#IMWAYR March 13, 2023

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


I'm still dealing with this ear/sinus infection and ruptured eardrum. It has made it difficult to focus and concentrate. Thank goodness for lists or I would get nothing accomplished. Other than that, life is good. 

I went to a workshop last Monday and managed to get my sister's birthday present finished. Creating these mats is a brilliant way to use up fabric and batting scraps. Her birthday isn't for a couple of weeks, but I'm pretty sure she is too busy to read my blog, so I can share it with you here. 


I've started and abandoned a number of books in the past couple of weeks. They just left me feeling too anxious. One of these is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I returned the audiobook to the library and will eventually read this one with my eyes. As you can tell from the list below, I am mostly interested in nonfiction these days, although it too can ratchet up the anxiety and ire. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

RECENT POSTS

FREE VERSE FRIDAY #3 MARCH GREEN

PICTURE BOOKS


Knight Owl by Christopher Denise March 15, 2022

This is an important book. It's loaded with all kinds of important messages - about how to persevere to reach a goal, about how to deal with fear, about how to turn an enemy into a friend.
That it is gorgeously illustrated and full of humour just adds to it's appeal.

CHILDREN'S NONFICTION


Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Joe Wilson, Dean Hamer, Daniel Sousa (Illustrator) June 7, 2022

In ancient times four Mahu, two spirited (both male and female) beings, visited Honolulu. Each of them had a special power of healing. Before they left, the people brought huge stones from the mountain to Waikiki beach. These Mahu infused the stones with their power before they vanished. Over time the stones were almost forgotten, but have been returned to a place of honour. Unfortunately, the modern retelling of the story leaves out the Mahu nature of the beings. 
This book is an adaptation of animated film by the same name. The book is fine, mostly because the artwork is spectacular, but I preferred the award winning film.
 
 


ADULT NONFICTION


Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Author & Narrator) October 11, 2022

This is like a literary venn diagram with multiple narratives circling round and touching base at Orwell's roses. Then they meander off into new realms. The book delves into different aspects of Orwell's life, the times he lived in, and even into the story behind supermarket roses today.
It is fabulous!


The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R Johnson πŸ October 11, 2022

This is a book to savour - to read a bit at a time and let the teaching fill you up before you go back for more.
I thought I had a pretty good take on the power of story. Then I read this book and realized I had only scratched the surface.
Johnson shows us the power in both micro and macro aspects of story. It drives our most intimate relationships. "We are the stories we tell ourselves." Story also drives the kind of society and world we live in. "Both capitalist and socialist stories depend upon the exploitation of the earth's resources. A capitalist will cut down the last tree if there's money to be made. A socialist will cut down the last tree so long as the worker doing the cutting belongs to a trade union."
This book is full of guidelines for how to live a rich and satisfying life so that "Every one of our days should be good enough to die in.... We have to practise writing those days until we can fill our lifestory with pages so good that endings don't frighten us anymore."
And my favourite takeaway is this, “Giving a shit is a powerful story.”
I do have a few quibbles with bits of this, but if you are looking for a book to change the way you see the world, I'm pretty sure this is it.

CURRENTLY

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in A Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté, 🍁

UP NEXT 

Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah πŸ

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by  Jenny Ferguson πŸ

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 5/24

#MustReadNonFiction 2/20 2 in progress

Canadian Authors 14/75 1 in progress

Indigenous Authors 9/20 

Canada Reads Finalists 3/5

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 56/200


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FREE VERSE FRIDAY #3 MARCH GREEN

I've decided to join Beverly A Baird, Linda Schueler and others in a "year long poetry practice – on the first Friday of each Month," when they, and anyone else who joins, will be writing a poem based on the theme of the month and a photo taken relating to that theme.

You can find out more about this here.

Last time, I didn't quite get the photo part right, so I sent a half decent draft of my poem to my partner, Randy Rotheisler, and a friend, Ron Peace, both gifted photographers, asking for images to accompany it. It was fun and they are ready to continue, so I've decided to continue this process. 

While drinking my coffee, I stare out the picture window across the valley at the hills. Here in this semi dessert, they are brown almost all year round. The exceptions are when winter snow covers them, and for a brief spate of time, in spring, when fields of bunch grass, balsamroot, and a host of other wildflowers erupt out of the soil. 

