Picture Books
The Every Baby Book
Frann Preston-Gannon
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A day in the life of babies and the the families they live in. Provides a wide example of many types of families.
Because of You, John Lewis
Andrea Davis Pinkney and Keith Henry Brown
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A short picture book that shows the connection between Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and Tybre, who is growing up in the time of Black Lives Matter
My Parents Won’t Stop Talking
Emma Hunsinger , Tillie Walden
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I was initially put off by the faces, but the story of the many stages of waiting won me over in the end. Great representation including two moms, a mixed-race family, and hippie pants.
Every Dog in the Neighborhood
Stead and Cordell
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There’s a turn at the end that elevates this from a charming census of neighborhood dogs to a more poignant story. The background story with grandma was also fun.
Luli and the Language of Tea
Wang and Yum
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Tea is the unifier in a childcare setting with children from many nationalities. This book includes pronunciation guides both for what tea is called in various languages and also pronunciation guides for the children’s names. As someone who wants to pronounce things correctly, this was important.
The World Belonged to Us
Jacqueline Woodson, Leo Espinosa
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This isn’t the first time Woodson has written eloquently about her childhood neighborhood (and hopefully it won’t be the last). This captures the freedom of summer in a universal way. I didn’t grow up with summers like Woodson, but I could certainly relate.
The spiritual twin of this book is the opening to Spike Lee’s Crooklyn. It contains a montage of most of the same things we see in this book. The movie is also good, but that opening is summer gold.
Middle Grade
Swim Team
Johnnie Christmas
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When Bree moves from New York City to Florida, her neighborhood middle school is named after the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal. Bree isn’t a swimmer. This is the story of how she becomes one. It also talks about the systemic racism that contributed to the reasons Bree was late coming to swimming.
As someone who started swimming before I could walk, I love a good swimming story, especially one that highlights why People of Color don’t have the same experience I did.
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster
Matt Phelan
A reread after watching a bunch of Buster Keaton films. I would have liked Keaton’s story to be the center, but this is a nice side way into Keaton and his style.
Little Monarchs
Jonathan Case
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A hopeful dystopian story of a younger girl and her found-family aunt trying to find a vaccine for the sun poisoning that killed most mammals and drove the handful of remaining humans underground for fifty years. It’s fascinating on many levels—beginning with the Pacific City, Oregon, setting and including monarchs and world building. Weighty, but not depressing.
Young Adult
I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Casey McQuiston
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For most of the book, this very long book is a cross between Paper Towns, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and that YA book set in DC where the girl uncovers a particular kind of scandal. It does forge a good path examining how a K-12 evangelical-based education can wreck havoc on sexual identity. It’s too bad it had to borrow from so many other stories in order to do so.
Button Pusher
Tyler Page
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This graphic novel explores Perry’s experiences growing up with ADHD. It takes some graphically illustrated brain science tangents, too. I would have liked those tangents to not be so squished onto a two-page spreads.
Mostly, I came away astounded at what a jerk Perry’s dad was. It was well established that his father was living the ramifications of untreated ADHD, but when his rages affect three other people, my sympathy wanes.
Rivals
Katharine McGee
So very well plotted! It’s hard to juggle four characters (even in a third book in a series) and keep things moving along. Great development of Daphne and Nina and an ending that had me wishing the next book was already here.
A Year to the Day
Robin Benway
A very interesting concept that ultimately didn’t work for me. Telling the story in reverse order meant that I hadn’t built the emotional connection to the events that I was reading about and thus was left puzzling things together. This turned into an exercise of me guessing what the next chapter would focus on. I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the movie Memento (essentially the same concept, but with a mystery, not a dead sister) totally works with this device. I came to the conclusion that in the movie, we are learning along with the character, who can’t remember things for more than a few minutes. This story feels like hearing the end of the story before the stage has really been set.
