Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: Book Review
2 Stars. I imagine that this book is a fantastic choice for a book club or assigned reading but I, as a solo reader, just found it confusing. The plot jumped around with little resolution, characters appeared and disappeared, and I couldn’t find an entry point to understanding it. To be fair, it’s written in an […]
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck: Book Review
4 Stars. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book but I ultimately found it to be a surprisingly touching story of a boy on the cusp of manhood. Robert is fairly innocent in the ways of the world (he thinks that the tiny town of Rutledge, Vermont is almost as big as London). But he also has a practical knowledge of […]
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds: Book Review
5 Stars. Holy cow. Can I give this book all the stars? Because five doesn’t seem like enough. Written by a Black author and a White author, All American Boys covers all the nuances of a scene that’s shamefully familiar to the American public–a policeman beating and/or killing a Black man. Rashad shows signs of PTSD. His older […]
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: Book Review
4 Stars. I’ll be honest–I fully expected to dislike this book. I only decided to read it to see why it’s always on lists of banned/challenged books. You can’t even begin to imagine my surprise when I immediately clicked with Holden. Is he young and judgmental? Yes. But he’s broken and feels the world deeply. He sees all the ways we hurt […]
The Giver by Lois Lowry: Book Review
4 Stars. This was published in 1993, when I was 15 years old, and I must have just barely missed having it as assigned reading in school. While it’s probably a classic to many of you, this was the first time I’ve read it. I was surprised by how unsettling it is. Jonas’s world seems almost perfect at first. Everyone apologizes […]
Drama by Raina Telgemeier: Book Review
4 Stars. I liked Callie and her theatre geek crew! (I was a band geek myself.) Callie is outgoing and unashamedly enthusiastic in her passions. She’s a great friend and encourages others at every opportunity. She’s also in 7th grade, at an age when boys and girls are developing school romances. This group of schoolmates sure […]
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: Book Review
3 Stars. I’m just not the reader for magical realism in literature. Oh, I do just fine with Sarah Addison Allen’s light touches of fantasy in otherwise contemporary novels. But a huge black beast of an unknown species adopting a family? Spirits wandering the house? Curses? Mermaid girls? All in dark historical fiction? I just […]
Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle: Book Review
Little Betty and Billy choose Walter and bring him home from the animal shelter. Mom makes them give Walter a bath because he smells so bad. But they quickly realize that the problem is deeper than that: Walter is a farting dog. Billy and Betty don’t mind but their parents can’t take it. They try to fix the problem with visits […]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: Book Review
Ugh. This book. There was so much meat to dig into and at the same time it is not aging well. Not aging well at all. I apologize in advance for the length of this review essay. I’ve tried to cut it down but I have a lot to say….
This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman: Book Review
The rhyming couplets and colorful pictures in this book are sure to please little readers (or listeners, as the case may be). The parade is full of colorful characters, some in fancy dress, others in outfits that can be found at a Village People concert, but all happy and excited to be a part of this celebration. The illustrator […]
Melissa (Formerly Published as George) by Alex Gino: Book Review
Oh my goodness. I inhaled this book in just a few hours and it left me with so much joy for George, I was almost in tears. George is afraid to tell anyone that she’s really a girl. What will they think? But as she slowly starts to share her secret, she finds so much love and acceptance. The road isn’t perfectly smooth—that would […]