As I gaze out at this grey brown landscape, I've been musing on this theme of green. This time of year, it's still illusive, more like a dream, or a memory of a dream. I had a poem almost all figured out, and then woke up twice last week to fresh dumps of snow. Enough with the white stuff already!

Anyway, here is today's poem with two images to bookend it. 

by Randy Rotheisler


not yet green

in the between of winter and spring

these,
stoic brown hills,

            oh landscape
        
                        of my heart

wait,
wait oh so,
wait oh so patient

for the just waking up spring goddess

still that old man winter
he just
he just has to have
one last temper tantrum

now, the brooding brown hills
hide, disguised in white

old man,
you’ve overstayed your welcome

step aside

she’s stirring

soon now,
 
        it won’t be long

she will rise

shoots and stalks sprouting
from the soles of her feet
as she strides 
across her dominion,

decorating these drab slopes
                                    in an exaltation
                                                          of resurrection green

by Ron Peace



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#IMWAYR February 27th, 2023

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


I had a good time with the grandkids last weekend. They sure seem to be growing up fast!


Unfortunately my respiratory tract infection turned into an ear infection and I ended up with a ruptured eardrum. Perhaps because I now can't hear out of one ear, their noise didn't bother me a bit! 
Once they returned home I managed to complete two blog posts talking about the graphic novels I read as a Cybils' Judge. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.


I would give this picture book more stars based on the artwork alone. When I read it with my two granddaughters, we were dumfounded by the glorious beauty of Chioma Ebinama's illustrations. 
The story is a simple one of a boy who loves a field where nature flourishes. Until winter comes, he revels in being the only one there. In winter however, the field is full of other children sliding down the perfect slope. His father helps him come to understand that it's not his field, and that having other people appreciate the splendour of the place is a good way to ensure it lasts.


Julie Flett's illustrations beautifully accompany Buffy Sainte-Marie's song lyrics. The love in this book seems cosmic. It feels like a love song to place, culture and the whole world, and in return, from these things to us. 
The music and lyrics are included in the book, but you can listen to it in the following video.



Two unlikely characters become friends in this sweet reader. I love Ruzzier's illustrations.

Fish and Wave by Sergio Ruzzier  May 17, 2022 4 stars

This is another book about unlikely friendship, but it's also about accepting and taking pleasure in how we are different. 

I picked these two Ruzzier titles, along with some other books from the library because my grandkids were coming for the weekend. I've increased my rating because the almost three year old had me reading it them a number of times. My five year old grandson, who was playing a game with others, kept coming over to see what was happening. 

This little reader is an adaptation of the Uni the Unicorn series created by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Brigette Barrager (Illustrator). In this book, Uni tries to figure out what to get for their perfect friend, Silkie. My oldest granddaughter was excited to see this book about unicorns, but wasn't as excited about the story, even if she could almost read it herself. 



My almost three year old granddaughter once told me, "I'm not interested in princesses and pretty things. I like monsters and dinosaurs." We just tell her it's ok to like all these things. 
Of course I had to pick up a couple of these dinosaur books from the library for her. They are ideal nonfiction titles for little people. We read them a number of times! 


GRAPHIC


I enjoyed this modern retelling of Anne of Green Gables. In this iteration, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert live in an apartment in a city. They were hoping to foster a younger child, but end up with Anne. I liked that the personality of the original Anne remains mostly intact in this book. I like that there is more diversity in the different characters (even if it is only skin colour deep.) I was delighted to see the same kinds of conflicts in the original books played out in a modern setting. I'm still struggling with the ending. In my youth I read every book in the series, so for me, it strays a little too far from the original romantic arc for Anne and Gilbert. I've asked my queer niece who is a librarian what she thinks about it, but she hasn't read it yet. I suspect it's just nostalgia that's getting in my way of fully appreciating this version. 

This book is a prequel to the Shadow and Bone series.
"Before he led Ravka’s Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power." I really enjoyed learning more about the villain from the later books, and even came to have sympathy for him. Dani Pendergast's artwork is just spectacular!

 ADULT YA NOVELS


This book is way far out of my comfort zone. If it wasn't a Canada Reads finalist, I'm sure I would never have made it beyond when the protagonist, NoemΓ­, begins to have nightmares. Now I'm really glad I finished it. At first I wasn't sure how the book pertains to this years theme of shifting perspective. However, once I was removed from the aftermath of immediate trauma, (I don't read horror at all) I began to see that while this book is of the horror genre, it's so much more. It highlights the actual horror inherent in systems of patriarchy and misogyny, classism, racism, and capitalism. Sometimes you have to see these things from a distance to recognize how close they are to you, or at least to see them in a new light.

