Category Archives: Nonfiction

Review: Boy vs. Shark by Paul Gilligan

Book Review and Content, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Historical, Memoir, Middle Grade 8-12, Nonfiction, , , , ,
Boy vs. Shark by Paul Gilligan

Boy vs. Shark
Paul Gilligan
Tundra Books
Published October 15, 2024

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About Boy vs. Shark

A hilarious middle-grade graphic memoir about boyhood, toxic masculinity and a shark named Jaws. For fans of Guts and New Kid.

In the summer of 1975, 10-year-old Paul Gilligan doesn’t have a whole lot to worry about other than keeping his comic books untarnished, getting tennis balls off roofs and keeping up with the increasingly bold stunts of his best friend, David.

And then Jaws comes to town.

Suddenly everyone is obsessing over this movie about a shark ripping people to pieces. And if you haven’t seen it, not only are you missing out, you’re also kind of a wimp.

Needless to say, Jaws leaves young Paul a cowering mess, and underlines the growing gap between him and David as well as the distance between where he stands and the world’s expectations of a boy’s “manliness.”

And when Jaws himself becomes a kind of macho Jiminy Cricket for Paul, what is a scared and overwhelmed boy to do?

My Review

I really like the way that the author handled references to the movie Jaws in the text. Some of the characters verbally reference different scenes. After Paul watches the movie, he relates what happens in some of the scenes with balloon animals as characters. The absurdity of the images helps keep the content from being scary and overwhelming. I thought that was a really nice touch.

I also appreciated the complexity of the relationships in the novel, especially Paul’s relationship with his dad. Paul’s dad embraces some toxic ideas about who Paul should be as a young man, which causes Paul a lot of stress. At the same time, though, his dad imparts a strong ethic of personal responsibility, which helps guide Paul through a difficult situation.

It’s always great to see three-dimensional parent characters in Kidlit, and in this instance, the fact that the ideals Paul’s dad holds up as masculine are not all good or all bad makes it easier to understand Paul’s feelings of confusion and hurt when he doesn’t perfectly fit his father’s ideals.

I really enjoyed this graphic memoir. The use of the movie worked really well to illustrate the theme, and Gilligan creates a compelling balance of humor and heart in his exploration of masculine values and growing up.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 12.

Representation
Paul’s best friends are an Asian American boy and a Black boy.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to plot points from the movie Jaws. Some bullying in which an older boy makes comments about a younger kid. A boy manipulates others into stealing something from a store.

Drug Content
In one scene, a boy has a bottle of wine under his shirt, which he drops.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Why We Read by Shannon Reed

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Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
Shannon Reed
Hanover Square Press
Published February 6, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Why We Read

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile and Thurber Prize finalist.

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human.

Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader, and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In this whip-smart, laugh-out-loud-funny collection, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students. From the varied novels she cherishes ( Gone Girl , Their Eyes Were Watching God ) to the ones she didn’t ( Tess of the d’Urbervilles ), Reed takes us on a rollicking tour through the comforting world of literature, celebrating the books we love, the readers who love them, and the surprising ways in which literature can transform us for the better.

My Review

I finally read this book! I borrowed the ebook version from my library several times and couldn’t finish it within the loan time, so I ended up buying the audiobook version, and that was definitely the way to go for me.

The book’s description calls it “hilarious,” and, while there were some moments that made me laugh, I don’t know if I would call it hilarious. Like, it’s got great humor, but I feel like the author’s goal might be more in the realm of poignance than hilarity, and I think she succeeds at that. She shares experiences she has had as a reader that will be familiar to many bookish people:

  • Weeping over a sad book.
  • The discovery of a favorite author.
  • The sometimes pretentious way that people can be about certain kinds of literature. *cough* Classics. *cough*
  • Trying to navigate one’s personal triggers in literature, especially in what’s assigned in school/college.
  • The impact of grief on the experience of reading or rereading a beloved book.

It was really fun reading a book that so thoroughly examines our draw toward stories and our sometimes complicated relationship with literature and books. I enjoyed the anecdotes from the author’s experience as a literature professor and her memories of her childhood as a reader.