While I found this to be a swing and a miss, I appreciate the swing. And it would have been a great dead sister story if presented in chronological order. So maybe read it backwards?
No One Is Alone
Rachel Vincent
Michaela loses her mother abruptly and also learns that her father isn’t a perpetual bachelor, but that she is his love child who has been hidden from how family that includes a wife and three children. Integrating with her new family is hard, but in a way that no one is actually the villain. Great family dynamics, plus a spring musical performance of Into the Woods.
Spin
Lamar Giles
Both a mystery with an up-and-coming DJ found dead and a slow burn friendship of the two young women who try to find the murderer. Very nicely done, Mr. Giles!
My Name is Jason. Mine too.: Our Story. Our Way.
Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin
Art (written and visual) made by the two Jasons who were roommates in New York City when they were younger. I enjoyed reading this and am glad they have found recognition for their work. It’s not super memorable otherwise.
Private Label
Kelly Yang
A solid duel narrator story of two kids finding their way in a rich California beach community. One is an American-born daughter of an up-and-coming designer mother born in China, the other is a recent immigrant. Yang has really great child/parent scenes and what seems to me a very optimistic view of stage 4 cancer.
Grownup Fiction
The Tangleroot Palace
Marjorie Liu
Eight short stories by Liu that demonstrate her creative imagination, strength with word choice, and expose her deep distrust of forests.
Young Nonfiction
Call Me Miss Hamilton
Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffrey Boston Weatherford
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It took a Supreme Court case to affirm that all people in court should be addressed by their honorifics. Thanks systemic racism. Here’s the woman behind that story.
I enjoyed the scratchboard illustrations backed with photos. The story itself left me wondering about Miss Hamilton’s life. The text mentions that she went to collage, but that information doesn’t appear on the time line. It may be that they don’t have that information, but even adding that a fact is unknown is helpful.
Sandor Katz and the Tiny Wild
Jacqueline Briggs Martin, June Jo Lee, and Julie Wilson
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An intro to the man who brought fermentation into US mainstream in the early aughts.
Solitary Animals: Introverts of the Wild
Joshua David Stein and Dominique Ramsey
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I feel a bit iffy about applying a human label, introvert, to animals. Also, the illustrations depict an eagle looking at an octopus, a panther, and a sloth at the same time and I don’t think that’s possible. I found myself wondering if this was a complete list of solitary animals. I suspect not.
The Tide Pool Waits
Candace Fleming and Amy Hevron
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Detailed information in picture book form about life in tidepools. I wish the words had been matched with an illustrator who painted clear pictures.
How to Build a Human: In Seven Evolutionary Steps
Pamela S. Turner, John Gurche
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Turner clearly maps out seven evolutionary steps to get us to humans. This is backed with a solid array of photos and illustrations.
Murder Among Friends
Candace Fleming
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Fleming takes us along with Leopold and Loeb as they plot to murder and collect a ransom on a boy in their neighborhood. The book covers the sentencing phase and contains the many details Fleming is famous for.
I was interested to note that Fleming regularly used the term “teenagers” to describe Leopold and Lobe given that we know that white males who are 18 and 19 are often called “teenagers” while male people of color the same age are routinely characterized as “men.” I’m curious if Fleming put thought into using this word. Leopold and Lobe were still teenagers, but did that change the way readers saw them? If Leopold and Lobe were Black, would we still be calling them teenagers.
Out of the Shadows: How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairytale Movie
Fiona Robinson
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Illustrations and text work together seamlessly to show the creation of one of the first animated films and the woman who created it.
The Whale Who Swam Through Time
Alex Boersma and Nick Pyenson
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I find most stories about whales are a complete bummer because there’s either the whaling industry to contend with or climate change. This one was no different. But I did learned about this long-lived species of whale.
Grownup Nonfiction
Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World
Jamie Varon
Varon makes the case that being happy is a revolutionary act. Most of the advice consists of making your own way, rather than measuring yourself against others.