ADULT MEMOIR

4 stars

Half Bads in White Regalia by Cody Caetano πŸ May 31, 2022

I was gobsmacked by the writing in the this one. I wish I had it as an audiobook since it reads like poetry. Yet at the same time as I was in thrall of the word-smithing, I was horrified for Cody Caetano and his siblings. It's a memoir about growing up in a family with two essentially incompetent parents. At one point in the book Cody Caetano and his two older siblings were abandoned in their family's deteriorating home. They were without electricity, heat, and food, in a mould infested water soaked house. I am in awe of how much love overflows, in spite of how violent and crazy it all was. It's a testimony to the influence of the author's older sister that the siblings turned out so well. 

CURRENTLY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R Johnson πŸ
If you are looking for a book to change the way you see the world, I'm pretty sure this is it. 

Dead City by James Ponti

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye πŸ
I've had to put this book on hold while I finish reading the Canada Reads finalists. Also, it is way to intense for me to finish when I'm not feeling well. 

UP NEXT 

Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah πŸ

Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 5/24

#MustReadNonFiction 0/20 1 in progress

Canadian Authors 14/75 2 in progress

Indigenous Authors 5/20 1 in progress

Canada Reads Finalists 3/5

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 52/200


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Cybils Finalists: 2022 Young Adult Graphic Novels

 "At its heart, the Cybils Awards is a group of readers passionate about seeking out and recognizing books that portray diversity, inclusion, and appropriate representation for children and teens. To accomplish that goal, the Cybils Awards works to recognize books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal."


Since 2017 I have been a round two judge in the graphic novel category for the Cybils Awards. This means we get to read the finalists. We choose two awards - one for Elementary Readers and one for Young Adults. While we are reading the finalists, we are unable to share our reviews of them. Over the years I have created a rubric that I fill in as I am reading. I also write notes that may or may not reference these categories. If you are wondering how to evaluate a graphic novel, there is some good information here. 

These finalists are high caliber and brilliant in their own way! We have to be pretty fastidious in our evaluations of them. Sometimes it's agonizing to narrow it down to just one book. 
If you are a librarian of any kind, and don't have these titles, you should add them to your must purchase list. 


Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

This is a story about friendship against a backdrop of war. It highlights the evil perpetuated on both sides of the conflict. In the middle of it exists Lu's colony - a utopian environment where people can grow into who they truly want to become without living in fear. 
Early in the book Lu, and Fassen, part of the rebel army, meet and become friends. They manage to stay in touch across time and space - growing up under the influence of different cultures and systems.
The art is just gorgeous. The colours are beautiful. I like the use of different colours to show different places. I love the diversity in the characters - skin colour, body shapes, & gender. I like that all this is really irrelevant to the story. Unfortunately, I found this one confusing. A lot of times I had no idea what was going on. Some it was because the frames are very busy with minimal neutral space. At other times - especially the wordless action scenes, it was a challenge to even guess what was happening. While the text was readable, it is small, and some panels are heavy with it. The gutters are very small and sometimes the white disappears and they almost bleed into each other. It contributes to making it very busy.


The Greatest Thing by Sarah Winifred Searle

Ultimately, this is a story of friendship. Winifred's two best friends have moved to a private school and she starts the school year feeling alone. As she supports other students in her independent study time, she makes new friends. The novel follows the progression of this friendship across one year.
I liked the character development of Win. She grew a lot from the beginning of the book to the end. There are a lot of things to unpack here: mental health issues that include anxiety, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. It addresses gender fluidity, sexual attraction, and romantic love. I like that therapy and medication are shown as a way to deal with the mental health issues. I like that aside from April's parents, all the adults in this book are smart, compassionate, and caring.
I liked parts of the art. I loved the zine illustrations. I liked how the images become black and white when referencing the past. I liked the soft pastels in the backgrounds and neutral spaces and how these contrasted with the characters. Unfortunately, the facial expressions of the different characters didn't work for me.


Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy

Huda, her four sisters, and their parents have just moved to the town of Dearborn, Michigan, a small town with a large Muslim population. This story (a fictionalized version of her own life) follows her across the span of a year. She struggles to fit in, make friends, and be a good Muslim. Along the way she has to deal with racism on the outside, and her lack of self confidence on the inside.