In one chapter, she talks about her grief over the loss of her dad and how that impacted her reading. Wow. That one hit me hard. Her experience really resonated with me in terms of how grief makes it hard to engage with stories sometimes. I remember really struggling after a pregnancy loss because it seemed like every book my daughter wanted to read included a pregnant character or reference to one.

If reading or books have been an important part of your life, I think you’ll enjoy this one. The chapters each focus on a different reason for reading. Some will resonate more with academic readers, but others will resonate perfectly with casual readers or people recognized by their local librarians.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The author is a white woman who was born with hearing loss.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Vague references to romantic plot elements from books here or there.

Spiritual Content
Reed writes about her experience growing up as the daughter of a pastor, and her grief over the loss of her father.

Violent Content
Occasional vague references to violent plot elements (such as murder) from books.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Cherished Belonging by Gregory Boyle

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times
Gregory Boyle
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published November 5, 2024

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About Cherished Belonging

At a time when society is more fractured than ever before, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle invites us to see the world through a new lens of connection and build the loving community that we long to live in—a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr. 

Over the past thirty years, Father Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering (1) Everyone is unshakably good (no exceptions) and (2) we belong to each other (no exceptions).

Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing. Every community wants to be a safe place, where people are seen, and then are cherished. By remembering that we belong to each other, we find our way out of chaos and its dispiriting tribalism. Pooka, a former gang member who now oversees the program’s housing division, puts it “Here, love is our lens. It’s how we see things.”

In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a subversive spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community isn’t just a space for an individual to heal, but for people to join together and heal each other in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. “The answer to every question is, indeed, compassion,” Boyle exhorts. He calls us to cherish and nurture the connections that are all around us and live with radical kindness.

My Review

Cherished Belonging is the fourth book by Gregory Boyle that I’ve read, and I’ve read his first three books as audiobooks multiple times each. I love his emphasis on loving others and the importance of learning from others and approaching every relationship ready to learn something. In this book, he focuses on two central ideas: that each of us is good and that we belong to one another. He posits that if we could truly grasp and remember those things, we’d solve the world’s problems.

I went back and forth between the audiobook and the ebook versions of this book. (I received the ebook version through NetGalley but purchased the audiobook version myself.) I liked being able to read the text more slowly, stopping to think about the ideas Boyle presents and then return to the beginning of a chapter and listen to the author read the audiobook version.

Viewing Others Compassionately

I struggled with some of the concepts in the book. He labels believing conspiracies or behaving in racist ways as evidence of mental illness. No one whole/well, he writes, would do those things.

I think I understand what he’s trying to say, but for me, this bumped against some of the ways people have used mental illness as a scapegoat for terrible things, which adds to the stigma of mental illness.

The way that he writes about mental illness makes it clear that there should be no stigma. This isn’t about blaming people for being unwell or anything. It’s about looking at people who act out of anger or hate and seeing that through a lens that acknowledges that they’ve been hurt or are not thinking clearly or seeing others clearly. They’ve forgotten that we belong to one another.

Nevertheless, if you have feelings about the way that language surrounding mental health issues is used, this is going to be, at best, a challenging read. I’m not sure what I would think if this was the first book by this author that I picked up.

On the other hand, I think Gregory Boyle raises many great questions and offers some profound insight into the cultural moment in which we stand. He specifically talks about how we tend to wear clothing with messaging and its impact on people around us. He pulls quotes and wisdom from many different spiritual disciplines, connecting truths from many different perspectives across time and faiths.

Conclusion

I don’t think I would describe this book as my favorite of the four I’ve read by this author. It might be the one that made me think the most, though. The most critical aspects of faith that I’m currently pursuing are loving others and understanding God’s love for us. The book offers some profound insights on both those topics, and I enjoyed reading it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Boyle (a white man) shares the stories of an inclusive group of homies who work at Homeboy Industries, including Black, Latine, and Asian people.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some use of swearing.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Boyle is a Jesuit priest and shares his worldview in the text. It’s an inclusive, loving, and affirming faith. He emphasizes a belief in the goodness of all, no exceptions, and that we belong to each other. He asserts that the wrongs in the world relate to people being unwell and/or forgetting those ideas.

