I think this would be a good book for someone into fantasy and wants a good message to go along with it. Themes of identity, gender roles, immigration and family are really relatable and important to a diverse audience, and I think this book would be perfect for that, while also having an interesting spin on it.

I like the message that this book presents regarding immigration and emphasizes importance of changing modern immigration policies by exploiting some of the horrors of it. That being said, I do not love the fantasy aspect. I am not a fantasy gal and I know a lot of English Ed. people are but I just cannot get into it. I respect the art that Garner created but the werewolves and witches thing did not appeal to me. I want to read twilight too but

Sorry I took this photo of my iPad because I don‘t have Litsy on it—- but I felt this last quote from Saysa was pretty powerful. I think this goes to show how leadership and taking action takes one person to stand up to create a movement.

The beginning of this book felt very slow. Compared to a lot of the books we‘ve read, this has been a very unenthusiastic and difficult start to me. It may be because the chapters are on the shorter side, but this is just something I don‘t like. I like books that have an intense beginning to draw me in, but this just felt drug out a little bit.

Overall, please put this on your classroom shelf or at least try this book out. I think it brings a great perspective on a true history that is not learned in typical American high school education. I would have never guessed this was the harsh realities of Romania and I feel like it can spread awareness to people who don‘t realize how bad dictatorships really are & how to gather the courage to fight against them.

Along with historical accuracy, I like how this book shows the complex dynamics of family. Cristian struggles with obeying his mom when she tells him to obey the “Securitate.” However, his grandfather, eventually killed by the Romanian government, never shied from speaking against it. This was a place where you would be prosecuted and even imprisoned if you said something bad about the government. Cristian doesn‘t know what to do in this situation

One of my favorite parts of this novel was the historical evidence tied in at the end of the book. We are able to see the articles that Cristian sees at the US library in Romania, as well as other artifacts like the portraits of the dictator and his wife, the Ceaușescus. I think this is my new favorite summer read and that I have discovered my new favorite genre of books.

So this was my second pick for my own choice and I couldn‘t have gotten a better book. This was based on the Romanian revolution against the communism regime. Sepetys made it feel like we were right with Cristian, making difficult choices to keep his family safe but also do what is right.

I think graphic novels are more difficult for me to grasp because they never feel very serious, but I think the author did a great job at tackling such serious topics without taking the intensity away.

A critique that I do have is that this book is quite tedious. I think this could‘ve been shortened to an extent because I personally did not find it engaging enough for a young audience. It often felt repetitive almost? Overall though, it‘s a decent book that I think parts of it are really important for students to look into.

The most memorable chapter was the social media chapter and your brain. Learning about how your brains gets hits of dopamine through social media and how your brain becomes semi-dependent or fully addicted to it is scary, but really important for young minds to understand (and adults, of course). It‘s like a plague that has infected almost everyone, and this chapter lowkey made me want to delete my social media because of how addictive it is.

Finishing out my What the Fact? Posts because life happened for awhile… anyways:
I like how Yasmin lets the young audience know that we are all, as humans, innately biased. The anecdote she gives about the bike and cognitive bias is adequate for her audience, but I also feel like some parts of the book can go over a younger audience‘s head because of the density of information and definitions.

I think the way Slater highlights the importance of multiple perspectives in this book keeps the reader in touch with how real it is. I feel like most pieces that are similar to this can be one dimensional with only one view but with all the different point of views of all the different students, it makes it feel more powerful. I think most anyone would benefit from reading this because it‘s empowering for the affected, educational, and REAL.

This section brought me back to middle school. I went to a predominately white school and one of my best friends was biracial. There was a moment where she told me that a boy in our class told her she was not allowed to go to the 8th grade dance with him because she was half-black. Of course me and my friends supported her and tried to make her feel as best as she could in such a terrible situation, but we could never take back those words—-

“Charles didn‘t think too deeply about the morality of that kind of thing. What mattered was that these memes made his friends laugh…”

This is almost too real I feel like. I don‘t know who else has experienced bullying, I‘m sure everyone, but when it‘s so nonsensical from the bully, I think it‘s a way to step back and view it as—there is not thought about what they‘re doing, it‘s for the reaction of someone else. Whether it‘s attention from——

I love the way the book was written in small sections regarding specific details the author wanted to convey. I feel like this gave more clarity and straightforwardness that a lot of nonfictional books do not have. For example, I feel like a lot of these types of books run together and the details can be a lot to take in, but this definitely makes it easier to follow.

In the beginning of the book, I like how Yasmin emphasizes the importance of understanding that the point of the book is to not change minds or opinions, but to only strengthen their research and own understandings. A lot of times, I think people (especially parents) get worried about their kids reading books like this because they‘re afraid it is “indoctrinating” but it‘s pretty clear that she is only trying to educate a new generation.

I‘m reviewing this book in a high school setting; I would not recommend or keep this in my classroom library. I would not say this is appropriate at all for young adults who have developing brains and are a little more prone to making unwise decisions—-in a classroom. Now if they wanted to read this in their free time, that is one thing, of course. But as a teacher, I couldn‘t recommend this to a student because of the raunchiness of it.

I kind of sped through this book because I‘m on vacation and that‘s literally all I do. Overall, I think it had a good storyline, but I have found that I am not really into the genre of books. I thought I may be because I do like a good romcom, but this was a little too much for me. Their storyline is cute with them bonding over sharing the ice, with the frenemies to lovers trope, but it just does not have a deeper level of meaning that I enjoy.