This is a complicated coming of age novel. Figuring out who you are is one of the big jobs for everyone at this time in a person's life! (Actually, this is really an ongoing issue)
I like that we get a strong sense of what Huda's life is like. She comes across as a solid person dealing with the kinds of issues most readers will connect to, even if they are not Muslim. The microaggressions - especially name mispronunciation, are one aspect that other people will relate too. Fitting in and feeling like you belong is another.
The book contains lot of negative space, but it works with the abstract art style. Yet there are times when the abstractness distracted me from the story. In a couple of places the open mouths merged with the hijab. I was also distracted by the amorphous hands. Also, I never understood what was going on with the one sister who is only shown in outline.


M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton

Flora, a scientist, manages to bring Maura, her dead sister back to life, but the person who wakes up has no memories, or even the aptitude of her. With the threat of being taken apart and worked on again, and with the help of Maura's ghost, M manages to fake it for a while. Eventually she can't keep the subterfuge up and has a major falling out with Flora and Maura. In the end, Maura, and Flora, with the help of her partner, come to accept that M is a person in her own right.

This is Interesting remake of Frankenstein. In this instance, rather than community being afraid of her, they wanted her to be someone else. In this way it addresses the coming of age issues of adolescence: figuring out who you are away from what/who the significant others in your life want you to be. There is also the issue of Flora's guilt to be resolved. It would be interesting to pair this up with the original.

The world building is mostly good, but the concept of magical science isn't really clear to me. The characters are well developed, although there was some muddle at first figuring out the difference between the two sisters. I am a huge fan of green and loved the shades in here, yet I'm meh about so much of it, and don't like that the cover doesn't match. It is full of diversity in that there are both asian and queer characters. While I appreciated the story line and was connected to M, I wish there was more to this.


Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American by Laura Gao

This is a rich and complex memoir. Laura Gao was born in Wuhan province in China. Her parents left her behind when they moved to the United States. When she was four they brought her to live with them in Texas where she was surrounded by white people. While she was struggling to learn English, a new baby arrived. Fitting in became her goal. Yuyang became Laura.
She spent the next 20 or so years negotiating her identity. It isn't until she was in college that she managed to address her internalized racism and connect with her Chinese roots. She found belonging in the Chinese diaspora there. All this intersects with coming to grips with her queer identity. The story flips back and forth in time, but it isn't jarring.
Laura Gao's story is eminently readable. I appreciated the use of different types and colours of font to acknowledge different languages. I love the direct honesty. I especially loved the warm colour palette in this book and the contrast between these warm colours with the blues and greens. She uses different coloured backgrounds to reference different settings. Wuhan is pastel green. America is white. I adored that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is mentioned as an important book.
This wasn't my choice as winner, but I'm happy it won. 


Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely

When she was in college, there was a mass shooting at Kindra Neely's school. It traumatized her. At one point she started to commit suicide. Thinking about a friend changed her mind. She thought she would recover, but suffered from ongoing PTSD. When she graduated from college and went off to study art, things got worse. Eventually she got help and created this graphic novel to help other survivors.
This book was profound. It takes us inside the mind of a survivor of a mass shooting. Readers become aware of the long term consequences of what it means to live through such an event. It shows us the crassness of politicians, the media, the NRA, and even those who claim to be on your side.
I liked how the colours change based on how Kindra was feeling and what was going on in the story. It enhanced the mood of the book and build connections.
With shootings in schools and other public space in the US continuing unabated, this is an important book not only for other survivors, but for everyone in the country. People need to understand what is happening to our children. 
This was my first choice to win - mostly because as someone from the outside looking at the school shootings in the USA, it felt like the most pertinent book.   



Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes & Dawud Anyabwile

Tommie Smith tells the story of his life. He was born into a sharecropper's life. When the family was forced to move, he finally went to school full time. He got involved in athletics and ended up winning all kinds of scholarships to university. At university he focused on track and field at the same time as he became involved in politics. Eventually he became an athlete and was chosen to participate in the 1968 summer Olympics. He and John Carlos were the two medal winners who raised black gloved fists int he air. That action cost both of them dearly. (They don't mention it in the book - but Peter Norman, the Australian who won silver, also suffered because he was wearing a Black Human rights badge.)
This biography is an important one. While it has been told in other iterations, the graphic novel format introduces YA readers today both to the history of life for Black people in America, and introduces them to a remarkable true superhero to look up to. I remember the furor over the salute, but this narrative introduced me to the man behind this action and the consequences of it.
Dawud Anyabwile's art is brilliant. It has a plethora of characters, yet he manages to make each one of them unique. The choice to do this in black and white is a powerful symbol of the reality of America then and now.
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Cybils Finalists: 2022 Elementary Graphic Novels

"At its heart, the Cybils Awards is a group of readers passionate about seeking out and recognizing books that portray diversity, inclusion, and appropriate representation for children and teens. To accomplish that goal, the Cybils Awards works to recognize books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal."


Since 2017 I have been a round two judge in the graphic novel category for the Cybils Awards. This means we get to read the finalists. We choose two awards - one for Elementary Readers and one for Young Adults. While we are reading the finalists, we are unable to share our reviews of them. Over the years I have created a rubric that I fill in as I am reading. I also write notes that may or may not reference these categories. If you are wondering how to evaluate a graphic novel, there is some good information here. 

These finalists are high caliber and brilliant in their own way! We have to be pretty fastidious in our evaluations of them. Sometimes it's agonizing to narrow it down to just one book. 

If you are a librarian of any kind, and don't have these titles, you should add them to your must purchase list. 


5 stars

The Flamingo: A Graphic Novel Chapter Book by Guojing September 20, 2022

A young girl travels alone to visit her Lao Lao (Grandmother.) While she is there her Lao Lao tells her the story of how as a young girl she found a flamingo egg on a beach after a storm. She tended to the egg until it hatched into a flamingo. She continued to nurture it until it took to the skies and left her. When the girl returns to her home in the city, she creates an imaginary story continuing the adventures of the flamingo.

I adore this book. The art and the story are exceptional. It's a celebration of family, of love, and of imagination. As a grandmother, I'm partial to intergenerational relationships, so this grandmother/granddaughter connection gives me all the feels.
The issue is this: is it a graphic novel or is it a picture book? It doesn't seem to fit into this category at all. It's almost completely wordless to start. Yet it is structured with the action taking place inside a graphic novel format. 
If I was still working, I would definitely purchase it and add it to the other wordless picture books that I used to stimulate story writing.


5 stars

Invisible: A Graphic Novel by Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein (Illustrations) August 02, 2022

This bilingual tale (Spanish and English) is the story of a crew of Latine students who end up working together in their school cafeteria for community service.
We come to see them as unique individuals with different kinds of struggles, but just like the homeless mother and child they try to help, their differences are invisible to their supervisor who assumes they are all the same.
Gonzalez & Epstein get so much right here. I just love how well each of these characters is developed and how each of their stories and perspectives unfold seamlessly in the narrative. I love the way cells that deal with the characters have just coloured backgrounds, while others provide the bigger picture/setting. It's beautifully coloured and the simplicity of these backgrounds makes it easier to focus on the actual story. I adore how the bilingual text is set up to show a character's actual words in solid speech bubbles with the translation in dotted line. I like the variation in how the frames are laid out to direct our focus to a specific end point in the pages.
At the same time as this is a brilliant story of a group of teens overcoming obstacles and becoming friends, it's also a lesson for all of us to look behind the surface. It's there not only in how Ms Grouser is blind to their differences, but also in our own expectations of what will happen when a group of kids are called down to the office.
I'm really glad I nominated this book. I'm ecstatic that it won.

4 stars

Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case

In this dystopian graphic novel, something has happened to the sun. All mammals who went out in it died. Most people now live underground and only come out at night. This story focuses on a woman, Flora, and 10 year old Elvie, who are able to live in daylight because of a medicine Flora created. It is made from monarch butterfly scales. Flora is also working on a vaccine. They have to be wary of marauding bands who attack, kill, and even eat others.

At one of their stops, after they survive an earthquake and tsunami, they find a toddler who they name Sito. Against Flora's orders, Elvie leaves a message and some medicine in case the child's parents show up. Eventually these adults do arrive, but they have ulterior motives. They plan to get rid of Flora and Elvie and start making the medicine themselves. They abandon Lewis, one of their own, by the side of the road, and almost kidnap Elvie, but she manages to rescue herself and Sito.

