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“Their story does not begin with whips and chains”. Today I review a marvelous testament to not just the power of reclaiming your own story, but the story of your ancestors as well.
This is the fun, fast-paced, witty, and not too long adventure novel you’ve been searching for. Chock full of jokes and characters you grow to love.
The publisher sold this book to me as Doll Bones with a trans narrative and maybe that’s the best description you should hope for. Smart. Original. Necessary. Thank god we have this book now.
Read this book to a child when you yourself need to remember that the world is full of horrible, wonderful, complicated people and that there are millions of their stories out there just waiting to be learned.
Created by the crackerjack team of Venable and Yue, this daring duo introduces the world to small, furry New York City superheroes and the catsitter that gets caught up in the action.
Let’s hand Omar to as many kinds as we can name. Because as far as I’m concerned, funny books that also prove to be smart and socially conscious (not to mention anti-racist) might help us get out of the mess this world is in.
We may have spent the better part of Poetry Month sheltering in place, but that doesn’t mean poetry went to sleep. Instead, books like this one have just been biding their time. Go out. Find it. Discover it. And discover why a book this good deserves some keen adjectives in its arsenal.
They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the bit of lighthearted levity we all need and crave.
Not every 12-year-old is going to be ready for the abuse and pain addressed in Bradley’s latest. But for those kids that want a book can be honest with them about the world, written at their age-level, with funny parts and a happy ending where things get better, this is that book. It ain’t easy but it’s there for you.
I honestly think there’s a value in teaching kids the fact that the more you learn, the more you will realize just how much you do not know. That there’s always room for more knowledge. And Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy is a gorgeously wrought, simply written, smart story that does the work of engaging and informing kids alongside their ill-informed parents.