Red's Journey Through Bookland

Reynolds, J. (2017).  Ghost . New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers. I chose to reread Ghost   by Jason Reynolds because this series was the first of many books by Jason that I fell in love with. A few years ago Ghost was on our school wide reading promotion for the state's book award. I really enjoyed it and ended up reading all 4 of the series in both physical and audio format. I want to preface this to say that I am NOT a series reader- and this is the perfect series for a reader like me. I typically do not like the commitment it takes to read a series, as most of them are fantasy, but the way these are written makes it easy. So it is no surprise when the series has shown up on the Quick Picks List for Reluctant Readers by YALSA. So I will give a background of the series itself, before going into my analysis of the first book in the series, Ghost .  This series isn't unique in the fact that the first book introduces the audience to all of the major...

Stone, N. (2017).  DEAR MARTIN . Random House Childrens Books. Dear Martin by Nic Stone was noted on the 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults by YALSA. It was also awarded as New York Times Bestseller,  William C Morris Finalist, and Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Finalist. This book is a perfect example of the #weneeddiversebooks initiative. Dear Martin  by Nic Stone tells the story of Justyce and his dealings with racial profiling and police brutality. The story starts with Justyce trying to do the right thing, when he has followed his ex girlfriend who is drunk out to her car to keep her from driving home after her best friend has given up on convincing her. As he is trying to help her into her car, and her resisting, he is stopped by the police, thrown to the ground and hand cuffed. While being bitter about the whole situation, he realizes that it could have easily gone worse. Justyce is on the track to go to an IVY League college and has a scholarship to a presti...

McManus, K. M. (2019).  Two Can Keep a Secret . Random House Childrens Books. Two Can Keep a Secret  by Karen M. McManus is a New York Times Best Seller with 15 weeks on the list as of May 18th, 2019 after it being released on January 8th 2019. This is the author's second novel, One of Us Is Lying , being the debut novel and being on the NYT best sellers list for 79 weeks. I chose this book because it was brand new knowing that it would have reviews but little awards as of yet because of its recent release. I have always been a fan of mystery and thriller novels, but feel that they have always been too difficult to find in YA- normally they feel very film noir or Sherlock Holmesian, rather than realistic fiction.  Two Can Keep A Secret  is about a set of twins, Ellery and Ezra, who have been sent to Echo Ridge a small town in the North East after their mother has been admitted into rehab after an accident that involved a jewelry store front and her car. E...

Brown, D. (2018).  The unwanted: The story of the Syrian refugees . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees  by Don Brown was chosen for the 2019 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults by YALSA. This book was also chosen for various other awards including 2019 Silbert Award Honor book, and 2019 top ten Great Graphic novels for Teens. This book and it's author have had some great reviews and prestige, so I was very excited to start reading this book.  The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees tells the stories of many (seemingly unnamed) refugees. It shows the experience both unique and common of those seeking asylum in the years 2011 to current times as the country of Syria is falling apart. It follows nameless refugees and their families through their journey- to often unknown destinations. It shows that often refugees thought they were to safety, they were turned away or sent somewhere else. It uses various sized ...

Khorram, A. (2018).  Darius the Great Is Not Okay . Penguin Young Readers Group. Darius The Great is Not Okay was chosen as one of the 2019 Top Ten Best Fiction by YALSA. This list is presented annually recommended for readers between the ages of 12 to 18. The purpose of this list originally was to be a resource for collection development and reader's advisory purposes. Among others in the top ten is Poet X  which won this years Printz award and others that were recognized in other ways. When picking a book from this list, I wanted to try to cross reference and see if any of the books I was interested in reading had won any other awards or had been recognized. I also wanted to have a wide variety of texts that I have picked from this semester.  Darius The Great Is Not Okay  has also won the William C, Morris Debut Award, Asian/Pactific American Award for Young Adult Literature, TIME's 10 Best Young Adult and Children's Books of the Year, Publishers Weekly Best...

Lewis, J., Aydin, A., & Powell, N. (2013).  March . Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions. The List of Outstanding Books for the College Bound is a list by YALSA that offers opportunities to discover new ideas and provide various perspectives on a variety of topics. This list is curated every five years with the new list for 2019 to be released in December of 2019 or January of 2020. This list is separated into categories to pick from including: Arts & Humanities, History & Cultures, Literature & Language Arts, Science & Technology, and a Social Sciences list. These lists were designed around prospective academic disciplines when a student is entering college or in college. I chose the graphic novel March  book one from the History and Cultures list as I felt that this was an area that both interests me and that I have a lack of knowledge in.  I have read many positive reviews of  the March   series since they began com...