After a rough time in the wild, the two of them reunite with Flora and Lewis. They travel south following the Monarch route and end up staying in an abandoned mansion where Flora comes up with a vaccine. Then disaster strikes. Lewis is killed, and the three of them flee to a cave where they can over winter and follow the monarch route the next fall. The vaccine works and they are vaccinated, so they head off to Mexico in hopes of reuniting with Elvie's parents.

I liked a lot about this one. Picking up on the monarch colouring, the art is just gorgeous. I like that there is diversity, yet aside from Lewis being Latine, the only non white is Elvie. The story didn't grab me initially due to being turned off by the amount of text on some of the pages. When I finally connected to Elvie, I was pretty much driven to finish. 

5 stars

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas May 17, 2022

Bree and her single parent father are moving to Florida. She is worried, but ends up meeting Clara, a girl from her new school, in the lobby of their building. When all the other clubs Bree is interested in are full, she ends up in Swim Club. Not only can Bree not swim, she's afraid of the water. The only good thing is that Clara is also a member. After cutting swim club enough times, her father finds out and hires Etta, an older swimmer, to teach her to swim.
No one is more surprised than Bree when she makes it on the school swim team, the Mighty Manatees. A group of mean girls at Holyoke Prep, a private school with top of the line amenities, go our of their way to harass the swimmers from the public school. Things start looking up when their coach enlists Etta's help with the team, but the team itself still can't seem to come together to support one another. It isn't until Bree goes out of her way to locate the members of Etta's swimming team, that her own team begins to coalesce.
I swear this book is better second time around. I appreciated just how many important issues are broached and how many important messages are revealed. It addresses racism with respect to swimming and why so many black people never learned how. It looks at white privilege. It demonstrates that teams and groups are influenced by those who hold power. It shows what can happen when people really work together. It's about the power of friendship and mentorship. I adore the relationships between the generations. I like the relationship between Bree and her father. He works too much, but still does his best to support his daughter. I also really liked the intergenerational friendship between Etta and Bree.
One of the things I liked about the font was how it showed Bree's self doubt and negativity in dark capital letter text inside overwhelming grey clouds. I appreciated the cultural authenticity in the food and that it has it's own unique labels.
I liked the bright colourful artwork. I especially admired the yellow of the Mighty Manatees compared to the other teams. On top of all the history and drama, Johnnie Christmas has added strong character development. I loved that ending with Bree and her father.

4 stars

Squire by Sara Alfageeh, Nadia Shammas March 8, 2022

Aiza, a member of the subjugated Ornu people, dreams of becoming a knight. It's the only way she will ever attain citizenship in the Bayt-Sajji Empire. When she finally gets her chance, she discovers that it's much more brutal, complicated, and full of treachery, than she could have ever imagined.

I liked this one well enough. The antiwar, don't trust authority, get to know what's behind a label, messages are relevant. The spunky girl hero is always appealing. I liked the additional information in the back matter. I'm not sure that's relevant to the quality of the book though.
I really appreciated the world building in this one. While the characters have their own personalities, I don't think there is enough discrepancy in the characters' faces. I regularly had to double check who a character was supposed to be. This might be an issue because I finished Victory. Stand! a YA title, just before starting this. 
I hope there is a sequel to this. 
Committee members wondered why this wasn't in the YA category. 

4 stars

Wingbearer by Marjorie M. Liu & Teny Issakhanian (Illustrations) March 1, 2022

Zuli, a young girl, is raised in a tree by birds. Souls of other birds visit before they are reborn. When souls stop coming and the tree starts dying, she sets off to find out what is wrong and save the birds. A guardian owl accompanies her. In time they connect up with a goblin and other mythical creatures. 
It turns out that the party is being pursued by a Queen who wants to capture Zuli alive. We don't learn why until the end.

This is gorgeous to look at. The use of colour is brilliant. The first pages without out gutters in the usual sense are just stunning. Yet, as much as I was enthralled by this, it is very busy. It took me a while to get into this book. I had a bit of trouble keeping track of the characters. (Mostly I got the goblin and the captain mixed up.)
Rating the plot is difficult since it feels like the story is just getting started. I really hate, (almost as much as the spider trope,) that it ends in a cliff hanger.


