It‘s been a minute, hasn‘t it! I‘m at a new school with triple the number of students in my old school (360 vs. 1,100 🫠), but things are good! This is how many students have checked out books so far, with all of sixth grade, a third of seventh, and none of eighth getting through library orientation so far. Not bad if I do say so myself!
pickGreat picturebook about Juneteenth and a little girl experiencing a Juneteenth celebration for the first time. (The ebook is on sale for $2.99 today from Lee and Low and the Kindle store!)
Two of my #BlackoutBestSellerList books arrived, and I can‘t wait to dive in! What books did y‘all buy/request your library buy?
I finally finished my school‘s yearbook, so I am rewarding myself with cider and a book described as Six of Crows meets Les Misérables.
pickOverall, I really liked this, despite instances of ableism and fatphobia. The revolution, which had been simmering in Orléans, has boiled over. Camelia, once the favourite of the queen, has gone on the run; now, she seeks to overthrow the queen, save the Belles, and bring change to the kingdom. Great look at how far we go for beauty, government corruption, and resistance.
Ms. Dhonielle Clayton is not messing around. For such an opulent fantasy world so different from our own, there are plenty of parallels, like this passage here.
Though this isn‘t a #ReadYourSign book, it 100 percent could be. It has big Leo energy for sure.
pickQuick reread before diving into the sequel. The world-building, plot, and characters were all stunning, but the fatphobia and transphobia were disappointing and harmful.
pickI liked this one, but there was enough ableism to make me uncomfortable and deeply unhappy.
pickI liked this one, but there was enough ableism to make me uncomfortable.
I‘ve had this book on my digital TBR for long enough that the cover has changed. (And I forgot I owned it and put it on hold at both of my public libraries, oops). Glad to be reading it now! #Leo #ReadYourSign
pickA hard book to read at times because of the subject matter, but it was beautiful nonetheless. (cw for rape) Picked it because it had my #ReadYourSign flower on the cover.
pickI loved this! Samira Ahmed just keeps getting better and better. Muslim desi teen spends the summer in Paris and tries to solve an art history mystery with a descendant of Alexandre Dumas. Though I‘m not an early bird, I did get up early to read this before work! #Leo #ReadYourSign
On my list: Read a book with your sign‘s flower. Leos get sunflowers, so I‘m reading some rupi kaur. #ReadYourSign
pickThis book was so beautiful! It‘s about Lalani, an ordinary 12-year-old girl who can‘t do anything right—until she does. It wove in Filipino folklore beautifully. Highly recommend!
panThis was so, so ableist. The depiction of CP was ableist. The depiction of autism was ableist. The depiction of Alzheimer disease was ableist. Proximity to disabled people doesn‘t give you insight into what it‘s like to be disabled.
pickElizabeth Acevedo has done it again. This book is heartbreaking and beautiful. It deals with grief and secrets and colourism. I read her first two books on audio, and her voice is so strong that I heard it in my head when I read the ebook of this one. cw for sexual assault.
“Hey, Ness, what you up to? Oh, hate-reading a book about a disabled kid recced by RJ Palacio again? Yeah, seems right.”
pickA friend texted me to ask if I‘d read this and my thoughts, so I borrowed it from my local public library. Surprisingly, I liked this a lot! It‘s an #OwnVoices story about surviving middle school while also dealing with a rare eye cancer. It was sweet and funny and didn‘t fall into the tropes a lot of authors put in about disabled people. (One drawback: Lots of ableist slurs.) This one‘s a rec!
pickThis was a great read about colourism and poverty and addiction and fitting in and finding your people. (It also had a large number of ableist slurs that felt authentic to how middle-schoolers speak, but still detracted from the story for me.)
so-soThis was good but not great. A lot of what I liked about the first one (mostly the female friendships) was absent. The middle of this one dragged, and a lot of the characters became one-dimensional. It was OK.
I have been in a massive reading slump since the quarantine (don‘t even ask me how far behind I am in my Goodreads challenge, lol), but this sounds like fun! Thanks for the challenge, @Clwojick and @Meaw_catlady ! #ReadYourSign
pickHoly stunning. I read this twice in a row. Kwame Alexander‘s poetry and Kadir Nelson‘s art are both breathtaking. I cannot wait to read this to students and convince (force) teachers to use this in their lessons because wow. #LibrariansOfLitsy
Very excited to dig into this picture book! #LibrariansOfLitsy
Got auto-approved for the ARC, so let‘s go sequel! Hoping for more awesome female friendships in this one. 👯♀️
pickTore through this rec from one of the ELA teachers at my school in about a day. An interesting (and slightly queerer) reimagining of the Arthur legend. A solid read that lost points with me from the ableism of Sir Bors‘ portrayal and the presumed or explicit whiteness of nearly every character. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Happy Star Wars Day! I plan on finally starting this book about Padmé and her body double (which actually connects nicely with the book I finished last night). How will you celebrate? #MayTheFourthBeWithYou
pickI love this book so much that I meant to reread the first couple of chapters ahead of doing a read aloud for First Chapter Friday and ended up rereading the whole book. It is hands down the best book I‘ve ever read about chronic illness and disability. Librarians need to buy this #OwnVoices book. People need to read it so we‘re not just seeing the same tired ableist narratives we always see in books (coughWONDERcough). #LibrariansOfLitsy
pickGosh, what a great book! It tackled racism, incarceration, the Innocence Project—and friendship, family, and baking. (My students also loved it for First Chapter Friday!) #LibrariansOfLitsy
pickI don‘t remember who recommended this book, but I‘m glad they did! It was a fascinating MG dystopian about government taking away letters and language that felt super relevant right now. My biggest con was how many ableist slurs there were. Like, wow, so many.
Pretty great Edelweiss approval day, tbh. #LibrariansOfLitsy
My hold for this just came in, and I‘m so psyched to read it! I think it may be my next first chapter Friday book. #LibrariansOfLitsy
pickGosh, I loved this so much! Tehlor Kay Mejia blends Mexican folklore with fantasy, friendship, middle school weirdness, and a dash of horror and serves up a truly excellent middle grade book. I can‘t wait for this to come out so I can put it in my students‘ hands. #LibrariansOfLitsy
Spring break seems like a good time to dive into this book. A lot of teachers and librarians don‘t realize that Dr. Seuss was a white supremacist. This book delves into that and the other ways kid lit devalues the non-white global majority. #LibrariansOfLitsy
pickLove, love, love this book! It tackles so much—racism, white privilege, respectability politics, familial expectations—through the lens of gaming. I have a kid who would absolutely adore this book, and I‘m scheming how I can get it to her with school likely out for the rest of the year. #LibrariansofLitsy
pickI loved this book so much, and I‘m so sad to not be in the library to share it with my students! I did, however, immediately read the first chapter for a virtual first chapter Friday. That‘ll have to be enough for now. #LibrariansOfLitsy #AtHomeLearning
On the hype train! I love Tehlor Kay Mejia and am so psyched to read her middle grade!
I‘m on a roll with middle grade, so I‘m looking forward to diving into this one!
pickI loved this! The audiobook wasn‘t doing it for me, but switching to the ebook was just what I needed. What a great story about a Pakistani girl who talks back to the wrong person and is forced to become an indentured servant to the local landlord. It‘s about relationships and courage. Highly recommend!
pickThis novella is stunning. It feels like This Is How You Lose the Time War and Sorcerer to the Crown and the Tensorate series. It‘s beautiful and fierce, and I loved every word.
