sunny!

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm

Invisible

But a flame can only do so much, I’m sure you’d rather than a heater than a match. Invisible by Pete Hautman

90DaysofDifferent

And there’s only one thing that will get anyone thinking of summer and that’s ice cream. 90 Days of Different by Eric Walters

Book covers to keep you cold… 

AndWeStay

Even in tights, wearing a skirt in winter is it’s own kind of chilly. And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

TheSnowChild

A little girl with snow in her her bones and beautiful (but still cold) lashes lined with frost running around the Alaskan wilderness.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Peak

I make sure I’m bundled up on my way to the car, but Peak Marcello needs more to summit Mount Everest, that’s for sure.

Peak by Roland Smith

Winterdance

And speaking of extreme sports, what about the Iditarod that Gary Paulsen ran and wrote about several times?

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen

IfYouComeSoftly

It looks beautiful, only if you’re not standing out in it.

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

 
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Posted by on January 5, 2018 in Adult, Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

Best of 2017: Six sensational YA + MG

20 Dec

I’m going to feature two “six sensational” lists: one for YA and MG and one for adult, so stay tuned for the adult list coming in a few days. But let’s focus in on the best published in 2017, not just what I read, but specifically what was published. And it was hard. So hard. Please don’t ask me to rank them one to six, simply it is a list of the six most sensational.

The irony is that I either specifically posted about the book I picked or had it in mind when I was posting about another topic. So beside a recap of why it belongs on this list, I’m linking to the previous post too.

LongWayDown1. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Here is the entire post where I featured Reynolds’ book, but he’s been making the rounds on social media and in pop culture by being featured as the sexiest author and professing the importance of poetry in turning kids on to literature. We need to listen to this voice in young adult and middle grade literature. Not only is he successful for both audiences, he inspires both youth and teachers and librarians.

GoodbyeDays2. Goodbye Days by Jeffrey Zentner

You’ll see more about Jeffrey Zentner in a post in April, since he’ll be visiting our high school library and it was after reading Goodbye Days that solidified the need for a visit. Clearly The Serpent King took everyone by storm, but to follow it up with another rock-solid, thoughtful, and contemporary story made him someone to pay attention too. Here was the original post on Goodbye Days. It makes us think about the different people we are in different situations and also the consequences of one bad decision.

whatgirlsaremadeof3. What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold

I know ’em when I see ’em and I will always read Arnold’s books. They are haunting, imaginative, and unique. Not for every reader, but when they’re the right ones, it’s like magic. The post focused on the tragedy of the main character which was painful but evocative, which is obviously why it also made the National Book Award finals. The book is deep and painful like Demetrios’ Bad Romance and worth taking note.

Pashmina4. Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

While I didn’t post directly about Chanani’s graphic novel for middle grade readers, I had it in mind for the post Cover love. Specifically after reading this article on the cover development of the graphic novel. As a reader, I’m always curious about the design process for the superb covers and what went wrong when they turn out bad (and I’ll not talk about the publishers who slap the movie posters on the covers of books-turned-to-movies because UGH, I can’t even go there).

Snow&Rose5. Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin

It is no secret that I’m a fan of a fairy tale retelling as evidenced by my obsession with the Beau Rivage series Sarah Cross pens. And this one was a sleeper, an ARC I received at an event that I got lost in. As with the best ones, I featured the book in this post, and think its value is in the cyclical storytelling that focused on family and friendship in a magical forest. Martin is a captivating writer that does not hide darker elements with the fluffier side of fantasy.

WordsonBathroomWalls6. Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton

Score another one for young adult novels that focus on mental health topics but the humor and engaging characters are what caught me off guard and the reason for the post on Walton’s book. Adam has schizophrenia and is dealing with everyone’s fear of him while trying to find a balance and a relationship. The character development was fully-realized from the main character through secondary characters and provided a balance of perspectives and included a very recent tragedy to demonstrate the fear society sometimes has for those with mental illness.

 
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Posted by on December 20, 2017 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Middle grade, Verse, Young Adult

 
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