Violent Content
References to gang violence, abuse, and domestic violence.

Drug Content
References to people using drugs or drinking alcohol (not shown on scene).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: True or False by Cindy L. Otis

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True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News
Cindy L. Otis
Feiwel & Friends
Published July 28, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News

“If I could pick one book to hand to every teen—and adult—on earth, this is the one. True or False is accessible, thorough, and searingly honest, and we desperately needed it.” —Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“Though billed for young adults, this is a book that every adult should read.” –The Washington Post

A former CIA analyst unveils the true history of fake news and gives readers tips on how to avoid falling victim to it in this highly designed informative YA nonfiction title.

“Fake news” is a term you’ve probably heard a lot in the last few years, but it’s not a new phenomenon. From the ancient Egyptians to the French Revolution to Jack the Ripper and the founding fathers, fake news has been around as long as human civilization. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up on the idea of finding the truth.

In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis will take readers through the history and impact of misinformation over the centuries, sharing stories from the past and insights that readers today can gain from them. Then, she shares lessons learned in over a decade working for the CIA, including actionable tips on how to spot fake news, how to make sense of the information we receive each day, and, perhaps most importantly, how to understand and see past our own information biases, so that we can think critically about important issues and put events happening around us into context.

True or False includes a wealth of photo illustrations, informative inserts, and sidebars containing interesting facts and trivia sure to engage readers in critical thinking and analysis.

My Review

Oof. This book was such a wild ride for me. It was great. Seriously, it’s got a ton of great information and has a great way of zooming out on history and looking at trends in news content in terms of sensational, emotional news versus spare, facts-only information.

One of the things that I took away from the book is that we’ve been around this mountain before. We’ve seen news outlets push deeper and deeper into rumor-based, fear-focused journalism. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care or be concerned. But having the perspective of history did help me feel less overwhelmed and offer some hope.

Additionally, Otis offers a lot of clear, specific tips on how to check to see if content is fake or fact. She talks about how to respond when you spot a hoax being shared online.

Though a lot of that information was at least a little familiar to me, I liked having all those tips available in one place so that I can flip back through them periodically.

I will note that the book was published in 2020, and one section talks about using the blue verification check on Twitter to tell if an account is actually the person it claims to be. Now that Twitter’s rules have changed and that verification mark can be purchased, I don’t know that it’s a way to prove the identity of an account anymore. The verification requirements say that an account can’t be misleading, but it doesn’t make it clear that identity is confirmed as a part of the process.

Other than that section, I thought the information was still super useful. This is a great book to give a teen who is looking for resources on this topic. I think adults could benefit from the information as well.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The author is a wheelchair user and CIA analyst. She makes reference to events around the world in which the spread or control of information or disinformation have had an impact on society and culture.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to romantic partnerships.

Spiritual Content
References to spiritual beliefs.

Violent Content
References to murder, people being endangered by publicly stating their identity, political protest, lies about medical information. References to rumors about governments creating biological weapons.

Drug Content
Reference to smoking and studies about smoking.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Work, Her Home by Fransisco de la Mora

Biography, Book Review and Content, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, Nonfiction, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Work, Her Home
Fransisco de la Mora
SelfMadeHero
Published April 11, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Work, Her Home

Endorsed by the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, writer, and illustrator Francisco de la Mora’s full-color graphic novel explores the public and private faces of the iconic artist.

Frida Kahlo, remembered as one of the most inspiring personalities of the 20th century, was a woman of two intertwined: she was both a charismatic and empowered artist exploring themes of resistance, authenticity, cruelty, and suffering and a more private person whose wounded body caused her a lifetime of pain that underpinned the many successes and disappointments that marked her time in the world.

Revealing and exploring these two Fridas, Francisco de la Mora’s graphic biography allows the reader to see just how far ahead of her time this complex artist was in her understanding of gender inequality and the culture of machismo, topics that remain relevant to this day and continue to lend resonance to Kahlo’s painting. Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s husband and fellow artist, described her work as “acid and tender, hard as steel but delicate and fine as a butterfly’s wing.” His words might apply equally to Frida herself.

