MORE '2022-REVIEWS' POSTS
A book about sexual abuse by trusted family members. Or, put another way, a messy, complicated, unique, necessary creation for those who will need it most.
Review of the Day – Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi
|With care, grace, and not a little cleverness, Zoboi doesn’t just introduce Butler to kids in the book Star Child. She makes it very clear from the get go that young Octavia was one of us. A supremely relatable person with a drive and output that far outstripped her times.
An accounting of a family and a tight knit community dealing with the repercussions of a hate crime, this book expertly navigates between taking into account the seriousness of the content while also punctuating it periodically with joy, laughter, and light.
I don’t do it very often, but sometimes, when the right one comes along, I’ll even review board books. Today I have discovered the wonder and beauty of Laura Gehl and Gareth Lucas’s Odd Birds.
Beware the mobs. Beware joining them. Beware and aware of what they’re capable of, and don’t disregard them either. But beware your worst instincts most of all.
What happens when a book takes tall tales and liar’s tales and then ties all of that into some of the finer examples of trash talk and blacktop exaggeration? The Legend of Gravity by Charly Palmer is that link.
The Lock-Eater is a marvelous example of how you may render old ideas new, if only you’ve the ability to combine smart, timely writing with the current zeitgeist. Our kids are lucky they get to tap into books like this. Let’s hope for more of the same.
“Maybe because blue has such a complicated history of pain, wealth, invention, and recovery, it’s become a symbol of possibility, as vast and deep as the bluest sea, and as wide open and high as the bluest sky.” I consider a truly gorgeous bit of picture book history in the magnificently written and illustrated BLUE.
Utterly carefree and ridiculous, this is a book that never takes itself too seriously. Which, naturally, means that I’m about to.
Read the plot of Kick Push on paper and it sounds like something you’ve seen a hundred times before. Read the actual book and there’s nothing to compare.