McNeil, G. (2018).  #Murdertrending . Los Angeles: Freeform Books. #Murdertrending  was chosen this year for YALSA's 2019 Top ten Quick picks and has been suggested for the upcoming YALSA's Top Ten Teen Books 2019. This book is funny, riveting, and alarming all at the same time- which makes for a perfect YA book.  #Murdertrending   is a story set in the not to far off future that criticizes our current fascination with reality TV, justice, and social media. In this not far off Dystopian like future, Dee has been convicted of killing her step-sister and has been sentenced to death on Alcatraz 2.0. This is a world that has created a commodity out of our justice system- that those who have been convicted of corporal crimes are sent to a newly renovated Alcatraz island in which the inmates are hunted down by serial killers in the name of justice. Think of the ideas and morals behind Dexter, but without the forethought and planning to make sure that the people...

Acevedo, E. (2018).  The poet X a novel . New York: HarperTeen. Poet X  by Elizabeth Acevedo was chosen as 2019's Printz Award winner . This is not the only award and recognition this book has won since published in 2018. It also won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Horn Book Award for Best Fiction in 2018, and the 2018 Pura Belpre Award. This book has received a lot of recognition since it's publication- as it showed up on a multitude of award lists for me to choose from in this assignment. So it made perfect sense that this book was a "Must Read.' After reading it, I can only agree with all of the critics and sing its praises.  Poet X  tells the story of Xiomara as talented poet, hardened girl, and loving sister and daughter. Xiomara sturggles expressing herself aloud with words, as she often goes into bouts of silence, not speaking to anyone. She struggles with the persona and expectations that are put upon her by her family, ...

Bagieu, P., & Kane, M. (2018).  Brazen: Rebel ladies who rocked the world . New York: First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press. Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World  was selected as one of the titles on the YALSA list of 2019 Great Graphic Novels for Teens . This book is listed as one of only 14 nonfiction graphic novels chosen for this years' list. This is a list created yearly by Yalsa of recommended graphic novels and illustrated nonfiction for ages 12-18.  This book covers 30 different stories of world renowned women who took the world and their own lives by storm. Each chapter follows the subject's significant events in their lives that led to their achievements. This book would probably be most appropriate young adults that can handle mature content, because this is not a book that smooths over scandal but instead celebrates it. It covers a wide variety of topics and achievements from astronauts, to lighthouse keepers, to gyneco...

Alexander, K. (2013).  He said, she said . New York, NY: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. I have been a big fan of Kwame Alexander since I read Crossover in my Children's literature class in 2016. I have quite a few of his works, and He Said, She Said  was a book that I have had since I met him at an ALAN workshop. I have not had the time to read it, and since I was tasked with picking out one of his books, I wanted to do some research before making a decision. It turns out that He Said, She Said  was the first YA novel that Kwame had written, as most of his previous works were picture books, poetry anthologies, and professional development books for teachers. Kwame has become very well known for his poetic style works like The Crossover, Rebound, and Booked . I was surprised when I started reading this book to find that it was written in a more traditional narrative style, as all I have ever known him for was the poetry.  I was really excited to read this b...

Satrapi, M. (2013).  The complete Persepolis . St. Albert, AB: SAPL. Persepolis is a graphic novel memoir of the authors's life during the times of war and strife in Iran as she grew up. Throughout the story, the reader learns about Marjane's journey in Iran and all of the people she lost and how lost she felt in her own identity as an Iranian woman. This is a coming of age story that reveals how a young girl can be changed throughout war and grief and come out the other side. This graphic novel intertwines her experiences, the stories of others who were prisoners, soldiers, and fanatics, and her loving parents. Marjane was rebellious kid and teenager, who ends up living on her own in Austria for school from the age of about 14-18 before she came back to Iran. It reveals the struggle of immigrant students who do not want to disappoint their parents. She lived on the streets for months before coming home to Iran, because she did not want to have to tell her family that she w...

King, A. S. (2016).  I crawl through it: A novel . New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. On this blog I will be talking about a book that I have been "crawling through" for a while now. One of the authors that I could choose a book from was A. S. King. I have never read any of her books, but I have only heard great things (plus she is best friends with Andrew Smith one of my favorites). I chose I Crawl Through It  because of a review/ blog post I read on one of my previous professors YA blog, YA Wednesday. The post was published during the beginning of preparing for testing season, and I thought it would be an interesting read. I got the audio book from Audible around February, but I am just finishing it now. I also bought the paperback copy after I began listening to it I quickly realized that the way the book was organized would be easier to read with a physical copy in front of me as well. The audiobook was quite monotone when switching characters that it made i...

Crutcher, C. (2011).  Angry management . New York: Greenwillow. For this assignment I had the privilege of choosing a book to read from the author Chis Crutcher. I absolutely fell in love with Chris Crutcher's brash personality and sense of humor when I met him at the LSU YA conference in the summer of 2014. Chris Crutcher has written 14 books so far, and nearly all of them are on the top of my TBR list, and are often recommended by me to students. The first work that I read by him was Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes  because when I was teaching GT 7th grade, this book was a choice for literature circles. I have always loved his complex characters and story lines and how relatable he is. I think that he and Laurie Halse Anderson are like writing soul mates as their books nearly always tackle tough topics like depression, abuse both sexual and emotional. I love suggesting his books to any of my students because I know that they will get more out of them than just a book a...