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Tag: realistic fiction

August 11, 2023 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: Eb & Flow by Kelly J. Baptist

A book that had me laughing and biting my nails in turn. Hard to think of any other title to compare to this.

July 20, 2023 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman

I dare you to read even two chapters and not be engulfed in the narrative. Smart and savvy, Jawbreaker is the novel you wish you had read as a kid and are grateful that kids get to read today.

September 1, 2022 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: Undercover Latina by Aya de León

Ms. de León takes a learning opportunity for kids and couches it in enough chase sequences and fistfights to almost make you forget how much information is crammed into this little package. Prepare for exciting nuance!!

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Review of the Day: The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo

August 5, 2022 by Betsy Bird

From the food to the clothing, the weather to the history, this is a book worth discovering and adoring. Go on. Read it. You’ll feel lucky that you had.

Review of the Day: Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff

February 3, 2022 by Betsy Bird

I review the latest from Kyle Lukoff and, yes, there will be spoilers. A brave title for a time when we need brave books for kids more than ever.

Review of the Day: Losers at the Center of the Galaxy by Mary Winn Heider

June 10, 2021 by Betsy Bird

In an era of information overload, Mary Winn Heider is the author who will lead us through the pandemonium into the light. Hand this to the kid that wants something smart and funny with a side order of turmoil for spice.

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Review of the Day: Wink by Rob Harrell

May 28, 2020 by Betsy Bird

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.

Review of the Day: Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

May 7, 2020 by Betsy Bird

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.

Review of the Day: The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus

October 5, 2019 by Betsy Bird

You know why you haven’t heard more people talking about this book? Because nobody knows how to sell it. Well, sorry folks, but the secret is out now. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read for kids, and maybe the best school rated children’s novel I’ve encountered period. This, right here, is the book of our times.

Review of the Day: A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée

July 5, 2019 by Betsy Bird

Lisa Moore Ramée has taken the complexity of the real world, with all its police shootings and racism and destructive tendencies and made it personal for young readers. I don’t care what kid you hand this book to. Every single one of them will understand what’s going on here and, maybe, what’s going on in the wider world. The new required reading.

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