Welcome to Litsy!

Beautifully illustrated #YA novel about a musician and Holocaust survivor, Gerta. While it covers her experiences in Nazi Germany and several concentration camps, more of the book focuses on her life after liberation, as she and other survivors recover physically, search for relatives, make new connections, and wait in limbo for international governments to decide where they can go. A powerful story I don‘t see often. #hubchallenge19

This is a surprisingly dark #middlegrade story with an ambiguous morality I wasn‘t expecting. Van is a well-realized hard-of-hearing character who is learning to balance his own wishes with the well-being of others and adapt as he learns more information as he goes. And, of course, talking animals and magical creatures are always popular. I hope Pebble develops more in future books. #hubchallenge19 #kidlit

Lou‘s dream is to build a tiny house on the land she inherited from her dad so that she and her mom can move out of her grandmother‘s house. But her mom is job hunting out of state, property taxes are past due, and none of her friends are as into building as Lou! This is a sweet story sprinkled with Filipino-American culture and architecture/shop class facts. Wrapped up a little too quickly but still fun.

#middlegrade #kidlit #hubchallenge19

This book uses the frame of a fairy tale— prince defeats dragon & rescues princess— to tell a larger story about gaslighting, assault, and rape culture. I wish that had been better communicated in the cover design and description. I think it‘s a good book, but it‘s so unrelenting in its depiction of misogyny I can‘t say I enjoyed it. All the trigger warnings here if you need them. #hubchallenge19 #ya

Of course I continued with this #manga series about students at an agricultural high school in Japan. It keeps asking good questions about the ethics of eating meat, the economics of raising food, and the struggle of continuing family businesses versus forging your own path. I‘m so glad #hubchallenge19 brought this series to my attention.

I wasn‘t sure what a graphic novel adaptation of this book would look like, but it works very well. I felt the claustrophobia of the 8‘s life in the annex as well as Anne‘s teenage angst and incredible insight. The adaptation certainly abridges & combines some sections, but I didn‘t feel the parts that were missing (though I need to revisit the original). The art is incredible & expressive. Glad I finally picked this up for #hubchallenge19 book 5

Fun and informative new #manga series about the new kid at an agricultural high school. Yuugo Hachiken is a high-achieving student with no farm experience who assumes ag school will be a breeze. He doesn‘t count on the incredible physical demands of farming, the practicality of raising animals for food, or his classmates‘ life experience and clear goals for the future. Really eye-opening and original topic. #ya #hubchallenge19

Checked this one out on #audio for #hubchallenge19, but when I saw how some of the chapters are pure illustration, I realized I‘d better have it in print too. It‘s a fun way to experience the book, if a little more time consuming a reading experience than I was planning...