I‘m about 50 pages in, and so far it‘s great. However, I don‘t know that this is a Y/A book. There‘s a lot of maturity that I am sure is appropriate for older high school kids (17&18), but I do not think I would advertise it, just because of how prominent sexual themes. The two main characters are college aged, so I wouldn‘t think 14/15/16 are necessarily in the right mindset to read it but I will be more definite on that when I get further in.

I feel like this is such a great option for student representation in the classroom. I‘m glad I can add it to my repertoire of books for my personal classroom library for my future class!!! Really though, I appreciate the exploration of gender and sexuality through a historical lens that is so prevalent in today‘s society. I had to listen to the audio version (Libby was booked out AGAIN), but even there, it was a great story portrayed audibly and—

I don‘t want to sound repetitive, but this book feels so timeless once again. When Lily‘s parents plan on sending her away once they found out her sexuality, it made me so upset, but this still happens today! Why does it matter, and why is it anyone else‘s business who you love? I feel like this would be a great book for students to read to feel related and connected because especially in our state (& rural areas) this is exactly what happens.

Ok so I chose this book honestly because there is a craze on the hockey romance. It‘s been on my mind because I always see it at target🤫. But so far, it feels like most any other romcom/YA romance book. Getting to know both the main characters before their introduction has been a refreshing part. I love books with multiple perspectives so this has been fun for me and I‘m ready for Anastasia and Nate to meet 🎊🎊

So many themes of this book are timeless. To me, it‘s mainly the microaggressions, and blatant, racism and homophobia that stand out as timeless. I think of how Shirley warns Lily to not befriend Kath because of Jean in the beginnings of their relationship. I have experienced this with my lifelong best friend when she came out. There are so many hateful things that people say they “warn” me about, and it‘s disgusting. But it‘s so REAL & timeless.

Ok so I wanted to make a first impression post: So when we opened with the whole pageant, I really liked the contrasting opinions between Lily and Shirley and their comfort levels with seeing women in revealing outfits. First, it made me hate pageants. But then it made me feel like I was in sixth grade again at the pool with my older cheer mates and how self conscious i was about my body. It just felt so real, even being set back in the 50s.

So far, this has been my least favorite book to read because it was difficult to follow. However, I think the story is very important for younger audiences to relate to. I feel as if that‘s what the whole purpose of reading is—-and I know there are so many kids out there who need to hear this to feel seen in their own circumstances like this. I felt like this story, in its telling, came to life and allows for ambiguous/personal interpretation.

“Leaves don‘t think but they know things….And when the leaf decays into the soil so much and it no longer looks like a leaf, even then, even then, it is a leaf.” This quote by Whimsy was a favorite. To me, it‘s a way of saying that no matter what someone has gone through or done, at the end of the day, they‘re still a person. She says “a brain is still a brain, with or without serotonin,” and I take that as there are no limits to define humanity.

I think it‘s important, like most everyone else has, to note the style of this story. Written in verse, I found it interesting and different. I don‘t typically love literature like this, but I think the story in itself kind of flows like verse. It can be a lot to understand at times what exactly is happening, but I think that‘s the beauty of the verse and including ambiguity, like a lot of poetry.

This is kind of a throwback to the beginning, but I am listening to the audiobook because it is loaned out on Libby (😔), but reading along with the sample while also listening to this part brought tears to my eyes. I could not imagine going through this alone.

Overall, I really like the diverse stories presented in this children‘s lit anthology. The use of poetry was refreshing. I wasn‘t TRULY introduced to poetry until I was about 16. I think it would be smart to include poetry for middle schoolers to begin to learn how to analyze poetry and learn how to just, simply read them with open minds. I used to hate it because I didn‘t know HOW to read poetry. Anyways, I really enjoyed it!

This was a really interesting poem to me. It kind of felt like it was about a brain freeze, but the banging of the head also confused me because I couldn‘t tell what had happened to cause this kind of whole body pain. But I love how it described the pain, it felt really artistic in a way to me. Maybe that‘s silly, but it was cool. It kinda shows how sucky headaches are and I have them too often so it was lowkey relatable.

This is from “MONDAYS ARE QUIZ DAY.” I found this one quite intriguing due to the style of writing. It was harder to follow because of the stanzas but the story itself felt like someone was speaking directly to me, which I did like. I wonder what the authors intention was here, and in the following poems after, like “Jeopardy” and “The Kill.” If anyone has any ideas LETS TALK ABOUT IT!!!! Because seriously, I‘m curious.

Using “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court, into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium” was a great choice to open up this anthology of short stories. To recall from the story, this moment was my favorite part. Some of my favorite parts of literature is when I see and feel vulnerability from a young person. He described his dad often as short with him during their rides and dinner, so this moment was touching to me.

Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read, EVER. It is so out of the norm of what I typically read and it has shown me how I can really branch out and love new types of literature. This story is so important and I‘m so glad I could be a small part of Javier Zamora‘s incredible and brave journey. I genuinely never wanted to put it down and I ended up reading it in the span of two days because it was just so easy to be enthralled.

One of the most touching moments to me in the book was when Javier realizes he loves his grandfather, and his grandfather loves him, after spending two weeks with him, seeing his real side. I feel like a realization like this is more common with parents in books and movies, so I really felt gravitated towards it when I‘ve felt a similar way with my grandfather.

Solito, thus far, is such an incredible journey detailed by Javier the 9-year-old. Everything is described so raw from the point of view of young boy—there are no rules of writing yet it is still very well-written. I feel as on his journey too and I am ever-present. I also really like how he discusses the adults, feeling awkward and uncomfortable around them because it makes his experience much more real (because what 9 year old likes adults?).