4 stars

The Woman in the Woods and Other North American Stories by Kate Ashwin (Editor) et al

This is a collection of short stories/myths from Indigenous and Black cultures. I was half in love with this book as soon as I saw the beauty of the cover image. Alas, the inside artwork was limited to black and white.  I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I like that these stories involve queer characters. I like that the stories come from different nations. 
I think at least part of my difficulty with this collection, is that I compared the art work to that of graphic artist, Natasha Donovan, a truly brilliant Indigenous illustrator. I also recollected the book, This Place: 150 Years Retold, a collection of stories from Indigenous cultures. It won the Cybils award in 2019. This book just doesn't compare.
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#IMWAYR February 13, 2023

 Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

I am fighting another respiratory tract infection. After two weeks I finally called the doctor and started antibiotics. The upshot is that I have not been able to focus on much of anything, never mind my reading. I especially haven't been able to handle anything that makes me anxious!

I almost passed on this weeks post, but next week is Family Day here in British Columbia, and my sons are arriving with their kids. It will be glorious mayhem, but given that they leave on Monday, there will be no writing time. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.


PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers by Lina al-Hathloul, Uma Mishra-Newbery & Rebecca Green (Illustrator) February 8, 2022

Loujain, a young girl, yearns to fly. She longs to see the colours of the world only available to those who can. She is told that this is something only boys can do. Eventually her father breaks tradition and teaches his daughter. This in turn leads to other girls getting wings.
This book is a metaphor for the real Loujain's experiences. When the book was written, the author's sister, Loujain al-Hathloul, was still in prison in Saudi Arabia for campaigning to lift Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving. A note in the back matter reveals that she has been released from prison but lives under extreme constraints.

4.5 stars

Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn by Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham (Illustrations) March 8, 2022
I love the feminist messages in this book about friendship, about not needing to be perfect, about being good enough just as you are. I read the digital version, but plan to have a hard copy here from the library when my unicorn crazed granddaughter arrives next weekend. LeUyen Pham's illustrations are delightful as usual.

"Rooted in the historical displacement and relocation of members of the Chemawawin First Nation from their ancestral homeland, The Move is a bilingual story of two Cree Elders adjusting to life in their new environment."
In this illustrated short story, an elderly couple are moved from their abundant homeland to a barren landscape. Over time and help from the spirit world it is gradually transformed into a landscape populated with trees and berries that enable them to live the kind of life they once did. In turn they teach their grandchildren about the old ways.
I didn't rate this because my library only had a digital book. It sucks compared to the actual hard copy. In the digital book the illustrations look like tiny inserts. It's really a shame because Alyssa Koski's artwork in the actual book is gorgeous!


GRAPHIC


4 stars

Crunch by Kayla Miller by August 30, 2022

Olive is the kind of person who gets excited about new ideas and ventures. When she ends up taking on too many out of school projects, she gets overwhelmed. Eventually she learns to let go of those things she isn't passionate about, ask for help with other endeavours, and focus on what is important.
These are important thing to learn at any age!

 ADULT YA NOVELS


When I discovered I had not read this Rivers of London novel by Ben Aaronovitch, I was absolutely delighted. I very nearly swooned to discover that the audiobook version, narrated by the absolutely brilliant Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, was available at my library. 
I am probably such a fan of this series that I'm incapable of any kind of rational review.
Peter Grant is an ordinary constable who joins a special unit in the police department where he becomes a magician's apprentice. He and his mentor, Thomas Nightingale, solve crimes in London and other regions in England that are beyond the ken of regular policing. This literary world is populated by river Gods and Goddesses and all manner of otherworldly creatures. In this novel, Peter's former work partner, Leslie, in a heist gone wrong, has unleashed some kind of avenging angel. This creature is targeting and murdering people in London. Not even Peter's boss, Thomas Nightingale, has the power to stop her. Peter has to come up with a plan to stop her ASAP since Beverly, his River Goddess partner, is about to give birth to their twin daughters.
Now I just have to wait for June when the next in this series will be ready!

CURRENTLY

Half Bads in White Regalia by Cody Caetano πŸ
I am gobsmacked by the writing in the this one. Yet at the same time as I am in thrall of the word-smithing, I'm horrified for the characters. 

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye πŸ
This is not a book for escapist enjoyment. It's bloody, brutal and full of tension. I was too sick this week to handle the intensity of it for more than a bit at a time. 

UP NEXT 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia πŸ
Greenwood by Michael Christie πŸ

READING GOALS 

#MustReadFiction 5/24

#MustReadNonFiction 0/20

Canadian Authors 10/75

Indigenous Authors 4/20

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 41/200


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