My Review

One of the reasons I read so many graphic novels is that my niece and nephew love them, so I’m always looking for things they’re interested in. Usually, they lean toward fiction, but they’re both artists, so I thought maybe they might like this one for something different.

I loved the detailed descriptions of events from Frida Kahlo’s life– there was so much that I didn’t know before about her life, her family, and her work. I had no idea she was disabled, and from such a young age. The fact that she created so much while in so much pain is incredible to me. As a migraine sufferer, I can’t imagine what personal cost those efforts must have been for her.

The descriptions of her work and people’s reactions to it made me want to find a gallery showing Frida Kahlo’s paintings and see them in person. That would be really cool.

The only drawback for me reading this book is that some of the drawings of people in the panels are very small, so it’s hard to see their faces. There were moments when I wished the illustrations of faces had been more detailed so that the images were more emotionally evocative. On the whole, I enjoyed the book, though.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Frida is a Latina woman born in Mexico. Her father was German.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to Frida and her husband Diego having affairs, including her husband’s affair with Frida’s younger sister.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of the extensive injuries Frida suffered after she was involved in a bus accident and her chronic health issues afterward.

Drug Content
A few panels show adults drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Review: The Urgency of Slowing Down by Laura L. Smith

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The Urgency of Slowing Down
Laura L. Smith
Our Daily Bread Publishing
Published December 3, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Urgency of Slowing Down

If Jesus took time away from the demands of life for stillness, rest, and prayer, shouldn’t His followers do the same?

Yet living in a whirlwind of constant motion is all too familiar. Our many responsibilities and relationships are important: we want to go to our child’s game and say yes to that assignment at work and help lead that group at church. But when we go, go, go at the world’s pace, the anxiety and burnout start to weigh on our souls. 

Laura Smith invites you to pause, exhale, and explore what the Bible says about slowing down. With scriptural insights and relatable personal stories, Laura offers practical habits for resisting the hectic and holding on to the slow. Packed with different ways Christians over the centuries have tapped into the abundant life of Jesus, 24 short chapters lay out spiritual and physical practices such as prayer, Sabbath, saying no, gratitude, decluttering, celebration, and worship.

If you’re tired of the crazy pace of your life but don’t know how to get off the merry-go-round, The Urgency of Slowing Down is for you. Take a few minutes each day to read a chapter so you can learn to slow down right where you are to look for God, listen for His voice, and fill your heart and mind with His presence.

My Review

One of the things I love about Laura L. Smith’s books is how practical and nonjudgmental they are. Her advice is very much in the lane of “do what works for you” rather than placing value on a particular scripted way of life.

For example, she talks about the spiritual practice of fasting but reminds readers to talk to a doctor or consider the needs of their body and mental health as well. She acknowledges that a food fast can be dangerous for some of us and encourages readers to be safe and well. She offers suggestions for other ways to fast, including giving up a non-food activity or habit, such as social media or electronics.

A lot of the tips are simple and practical, which is exactly what I need. A lot of them are things you could do in ten minutes, which is excellent.

Each chapter of the book focuses on a particular aspect of life, such as setting boundaries, practicing gratitude, and spending time in prayer. She’ll share a personal story about lessons she’s learned about each topic and a scripture that relates. Then the chapter closes with some thoughtful questions that really helped me dig deeper with these ideas.

I think this would be a great book to work through with a journal in January as a “New Year” project. It’s set up to do one individual chapter at a time, and I think that’s the most effective way to use it. I read through the whole thing and bookmarked chapters that resonated with me so I can revisit them later.

If you’re looking for a gentle book to guide you into a more restful Christian faith practice, this is a good one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author is a white Christian woman. She talks a lot about her family and friends.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to the author’s marriage to a man named Brett. Just relationship stuff.

Spiritual Content
Lots of Jesus. Lots of Bible verses. Pretty much as advertised from the cover copy.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.