Picture Books
In Every Life
Maria Frazee
Read for Librarian Book Group
Small vignettes illustrating a concept (birth, sadness, joy, struggle) alternate with two-page spreads for minimal text and maximal noticing small details satisfaction.
This is Not My Home
Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh
Read for Librarian Book Group
Lily’s mom moves her to Taiwan so she can take care of Lily’s grandmother. Lily is not a fan. Great cross-culture comparisons and amusing illustrations.
An American Story
Kwame Alexander and Dare Coulter
Read for Librarian Book Group
A picture book of questions about how to tell the story of slavery that tells the story while asking questions. Very intriguing illustrations.
Good Morning Good Night
Anita Lobel
Get your fill of opposite adjectives in yet another New York City–centered picture book.
Very Good Hats
Emma Straub and Blanca Gómez
Read for Librarian Book Group
For many years I was prone to placing a random object on my head and declaring, “It’s a hat!” This is that action in picture book form.
Middle Grade
Not an Easy Win
Chrystal D. Giles
Read for Librarian Book Group
Lawrence is not adjusting to his new majority-white school in the town where his grandmother lives. After being expelled, he finds a job at the before and afterschool program that serves the mostly Black charter school. It is there that he learns chess.
Young Adult
The Buried and the Bound
Rochelle Hassan
Read for Librarian Book Group
A very strong first entry of an eventual trilogy about a Hedge witch in a small town in Massachusetts where things are getting a little out of control magic-wise.
Infandous
Elena K. Arnold
For most of this book, I wondered what exactly the thrust of the narrative was. Though I was interested in the life of Sephora, the Venice Beach daughter of a young mom. Then I figured out what exactly the thrust of the novel was, and it became that much more intriguing.
Overturned
Lamar Giles
Nikki’s parents own a Las Vegas hotel, though her dad’s not been so much an owner as a person wrongly convicted who is sitting in prison. While he’s there, Nikki and her mother have been keeping the hotel going. She thinks that her dad’s exoneration will improve her life, but alas, complications ensue.
This is packed with so many Vegas insider details that I wondered about Mr. Giles’s research.
Young Nonfiction
Just Jerry
Jerry Pinkney
Read for Librarian Book Group
Pinkney’s memoir features his unfished sketches, plus a narrative of his childhood on East Earlham Street in Philadelphia. I liked the concept of featuring unfished sketches more than I liked the result.
We go Way Back
Idan Ben-Barak,
Read for Librarian Book Group
A very accessible—even for science-averse me—exploration of what life is and how it got started. Colorful illustrations help.
Grownup Nonfiction
It’s Not About the Money: A Proven Path to Building Wealth and Living the Rich Life You Deserve
Scarlett Cochran
I’ve read a lot of personal finance books and this one is different. Cochran’s chapter on the true core principles of money was spot on, as was the chapter about money capacity. The book includes life planning and a practical path to get there, and she also has a different view of credit than many personal finance books do.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson
Wilkerson wrote The Warmth of Other Suns and will always have a shiny place in my heart because of it. Caste is her examination of the caste system in the U.S. of A. and she makes compelling points both from interactions on the personal level to policy decisions that still sideline Black people.
