Chapter Books
Just a Girl
Lia Levi
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The story of a Jewish girl during World War II in Italy. Just a Girl was originally written for adults and has now been adapted (will illustrations, always a plus) for a young audience. One of the author’s adaptions for a younger audience was to interrupt the narrative and talk to the readers in a way I found off-putting.
Middle Grade
Ellen Outside the Lines
A.J. Sass
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Ellen is wired in a way that means she likes to know all the things ahead of time. Her trip to Spain with her classmates is a challenge. I really appreciated how this book showed a friendship transition that didn’t involve mean girl stuff.
Honey and Me
Meira Drazin
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The story of sixth grade girls in an Orthodox school, this suffers from very low stakes. It does manage to be a novel that spans a year and is well plotted, so that was a plus.
Young Adult
Burn Down, Rise Up
Vincent Tirado
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An excellent premise involving an internet challenge and the legacy of not-great-things that went down in the Bronx.
When the Angels Left the Old Country
Courtney Sacha Lamb
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A long and satisfying novel that takes readers from the old country to the new one where factory workers are trying to obtain better working conditions. But don’t go into it thinking there will be some intense labor strike scenes. It’s mostly series of long conversations between an angel and demon. And that makes it sound boring. But it’s not, it’s a very interesting book, and I’m glad it won multiple youth media awards.
Man o’ War
Cory McCarthy
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Swimming! So much good water stuff. Plus a dying midwestern aquarium and a theme of escape. This was my favorite find from the awards pile.
The Silence That Binds Us
Joanna Ho
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May’s adjustment to life after her older brother commits suicide. Complicating factors include racist assumptions by key members of the town, growing feelings for her best friend’s brother, and her own racial blindness.
Kings of B’more
R. Eric Thomas
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Harrison’s best friend Linus is moving away and, after being inspired by the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Harrison plans a big day on the town for a sendoff. This was full of fun male friendship with a sprinkling of dodging parental interference.
Grownup Fiction
Funny You Should Ask
Elissa Sussman
A then and now celebrity interview. Back then, things may have gotten intimate. Sussman is an engaging writer and it’s fun to see different life stages.
Now That You Mention It
Kristan Higgins
I grabbed this out of a Little Free Library because I was looking for books I could read and leave while on vacation. It wasn’t a good match. The drama was turned up too high for my taste and this book was centered in anti-fat bias. Plus a gastroenterologist who used the term “girl parts” and wasn’t sure where another character’s inner organs were because the person was “so fat” at 195 pounds. Also there was some really standout marginalizing of a mother living with bipolar disorder. Not for me, thanks.
Goodnight Nobody
Jennifer Weiner
This was a great vacation paring that I picked up from a thrift store. I enjoyed the stay-at-home mom who was once a reporter poking around a local murder of a stay-at-home mom. I also loved the ending, and I hear from the author’s note that a lot of people aren’t fans.
Big Summer
Jennifer Weiner
Before March 2023, I’d only read one (maybe two) other Weiner books, so I was surprised that like Goodnight Nobody, this also had to do with a not-police-or-detective character poking around a murder. Does Weiner write mysteries with normal women as gumshoes? I’ll have to explore.
In this, Weiner takes on social media influencers when Daphne agrees to be in her ex-friend’s summer wedding on Cape Cod.
Grownup Nonfiction
Find your Unicorn Space
Eve Rodinsky
For those of us who read Rodinsky’s Fair Play and thought, “A Unicorn Space? I have no idea what that would be.” Here is a book to help us figure out what their space to be creative is. (Mine is not typing up short book reviews of every book I read.)